Our Oosterdam Experience 11/7 ~ 11/14/04

[HeatherInFlorida]

Part I - Oosterdam 11/7/04 to 11/14/04

 

Captain Jonathan Mercer

Cruise Director Wendy Sliman

 

Fair Warning! This is a looooong review.

 

Embarkation:

 

We arrived at the pier at about 11:15 Sunday morning and DH dropped me off with the bags while he parked the car. The line in the terminal looked horrendous, but we passed quickly through within ½ hour and onto the MS Oosterdam by noon. All the way through this process, we were greeted by smiles and friendly faces … passengers and staff alike. The cabins not being ready, we made our way straight to the Lido Deck for some lunch. By 1:20 the cabins were ready .

 

Point of info: If you have your cell phone on, do not place it next to your keycard. I learned the hard way because it demagnetized the key.

 

Cabins:

We were in Cabin #5086 on Verandah deck. This was an excellent location midships and very convenient to the midships elevators. The cabin, though, is a bit small but certainly adequate. My main complaint is comparing it to the Maasdam in the same price range, the Maasdam cabin was much larger. I knew this when we booked, but did expect it to be a bit larger than it was. There is plenty of storage space and hangars. Even the bathroom which looked so tiny was perfectly fine with plenty of space for all our toiletries. You really could not pass each other at the foot of the bed and you couldn’t open closet doors and the bathroom door at the same time. Still, for the money, it was a very pretty cabin. I felt it was over furnished so quickly pushed the silly little vanity stool under the “desk” and put the armchair there instead. This chair had been jammed in front of the windows and made the “sitting area” terribly tight and unnecessary for 2 people.

 

The “desk” is a joke since most of it is occupied by the tv and tray with ice bucket, etc. They’ve installed make-up mirrors here which they’re very proud of but I found it worthless. They really should mount the tv’s as shown in the picture of the cabin on their website.

 

I love the furnishings on the verandah … the outdoor wicker is very attractive and a welcome change to the usual.

 

The Beds!!!! AAAAAhhhhhh … sweet luxury . I have a very bad back and hip problem from an auto injury so I’m very critical of beds on ships. First, I LOVED that you literally had to give a little hop to sit on it. Captain Mercer told us with great pride that these are top quality Sealy mattresses and even he got one (I should hope;) ). The sheets were wonderful 300 ct. Egyptian cotton with 2 big fluffy pillows each. The bed was hard yet soft if you can imagine that. I did wonder why they never really “make” the bed. In fact, it is only a half spread on the bottom half of the bed and the rest is simply tidied up which I didn’t really care for the look of but loved that I could jump in at any time .

 

As to service in the cabins, our steward, Tarmo, did a remarkable job getting the cabin all spiffed up early in the day except one day it was well after 2:00 pm. We need minimal service so we’re not good judges. Still, the room always looked wonderful and I couldn’t ask for more than that.

 

... to be continued:)

[HeatherInFlorida]

Part II ...

 

Dining:

 

First the good news: I loved every morsel I ate on the Lido and at the Terrace Grill. I loved the ice cream in my waffle cone everyday, but was so upset on Saturday when I literally forgot to go up and get my “fix”.

 

The pizza on the Lido was fantastic! And also the pasta there was absolutely delicious and cooked to perfection (as opposed to the mush served in the DR).

 

The Pinnacle is amazing. I had the petite filet mignon with scalloped potatoes and asparagus which was all to die for. I couldn’t decide between the Bernaise and the Horshradish sauces so she brought me both. They were yummy. One in our party had the fish which he said was delicious. My husband had the T-Bone which he loved and my girlfriend had the Pinnacle size filet so her husband could share some of it. The entire experience from start to finish was wonderful and literally sparkling. In the future I would book the Pinnacle twice…well worth the extra $$$. Be sure to take a look at the ceiling with the changing fiber optic lights.

 

I was disappointed with the DR entrees and salads which I finally stopped even having. But I will say that our friend who had fish almost every night said it was almost always excellent. My husband had the “comfort food” (including the meatloaf) a couple of nights and loved it. In fact, in general, he thought the food was excellent.

 

But I think I had 2 meals in the dining room that I liked: One was the MAINE!!! Lobster tails which were cooked to perfection, moist and flavorful. I loved them. The pasta was so bad I couldn’t eat it so I just ate the clams and mussels off the top. The rack of lamb (one of my favorite morsels of food on this earth) was so fatty that I literally got 1 bite out of each one. Still, my husband said they were delicious so I feel I have to report that. In my opinion, all the side vegetables were horrible and I ended up having none throughout the cruise (except for the salad and asparagus in the Pinnacle). What they called a lobster bisque was not that, but tasty nonetheless … still, they should call it something else.

