Volendam 12/3-12/13 Review

[lggfly]

This is the first time I am posting a review, so bear with me as we just got home and I'm still collecting my thoughts. I intend to limit the review to the ship as opposed to the ports of call (although I will probably have some brief comments about some of the ports)

 

Background on us...Judy and I are in our mid 50's. We've cruised numerous times, but never on HAL (we've done RCCL, Princess, NCL, Premier, Celebrity).

We normally try to book a suite (not the penthouse or royal, however) and this cruise was no exception. We were in cabin 7014, a Deluxe Veranda Suite.

We both agreed, this was the best cruise we've been on! One of the most important things for me on a cruise is the food. At home, our favorite way to spend a Friday or Saturday evening is dining (I didn't say eating, I said dining) We know and appreciate good food, believe me. I find Princess to be ordinary and RCCL to be a bit better than that. The one Celebrity Cruise I took, the food was excellent.

 

On the Volendam, I found the food exceptional. The first night, we ate at the Pinnacle (complements of AMEX). I had the petite filet mignon with a tomato steak sauce (didn't want the richness of the bernaise that night). The steak was cooked to perfection and melted in my mouth! Every other night, we ate in the Rotterdam Dining Hall. We had 8:00 seating (upstairs) and had a table for 2 along the railing with an excellent view of downstairs (table 79). The second night was the first formal night and both Judy and I thoroughly enjoyed the Alaska King Crab Legs (I had seconds, of course). We kept copies of each nights menu (as a suite guest, we were given a copy of the menu each morning, so we knew what to expect at dinner that evening), and I will scan them at work and post them in the next day or so.

 

We had breakfast on our verandah (which was huge) twice and the food arrived on time and hot. Lunches were at the Lido and there was plenty to choose from. I can't imagine anyone not finding anything they liked. They had a pasta station, an asian station, sandwich station, a carving station, plus more.

 

Whoops...time for dinner. I'll continue shortly and the next segment will reflect on the fabulous service, the bars, entertainment, Half Moon Cay, and our stateroom.

 

Lon

[GarySuzy]

Lon,

 

Thanks for taking the time to do a review. I hope you have a good supper and are able to finish this review, as we will be on the Volendam in 3 weeks.

 

Gary

[jascruise]

Thanks.

 

Keep it coming.

[Krazy Kruizers]

AHHH - how could you go for dinner and keep us in suspense??

[lggfly]

Ok....dinner is over - went for pasta (sorry, I'm a pasta nut). You know the difference between going out for dinner at home and on a cruise? At home, you stop when you are satisfied...on the cruise...who cares? You eat until you can't, then have coffee and dessert!

 

Well, back to my thoughts. As I said, the food was excellent and if for no other reason, we will be cruising Holland America again. But there's more. Our stateroom.......we've had similar "suites" on both Royal Caribbean and Princess. Both offered curtains between the "bedroom" area and the seating area (couch and TV). Unfortunately, HAL doesn't have any curtain separating the sleeping area from the "living area". That is a disadvantage to people like my wife who wakes up before me and would love to sit on the couch and watch a little tv while I snore my way through whatever dream I'm having. Instead, my wife went out to the verandah and read (which wasn't so bad). The good part of the stateroom was the dressing area. There was a curtain between the bedroom area and the dressing area, which consisted of a dressing table with a sink and faucet and 3 closets, as well as the bathroom. Plenty of room for all our clothes (and we took a lot)! The bed was wonderful. They put the two twins together, because as old as we are, we are still newleyweds. It created a very large King and the mattress was really comfortable. Our cabin steward, Eddie, was fabulous. Rarely did we see him, but always was our cabin cleaned and prepared for us. By the way, we were on the port side and I think for our itenerary, that was the side to be on! Oh, another nice thing about the suite...they actually gave us binoculars in the room. Nice touch! There was an LCD flat screen TV and DVD player (I think that's in all the staterooms).

