Back From the Veendam

[bvocruise]

My wife and I just returned from our cruise on the Veendam. The cruise overall was great and a lot of fun except the fact the ship was not fully fninished from dry dock. We received a letter at the port stating the retreat would be ready in a few days and it did not open the 13 days we were on the cruise. We also got off to a very late start since they were behind on checking people in and loading cargo and luggage. We also had some mechanical issues and did not move for awhile at sea and went slow for quite awhile which caused us to be a day late to the Panama Canal and to miss our much anticipated stop in Costa Rica.
The crew did a great job dealing with everything and the food and service was great! Some people had issues with their cabins, but ours was just fine. The Captain did mention in his Q&A session that the deck chairs next to the Lanai cabins are intended/reserved for those cabins.
I was shocked the ship really was not ready and that everything was in disarray when we boarded. Clocks were not set the entire cruise, several areas had construction debris, and the crew was really trying to pull everything together. We had several contractors on board and it was not a smooth cruise but it all worked out okay. We were in code red most of the cruise which stretched the crew even further.
HAL did offer everyone on board a 20% refund on their base price paid for the cruise or a 30% discount on the base price paid for a future cruise to be taken within 2 years. Some were also offered on board credit for cabin issues.
This was our first cruise on HAL and we will sail again. The food and entertainment were fantastic and I really enjoyed the room service.
The ship was pretty nice and will be great in a few months once it is finished with all the repairs and upgrades.

[Himself]

Thanks for the scouting report. I am glad HAL treated you well. It is really a fine line run by good people.

[brucory]

Thanks for checking in...

It seems the Veendam is quite the controversy at the moment...

Just wondering. Did it seem strange walking past those lanai room doors? Or was it just the same as walking by the cabin windows around the rest of the deck?

Did people have their doors wedged open?

Would it feel as though you were sitting on someone else's furniture if you propped yourself on a chair outside those rooms?

:D:D:D

[elvo73]

Thank you very much for your review. I'm looking forward to be in the Veendam in 2 weeks. Do you have any pictures at all?
Thanks!

[MightyQuinn]

Did it seem strange walking past those lanai room doors?.....
Would it feel as though you were sitting on someone else's furniture if you propped yourself on a chair outside those rooms?
I understood from several HAL folks that the new lanai cabins did not have any dedicated deck loungers. But it seems the Veendam Captain has announced otherwise. Wonder how those who booked these cabins enjoyed them?
The Captain did mention in his Q&A session that the deck chairs next to the Lanai cabins are intended/reserved for those cabins.

[Atomica]

The first cruise after a major drydock is always going to be a bit touch and go. You have to remember, in as much as the experience is changing for the passengers onboard, it's also changing for the crew. Things may not be where they used to be, and as you said, it's clear not all of the work was finished when the ship sailed. A lot of the kinks will work out quickly; some will take a little longer. And, in some cases, there may be controversy over who can use deck loungers and when ;)

Glad to hear you enjoyed your first HAL cruise! I'm looking forward to seeing the Veendam for myself when she is here in Vancouver on Sunday.

[RuthC]

Thank you for your report. I'm glad that, in spite of everything, the fact that the ship's renovations weren't completed didn't prevent you from having a good time. And won't stop you from cruising HAL again.

The 20% - 30% offer was the least HAL could do since there was so much of the ship that was out of bounds. I'm glad to see they didn't have to be "pushed" into it.

[jbeb]

My wife and I just returned from our cruise on the Veendam. The cruise overall was great and a lot of fun except the fact the ship was not fully fninished from dry dock. We received a letter at the port stating the retreat would be ready in a few days and it did not open the 13 days we were on the cruise. We also got off to a very late start since they were behind on checking people in and loading cargo and luggage. We also had some mechanical issues and did not move for awhile at sea and went slow for quite awhile which caused us to be a day late to the Panama Canal and to miss our much anticipated stop in Costa Rica.
The crew did a great job dealing with everything and the food and service was great! Some people had issues with their cabins, but ours was just fine. The Captain did mention in his Q&A session that the deck chairs next to the Lanai cabins are intended/reserved for those cabins.
I was shocked the ship really was not ready and that everything was in disarray when we boarded. Clocks were not set the entire cruise, several areas had construction debris, and the crew was really trying to pull everything together. We had several contractors on board and it was not a smooth cruise but it all worked out okay. We were in code red most of the cruise which stretched the crew even further.
HAL did offer everyone on board a 20% refund on their base price paid for the cruise or a 30% discount on the base price paid for a future cruise to be taken within 2 years. Some were also offered on board credit for cabin issues.
This was our first cruise on HAL and we will sail again. The food and entertainment were fantastic and I really enjoyed the room service.
The ship was pretty nice and will be great in a few months once it is finished with all the repairs and upgrades.
We are so looking forward to our Alaska adventure on Sunday! Thanks for the updated info on ship issues. We just got a note from HAL of the current late boarding plans in Vancouver due to the additional sanitation requirements following the Code Red. Hope to see a shiney new ship mostly finished and very cleaned up on Sunday.
Take care,
Jan

[kimba45]

Hi all!

Thanks for the info on Veendam upgrades....This is the First HAL Cruise AND first Cruise ever for myself and family.....we are taking Veendam Northbound and touring Alaska in July....so many questions that we have....all the answers can be found here on this sight and it is very helpful......Anyone taken the 19 tour? How is the land portion; hotels and food? We are staying Alyeska,Anchorage, Denali, and Fairbanks....our excursions have yet to booked....that will be done soon.......Thanks, Kimba

[bvocruise]

This seemed to be an important cruise for HAL to show off their revamped ship. They had the director of entertainment on board and some other big wigs. The Lanai doors were not an issue to me and my cabin was between two of them. Some people kept their door propped open but not very often. The captain on down always made reference to the ship’s issues is either a serious or funny way. The cruise director was great and he showed up to the show one night wearing an extension cord and carrying a drill while in his suit.
It was a great cruise all and all and certainly one I will never forget. I’m a bit disappointed the retreat wasn’t ready and that I saw a lot of construction, but the food and entertainment were fantastic!!!!!

[sail7seas]

You have such a great attitude. Hats off to 'ya. :)

[grandma rainbow]

This seemed to be an important cruise for HAL to show off their revamped ship. They had the director of entertainment on board and some other big wigs. The Lanai doors were not an issue to me and my cabin was between two of them. Some people kept their door propped open but not very often. The captain on down always made reference to the ship’s issues is either a serious or funny way. The cruise director was great and he showed up to the show one night wearing an extension cord and carrying a drill while in his suit.
It was a great cruise all and all and certainly one I will never forget. I’m a bit disappointed the retreat wasn’t ready and that I saw a lot of construction, but the food and entertainment were fantastic!!!!!

Thanks for all your useful information. You are an understanding soul. We just got off the Zaandam and booked Bermuda next year on the Veendam. What is the retreat area? Thanks so much.

[RedmondCruiser]

Did they ever get the retreat pool working while still in warm waters ?? Without that they will have no feed back.

[mamaofami]

Wish someone with a lanai cabin would weigh in.

[Stevesan]

My wife and I just returned from our cruise on the Veendam. The cruise overall was great and a lot of fun except the fact the ship was not fully fninished from dry dock. We received a letter at the port stating the retreat would be ready in a few days and it did not open the 13 days we were on the cruise. We also got off to a very late start since they were behind on checking people in and loading cargo and luggage. We also had some mechanical issues and did not move for awhile at sea and went slow for quite awhile which caused us to be a day late to the Panama Canal and to miss our much anticipated stop in Costa Rica.
The crew did a great job dealing with everything and the food and service was great! Some people had issues with their cabins, but ours was just fine. The Captain did mention in his Q&A session that the deck chairs next to the Lanai cabins are intended/reserved for those cabins.
I was shocked the ship really was not ready and that everything was in disarray when we boarded. Clocks were not set the entire cruise, several areas had construction debris, and the crew was really trying to pull everything together. We had several contractors on board and it was not a smooth cruise but it all worked out okay. We were in code red most of the cruise which stretched the crew even further.
HAL did offer everyone on board a 20% refund on their base price paid for the cruise or a 30% discount on the base price paid for a future cruise to be taken within 2 years. Some were also offered on board credit for cabin issues.
This was our first cruise on HAL and we will sail again. The food and entertainment were fantastic and I really enjoyed the room service.
The ship was pretty nice and will be great in a few months once it is finished with all the repairs and upgrades.