 

I should mention that many of the appetizers were out of this world. I especially enjoyed the hazelnut crusted baked brie and the escargot. I should have simply ordered 2 or 3 appetizers and all would have been well.

 

The coffee was so so good and the desserts were wonderful, although I was really laughing at the descriptions by the end of the cruise because their idea of “copious” and “huge” was a bit different than mine.

 

As to the service, Panji was our steward and he was wonderful. While I felt they were all tired looking and a little sad, their service was timely and impeccable. We ate at the 8:00 upstairs and were always finished by 9:30 though we would often dilly dally a bit just because we were having such a wonderful time. I believe that an hour and a half is exactly as it should be for a 4 course meal.

 

We were so fortunate in our tablemates because we went with very dear friends and I was fortunate enough to meet Beth (Pudgesmom) here on the boards and we arranged to share a table. Brad and Beth were such good company and so our dinner hour couldn’t have been more fun even though the food was a disappointment for me.

 

On another thread, Sail was talking about the breads. We had a wonderful selection of dark, light and white breads and rolls. I especially loved the really dark roll … not sure what it was, but yummmmm.

 

We had room service every morning and it was right on schedule and what we ordered every day except for one morning when they came early. Some of them were very friendly and nice; the others seemed more miserable than I was at the crack of dawn.

 

Greenhouse Spa

 

I did not book the Spa for the week but did take advantage of it for the day. I signed up for a day of the Thermal Suite and also had a manicure (the very first in my life, btw, which is quite amazing). As Beth said in her review, the Ceramic Beds lined up in front of floor to ceiling windows with a fountain bubbling over river rocks were idyllic. My girlfriend and I lay down on these mats and promptly fell asleep. We were suddenly awakened by the Captain telling us we were going into a wide turn to investigate a submerged boat so that took us off our relaxation track for a bit, but we had no problem falling back asleep after the excitement died down.

 

I was embarrassed when my friend told me she had to tap me a couple of times because I actually started to snore!!! Awk! I like to think of this as the most expensive nap I have ever taken.

 

I would definitely recommend trying these beds for at least a day.

 

... to be continued :)

[HeatherInFlorida]

Part III

 

Other Service

 

The people at the Main Desk are superlative … the best I’ve ever encountered; always a smile, always helpful.

 

Not so much with the Shore Excursion guy I had a question for one day, but this could have simply been an exception…not fair to judge from one experience.

 

But overall there was no feeling of joy amongst the crew. I say this because it is a change from what I’m used to. The happiest crew members were the ones who told us they were getting off the ship at the end of the week.

 

Entertainment

 

We only went to 2 of the “Showtime” shows. The first night was not too good and the last night was really enjoyable. The comedian, Fred Klett, was hysterical and we laughed so hard we cried. I loved him and was sorry I missed him when he appeared in the Queen’s Lounge later in the week.

 

The Physical Comedy of Max Winfrey was quite fun, but it was because of this show that I missed Fred’s second appearance so I was disappointed.

 

We had a wonderful time with “Oosterdam Superstar”, a copycat show of American Idol. It was great fun and Wendy, Cat (her senior assistant) and Kyle (the lead Showtime singer) were great as judges. The Queen’s Lounge was packed for this event and it didn’t disappoint.

 

I would talk more about Wendy, but she got off the ship for her break at the end of our cruise and will be moving to the Zuiderdam when she returns. I really enjoyed her, though. She was unusual for a CD, but lots of fun with the most amazing laugh.

 

Ports

 

I won’t talk about Nassau because I just don’t like it. Stupidly, I did get off the ship and was back on in 15 minutes.

 

St. Maarten: We rented a car and drove all around the island. The roads are jam packed and I really hated it until we got to the French side when it became very pretty. We had trouble finding roads to beaches but finally found our way to OrientBeach where we were in store for a real treat. At the last parking area we came across a restaurant called Kakao Restaurant with an entry amongst the vegetation. It opened onto the beach with individual tables under tiki type huts and there we had our lunch right on the beach. We loved it.

