Mediterranean Cruise

[hoopman]

We are planning a Mediterranean cruise on HAL in August 2009 for our 30th anniversary. Which cruise would you recommend?

[jtl513]

Whichever one visits more places that you want to see. We thoroughly enjoyed our West Med on the Noordam, and someday would like to do an East one on any Vista ship. No, on second thought: make that any HAL ship! :D

[Willsot]

If you have a choice between 10 and 12-day cruises, take the 12 (14 even better). The 12-day Med. Tapestry cruise on the Oosterdam (Aug. 11) looks nice.

We did Rome-Amsterdam last summer on the Prinsendam and thoroughly enjoyed it. The Prinsendam was wonderful.

[debsea]

Both the Western Med. and Eastern Med. cruises are sensational. I think the Eastern Med. is a little more romantic - has more dramatic ports of call. It's my favourite, and for a special anniversary, that would be my first pick.

[kalliekae]

We sailed on the western Mediterranean Enchantment cruise on the Noordam this past May. Many were on back-to-back cruises and everyone we talked to preferred the western. They said the eastern had more stops and less days at sea so they were tired by the time we got to the 3rd day of the western cruise. I think you are smart to just choose one. We enjoyed the western Mediterranean and spent 3 days in Rome prior to the cruise which I would encourage you to do. The only negative stop was Palermo. I wish HAL would choose another stop as this was a complete waste of time and money. Some people on our tour bus actually got off and took a cab back to the ship. Other than that, it was a wonderful cruise.

[NJcruisermom]

We just returned from a ten day western Med cruise on the Noordam after a ten day eastern Med cruise on the Celebrity Galaxy last August. The two experiences could not have been more different.
Celebrity made every day fun and easy while HAL was extremely difficult and at times impossible. We booked two cabins on each cruise ( one inside and one oceanview) and the departure port (civitivecchia) was the same in each instance, however, HAL does not appear to place customer satisfaction as a goal for its staff. The crew was not accomodating and at times even rude. We were kept on deck by the Captain during the lifeboat drill and made to feel imprisoned by the tone of the Captain who informed all passengers we would not be permitted to leave until everyone was quiet. We were treated like children. They lost our luggage and told us to search for it ourselves in the storeroom. The bed in my children's cabin could not be opened on the first night and no alternative was offered until my husband demanded an officer do so at 10:30 pm. The tuxedo arrived with no shoes. My son was denied entry to the dining room while the luggage was missing. The service in the Lido was appalling. The ship was not clean-smelling, and the excursion desk help was irritating and unwilling to help guests.
The cost for HAL was not any less than Celebrity but the service most decidedly was inferior.

[Jade13]

We sailed on the western Mediterranean Enchantment cruise on the Noordam this past May. Many were on back-to-back cruises and everyone we talked to preferred the western. They said the eastern had more stops and less days at sea so they were tired by the time we got to the 3rd day of the western cruise. I think you are smart to just choose one. We enjoyed the western Mediterranean and spent 3 days in Rome prior to the cruise which I would encourage you to do. The only negative stop was Palermo. I wish HAL would choose another stop as this was a complete waste of time and money. Some people on our tour bus actually got off and took a cab back to the ship. Other than that, it was a wonderful cruise.

We did the Western half (Med Enchantment) last year and Eastern (Roman Empire) this year. The Eastern half was less tiring because although both have 2 sea days, the Eastern half also has two half days (Katakolon, Greece and Messina, Italy). The Western half has the ports with the longer drives such as Liverno to Florence (2 hours in traffic) and Naples to Amalfi Coast & Sorrento (1.5 to 2 hours), Palermo to Segesta (1 hour drive), while the Eastern half had numerous ports you could walk to off the ship. Everyones opinion is different. Our favorite port stop on the Western Med cruise on the Westerdam in 2007 was Palermo and Sicily. We took a private tour to Segesta Temple and Monreale and it's unbelievable Cathedral and then to a pastry shop in Palerma. Our guide was excellent and sites amazing.