Geez - you put up with all that inconvenience without a mutiny???:eek:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=983723

[DaisyL]

The Lanai doors were not an issue to me and my cabin was between two of them. Some people kept their door propped open but not very often.
How was your cabin? We were just looking at this ship and itinerary for next year to Bermuda and wondering about the window cabins on the Promenade.

Were you able to keep the shades open or were people able to peer into your cabin? How available were the loungers on this deck? Were there other loungers available or only the 'implied' dedicated loungers? How do you think they could reserve the loungers for the appropriate cabins? Some cabins are obstructed view on this deck, how so?

Sorry for all the questions, but we'll probably book soon and questioning this ourselves. Bermuda is our most favorite destination especially going to both Hamilton and St. Georges and leaving from our 'homeport' of NYC is the best.
Thanks for your help,

[northern dancer 37]

The comments show that most of the passengers were pretty tolerant of the problems encountered. Sadly, HAL did not live up to its reputation. There was evidence that some dining room crew were either poorly trained or poorly supervised. Too often servers leaned over the table to serve, and in some cases the bottom of their jackets touched food on the table. They never seemed to decide if tea was to be steeped in teapots or teacups. Many people complained of missing shows becauser of slow service, even after allowing two hours for dinner.

Service in the Lido was terrible, in large part because the senior staff made no attempt to make the service flow after Code Red was imposed. Entertainers were pressed into service, and sometimes there was no sign to tell the passengers the name of the food presented. Orange juice sometimes tasted like Tang (if you wanted real orange juice in the dining room the waiter had to go to one specific counter in the Lido to get it) and getting apple juice the last day was very difficult.

On the positive side, most of the food was good or better, with reasonable - not overwhelming - portions.

We give credit to the Captain for admitting, from day one, that there were problems. HAL could have announced that there would be some (unspecified) compensation earlier, and passengers might have been more placated.

All in all, it was a public relations disaster for HAL, but in spite of that, many were booking future cruises.

[Cruisin'NJMama]

Did you have any problems with seasickness?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for your report on the veendam's cruise right after dry dock.

Glad you had a great time in spite of the problems.

[innlady1]

Wish someone with a lanai cabin would weigh in.

I'm sure someone will, Carol. How are you doing?

[innlady1]

Did you have any problems with seasickness?

I don't think this itinerary would be one where seasickness is prevalent. At least not from Fort Lauderdale through the Panama Canal. Not sure beyond that, but I don't think so.

Did it disembark in San Diego? If so, the seas may have been a bit rough then.

[elvo73]

Thank you very much for your review, I'm glad overall you had a fantastic time. I was wondering if you can share your packing list, I'm still trying to decide what to wear in Alaska. I will be there in 2 weeks.
Thanks

[Down-Unders]

Geez - you put up with all that inconvenience without a mutiny???:eek:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=983723





:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

[bvocruise]

The situation on the Veendam was not as bad as the linked story above. The crew understood there were problems and did what they could to deliver a good cruise.

[PCruzer]

Are there still lounge chairs on the promenade deck that anyone can use?? We are booked on the Rotterdam in January, after it's November drydock. It will be going through similar changes as the Veendam. We did not book a balcony cabin this time, as the cruise is 33 days, and balcony cabins were quite expensive. We thought that we would be able to use the promenade lounge chairs. As another poster mentioned, I thought I remember hearing that the chairs outside the lanai cabins were not reserved for anyone. I hope that will be the case on the Rotterdam.

[RuthC]

Are there still lounge chairs on the promenade deck that anyone can use?? We are booked on the Rotterdam in January, after it's November drydock. It will be going through similar changes as the Veendam.
Maybe not. There's been a report from "a reliable source" that the Rotterdam may not have all of the changes that the Veendam had---at least not right now. The specifics weren't disclosed.

[PCruzer]

Maybe not. There's been a report from "a reliable source" that the Rotterdam may not have all of the changes that the Veendam had---at least not right now. The specifics weren't disclosed.

I'm hoping they leave those promenade lounge chairs for use by everyone on the Rotterdam! Since the promenade is a public space, I'm not sure how they can take chairs that previously were for use by all passengers, and now make them part of the lanai cabins!! I don't think that is going to go over real well!

[Mscruisin]

I too just returned from a 13 day cruise on the Veendam. This was my first cruise with HAL and will probably be my last. As the previous cruiser stated this cruise went wrong right from the start. I did have a fairly good time but was so diappointed with the condition of the ship. On boarding the decks were filthy and construction materials piled about. Our room on the promenade deck was all newly done and we were one of the few who had no problems with our room flooding, toilet overflowing or no air conditioning. So that made the room great. The lanai rooms got new deck chairs later on the day of embarkation. After that they placed the old deck chairs on the promenade deck away from the lanai rooms. They were for everyone to use after you wiped the dirt off of them. After a few days they put little brass plates on the end of the chairs outside the lanai rooms that said reserved for those rooms only. The ship was severely understaffed so that entertainers and shop employess had to serve food in the lido. The retreat area was not finished until the day we disembarked. It looked like a rush job to me. The tiles were smeared with grout and the floor was dirty. I think the contractors spent most of the day watching the big screen and hanging around the lido buffet. The lido pool was very crowded on warm days and the hot tubs had a green scum around the edges that never was cleaned off the whole cruise. The internet never worked at all for the first 3 days and was pretty well useless the rest of the cruise as well. I could go on and on but this ship was definately not ready for cruising. This was a cruise I would rather forget. The shortage of ports and 4 straight cruising days at the end was rather tedious as all you heard was people complaining. I met a lot of nice people which partially made up for this cruise but it would take a lot to convince me to give HAL another try. It was pretty bad to have staff members making fun of HAL as well. How loyal can they be?

[ScottishMaid]

We came off the Veendam today at Vancouver. The Retreat was open for the first time as we boarded in San Diego. it all looked very nice in the sun arriving in Vancouver. Hot tub at very back of ship was popular, pizza is good. They are experimenting with everything and getting the many bugs out of the system. The crew is exhausted. Many joined May 1 , others lived through dry dock. They are doing a fantastic job.
All the old chairs are on the Promenade deck plus they have bought new ones, two per lanai cabin. So there are more in total. The new ones have little brass notices on them saying "reserved for lanai cabins". We were assigned a lanai cabin. There are many pros and cons relative to a normal outside cabin. I expect everyone knows the bed is across the cabin like in a verandah cabin, which makes the cabin very compact. The door mechanism is not fully operational yet, it does not close automatically yet.
All the inside and outside cabins have new carpet, bathroom tile, etc. The opening up of the Piano bar has resulted in more passers by stopping to listen to piano Dave.
More later.

[karenem]

I just got back also from the San Diego-Vancouver trip: no mutiny! I was impressed that even with all the things that went wrong (and there were a mind-boggly amount of them out of Ft. Lauderdale!) most everyone seemed to be determined to make the best of it. Johnny the cruise director and the entire crew were really busting their tails, and I think the passengers really appreciated that. Still, a LOT of things went very wrong (7/11 missed ports, noro, long lines at the shrink-wrapped Lido, serious water/sewage/electrical problems, construction people & equipment, closed areas... and if I'd been onboard for the whole trip, I'd have been very disappointed.

re: seasickness: We hit some moderately rough stuff off the No. Cal coast, par for the course in this area, but it smoothed out after the first day. I'm very prone to motion sickness, but except for an hour or two when things first got rough, it was controllable with Bonine and staying low and in the middle of the ship.

