The cruise was fabulous, more sea days than we like but the ports we visited were good. Food was good, entertainment outstanding. HAL is very invested in their guests well being and pleasure. When I entered feedback in the comment cards in our room for what I liked and don’t like, I received a call from staff to discuss my suggestions. All staff were excellent.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Very smooth
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Food was very good. Lido buffet is kind of crowded but the food is dining room quality.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Enjoyed Microsoft class.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Great entertainment, fun piano players and singers in Billboard, outstanding musicians and singers in BB Kings. Main stage acts were good and the One Step dance group was fabulous!
Children's Programs
Not travelling with children.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
All staff were were pleasant and helpful.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
The ship is dated and in some areas crowded, however it is clean and well maintained.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
This was a small inside room but was clean and good value.
Ship tip
Overlook the age and dated decor and enjoy the great food and entertainment.
Took a very Interesting HAL excursion to coffee plantation to see how coffee is harvested. This was a “Food and Wine” tour and a very good steak lunch was included. With coffee of course 😀. From there we went to the town of Antigua and explored the area with cobblestone streets and historical buildings. Lots of good natured street vendors. Good value for the money.
The larger city was 90 minutes away so we just wandered around Corinto. Bike cart drivers are persistent but not aggressive and will drive you around town for about $10 per person.
We did a HAL excursion called Tropical train ride and mangrove cruise. Absolute beautiful country and we saw some crocodiles and birds including mccaws. The only disappointment was that we stopped at a lovely big store in between the train and boat for a short time instead of at the end of the tours like our information said we would do. Since we were given snacks and drinks we didn’t get time to buy the items we wanted. But I did buy a nice hat so not a total loss 😃. Costa Rica is definitely a place to return to.
We did a city and island tour on a local bus. Aruba was much drier than expected with a lot of cacti. We also enjoyed just walking around the streets close to port.
We just enjoyed the beautiful beach and scenery and had a lobster roll which cost extra. There is an included buffet set up by the cruise staff which looked good but we just had ice cream.
Disembarkation was terrible. Too many numbers were called at the same time and the gangway location created a major bottleneck and confusion. We were all lined up in the “cattle pens” for almost two hours. At one point a HAL crew member brought a couple of hundred people from the back to the front of our line. We were told because the had tours. Most of us had tours and some people were missing their flights. Ow the slow line to get through customs is not HALs fault but there definitely needs to be some training and cooperation here.
So glad you enjoyed, we did this cruise April 2019 and totally enjoyed. We did it the other direction (East to West) as we live in the San Diego area and was so nice to be home when we got back. We are getting back on the Oosterdam in 3 weeks for a 7 day Mexican Rivera cruise.
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