Pros and cons
Oosterdam Cruise Review to Mexico
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 71
Review summary
After doing six cruises with NCL, I was bored on this ship especially because NCL does a great job for solo travelers and Holland America does virtually nothing.Embarkation
Smoothest ever
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
All were very attractive but the food was mediocre. One day they had a beef roast they were slicing and it was so disgusting I couldn’t look at it. It was literally sitting in a pool of blood. People who were taking it were asking for it to be cooked more and they were tossing the slices on a grill. The buffet was mostly not self serve. You had to wait in line for a green salad and have someone make it. So many of the dishes on the restaurant menu were so weird I only went once.
Onboard Activities
If you looked at the daily lineup it was mostly stuff you had to pay for, liquor tastings of some sort, wine tastings, seminars for things they wanted to high pressure you into buying. They listed a movie almost every day and it was the same as you could watch in your room. I love to play trivia and it is also a good way to meet people. The girl doing it was hard to understand and she went so fast that you didn’t even have time to discuss the answer with your team mates. It was usually over in about 20 minutes. I only went twice because it was no fun. I also love bridge and most of the time they had it in the same place with tables, cards and snacks set up. A few days they had it in the upper level of the dining room and no one set up anything for the 15 or so of us who showed up. Also a wine tasting was going on below and it was very noisy.
Entertainment
The comedian and impersonator were really good. Others mediocre
Service and Staff
Most of them need more training. I only went outside to the pool once and there were several beer cans rolling around on deck for over an hour. I saw one employee step over one and ignore it. I called the front desk to get info about an important football game and she didn’t know but asked someone, she told me it wouldn’t be aired till 1am the day after. It was actually shown live in the sports bar. Had another issue where they just made up something. I left a nearly empty bottle of lotion on my sink top and the attendant just left it there when he cleaned. I had to go find him to get more lotion. I had no outstanding service on this ship although they were all very pleasant to be around. Tables in dining room were not bussed in a timely manner and sometimes it was hard to find a place to sit.
Ship Quality
Very attractive decor. Ship was redone on 2016.
Cabin / Stateroom
They gave me a very nice upgrade and I was very appreciative. It had a seating area with a sofa bed and bid window with unobstructed view. Even though it was on a low floor it was very convenient. Almost all the activities were one floor up and customer service was on same floor as well as nice lounge areas.
Ship tip
If you have traveled on ships like NCL and especially if you are traveling alone make sure you know that they do not have a dedicated crew member for solo meetups and this ship just doesn’t have as much to do. It is a much more sedate atmosphere and mostly passengers over 70. (I am too but I want a lively time on a cruise)
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
I stayed at the Wyndham a couple of extra days because I love this city. Get your own hotel. The ship price for one is rediculous. The Wyndham is right across the street from the ship. They will get you at the airport and take you to the ship.
Don’t be discouraged when you arrive at port and see a Walmart and a Sam’s club right on front of you. The old area where the sculptures are is very nice.
Most disappointing thing is that you arrive at a shipping area but they do have free shuttles to the port building and they have a line painted down the middle of the street leading you to the town center with volunteers along the way to answer questions. I did not take an excursion.
The arrival area is very nice with lots to do there and a very nice building with free WiFi.
Disembarkation
They did a great job. Nice leaving Mexico and not having to go through any customs except to show your passport.
7 Comments
CruzeFan 4 years ago
Glad you made the best of It even if things were were not perfect. We have cruised with HAL twice and found the food and entertainment options and quality well below those we experienced on Carnival and Royal Caribbean. We also did not care for the buffet since you had to be served instead of serving yourself. There was no organization to which direction the line was supposed to go and people came from both ends or just cut into the middle of the line.
cruisereckoning 4 years ago
Sorry you were disappointed, we did a 17 day Panama Canal cruise on this ship and had a wonderful time. The staff was so friendly and got to know you, when we went into the buffet in the morning they would meet us at the table with our coffee, water and juice. They knew exactly what we wanted. As far as the salad bar and most of the rest of the buffet I felt with them dishing it up made it more sanitary and was never a long wait. We will be going again on February 29th and really looking forward to it. We have traveled a few different cruise lines and ships.