[Jade13]

We just returned from a ten day western Med cruise on the Noordam after a ten day eastern Med cruise on the Celebrity Galaxy last August. The two experiences could not have been more different.
Celebrity made every day fun and easy while HAL was extremely difficult and at times impossible. We booked two cabins on each cruise ( one inside and one oceanview) and the departure port (civitivecchia) was the same in each instance, however, HAL does not appear to place customer satisfaction as a goal for its staff. The crew was not accomodating and at times even rude. We were kept on deck by the Captain during the lifeboat drill and made to feel imprisoned by the tone of the Captain who informed all passengers we would not be permitted to leave until everyone was quiet. We were treated like children. They lost our luggage and told us to search for it ourselves in the storeroom. The bed in my children's cabin could not be opened on the first night and no alternative was offered until my husband demanded an officer do so at 10:30 pm. The tuxedo arrived with no shoes. My son was denied entry to the dining room while the luggage was missing. The service in the Lido was appalling. The ship was not clean-smelling, and the excursion desk help was irritating and unwilling to help guests.
The cost for HAL was not any less than Celebrity but the service most decidedly was inferior.

We were on the Westerdam last year and everything was close to perfect. We just came back from the Noordam and while we had a good time because the ports were excellent and we had great company with those we met on Cruise Critic, the ship, staff and experience did not meet the HAL standards that we have come to know. It was a lot of little things that added up into one huge disappointment. We plan to write HAL's CEO. The food on Noordam was overall poor and totally inconsistent. We liked our cabin steward personally but he was not that good compared to others and we found out why. It was his first week doing guest cabins as he had been cleaning the crew cabins. One night he never finished the turn down with the towel animals or straightened the bathroom. On our cruise the singers and dancers changed and so there was no show the first night, one night the entertainment was just the 11:00pm crew show and the finale was the program from 2007. We walked out of the dining room the second to last night when we could not get our table cleared for dessert and we asked and 20 minutes went by. We never went back and ate at the lido the last night. Room service was the worst ever. We ordered cereal and the milk was warm each day. We would order 4 boxes of cereal(two each) and 5 milks (2 for the cereal and one for my tea) and only two milks would show up. One day they forgot the spoons and twice we had to call them back because we asked for the 7:00 to 7:30pm slot so we could work out at the gym which opened at 6:00am and they said they had already come even though I was back at the cabin by 6:50am. Our bathroom mat was black and not santitary. The supplies did not make it through customs (per Bert the Hotel Director) and so they had limited Elemis products. One day I only received one bottle of conditioner and nothing else. I had to call 3 different days to get shampoo and one day had to take the small piece of soap from the sink to use n the bath. We finally received the sharp shower gel bottle with green stuff in it (I guess they had stuffed with something from another port). My porterhouse at the Pinnacle was not edible and total fat. I realized later that the reason I was sawing at the meat was that I was not given a steak knife. I was asked how everything was, said not good and not offered an alternative. I said something to the Pinaccle Manager the next day and he said I should have told my waiter (???). I went to use the Adult pool the second to last day and there were ten children in the pool. Many were jumping in and there was clearly an adults only sign. The last day we took HAL's "tour" to Taormina and it was terrible. We had to wait for the guide to get the tickets to the theater and by the time she made it to the theater we had 45 minutes to walk around town. This ship is currently not up to HAL standards. We did not book a future cruise but are on the Eurodam in a few weeks.

[kdowneymd]

suggest you read the recent reviews of Zuiderdam cruise of the Eastern Med before you book HAL. I am not qa complainer wwe enjoyed our cruise but it appears that HAL is going through a number of reorganization, staff problems that have changed trhe experince of sailing.

[Jade13]

suggest you read the recent reviews of Zuiderdam cruise of the Eastern Med before you book HAL. I am not qa complainer wwe enjoyed our cruise but it appears that HAL is going through a number of reorganization, staff problems that have changed trhe experince of sailing.

I forgot to mention on Noordam the reason that we had a steward whose first week it was on the guest decks (and note we pay for a VA on deck 7, the deck with the PH"s because we figure we will get the most seasoned room stewards) was because, per the steward, they were short staffed because crew could not get flights because of the Olympics. HAL should know this in advance and be prepared. The same for the entertainment. If a new group is coming from Las Vegas and needs time to rest and practice, HAL needs to have one of the guest entertainers who is one the ship from the previous week (this was a 10 night btb, or 20 night cruise) ready to go on the first night. Instead, HAL was holding the "Superstar" guest like Idol contest in the Vista Lounge when there should have been a show. They were obviously trying to fill in the after dinner entertainment slots.