Volendam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I was impressed with the ship and helpful staff in all departments. The four tender ports in a row was a bit of a pain and could be split up. Food was good and I enjoyed the Windows lectures. The excursion prices were very high for all stops and not worth the money when not much of interest was offered.  A provided shuttle bus from the port was excellent to the local mall from where you could pay for a taxi to visit any sights in the centre.

We booked this cruise for its exciting, but challenging itinerary through not one, not two, but six countries. Most stops, though, were in Indonesia and Vietnam.

Unfortunately not all ports could accommodate the Volendam and we had to use tenders, sometimes with long lines and discomfort.

The crew was excellent, food was great, so was entertainment. Negatives were the excessive cost of some Shore Excursions (US$220 pp) even for simple bus tours, partly due to distance and added security (police escort), but some simply overprices (e.g., Komodo Island).

all foods in restaurants were just wonderful.

juggling and magic shows were great!

 crews and staffs were so kind.

i still remember some of the friends' names who served our table.

folding towel animals in the stateroom were a nice surprise!

we took three shore excursions.they were awesome!

(mendenhall glacier explorer, ak rainforest sanctuary,raptors&totems,           yukon expedition&white pass railway)

i am going to use Holland america line for my next cruse .

loved this cruise. Great food, service, other travelers, and sites!  Only 2 areas not very good:  Internet access and entertainment.  My only complaint is that I ordered a birthday package from cruise.com for my husband and it never happened...very disappointed!

All of our family had a great time at this cruis. My daughters (8 and 10) loved the club HAL, lots of kids to play with and many activities to keep them entertained. 

Food was delicious, different options everyday and everything tasted amazing. 

The amount of time at the ports was more than enough to do shore excursions and walk around town. 

3 satisfied cruisers.  My 6 year old daughter loved the Club HAL, and we were all very pleased with the ladies that staffed the club.  We all enjoyed the meals and shows.  The shore excursions were all exceptional adventures, though I think the helicopter ride in Skagway was our favorite.  Breathing the clean air around and seeing the glacier was also a highlight.  Vancouver was a great city to visit too.  We loved the excursions we did there too.

My favorite part of the cruise was when I asked my group if everyone had fun and their statement was a loud YES. Few weeks later, they have asked me again to organize our next cruise. My second time as an organizer on cruising, really made me think that in this particular skill I can make a difference in peoples  happiness. Thank you very much for your excellent amusement enterprise. Keep up the good work.

The best part of the cruise was the shore excursions.  The on-board experience was much poorer than our previous Holland America cruises - facilities, service, food.

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.

we had a wonderful trip on the Volendam. It is a small ship and was easily able to navigate the narrow passes on the BC west coast.  We had a calm trip with lots of sightings of wildlife.  Dining on the ship was comfortable, delicious and lots of variety.  Our state room was clean and comfortable.  Lots of activities to do on ship and on shore excursions.  We had fun and would go again.

Very Good trip. I would have preferred to spend less time in Myanmar and have a day more in Kuala Lumpur or Phuket, which have so much more to see and do. I felt that they where forcing themselves to put together tours in Myanmar or just wanting to upsale the overnight tours.

- Room service is great

- Food preparation/ supply is average. Need much more improvements.

- Shore Excursion presentations are good but they do not represent their realities. They are mainly for ad. Ian did not provide details when asked in person. Ian need to be more truthfully when presenting facts.

- On cruise shows some were good but lacked their varieties.

- Luggage service distribution is great

While the locations were excellent this ship is very middle of the road especially when it came to eating.  There is plenty of food, just generally mediocre to poor.  The non-lemon lemonade is one example as was a hard-boiled egg for Eggs Benedict.  They had lamb so tough even the carver couldn't cut it and the list goes on and on.

Information was poor.  For example after a week on board we learned that the New York Times had been available for free on line the whole time.  Learned other things after the fact as well.

Do not exchange money on board!!!!.  As an example in Indonesia they charged about 6 percent exchange rate and on shore it was under 1 percent of the official rate.

The room and the ship were clean and spotless throughout the voyage. The  dinning options and food were superb. The entertain on board was outstanding and we enjoyed all the show that we saw. 

The staff accommodated our party  of twenty-four at every event. They were especially kind to our to handicapped relatives . We enjoyed every minute of the cruise.

The bingo games were fair and fun and we even had some winners in our group over the week we were on the cruise. Everyone loved the Whitney Houston concert and the singer was very much a great impersonator of Whitney. 

The crows nest lounge is simply lovely and had spectacular views of the Alaska coastline and glacier bay.  

Visiting the three cities was very easy to get off and back on the ship.

We stayed 3 days in Vancouver before embarking on our Holland America cruise to Alaska. We loved Vancouver even though the traffic has a lot to be desired. We had wonderful weather every day of our cruise except in Ketchikan and inside the Glacier passage. I would highly recommend Holland America to anyone going on an Alaskan cruise. The trip was amazing!

We just returned from taking the 7 day RT Alaskan Cruise from Vancouver, BC on Holland America Volendam.  Here are the highs and lows: The Lows:

1.  The biggest disappointment by far was the Tracy Arm non-event.  Tracy Arm is on the cruise itinerary, and we booked this cruise in particular because we were told that Tracy Arm is not to be missed.  But this cruise does NOT incorporate Tracy Arm at all.  All it does is stop at the mouth of Tracy Arm, and off-load passengers onto a small additional excursion boat that then goes to Tracy Arm.  If you do not purchase the excursion and leave the Volendam at this exchange point, you do not see Tracy Arm.  This was very unfortunate, and to me, is not made clear at any time during the voyage or in the pre-cruise marketing materials.  This was a major, major disappointment.