[Coconet]

I'm back as well from our 4 day San Diego - Vancouver trip...had a blast! Yes..a bit worried when we boarded in San Diego (4 cabins - 7 of us) and we were told they were a Code Red and Noro had broke out but we kept the faith and boarded anyway! We all were upgraded and our Verandah Suite was great..nice and large, good size bathroom and great jaccuzi tub...maybe a bit small but still worked for us!

Construction - Dry Dock: Yes, lots still going on...but always saw workers working hard...only on the ship for 4 days so did not bother us.

Crew - I have sailed Princess, Royal Caribbean, Carnival and now Holland...every SINGLE employee we all met or passed from Officers, Entertainers, Room Stewards, Dining Help etc were GREAT! With the Noro outbreak and many staff stricken, the crew worked double duty and did a great job. I saw officiers serving coffee when the station needed help.

Norovirus - Yes, would have preferred not having to deal with the possibility of getting sick but the precautions taken while we were on board were great. I personally had no problem with the buffet on the Lido being served by crew instead of self serve. I cruised Alaska last year on Princess with my teenagers and was appalled at how many adults and kids alike have no ettiquete when it comes to self serving. No problem on this cruise of watching someone pick up a piece of food from the buffet lines with their fingers...:eek: We were offered a refund for our cruise before we boarded in San Diego.

Entertainment - We cruised with 7 people...ages 45 - 69 male and female...this was by far the highlight! The Vegas style review featured some very talented entertainers and the Beatles/Beach Boys group was so much fun! Our front row seats to all the shows were not by chance :rolleyes: so much fun for us all!

Food - YUMMY!

Yes...the seas were a bit rough heading up from San Diego for the first day...Gale force winds is my understanding...precautionary Bonine worked great...even with the rockin and rolling...we danced the night away!

We saw many very grumpy passengers - reversing the onboard tip charge etc...that was a shame. It was clearly not the crews fault that the ports were cancelled nor that people became ill - because they had to work extra hard to pick up the shifts of those ill and still have a smile on their face...what more could you ask of them? Sorry but my humble opinon...there is some blame to be made but more at a corporate level...the boat needed more time in dry dock...that is a definite...they do have issues there.

I may have felt different had I boarded in Florida...however, certain things they had no control over - the Swine hit globally. I do feel for any of you that had a cruise planned during these pass 2 weeks going to Mexico...:(

I checked the boards this morning simply to say that we had a great time...we will definitely sail Holland again...:D

Scanning the net for another last minute cruise!:cool:

[KathyPet]

I am getting concerned about the condition of the Veendam. I am leaving from Seward on 6/21 as part of a group of 10 couples from our over 55 community. I was the primary party who pushed hard for our group to select HAL and the Veendam so if it turns about to be a problem cruise I will feel very guilty for having pushed for this line and ship.

[Coconet]

You will be fine in June...they need time to clean this ship up...and put the finishing touches on it. Had they had a couple more weeks for our cruise...alot of the items they were working on...cleaning, painting, fine tuning etc would more than likely have been near complete. They were working very hard the 4 days we were on board to get things done. It's a beautiful midsize ship...you are going to have a great time!

[malika]

Hi there,
we also were on the first cruise of the refurbished Veendam.

It was our first HAL cruise and most likely also our last, we will see.

This cruise was everything else then "signature of excellence", I would describe it rather as a failure.

Fortunately our stateroom was alright, though we had to clean our wardrobes and drawers before putting anything inside, they were covered with dust. This applies also to a slight layer on the ceiling and the ventilation grids and the fire sprinklers.

Due to the late arrival of the Veendam in Ft. Lauderdale the boarding was delayed, we had to wait in a secondary building with a bottle of water and nothing else, after approx 1 1/2 - 2 hours we finally could go to the main terminal building for boarding, here we had to stand in line for another half hour to get on board.
First signs of an unfinished ship :they were still painting the ship outside...

When we came on board the evacuation exercise had started already, so we were told to go to our stateroom and get our life vests immediately. While we were making our way to the stateroom people were coming down with their life vest and when we were going to the promenade deck people were getting up to go to their staterooms. All in all not a very practical time for a evacuation drill with people still getting on board....
As a result not all people could take part in the exercise and had to do a separate exercise the next day....

When we finally could start to have a look around we realized that the new aft deck Retreat area was not finished, that both sport courts were unusable, partly used as storage for broken windows and other tools and bits and rubbish, the sports deck was also used as storage for the chairs and beds for the aft deck, covered and wrapped with paper and plastic, which soon started falling apart once we were on the way.

Around the Lido Pool we also immediately discovered that the cleaning was not done very well, there was teak oil or some sort of grease on some of the chairs, every smudges of dirt, visibility through windows was low and the spa pools also had a funny discoloration around the rim.

The whole ship was not cleaned well after the dry-dock, and of course due to the ongoing works they could try hard but would never finish.

Further you could see all over the place still lamps missing and cables coming out of the ceiling or wall.

None of the clocks I saw on board did display the right time, each showed a different time for the whole 13 days, and for a little extra confusion on some clocks the time difference to the correct time was changed once in a while…

Also the nice TV information channel with speed data, weather, pool temperature and other information was not updated regularly and did display for most of the items n/a, this is also true for the pictures of the staff…….

Satellite TV and internet were having major problems.

The RETREAT look very nice on the plans, and we were really looking forward to using it, but it was a real construction site, on the second evening the Captain made a promis that it would be opened soon with a big ceremony, but when we had a closer look we actually did not expect that we would ever see it from close up during the 13 days, we got to go on the retreat deck during the Panama Canal Crossing, and on the day we left in San Diego, when they were cleaning up for the next guests.

We also have a slight suspicion that not all the emergency lights on the floors were working, we have seen them turned on some upper decks one day, not on our floor, the next day they worked on our floor as well and we did see in the stairway some cables coming our and being attached to each other with some tape…?

Not all toilets were functioning in the public areas and/ or you could not wash your hands because there was no water coming out of the taps.
After the GI disease/ Norovirus was detected on board and we went on code RED we wondered if these malfunctioning toilets, tabs might have helped spreading it, also it probably did not help that other people had rooms without functioning toilets for the first days and water coming out of the drains flooding their staterooms.
Another observation is that unlike on other cruises we have been there was no one really enforcing the use of the hand sanitizers provided at the entrance to the restaurants, so people were free to use it or not, on our previous cruises there was no way you could get into a restaurant, especially with self-service without sanitizing your hands.
After we were in Code red more attention was brought to that issue but did not last very long.

Besides the work on the Retreat area, there were also still other works done like laying teak decks, finishing staterooms that were not ready yet, repairing lamps at the Lido deck, it was a construction site in a lot of places.
The nice new carpets in the Lido are forming big lumps of dust and fabric, curtains went up during the cruise, the water/ice cube dispensers, the juice machines and the coffee machines were all not working properly in the first days, some did work later on but still additional coffee dispensers had to be brought to the coffee area during the whole cruise, as well as water. Which led to long rows at the coffee if staff had to go and get coffee and could not serve water to people when they were gone for getting coffee. Fresh orange juice was only available on one side of the Lido buffet.

We also heard people having booked a room for three people getting a room for two, and the third person had to go to an unfinished room because there were no other staterooms available.

The staff was trying it’s best to get everything done and to keep up with everything and to accommodate the guests, but I guess too much work for too little people besides all their normal tasks, especially in Code Red.

Further of course there was the engine problem on the way from Ft. Lauderdale to Cartagena, which forced us to go through the Panama Channel a day later and lead to the cancellation of Costa Rica (which would have been our most preferred stop after the Panama Canal).
And the 4 days at sea in a row were not very exiting, although we did spot some Wales on the way.
That Mexico was cancelled was a good decision with the Mexican flue but Costa Rica???? Why not Nicaragua or Guatemala?

