Veendam

Anyone just off Veendam today?

Short review, menus, service.

Thank you

Also Curious...We are looking at a long trip on the Veendam for next spring.

We disembarked Veendam three weeks ago. Menus and service were excellent. Evening music venues were excellent. Loved the promenade deck except that the loungers are reserved for lanai cabins.

Disembarked on May 19. Embarkation was fast and easy. Cabins ready and we met our room steward about 10 minutes after getting into cabin. Food available in Libo, DiveIn, Pizza--missed dining in MDR. Safety Life Boat Drill was about 30 minutes long.

Overall, we found food very good (I know this is subjective) in MDR and room service. I have a problem with Lido (individual preference) and going to different stations to get your food as I find by the time I have done this, much of it is cold. Portions are more manageable now, thankfully but if you have a hearty appetite you may want to order several different courses. In MDR, lamb, beef tenderloin, escargot, beef carpaccio, salmon, prime rib, some soups were outstanding. Used room service two mornings and found accurate orders, hot entrees and coffee. Sorry to see the menu offerings greatly limited from earlier cruises. DiveIn had nice grilled chicken, crispy fries and DH said burger was very good. Nice to have ice cream available in the afternoon for a snack.

Cabin stewards were excellent. Learned our names from first day and greeted us in the hall several times. Cabin was kept in pristine condition and they learned our preferences quickly. Excellence.

Ocean Bar was our favorite hang out. Nice trio led by Harvey on piano and clarinet. Good range of music and they were all very personable and audience responded to them. Too bad--it seems that HAL is getting rid of the Ocean Bars. Also had a classical duo which were enjoyable to listen to. The piano bar seemed to be full many evenings but we found it rather loud and didn't stay very long. Evening offerings in the theater were the usual opening (getting to know you) show, two production shows which were fairly good. We didn't go to the other entertainers.

The Veendam is one of the smaller, older ships and one we love. There was one problem that seemed to ongoing for most of the cruise and that was that several elevators were in need of repair and not available to guests. It made it difficult for those needing to use them to move from deck to deck quickly. I don't know if they were waiting for replacement parts or what the hold up was.

Disembarkation was speedy and took less than 10 minutes.

If the loungers are reserved, what other options are there for outdoor seating for us non-balcony, non-poolside people?

If the loungers are reserved, what other options are there for outdoor seating for us non-balcony, non-poolside people?

There were about 6 loungers on each side of the deck near doors and further away from the lanais that were for general use.

Disembarked on May 19th as well. There are lots of tables and chairs in the back area of the ship. Not sure if you have kids since it’s adults only in that area but since they got rid of the aft pool, there seems to be much more seating.

gala nights are night 2, Sunday, and the night next to last t-- Thursday.

We got off of the ship on the 26th and were sorry to leave. The Veendam is indeed an older ship but for that reason has some amenities that have been removed from the other classes. Let me start with the nightly music in the Ocean Bar.....We didn't miss a single night there and many, many other couples had the same idea. The dance floor was busy and if we wanted a seat we had to get there early. Why HAL is eliminating this music is a puzzle. The ship was in good shape except for the elevator problem. The crew was of high standard and in some areas the best we have experienced in a while. There was more storage space in our OV cabin than the newer and refitted ships. The food in the MDR was of good quality and selection. I had a problem with 1 fish entree being too dry and it was immediately replaced with apologies from the waiter and the maitre de. The other eateries were good and the service was again good in all areas. We didn't care for the piano bar but it was well attended. The entertainment in the showroom was good. We had been on the Veendam in 2015 for the Bermuda run and have to say the ship was overall in better shape this time. I would definitely book another cruise on her with no hesitation.

Current cruise director?

Current cruise director is Becca. She’s nice and pretty good. But she’s getting off in about 10 days and she told me yesterday when I disembarked that Jorge will replace her. If it’s the same Jorge from the Westerdam in spring 2016 ( he was assistant CD then) he’s good and should be fun for the upcoming Cuba run on 6/23.

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We also got a new captain a week ago. Another Irishman - Cohm Ryan. He’s a hoot!

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These positive comments are reassuring. We will make our decision whether we will book the Veendam in about a month.

Just off Veendam yesterday after a 7 day cruise Boston to Bermuda. This was our first cruise on HAL in spite of having been on about 20 cruises over the years. We were very pleased with the line and this particular ship. My biggest surprise was all the "horror" stories I had read about just did not happen on our cruise. The elevators were not "dreadfully slow" as predicted. In fact except for the first day when everyone is using them around the same time we found them to be almost too quick and as soon as we pressed the button we would have to scurry to get in the elevator that was going in our direction. Embarkation was very smooth and quick and our room was ready shortly after we finished lunch in the Lido. We also never had a problem finding a table either at breakfast if we used the Lido for that or for lunch. The ship was full to capacity but there is always a table available. After you get familiar where certain foods are located at the Lido it really isn't hard to navigate to get your food. The omelet station had the shortest line I ever experienced on a cruise. Not sure if it was because they were super efficient or more people opted for other items but it was a pleasure to use. The staff is genuinely very friendly and they keep the ship as clean as possible for having 2,000 plus people living there for a week !! We had cabin 202 and never found any odor there on anywhere on the ship as some people reported. When docked in Bermuda we did notice an off odor on the deck but I think maybe they were pumping out bathrooms, etc and it didn't last very long. We never had a problem finding a lounge chair on the Promenade deck - yes many are reserved for passengers using the cabins on that deck but they had many available for general use. Sadly we did see two men wearing shorts on the first gala night in the MDR - it was a busy night and I guess they "slipped" by the staff member checking people in for dinner. They were not even nice shorts - but that is another topic! I hope to write a better review once I finish my laundry - ha ha - but overall it was a great cruise on a lovely if older ship.

If the loungers are reserved, what other options are there for outdoor seating for us non-balcony, non-poolside people?

There are unreserved deck chairs on the Lower Promenade deck, just look for ones by the non-lanai door cabins. There are deck loungers on the very upper forward Sports deck but there is no shade there, and some shaded outdoor table seating by the NY Pizza station on the aft Lido deck. And many unshaded deck loungers and cushioned seating in the aft hot tubs area Plus there are some limited covered outdoor loungers on the very aft lower decks. How many sea days do you have? You will probably be able to find a good array of outdoor seating besides poolside..

For recent Veendam cruisers, does the onboard “app” include messaging other passengers?

Thanks in advance,

Yes

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thanks scluvsrainWhat type of capabilities did it have? Do you message cruises directly and privately or are you posting to a board to communicate? Are there group threads? Can I have a text thread with my sister and another with my whole family like I have on my mobile phone on land?

Not quite so advanced. Once on the intranet site on the ship messaging is one of the options. Not sure if you can group text or not. I just texted to my friend. You have to put someone’s name in and the system finds it and then you click on it and can write your message.

The system also doesn’t ding or make noises to let you know you have a message so you have to pay attention and look to see if you have a message.

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It is private between you and the person you’re messaging although it’s possible the IT people could read them. But it’s not public like a forum.

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We disembarked Veendam three weeks ago. Menus and service were excellent. Evening music venues were excellent. Loved the promenade deck except that the loungers are reserved for lanai cabins.

Only questionable area was ship maintenance and upkeep, but ambiance makes up for this.

Current cruise director?

Was Becca. Now it’s Jorge. Both are great.

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