South Pacific - Australia Cruise Reviews

The last time I cruised on Holland America was 9 years ago on the Rotterdam on a 16 day South American cruise.

The deterioration in the quality of the cruise, from the food to the service to the entertainment to the educational presentations to the shore excursions, is very evident.  

I thought Holland America was better than Celebrity in 2007.  Clearly, that is no longer the case.  I would put Holland America as a last choice in the middle market cruise category.

Great service; great spa (for a fee); very good gym; good food; good entertainment; spacious balcony stateroom.  Met or exceeded my expectations in every way. 

The entertainment staff (especially Becca and Kevin), cabin steward (Yani) and Main Dining Room waiters (Ernesto and Vedasto) were good.

Although the itinerary was altered the ports visited were good.

Unfortunately there were too many other things that were not.

The ship needs some TLC, Some of the crew need to pay attention to their job more and not have to be asked to fill up their station when it is empty.

The head chef needs to pay attention to the make up of the passengers - when there are less than 10% of the passengers of Asian origin  why is there 50% of the food in the Windjammer Asian ? And don't say that's what the passengers want (as I was told) because we weren't given a choice from the start !!!!!

Finally the person who is in charge of the ship's TV programmes should be SACKED yes SACKED because he has insulted the intelligence of the passengers by broadcasting the same OLD (some black & white) programmes OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER again. Apart from the fact that sometimes the satellite programmes were lost so three or four channels were showing the same programme and the reception wasn't good either.

We were on the previous cruise as well and I have submitted a similar review for that cruise 31st Oct - 16th Nov 2016 Sydney to Perth but for some reason my review did not get published on cruiseline.com so if it doesn't get published this time I will have to put it on all the other internet media sites as it will then be obvious that the reviews are being selective !

I have been on 15 plus cruises and had heard Royal Caribbean was a good cruise line.  Maybe others ships in the fleet but not this one.  Out of 17 days I had maybe 6 meals that were good.  I at pizza from room service after trying to eat meals that were for the most part below meadacoker.  We couldn't go to the South Island of New Zeeland due to the weather which I understand but the alternative ports were awful.  I should have gotten off the ship and flown to Sydney.  I wouldn't recommend this ship nor will I sail with Royal Caribbean again

We especially liked the entertainment and shore excursions.  Of course the food was very good, also.  We met lots of interesting people at mealtime.  We liked the piano player and his sing along.  We joined him almost every night after the main show.

It was an good cruise.  Food was good.  Entertainment was very good. Ship was well maintained, but it was ten years old and showed age.  Lido staff was very friendly and food in lido was good.  Room steward was very good and friendly

The itinerary, entertainment staff and entertainment and service was good but-

The ship needs some TLC (bare metal in the hot tubs and frayed carpets), the menu and quality of food was not the best (50% of food in The Windjammer was of Asian origin but less than 10% of passengers were Asian and the menu in the main dining room was not the best) and the TV was TERRIBLE (programmes were old some in black and white and same few programmes were repeated over and over and over and ship kept losing satellite signal which reduced programmes even further).

Not the best cruise we have been on and of the 5 different cruise lines we have cruised with RCI has gone straight to the bottom of the list.

Food too salty. Parts of the ship showed rust.Repetitive evening entertainment and artistes were less than talented. Lack of tourist attractions in NZ ports visited.NZ port / immigration authorities were less than welcoming and seemed to impose unnecessary restrictions on tourists.

Sydney is a great place to embark onto a cruise ship,no problems.The best sail away .We have been on a lot of cruise ships, since 1972, this was for me disappointing. Radiance is past it's sell by date,food not fantastic,not the usual Royal Carribean. All staff work very hard with what they have.

Ports of call very well handled.