Other irritation on this cruise was the always just not right or complete information provided, this starts already before the cruise when asking how much time one should allow between disembarkation and booking an international flight in San Diego.
We booked our flight accordingly, with the information that this would be more then enough time allowance, but two days before arriving at San Diego we heard rumours and half information about arrival times and people not catching their flights because the ship was expected not to be cleared by Customs before 10 am, buses to the airport with pre-arranged transfer not leaving before 10:30-10:45. We just about managed to get our flight others not.
How hard can it be to give a good indication on time between disembarkation and flight? It is not the first time a Hal ship comes from the Panama canal to San Diego?
Also it was not clear to people that really everyone would have to report to customs and immigration if disembarking at San Diego or not. Which might have led to some additional delay in getting clearance for the ship?


We did enjoy most of the shows in the showroom at sea, some were not our taste but still well done/performed. The food was good and the staff was really doing it’s best.
The new bars, the MIX area was also really nice, this is also true for the explorers café.

We know that all this was not the usual HAL standard, friends and other passengers on this trip kept assuring that this was exceptional, but still we are disappointed.

Comments like “most of the problems we are experiencing are normal after a dry-dock” did not help, this only means that the HAL already in advance knew that we would experience such problems and did take it into account. I understand that staying another week in dry dock is very expensive, but using a week for testing and finishing off certain things before taking passengers on board would have been a less expensive option. It is not the first time HAL goes to a dry-dock for refurbishment or other maintenance; they also know it takes up usually more time. Such an “excellent” cruise line should not play with its customers.
I also understand that they did not want to cancel the original cruise completely after they had to delay going into the dry-dock by a week, as this would have ment passing the Panama Canal without paying passengers to get to the next Cruise scheduled starting in San Diego and Vancouver, which would have cost them also a lot of money.

It leaves me with the bad feeling of being used as paying test passenger and paying Cargo for the Panama Canal.

I could go on but I better stop here.
You can see that I am really disappointed.

The bottom line is: they should have taken more time in Dry-dock or planned a little more time before taking passengers on board the ship, mainly for testing and finishing off the works!

Mali

[PCruzer]

All the old chairs are on the Promenade deck plus they have bought new ones, two per lanai cabin. So there are more in total.

Thanks for the information on the Promenade deck lounge chairs. I am glad they left all the chairs in this wonderful public area and added chairs for the lanai cabins.

[DAllenTCY]

We also were on the Veendam, and eventually returned home early this morning...see my debark post for why.
Our only major shipboard disappointment was that we were among 535 guests whom embarked in San Diego, and not a one could get a reservation in the Pinnacle Grill for dinner. We were told that every reservation had been taken for the 3 nights, and that the "waiting list" was "too long" and that we didn't have a chance.
Anyway, the crew was great, especially in Mix....I liked that place very much!
The 20 drink wine card was a nice savings for my wife and I, and we managed to try several wines and the house champaign...all of which were great.
David

[Mscruisin]

We also were on the Veendam, and eventually returned home early this morning...see my debark post for why.
Our only major shipboard disappointment was that we were among 535 guests whom embarked in San Diego, and not a one could get a reservation in the Pinnacle Grill for dinner. We were told that every reservation had been taken for the 3 nights, and that the "waiting list" was "too long" and that we didn't have a chance.
Anyway, the crew was great, especially in Mix....I liked that place very much!
The 20 drink wine card was a nice savings for my wife and I, and we managed to try several wines and the house champaign...all of which were great.
David
I tried to get a reservation on about the 3rd night after leaving Fort Lauderdale and was told they were full up for the rest of the cruise. I think a lot of people had reservations before they even embarked. I could have got a reservation for lunch but we didn't bother. I have to agree the Mix was great. I really liked bartender Mikee.

[djhsolara]

Perhaps I'm wrong here, but it seems like HAL really does not do well with testing and getting things done in time. I remember posts from the Eurodam inaugural that there were many problems (not necessarily with the structure but more with service, etc) and now with Veendam after dry dock. Not to say that they don't have perfection with some of their drydocks, but when they are instituting new designs and concepts you would think they would be right on the spot to have everything ready and done flawlessly.

I realize that each day that a ship sits without a passenger on her it is lost money, but they also need to start realizing that many disappointed customers will not sail with them again because they are not taking the time to get things done correctly prior to letting people board. For people to say "I expected this since it is the first sailing after dry dock" is absolutely unacceptable.

If I were getting on the inaugural sailing of a ship or the first sailing after drydock, I would certainly expect it to be one of the best sailings ever as everything should be nice and shiny and everyone working their best for the new adventure. One would think that after all these years HAL would have this down to a science, but it seems like they just don't get it yet.

[JerseyJaguar]

If I were getting on the inaugural sailing of a ship or the first sailing after drydock, I would certainly expect it to be one of the best sailings ever as everything should be nice and shiny and everyone working their best for the new adventure.
From all I've heard, that would be a bad assumption, no matter what cruiseline it is. I have had two cruises scheduled about a month after a massive refurbishment dry dock and the first time on a Carnival ship the first cruisers were saying the same things because things weren't done. By the time I got on the ship it was wonderful. I'm expecting the same with the Veendam.

[mommym]

My family of 4 is going on the Veendam June 7th. We are not in a position to cruise frequently (2 kids in parochial school-yikes!), and while I want to go with the flow and don't expect perfection, I am concerned with some of the things I am reading since we have scraped and done without to save up for this trip. I hope most of the ship is accessible by the time we cruise and expecting it will be since we have a couple of weeks. My question is in regard to the Norovirus. Once it makes its appearance on a ship, how long does it generally hang on? I read about cruisers being quarantined and think that would be a complete nightmare for all of us. I have no problem with lack of salt and pepper shakers, bread baskets and self-serve buffet, but what is the larger impact the Norovirus has on a cruise and with all of the steps the cruise line takes to erradicate it, can we hope it will be gone and not rear its head again by early June? Thanks so much for your observations.

[canadarocks]

Wow, my husband and I were on the second to last cruise on the OLD Veendam in March and to think I was worried about it beforehand! :o It was our first cruise and we thought the ship would be too rundown, etc. right before drydock. :rolleyes: .... Instead we had a wonderful time and partly because of that I booked the Ryndam for our Alaska cruise this August, right before its drydock in 2010!

I am so sorry to those of you who sailed on the Veendam that was obviously not in drydock long enough! :eek:

[G&W]

I don't know if there are plants from HAL posting to this forum, but I think some of the posts are too positive to be believable given all the problems. Here are just the facts:

- Health and Safety infractions too numerous to list but include toilets that didn't flush for days, floods in the cabins, electrical problems, hanging wires, no running water in LIDO deck bathrooms on Day 1 coupled with no purell in front of the bathrooms; paint cans and construction litter strewn about, extreme smokiness in cabins and corridors, elevators that shook severely, listed the wrong floors or didn't work at all.

- Our cabin was filthy - the sheets had been used as had the towels, there was garbage in our bin, flies everywhere in our cabin, dust, dirty windows, and it totally reeked of stale smoke everywhere. We were reluctant to hang our clothes because of the stench

- Organization was an absolute farce. We were late in every port and in San Diego, we waited 4.5 hours to get off the ship, cutting down our port time to a mere 3 hours. For a 16-night cruise, we spent about 21 hours in port, missing the best port of all, Costa Rica. HAL, you owe us a complete refund!

- The ship lost not only 1 engine but 2 leaving us "dead in the water" for about 5 hours, not knowing what was going on. Surprised no one else mentioned that.

- We had no access to the aft area of the ship, the LIDO pool was freezing cold and dirty. The hot pools, as someone else mentioned, had green scum on the tub surface, and were only lukewarm anyway.

