Oosterdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This trip was so perfect for me! It gave me much needed break, and time to refresh! I was able to visit beautiful locations, have phenomenal experiences, and the advantage of a dedicated professional staff! 

The cruise line onboard crew and staff were outstanding in all regards. Only downside were the stops at San Juan, St Thomas and Grand Cayman...too many ships in port and crowds onshore were huge.

Just wanted to get away and have a change of scenery, this cruise fulfilled that desire. Not the most exciting or interesting shore stops, a couple of stops put us in the cruise lines "Disney World" with diamond and emeralds shops galore.  Overall it was a great cruise and Holland America was wonderful as usual.

The shop was small but very nice.  The Pinnacle Grill was our favorite, food great, and service even greater.  We would highly recommend this restaurant.  Only negative was housekeeping, and there were a few days where our rooms were not even made up until 5:30 P.M.

My husband and I found that the extra money on a Neptune suite was really worth it!  We enjoyed the treats always available in the lounge and the ladies were always helpful.  Our room was spacious and the steward kept it clean and tidy.

Enjoyed the dancers/singers and the excellent pianist.  I don't appreciate the appeal of a ventriloquist.   Loved the BB King show.

Favorite was the Culinary Arts.  I did the hands on cooking class with lunch and we had a terrific time!

We both use walkers so I'd recommend a suite close to the lounge.

I'd recommend this cruise but unfortunately it won't be back in Tampa.

I hope they bring another Vista ship to Tampa soon.

I just returned from a week cruise in the Western Caribbean on the Oosterdam with my two sisters. We had a suite that accommodated all of us perfectly - I'd highly recommend it for access to the Neptune Lounge, extra meal options, extra service options in the suite and a host of other 'perks' that come with a suite. I've cruised before but never experienced the level of service and quality of all of the crew on this ship. It was wonderful and we are going to do it again.

Traveled with friends who had never taken a cruise before and I was responsible for getting them on Holland. I booked them a veranda and I selected an inside as I was originally going to travel alone.  A friend decided at the last minute to go with.

From day one, the veranda cabin didn't have hot water at the sink or shower.  We contacted maintenance and they fixed it for one day.  It reverted to tepid at best in both the sink and shower.  Our inside cabin suffered the same fate as we had no hot water at the sink and it was tepid to warm at best even after "repairs".

The biggest disapointment was the "Vista Dining Room".  On three seperate occasions one of our group ordered his steak "rare".  When our meals were brought to the table his steak was "well done".  Of course they replaced it but by the time he got it a second time the rest of us had finished our meal. 

The entertainment was also disappointing.  The piano players in the "Billboard" did not project over the piano's even with microphones.  The "Lincoln Center" performances were a joke.  Performed in the main open passageway outside the "Vista Dinning Room"  were constantly being interrupted by noise and people passing by on their way to the dining room.

The only positive part of the trip were the bartenders, Tanjo and Tony in the Crows Nest Bar.

The activities for the week were available online at no charge from time of embarkation, as were menus, accounts, and more.  It made it easy to make plans and look forward to appealing events and programs.  The service onboard was excellent and the ports offered lots of options that were clearly explained by the ship's staff.  

The wait staff was exceptional on the 3rd floor Vista dining room - so personalized, hospitable, and welcoming. They were literally my favorite part of this trip. The Indonesian songs they sang for my Grandma's 80th birthday and my aunt and uncle's anniversary made the trip. I never lacked for food, water, or beverages. So kind and warm. Areas of improvement would be entertainment/ live music for all ages. Going into this cruise, I knew I would be among the "younger" crowd, but it would have been nice to have things going on at night more geared towards all ages.

We chose the Oosterdam to escape a cold winter because it docked at both Honduras (Roatan actually) and Guatemala, new ports for us. Shore excursion at Roatan (Gambola Botanic Garden+) was enjoyable, but very little available in Guatemala besides the port gift shop. Chaccoben ruins in Costa Maya were also a nice stop.The cabin's couch should have been replaced 3 years ago, but per usual the ship staff were friendly and efficient. Only entertainment we attended was the magic/comedy show- other nights not too much to offer. Unacceptable lines for dinner service and off-loading for shore excursions the 1st couple of days thankfully improved. Activities staff seemed very cut down from previous HAL cruises. Various other activities offered- but we enjoyed relaxing instead.

Average age onboard ship was 75+-onboard activities was sitting playing trivia,or sitting waiting to eat or sitting listening toclassical music or sleeping in a deck chair.Read 5 books on the cruise-my wife knitted a scarf & 1/2 a sweater-The crew were the friendliest people on board & the food was just okay-stick with the main dining room or Lido

Enjoyed everything that Holland America had to offer. The food and entertainment was top notch. The billboard area on the ship was brand new and very large with many seats.

