Oosterdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

there was no sail away party. And no live music during the day. I found that unusual. Always had that on other ships.

Peaceful, sumptuous. Professional, attentive crew, friendly officers, accessible help for anything. Felt safe and valued.

If you enjoy "sea days" then a transatlantic cruise is definitely for you. This cruise also offered many outstanding ports of call. I would strongly recommend this cruise to anyone wanting to visit the Mediterranean.

Good cruise, staff was excellent . Cabin needs updating, met our needs.

It is the "trip of a Lifetime" for anyone who wants to cruise to Antarctica.

Start to the trip was damp. 14 inches of rain in Ft Lauderdale and near gale force winds from the east caused water incursion into our deck 4 balcony on port side. Cabin attendants and water clean up crew were there vacuuming and with fans till late at night. How attentive. That event bonded us to our cabin attendants Ham and Bong from Bali. We got to know them well and enjoyed interfacing. They were perfect. We were sad about our Panama City shore excursion cancellation - protests by locals made it too dangerous. And Puerto Chacabuco was cancelled due to San Antonio authorities delaying our departure 8 hours due to high winds. The rest of our port visits were asesome. None of them did we get rained on except in the Falklands. Walked to the museum in Aruba, hung out on our balcony through the Panama canal - our cruise director Ed narrated with a truly informative talk as he did for each port and also when we viewed the glaciers later...superlative CD. We had a beer portside in Panama, walked the beach and wandered through a museum dedicated to indigenous folks in Ecuador, parited onboard for Orange night and the equator passing, took a Viator excursion in Lima to see downtown and grab lunch at Peru Gourmet plus drive by huacas and visit Love park, our HAL small boat tour off Pisco to the Ballestras to see penguins and sea lions was great, a walk to the mall in Coquimbo wa oksay, as was our pier boardwalk in San Antonio. Puerto Montt hotel Ibis was welcoming with local Flugel beer, the Chilean fjords and Brujo glacier - where our captain did a donut for full viewing - were breathtaking. Punta Arenas had Austral beer at a basement pub in the old Braun mansion - much welcomed after a long stroll to Braun cemeteary, and then the 6 glaciers near Ushuaia were otherworldly. Ushuaia was just a step into the town, but braved the cold and rain after a long tender ride into Stanley to have a scone in the Falklands at West Store. Shopping in Montevideo was fun using my Spanglish, and Buenos Aires HAL excursion was perfect with a bus to Recoleta cemetery and Casa Rosada and Tortoni cafe plus La Boca. Food on the ship is good. The 8 bottle Cellar 1 wine package at $260 was passable. The service we received was best on the seas (and we have been on 30 or so ocean cruises). We did have to use the medical facilities for a non life threatening event and were extremely pleased with the service and moderate price.

We missed several ports to avoid rough seas and weather, but we were so fortunate we had the experienced captain to make sure our crossing was sunny and smooth

Our Itinerary was changed to to weather concerns. After passing through Gibraltar the captain took us south to the Canary Islands, such an unexpected treat. The Captain kept us informed of weather concerns throughout the voyage and made excellent decisions to keep passengers, crew and ship safe. The Officers, crew and other staff were some of the friendliest we have encountered. They were visible and showed interaction with the passengers that was greatly appreciated. The crew on this ship are definitely family. The cruise and Travel Director, Daniel was the best CD we have ever met.

Holland America truly did a wonderful job. This was a dream come true for me.

The itinerary was amazing. The food and entertainment was not for us. The ship needs to be updated and onboarding activities a little more inclusive towards under 50.

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.

The problem with the two excursions was very upsetting & the cruise staff pretty much had an attitude of ‘well, stuff happens, too bad’ ! Then I found out that the Excursion Desk had not sent the information to Guest Services !! Although they did not seem to really care either! Guess I will never reach the next Mariner level as I plan to never sail on the Holland cruise line again! I also never received a reply after the cruise from guest relations on a call & from an email I sent!

Although the food was great, I was shocked that I'd have to pay for lobster tail in the regular dining room--that's a first for me. The Jacuzzi jets were not strong, (unless you paid extra to use the spa Jacuzzi), the entertainment was subpar; the ship was clean and the rooms were lovely. The excursions were expensive and no info available for anyone who wanted to explore on their own, even guest services staff knew very little about the stops and could not answer our questions. It's my second trip with HA and all-in-all, I would not recommend this cruise line!

The food was excellent. The ports were OK, and the entertainment was subpar. The service was excellent from all of the staff. They were very professional, welcoming, acknowledging, and helpful.

Awesome port calls, though some port calls were too short. The east Mediterranean is beautiful.

It was a very nice experience overall, I appreciated the ambiance of the cruise, peaceful and respectful. I would have chosen another city instead of Souda, probably one in Croatia (Opatja, Splitz...) and see more of Crete instead of being two days in Malta.

Wonderful cruise on a wonderful cruise ship. We do regret not having an excursion planned for both Albania and Sicily. The port towns were not impressive.

This was a long cruise to many interesting places that would be hard to visit other than on a ship. We enjoyed the comfort of the ship after full days of sightseeing, made more challenging by an extreme heat wave. Our stateroom was cozy and we enjoyed our dinners in the dining room and at the specialty restaurants. We are happy to recommend this trip to others.

Sum the waitress was awesome and everyone at customer service deserves so much respect. We dealt with Daniel, Julio, Cardela, Melony and they were there for lost luggage, to lost hats, to lost souveniers and any other issues that came up.

We prefer smaller ships, easier to navigate and better service. It's a nice ship, best for middle-aged crowds that it caters too but overall a nice ship. Food was very good, breakfast was okay but we've had much better on other lines. Service was excellent, very nice people work on Holland and Carnival. Lines hiring from Indonesian, Philippines and similar usually have better service. The ports were beautiful, you're better of booking private group tours through Viator and TripAdvisor versus the ship, they price gouge massively through Holland when you can do pretty much every excursion for 50% less, especially if you're mobile and comfortable navigating on your own or renting cars. Car rentals work great in Rhodes and Argostoli. You definitely want a guided tour in Israel, security and immigration is very serious there so be aware of more time to disembark.