- Code Red was implemented 2nd or 3rd day out. We were not given any information about it, but noticed that all crew had been called into action to deal with it, so that even the entertainers and the librarian were serving food in the LIDO. Line-ups were extremely long. There were no trays nor assistance for those who couldn't handle their own food

I could go on and on. Some people have a complaint list 5 pages long, but veteran cruiser Mama Lou who has been living on Holland America ships for at least 12 years, told us point blank, this is the absolute worst cruise she has been on. That sentiment was echoed by individuals who had been cruising for up to 50 years.

As far as I'm concerned the 20% refund on the "base price" of the cruise is a slap in the face. I'm thinking class action lawsuit! Google that people, "Veendam May 1 2009 class action lawsuit"

Oh and by the way, that so-called pool in the aft retreat area, that they finally managed to finish by San Diego - they didn't even manage to build it properly - all the water sloshed out of the pool, as we pulled out of San Diego, flooding the carpeted area going into the LIDO, and rendering the pool unusable for the rest of the trip to Vancouver.

[ianmerc]

I was also on the veendam to San Diego. This was the first time with HAL. I am in complete agreement that the problems have been greatly understated. In addition to all the problems experienced by most of the passengers I was in a stateroom from hell. Every conceivable appliance that could break and/or not work broke and/or did not work. The room was an absolute disgrace and the cruise a total disaster. I am going to post a true review in a few days as I am too busy at the moment. However I will say this. Hal should be ashamed of putting that ship on the ocean. They should be more ashamed of the meagre refund offer they made for the enormous amount of problems on this ship. Unfortunately we had to select the method of refund before getting off the ship.The posters on this site who downplay the issues and state they had a good time must truly have been on a different cruise or extremely lucky somehow. I have had problems on cruises before and I do believe that every cruise has issues of some kind or another. I challenge anyone to bring forth a cruise with issues and problems of this magnitude. I am a very, very positive person in every way. Even in the first few days when my parents expressed their dissatisfaction with all around us I stayed very positive. Alas HAL managed to turn that around. As I said I will post a true and honest review for all to read. Then try to tell me it wasn't too bad!
One good point. The food was excellent. See, I do try to see the good side. Still searching for more positives.

[Bracket Creep]

"The posters on this site who downplay the issues and state they had a good time must truly have been on a different cruise or extremely lucky somehow."

Well, yeah, actually I was on a different cruise! By San Diego, most of the really serious issues were but a not-so-distant memory. I got an earful, but the problems that we saw were more of the annoying variety, not so much of the vacation-destroying variety. I really do feel for those of you who had it so much worse.

[earl_m]

thanks for the review!! Glad you enjoy your cruise in spite of the conditions

[DFD1]

There have been so many negative experiences by those who have sailed on inaugural (sp) cruises or on the first cruise after a major dry dock that we're careful never to book these cruises.

I'd rather miss excitement of sailing on a new ship or a newly refurbished ship than endure the difficulties often associated with these cruises.

Things seem to go much smoother after about 3 months have gone by and staff and crew have settled in....and after all the workmen have long departed.

As for the retreat; I think HAL has some work left to do on this concept.

[pms4104]

HAL offered either a 20% refund or 30% off a futures cruise?

Based on input above from those who sailed that first out-of-drydock Veendam itinerary ... seems to me that when HAL recognized that the ship was not fit to sail, HAL should've contacted all booked pax and offered either a full refund and rebook or a 50% discount/refund on that first sailing with the explanation that Veendam still was under construction. Just good customer relations and a sound business decision.

Anyone wonder why the Noro? Wonder if it had anything to do with the plumbing issues mentioned above?

Yes, I understand that the inaugural or just-out-of-drydock sailings can have issues ... but the situations described in this thread are more than simple issues. And HAL should be ashamed to have subjected the pax to the filth, ongoing construction noise and dirt, plumbing and electrical issues and then offered such measly compensation.

I am, however, grateful for the comments from those who were on that first sailing ... now I know never to book a "first", be it an inaugural or a just drydocked and refurbed saiing.

[Mscruisin]

I think it could have been plumbing problems due to grey water spills or staff that came on board carrying it. I was told that sick staff members were disembarked in both Colombia and Nicaraugua. One passenger as well was taken off in Colombia.

[Nanaimo Gal]

Hi there,
we also were on the first cruise of the refurbished Veendam.


The bottom line is: they should have taken more time in Dry-dock or planned a little more time before taking passengers on board the ship, mainly for testing and finishing off the works!

Mali

I agree with your bottom line.....I felt sorry for the crew having to work in the conditions that applied but also resented having my first cruise in a long time spoilt by Head Office decisions.
There were good aspects though, the crew, the many good people we met especially in The Crows Nest......I named us The Reprobates as for the most part we were smokers and had lots of laughs.
That embarkation was a nightmare though. We missed the first safety drill and recieved a letter telling us to attend the next day...felt like telling someone I would have gladly gone to the first one if they had let me on the ship.

[TampaMike]

I think it could have been plumbing problems due to grey water spills or staff that came on board carrying it. I was told that sick staff members were disembarked in both Colombia and Nicaraugua. One passenger as well was taken off in Colombia.

Is it not possible a passenger brought the Norwalk virus aboard?

[Mscruisin]

Is it not possible a passenger brought the Norwalk virus aboard?
Of course that is possible but we filled out a health questionaire before boarding and people could have fibbed a little or really who knows what people are exposed to before boarding. There is always an incubation period before the virus shows itself. It just seemed odd that the first cases I heard of on board were staff members themselves.

[TampaMike]

Of course that is possible but we filled out a health questionaire before boarding and people could have fibbed a little or really who knows what people are exposed to before boarding. There is always an incubation period before the virus shows itself. It just seemed odd that the first cases I heard of on board were staff members themselves.

There is really no way to know based on assumptions and third party information. However, Norovirus is contagious with exposure 24-48 hours and most people afflicted experience symptoms 33-36 hours after contracting the virus.

Veendam was 5 days into the voyage before Code Red was issued. The virus could as easily been brought aboard by a passenger than been communicated from the crew. Anyone checking in could have been exposed and not yet aware of symptons to report it on the health questionaire. And maybe sometimes, people do deny symptoms as not to ruin thier holiday (if not also short sighted).

As far as third party info who has what and how man is exactly that...third part information. Cruise ships are required by the CDC to report ,track and isolate outbreaks of Norovirus. Hotels, resort, schools, businesses, etc are not. That is why cruise ships tend to be a focus of the virus in public mind (with a little dramatic newsmedia intervention). But the ship's infirmary keeps information of passengers and crew inflicted as sensitive information and if information is leaked, it is third party and often inaccurate. It is irresponsible and creates anxiety when often unecessary. Doing so only perpetuates the stigma of "Cruise Ship Flu".

Further, irraddication of noro outbreaks aboard cruise ships is likely setting the standard. Practices that were promoted in the recent 'swine' flu scare were old hat practices aboard cruise ships. How often do you see such practices at hotels? Resorts? Or what about that favorite buffet you often have lunch at?

I think the gossip and third party information can cause more anxiety than the reality of viral illness itself. It is a shame we can irradicate noro outbreaks faster than gossip perpetuates the misnomers

It is a shame the Veendam had such issues. It is a shame some people's holidays were impacted beyond reasonable margins. It is a shame HAL made some bad calls on the implementation of these changes and the deployment of Veendam before ready. But I don't see any conspiracy by HAL or it's crew to conceal a viral outbreak for the sake of running the business, or by any means to inflict suffering upon the passengers only.

Despite the juicey headlines some would love to see.... Cruise Ships do not ATTACK.

[scottjeanne]

My husband an I were on this cruise from Florida to Vancouver. Though I agree that there were significant problems, they were not devestating to us. Our cabin was fine-fully cleaned and fully functional. I only encountered one public restroom that had one none functioning sink (and the other one in that bathroom did work).