 

Each night, we went to the Ocean Bar prior to dinner. There we had a great time with Mannie and Bong, the two bartenders, who are very nice and will do whatever it takes to make you happy. One other thing that I enjoyed (small as it was), they were very comfortable calling us by our first names and they always remembered what we wanted to drink as well as our cabin number. Oh, one little hint...Judy likes Champagne. Instead of purchasing by the glass, they suggested we buy a bottle and they kept it in their refrigerator with our room number on it, so when we went to the bar, they just pulled it out and poured her another glass. It amounts to a considerable savings, and...its a very nice touch.

 

The entertainment on board was ok...nothing special. We skipped all the production shows, but caught two individual acts that were very good - Marty Brill (a comedian - old time humor) and Annie Francis (an Australian vocalist that has a phenomenal voice). In the lounges, the music was ok at best. One thing I enjoyed (and never was into it before) was just outside the dining room, in the Explorers Lounge, a classical trio played. They consisted of a violin, cello, and piano. It was more of a chorale and it was very relaxing and enjoyable.

 

One thing about HAL that differentiates it from other cruises we took...it was more laid back. The average age ont he ship was "old" and they catered to that crowd. There were very few children (seriously, I would suspect the number of people younger than 30 could be counted on two hands). However, there were quite a few people in their 50's and early 60's and I've gotta tell you, they were so friendly. We've never interacted and made so many friends, as on this cruise.

 

All right, I promised very little on the Ports, and I'll stick to that. We stopped at Aruba, Curacao, St. Thomas, Domenica, and Half Moon Cay. We've been to St. Thomas and Curacao many times, and nothing has changed. We went to town at Domenica, and after shopping at one store, went straight back to the ship. While I'm told Domenica is beautiful, we could do without it. We loved Half Moon Cay, however. It was quite beautiful. We rented a Cabana - the turquoise cabana - and the place is wonderful. I don't think I would rent the Cabana again, as just finding a lounge on the beach is just as nice and saves over $200. If I was splitting it with another couple, I would consider getting it again.

 

Oops...forgot to talk about embarkation and disembarkation (sorry, but I warned you I might be jumping around). Embarkation - being a suite guest, we expected a very quick and easy embarkation. Unfortunately, we stood on line, first outside the building, then inside, for 55 minutes. As it turned out, that was to go through security. We later found out that this was not the normal terminal HAL uses, but the ship came in a bit late, and ended up here. So...55 minutes to get through security. Then they send you upstairs to check in. Total time from security to boarding the ship...5 minutes! I can't stress too strongly how much better it is to complete your immagration forms online, so you don't have to do it there! We were on the ship around 1:30 and by the time we returned from the muster drill, our luggage was in the room.

 

One last thing I can think of (two martinis at dinner kinda crimps my brain cells).....we were fortunate to be invited to dine with the Captain the last formal night. We weren't sure we'd be happy about this when we first got our invitation (which was the morning of that dinner), but it really turned out nice. We (and 3 other couples - normally it would be 4, but the other couple wasn't feeling very well, and cancelled) met the Captain for cocktails prior to dinner and he was charming and very engaging. We had quite a few laughs and he was really a down to earth kinda guy. Dinner was fabulous and we had our own menu which was different than what was served to the "masses." It was a very pleasurable experience.

 

I'm sure I'll think of more later, but in summary...this cruise was phenomenal. We've never cruised on a ship of this size (we usually go with the larger and newer ships), but for us, it was very special and we will book again with HAL and will probably stick with a ship of this size.

 

Any questions (I know I had tons prior to our cruise), please ask away! I suspect Judy will be writing some of her thoughts on this thread as she kept a diary of the cruise (see, you women are organizational animals, while we men kinda do things "off the cuff, by the seat of our pants, or on the fly")

 

Well, its back to work tomorrow and back to starvation (defined as the normal eating versus cruise eating). And...to planning our next HAL cruise!!!!

 

Lon

[lggfly]

Oops...forgot about disembarkation. As a suite guest, we were able to stay in our stateroom until our number was called. As it turned out, we were in he first group to disembark (which was around 9 am) and we were off and had our luggage in less than 10 minutes. HAL really has this down to a science.

 

Lon

[Krazy Kruizers]

Lon

 

We also had Eddie for our cabin steward when we sailed on the Volendam just a few weeks ago!!!

 

You didn't mention the umbrella!!

