Everything was GREAT! Not too crowded, very Clean, updated Ship! The Crew were al fantastic! They all seemed very happy to be sailing again - along with us! Food was great! Enjoyed all the Shows! I would recommend this Ship to anyone!!!
Koningsdam Cruise Review to Mexico
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 55
7 Night Mexican Riviera (San Diego Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 17, 2021
Ship: Koningsdam
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 8150
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 3 years ago
Review summary
I would recommend this Ship for mid to older people who like to relax, eat good food in a classy dining room, take in some good nightly shows, listen to good live music in the clubs, and ENJOY being on the water!!!!!!!! It's a beautiful Ship!!! We always have Cruised with another (same) Couple, this was our first solo cruise, but was fun!!!!! Our last 2 cruises in the Caribbean were cancelled! Some info....we got our covid test done right up the road by us on sat., took 30 mn for results! $25.00 ea. and turned into ins, so we'll see what happens with that! It was called Same Day Testing, in Pacific Beach Area, which isn't that far from port.Embarkation
We live just 10 mn. from Cruise Port in San Diego now, which was GREAT!!! (previously from Mn.) Check-in was easy, quick, and painless!!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We purchased the Mocktail drink pkg (1st time!) Loved having that! Buffets were similar to all cruises. lots of choices! Enjoyed eating there! We loved the Elegant Dining Room! Sat by a window (same table, by ourselves by choice) every night and thoroughly LOVED our two Waiters!!! We miss them, haha! No specialty restaurants needed! Food was great!
Onboard Activities
Holland doesn't have alot of activities compared to Family type Cruises...but....we LOVED not cruising with alot of youngsters!!!! Holland caters more to the Oldsters and we loved that for this Cruise! We did miss having no miniature golf to play, though. It's always fun to check out different Cruise lines!!! Hot tubs were mostly on the smaller side...Pools looked nice! They all were used daily by alot of people!
Entertainment
Holland does a GREAT JOB on their entertainment!! Quality acts! We went to all the Big Stage shows, and the smaller music venues nightly and LOVED them!!!! Younger kids probably wouldn't appreciate them much. Alot of the music was from our period and everyone seemed to LOVE it!! Those Singers were fantastic!!!!
Children's Programs
No kids with us, didn't check them out
Service and Staff
The Ship Staff we about the friendliest we've encountered on out several+ Cruises! A great Crew!!
Ship Quality
Actually it was all good! Everything was clean, updated, and easy to get around! Not having a full ship probably made it easier to get Elevators, etc, but we liked it's elegance!
Cabin / Stateroom
Cabin was very Clean! We loved the updated bathroom! Loved the walk-in Shower alot!!!! Not the biggest Balcony Room we've stayed in, but it worked great! Lots of storage!! We didn't have to live out of our suitcases! We loved the Balcony!! One of the bigger ones we've had! (think Regal-ugh) Nice furniture to set on out there, too! Bed was really nice as well!
Ship tip
Our general Cabin location was great for accessing an elevator bank, it was right above the Dining Room as well! We loved the location!!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We live in San Diego now, so LOVE having a cruise port within 10mn. of us! We've come here a few times since Cruising restarted just to see the Ships and activity around them when boarding, etc! Our fav. area to Cruise is in the Caribbean, but we'll take San Diego as well!!!! And---there is SO MUCH TO DO AND SEE here while you're in Town!!!
Since we've been here before, we just walked around the Port area and looked for Magnets for fridge, running out of room in our apartment!! We weren't overly hounded by people to buy "stuff", they were pretty respectful. We had to Tender in..always an experience, but was easy! Previously we did a whale watching tour, and a boat ride out by the Arch area. Was fun!!
No excursion here either. (Did on previous cruise) We walked around port area and sat and had a drink. Nice to be out and about! Beautiful Area. Friendly people, didn't hassle much at all!
Walked off Ship here as well. We ended up walking through a big "straw market" trype place and were bombarded with every little shop owner very aggressively hounding us!!! Not a fun time! We did get a couple blankets, magnets and got the heck outa there! Previously don't recall going through that mess! We watched the Pirate ship head out on it's excursion from the ship's deck! Not far from us. We did do that exact excursion before and LOVED it! We stopped in a Liquor store right by the ship area and my Husband got a good deal on some alcohol. Of interest!!!!!! When we got back to San Diego and went through customs, we were told we were allowed only 1 liter of alcohol to check thru....he did let us through with our 6 bottles with a warning for future reference! That had changed from our last Cruise I guess...
Disembarkation
Why does it always seem to take FOREVER to get off the ship and through Customs???? Because - it does!!!!! See above comment on bringing alcohol into San Diego! Since we now live 10 mn. from the cruise port and had our daughter pick us up, getting home was a total breeze!!!! Unlike flying to MSP Airport and driving 2 1/2 hrs. home in winter weather as our previous Cruises!