2.  The Crowd.  Very nice, but very old.  My wife and I are in our 50's, and we were among the younger crowd.  Our kids (ages 19, 15, and 10) were pretty much the only kids on board (yes, there were a few others, but emphasize the few).  The crew said there will be more kids in July and August.  But on this cruise, there were only a few kids.  This has ramifications for night life on board, such as dancing and karaoke, so be aware of that.  We have been told several times that is what to expect on Holland America, so that was a trade off for the itinerary that we wanted.

3.  Most of your meals will be taken in the Lido casual dining room, which is basically a buffet service.  The meals in the buffet are only okay.  I grew tired of the "same old" food by about the third day of the seven day trip.  Make no mistake, the food is plentiful and omnipresent.  However, the variety and quality leave something to be desired.  The experience is heightened somewhat by knowing what to ask for, though.  Almond milk is available behind the counter (if you ask), together with walnuts for your oatmeal (if you ask).  Just remember, the good stuff is available, but not for general consumption (you have to know to ask).

4.  The "quaint" ports of call.  Predictably, Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan are comprised of hordes of gift shops all selling the same trinkets, and jewelry stores.  Skagway and Ketchikan have some charm to them, Juneau not so much.  However, the main thing to remember at each stop is that you are disembarking not into a town, but into a large collection of trinket shops.

The Highs:

1.  The scenery, of course.  Glacier Bay is as beautiful as advertised.  The Inside Passage is beautiful.  Alaska is gorgeous.

2.  The crew.  The crew on the Volendam were uniformly pleasant and service oriented.  Our cabin steward kept our cabin in tip top shape, several times each day.  The staff in the Lido (casual) dining room and the Rotterdam (main) dining room were all excellent.  There was no wait at all for unreserved dining.

3.  The Rotterdam Dining Room.  While most of your meals will be in the Lido (casual) dining room, most or all of your dinners should occur in the Rotterdam (main) dining room.  Great menus and selection, and the meals were generally quite good.  I would say between a B+ and A- most nights, which is pretty darned good for the number of dinners they have to churn out in a 3 hour period.

4.  Raymond in the Rotterdam.  We enjoyed Raymond very much.  He is a Dutch dining room officer, and he saw to our every need.  Very personable, entertaining, and customer service oriented.

5.  The Shore Excursions.  Choose these carefully, but do choose them.  Your Alaskan cruise will be much less of an Alaskan experience without them.  Our hot tips:  (1) in Juneau, we sought out Ward Air and chartered a sea plane for $740 for 6 people to go over the ice beds and glacier.  We landed in a river adjacent to a beautiful waterfall.  Ward Air is not a tour company per se, but will charter you a pilot and whole sea plane (different sizes of planes) and $740 for 6 is quite a bargain.  Compare it to $210 per person that the other "tour" companies charge, and you will see significant savings.  Plus,  you get to design your own trip/things to see.  (2) in Skagway, the wife and kids went ziplining and had a blast, while my younger son and I took the city tour and gold panning.  The ziplining got rave reviews from the wife and kids,  and the gold panning was enjoyed by my younger son (clearly a milder experience), but the tour portion was very educational and interesting about the Yukon gold rush in particular).  (3) in Ketchikan, we took the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's Tour.  This was totally worth the price of admission.  The tour itself is very interesting as they pull up crab pots with King crab, spot prawn, octopus, etc.  But the highlight is when you see the Bald Eagles.  If you want to see Bald Eagles up close, this is the way to do it.  We saw maybe 20 in close proximity, all of which dive bombed the boat at camera distance as they crew fed them herring.  The Eagles alone were totally worth the price.

Overall, I would give the cruise itself a B.  You must add in the correct shore excursions at each port, to raise the grade to an A. 

Excellent trip, Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. I loved Skagway the train was fantastic Juneau was to many jewellery stores. Ketchikan was a great town all the places were polite helpful and very knowledgeable of their area's. Loved it.

The Ship was old though and needed a refit, rusted threw hand rail and other areas blistering and cover in paint, deco was slightly dated but service was good.

Entertainment and food was disappointing. Itenerary was exceleent but even that could be tweaked. The service however, was top notch. Everything, was included in the price, EXCEPT everything that was not  included which was most things, inclduing internet. Much older crowd than we are used to and we are in our fifties.

We still prefer Royal Carribean, they just didn't have the right itnerary in our time frame.

I would recomend this cruise to everybody !

The service was great, the food excellent, very clean, no complains at all !!!!!

The cooking classes : super and also the computer workshops !

The only negativ was conecting to the Internet - to slow and to expensive!

We selected this cruise because we wanted to be in the Inside Passage and see the glaciers.  It was exactly what we wanted!  The four stops we made enabled us to see Alaska in its glory and  splendor!  The bar staff and wait staff were superb!   LOVED the fact that you can get a drink card and not have to worry about over-spending!  

The ship is outdated compared to others - bathrooms in the suites REALLY need a makeover.  I understand its going into dry dock after this season for that very thing.  The only complaint I have is while everything is going great on the ship, there are no issues and everyone is very accomodating.  However, have issues  - we had 4 - and all of a sudden they have to get with the home office, can't understand English or just don't care.  I'll take this up specifically with HAL though.