 

Tortola: On another thread I marveled about the Virgin Islands Sailaway tour and I’m just going to copy that here if you didn’t see it. The tour took only 30 people on the catamaran so it wasn't one of those "mass" excursions. We had a 5 minute ride on an open air bus to the marina. Unfortunately the weather looked extremely threatening when we left so we sat undercover on our way over to NormanIsland. First we anchored near some rocks and caves and DH and our friends snorkeled off the boat. I'm not fond of snorkeling in deep water so I didn't join them choosing instead to take a thousand pictures . After an hour or so, we pulled anchor and made our way to an absolutely delightful beach in a horseshoe shaped bay. There you could order drinks or something to eat (not included). There were some chaises on the beach and the rest of us took chairs from the deck of the "restaurant". I had the most glorious swim there because for some reason the water was far more buoyant even than Half Moon Cay and I hardly even had to move to stay afloat. I felt that I was floating on velvet.

 

The high point of the tour was on our way back we all asked the Captain if we could sail and he agreed. They hoisted the sails, cut the engines and we enjoyed the most heavenly sail across these magnificent turquoise waters .

 

All too soon we returned to the marina and back to the ship. We left the ship about 8:15 a.m. and were back on board about 1:30 or so. The tour itself lasted about 4 hours.

 

Half Moon Cay: We worried about our stop here because of horrendous weather and high seas (Gale Force 9 winds with seas up to at least 18’) Thursday night into late Friday, but the Gods shined down on us and we awakened to a magnificent day.

 

We had rented the turquoise cabana way back in June and fortunately it made it through the storms. Actually it looked freshly painted and spiffed up. This is a marvelous way to spend the day. We had tWo “cabana boys” who were going to be going home the next day so were in amazingly good moods. They couldn’t do enough for us bringing an abundance of food beyond our imaginations. This particular cabana is excellent because of its location by a pine tree which gave us much desired shade from the sun’s rays. We didn’t even need to use the misters, but the guys sat at the table and enjoyed the A/C which was totally unnecessary on this day. It is also very near the rest room which is good.

 

Here at Half Moon I had the pleasure of meeting Cruisin’Nana. She was so nice that I really wished we’d met earlier in the cruise, but it was fun nonetheless to put a face with the name.

 

If you want to get away from it all, I would recommend getting a cabana further down the beach … possibly the pink or the yellow. The further down you go, the less people there are. This particular day, with both the Rotterdam and the Oosterdam in port, the beach was a mass of people so we were glad to have our nice private area.

 

... to be continued:)

[HeatherInFlorida]

Final Thoughts

 

I would be remiss not to mention what fun it was Monday afternoon to meet up with Pudgesmom along with Ablum, Estj, Sologrip, and vicnsue. We didn’t get to see a lot of each other on such a huge ship, but whenever we did it was fun to say “hi” to friendly faces.

 

As you can see, we were not unhappy cruisers. This is a beautiful ship. I took almost 300 photos during the cruise and have to go through them and upload some so you can see them.

 

Overall, we all had a wonderful time. This was a first cruise for my girlfriend’s husband and he loved it and thanked me for talking him into it. He practically lived on the verandah. Donna had not cruised for about 25 years so things had changed a bit!!! My husband thought it was perfect start to finish. And I’m not complaining either except that I did see a shift downward in the service. The crew are all wonderful people and they tried very hard, but they are overstretched and overworked. They just seemed terribly tired and I just got the feeling their hearts weren’t in what they were doing.

 

We were told there would be no problem remaining “comfortably in our cabin” until we disembarked. Because I was so sick, we chose to take advantage of that but Tarmo came in a couple of times and at one point asked if he could make up the bed for the next passengers (it was 9:00 a.m.). I politely told him no. We were off the ship by 9:30 and home safe and sound at 11:00 a.m. There’s nothing bad about that!!!

 

I would definitely book HollandAmerica again, but probably not the Oosterdam and probably not in the Caribbean. But you just never know……;)

[Pudgesmom]

Heather,

 

Great review! We are still so relaxed around here, can hardly get the laundry done!

 

I would be remiss if I didn't remind you that on the last night in the dining room, there was NO chocolate on the dessert menu. :mad: This, I believe, may have been your most stressful moment. You did rally enough to suffer through the strawberry sundae!:p

 

I hope all the cruise critic members we meet in the future are as delightful as you and your friends.

 

Beth

[dakrewser]

Wonderful, thoughtful review Heather! Glad to see your "indisposedness" didn't keep you down for long!

 

 

-dave

[sail7seas]

Wonderful Review, Heather. Thanks so much for going to all that work for our benefit. Sounds like you have a great attitude and all in all had a good cruise. Not perfect, but what is? (But I sure wish we'd had YOUR bread basket. :) Ours was pretty dull by comparison.)

