Oosterdam 24 May-05 Jun 2016 Review

Oosterdam review of 12 Day Med cruise 24 May-05 June 2015. Barcelona to Rome. We booked this cruise with a few things in mind. We wanted Italy and to the west. Post dry dock with enough time to have unplanned issues repaired. We started with two cabins (one for four and one for two) inside base cabins. After several price reductions and sales we ended up with one of the new quads on deck 10 and updated signature suite on deck 6 for an extra $250 pp upsale for the s/s. Both rooms were very nice. Deck 10 ac didn’t seem to keep up and the veranda balcony is very small. It had only one outside chair. Told by crew they were the second party to stay there. They liked the layout better that the o/v quad on a previous cruise. The SS on deck six was very nice and the nicest room we have ever had. Neither room had sewer or bathroom issues.

We requested and got dining table 59 located in upper level aft window for six. It was very nice. We thought that the food was very good and diet and allergies handled well. With a 12 day cruise and only two sea days little time was spent on the ship. The club HAL only had 7 teen kids and most seemed to be on different schedules so when many activities were planned not many showed up. After the 2-3 day our two teens didn’t bother anymore.

We only booked one HAL tour (Kayaking in Malaga) and it was canceled due to weather. In our prep I wondered if that would happen and it did and we were ready with back up plans. The most of our tours were private tours for six and I am sure were not the cheapest but did what we wanted and with who we wanted and it was our fault if we were late and no sales pitches. We walked about 100 miles during the trip. BCN, Cadiz, Malaga, Alicante, Ajaccio, and Monte Carlo we did on our own. Gib did cab tour, Palma had great tour with Gina V of Tours by Locals, Marseille had nice tour with Kathy of Tours by Locals, and five tours/transportation set up with RomeInLimo. The weather caused the ports to be changed a little. Monte Carlo was docked one day earlier than scheduled and we docked at Ajaccio instead of tendering at Calvi a day later. We had no problems meeting all of our guides but RomeinLimo really stood out with all drivers on time or early, very professional and with great vehicles. Parts of Rome that we tried to do on our own made us thankful for the guides that we did have. We had listened to the Rick Steve’s guides before we left but unless you have them at the site it was impossible for us to remember the details. With limited time and long distances it was impossible to see everything that we wanted to see (especially Florence and Pompeii). Be aware that the lift to S/B castle in Alicante holds only 12-15 people and you should go there first thing or you will be standing in two long hot lines with no view (one to pay & one to ride). We did make use of van cabs to avoid public transportation in the major cities. We did use the public bus in Malaga and Monte Carlo and it was very easy. (Thanks to campolady and Tom’s Port Guides for info.)

We attended some shows and entertainment but nothing really jumped out as exceptional. We did buy the laundry package and as on other HAL cruises before had to make more than one trip to front desk to get the billing correct. We set up our own pre and post hotels and flights. Overall we had a very nice time. Six people with 4 cameras plus phones equaled about 9500 photos.

Sightcrr

Would you be able to post a picture of your suites. We are in suite 10004 for our next cruise and I am really interested in seeing a picture of them. I know the balcony is very small with only one outside chair.

For another part -last 15 days of our cruise we are in 8038 SIgnature suite. We have been in a signature suite before but would like to see the updates made on Oosterdam with these suites.

That's a lot of photos to go through!! Sounds like a nice time had by all. Thanks for the review. I would also be interested in seeing photos of your cabins but any other photos you might share. But having that many to go through I understand it may take awhile.

Thank you for your review.

Your independent tours sound like they were great.

Thank you for your report! Could you speak more about dining, which seating did you have, how was service, and was it a problem making dinner time with such a port intensive cruise. I will be on ship in Oct and many of our ports have 11 PM departure, not sure how that will work out with late dining?

ritaly, our dining was early at 530pm. We had never been to the places we visited so we did not venture far out of the port cities ie no long bus/train rides. Most times we were back by 530 even if the ship left at 1100. Once or twice we took night photos of the cities. The service was very good. One person had to preorder meals the night before so we really made an effort to be there at 530 and why we wanted the same servers every night. I think only one night did we really have to run back to dinner and were a little late but had caught up with the rest of dinners by dessert. One night we missed dinner and keep munching at lido from 6-830 out on deck.

Hope that helps.

sightcrr

I just sent an email to Halfacts with some nice shots of cabin 6058.

sightcrr

Thank you for the review.

Appreciate the feedback.

Thank you for your review.

The photos of Oosterdam 6058 are on line now at Halfacts. The photos of 10009 that I found so far are not something I want to share without fiddling with so maybe later.

sightcrr

One other thing I forgot to add is that there was no ship layout maps available either at check in or on board. I had brought my own and was glad but miss placed it about the 2-3 day. I went to the future cruise desk and cut one out of the Yukon trip guide. There are maps at all the elevators but I liked having my own.

sightcrr