No Stars on the Westerdam

It's my first Holland cruise and these are my observations:

How wonderful to have a fellow passenger lead us for Zumba class. That has been so much fun and good exercise. Thank you.

The staff is excellent from cabin stewards, wait staff, passenger services, casino. The warmth and service are great.

Dining room food has been excellent.

I love the bridge games and lessons. That has been a plus for me.

I don't miss the Princess movies under the stars. That makes the pool area very noisy.

Now, for the negative. The embarkation was disorganized and really left a bad taste to start the cruise. It was crazy.

The onboard plumbing has been unacceptable and disgusting. There have been four days where my toilet doesn't flush. They fix it, but it goes out again. It's embarrassing. My friends had workers dumping raw sewage from the ceiling in front of their cabins into trash bins and the smell was really bad.

The air conditioning on one part of deck 7 was out for 20 hours. That can be more than uncomfortable.

Yes, everyone has gone to Passenger services about these issues. If this was caused by someone dumping something into a toilet...shame on them. If this is an ongoing issue with the ships plumbing...shame on the cruise line.

No Fanning island today, but safety is important, so we pass.

Alice

NOT making excuses, but if they were dumping sewage from overhead pipes, I suspect they were trying to get a clog out of the system. So that might explain one day of plumbing issues, but not four. We seemed to have gone for months without having plumbing complaints on this board, and now they're cropping up a lot. I hope after the four days they got it properly fixed, and things are better.

I'm pleased to hear that the staff are up to their usual standards. It is part of what sets HAL apart. I agree about the Princess outdoor movies. On our only Princess cruise, I felt as if the only place where I could find some peace and quiet was our cabin or balcony. I love that HAL has quiet places where you can sit and read or just gaze at the ocean.

I'm curious about your embarkation issues. We've had mostly smooth experiences with HAL embarkation and one absolutely terrible experience. Where did you embark?

Kathy, this is the cruise that Kazu and others have been reporting on extensively. Unless OP was on a B2B, they boarded in San Diego. Kazu and others have reported that embarkation was terrible, and it appears to be a constant issue with San Diego.

I have a deposit on next year's Amsterdam Grand Asia, which starts in San Diego. The situation there seems to be so bad I'm considering booking the prior cruise from Vancouver so I don't have to board in San Diego.

Roy

I have a deposit on next year's Amsterdam Grand Asia, which starts in San Diego. The situation there seems to be so bad I'm considering booking the prior cruise from Vancouver so I don't have to board in San Diego.

Roy, I'd strongly suggest doing so. We once boarded in San Diego and it was an absolute fiasco. We said "Never again". We've considered the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise and that's exactly what we'd do - board in Vancouver rather than risk enduring the misery of boarding in San Diego again.

Alice - I hope it gets better from here. Good luck.

Kathy, this is the cruise that Kazu and others have been reporting on extensively. Unless OP was on a B2B, they boarded in San Diego. Kazu and others have reported that embarkation was terrible, and it appears to be a constant issue with San Diego.

 

I have a deposit on next year's Amsterdam Grand Asia, which starts in San Diego. The situation there seems to be so bad I'm considering booking the prior cruise from Vancouver so I don't have to board in San Diego.

 

Roy

Roy, I'd strongly suggest doing so. We once boarded in San Diego and it was an absolute fiasco. We said "Never again". We've considered the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise and that's exactly what we'd do - board in Vancouver rather than risk enduring the misery of boarding in San Diego again.

Wow, it must be bad to have to book more cruise days to avoid it. Hmm, maybe that isn't such a tough solution to take. ;)

Seriously, I know how you both feel. I had such a bad experience boarding in Montreal that I have no desire to try that again. At least, not until I hear if the cruise terminal renovations improve the setup. (and they hire staff with brains!)

If you have cruised on Princess previous to your HAL cruise you should have been accepted on HAL as a One Star Mariner.

I've embarked in San Diego, Princess, 3 HAL and 1 Carnival, in fact Carnival/HAL as a back to back so just walked across the pier, off one ship and on another. No issues at all, ever, but those were all several years ago so maybe these issues are new...

Are all cruises having troubles there? Or is it more of an intermittent set of problems?

This is from Kazu's live thread

DH and I have decided that we are intended to visit any tender islands that start with an F. We missed Falkland Island & now Fanning. So, it appears we are fated not to visit Islands that have names starting with an F.

