Veendam --- need real assessment

[pwake]

Just got on the Veendam today (May 5th) in Montreal. Everything is in good working order and no odd smells on any part of the ship I’ve been to.

 

 

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[kevingastreich]

Just got off the ship today. It is the first time I am on this class of ship. No problem at all! She is beautiful and the best crew is taking care of the ship well![ATTACH]419848[/ATTACH][ATTACH]419849[/ATTACH][ATTACH]419850[/ATTACH][ATTACH]419851[/ATTACH][ATTACH]419852[/ATTACH]

Beautiful photos! Thanks!

[jabrown40]

63 days to go, I can’t wait!

 

 

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[MariTenor1]

We board on June 2nd. Our first HAL cruise. We are so ready!

 

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[Arzeena]

Just got on the Veendam today (May 5th) in Montreal. Everything is in good working order and no odd smells on any part of the ship I’ve been to.

 

 

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Happy to hear that! Thanks for posting.

[Luvmyfam3]

Thank you so much for the reviews of this ship! My husband and I are considering a Mediterranean cruise June 2019 on the Veendham. We have cruised many different lines. I cruised on HAL, but it was many years ago and I'm sure there have been many changes. We love the itinerary so I'm thrilled to see this ship is getting pretty good reviews here.

[momilani]

We had a great time on the Veendam through the Panama Canal in Jan ‘17 and are looking forward to boarding her again in October for Cuba. “The best ships are the ‘Dam ships!”

[tv24]

Nice comments. Thanks to all...we are seriously considering a long trip on the Veendam for next year, so this is helpful.

[momilani]

I think that some of the negative reviews on any ship (or restaurant or hotel...etc) are from unlucky souls who just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time. Some come from people who have low tolerance for inconvenience for some reason, or just like to complain — but I honestly think those are in the minority. I take it all with a grain of salt. You sail often enough, you expect to run into a hitch now and again. We had a toilet that just didn’t want to work right off and on during our second cruise on the Ryndam. It’s an older ship, and it turned out to be a system thing in our section of the deck we were on. They fixed it timely, as they do. They make every effort to take good care of all the ‘dam ships we’ve sailed on.

[tuolumne couple]

We have been on the Veendam twice once to Hawaii (18 nights ocean view on the promenade deck) once west bound Panama Canal (15 nights vista suite aft verandah deck). Both cruises we never had any memorable problems, work on ships is an ongoing process and yes that happened. We keep active on sea days and so do the maintenance crews. All of the ships crew were professional and courteous. Let the little things that could happen never get in the way of a great time!

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you to all for your comments.

My husband and I are contemplating taking a Med cruise next summer on the Veendam (because it sails out of Venice). I had concerns about the ship so it is good to hear about recent cruises.

[YBA]

We just disembarked from the Veendam on May 19th. As other people have said, everyone has their own opinion. We met a few people onboard that were not happy. I even met a lady that said she would never take HAL again after this trip. When I asked her why, she said she was unhappy with the fact that the elevators were broken the whole week and she didn’t like the service nor the food onboard. Once again, very subjective!

 

My husband and I have been cruising with HAL since 2006. My 7 year old son just got his bronze medallion (over 100 days with Holland) on this trip so we truly love this line! Yes the elevators were broken but that’s just an inconvenience. We had to wait an extra few minutes for them every time but we’re on vacation so what would be the hurry? The food onboard was fantastic and anyone who has sailed with HAL knows that service is above any other cruise line. Captain Noel O’Driscoll gave us a fantastic trip and it was smooth sailing for us the whole trip.

 

Before boarding, we were skeptical. It was our first time on the Veendam and the reviews seem to be very bad for her. It’s quite unfortunate because she became our favourite ship. We’ve done the Maasdam, Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam and Noordam and the Veendam scores above all of them.

 

Again, it’s all relative. Enjoy your time onboard and take things with a grain of salt. It’s vacation time after all!

[Cybercsp]

Thanks, YBA, for your comments. We are very much looking forward to our Veendam cruise later this month. Like you, we try to take bumps in the road in stride and remember how fortunate we are to be able to cruise!

[momilani]

Cybersp — so how did it go? Hope you had a fabulous time - I adore Venice!

[mamaofami]

Question : is there a plug for a curling iron in the bathroom or somewhere else? Got to have that curling iron or I'll be wearing a baseball cap the whole cruise!

 

I was under the impression that we weren’t supposed to use curling irons because of their fire hazard .

[Copper10-8]

......................... Yes the elevators were broken but that’s just an inconvenience. We had to wait an extra few minutes for them every time but we’re on vacation so what would be the hurry? ...................

 

Just curious if you don't mind? Were all eight pax elevators out of business and was there some kind of delay in operation with them? Thanks a lot!

[Copper10-8]

I was under the impression that we weren’t supposed to use curling irons because of their fire hazard .

