LIVE: 14-Day Asian Holiday Cruise on Holland America's Volendam

We are about to leave the hotel and head to the Harborfront Cruise Terminal in Singapore to board the Volendam for a 14-Day Asia Holiday Cruise.

After spending a few days in at the Conrad Centennial Singapore Hotel, today we are looking forward to setting sail on the Volendam, which is fresh out of its dry dock in Singapore.

We are excited to explore two new countries on this cruise: Malaysia and Myanmar (formerly Burma, and spend Christmas day in Phuket, Thailand.

This is a port intensive itinerary with only two sea days out of 14, and internet access is said to be slow to non-existent in Myanmar. Regardless, we will try to post here about our adventure at least once a day, and answer any questions that you may have about the ship.

I'll try to follow along with your live reports. Sounds like its going to be a great trip.

I'm planning to do this trip in the near future on the Volendam so will be following with interest.

Looking forward to your reports. Have a great trip!

Bon voyage. We did this cruise in February, 2014, so I'm looking forward to hearing how you enjoy it. I don't know if Port Blair is included in your itinerary?

We also have done a similar cruise on the Amsterdam from Singapore to Hong Kong - not quite as exotic as yours I think.

Talk about a slow boat to China.:)

I hope your itinerary and experience is a good as we remember ours. There is no bad ship on HAL and the ports are terrific.

We will be looking for your posts.

Smooth sailing...

How wonderful of you to take us along with you.

I'll definitely be following your adventures and experiences.

Sounds wonderful.

Looking forward to reading all about your trip.

Thanks for taking us along.

Have a great cruise.

This trip is on our bucket list, so we're excited to follow along.

Safe journeys!

Sounds like a great trip. Looking forward to hearing more of your adventure.

Bon Voyage! Hope you have a great trip.

Have a great trip! Christmas in Phuket sounds awesome.

Oh, JOY!

I love this part of the world for cruising!!

Looking forward to following along.

Have a super trip!!!!

Bon voyage. We did this cruise in February, 2014, so I'm looking forward to hearing how you enjoy it. I don't know if Port Blair is included in your itinerary?

According to the itinerary on the HAL website, it's not. We were on this cruise last year and the immigration officials in Port Blair were a nightmare. I can see why HAL would choose not to visit again. A case where officials really muck it up for potential revenue for the area.

Btw, the itinerary shows:

Malacca, Malaysia

Georgetown, Malaysia

Phuket, Thailand

At Sea

Rangoon, Myanmar - 3 days

At Sea

Porto Malai, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 2 days

Singapore - 2 days then disembark

EMBARKATION

From the Conrad Hilton to the Harbourfront Cruise Terminal was about a 15 minute taxi ride costing $13 SIN dollars. If you were traveling with a small bag, you could also take the MRT subway, but it would be very difficult to maneuver with even one large suitcase.

The Volendam shared the departure pier with two other ships: the Windstar Pride and an Azamara. After checking our bags at an airline-like counter, we were directed upstairs to the cruise boarding area. Here you had to clear 5 stops. First was the health questionnaire, second was HAL checkin, third was security, fourth was immigration and fifth was passport drop off. For the HAL checkin, the special line for 4 and 5 star Mariner was speedy, but the other checkpoints were the longer part of the process. Still, within less than 45 minutes we were on board in our cabin.

Once we dropped our carry on bags, we headed out to explore the ship and find a cold drink. We headed to deck 5 where a major part of the upgrades were made during the dry dock.

In the new Mix area, there is a sports bar area with beers on tap, the Martini Bar and the piano bar like on the other ships with "The Mix."

On new addition -- the champagne bar has been turned into a wine bar with Enomatic wine dispensers with 12 different kinds of wine. You can purchase 1oz, 3 oz or 6 oz pours.

There are typical post-dry dock issues: electrical, air conditioning and plumbing. For example, the bartender could only served bottled or canned beer, the electrical power wasn't working for the taps.

As mentioned, Port Blair was eliminated from the itinerary quite a while ago. Instead, an extra day was added to Myanmar (Burma) with a 3-day, 2 night stay.

Thank you for your live thread from the Volendam.

Were cabins on the Lower Promenade Deck converted to Lanai Cabins ?

Thank you for your live thread from the Volendam.

 

Were cabins on the Lower Promenade Deck converted to Lanai Cabins ?

Yes, lanai cabins have been added.

My husband and I will be on the Volendam in February - this will be our first HAL cruise in 12 years. Having sailed on Crystal and Seabourn for the last several years, I'm a little nervous. So, my questions are general in nature. How does the Volendam look - clean? updated? well kempt? Does HAL still have that quiet, polite feel? Is the food okay? - (I'm just expecting edible - anything would be better than my cooking.) I'm sure some of this will be covered in your posts. I'm anxious to read more.

Thank you for taking us with you - I'm sure it will be a wonderful cruise!

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

How exciting for you! Thanks for taking us along!

Day 1 –

After cooling off with a cold bottled beer in the new The Mix bar, we headed to what we thought was the Cruise Critic “Meet & Greet” but was actually the “HAL Roll Call Meet & Greet” for all “Social Mariners” in the Digital Workshop.

We were glad that we attended – there were about 30 folks from the HAL Facebook page and Cruise Critic. We all introduced ourselves, and then individuals took turns sharing what they knew about our various upcoming ports. We especially enjoyed talking with a woman from South Carolina who will have visited 171 countries, territories and islands (of the 324 defined by the Traveler Century Club.) The group was a mix of mostly Americans and Australians with one young man from Bahrain. Everyone shared good tips with each other.

Wine Acquisition

We like to bring a few bottles of our favorite wines with us on board. Since we are traveling for 14 days with two wine-loving friends, and the cruise is over Christmas and New Year, we figured that we would need a significant supply.

The challenge: we did not want to transport wine from Kansas City to Singapore. In addition, wine in Singapore tends to be very expensive due to high taxes and duties.

Two day before our cruise departure, we explored Singapore via the MRT subway. One of our stops was Harbourfront, which is one of the major ferry ports, as well as one of two cruise ship terminals. We were investigating taking a day-trip via ferry to Batam, Indonesia, which we ultimately decided not to do, but while in the Harbourfront Terminal (and associated mall) we saw a “pop-up” store selling via different kinds of champagne for the holidays. The price they were offering for Veuve Clicquot was $60 SIN dollars (about $45 US dollars per bottle.) The store was heavily discounting the champagne for Christmas; it is usually $110 SIN or about $83 US per bottle. We learned they were open on Monday, the day of our cruise departure.

Once we were on the Volendam, we made a quick check of the wine selections offered. We decided to go back to the terminal and purchase champagne for our cruise.

We had kept our passports, so we got off the ship and went back through immigration (Singapore takes this very seriously but it is well organized) and we to the temporary champagne store and bought multiple bottles of Veuve. We took a roller bag for easy transport, and off we went, back through immigration and security. At security, we were directed to a side table (as expected) to pay the corkage fee for the bottles that weren’t tied to a passenger. (Each guest is allowed to bring on 1 bottle of wine or champagne without the $18 fee.) Upon paying the corkage, we received little red dot stickers to signify that the corkage had been paid. One final note on wine in Singapore --it turns out the “pop-up” store was part of a popular wine shop called Bottles & Bottles, with a permanent store in the Harbourfront cruise terminal (and at other malls throughout Singapore.) Do expect to pay more for wine than you do in the U.S.