Volendam disappointment 4-12-07

[vacays]

My wife and I thought the cruise was great-despite the 'code red' where else can you be served at a buffet by the musicians, performers, and chefs as well as the wait staff. We did experience a couple of problems with plumbing and the air conditioning, but they were corrected in a timely manner -first a call and then a quick visit to the front desk. Immediately after going to the front desk two plumbers arrived. Our sheets were changed after the air vent had been cleaned. Dust debri had coated the bed slightly. At home I might have just shaken the dust off. As my father-in-law often said' "rule #1 your not home. We also obsevered the 'dam dollar' mishap from above as we watched the event and hope the the injured woman will be ok. Our prayers are with her and her family.

[Copper10-8]

That's the one. Does this signify that the Captain is a veteran of the Dutch Navy? Captain Visser was wearing decorations, presumably military, on his whites on formal nights.

 

That's the flag of the Dutch Navy Reserve. I read somewhere that Captain Visser is still active in the Royal Netherlands Navy Reserve which gives him the right to fly that flag on his vessel. Cool stuff!

[jerseygirl3]

Just arrived home last evening from the 4-12-07 Volendam Panama cruise..

Was expecting a beautiful ship full of flowers, friendly crew and other amenities that we sail Hal for, boy were we disapponinted.

 

First of all, we are usually greeted by a crew member directing us to our room, did not happen, so we thought with all the hustle and bustle just an oversight. Did not see our room steward until next day.

 

On the first day, Captain Peter Visser announced that we had a fire in the galley, within 24 hrs, there was another announcement that there was a fire in the engine room. Wow! that sure got our attention, left us very apprehensive as to where the next fire was to be.

 

The ports of call were fantastic, although I took a bad fall in Curacao, the cobblestone walkway is very uneven, it left me with two very bloody knees.

 

The food in the dining room was not what we previously experienced, the quality and variety was missing. Some days our friends and my D.H. could not find anything that was really appealing, and we are not that peticular. Our waiter Mahaputra was of exceptional quality, he could not do enough for the four of us. The staff was cut by maybe a fifth of the normal crew. There were many lines we had to wait in because of not enough help.

 

The captain let us know that the norovirus was present and we should not touch anything, including the clothing on the racks in the boutiques. No self service in the dining room, no therma spa, no jacuzzi pool, no chess in the pool area, you had to ask for salt and pepper constantly. we ask one of the crew just how many cabins were quarantined, and he said aprox. 20, 4 days out. The numbers kept getting larger as the days past, but we could not get a straight answer from anyone as to just how many passengers and crew were affected.

We appreciated the crew countinually disinfecting, although my throat is still scractchy from whatever they were using.

 

After the 6th day into the cruise, our sheets still had blood stains on them from my knees, We did not have our sheets or pillowcases changed at all during our cruise, which I though was very unsanitary, even though we left a note to our cabin steward.

 

Our room was a balcony room which was very accommodating, but the glasses which we used to rinse our mouth out was never washed, just rinsed ,with the toothpaste still on the glasses every morning. ( good thing I brought clorex wipes with me ).

 

The activites were very minimal on sea days, the casino was the most frequently visited spot on the ship, and very tight. The bingo payout was rediculous, on the last day you had to pay $ 10.00 for 1 card or $ 20.00 for 3 cards, and only had one game of coverall.

 

On the 9th day of the cruise they had a game of throwing Dam dollars over the atrium to people below catching them. Well it got to be such a madhouse below with the passenengers pushing and shoving each other, We were told one lady was pushed down hitting her head, she went into an epileptic seizure, having to be air lifted by the coast guard with her husband. Hal should have known better to have a game like this with the given age demographics.

 

All in all, we and many passengers we spoke to were very disappointed in this cruise, I think we should be given shipboard credit on our next cruise with Hal, because of the many things we were denied due to the code red.

 

Coming home from the pier our cab was hit broadside by a bus, and our plane hit a cargo wagon pulling away from the jetway, which really put the icing on the cake.

 

We really did enjoy getting away from our very busy work schedule though.....

 

Gosh, by the time I got to the last part about being broadsided by a bus and the plane hitting a cargo wagon, I thought this post was a joke! I'm so sorry to hear of all your misfortunes.

 

When you mentioned the cabin steward not cleaning your bathroom glasses, it reminded me of something. It seems every cruise we've gone on (except for the first couple), the cabin stewards never rinse out any glasses we bring back to our cabin. In other words, if I have a cocktail in a souvenir glass and bring it back to my cabin, it stays as is, with the umbrella and cherry stem still stuck to the bottom. Finally, when we were onboard the Celebrity Century a couple of weeks ago, we had a cabin steward (or butler, not sure who was in charge of it), who actually cleaned every glass sparkling clean! Every souvenir glass, wine glass, etc. I just wonder why so many of them don't do it? I've never had my bathroom glasses be left dirty, but now that you mention it, I'm going to check closer next cruise!