The noro virus was unfortunate, but not HAL's fault. They handled it well. This was a cruise of horrible coincidences. HAL could not have anticipated the swine flu outbreak that necessitated canceling three ports in Mexico. They could not have anticipated an engine failure, It was not related to the dry dock, just a computer issue. That resulted in a delay in Cartegena and Panama Canal-not a cancellation. I too am very disappointed in missing Costa Rica, but logistically, it could not be helped. We had to visit a "far flung port" (not central american) when traveling from the east coast to the west coast of the US. This is a maritime rule, not a HAL decision. We had to stop in Carteegana for an ill passenger, an engine tech and passengers who missed the ship in FLL. The Panama Canal would not allow us to go throught the locks if the mechanics were not 100%. If we had an engine failure, it would block up the whole system. This was some of the schedule change reasons.

The delay in disembarkation in San Diego was due to US immigrations. We docked on time at 6 am, but the process took hours. And several passengers did not appear to go throught the process. They were not in their cabins and they could not be found. US immigration would allow no one to leave the ship untill all had cleared. Someone intimated that this was unclear. It was not. We all got a letter in our cabins infroming them of this fact and assigning them a time to appear to be processed. Ours was 6:15 am, which I did not like, but we were done by 6:25.

The food was great, the entertainment was well above par. The crew went out of their way to be accomodating. Yes, the service was slow. I believe it was a combination of code red standards, crew illness, crew inexperience and crew overwork. After their normal duties, they had to sanitize every surface repeatedly due to the norovirus.


The cruise was overall wonderful. We met some great people, enjoyed great entertainment and fabulous food. When I factor in what we paid for the cruise, less the 30% credit, the cost per person per day was $31.50!!! Where can you enjoy a fabulous vacation for that amount of money. I am blessed that I can afford to cruise again. I do feel for those that this is there once in a lifetime crusie. It was not perfect as they should have been able to experience. But to say that i deserve a full refund would be foolish.

[Hutch&Pat]

Not sure how they can fit the bed the other direction in the same cabins we've previously sailed in -- anyone know? It looks really tight in the latest HA pix: http://media.hollandamerica.com/05May09/051509_SA_nt/slideshow/index.html
We booked one for 35 days and now I'm wondering ......
Pat

[scottjeanne]

The beds in the new lanai cabins are perpendicular to where they used to be-parallel to the sliding promenade doors. They took out the desk/drawers, whcih the passengers found to be a drawback. They room is tight from all accounts.

[Hutch&Pat]

Wow ..... thanks for the info -- you couldn't tell that from the photo in my link above, but when I went back and looked at http://www.flickr.com/photos/atlastravelweb/sets/72157618039344146/
I can see it. Very confusing that the layout is so different in both of these links ..... with the sofa on opposites sides of the room but the bed in the same wall.
Did you have one of the lanai cabins? I'm hoping for some more feedback!
Pat

[G&W]

My husband an I were on this cruise from Florida to Vancouver. Though I agree that there were significant problems, they were not devestating to us. Our cabin was fine-fully cleaned and fully functional. I only encountered one public restroom that had one none functioning sink (and the other one in that bathroom did work).

The noro virus was unfortunate, but not HAL's fault. They handled it well. This was a cruise of horrible coincidences. HAL could not have anticipated the swine flu outbreak that necessitated canceling three ports in Mexico. They could not have anticipated an engine failure, It was not related to the dry dock, just a computer issue. That resulted in a delay in Cartegena and Panama Canal-not a cancellation. I too am very disappointed in missing Costa Rica, but logistically, it could not be helped. We had to visit a "far flung port" (not central american) when traveling from the east coast to the west coast of the US. This is a maritime rule, not a HAL decision. We had to stop in Carteegana for an ill passenger, an engine tech and passengers who missed the ship in FLL. The Panama Canal would not allow us to go throught the locks if the mechanics were not 100%. If we had an engine failure, it would block up the whole system. This was some of the schedule change reasons.

The delay in disembarkation in San Diego was due to US immigrations. We docked on time at 6 am, but the process took hours. And several passengers did not appear to go throught the process. They were not in their cabins and they could not be found. US immigration would allow no one to leave the ship untill all had cleared. Someone intimated that this was unclear. It was not. We all got a letter in our cabins infroming them of this fact and assigning them a time to appear to be processed. Ours was 6:15 am, which I did not like, but we were done by 6:25.

The food was great, the entertainment was well above par. The crew went out of their way to be accomodating. Yes, the service was slow. I believe it was a combination of code red standards, crew illness, crew inexperience and crew overwork. After their normal duties, they had to sanitize every surface repeatedly due to the norovirus.


The cruise was overall wonderful. We met some great people, enjoyed great entertainment and fabulous food. When I factor in what we paid for the cruise, less the 30% credit, the cost per person per day was $31.50!!! Where can you enjoy a fabulous vacation for that amount of money. I am blessed that I can afford to cruise again. I do feel for those that this is there once in a lifetime crusie. It was not perfect as they should have been able to experience. But to say that i deserve a full refund would be foolish.

[quote=scottjeanne;19627146]My husband an I were on this cruise from Florida to Vancouver. Though I agree that there were significant problems, they were not devestating to us. Our cabin was fine-fully cleaned and fully functional.

From our conversations with others, it would seem that you were in the minority in this regard, and we felt truly sorry for those whose staterooms were flooded or whose toilets did not flush.

I only encountered one public restroom that had one none functioning sink (and the other one in that bathroom did work).

Two bathrooms on the LIDO deck (main food deck) did not have running water when we boarded the Veendam. This was after all the warnings about swine flu, etc. There was also no purell in the dispensers outside these bathrooms. I suggested to a crew member that these bathrooms be roped off for this reason, but nothing was done in this regard.


The noro virus was unfortunate, but not HAL's fault.

It was HAL's fault that the ship sailed with major plumbing deficiencies (toilets that wouldn't flush, lack of running water, etc.) which could have led to the norovirus outbreak, and almost certainly exacerbated it by encouraging the spread through lack of sanitation.

They handled it well. This was a cruise of horrible coincidences. HAL could not have anticipated the swine flu outbreak that necessitated canceling three ports in Mexico. They could not have anticipated an engine failure, It was not related to the dry dock, just a computer issue.

I've spoken with passengers who were facilities operation managers, mechanical and electrical engineers, etc. and they emphasized that it was shocking that a final check wasn't done on all the mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems to ensure everything was in working order. There is obviously an issue of professional liability in this case.

That resulted in a delay in Cartegena and Panama Canal-not a cancellation. I too am very disappointed in missing Costa Rica, but logistically, it could not be helped. We had to visit a "far flung port" (not central american) when traveling from the east coast to the west coast of the US. This is a maritime rule, not a HAL decision. We had to stop in Carteegana for an ill passenger, an engine tech and passengers who missed the ship in FLL. The Panama Canal would not allow us to go throught the locks if the mechanics were not 100%. If we had an engine failure, it would block up the whole system. This was some of the schedule change reasons.

What you don't mention is that we were late getting into the 4 ports we did manage to get to, and as a result many people missed their flights, and had their shore excursions cancelled.


The delay in disembarkation in San Diego was due to US immigrations. We docked on time at 6 am, but the process took hours. And several passengers did not appear to go throught the process. They were not in their cabins and they could not be found. US immigration would allow no one to leave the ship untill all had cleared. Someone intimated that this was unclear. It was not. We all got a letter in our cabins infroming them of this fact and assigning them a time to appear to be processed. Ours was 6:15 am, which I did not like, but we were done by 6:25.

We got a letter in our cabins as you say, but what about people who can't read English? What about those who didn't see it because it came with other stuff that they usually just toss out? Why weren't there announcements stating that even passengers who were not getting off the ship, still had to go to the Immigration desk and show their passport? This announcement finally came between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. My opinion is that this is gross ineptitude.


