Live Oosterdam before/during/after 4/18 cruise

[TAD2005]

Here are some pics.

 

 

Question:: Is the above pix (blue with Piano) the new piano bar on the Oosterdam ? If it is, it appears to be a huge improvement. The Piano Bar on the Zuiderdam had about 9 very uncomfortable, unmovable bar stools, surrounding the piano, with no foot rest, except on the chair. This pix appears to be about 20 chairs, much more comfortable, and they can move to accommodate how a person likes to sit.

Love your posts, we will be on the O-Dam in November for 21 days.

Edited April 18, 2016 by TAD2005

[SilvertoGold]

The last photos above: beige sofas with gold cushions, red bar in background: which room is this? LOVE it!

 

Thanks.

[FloridaTourist]

The ship is moving!!!!

 

FYI we went to the crows nest the wrong way and yes it is open but not tonight. Will open mostly on Tuesday. The new suite is awesome. Very nice. The new dueling piano bar is great. Diego and Megan on there all 12 nights and they will be our favorite for sure. The BB king band was also good tonight. Not sure if the ship is not full or everyone went to sleep early but was quiet tonight after dinner. The new Gallery Bar is also really nice looking and will be a nice place to gather. Wish it had live music though. All the dinning room furniture is new in the main and lido. The suite is all new including the balcony. Dinner tonight was good but didn't have the prime rib I heard is usually served on sail away. The mariner lunch was very crowded today and service very slow as was the dinner service. Tuesday is Naples. Getting late here. Will type more after our Naples tour.

 

 

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[Northern Light]

The ship is moving!!!!

 

FYI we went to the crows nest the wrong way and yes it is open but not tonight. Will open mostly on Tuesday. The new suite is awesome. Very nice. The new dueling piano bar is great. Diego and Megan on there all 12 nights and they will be our favorite for sure. The BB king band was also good tonight. Not sure if the ship is not full or everyone went to sleep early but was quiet tonight after dinner. The new Gallery Bar is also really nice looking and will be a nice place to gather. Wish it had live music though. All the dinning room furniture is new in the main and lido. The suite is all new including the balcony. Dinner tonight was good but didn't have the prime rib I heard is usually served on sail away. The mariner lunch was very crowded today and service very slow as was the dinner service. Tuesday is Naples. Getting late here. Will type more after our Naples tour.

 

 

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Thanks for posting the pictures. Please correct me if I am wrong, but it looks to be like your cabin has the beginnings of the upgrade but it hasn't been completed yet. My comparison is what HAL is showing for the changes in the signature suites. I see the wall behind the bed is different and the tv has been mounted over the sofa. Not getting the impression that you have a wall yet between the bed and the dressing/make up area which eliminated the desk where the makeup mirror is in your cabin. The bathroom was to be upgraded as well. All of the changes seemed like a pretty huge undertaking for a short time in drydock so maybe there wasn't time and HAL didn't want to cancel a cruise. Believe the SS cabins are to look more like they are on the Koningsdam.

 

Regardless, your cabin still looks wonderful and you are sure to enjoy it. Have a wonderful cruise.

 

Sandy :)

[jimbri]

Great photos!

[Faival]

Thanks for all your reports. Is the tv always positioned behind the sofa? If so, can you only watch it from the bed? Are the TVs in the same position in all the Signature Suites?

 

Regards,

Gillian and Frank.

[FloridaTourist]

The tv is above the sofa and only visible from the bed which is fine with me. I'm not sure the suites in this ship will have the wall between the dressing area. Would real chop up the room.

 

Today started with room service at breakfast set for 730-8 and arrived right at 8. Everything was hot and we ate on the patio. We arrived in Naples an hour late due to the late start last night but they also extended our shore time to make up for it. We bought the laundry package for the 12 days $84 and it is an awesome investment. Sent 2 bags out the first day and they are back already. We were met by Tony from Livitaly for a private tour of the Amalfi coast. What a trip. So glad we did it the way we did. Would never do that trip in a bus. This was the third tour we did with this company and they are very professional. I hesitated because they take a deposit and then full payment the week before. But they are top notch. Also so was the other company we used Rome Driving Tours while in Rome. So today we did Sorento, Positano, Amalfi where Tony arranged an amazing lunch and Ravello. This is an amazing tour and drive. We left Naples at 915 and back by 540. Lots of entertainment tonight. Think we might do Lido for dinner otherwise with an 8pm dinner time we will miss most of the shows.

 

. Our view from lunch

 

 

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[adrift@sea]

The last photos above: beige sofas with gold cushions, red bar in background: which room is this? LOVE it!