 

A little toilet comment. We have lost the power to flush twice. The first time was for about two hours and the second time about 4 hours. There is someone doing the forbidden dumping in the toilet so it is causing issues. They have tracked it to the 6th floor and an area ......so warning to the person causing this....don't do it again.....they are ready to figure out who you are (if they haven't already). The fines can be hefty.

It sounds like the permanent solution to the toilet situation may be close.

Roy

Remember - if it doesn't come out of your body......don't flush it!

San Diego is always a mess on embarkation and disembarkation days. Been through it many times there.

We got off the ship the day you got on the Westerdam.

We were on deck 7 and had no problems with air conditioning.

While we were on the Westerdam, we got a note indicating that the toilets on the port side of the ship would be out of service from 9 AM - 2 PM for maintenance. We didn't have any problems in our cabin but others did -- aft of us.

Remember - if it doesn't come out of your body......don't flush it!

It should be engraved on a plaque right across from the toilet bowl at eye level.:D Sometimes I wonder if people are too embarrassed to put "things" in the garbage can and instead try to flush it.

Kathy, this is the cruise that Kazu and others have been reporting on extensively. Unless OP was on a B2B, they boarded in San Diego. Kazu and others have reported that embarkation was terrible, and it appears to be a constant issue with San Diego.

 

I have a deposit on next year's Amsterdam Grand Asia, which starts in San Diego. The situation there seems to be so bad I'm considering booking the prior cruise from Vancouver so I don't have to board in San Diego.

 

Roy

Roy, I'd strongly suggest doing so. We once boarded in San Diego and it was an absolute fiasco. We said "Never again". We've considered the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise and that's exactly what we'd do - board in Vancouver rather than risk enduring the misery of boarding in San Diego again.

We have decided that we will NOT board in San Diego again. We'd get on earlier to avid it too. Smart, IMO. It was fine last year as a turn a round port but for embarkation it is a winding mess IMO.

Remember - if it doesn't come out of your body......don't flush it!

So true! It never ceases to amaze me that anyone would chance flushing anything but bodily wastes down a cruise line toilet. I think of it like being a really big RV type toilet system LOL Once on NCL someone flushed a disposable diaper down the toilet on the septic line we were on, and it took the plumbers an entire day to find the clog and fix it. DH and I were both just in disbelief that someone would flush something like that and think it was okay. SMH.

It should be engraved on a plaque right across from the toilet bowl at eye level.:D Sometimes I wonder if people are too embarrassed to put "things" in the garbage can and instead try to flush it.

It's not always humans that cause the problem though. A couple of years ago the Zuiderdam had to have 3 new vacuum pumps brought in as the whole system crashed in mid-cruise. Plumbing was down for a very long time while they fixed it and pax had to go ashore to find a bathroom to use - fortunately the ship was in port! That was after the a/c was down for a very long time while they fixed that too, in Grand Turk.:rolleyes:

If embarking and disembarking in San Diego is a major issue, why cannot it be fixed?

If the problem is with the Port Agency Company, fire them and hire a new one.

If the problem is with the rules/regulations of the Port, a CEO to CEO meeting might be needed with the message: Los Angeles and San Francisco are not THAT far away.

The last few times we have embarked in San Francisco, we hold off our arrival at the cruise terminal until after 1 or 2pm. Embarkation has been smooth and fast.

But, it took a couple of times showing up at 11 to finally change our arrival times.

Two comments, the sewage problem was coming down onto the 7th floor, so the issue on 6 is not in play.

Secondly, the people that I know who came later than 1 o'clock on embarkation day were worse off. They barely made sail away, but had lots of time to make new friends in the line......hours.

Please give me more information about Holland honoring my status from Princess. I have many cruises on Princess. I don't believe that is the case. RCL honors my Celebrity status, but the CCL umbrella is limited to specific cruise lines. If you know something else, let me know.

I am enjoying the bridge lessons and games onboard. The game is professionally run, informative and fun. Oh...yes...the flush is back! Alice

If you have cruised on a CCL line you can receive 1 Star Mariner status on your first HAL cruise. You will have to alert them and give them your other CCL cruise line cruise date. The 1 Star Mariner status will get you invited to the Mariners Luncheon. You will not receive more than the 1 Star Mariner status no matter what you status is on the other CCL line(s). m--

Two comments, the sewage problem was coming down onto the 7th floor, so the issue on 6 is not in play.

 

 

 

Secondly, the people that I know who came later than 1 o'clock on embarkation day were worse off. They barely made sail away, but had lots of time to make new friends in the line......hours.

