Ooserdam Review -- Great trip, though not perfect

[hunahpu]

Here is a review I submitted. I'm am posting it here for comments.

 

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My wife and I, along with some friends, took a cruise from San Diego to Cabo, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta, from December 13 to December 20, on Holland America's Oosterdam. This a chronicle of the trip.

 

We left from Tucson, AZ, on December 12, and drove to San Diego, staying with some friends. I think from now on that that is how we will do it, going in the day before. It is less stressful in that if something happens, you have a day to deal with it and you won't miss the boat.

 

On December 13, embarkation day, we arrived at the terminal right at the busy time. The line was long. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to get through. Funny thing, though, someone recognized us from my wife's Cruise Critic avatar, and came up to us in line.

 

When we got onto the ship, we went straight to our room, which was not ready yet. We waited until they opened the doors.

 

Our room, when we got there, was huge compared to other ships we'd been on. We had an aft balcony room: 5185. The balcony was also huge compared to other balconies on the ship; I'd say about 15 feet by 15 feet. In fact, it was large enough to hold a small table and chairs, along with two lounge chairs. This was the first balcony room we've ever had, and I'd say that we are now spoiled. I'm sure that we will never have another like it again, especially since the Oosterdam is going to have a butt lift real soon, and will change all the rooms aft.

 

Getting under way, it was cold, rainy, and dark. Regardless, we had our friends to our room to drink champagne as we sailed out of San Diego bay.

 

At dinner that night, they started out right with some of the best prime rib I'd ever had. In fact, that was the best dish the entire trip. It was funny; we'd taken a Carnival cruise earlier this year and I remember the first dish on that cruise was a New York steak. That had been one of the worst steaks I'd ever had -- way overcooked. To compare that meal to this one, I'd felt like I'd come home.

 

The first full day at sea, we spent some time on our balcony, and explored the ship. Also, we attended one of the cooking shows, the Dueling Salmons, with a guest host, a master sommelier with her own TV show, and her husband cooking salmon dishes side by side.

 

Also that day, we went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet. It was nice of Holland America to provide champagne for the event. There we met Larry and Paul, a nice couple from California, who became our companions throughout the trip. After the meet and greet, we stopped by their room to check out what a deluxe suite looks like, as we'd never seen one. It was remarkable how much bigger it was, especially the bathroom. They then came over to our room, where we drank wine on our balcony all afternoon.

 

That night was the first of two formal nights. That could have been a fiasco, because the friends, who had come with us on the trip, forgot their garment bag with their dress clothes. However, they were able to rent a suit coat on board for like 45 bucks, and borrowed a tie from me. In doing that, they could scrounge up dressy enough clothes for the formal nights.

 

The next day, we were in Cabo San Lucas. Tendering was a pain in the butt. Between getting our tender tickets and touching land in Cabo, it took like an hour and a half. It did not help that the seas were a little rough, so boarding the tender boat was difficult.

 

In Cabo, we took a glass bottom boat to lands end, followed by a trip to Cabo Wabo. Cabo Wabo, though a landmark everyone should see in Cabo, was very expensive. I think we spent about 40 bucks on three drinks and some nachos.

 

The following day, we were in Mazatlan, where we rode horses on the beach. We highly recommend Randi's Happy Horses for people who wish to do that. The horses are well taken care of.

 

Finally, rounding out the port stops, in Puerto Vallarta, we took a whale watching excursion. That was amazing. I was expecting to see one or two whales if we were lucky. No. We saw tons of whales, up close a personal. In fact, at one point we saw as many as six spouts whooshing in the air.

 

The weather could not have been more perfect on our port days. Highs were in the mid-80s and the weather was sunny and clear. In fact, it was good on the sea days as well, other than the little bit of rain in San Diego when we left. Also, our last day at sea was a little rougher than the other days, but still not bad.

 

Every night, after our excursions and after dinner, we'd stay up long after most people had gone to bed, and talked with Paul and Larry in the Ocean Bar, talking about the day's activities, listening to the soft ballroom music played by the band, mostly old jazz standards.

