Papadon
October 5th, 2004, 06:23 PM
My wife and I just finished our first cruise on Holland America's Oosterdam to Alaska that cruise completing on Sept. 25th. After hearing so much about HAL we were extremely disappointed with HAL. The weather was lousy but that was not the problem. We thought the service was very poor, cold meals, skimpy serving sizes, very low budget entertainment and noisy cabin.
We are not new comers to cruising this trip was our 25th cruise. We have sailed in the past with RCCL, Celeberty, NCL, Carnival and Princess.
We feel that one of the main joys of cruising is meeting other people. The dinning room on the Oosterdam is arranged with many tables set for two or four and the tables that have six or eight place sittings are mostly rectangular (rather that round or oval) which makes it difficult to carry on conversations. We ended up at late seating at a table for four eventhough we asked the head waiter to be seated at a larger table.
We aslo noticed that when being seated at the open seating meals like breakfast and lunch they never asked if you would like to sit with other people but just placed you by yourself. (My wife whom never likes buffets, ending up eating breakfast at the Lido buffet after having two breakfasts omeletts served cold.)
Our cabin, D1013, was right befow the Piano bar and when the music started at night, about l0PM, we kept hearing the "THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of a base drum or something until the music stopped early in the AM. Although I complained about this nothing was done.
The Oosterdam is one of the most beautiful ships we have been on it is just too bad that the meals and service don't measure up to the standards of the rest of the ship.
One last point for elderly travelers. My spouse requires oxygen at night and her oxygen service provider (Apria the largest in the country) has been allowed to provide her service (free of charge from the cruise line) on every other cruise line we have been on. However, HAL required that you use one of their providers at a cost of about $400 for a seven day cruise or about $300 hundred if you have your provider arrange for the service. Thus I had to lug a small oxygen concentrator aboard or pay a minimum of $300.
Again after hearing so many good reports on HAL' s service ect. we were very disappointed and never will travel that cruise line again.
Papa Don
We are not new comers to cruising this trip was our 25th cruise. We have sailed in the past with RCCL, Celeberty, NCL, Carnival and Princess.
We feel that one of the main joys of cruising is meeting other people. The dinning room on the Oosterdam is arranged with many tables set for two or four and the tables that have six or eight place sittings are mostly rectangular (rather that round or oval) which makes it difficult to carry on conversations. We ended up at late seating at a table for four eventhough we asked the head waiter to be seated at a larger table.
We aslo noticed that when being seated at the open seating meals like breakfast and lunch they never asked if you would like to sit with other people but just placed you by yourself. (My wife whom never likes buffets, ending up eating breakfast at the Lido buffet after having two breakfasts omeletts served cold.)
Our cabin, D1013, was right befow the Piano bar and when the music started at night, about l0PM, we kept hearing the "THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of a base drum or something until the music stopped early in the AM. Although I complained about this nothing was done.
The Oosterdam is one of the most beautiful ships we have been on it is just too bad that the meals and service don't measure up to the standards of the rest of the ship.
One last point for elderly travelers. My spouse requires oxygen at night and her oxygen service provider (Apria the largest in the country) has been allowed to provide her service (free of charge from the cruise line) on every other cruise line we have been on. However, HAL required that you use one of their providers at a cost of about $400 for a seven day cruise or about $300 hundred if you have your provider arrange for the service. Thus I had to lug a small oxygen concentrator aboard or pay a minimum of $300.
Again after hearing so many good reports on HAL' s service ect. we were very disappointed and never will travel that cruise line again.
Papa Don