Holland America Oosterdam

[IngFam]

Hi there, hoping someone could tell me what the Oosterdam is like. Looking at doing a cruise January 14 with another family and kids ages range from 7 to 18. Is this a good family ship. We've sailed P&O and Princess before but other family will be a first time cruiser.

 

Does it have a good kids club

Is there plenty to keep everyone entertained on board

Food

Rooms etc.

Thanks.

[Wastegirl]

Its a bit difficult to gauge what she is like from US portion of this site as the clientèle, when it is in the US, seems to be different to when it is in Aus, so HAL usually gets slammed for being a ship of oldies. However when we sailed to the South Pacific in her in March it had a good cross section of ages, admittedly though aimed more at the 50+ than the younger generations. My opinions below are therefore experiences from my sailing.

 

Can't comment on the kids club, have no young kids, in our late 50's, didn't even look at it and there were not many children on our March sailing but I would imagine there would be in January (school hols). It regularly gets reasonable to good reports.

 

However it is not a ship of 'fun'. No slides, partyingggg.. and other cool stuff. Its more about relaxation. Not that they don't have Team Trivia, Bingo, talks, shows, etc but they are not front and centre and because people are more in relaxation mode it was, on my sailing, a lazy fortnight in the sun (well tropical clouds actually but warm).

 

Food as the Yanks are fond of saying here, is subjective. I found it to be good to very good banquet food and thoroughly enjoyed the Pinnacle Grill. The LIDO had a good cross section of food types but keep in mind this is a US ship so bacon, for instance, is really thin and crispy, chips are shoestring fries and the coffee is 'yuk' (but that is a cruise ship problem not confined to HAL). I had no complaints about the food as long as I kept in mind it is prepared on a large scale so don't choose anything that would not work well under those conditions.

 

The ship itself is older, well kept but not glitzy and some people that are used to the mega ships with big atriums can find it confining. I like a ship to be a ship, not a resort and I loved the walk round Promenade Deck.

 

Our verandah room was a good size for two people, clean and comfortable and the stewards were wonderful. I would have found it a bit tight with four adults in the one room but unless you can swing for a suite I think this is something you would have to put up with. The bed was soooo comfortable but I have heard the pull out sofas can be hit and miss comfort wise.

 

So can I recommend it, for someone like my DH and I, I can - a blissful fortnight of not worrying about anything just relaxation. But if you are a group of high spirited action types that enjoy late late nights, I would advise being aware of the difference.

 

Hope this helps, any other questions just ask.

[Scrapnana]

Have you tried watching YouTube videos? I think they are a good way to get a feel for a ship. Here is one and there are many others.

[aussiedisneyfan]

We sailed on her over Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed the cruise. There was a reasonable number of kids onboard then and the next cruise as well. As wastegirl said there is no exciting things such as rock climbing etc but there was still a good range of kids club activities.

 

There was daily activities for adults such as trivia, craft classes, lectures and things like golf chipping, pool volleyball and bean bag toss.

[Australian family]

We sailed on the Oosterdam last Xmas. Mostly Aussies on board. A mixed range of families.

 

The food was good, not as good as when we had sailed on the Volendam 3 years ago. It was obvious that they were cost cutting. We mostly ate in the dining room, and if you requested English bacon, that is what you would get not the crisp american style bacon.

 

As stated the atrium is not big.

 

Our children didn't use the kids club, but there was one.

 

We had a balcony cabin, the bunk pulled down over the queen bed, which did make it a bit closed in. The sofa bed, which was broken, folded out in front of the balcony door.

 

The ship was in dry dock before we went on it. They certainly didn't do anything to our cabin. Our bathroom also flooded twice, and at times there was a foul odour in the hallway out from our cabin.

[cjm66]

We have sailed HAL, Princess and P&O (Australia). I would sail HAL again but only if I was going to New Zealand or south to Tasmania. The retractable roof on the lido deck pool is a real advantage. The NZ itinerary is very port intensive so on board activities are really only important on the 2 days days getting there and back - for us anyway not being late night party animals. If I was cruising to the Pacific I would go with either Princess or P&O. These lines have a better knowlegde (especially P&O) of the region and shore tour desk staff on both lines were better informed than the HAL staff when it came to general questions about the ports of call and activities on shore.

 

We were on the Oosterdam in November 2012. It was a special occasion - Solar Eclipse - cruise so there were lots of activities of interest to star gazers, mainly lectures and of course star gazing at night! HAL does this sort of thing well although there were some gripes about the eclipse viewing. Otherwise the activities were slanted to an older and more sedentary demographic. The aft pool and bar area was excellent and we used it a lot but (in theory at least) that pool is adults only and this restriction was observed on our cruise.

 

On all other points I agree with the comments by Wastegirl and Australian Family.

[IngFam]

Thanks for all your replies. I'll watch some youtube videos and go from there.