Great Cruise
Oosterdam Cruise Review to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 30
Review summary
It's a very elegant cruise with lovely Belgian captain and very professional staff. The ship was clean, the food quality and presentation was great, service staff was mostly very good, our stateroom was spotless. There was no noise or drunk partying guests anywhere on the cruise with no spilled drinks or food on the floor. Opposite, it's a quiet, clean cruise with a beautiful ship layout huge liner which did not make any of us feel motion sick at all. It was our first time sailing with Holland America, and we all had a great experience! Strongly recommended.Embarkation
Easy
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Dining room and Pinnacle grill were amazing. Buffet food was the same all the time and there was coffee or hot water machines broken on one of the sides constantly. Otherwise, the food quality, quantity, organization, cleanliness, and service were top of the line!
Onboard Activities
Very easy and well organized
Entertainment
It was ok for that crowd age :))) Dutch orange event, captain night, and Steven Scott were amazing. Shabbat service on Friday night was a nice surprise! I wish it was announced widely so that other jewish guests would join as well. Many people were passing by and join. Otherwise, they didn't know. One of the Holland America's fan said there used to be a rabbi on a cruise before covid, but sadly no more.
Other cruise liners offer kosher section and it attracts more jewish people from USA, Canada and Israel.
I have to mention about an entertainment guy from Latin America. He was so empty. His advise about stops in Istanbul in particular were terrible. He mislead all cruise with his wrong info about how to get dressed and what not to bring. We felt so bad for all the elder people who followed his inaccurate advice. Also he made mistakes with geography during his answers. He could have done some research if he took that responsibility, call local tour guides for exact guidance of his guests or call the security of Mosques in Istanbul for correct info.
Also, he asked people to wake up at 5:30am to see Dardanelles Strait and it was nice to see the view in general but a complete waist of time with his knowledge of history and geography. Very useless and dumb worker who talks a lot and does nothing. Doesn't fit your serious and professional crew at all.
Service and Staff
Room service by Tony and his team was fantastic 10/5. He was attentive, polite, did his job very neatly. He patiently answered to all our questions and gave right guidance about how this cruise worked to us who were there 1st time.
Waiters were all great. I remembered Edy from Viesta dining room, Indonesian guy, was extremely patient, professional and with great manners. We ordered well-done steaks which came out raw. We asked him to cook it more. We were impressed by how perfectly cooked the steaks he brought 2nd time. We asked him how he made it work because they were not burnt or dry. He apologized for a delay because he had to send the order from scratch with new steaks and give it to a different chef to grill slowly the right way. Such a service!
Our waiter from Pinnacle grill also was brilliant (can't recall his name unfortunately) and he definitely deserve our 10/5. He made my birthday celebration evening so special! They didn't have a birthday candle in the restaurant, so he brought me another desert which already had a Happy Birthday note on it. So sweet, literally, with 2 deserts :))) Such a great and professional waiter with great personality. His reaction to our teen son's order or requests was very loving and humorous. Excellent waiter, deserves his place in a specialty fine dining!!!
Unfortunately, we were not happy with Ahmad waiter from dining room Viesta. The guy is hyper, was rushing all the time, skipped taking order from the 3rd person twice, forgot to bring what one of us ordered. The whole diner was like a ping pong with missed balls. The waiter was listening to what we needed on the go and he obviously wasn't focusing.
All stuff in buffet was great.
Ship Quality
Exceptional! No complains. Everything was spotless. I still have a question, why during rushed time of em/disembarkation, 2 elevators were closed. It made big lines. There were probably reasons for it.
Cabin / Stateroom
Everything was as expected in terms of size and location.
Our stateroom was spotless like brand new, cleaned twice a day. Tony and his staff did an amazing job and occasionally stopped by to check on us if we need anything because we're very quiet and didn't call him after the 1st day when we asked for an additional blanket. He gave us his card right away and explained how room service worked.
Ship tip
It's an elegant, quiet, peaceful cruise ship with top service. Not a loud party cruise with spilled drinks and food and noise and crowded youngsters, even though we're mid age. We really enjoyed the cruise and how everyone was respectful and mature from staff to guests. Unbelievable experience!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Amazing! Wish it was 2 full days.
Shore Excursions we took with cheap cruises combo with Mykonos were nice.
We were extremely upset that you advertise everywhere that final destination is to TRIESTE (VENICE), ITALY. Trieste is not Venice and is not a suburb of Venice either, it's over 2 hour drive with a shuttle a must which we did not know!!!
We felt we were completely mislead by this! We would leave the cruise getting in a taxi asking to drive us 15 minutes to the hotel in Venice and would be alone on the street without any reservations not knowing where to go with no internet! That's such a big mistake of yours!
We booked the whole itinerary from 11am on disembarkation day with hotel and tours, assuming we're arriving to Venice. We realized Trieste is very far from Venice the night before looking at the map on TV.
Next morning, we ran to reception, asking for help. Your staff at reception was lost having no answers for us. We asked to talk to the manager and she was extremely stubborn and wasn't interested to help. She kept repeating herself "everything is full and deadline to book a bus transfer was yesterday. I'm sorry".
She wasn't listening to what we needed and has no problem-solving skills. We kept saying we do not need airport shuttle which is full, only to Venice city, but she had no interest to do anything.
After a long fight, we sent her to give us some contacts of local bus companies or affordable taxi (online they wanted $600 or more) and she finally came came back with a solution her colleague gave her for us to squeeze us in the bus shuttle going to Venice downtown. When we got in the bus, we were shocked - it was half empty!!!
We ended up spending 300 euro (100 pp) for this last minute shuttle which was an unexpected expense, and we missed our reserved guided tour because of your wrong mention of arrival to Venice on both sites, cheap cruises and Holland America!
To be clear, Piraeus (Athens), Souda (Crete), Katakolon (Olympia) but Trieste is not Venice and that sequence was a big confusion because other places were all correct.
Disembarkation
It was ok. Lugguages were in place and customs were passed fast and easy.