 

As great of a time we had, all was not perfect. We had a terrible time with room service. Often times when we'd call, say after an afternoon nap on the balcony, thinking that we'd like a snack to hold us until dinner, they'd never pick up. Five, 10, 15, 20 minutes we'd wait and we'd stay on hold. Most of the time, we just gave up and went to the Lido.

 

We had problems in the morning too. We'd stick our menu card on our door to deliver breakfast, and though they delivered on time, they'd always forget something, like coffee cream. They did that twice. One time, they forgot butter for the toast. Another time, they added sausage to the breakfast plate even though we did not order it. They never seemed to get it right. Forget calling them; they'd never pick up. That was frustrating.

 

Late one night, right before bed, we went to fill out the breakfast card to find out, to our surprise, that it was already filled out with someone else's order. We called room service, who again never answered. We finally called the front desk. They apologized profusely said that they would deliver an empty card right away. We waited and waited and they never came. We actually fell asleep waiting. Finally, I woke up and called them again to tell them to forget it, that we were just going to bed. Whoever answered said that they would deliver it personally. When all was said and done, it took them like a hour to get us the card.

 

We thought that maybe it was just us. However, the second to last day, we gave up on room service and went to the dining room for breakfast. There, we met some people and told them our plight with room service. They told us that they had ordered dinner the night before at 11:30 at night, and it had not been delivered until 2:30 in the morning. Outrageous.

 

So much so was our frustration, we actually went to the front desk and complained. They had us fill out a comment card, which we did, outlining the issues.

 

Let's face it; room service on the Oosterdam is just plain bad. For a cruise line that prides itself on service, there really is no excuse.

 

It is funny because service on the rest of the ship was impeccable. Everyone greeted you with a smile. Your dinning room staff all knew you by name. In fact, we ate out on deck one night instead of going to the dining room, and the next day, when one of dining room attendants saw us, they said, Mr. so-and-so, we missed you at dinner last night. It was nice to be pampered.

 

We went to the spa one evening, after our whale watching adventure, and they treated us like royalty (and quite frankly, it was well priced because it was a port day).

 

Well, there was one other thing: We went to the Pinnacle Grill one night, and though the service was okay, it was not as good as it was in the dining room. They seemed to let our glasses get empty. Also, we brought a dessert wine to dinner, and despite asking for a wine steward to come over and open it a couple of times, we could not get anybody to open it. Finally, we got up and went to the bar to have somebody open it -- little details, but noticeable. Maybe it was a bad night, because the next night, our friends, Paul and Larry, went there and said the service was great.

 

The food at the Pinnacle Grill was good. I had the lobster bisque and the bone-in rib eye, both excellent. My wife had the New York, but tasted my rib eye and thought that it was better.

 

One thing that we did that I highly recommend is that we brought all our wine on board, about a case for the week. In fact, we brought a bottle to dinner each night. Corkage fees have gone up. The fee used to be 15 bucks and has now gone up to $18.

 

As far as entertainment is concerned, most of the time, I feel that ship board entertainment is a bit cheesy aboard any ship. Generally, because of that, I find that funny is better than serious. We saw two shows, the Elton John impersonator, who was quite funny, and the magician, who was not. As a result, I liked the Elton John impersonator much better. One thing that was interesting, though, is that the magician had like three birds and two dogs on stage with him. I had this image the whole time of him in his tiny state room with all his animals, and that brought me some amusement.

 

That really is about it for our trip. Disembarkation was easy. The line was long getting off the ship, but moved quite fast. We drove home that day. All in all, despite the minor service problems, it was a good trip.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome Home.

And Welcome to Cruise Critic!!

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. I enjoyed reading it.

We had a couple of incidents years ago concerning room service on different HAL ships -- never used room service again. We keep saying that we are going to try it again someday - but we never.

Thanks for the heads up about the new corkage fee!!

[dvdfreakmc]

Thanks for your review. Loved thinking about the animals in the cabin as well. Made me lol at the end.

[BoiseIdahoSpud]

Thanks for sharing your review.

 

We'll be on the Oosterdam in Feb of 2009. We sailed her in Feb of 08 and used Room service three, maybe four times. Each time was very good (timeliness, quality, accuracy). We were in a deluxe suite so I am not sure if that made a difference. Maybe so? Sorry you had such trouble - I would have been very frustrated too.

