Volendam info please?

considering the volendam for a january cruise. my other "possibles" are celebrity mercury or summit and the princess sun or dawn.

can you give me any info on volendam (have never sailed HAL so any info will be appreciated).

any comparative pros and cons with the other ships i have listed?

thanks!

The Volendam is a lovely ship, among the best in the HAL fleet (in my opinion). If you'd like to see some photos from her, including photo-tours and a video tour of the ship, click on my link below.

You will find her to be a very classy ship, with a great crew, excellent deck plan, and lovely decor. Her size is perfect: never too crowded, yet lots of things going all during the day. If you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Check out the photos, and my reviews of the Volendam also linked to through the link below, and you might find many of your general questions answered. :)

Whatever you decide, have a wonderful cruise. January is among my favorite months to cruise ... it's a great way to begin a new year.

We are going on the Volendam on the 26th of Dec. Would love to see photos. Can you supply the specific address?

Volendam is a beautiful ship with a great crew - especially Captain Charly! :D

I'll agree with the other posters, she's truly a great ship. We sailed her 2 years ago, loved her so much, we booked her again for next March. She's not what you would say a mega ship, she's just right, not too small, but not too big. I think you will enjoy the Volendam if you decide to sail her. Any specific questions, please ask.

We are going on the Volendam on the 26th of Dec. Would love to see photos. Can you supply the specific address?

I'll agree with the other posters, she's truly a great ship. We sailed her 2 years ago, loved her so much, we booked her again for next March. She's not what you would say a mega ship, she's just right, not too small, but not too big. I think you will enjoy the Volendam if you decide to sail her. Any specific questions, please ask.

doone-

Do you have any table recommendations for the upper level? We need a table for at least four, but we are thinking of going larger in order to meet some folks. We want Main dinner, upper level - which I believe is at 8:00 pm...

ekerr19,

Tables 86 and 87 are upstairs on the railing.(tables for four)

Tables 20 and 22 are by the windows.(tables for four) Altough, it's dark when you will be eating. Tables 80,81,82,83,84 and 85 are also upstairs on the railing.

(all tables for four)

I re-posted our dinner menus (and a few dining room lunch menus, too) from our October 2003 Volendam cruise. They disappeared with the old boards; this time I put them in the "Cruise Foodies" board in response to a request for HAL menus. You can find them here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=61362

And if you'd like to see a few (very few) pictures of an S suite on Volendam and the bow of the ship, go here:

http://home.austin.rr.com/st1/index.htm

Happy cruising,

Susan

Can you supply the specific address?

The link in my signature will take you to a page that has links for all my photos and reviews. If you don't have signatures active, here's that link:

http://www.revneal.org/cruiselinks.html

For a link directly to my photos of the Volendam taken on a southern caribbean cruise, click here:

http://www.revneal.org/volcruise1.html

That will take you to the first of several pages with thumbnails. You click on the little photo and it will open a much larger version of that picture.

Ekerr, I don't have any table recommendations for upper, I have only eaten lower. I do see another poster has been helpful. We chose the 6:15 pm seating on the Volendam, so we'll be lower.

ekerr19,

 

Tables 86 and 87 are upstairs on the railing.(tables for four)

Tables 20 and 22 are by the windows.(tables for four) Altough, it's dark when you will be eating. Tables 80,81,82,83,84 and 85 are also upstairs on the railing.

(all tables for four)

kelmac-

Thanks! I'm glad I went to page two, I forgot I posted this question here.

llmoyer123,

We have a Holland America Volendam personal planning page, which has many links to Volendam photo albums, personal cruise websites, Menus (MBeamTX), Bar Lists, Cabin Breakfast Menu, stateroom locations (deck layouts), the CDC Sanitation Inspection Scores, many review posts, and more. We will continue to add new information to the page:

http://cruiseclues.com/shipstips/volendam.htm

:) :cool: :D

Ekerr, I don't have any table recommendations for upper, I have only eaten lower. I do see another poster has been helpful. We chose the 6:15 pm seating on the Volendam, so we'll be lower.

doone-

DH is asking me if we shouldn't go to the lower level... so I guess we still haven't made up our minds yet. The only thing I'm pretty sure about is that I don't want to eat at 8:30pm.. :) so we may do early, we're still undecided. I used to always think late seating was best for us - but now I'm not so sure.

We found on the Rotterdam that 8:30 was way too late for us. We are now going to give the 6:15 pm seating a try on the Volendam. If you want a BIG round table, we had table M, which is downstairs. Nice, big round table, almost too big, but we had 11 people in our party, we almost had to yell to the person across, but it worked out fine for us. We also had officers dine with us on formal nights, not sure if that the "norm" at that table or not. Table M is located towards the back of the ship, by the windows.

We found on the Rotterdam that 8:30 was way too late for us. We are now going to give the 6:15 pm seating a try on the Volendam. If you want a BIG round table, we had table M, which is downstairs. Nice, big round table, almost too big, but we had 11 people in our party, we almost had to yell to the person across, but it worked out fine for us. We also had officers dine with us on formal nights, not sure if that the "norm" at that table or not. Table M is located towards the back of the ship, by the windows.

doone-

Just got an email for our TA. HAL put us at 6:15... we may just end up keeping it! :)

We also have our cabin assignment too - that won't change because we need a quad, so no upgrade there!

llmoyer123,

 

We have a Holland America Volendam personal planning page, which has many links to Volendam photo albums, personal cruise websites, Menus (MBeamTX), Bar Lists, Cabin Breakfast Menu, stateroom locations (deck layouts), the CDC Sanitation Inspection Scores, many review posts, and more. We will continue to add new information to the page:

 

http://cruiseclues.com/shipstips/volendam.htm

 

:) :cool: :D

Thanks for posting the link! I enjoyed it :)

I re-posted our dinner menus (and a few dining room lunch menus, too) from our October 2003 Volendam cruise. They disappeared with the old boards; this time I put them in the "Cruise Foodies" board in response to a request for HAL menus. You can find them here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=61362

 

And if you'd like to see a few (very few) pictures of an S suite on Volendam and the bow of the ship, go here:

http://home.austin.rr.com/st1/index.htm

 

Happy cruising,

Susan

MBeam -

Thanks so much for sharing this information. We are so looking forward to our upcoming cruise on the Volendam :)

ekerr19, you're welcome. We wish you the very best of cruises. :) :cool: :D

Ekerr19, maybe we'll be sitting somewhere close in the dining room.

We were at table 19 upper level. It was next to the window, and it was a table for 6. We had the 8:15 seating. It wasn't dark in Alaska! :-) I believe we even saw whales at dinner time.