 

 

 

Please give me more information about Holland honoring my status from Princess. I have many cruises on Princess. I don't believe that is the case. RCL honors my Celebrity status, but the CCL umbrella is limited to specific cruise lines. If you know something else, let me know.

 

 

 

I am enjoying the bridge lessons and games onboard. The game is professionally run, informative and fun. Oh...yes...the flush is back! Alice

Actually Alice, as to your first comment, the issue on deck 6 does come into play. If deck 6 has caused the block, they have to clean out deck 7. It's a vacuum system and if one cabin in the section blocks it it backs up the whole thing.

We are not that far from you and we have had some toilet issues - mind you not for 4 days solid as you seem to have experienced, but we have had intermittent ones. I have to say this is the first time in a long time on a cruise I have experienced this, but they seem to be on the ball tracking the problem.

Glad to hear you have your flush back. I know the feeling when there is no sound!!!!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Two comments, the sewage problem was coming down onto the 7th floor, so the issue on 6 is not in play.

 

Secondly, the people that I know who came later than 1 o'clock on embarkation day were worse off. They barely made sail away, but had lots of time to make new friends in the line......hours.

 

Please give me more information about Holland honoring my status from Princess. I have many cruises on Princess. I don't believe that is the case. RCL honors my Celebrity status, but the CCL umbrella is limited to specific cruise lines. If you know something else, let me know.

 

I am enjoying the bridge lessons and games onboard. The game is professionally run, informative and fun. Oh...yes...the flush is back! Alice

Your Princess cruises do not add any days (points) to your HAL days. We are also Elite on Princess and those days don't count on HAL.

All you get is an invitation to the Mariner's brunch/lunch.

When you got your ID card at check-in, there should have been a star on it indicating that you are a 1 star Mariner. If your or your TA did not mention this to HAL -- then you won't have that star on your ID card.

Kathy, this is the cruise that Kazu and others have been reporting on extensively. Unless OP was on a B2B, they boarded in San Diego. Kazu and others have reported that embarkation was terrible, and it appears to be a constant issue with San Diego.

 

I have a deposit on next year's Amsterdam Grand Asia, which starts in San Diego. The situation there seems to be so bad I'm considering booking the prior cruise from Vancouver so I don't have to board in San Diego.

 

Roy

I got off of the Westerdam on April 2nd and we were late being disembarked because of the issue that frequently happens when re-entering the USA. We had a lot of non-English speaking passengers. People with non US passports who did not follow disembarkation directions had to be paged individually to report to immigration. Once immigration cleared those passengers the process went smoothly. We were almost an hour past our assigned time. I knew that they would be late boarding for the next cruise.

Another factor that would have come into the equation is a group that arrived to boarding early afternoon by one or more bus after taking a San Diego city tour in the morning. Anytime you have a large group of people arriving by bus it is going to slow down the process for those arriving after them.

Those passengers who are four star would still get priority boarding wouldn't they?

We must have been amongst the lucky ones as the only difficulty we had when boarding was getting from the taxi to where we left our luggage - not as organized as we have seen in other ports. Other then that we were aboard and in the MDR by 12:15-12:30. People were still disembarking at 11:30!

Our embarkation in San Diego went smooth. We went from the airport and arrived at the terminal about 1030am. Everything about our embarkation seemed normal.

I feel fortunate not to have any cabin issues, hope it stays like that. Food and service is good, no crowds. No long elevator waits.

My biggest complaint is the slow Internet service. If the Westerdam had good Internet service, I'd be happy.

Two comments, the sewage problem was coming down onto the 7th floor, so the issue on 6 is not in play.

 

Secondly, the people that I know who came later than 1 o'clock on embarkation day were worse off. They barely made sail away, but had lots of time to make new friends in the line......hours.

 

Please give me more information about Holland honoring my status from Princess. I have many cruises on Princess. I don't believe that is the case. RCL honors my Celebrity status, but the CCL umbrella is limited to specific cruise lines. If you know something else, let me know.

 

I am enjoying the bridge lessons and games onboard. The game is professionally run, informative and fun. Oh...yes...the flush is back! Alice

Princess is under the Carnival Corp. umbrella.

If embarking and disembarking in San Diego is a major issue, why cannot it be fixed?

 

If the problem is with the Port Agency Company, fire them and hire a new one.

 

If the problem is with the rules/regulations of the Port, a CEO to CEO meeting might be needed with the message: Los Angeles and San Francisco are not THAT far away.

SF is usually its own special mess for embarkation/disembarkation.