[Krazy Kruizers]

What dinner time and table number did you have?

[doone]

Glad your enjoying the Volendam as much as I have. She is a spectacular ship with an equally spectacular crew.

[happy cruzer]

thanks Lon!

 

We had a very similar great experience on the Volendam too. We loved the food and thought it was good enough to keep HAL our favorite line.

 

On the week we were on the average age also seemed to in the 50s and 60s. Which I don't think is an old ;) crowd. I've been to one other cruise with Princess where the average was probably 75 (still had a great trip but the ship based tours were a little slow getting on and off the bus which is the absolute only comment I will ever make about an older crowd) OOOOps let me get back on topic.:)

 

loved your review and thanks for sharing it!

[elmorejj]

Hi Lon, and Judy, great meeting with you both, really enjoyed your company. Don`t forget the email Lon, re Mexico..........jean & joe:cool:

[billsrobb]

Thank you for your excellent review. I will be going in Nov 2007 and looking forward to it.

Robb

[Mustang349]

My wife and I will be on the Volendam in January and we enjoy having a glass of wine in our room. We also will be in a similar suite. Do they have refrigerators that we can store wine in?

[lggfly]

thanks Lon!

 

We had a very similar great experience on the Volendam too. We loved the food and thought it was good enough to keep HAL our favorite line.

 

On the week we were on the average age also seemed to in the 50s and 60s. Which I don't think is an old ;) crowd. I've been to one other cruise with Princess where the average was probably 75 (still had a great trip but the ship based tours were a little slow getting on and off the bus which is the absolute only comment I will ever make about an older crowd) OOOOps let me get back on topic.:)

 

loved your review and thanks for sharing it!

 

Actually, I think the average age on our cruise was about 70+. Being in our mid 50's, we were the "youngsters"

 

But that was all ok, because we didn't have masses of children running around, screaming, and totally endearing themselves to those of us that need rest, desparately.

 

Lon

[lggfly]

Hi Lon, and Judy, great meeting with you both, really enjoyed your company. Don`t forget the email Lon, re Mexico..........jean & joe:cool:

 

Hi Jean (I'm assuming you sent the message). We also thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and Joe and would love to see you in Mexico. We are going down on 3/24. The first week at the Moon and the last 3 days at the Sun. So, we should be at the Sun on Sat, Sun, and Monday (3/31, 4/1, and 4/2). Hope that works for you. Regards to Joe.

 

Lon

[lggfly]

What dinner time and table number did you have?

 

#79 at 8:00. A table for two right on the rail overlooking the staircase down to the lower level. Great location!

 

Didn't mention the umbrella, because it never left the closet.

 

Lon

[lggfly]

My wife and I will be on the Volendam in January and we enjoy having a glass of wine in our room. We also will be in a similar suite. Do they have refrigerators that we can store wine in?

 

Yes, there is a refrigerator in the room. They also have glasses, corkscrew, etc behind the mirror.

 

Lon

[peaches from georgia]

Just got home so these are random thoughts off the top of my head. If not quite the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly I'll call them the Very Good and the Big Disappointments or what I might call The Cutbacks:

 

Very Good:

 

The Pinnacle was excellent both times we ate there- great food and wonderful service. Like everyone I would like to see menu changes, but everything we had was very good. And you can order any of the 3 'special of the day' courses and pair them with courses from the regular menu. One night we had a fabulous Warm Lobster Salad starter with the filet from the regular Pinnacle menu.

 

Our Dining Stewards were fantastic as were the all the DR staff we met. Loved them all, so it truly depends where you are sitting.

 

Ocean Bar stewards- great- and the lounge was not crowded so we always were able to have pre-dinner cocktails with our friends at the bar or at a table in the bar area with no problem.

 

Neptune Lounge staff was great and the Pinnacle guys do a fantastic job keeping it spotless and the food plentiful.

 

The lobster at the Farewell Dinner was the best we ever had on a ship.

 

Christmas trees were already up and beautiful.

 

Loved the Explorations Cafe and the Coffee Bar. Internet was very slow, but the ambiance in the Explorations is great and a real additon to the ship.