 

Thanks.

 

The new Gallery Bar where the former Northern Lights was located.

[SilvertoGold]

The new Gallery Bar where the former Northern Lights was located.

 

Thanks very much for answering the question I posed. Really, really like this area!

 

What a huge difference! I hope HAL does this on all the Vista ships.

Edited April 19, 2016 by SilvertoGold

[Cindy]

I'm so glad to hear your (mostly) positive report! I love the new suite décor/color palette, and the other new venues sound great. Like Skicruiser, I'm far more concerned with my cabin than the Crow's Nest on a port intensive cruise. We have booked an aft-wrap Neptune Suite on the Westerdam, and I'm thrilled to see how good the suites look after the face lift!:)

 

Great pictures. The room looks really nice. The is more of a concern to me then the Crows Nest. Can't wait to hear more!

[FloridaTourist]

Entertainment tonight is awesome. Currently at the second set in the Billboard on Board lounge where the pianos are. Diego and Megan are really good together. We know all the songs. We love piano bars. The BB King tonight was rockin. The dance floor was full. Lots of Commodores, Earth Wind and Fire, and Marvin Gay. This is our first cruise In a few years and the first on HAL since 1999. LOVE LOVE LOVE the no smoking in the casino. Tonight is probably the closest I will get to using my drinks on the SBC. Think between coffees and alcohol I might be at 6. How can anyone possibly have 15 drinks? I might have one more Old Fashion. Tomorrow is our only sea day. Tonight for dinner we ate in the Lido so that we could get to all the shows. We ate a late dinner in Amalfi so are lite tonight. I will say that the bbq brisket tonight was amazingly tender. Lido has great salad bar and Explorers Cafe has very good chocolate cookies different than the Lido.

 

 

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Edited April 19, 2016 by FloridaTourist

[frankc98376]

Thanks for the updates and pictures! One question- pictures I've seen of the new suites look like the shower has been taken out and is tub/shower only- is that the case?

 

Wouldn't break my heart as the showers on the Vistas are so small

[Skicruiser55]

Great to read you are having a good time and all seems to be go with the ship. Would love to see more pictures of the bathroom.

 

Enjoy!

[GAgirl2016]

Thanks so much for posting this information! We are boarding the Oosterdam April 30th in Venice. I was wondering how the renovations went, and this answers the question. Hopefully they work out all those mechanical errors by then.

[Skicruiser55]

Any idea what the mechanical issues were?

[LINGBER]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us! Would love to see some more pics of your stateroom Bathroom? Has it been redone? Do you have a shower?

 

Looking forward to your next update :)

[Cindy]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Please correct me if I am wrong, but it looks to be like your cabin has the beginnings of the upgrade but it hasn't been completed yet. My comparison is what HAL is showing for the changes in the signature suites. I see the wall behind the bed is different and the tv has been mounted over the sofa. Not getting the impression that you have a wall yet between the bed and the dressing/make up area which eliminated the desk where the makeup mirror is in your cabin. The bathroom was to be upgraded as well. All of the changes seemed like a pretty huge undertaking for a short time in drydock so maybe there wasn't time and HAL didn't want to cancel a cruise. Believe the SS cabins are to look more like they are on the Koningsdam.

 

Regardless, your cabin still looks wonderful and you are sure to enjoy it. Have a wonderful cruise.

 

Sandy :)

 

I just looked on the HAL website, and with the exception of some of the hard surfaces still being the pale wood color, the picture FloridaTourist posted of the renovation looks very close to what HAL has posted. The Signature Suite never had a separate vanity/dressing area. The vanity in the updated suite is in the same place it was in the original configuration, and the HAL rendering depicts a large TV over the couch.

 

The Neptune Suites have the separate dressing/vanity area with closets, but in the SS that is eliminated and the door goes directly into the bathroom. The closets in an SS are on the wall opposite the bathroom door near the entry.

 

Something I would say is a major change (if they did this...it's hard to tell from one picture) is the separate shower looks like it's been removed. I remember both my Neptune Suite and my Signature Suite having a tub/shower combo and a stand-alone shower.

 

Here's the picture of the updated Signature Suite from the HAL website:

Edited April 20, 2016 by Cindy

[Cruiser Bruiser]

Thanks for letting us sail along with you. I'm enjoying all of your photos, and having fond memories of my own trip along the Amalfi Coast. I'm looking forward to more. :)

[Northern Light]

I just looked on the HAL website, and with the exception of some of the hard surfaces still being the pale wood color, the picture FloridaTourist posted of the renovation looks very close to what HAL has posted. The Signature Suite never had a separate vanity/dressing area. The vanity in the updated suite is in the same place it was in the original configuration, and the HAL rendering depicts a large TV over the couch.