[Copper10-8]

......... I just wonder why so many of them don't do it? I've never had my bathroom glasses be left dirty, but now that you mention it, I'm going to check closer next cruise!

 

Different perspective; We've brought souvenir glasses into our room also but we've washed/rinsed them out ourselves in the bathroom sink (kept the paper umbrella;) ). My opinion is that if we (as pax) bring it/them in, i.e. it/they didn't come with the room, we feel it's our responsibility (not the steward's) to clean them if we're gonna keep them. Now, I agree that the ones in the bathroom should be cleaned, especially if they have the remnants of toothpaste backwash on them.

[sjdnv]

Just got home from the Volendam cruise and loved every minute of it. From reading some of the negative reviews it seems as though obviously some people have nothing better to do than find things to complain about.

 

Yes, there was a virus outbreak, which is a common occurrence on cruise ships of all different companies. The staff took very serious measures in order to ensure that the virus was not spread, and in my opinion they did their best. The "no self'service" bit was just fine, and presented little if any inconvenience whatsoever. The point was made numerous times about washing hands, etc and it seemed like common sense at that point. Obviously the ship is not brand new, as it was built in 99 and later upgraded. With that amount of traffic through the ship every year, one has to understand that there may be minor deficiencies, just like a car. On the other hand though, the ship was clean and i did not have dirty dishes in my cabin or elsewhere.

 

The food was VERY good, and all of our servers were top notch and our cabin steward was excellent.

 

The ship is a machine, and things can happen. The fire alarm going off served as a reminder of this, and reassured us that the people in charge were obviously doing their jobs properly. On both occasions the captain was on the PA within minutes or less and properly informed the ship of what was happening. The engine room fire, which could happen on any ship, airplane, car, train, etc, was promptly dealt with, and there was NO inconvenience to the passengers whatsoever.

 

The staff that i dealt with where friendly, courteous and helpful. Yes there was an odour of sewage in one particular area, however it was very faint and transient, and would have been easily forgotten. Not suprising in such high temperatures and humidity.

 

Perhaps if sick people stayed off the ship, then there wouldn't be shut downs to the hot tubs, chess, etc. But in the real world we have to deal with illness at sea, just like at home, and i think HAL did a superb job in containing the problem so that more people did not get sick.

 

Perhaps some of these people who are so discontent should have looked a little harded at the living conditions of the majority of people in Panama and Costa Rica, before complaining so bad about cruising on a beatiful ship, in the warm sunshine, with all the food they could eat.

 

Anyways, I had a great time, and will be sailing again with HAL soon.

 

Thanks Volendam!!!

[the2ofus]

That's the flag of the Dutch Navy Reserve. I read somewhere that Captain Visser is still active in the Royal Netherlands Navy Reserve which gives him the right to fly that flag on his vessel. Cool stuff!

 

The Daily Program gave a very detailed account of the Captain's background and explained that he was the only HAL captain to be able to fly that flag.

[PatsyAnne]

Copper your first paragraph made my evening, I needed something to make me smile this evening..we did arrive at the pier around 3:00 pm, our plane was delayed in Atlanta for 2 hrs because of the storms in fll. Yes it did seem that Mr. Murphy was following us throughout our cruise.. we were very cautious driving home from airport, just knew something bad was going to happen.

When I have travel weeks like yours, I just figure that I have gotten it all out of the way on one trip instead of spreading it over the year. Following that theory (and it usually works), your next trip should be really smooth. I wish you the best!

[CruiseBumm]

What a desaster for you hope your next trip goes better. Glad the ship made it back safe. I had a friend that was on Carnaval several years ago when their ship was dead in the water at sea for two days. I wonder what the odds are of a vaction going wromg. Even if its fifty-fifty a vacation is still better than work.

[the2ofus]

CruiseBumm, sounds like you know how to make lemonade when life hands you lemons.

 

When I first began cruising I got uptight when anything went wrong because I kept thinking about the big chunk of change I had laid out to be on that ship. Now that I have a longer perspective, I realize that most glitches are minor inconveniences.

 

I can still get riled up if something big happens that impacts my cruise in a major way, but now (thanks to info I've gained from CC) I know when and how to complain and to whom. Makes a big difference in my overall satisfaction and enjoyment.

 

As tomc periodically reminds us...on a cruise we are enjoying something that 98% of the world's population could never dream of having. Kind of puts our problems in perspective, doesn't it?

[willowoodf]

Now that you mention it, I probably shouldn't have mentioend that Big BUT(T)! LOL! After all that cruise food, I think all of our butts got a little bigger....

 

Jane - glad you made it home safely - are you rested up yet? I'm still not even completely unpacked!

 

Mary