The Holland American cruise to the Mexican Riviera was wonderful, from the genuinely helpful crew to the delicious food and wonderful ambiance.  The addition of the B.B.King Jazz group always gave us great entertainment in the evenings.  The other entertainment was spotty.  Took 4 excursions.  The two from the cruise line were excellent.  The two from Jet Blue Cruises were bad, one being extremely stressful.  The Exclusive Puerto Vallarta City Tour, in itself was good.  However the tour director got us back to the ship 15 minutes before it set sail.  This was after numerous requests by the passengers to get us back sooner.  From the beginning, I asked him if we could cover all the events and get back to the ship by 4:30.  He said no problem, it was only a 4 hour trip.  Two other times during the excursion, I asked him about timing and he said we could make it.  I was extremely stressed by the time we reached port.  I know these tours are guaranteed, but the next port was 3 days away and it was the port where we disembarked.  All of our clothes, credit cards, passports were all in our cabins.  In addition, I was having trouble using my i-phone in Mexico, a problem I have never encountered in any other country.  By the time we reached the ship, one of the boarding ramps had already been removed and by 4:45, the ship was already untied from the dock.  There were plenty of ways, the tour could have been shortened by 30 minutes, but the tour director refused to do them, stressing out the Holland America passengers.  The Mazatian City Tour introduced me some of the most aggressive vendors, I have ever met in my travels.  In one of the markets the guide took us (6 long lanes of merchandise and food), 4 to 5 women, walked down the aisle and confronted me.  After I said "no thanks", 2 continued to follow me for at least 6-8 feet as I walked down the aisle.  At the site of the cliff divers, we were bombarded with vendors wanting to sell various goods. It was frustrating and tiring saying "no thanks" and then having to do it all over again with the next vendor.  I would book a cruise again through Jet Blue Cruises, but never an excursion.

If you did not arrive at least 45 minutes BEFORE a performance, it was impossible to find a seat.  The same was true on the Lido deck....The ship needs more chairs. Even a lunch counter style would be a big help.

All of the crew,  housekeeping,  dinning staff, guest services, etc. were very very hospitable and accommodating.   The ship's rooms, dinning area, etc. were all very clean; as they were constantly cleaning.  The laundry staff and services were so efficient and professional.  The cuisine in the dinning room,  hot dog/hamburger/ taco diner were all very tasty.  The food in the buffet dinning room was horrible on the fist day.  It was better the next day....however, the "hot" menu lacked verity i.e. basically the same every single day through out the trip.  

Those are all the pros. ...now for the cons.

 This ship should never have been rated four stars!!!  The ship is extremely dated.  The sounds that were iminating from our

room (especially at night when the seas were rough) would make you think that the ship was being torn apart.  The water coming from the bathroom sink and shower would change temperatures at random.  The sofa and mat for the bath tub are old and creepy.

The bed mattresses were horrible on for your back.  And there should be NO SMOKING

in the Casino.....smokers should go outside in a designated area for that.  I also notice children in the Queens Lounge while the band was playing and drinks were being severed.  That is a lounge, technically a bar.....NO PLACE FOR CHILDREN.

The movies and channels on the tv were very limited.   There should have been several stations with different type shows and/or series runing on them 24/7....not just FOX and MSNBC.

Worst boarding process ever.   It started off the cruise on a very sour note.  I was told that we would have coffee in our suite every day.  On day three the cabin attendant said that they were out of coffee.  After complaining to the concierge, somehow they miraculously found enough coffee to keep us supplied for the rest of the cruise.  Debarking was not quite as bad as embarkation.  They had no signs indicating that you could leave via deck 1 as well as deck 4.  So, of course, everyone lined up almost the length of the ship.  

Two first days were special. Guest with childrens reserving pools chairs, childrens jumping in hot tub. The staff have to police chidrens with a wistle. Parents were on vacancy.

Remaining days were a little bit better

The ship is small, old and needs some update. 

The entertainment is boring, not creative at all. 

The food generally over cooked, especially the fishes.

The photo/portrait staff only give flimsy insert to hold pictures, end up the portraits became curly after long trip home!

The shower curtain was smelly.  Bathroom clogged two times.

I may not cruise with Royal Caribbean anymore.  The literary was fine tough.

We have always heard good things about Holland America, and when we found this re-positioning cruise at a good price, we jumped on it.  Our first impression upon boarding the Noordam was how dark everything was.

New Zealand was beautiful, and we would like to return there someday to see more.  The ship had a mechanical problem with one of the thrusters, and we were forced to stay an extra day in Napier (which was nice, but not enough to see to warrant 2 days)  Then because of that delay, we had to skip the next two ports and spend an extra day at sea getting back to Sydney.

Holland america offered compensation in the form of a discount on our next cruise, but since we were not pleased with this cruise, we won't be taking another.

About the ship itself:  we had problems with noise in our cabin coming from the private cabanas on the deck above us.  This mostly occurred at night which was strange being as there should have been no one up there at night.  The crew kept telling us that they would fix it, but it continued to happen.

