Oosterdam

This was our first Holland America cruise and will probably be our last. Food was very low quality and tasteless. Only good food was at the restaurants that you had to pay extra for. Dining very disorganized. Many folks were wait listed for early dinner, yet many assigned it never came. Many empty seats. Special thank you lunch from captain was horrible food and service. We were warned by our waiter not to go, but went as we thought he was exaggerating, he wasn’t. Food choices very limited, waiters got orders wrong, we had to wait long time for service and could not get water glasses refilled. Very few on board activities we were interested in. Pickle ball scheduled and advertised but didn’t happen. Table shuffle board did not have sand so table not playable. On boarding and off boarding was very smooth. Went on a few excursions. Although planned well, too many guests came that were not capable of climbing stairs when it was clearly stated or mountain biking again clearly stated. They slowed down the groups and changed what we could do. Luckily we had only purchased 3 through the cruise line. Will not do that again. Really enjoyed the excursions I booked through Costco and other vendors. Smaller groups and folks that were able to handle how strenuous the activities were.

The overall experience was terrific. The Disembarkation was a mess. Seems like every ship was in port at the same time. Buses were there but, you there was lack of direction.

Ship needs to be refurbished. But overall, the staff was great and we enjoyed the ports.

It has plenty of areas to find a quiet place.Smooth ride, very organize when arriving to all ports. Great shows. The casino is small. The food was wonderful with a variety of foods to choose from.

I'm in my 30s and perhaps that is the problem, I know that we are not the target audience for this cruise. We went with my father in law who is in a wheel chair and I will say that they did a reasonably good job at making things work for him. I suspect better than other lines. Their ground staff was in constant confusion and no one really knew what was going on, getting things resolved took multiple phone calls. Our pre-cruise hotel was oversold and holland completely dropped the ball on that and the transfers. The post cruise transfer was also really poorly managed and required standing the sun for 3 hours with our bags. But - they did have options for people in wheel chairs and it more or less worked out. At one port, they didn't have any employees in the terminal and sent us the wrong direction killing 30 minutes of our tour. The activities onboard were the worst I've ever experienced. I don't know if the cruise director has any additional staff helping her, but I only ever saw her. They didn't really schedule any activities, certainly nothing after 8pm. Many days were spent reading since there was nothing to do other than seminars trying to get your money or live classical music. Trivia was only scheduled in the middle of dinner every day. no Karaoke. no other little things to do to pass the time. Feedback was provided via their mobile "app" but no one ever followed up. Speaking of the mobile app, it's not a mobile app, but a web page really. Carnival (their parent company) has a brilliant mobile app which includes chat and other feature and the ability to message people. While holland has this function, it doesn't notify the other person, which makes it useless. The food and service was second to none, mostly. Things are a bit confusing since they try to offer additional service over other lines - like you can't put food on your own plate at the lido, they get you drinks and such, but they don't have the staff to really handle this efficiently, so I ate breakfast without drink 2 or 3 times. Being a bit more pushy would have likely worked to help me. High end food options were everywhere, smoked salmon on the lido buffet in the morning, real, quality lobster tails in the main dining room, etc. Note that breakfast in the main dining room was actually a bit worse than the lido breakfast. It didn't have any additional options, actually less options. All in all, it was a good cruise, but I don't think I'm their target audience. I wouldn't pay a premium for this cruise over NCL for example.