 

My constructive criticism about HAL's room service is that with each of our orders, never once did the delivering crew member offer to "set up" the meal. We would prefer they offer to set up the meal either in the room or on the dining table on the balcony.

 

We'll try requesting that in advance when we place our orders this time. I do not think a passenger should have to ask, however. It should always be offered regardless of room category.

 

Pete

[larsenbiz]

Thanks honey for posting the review. I had such a wonderful time with you. I'll follow you anywhere!

Love,

Julie

[Cruise Fanatic]

Hi Dave and Julie.....

Nice review...you hit all of the major points. Thanks for mentioning Paul and myself.

Hope we get to cruise with you and Julie again in the near future.

[TMJplus1]

I don't remember much about room service on the O'dam, so won't comment on that (I do remember it was much better than the room service I get here at home, though...ha ha), but just have to say I am giggling at the thought of the magician in his tiny stateroom with all those animals! It's interesting he had a dog on board with him - I wonder where the dog went to do his business??? :confused:

[BoiseIdahoSpud]

I don't remember much about room service on the O'dam, so won't comment on that (I do remember it was much better than the room service I get here at home, though...ha ha), but just have to say I am giggling at the thought of the magician in his tiny stateroom with all those animals! It's interesting he had a dog on board with him - I wonder where the dog went to do his business??? :confused:

 

they just drop one of these down the back...:)

 

[Lapidarylady]

Hi, we were on the Oosterdam right after you on the 20th-27th. I had actually never had room service before so one night before hubby was due to go off on a very early sea kayaking adventure, I decided, after having several Margaritas, to fill out my roomservice card.....and ended up transposing the last two numbers of our stateroom. Despite that, they actually delivered my omlette on time! I guess roomservice has it's ups and downs, but it sounds as if you had a particularly bad patch with them.

[jimgev]

Thanks for your review. I agree that there is always room for improvement but we did not have the same experiences on our "O" cruise in November.

We only used room service one time. It was for lunch. We called two hours before we wanted it delivered. It came on time and just as we ordered.

Our experience in the Pinnacle was fantastic. The food and service were both excellent.

We also enjoyed the Elton John show. Joel Mason is very talented. We enjoyed the magician but were not impressed with the comedian. We did not think the Halcats were very good.

[jjb415]

Thanks so much for taking the time to review the Oosterdam. I'm glad that you had an enjoyable trip. My experience with Room Service on the Oosterdam in November was a good one, but, I only used it for breakfast 3 times. Each time it was delivered correctly & promptly. In reading recent posts concerning service aboard Holland America ships recently, I find it sad that consistancy seems to be lacking. Cabin service in my area of the ship was spotty at best while other sailors reported stellar service in other areas. Room service seems to be another inconsistant area of concern. Let us hope that HAL can get it together in short order.

[Sleepladypalmdesert]

In September we used room service every morning on the "O". It was punctual and excellent each time. I am sorry it was disappointing for you as it was one of the things we loved on our cruise.

[brucory]

Great to hear about your trip on the Oosterdam. It brought back some nice memories, though we had similar problems with calling room service back in May. The increase in corkage charge is not good news...

 

Thanks again.

 

:D:D:D

[cheshire cat]

Just wondered if Joel Mason is still on the Oosterdam we are saiking on Jan. 31.

Irene.

[Mom in the North]

Thanks for your helpful review -we'll be sailing on the "O" on Jan 24. What time was the entertainment in the evening? We haven't decided yet if we'll be doing the early, late, or open dining, since we don't know what's happening in the evening. Any more info on the times of the shows would be helpful.

[dvdfreakmc]

I don't remember much about room service on the O'dam, so won't comment on that (I do remember it was much better than the room service I get here at home, though...ha ha), but just have to say I am giggling at the thought of the magician in his tiny stateroom with all those animals! It's interesting he had a dog on board with him - I wonder where the dog went to do his business??? :confused:

 

My son's service dog comes with us on cruises and they set up a 4x3 foot box with sod generally in a crew area for the dog to use. "Where does she go" is the most common question we get asked when on board. Last time on the Maasdam it was great as it was in the stern on Main Deck, so we could do her morning/evening walk on the outside promenade, then pop down for the business, then back to the room.