 

Hope your cold is abating and you are feeling better.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Heather,

 

Great review! We are still so relaxed around here, can hardly get the laundry done!

 

I would be remiss if I didn't remind you that on the last night in the dining room, there was NO chocolate on the dessert menu. This, I believe, may have been your most stressful moment. You did rally enough to suffer through the strawberry sundae!

 

I hope all the cruise critic members we meet in the future are as delightful as you and your friends.

 

Beth

Beth, you are quite right. I had an absolute meltdown that night:( . I forgot to mention it here because I mentioned it on Sail's thread about additions for the menu. I said there should be something chocolate EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY NIGHT!!!!:D

 

I have to say, though, that the "copious" strawberries on the "abundance" of vanilla ice cream was delicious.;)

 

Dave, thanks for the compliment! I knew I had to get it done while it was all fresh in my mind:) . And I'm feeling much better tonight ... it's my strong New England constitution ~ nothing keeps me down for too long.

[HeatherInFlorida]

Wonderful Review, Heather. Thanks so much for going to all that work for our benefit. Sounds like you have a great attitude and all in all had a good cruise. Not perfect, but what is? (But I sure wish we'd had YOUR bread basket. :) Ours was pretty dull by comparison.)

 

Hope your cold is abating and you are feeling better.

Thanks, Sail! And oh my heavens!!! I forgot the most important part of all! As you recommended I feasted on the Chocolate Volcano Cake (on you if you recall;) ) in the Pinnacle. I finished it down to the very last and then licked the bowl:D . KIDDING!!!!!!

[Vic The Parrot]

Hi Heather

 

 

It's a great review. Thanks for sharing everything with us!

Can't wait til my turn on the Oosterdam (Feb2005)

 

BTW, when you were in tortola, did you try a "painkiller" ?

 

After 3 of them, you DO NOT feel any pain! LOL

Come to think of it, you don't feel ANYTHING!

 

It's a must for the next time that you're there.

 

cheers

 

 

:-D

[GirlInADaydream]

thanks for such a thorough review!

 

can i ask why you said you would not sail on the O again?

iam just curious as we are sailing it this jan. it will only be our 2nd cruise (our first was the mariner of the seas RCCL)

and its our first on HAL...

 

i am just worried we spent all this money and it will not be good...

we are very happy people just blessed to be on vaction, but still, i was just curious!!!

 

thanks!

[Lynzchat]

Thanks for sharing such a thorough review. We're leaving on the Oosterdam on Sunday, and I'm really looking forward to my first HAL cruise. I haven't been on a cruise in over 10 years, and I can't wait to see what service is gonna be like next week. This is my fiancee's(soon-to-be husband's), first cruise, and he's in for a real treat!

 

Can I ask, that tour you took in Tortola, was it a HAL shore excursion or did you book your own tour elsewhere? If so, can you share the info?

Thanks again!

[irishmom]

Lynzchat - we're on that excursion next week, too. It's thru HAL, but the online bookings are closed for the week. You can probably still get on if you book it as soon as you get on the ship. It sounds like a blast - catamaran trips are my favorite thing to do in the Caribbean. It's the 4 hr. Virgin Islands Sailaway.

 

Barb

[HeatherInFlorida]

Lynzchat, as Irishmom says, this was a HAL excursion. It's called "Virgin Islands Sailaway". We booked before sailing, but you should have no problem booking onboard. Our friends did not book it until they were onboard. Because there were more than 30 they had 2 catamarans.

 

Girlinadaydream, the only reason I said that was that I prefer the HAL ships that carry fewer passengers. There is nothing wrong at all with O'Dam. She is a magnificent ship. It's just that in that size ship, I did prefer the Celebrity line. But that's just me. We really had a wonderful time and I'm sure you will, too. Couldn't you tell from my review how much we enjoyed it? Remember, we've cruised the Caribbean many times and I'm just done with that for a little while.

Vic, no I didn't. You see I had my quota of "painkillers" about 18 years ago:D . Now I just get high on the experience.

[mick70]

Thanks for the great review, Will be on the "O" in Jan, 05. I am getting the feeling that the "S" ships are still better than the new Vista class however.

 

I'll make my review in Feb,05 to compare.

[RuthC]

Now that's what I call a comprehensive review! Thank you for rising from your sick bed to tell all so quickly. Well done!

 

You may now return to your slumber.