The atrium is small and cramped. Only thing it is used for is the front office and shore excursion desks.

In the buffet:  breakfast was good - lots of variety.  But lunch was very limited.  We don't eat pizza, pasta, sandwiches, asian food so we didn't find anything to eat there.  Hamburger and hot dogs by the pool were delicious, and the taco bar also.

Eating meals in the main dining room always took forever.  It seemed like the waiters were on top of everything, but the kitchen was slow.  Food was good, but not anything special, and breakfast was always the same menu.  We are used to the menu being changed daily.  

Service personnel always spoke to each other in their native tongue, which can get annoying.  We are used to other cruise lines where they always speak English around the passengers.

Cruise director was on the PA many times throughout the day advertising the various things for sale.  We have never heard so many announcements trying to sell us something.

To be fair, we did hear some loyal Holland America passengers say that this ship is not up to par with other ships.  But we won't spend the money to risk that another ship would be better.

Unfortunately, the Holland America cruise was a costly fiasco, and the worst cruise we've experienced. I'd like to point out only a few key examples of our experience aboard the ship, on our first day we noticed a bad combustible/ diesel like odor in our cabin, this was while trying to get some sleep, as well as a loud whistle-like noise throughout the entire cruise. Less than halfway through our cruise we had mechanical problems and the ship stayed in  Napier for two entire days which meant we missed two different ports and consequently missing some incredible and three of the best planned tours. This meant the ship was not at sea for the 4 days that was promised but for an entire 7 days instead.  My wife and I spent many months extensively planning this dream cruise, we were extremely excited to go to New Zealand, however this ship, its food or staying at sea were not the reason why we chose to go to New Zealand, that we wanted to get out of our trip to this beautiful location is to truly experience its world known geographical beauty and it's people.

We were offered a 20% discount towards another cruise by Holland America representatives, which was humorous and upsetting at the time especially when our cruise was a disaster and Holland America ruined our very costly and what we hoped to be our dream vacation. 

Overall the experience was good. Beautiful boat, fairly clean, and personable staff. We did have a few issues in regards to our dining, food, and wine experience. Specifically our server. Our "assistant server" (Komang) was ON POINT. He was always personable, helpful, and would talk to the chef or bar server to clarify any questions. However our "head server" (Andrew), was the complete opposite. When reviewing specials, he simply read from the menu, couldn't describe any of the dishes, and when asked any questions, would simply re-read the menu. In fact, the one time he did say he was going to ask a chef, he went away and never came back. I think Komang should be promoted to head server FOR SURE! The food, was pretty decent. However, it was quite obvious (mostly because of how Andrew was pushing the "specials" that the "specials" were created from left over ingredients from the night before). Lastly, regarding wine -- there were quite a few wines listed on the (very very small wine list) that weren't available throughout the whole trip. Unacceptable. Because the wine selection was so minimal, there was no sommelier on board so no one to really assist us with the proper wine selection for our meals (and yet for some reason Andrew kept pushing us to buy a whole bottle of wine each night). However, as I mentioned, Komang was as helpful as could be, and would ask the bar server for their recommendations or clarifications when needed. He even related his experience with a couple of varietals which ultimately helped us with our choices. 

The food was good but not always great.

The service was excellent.

Spa Service was wonderful

The entertainment was good but not great

We crossed from New Zealand to Australia in a Gale; the waves were 11-30 feet; it was exciting and a little scary; frequent weather updates were not reassuring.

Large Library; Cooking classes; Computer and Camera classes; Mixology classes

Supplied over-priced medically needed distilled water and then slapped a bar surcharge on it to add insult to injury.  Of the 7 other cruise lines that I have been on, none charged for distilled water.

Lido deck closed regularly, had limited hours, and limited coffee access

They kept laying new carpet in major hallways (at night) but I expected this kind of work to be done when ship is docked for "repairs"

5 ports on the first five days of the cruise left me exhausted; I will look at this more carefully in the future.  If it were not listed on the elevator floor, I truly wouldn't know what day it was.

Room Service was great.

The cruise was good.  Staff is very nice.  They provided us with special food which was palatable but not exceptional. The ship met with high winds for three days and was rocky perhaps that may be due to the fact that it is relatively a smaller ship.  What was not good was that there were very few day time entertainment opportunities.  The lack in this area big time.  Their Microsoft seminars were great and often people waited to get in to the small size room and went back as there were very few seats available.