 

Suite Welcome Party and the VIP Party were very good- hot hors d' ouevres, the good nuts, and any drink you wished. Didn't attend the Suite Luncheon (which I wish we had- heard it was fabulous) nor the Mariner's Party so I can't comment on that.

 

Room Service was absolutely terrific. We had breakfast in our suite every morning but one and the food was the best we have had on any HAL cruise. We and friends ate one dinner in our suite just to have the usually fantastic Club Sandwich and we were served beautifully.

 

The ship was very clean and in good condition, though the suites are badly in need of redecorating.

 

No known illness aboard and Purell had to be used entering the DR and Lido.

 

We did the Culinary Arts hands-on cooking (a Rustic French Dinner) with Head Pinnacle Chef Ani and it was a highlight of our cruise. Made friends there and had one of the best meals of the whole cruise, even if we cooked it ourselves! Unfortunately, there was not enough participation to have the 3rd planned cooking experience- Breads.

 

Debarkation- fast and orderly, at least for Group I. Can't speak for anyone else.

 

Best of all were not only the 3 couples we traveled with, but the many wonderful people we met on the ship including Lon and Judy. (We also enjoyed talking with Del, though he doesn't know it because several of us who recognized him teased him by not giving him our CC names!) We quickly had a great group who socialized the entire cruise and that made all the Not So Good and Disappointing aspects not as important.

 

The Disappointments and Cutbacks:

 

We had already made Pinnacle reservations before boarding and were able to add another night, I have no doubt because we were in an S. However, to turn back so many pax, especially dozens or more who had a Free Night from their TA, is a crime. Obviously it is because of lack of help as less than 1/3 of the tables are used every night. The first time we were there it was 8 PM, prime time for dining, and no more than 8 tables had diners. The vacant tables were never used at anytime that evening. The 2nd night we dined at the Pinnacle there were maybe 10 tables in use. From conversations with senior staff in the know, it is this way every night and something has to be done about it. Pax were absolutely furious who could not be accomodated and rightly so, as they saw the room barely occupied every night, yet they were told 'no reservations' available.

 

Dining Room- the menu selections and the entrees were a great disappointment, though probably noticed most by those who have cruised HAL a number of times. Food is personal opinion, but several of the items we and tablemates had were barely edible and as said elsewhere should have been an embarrassment to the chef to serve. Menus were 'familiar', but then you realized so many of the super entrees were missing. I'm going to compare these menus to those from other cruises and will post examples later. Believe me, this is not just my opinion, but was quite the topic of conversation with almost everyone we met, most of them veteran HAL cruisers. Comment cards that were shared with me all gave the DR a '6' at the very highest and most often even less, with lots of comments written in. We are not that fussy, but our opinion this cruise was shared by so many. Food in the DR has definetley suffered a cutback in availability, quality and preparation. Consequently we made other dining plans 4 of the 10 nights and others were doing similar.

 

Many small things such as cloth towels in the restrooms were always out of stock or only one or two left. It's not an accident when it is that way in any and all restrooms you go in to all over the ship.

 

Pre-dinner Lounge hors d'ouevres were cold only and peanuts, no good nuts. The hot ones were one of the things that made HAL special.

 

The 2nd formal night should really be eliminated. The menu was one of the worst and there is nothing special about the night at all. Welcome and Farewell formal nights would suffice unless HAL does something to make the middle one something to remember.

 

Embarkation- one of the all time disasters of any cruise we have ever been on. We were at a horrible pier- #29- the pier which gets all the old equipment we were told when the gangway broke. However, no excuse for a pax line a mile long being held outside in the heat for several hours while the terminal inside was empty. Stewards finally passed out water, unfortunately only about 10 glasses. With the age of the pax this never should have happened.

 

I'm sure I'll think of more comments as others post. We had a good cruise because of our friends and activities together, but the changes and cutbacks are very noticeable and many of the loyal HAL pax we know were talking experimenting with other lines. This was not the same Volendam we sailed on just a little over a year ago and I think others who have sailed on it before and loved it would agree if they cruised on it now.

