Westerdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Ok Tepmpest is the BOMB! She was the singer the B.B.King lounge. I still follower her on facebook. It felt like I was going to a concert every night. Well I was. Also a masseuse named Ann from the Philippines OMG! She was sent from heaven.

Very relaxing cruise. Not alot of loud action going on which was nice.

We got on the ship in San Diego , first stop Cabo San Lucas , very hot in Cabo . Next stop Mazatlán ,went to Stone Island , next stop Puerto Vallarta , my favorite port ,good time but very hot weather. Next stop back to San Diego

Great ship, great staff and amazing entertainment. Holland America Line has really increased over the years, especially with the new renovations and new ships. The food onboard the Westerdam was amazing, our diners in the dining room were funny, respectful and enjoying. Overall I would fully suggest this ship, as well as Holland America Line in general. Happy cruising!

I went to Alaska on this cruise and it was pretty fun. Spent most of my at-sea time on the sports deck so I could tell these cruises are more meant for adults, but I still had fun on the excursions!

With this being my first cruise ever, I was a little bit anxious since hearing all of the horror stories of other cruises in general. But this cruise was absolutely amazing, and everything was perfect. I loved that they handled our luggage and delivered it to our room, which made the check-in process much easier and stress-free. Our room was always clean, and the housekeeping staff that was in charge of our block of rooms were extremely friendly and helpful. We were very comfortable talking to them. In fact, the entire staff was extremely friendly, helpful, and polite. There was not even one time when a staff member wasn't friendly! I thought, how could this be real, everyone being so awesome 24/7? Their daily itinerary was full of fun events and activities, you can never be bored. Our stops were appropriately timed-- we had enough time in each port to fully explore each place. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. The only con I have about this experience was the free food in the Lido Restaurant-- it's a little bit bland, but wasn't that big of a deal. We were there for the experience, not for the food! Plus there are so many other places to eat on the cruise itself-- we just picked Lido because it was free and casual. Otherwise, I highly recommend this cruise to everyone who wants to experience Alaska. Amazing! 

Several cruises in the past, first time with Holland America. Westerdam ship, the food was good. But here is what I want to let people know. There is a major problem on this ship with there sanitation. My mother whom is 87, my brother and I went on this boat for a belated bday vacation. Mom had a handicap cabin 5140, and we had the cabin next to it 5138. Upon boarding ..still in port we went to our cabins, walked in to a sewer smell that about knocked us out, called front desk, they sent our cabin stewart we dealt with this issue the whole time on board. As you walk the ship there are numberous places where all you smell is poop. They have a major problem on this boat. I would never travel on a Holland America ship again and certainly not the Westerdam

very nice cruise.

  Holland America does as good as possible in training it’s crew to be great!  The people are always helpful, courteous, and wonderful in how they treat the passengers.  So, the crew was terrific.  The problem is that in an effort to compete on cost with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, HAL has reduced the amount of help particularly in the dining room and it is obvious!!  They have reduced the number of options on the menu and when they have a gala evening when they expect the dining room to be full,  they reduce it even further so that it is more like a ‘banquet’ menu than ‘elegant’ dining.  Every night, it took us 10 minutes from the time we sat down until we got a wine waiter to come to the table and at least twice, that was only 10 minutes because we yelled across the room to get one to come to us.  Yes, we were on board on a busy week but even when there were few people in the dining room,  the situation was the same -- not enough help - not just on wine but generally the service was terrible!

 In the room, you get a card which tells you to call down for anything that you need but no one answers the call!!  It was faster to go downstairs and wait in line at the desk to get an answer or to get help than to call on the phone.  We checked that twice with my wife calling on the phone and my going down from deck 8 to deck 1 and returning to the room with the answer before they answered the phone.   Again, probably a cut back on help!

I must say that they seemed to do a great job with the young people on board.  They had programs for them and they were kept busy and the old folks among us (including us) were never bothered.  

The only place that I did not see a cutback in help was in the Casino.  Plenty of help and with the great Holland American training, they were a pleasure. 

Holland America used to distinguish itself in their class by having elegant dining and great entertainment.  The huge mega ships have taken the entertainment crown away and in their effort to cut costs, it seems that Holland America is giving up on the dining experience.  

Will I try again?  Maybe - but since price is the answer, that is what I will be looking for.  If it is a higher price than one of the Royal Caribbean’s mega ships, I’m not sure what my decision will be.  

Overall a good ship, helpful staff that were willing to lend a hand and plenty to do during sea days and at night. Food was amazing and so was the main lido pool.

We had an enjoyable cruise.  A couple of days longer would have been better.

The excursions were not as good as we had hoped.  Holland America should research its offerings more.

Overall excellent cruise. Great food....better than other lines...take note RCCL and NCL. Most of the entertainment was very good to great. Go see James in the piano bar. The comedian was very funny and clean no profanity, great family entertainment.