[Bill S]

Heather: thanks for the very informative and insightful review-well done!

 

We are booked on the Oosterdam for its inaugural (sp?) Alaska sailing on May 7 next year, and have a cabin on the Verandah deck, so I was especially interested in your comments. Hopefully, the dining room crew will be not be totally worn out by then! Also, I was cheered by your comments about the beds-we have found the HAL beds to be way too firm for our liking-almost painful. Glad to hear that they are the new pillow-top models!

[CruisinNana]

Hi Heather!!!!! I was soooo happy to meet you, and you are a beautiful lady!!!! Wish we could have spent more time together.

 

Your review was excellent. Much of my experience was the same as yours, but not all and that is what I will report on.

 

I don't know where you found the energy to write. It took me all day to get home, and then I was exhausted. I will not be able to write a review until next week because of some medical commitments this week, but I promise I will do it as soon as I can.

 

For those who have booked the O, don't worry because it was an excellent cruise....except for the 24 hours of VERY HIGH seas....which was no fault of the cruise line!!!!

 

Dee

[cruznon]

Heather,

Welcome home!

Thank you for the thoughtful and insightful review. We'll be on the Oosterdam in Feb.--our first HAL cruise...we're so excited!! The "O" sounds beautiful! Though after hearing several of you speak about the smaller ships, I think I'd like to sail on one in the future.

 

We leave Wednesday on the Spirit and the excitement is bubbling up around here! Nothing like cruise.....:)

[Ziggy7]

Awesome review Heather, wow! Thanks for sharing with us! Glad you had a good time and sorry you got sick :( It was fun hearing about my favorite cabana hehehehe, I too think Nassau is useless :) We really should sail together some day! I wished I would have know you were there at the same time as my parents, they would loved to have met you! We have not heard from them as of yet so I know they are having a blast :) Welcome home and get well soon :)

[BLStokes23]

Welcome back Heather! Thanks for posting such a comprehensive review. Really enjoyed your views on the good and the not so great aspects of your cruise.

[777steve]

Heather,

 

That was beautifully done and your subtext was clear.

 

Your review reminded me very much of our own experience with Oosterdam in January of this year. It's a fine line between "feeling" the subtleties of a crew that is not entirely happy, the odd "little" things that detract from the overall glamor of the experience and coming back with "the cruise was not so great".

 

In speaking with the crew that we encountered on the Oosterdam (particulalrly with the Maitre 'd) there was them general feeling that the ship had not been designed with the needs of the crew (and HAL service standards in particular) in mind. It seems they have to work much harder on the Vista ships to accomplish their goals. No wonder that we sometimes see an outward manifestation of their feelings.

 

Like you, we had a wonderful time on the Oosterdam - in general. And now, being booked for Westerdam in December, we expect to have a wonderful time as well. This time, though, armed with a clearer picture and modified expectations about the comparative difference between the realities of the Vista Class and the storied wonders of the fabled "smaller ships", we wprobably will not find such incongruity between our expectations and the realities.

 

In any case, thanks for taking the time to write your review. I've been quietly looking forward to it since I knew it would be reasoned and appropriate to something like "what really happened" with a healthy dose of realistic optimism thrown in. It was very well done and I thank you.

 

Cheers!

:D

[Sue's Mom]

Heather, I have to thank you for such a wonderful review which seems to me tocontain much warmth, gentleness and generosity, just like its author.

 

I do hope you are feeling a lot better.

[Sage]

Heather,

 

Thank you for the delightful review. I'm glad that you were able to enjoy your volcano cake, and I will think of you when I have mine on the Volendam. I hope that you are feeling much better. Would you sail on a VISTA class ship again?

[HeatherInFlorida]

I don't think I've ever received so many compliments in one place in my whole life:D ! Thank you all for saying such nice things. I can't believe not one person yelled at me! (At least not yet;) ) I really enjoyed writing this review and it came more easily than I thought it would. I always write from the heart and I really do try to be fair.

 

Sage, I would cruise on a Vista ship again if the itinerary and price is right. But in all honestly, the Celebrity M class ships are similar in size and I did enjoy the food and service on the Millie more than the O'dam. I didn't mention this before, but I will say that I think I preferred the friends I met on this cruise than last year on the Millie but I really think that's just one of those things. At least I hope so since we're booked on a 2 week Summit Panama Canal next year and will be travelling on our own this time.

 

Thinking back to our Maasdam cruise, I'm remembering that we made so many good friends on that ship as well. Now I'm getting worried!!!!:o