Holland America has videos of what to expect on a Koningsdam cruise. They make a big promotion about the music venue, which has no music most of the time. What music I heard was for the most part a big disappointment. Evening entertainment, except on 3 nights, was a TV video like you can see in your living room. Food is not what you see in the videos. A lot of cheap ingredients made to look fancy but still tasting like leftovers. The main dinning room has an extra charge for steak or lobster; otherwise it is stir fry, pasta, or casserole as a choice. One night I skipped dinner entirely because the choices in the dining room and the Lido buffet were so bad I chose to eat some sliced tomato with anchovies. By far the worse food I have ever seen on a cruise ship. For example, on the pre-cruise video you will see a Margarita Pizza with a beautiful crust, fresh basil, and mozzarella cheese cooked to perfection. The two on board pizzas I was served were inedible and consisted of a very thin disk shaped crust cooked to a hard cracker-like crust and covered with a thin film of what had been tomato but was now just a dried desiccated hard red paste and covered with cheddar cheese; not mozzarella. There was no basil fresh or dried. In summary, my life got a whole lot better once I was finally off that bait and switch excuse for an enjoyable cruise. I have had several bad cruises on Holland America and never again will we set foot on this ship.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
long slow lines and according to immigration, we got misinformation about documents needed by immigration.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Worse food on any cruise ever. Very limited menu with poor choices in main dining room. Food was mostly casseroles, pasta, and stir fry with steak and lobster cost extra. Only the same one salad and soup choice every night. Portions very small. Worst pizza I was ever served anywhere. Food was worse than the food court at the mall. Breakfast ham and eggs was baloney and eggs. Ice cream is always served in a warm dish. Denny's Restaurant is a 5 star establishment compared to this ship. The best thing I ate was a hamburger by the pool. Everyone I spoke with had the same opinion as I did about the food.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
There are no onboard activities except for paper and towel folding and tossing a bean bag. No ship library and with nothing to do I read 4 books that I had on my iPad. Played trivia once but most of the time trivia is held during the dinner hours. Sea days feature people walking around aimlessly with nothing to do. I sat in music venue on a sea day from 11 AM until 2:30 and did not hear any music. I guess the musicians were too tired from doing nothing the night before.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
Main theater was 3 nights of five dancers, that's it, and 4 nights of a National Geographic type nature documentary. Music venue rarely has any music. BB King's Blues is extremely loud amplifier noise that drowns out any music or singing not that the performers are blues musicians, but are a parody of the Blues Brothers movie. One sad excuse for a comedian, who did not get any laughs. No acts of any type. It was as if the entertainers missed the boat. The Mariachi Band was 4 guys who did not look or sound like a Mariachi Band because they were obviously hired based on their low price cost to Holland America.
Children's Programs
no small children in our party
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The onboard service was the best I ever had on any of 50+ cruises. Everything was top notch friendly service by people, who went out of their way to make us happy.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
The ship was clean and in good order, but the interior decoration is minimal and resembles an eclectic mix of Las Vegas and mall decor. No promenade deck so you rarely know you're at sea unless you look out a window. The ship needs some colorful artwork and decoration. This cruise was end of November and beginning of December and holiday decoration was almost non-existent. Beware, if you are elderly this ship is not designed to meet your needs. Chairs are so low elderly people need help to get out of them. You will be going to bed when the music venue opens late at night with amplifiers turned so loud you will hear the noise in your cabin.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Very small cabin. On every new ship the cabins get smaller. It was clean and the shower with a door was a big improvement over the standard shower curtain arrangement on most ships. The TV took some work to figure out how to use it. I tried to get ginger ale in our refrigerator, but after 3 days of trying all they did was remove the alcohol and we spent the rest of the cruise with an empty refrigerator.
Ship tip
Choose another ship and don't be fooled by the promotional videos, they are not what you will experience.
I have lived in San Diego for 50 years. There is a lot to do here and most of the attractions are close to down town. Much better food than is served on the Koningsdam. Passengers would be well advised to skip the cruise and spend a week in San Diego.
We were on koningsdam for entire month of February, agree with you about the food. Just on celebrity a couple weeks ago and food was great. I am tired of hearing its Covid, it’s Covid, get over Covid and give the customers what they pay for or I will be switching to celebrity full time even though we own cal stock. As for the entertainment we though it was ok, not great
Very strange. We were on this ship twice in the last year and loved it. The music walk is at night not during the day. It starts at 7:30 and goes to about 12:15. I don’t understand the food comments, we had great food on this ship twice. Is this review for real?
If you are comparing what you see in an ad / commercial to anything, you will usually be disappointed. Try ordering food from any restaurant and see if it looks anywhere close to what is in the ad.
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