Cruising on the Oosterdam was a great experience.  We understood that there would be an older crowd and found it to be so.  That is not to say, however, that this was in any way a dull cruise.  There was a lot to do while on board and the ship offers many places to gather and activities.  You can enjoy tea every afternoon, great happy hours in the Crow's Nest or Ocean Bar, classical performances on the Lincoln Center stage, culinary demonstrations sponsored by the Food and Wine magazine as well as dueling pianos, a fun Blues bar and entertaining shows in the main theater.  This ship was very clean and quiet.  Perfect for a two week get away.

It was cold leaving out of Tampa. Sitting poolside on Lido deck for the sail away covered in towels isn't the best way to start a caribbean cruise, but what can you do about the weather?

Our room, #8046 a signature suite, was very roomy and nice. The balcony was bigger than it needed to be, but that's not a complaint.

Sea days were nice and warm and never a problem finding lounge chairs around the pool. Something that can be tough on larger ships. 

The food was good, but the Lido buffet was small and got tiring after a couple of days. The MDR food was great. Room service food was also great. The menu has been trimmed and has fewer options than last time we sailed with HAL. However, the room service staff are so amazing, they will go out of their way to find the kind of food you would like to have. In our case that was fish and vegetarian dishes. They never failed to surprise us with the food. 

We're not gamblers, nor are we big on watching shows, so don't have a whole lot to say about that. We did see the BB King band though and they were outstanding!

Didn't go on any HAL excursions. We like to do our own thing. We both thought that Honduras and Guatemala both well exceeded our expectations. How refreshing to visit places that have not yet been commercialized like so many other caribbean destinations. We took a private tour on Roatan. Our driver showed us some of the places not frequented by tourists and it was an eyeopener for sure. We also took a private tour in Guatemala. The tour went up the river into Mayan territory and this trip was an eyeopener as well. Amazing to see how they live in 2017! Other than the tourists, we didn't see anyone using cell phones... That was refreshing as well.  :)  Costa Maya was pretty much what we expected and Key West was, well, Key West. Lol. In short, great trip with interesting great itinerary.

I took a 3.5 hr behind the scenes tour of the ship. Pricy at 150 usd, but well worth it, IMO.

Staff was great throughout, but our room steward and room service staff topped them all. 

Embarkation took less than an hour. Disembarkation took us 20 minutes from leaving our room to sitting in our car.

The cruise was wonderful and romantic     -- we did the Renewal of Vows as well.  We were the only one to do that on the cruise.  The Captain sat with us in a side area of the Crows Nest for almost 30 minutes chatting before we did the ceremony, which was amazing.  It was short but lovely.  Bonnie was in charge, and made sure my wife had a gluten-free cake, which I thought would be impossible on a cruise ship!  We bought the hydrotherapy spa package, but the rooms for it, and warm tile beds, are far smaller and fewer than the Carnival ships.  But all the ship's staff and help more than made up for it.  Take the Mixology class -- Ami's mixed drinks are amazing, and he teaches you how to make them -- they are far more tasty than any others on the ship!     Food was great all around, and surprised that they had free hot green tea too!  Dining room steward always went over our menu the night before to make sure it would be gluten-free.  

Only BIG negative was -- which promised us a shipboard credit -- which was NOT there when we boarded, and even though I wrote to them on their form, I have not heard back yet.   

Excellent services, excellent food! They clean the bed twice a day and each day they make a different animal using the towel which is one of the favorite parts for me kids.

Our most enjoyable time on this cruise was breakfast on the veranda of the Pinnacle Suite Christmas morning followed in a close second by dinner at Le Cirque.  The Captain and crew were impressive during our tour of his bridge.

Suggestion:  Do not charge guests in the Pinnacle Suite for dining experiences.

Staff at all levels were friendly, helpful, and professional.

The best thing about this cruise was the ship itself and its services.  Ports of call in Honduras, Belize City, and Cozumel not so much....overflowing with tourist stuff; little more.

Good service, OK food, entertainment and activities. Good ports of calls. not too many sea days. Will go again if get a good deal. Ship would be better of getting refurbished. Usually no lines in guest services. Wait in Embarkation but Disembarkation was easy.

very small room compared to what we paid. 

Room was dirty.. The couch was so bad they recovered it so we had no use of room while that took place. 

They did not honor the no smoking policy printed in the Oosterdam book in our room. The people next door kept smoking on there veranda so we were not able to sit out on ours because of the smell of smoke. 

For the most part we had a blast, but I found that I did not enjoy the cruise as much as some of the bigger ships I've been on with other cruise lines.  The food wasn't great, and the entertainment wasn't as interesting.  We could feel the ship move a lot more than on larger ships.  However, the staff were all very nice and wonderful, and we didn't have as much trouble finding chairs together by the pool.  It was a nice ship and it wasn't quite as crowded as some other ships either.