[nini]

Cheshire Cat- We were also on the Oosterdam for Dec. 13-20. On the 20th, we flew home to Portland, Oregon and Joel and his family were on our flight. We chatted with him and they live in the Portland area. Nice guy and family. I think we were the LAST flight allowed in that day... and a few more days; zero visibility and snow everywhere. They were very happy to be going home after being gone for some time. Maybe he will be returning to the Oosterdam by the time you go; and not the magician. HA! Enjoy

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks for your review.:) Had I not had a cruise chartered early last year I would have been joining you on this week but instead went on the Eurodam and di Oosterdam in October. I enjoyed you review and have to afree with you. I have always found HAL's Room Service on all the ships hit and miss. Sometimes it is perfect other times they are missing everything so you know what this last two weeks ont he Eurodam we NEVER once ordered room service. The first week we were in a S Suite so we did go to the Pinnacle a few times fro breakfast the second week we were deck 8 aft which is just so close to the Lido where everything is fresh. hot and so much variety why bother to order room service.

This was the first balcony room we've ever had, and I'd say that we are now spoiled. I'm sure that we will never have another like it again, especially since the Oosterdam is going to have a butt lift real soon, and will change all the rooms aft.

Actually you are in luck in regard to that cabin on deck 5 for size. The changes that will be made to the Oosterdam in Dry Dock will not effect Deck 4 at all they will remain exactly the same. Deck 5 will also be the same with the exception that now the verandah will be totally covered so you will have the length and width of that verandah just covered. My only fear with those cabins that it will feel like a tunnel. It is Deck 6, 7 and 8 that will be made much smaller but cabins themselves will remain the same.

I also agree Joel Mason is great. I almost feel like a groupie :D We have seen Joel perform several times now and love him. I do know that yes your week was the last time on the Oosterdam till probably next fall. He will be going to ships doing the Caribbean after the first of the year. I think he is doing a Charter on the Eurodam then I think will be doing the Zuiderdam or Westerdam.

[cccole]

I enjoyed reading your review. I'm happy to hear that you had such warm weather. Joel Mason was on our Zuiderdam cruise in February and the kids thought he was absolutely fantastic. It sounds like Cabo was a bit disappointing....would you recommend something else?

 

How nice to have met new friends at the CC meet and greet. The same thing happened to us and it just made our cruise.

 

Cherie

[Gator83]

I was also on that same trip and I tried to get room service one afternoon and they never picked up the phone then so we went to the Lido. I did do reoom service for breakfast on the last day and it came on time but the order wasn't correct.

 

Hopefully they can get things straightened out.

[brewster007]

Nice review. Interestingly we were on the O at the same time and our room service was great. The food was always delivered on time and hot. I don't know if we just got lucky but we had a really good experience with it. Possibly the best room service we have had. Sorry to hear yours was not up to par.

 

Brewster

[cruisencrazy]

Our room service food from our cruise last week always arrived on time or early. The only strange thing, was that we were usually missing something ... like a coffee cup or two. The food was always hot and yummy. I wish my family would bring me breakfast in bed every day, but they don't think the same way. I guess I will have to go on another cruise:)

[LVSue]

We've been on the Amsterdam, Volendam and Prinsendam, but have had great room service on all. We don't usually order breakfast, though. We try to position ourselves as Lisa was, close to the Lido. That way we can pop up to get tea/coffee and return for breakfast.

 

I would love to know about your whale watching trip in PV. We are going on Feb. 21, and the only whale watching trip in the ship's excursion list is long and involves scuba and beach, neither of which I can do. Did you book yours separately?

[larsenbiz]

LVSue,

I'm Hunahpu's other half. We did book a private excursion. It was fabulous. It was on a small vessel. We went with Wildlife Connection. We had to take a cab to the pier and it was $10 each way. I found the experience educational and exciting. Hope you see whales. We did!

[LVSue]

Larsenbiz, thanks a million for your quick response. There are so many times I ask questions and they just disappear. You're a doll!