The food was great, the entertainment was well above par. The crew went out of their way to be accomodating. Yes, the service was slow. I believe it was a combination of code red standards, crew illness, crew inexperience and crew overwork. After their normal duties, they had to sanitize every surface repeatedly due to the norovirus.

I agree that the crew were friendly and accommodating in many but not all cases, and that they were inexperienced and overworked. But why would HAL put a brand new crew on a ship that's just coming out of dry dock? That in itself should sound an alarm.



The cruise was overall wonderful.

Not!

We met some great people, enjoyed great entertainment and fabulous food. When I factor in what we paid for the cruise, less the 30% credit, the cost per person per day was $31.50!!! Where can you enjoy a fabulous vacation for that amount of money. I am blessed that I can afford to cruise again. I do feel for those that this is there once in a lifetime crusie. It was not perfect as they should have been able to experience. But to say that i deserve a full refund would be foolish.

To say it was not perfect is about the biggest understatement I've ever heard. From the conversations I had with other passengers, a full refund wouldn't be enough because to have a corporation treat your health and safety in such a cavalier manner warrants further action (read legal liability).

[ianmerc]

As I stated earlier I am in full agreement withe last post. I am stunned at how people are able to downsate the problems. Just look at the issues experienced by several cruisers who were all on the same ship as the cruisers who are downplaying the issues. I know for a fact they are not overstating. They are simply stating the facts as they occurrred. If you compile all the problems that each cruiser has brought forth you have a negative cruise of magnitude proportions. Please stop trying to minimize the the isuues. However I do not believe that a full refund is called for here. I do believe that a refund of much greater portion than a measly 30 % is indeed valid. Passengers boarding in San Diego were offered a full refund due to the Norovirus. Take that into account and the numerous problems encountered by us all during the cruise to San Diego, along with the envirinmental issues, both physical and observant, and you have a cause for a refund greater than the pittance of 30 %. some people say that the Norovirus was not HAL fault. Don't be too sure of that.

[Mscruisin]

As I stated earlier I am in full agreement withe last post. I am stunned at how people are able to downsate the problems. Just look at the issues experienced by several cruisers who were all on the same ship as the cruisers who are downplaying the issues. I know for a fact they are not overstating. They are simply stating the facts as they occurrred. If you compile all the problems that each cruiser has brought forth you have a negative cruise of magnitude proportions. Please stop trying to minimize the the isuues. However I do not believe that a full refund is called for here. I do believe that a refund of much greater portion than a measly 30 % is indeed valid. Passengers boarding in San Diego were offered a full refund due to the Norovirus. Take that into account and the numerous problems encountered by us all during the cruise to San Diego, along with the envirinmental issues, both physical and observant, and you have a cause for a refund greater than the pittance of 30 %. some people say that the Norovirus was not HAL fault. Don't be too sure of that.
I agree with you on that. I was searching the Veendams previous problems before drydock and it appears they have had engine, plumbing and Norovirus problems on other cruises. Maybe they should have just concentrated on the mechanics of the ship before they did anything regarding its appearance. I too think their refund offer is not near enough for the conditions of this ship. This ship was not ready for passengers.

[karenem]

Hmmm. I don't recall being offered a refund before boarding in San Deigo. But, I wouldn't have taken it so maybe I just didn't notice.

[suitedreams]

A letter was handed out in the waiting area prior to check in disclosing the norovirus problem on board and offering a full refund to those who chose not to board.

Len

[drsfl]

I sent an email to HAL over a week ago through their web site to the Office of the President. I outlined the problems I experienced and asking for a refund of greater than the $25.63 of the $504 in port charges and fees that I was charged. I also asked for a greater refund than the 20% I was told we would receive. Their offer was based on input from the Captain and his Staff, which I'm sure was understated about the passenger dissatisfaction to cover their butts.

So far, I have heard nothing from HAL, not even the courtesy of a response. Just making it worse !!:mad::mad::mad:

[Mscruisin]

I sent an email to HAL over a week ago through their web site to the Office of the President. I outlined the problems I experienced and asking for a refund of greater than the $25.63 of the $504 in port charges and fees that I was charged. I also asked for a greater refund than the 20% I was told we would receive. Their offer was based on input from the Captain and his Staff, which I'm sure was understated about the passenger dissatisfaction to cover their butts.

So far, I have heard nothing from HAL, not even the courtesy of a response. Just making it worse !!:mad::mad::mad:
I contacted them a week ago through their web site to Corporate Headquarters. I filled in the required information and then wrote a detailed letter. I received an e-mail back immediately that said they received it and then the next day I got an e-mail saying that they were investigating my complaints and that it could take awhile but that I would definately be hearing back from them. In the mean time my travel agent contacted me to see how my cruise went and when she heard she contacted HAL on my behalf as well. So far I haven't heard anything more.

[jan can]

As I stated earlier I am in full agreement withe last post. I am stunned at how people are able to downsate the problems. Just look at the issues experienced by several cruisers who were all on the same ship as the cruisers who are downplaying the issues. I know for a fact they are not overstating. They are simply stating the facts as they occurrred. If you compile all the problems that each cruiser has brought forth you have a negative cruise of magnitude proportions. Please stop trying to minimize the the isuues. However I do not believe that a full refund is called for here. I do believe that a refund of much greater portion than a measly 30 % is indeed valid. Passengers boarding in San Diego were offered a full refund due to the Norovirus. Take that into account and the numerous problems encountered by us all during the cruise to San Diego, along with the envirinmental issues, both physical and observant, and you have a cause for a refund greater than the pittance of 30 %. some people say that the Norovirus was not HAL fault. Don't be too sure of that.


30% refund? My letter said a 20% refund on this cruise (FLL to Vancouver). The 30% was a discount on a future cruise. Were there different offers?

[Zecher]

Hmmm...we boarded in San Diego and didn't receive the letter about getting full refund either??? I knew there was noro on the ship before boarding because I read posts from cruisers who posted reports during the FLL to SD cruise. I probably wouldn't have taken the refund since my hotels in Vancouver and Seattle and flight home were nonrefundable.

My thoughts on the SD to Vancouver portion of the cruise... from the first hour we boarded we were overwhelmed by guests full of complaints about how bad things were the past 12-13 days and as many said "anything that could go wrong, went wrong". The lines in the Lido were usually long and slow and it was hard to find a table in the Lido area during peak dining hours. I didn't realize that they had the entertainers and other staff helping until I read it on this board but wondered by some people didn't have uniforms and didn't really seem to fit in and know how to serve food - it all makes sense now. As always the staff worked really hard and were great and deserved the $11/day tip+ (I read on here that there were people disputing those charges - that is sad since the issues with the cruise were not because of the service by these people who work very hard year round, don't see their families for long periods, live in small quarters, and are paid low wages).

The food was better than expected. We had sailed on the Oosterdam and we were disappointed on that cruise a year ago because we had high hopes (we were comparing it to our prior cruise on Celebrity Millenium so we were expecting greatness). My husband and I are foodies and have high expectations because we eat well. Yes, not having trays and trying to get food for 3 people (one a toddler), utensils, and find a table or reserve a table and get drinks from different stations (milk, coffee/tea, juice) was a little harder than expected. As some posters stated I assume there was a shortage of people able to help because I was never offered any help (but I wasn't looking for it either...but I am sure I looked like I needed help with food plates, cups, utensils, etc in hands and armpits and kid in tow).

