The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Volendam Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage
Review summary
First, the good. The Volendam has been recently renovated and looks very nice inside. Our Neptune Suite was lovely. The stateroom personnel, the Pinnacle Grill servers, and the Neptune Lounge people were great. The food in the Pinnacle Grill was great. The weather was fantastic for the whole cruise--sunny and warm in Juneau, Skagway, and Glacier Bay. Was cooler and cloudy but not rainy in Ketchikan.
Next, the borderline bad. The Volendam is smaller than the Westerdam and Oosterdam. We noticed that right away and it felt small inside. While some may like that, we did not.
Finally, the ugly. Our stateroom--7008--was located directly beneath the location of the ping pong tables located on deck 8. Of course, we could hear the players jumping around when they played--even at 1:30 and 4:00 AM. We learned quickly to call the front desk to complain and, to their credit, they managed to stop the games so we could get some sleep. We did not eat in the main dining room, but were there for the Mariner Society lunch. The soup was good but the main dish was not. We were also told by someone who ate there regularly that the service was slow and poor. One of the servers, when asked for some bread, picked up a slice in his bare hands and put it on the table in front of the customer--not on a plate. Can't confirm that as true but no reason to doubt it either. We did have lunch a couple of times in the Lido buffet. It was small (due to ship size) and so there were more limited options. Meat was dry.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
Vancouver (Canada Place), British Columbia
2 Comments
Gwbigdog 2 years ago
cruisellama 5 years ago