 

The Neptune Suites have the separate dressing/vanity area with closets, but in the SS that is eliminated and the door goes directly into the bathroom. The closets in an SS are on the wall opposite the bathroom door near the entry.

 

Something I would say is a major change (if they did this...it's hard to tell from one picture) is the separate shower looks like it's been removed. I remember both my Neptune Suite and my Signature Suite having a tub/shower combo and a stand-alone shower.

 

Here's the picture of the updated Signature Suite from the HAL website:

 

I had also rechecked the HAL website. What is interesting is that the picture does not coincide with the amenites shown on the floor plan whereby the SS suites do have that wall. Frankly, I am quite happy that they did not do it because it would chop up the room and not in a good way. A poster who was just on the Koningsdam was in a Neptune suite and it did have that wall although not shown on the amenties floor plan. There was discussion when it was first posted what the upgrades would be for the SS on the Vista ships. Not too many people liked the separate dressing area. Haven't heard anything positive about the tv being on the wall over the couch either.

 

Apparently new cabins were installed on the ship so maybe they will be different.

 

Bottom line is nice changes but nothing drastic so the SS is still a very nice cabin to enjoy.

 

Sandy :)

[iltutcruiser]

What a treat to have someone give us details about the Oosterdam. We will be sailing in December. I am looking forward to hearing all about your trip. Thanks for sharing.

[Cindy]

I had also rechecked the HAL website. What is interesting is that the picture does not coincide with the amenites shown on the floor plan whereby the SS suites do have that wall. Frankly, I am quite happy that they did not do it because it would chop up the room and not in a good way. A poster who was just on the Koningsdam was in a Neptune suite and it did have that wall although not shown on the amenties floor plan. There was discussion when it was first posted what the upgrades would be for the SS on the Vista ships. Not too many people liked the separate dressing area. Haven't heard anything positive about the tv being on the wall over the couch either.

 

Apparently new cabins were installed on the ship so maybe they will be different.

 

Bottom line is nice changes but nothing drastic so the SS is still a very nice cabin to enjoy.

 

Sandy :)

 

I see what you're talking about now...I hadn't looked and any pictures from the Koningsdam. That wall looks nice in the renderings, but I think to retrofit it into existing cabins would make them very cramped.

[FK215]

Thanks for the updates, its great to hear about Oosterdam and HAL.

[FloridaTourist]

sorry folks Internet was not available yesterday from the land. The ship Internet is still the same old plan and poor so we didn't purchase it. The people at the front desk actually didn't advise it as the ship satellite gets turned off when within 2 miles of shore. And this cruise will be close to shore most of the trip except yesterday.

 

Yesterday was VERY rough. Lots of folks not feeling well including myself. After I took something from the clinic I started feeling better. The weather was chilly and winds were over 45 knots when they expected 25. The pool was covered. We slept through breakfast as we closed the venues of the ship down Tuesday night with another group of 12 we met. Wednesday we missed breakfast so had coffee In The Explorers Cafe and some lite Danish. Think the rocking up there got the DW queasy and started on me. After that we had our CC gathering in the Gallery Lounge attended by about 20 even though 50 signed up. The rocky ship might have been the cause. Then noon was the Mariners lunch. A number of single partners as the other was ill in the cabins. We ate very little. We spent the afternoon poolside trying to get a little air to make us feel better. It was also Gala night. Most people dressed very nice including us. Lots of photo ops. DW had the maple braised duck and I had the lamb chops. All very good. The choc lava cake I had read about on other cc forums was yummy but even better withe vanilla ice cream I added. Today we will join another couple we met on CC in our age group. We will rent a car and do a wine tour of Crete. (Like we haven't had enough to drink). SBC is killing me. I am a 1 -2 drink a week person. Now it's like 1-2 drinks at lunch and again at dinner and between each meal!!!! Also spending lots of the evening in the piano bar. Will try to add a video. Will also write about the entertainment and about the smart tv later when time permits. https://vimeo.com/163653754

 

Also FYI Bathroom has tub and shower.

 

 

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[Marion B]

Florida Tourist,

Sorry to hear about your rough seas and queasiness; hope things have improved. Thanks for your continued postings in spite of this.

 

Marion

[Krazy Kruizers]

Sorry to hear that you have experienced rough weather and bad internet.