I didn't get to enjoy the shows because I was either seasick the first night, the kid was sleeping, or our dinner took too long and we couldn't get seats but the few minutes that my husband got to see he said was really good. Things definitely didn't look as pretty or clean or orderly or organized as they should have or as I have come to expect from other cruises. I wouldn't say we had a wonderful time but we had an OK time. I would have liked to have stopped in Victoria and had an extra day as originally planned. There was a lot of negativity on board and it put a damper on others vacations. Each night we dined with different people since we were waitlisted and just showed up when the doors opened and sat whereever they would put us. We sat with a lot of Canadians who filled us in with all the complaints stated in the above posts. We really felt bad for them and were thankful we weren't them. I do want to the Panama Canal cruise someday and I sure will make sure that it is not on a cruise straight out of dry dock. I have been on a 5-6 cruises (Celebrity, HAL, Disney, Costa) but I am no seasoned cruiser so when I booked this cruise I didn't know about this site or what dry dock even was but now I do! The negativity was also sarcastic and I have a great sense of humor so it was entertaining. All the people we met were so nice and a pleasure to meet - we just felt bad for them. For many it was their "big trip" of the year or couple years or lifetime.

I think that even if you took out the fact that we were in Code Red b/c of the noro and the missed ports in Mexico because of the Swine Flu issue (saying that those two items were out of HAL's control or could happen on any cruise), the problems that occured for those people sounded pretty horrendous (some greater than others) they do deserve greater than 20% refund or 30% off the next sailing. I think it would be nice if HAL gave us (those on the SAN to Vancouver) 15-20% refund or future shipboard credit and 40-50% for those from FLL. We paid a lot more than the $31.20/day or so someone said. Takin into account that we had 3 day of room and board, we can't complain about what we paid but we are disappointed because we feel we didn't get the full cruise experience that we were expecting when boarding a HAL cruise. I'm not sure if it was because they were understaffed (staff had to be moved around to staff the Lido b/c of the code red), poor organization, schedule changes because of staffing for activities,...

Some of the issues people experienced were not things that you can say "make the most of it and enjoy your cruise" because these people paid a lot of money (and in this economy with people's retirements shrinking - it could mean a lot), took time off work, and their complaints are valid and not things that you can easily overlook so I feel my complaints are pretty small compare to theirs.

One of my complaints is that I felt that we were just fillers boarding a cruise full of guests who were just finishing up their final leg to Vancouver. I'm not sure if this is how short 3-4 day cruises always feel because I usually take 7+ day cruises. But there was no big sail away party, music or even grand bon voyage feel for those boarding in San Diego. I wasn't expecting some Carnival fiesta but something welcoming us on board. I would have liked something that would have made us feel like we were on a cruise with a fun exciting 4 days ahead. Instead it felt like we were on a ferrie we picked up on stop 10 taking us to stop 11 and going on to 12 when we got off. Another related complaint is that the schedule was really lacking activities. Again, not expecting Carnival congo line mariachi dancing or log balancing contest in the pool but more than just the usual bingo at 2:15, movies, computer classes, exercise classes. we attended the bingo, trivia, cooking demos, lectures, and still we were left with hours of nothing during our days. And when there were activities they were all at the same time so you couldn't attend two at once. There was only one activity that gave out Dam dollars and even though I only got one and my husband three, there was never any place to turn them in at the end of the ship. We were pretty bored much of our days when usually on cruises we are tired because we run around and have so many fun activities to do and see. No formal night. Thus no set formal photo night for us. There was one night that teh photographers were out but we were not dressed or prepared for it - no announcements etc.

And from a non-smokers point of view, they should just let the entire Crow's Nest be smoking since that whole area smelled of smoke from the elevator area and stairs. The smoke smell from the casino also drifted far into the adjacent bar/lounge areas. I am pretty tolerant of people smoking as it's their choice but because I travel with a toddler, I try to keep her away from second hand smoke. So it was hard for us when there were activities in the Crow's Nest or if we want to be in the areas near the casino. I've been on cruises before where the casino is more closed off so the smoke is better contained. The casino area was pretty open so the smoke smell was able to get pretty far out on that deck.

I'm glad this wasn't my first cruise because it would have left me with the feeling of "why are people so into cruising, it's kind of boring and just something for old people". We are lucky we are "younger" and have years to experience other cruises. Some of the people we met this will probably be one of their last and I can really feel their disappointment.

I hope my review doesn't come off negative as we did have a decent trip up the coast. I think if we could have flown home directly from Vancouver I would have been more sad but we had a great 4 days in Vancouver and Seattle and so our slow 4 day start to our vacation was soon forgotten. Like I said, I'm glad it wasn't my first cruise (and for those of you who it was, don't give up - cruising is usually a lot more fun and pleasurable). I don't know if my next cruise will be on a HAL - I've lost a lot of faith. What brings us back is convenience and the nice staff and the people we meet aboard (but we can get these on other lines too). If I have a choice I would probably take a Celebrity next or try a Princess first. It's just that it's so convenient to embark from San Diego for us and most of the cruises that work with our schedule or where we want to go tend to be HAL's.

If I could (if money were not an object), I'd rather be on any cruise (even one out of dry dock) than sit in my office looking out the window at the beautiful cruiseships docked in the port on a Monday morning...so as ok as our cruise was, I'll do it again!

[luklin]

ianmerc, Thanks for coming forth with an honest review. There is nothing worse than being told "the Emporer has on a beautiful suit of clothes", when in fact he is completely bare! My Veendam cruise experience was awful, too. I love HAL and have been on 7 of their amazing ships-all wonderful experiences!!! ..But this was a real stinker, literally and figuratively. Even after 2 weeks of being home I am bewildered and glassy-eyed. Do you think pirates overpowered the crew in drydock and took us on this cruise? My beloved HAL has to be SOME kind of victim of identity theft, because the reality of this experience is a disappointment to my image of them.

[ianmerc]

No I don't think pirates took over the crew. This is one ship even the pirates would have avoided. For those posters who were not aware of the refund offer in San Diego, I did not personally observe this offer. I heard about it on these boards. One other note regarding the Norovirus. Strangely enough the captain made an announcement from day one to watch for a stomach bug "as other ships had reported problems". Rather strange thing to say at the beginning of a cruise. Second thing is that during the cruise there were a couple of activities that made me think twice about the so called virus. Supposedly we were not allowed to touch any cups or utensils in the self serve food area. Crew only. Then they have a little golf contest by the pool where everyone touched the same golf club with no wipe downs in between. probably 40 or 50 people involved. Another contest where the contestants placed dummy fruit down their shorts and then the same items counted and reused for the same purpose in the second round. I know a lot of the contact areas are unaviodable i.e -elevators, stairwells and door handles but if the ship is on code red alert why on earth would they have the above mentioned contests invlolving constant touching with hands and whatever else. Something there does not make sense. None of this is peculation nor rumours. These are the facts. I noticed on another post that someone stated that they do not believe that HAL corporate is aware of all of the problems and that the captain and staff probably did not report all of them. I am totally convinced of that. Absolutely without a doubt whatsoever.

[ianmerc]

jan can

Sorry if I confused you. The 30% I refer to was toward a future cruise. The 20% was a cash refund offered. I selected the 30% because it had a greater value and we had to select prior to disembarkation. Furthermore I have heard a lot of great things about HAL from many cruiseres on all the cruises I have been on including this last one. That is why I was, and still am, willing to give them another chance. However that does not change my thoughts, feelings and observations of the Veendam cruise.

[gentlemancruiser]

The beds in the new lanai cabins are perpendicular to where they used to be-parallel to the sliding promenade doors. They took out the desk/drawers, whcih the passengers found to be a drawback. They room is tight from all accounts.

I still don't know how anyone was able to fit the existing beds across the cabin, the width wasn't there to begin with!!!. I'm going to guess these are 'new' beds are smaller then in the other cabins on the lower promenade deck.

[luklin]

I sent an email to HAL over a week ago through their web site to the Office of the President. I outlined the problems I experienced and asking for a refund of greater than the $25.63 of the $504 in port charges and fees that I was charged. I also asked for a greater refund than the 20% I was told we would receive. Their offer was based on input from the Captain and his Staff, which I'm sure was understated about the passenger dissatisfaction to cover their butts.

So far, I have heard nothing from HAL, not even the courtesy of a response. Just making it worse !!:mad::mad::mad:

Just curious, did you ever receive a response to your email?