[Sage]

Lggfly and Peaches,

 

Thank you for the review and your opinions. I'm really sorry to hear of the cutbacks in so many areas and the decline in the food service. We have just returned from a Crystal cruise, and it was everything HAL used to be and so much more. I really wish that they would bring back the core of HAL and just raise prices. We paid extra to sail with Crystal, and we would pay extra if the special things we remembered about HAL would once again appear. I think that they would be pleasantly surprised by the return of passengers if they added the special things that had gone by the wayside and could even get away with higher fares.

[peaches from georgia]

Lggfly and Peaches,

 

.... I really wish that they would bring back the core of HAL and just raise prices. We paid extra to sail with Crystal, and we would pay extra if the special things we remembered about HAL would once again appear. I think that they would be pleasantly surprised by the return of passengers if they added the special things that had gone by the wayside and could even get away with higher fares.

You've hit the nail on the head, Sage. I'd love to hear the details of your Crystal cruise when and if you have time for an email.

[lggfly]

Hey Peaches...it was a real pleasure meeting and spending time with you! I'm a bit surprised at your disdain for the DR food. While I can't compare it to past HAL cruises (because it was our first HAL cruise), Judy and I loved everything we had. We thought it compared very favorably to many of the restaurants we frequent on a Friday or Saturday night here in NJ or NYC (and don't get the wrong idea...we don't do White Castle on the weekends). Now...maybe they saved the good stuff for all us starboard diners and gave you port siders the scraps (lol)?

 

Lon

 

Lon

[hammybee]

You've hit the nail on the head, Sage. I'd love to hear the details of your Crystal cruise when and if you have time for an email.

 

There are a lot of us who would gladly pay more to retain the touches that make HAL special and I am sure HAL would love to be in a position to do so too. But I am thinking there is not enough of us to fill the cabins and that's where the problems lie. HAL competes with lessor lines all winter in the Caribbean and even undercut Carnival in Europe, last summer.

 

Adding new ships creates excitement and attracts new business which means that there are that many more cabins that need to be filled week after week.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you peaches for writing a detailed report of your Volendam cruise.

 

I so wanted to write everything you mentioned, but knowning this board and what some people think of me, I didn't write a complete report.

 

I am getting tired of being flamed and being told that I expect too much from HAL.

[JimVrhovac]

Ruth and I were on the ship with you.

 

Concerning the fiasco during embarkment. I talked with the Hotel Manager about that and this was not a HAL problem. The port changed their dock at the last minute and HAL had to scramble to get all the equipment in place and they did a good job at that.

 

Ruth and I were among the first 20 peole into the terminal and the holdup was that TSA had only ONE (1) (UNO) X Ray machine up and running and they were short of people there and that created the bottleneck. TSA STANDS FOR "THOSE STUPID ASS...ES". Once we got upstairs the HAL personnel had all their equipment up and rnning to check us in which went well. We we were getting ready to board the ship the ramp to the ship malfunctioned (a dock problem) and we had to wait for that to be fixed.

 

The dock change was responsible for the late debarkment and the fact that we did not start boarding until well after 11 am. HAL also had about 50+ Travel Agents in for lunch and a promotional tour. Normally this would go well but the already late start and only 1 X-Ray machine compounded the problem that all of these peole had to go through the X-Ray. Ruth and I were the ones where they stopped the line and let all of them through.

 

We do not feel that HAL was totally responsible for the fiasco that morning. Ruth and I laffed about it and took it in stride like we always do.

 

Hope this answers a few of your questions.

 

Jim & Ruth

[peaches from georgia]

Thank you peaches for writing a detailed report of your Volendam cruise.

 

I so wanted to write everything you mentioned, but knowning this board and what some people think of me, I didn't write a complete report.

 

I am getting tired of being flamed and being told that I expect too much from HAL.

I don't know what you think people think of you, KK, but I for one believe you to be an honest poster who tells the pro's and con's exactly like they are. Isn't that what posters are supposed to do? It does no good to say everything is always near perfect and nothing is ever HAL's fault or always excuse the con's. There have been cutbacks and they are now showing.

 

I so wish you would add to your recent review. Your opinion is respected. I don't believe I am being unfair to HAL; I am trying to tell it like it was for me on my cruise and I certainly listed a long list of positives. But don't potential cruisers want to know it all?