Oosterdam 1-29 to 2-5

[Tvisitor]

I thought I would let you all know that the cruise my wife and I took on the Oosterdam on 1/29 was, perhaps, the best cruise experience we have had yet. This was our 6th cruise, our 4th on HAL.. The Oosterdam is an utterly beautiful ship, and it has an excellent crew. I would recommend her to anyone. We had an SS cabin(6074), and a table for two in the main dining room (#34). We were blessed with flat seas, and the opportunity to see many whales breaching and dolphins jumping. The food was, overall, very good and sometimes better (IMHO), except Friday in the Lido. We ate in the Pinnacle 3 times and enjoyed it very much all three times. We each had hot stone massages in the spa and considered them very much worth it, even though they were pricy. Loui was a little better than Anna (just a little). We made use of the Windstar café. We enjoyed the gym.

 

All was not perfect, but never is. I will not get picky because nothing that was not perfect interfered with our experience. For the benefit of those who may be planning to sail on the Oosterdam, I offer these recommendations:

 

In the Pinnacle, we loved the bone-in rib eye. I have seen people rave about the porterhouse, but the rib eye was better. They were good enough to serve it with a scampi at our request, though it is not offered that way on the menu. Also, the sliced tomatoes were wonderful, and so was the smoked seafood appetizer. I did not care for the "Northwest" wines they were generally offering, but the ship has an Australian Shiraz @ 35.00/per bottle that is excellent (sorry I do not remember the name). The volcano cake is wonderful, but very rich. My wife asked to have some ice cream on the side. They happily complied. Try it that way. If you want fish, try the halibut. It was very very good. The salmon was not as good. The menu presents it as if it is wild-caught. The salmon they had on our cruise was not. It was farm-raised. They confirmed that when we questioned it because it did not have the flavor and consistency of wild.

 

In the main dining room, the lamb was very good to excellent – both the rack of lamb and the lamb shanks. They do not do as well with the fish and seafood. We sent back the perch, and substituted the meatloaf (which, believe it or not, was very good, but the sauce was a bit boring), and surprisingly, the least best meal we actually ate in the dining room was the lobster. It was (I think) poached before broiling. It was a bit fishy tasting and IMHO too soft in texture. They use 3 oz. tails. We buy much larger cold water tails from New Zealand or Australia, and we prepare them in a convection oven, but that is probably too expensive and too tricky for a ship to do for groups as large as they cook for, at the prices they charge. If I had it to do again, I would try the tenderloin roast, but we were so full from eating too much of the rotisserie chicken in the Lido at lunch (it was sooo good) that we did not bother to change out our dinners.

 

Consider the Veuve Clicquot champaign. It is a bargain at $56.00 a bottle if you can afford the splurge.

 

Do not pass up the lemon meringue pie, if you see it being offered (we had it in the Lido). It is great. So is the bread pudding in the Lido. And you should at least try the stir fried dishes at the Wok. Moreover, though the temptation is to order a full breakfast by room-service, try the made-to-order omelets in the Lido at least once. They are available made with egg-whites only, and we loved them.

 

I have a problem with sweets. Both in the dining room and in the Pinnacle, they were good enough to give me fresh mixed berries for dessert, though they were not on the menu. Do not hesitate to ask.

 

At the captain’s welcome, they pre-pour the champaign and it can become flat. We asked an officer (Raymond) to find us some fresher champaign. He was not only glad to do that for us, he watched out for us the rest of the cruise. Do not be afraid to ask to have any error corrected.

 

Bong was the bartender in the Olive Pit. He makes good martinis, and easily learned to substitute recipes. Don’t be surprised if you have trouble finding a good Cosmo. Tell him what you want, and he'll do it. At our request, he made Cosmos for my wife with no sour mix, less Triple Sec, and a little fresh lime juice. They came out the way she likes them.

 

I tried to post a full review this past weekend. It simply would not post and I lost it. As I was posting from an internet café, when it was gone, it was gone forever. I apologize that I do not have the time to retype more comments. I will simply say, we would love to go on the Oosterdam again. It was beautifully decorated and it felt no more crowded than the other HAL ships we have been on.

[cruisinjudy]

That was a great review. So sorry you had to go to the trouble on the first one and lose it! We will be on Oosterdam at the end of April, unfortunately only for four days.

[dakrewser]

An excellent review, and very similar to our experience on the 1/22 sailing. Thanks!