Westerndam is a great ship with a great crew. I enjoyed my entire cruise, especially all the great food in both the dining room and in the buffet. 7 days wasn't long enough.

As a younger user on this site, I didn’t immediately feel at home on this more adult-oriented ship, but I began to enjoy the ship more as the cruise went on. There’s a teen group onboard that I spent a lot of time at. Also, the food onboard was splendid. Makes up somewhat for the lack of family amenities. Not many other ships/cruise lines where you can find donuts on the breakfast lido. Gotta get there fast, though! If you just want a cruise to kick back and relax, I recommend the Westerdam.

I️ took an eastern Caribbean itinerary on this ship for thanksgiving 2015. The ship was very nice and clean, and it was good-sized. I️ also thought this cruise had a good itinerary, as we stopped at four ports while a lot of Caribbean cruises these days only stop at three. The food onboard was excellent, and the crew was very kind. However, the entertainment was a little on the low side, but I️ don’t blame HAL as they’re not a family-oriented Line. Overall, the cruise was good.

We had an awesome time.  The staff and crew were always there to point me in the right direction.  Meet so many friendly and interesting people. It was like having an extended family on board.  Our favorite excursion was Discovering scuba diving.  Dr. J, Josh, Juan, and the captain were outstanding and patient with us as we were 1st timers.  Will definitely do that again.  The was our 1st time on Holland Cruise and it exceeded our expectations.   Thank you Holland!

It was great would do it again. I would recommend it to anyone.

We recently sailed on the Westerdam out of Seattle to Alaska in August of 2015.  This trip was a family get together to celebrate my Mom’s 90th birthday.  We booked this trip as a group, were assigned a group number, and since this trip was also booked on a prior HAL cruise we were eligible for the Explore 4 promotion.  This promotion included a free Pinnacle Grill dinner per person, free beverage service of up to 15 items (alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic) per day, and a 50% booking fee.  We had a total of 14 people in 7 cabins.  Our problems started shortly after embarkation when we discovered that our daughter and her husband had been removed from our group booking.  According to the folks in the front office this happened as a result of her upgrade from a D to a VE cabin.  She actually paid additional cash for this upgrade.  Surprisingly, my Mom also did this exact same upgrade with no ill effects.  I had all the supporting documentation of this error that clearly showed that the error was HAL’s.  There was only one individual in the front office that took our side in this fight.  She was Ms. Ninka Bakker, but she turned out to have no influence on the main office.  She did take photocopies of all my confirmations and sent them to the main office in Seattle.  Unfortunately, the other individuals at the front desk were simply rude.

Well, the first night of the cruise was actually my Mom’s birthday and we had the Pinnacle Grill scheduled for that, and it took quite a bit of complaining to get our daughter and son-in-law invited to that dinner as well.  I had also ordered a cake for my Mom’s birthday 3 months in advance, and then I was asked to renew this order almost at monthly intervals.  Well, when we checked with the restaurant to make sure that they had all the information, they had no clue that they were supposed to have a cake for my Mom.  I luckily had all my supporting documents with me including the original cake order and the fax confirmation when I placed this order.  They were able to their credit provide a cake at the last minute.

As the oldest daughter, I was responsible for coordinating this group excursion, and had a lot of interaction with the main office in Seattle.  You probably wonder why I brought all the documentation with me onboard.  It was actually quite a file of papers approximately 2 inches thick of standard computer paper some pages had print on two sides.  It was my interactions with the folks at HAL that encouraged me to do this because I could see that there was NO communication between various departments, and the departments also did not know what the policies of the other departments were.  In other words, management at HAL stinks.    I can also say that my Mom who is a 4 star mariner with HAL was very disappointed and stated that their customer service has deteriorated over the years.

You will probably then ask, how did the rest of the cruise go?  It was fair.  The food was OK, with lines on the Lido deck, the dining room portions were small, but you could order multiple items if you chose.  The ship itself is older, with areas needing extra care, rust was evident.  Our bathroom was clean, but showed signs of inexpert caulking.  The entertainment was fair, leaving not much to do on sea days, unless you were an aficionado of the casino or bars.  There was Wi-Fi, which was dreadfully expensive and VERY slow.  The only part of the cruise that was memorable was the shore excursions in Alaska.  We had previous experience with an Alaska cruise with Princess, which we will do again.

With our service being as wonderful as it was, it made the entire cruise "special".  Our stateroom and balcony along with location was most enjoyable.  Our one request of Holland America is that they band smoking from the balconies.  Our 3 staterooms endured "used smoke" from ahead of us which was most distasteful since no one in our family smokes or ever has smokes.  This is enough for us to consider a cruise line that does not allow smoking on the balcony in the future.

Alaska is a great place to cruise but I would recommend taking any ship other than the Westerdam.  It is a ship that desperately needs refurbishment.