14 Night Western & Eastern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: January 08, 2020
Ship:
Veendam
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 060
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
Due to the small size resulting in a rough cruise, the general lack of services due to the early closure and erratic hours of facilities, the poor response to maintenance request to our room causing the room to be hot and humid for the entire trip. we will be looking into other cruise lines for our future travels.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Smooth and without undue delays or incidents.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
The food and drink were excellent. The service staff were professional and friendly, with the exception of a few behind the dessert service bar at Lido, and the Crows Nest bartenders were next to useless. Never had a ship run out of straws half way through the cruise before, and stay that way until the end of the cruise. We had to resort to stocking our own from the restaurants at our port stops.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
We didn't participate in any of the onboard activities.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
We didn't take in any shows, etc., but the piano bar entertainer (and I use that term as loosely as possible) was God awful bad. The worst part was, you couldn't escape his circus squalling at the shops, casino, or other bars on the Upper Promenade deck.
Crow's Nest
1 out of 5
The staff sucked. Didn't acknowledge our party of four at all until pretty much scolded to do so.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Our room steward was exceptional, as were many if the wait staff on lido and all in the Main Dining Room and Specialty Restaurants. The tending staff in the Crows Nest didn't care if you were there or not, and some servers on Lido were less than cordial or helpful..
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Ship is small, so pretty bouncy in high seas. Everything was clean, but dated.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
The door leading out to our balcony would not latch shut, so the state room stayed pretty hot and humid. We reported it twice, looked like someone tried to fix it once. it stayed inoperable for the duration of the cruise. Stateroom and bathroom were small and cramped, but aren't they all?
Ship tip
We will probably use a different cruise line for our next trips. We did not appreciate the erratic hours and early closures of many of the food service areas, The Dive In was almost never open (sometimes you just want a hotdog), and there was virtually nothing available in off hours.
Boarding Veendam next week. Wondering about “erratic” hours of operation of the venues like Dive In. It wasn’t open from 11:30 to 5? What other services were not open for service at the standard times?
My first cruise was on the VD. Our interior room flooded, was "upgraded" to a oceanview 6 decks lower. This cabin was not far from the anchor machinery which woke us up at 5 every morning. We needed a vacation after our vacation. The staff was outstanding and aside from the room situation we had a great time. We were a party of 7. We later sailed on the Statendam's maiden voyage in Dec. 2018 which was a freebie from our casino play on the VD. We won in the casino on that trip as well and have received 2 other freebie offers since then. Unfortunately we couldn't accommodate the dates offered. So we can't complain about HAL. Sailing with RC to Cozumel in 30 days.
It's sad that you based your entertainment score on a piano guy that YOU think was no good. While HAL is not known for its nightlife, they do hire quality performers for their mainstage shows. It's a pity you missed them.
We have cruised on the Oosterdam and enjoyed the cruise very much. If you are looking for a night life Holland America is not the cruise line for you. We are usually in our cabin by 9 at night so not a problem. We are going on the Oosterdam again the end of February as we just wanted a relaxing cruise after the holidays.
We have been on 2 Holland America cruises and were not impressed and had higher expectations based on the reviews we had seen. We found the food, service, entertainment and activities below what we experienced on Carnival and Royal Caribbean. We especially did not like that you cannot serve yourself in the buffet. There was no organization as to where the line started and it took a long time to get through the line since people were coming from both directions or just walking up to the section they wanted without any regard for others. The servers never told those people they needed to get in the line. It seems that most that give HAL high reviews primarily, or exclusively, cruise with them and don’t have anything else to compare it to.
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