 

Regular irons are on the confiscated items list and will be temp. confiscated. Curling irons are good to go

• Hookah and Water Hookah Pipes, candles and incense, strike-anywhere matches, clothing irons/steamers, heating pads, hot plates, kettles, coffee makers, toasters and other electronic cooking appliances.
  

[dee2673]

I’ve brought curling irons that have never been confiscated

 

 

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[Copper10-8]

I’ve brought curling irons that have never been confiscated

 

 

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There was a "misunderstanding" / "misinterpretation" of the confiscated items list by shore-side Security in FLL about 2-3 years ago which resulted in several confiscated curling irons. The result was a mini "Bastille Day uproar" at the Front Office by the owners of the irons and they were subsequently returned to them with apologies rendered

[shrimp56]

thank you all...it's hard to know what to think! Where was the horrible ship smell? How/when did the ship fail inspection? Thank you for the feedback-both good and bad!

 

The failed inspection was 6 years ago. HAL put one of their best captains on the ship to fix the problems. Since then Veendam has passed all inspections. Her scores since the failed inspection have all been in the 90s, most in the high 90s and two 100s (perfect score) So stop worrying about that please. How the ship is doing currently is what is important and she's doing fine.

 

We have sailed on Veendam 4 times starting less than a year after the failed inspection. We had 0 problems (other than having to disembark). The crew is always great and we just love her smaller size.

 

You will be as happy with your experience as you let yourself be.

[Wannabeworldtravelor]

We'll be heading out on the Veendam on Sept 8th. We specifically like HAL's smaller ships. We love the promenade deck and the fact that we don't have to walk miles (I do exaggerate) to reach the dining room, bars, etc. We will let you know if we experience any problems, but in the past we have loved HAL. We've taken cruises on Royal Caribbean, Cunard and Norwegian and prefer HAL if the itinerary is one we are interested in.

[OlsSalt]

i remember hearing about the time the Veendam had inspection problems from a staff member. He claimed this was when the Veendam was doing a lot of back to back Bermuda cruises - long at-sea days and a few days in the same port, and then long at-sea days back again. The crew, for any number of reasons, was not taking this routine very well and got slack.

 

Could be when there are so many at-sea days in a repeated cruise schedule there might be more high passenger demand days with no break, so attention to the routine ship maintenance might have suffered as a result - just speculating here.

 

Ships can have funky smells in certain areas - we even smelled them on the Crystal Symphony - they tend to be episodic. However on the "flagship" Amsterdam we had funky scupper smells on our verandah that rendered it unusable for most of our South Pacific cruise. HAL upped the maintenance on the drains and offered compensation for this unfortunate at-sea adventure. Apparently it got corrected because I have not heard similar reports from the Amsterdam after that time.

[sammiedawg]

i remember hearing about the time the Veendam had inspection problems from a staff member. He claimed this was when the Veendam was doing a lot of back to back Bermuda cruises - long at-sea days and a few days in the same port, and then long at-sea days back again. The crew, for any number of reasons, was not taking this routine very well and got slack.

 

Could be when there are so many at-sea days in a repeated cruise schedule there might be more high passenger demand days with no break, so attention to the routine ship maintenance might have suffered as a result - just speculating here.

 

Ships can have funky smells in certain areas - we even smelled them on the Crystal Symphony - they tend to be episodic. However on the "flagship" Amsterdam we had funky scupper smells on our verandah that rendered it unusable for most of our South Pacific cruise. HAL upped the maintenance on the drains and offered compensation for this unfortunate at-sea adventure. Apparently it got corrected because I have not heard similar reports from the Amsterdam after that time.

 

I don’t think the staff member gave you correct info on the events leading up to the failed inspection. They were not running to and from Bermuda (unless the ship has flunked more than once).

I have followed events on this ship closely because we were on Veendam one cruise before the failed inspection. We sailed around the horn of South America in March, the ship was doing SA. After we disembarked, the ship continued on to FLL and was inspected. I believe this was in 2012.

Conditions on board were as bad as they get, entire floors had no AC, HVAC was not ventilating, smoke haze everywhere. Buckets in multiple hallways collecting dripping water? Or who knows what.

Non working plumbing in many cabins and public restrooms.

I felt very sorry for the crew dealing with it all. And the ship seemed understaffed, especially in dining areas.

[shrimp56]

I don’t think the staff member gave you correct info on the events leading up to the failed inspection. They were not running to and from Bermuda (unless the ship has flunked more than once).

I have followed events on this ship closely because we were on Veendam one cruise before the failed inspection. We sailed around the horn of South America in March, the ship was doing SA. After we disembarked, the ship continued on to FLL and was inspected. I believe this was in 2012.

Conditions on board were as bad as they get, entire floors had no AC, HVAC was not ventilating, smoke haze everywhere. Buckets in multiple hallways collecting dripping water? Or who knows what.

Non working plumbing in many cabins and public restrooms.

I felt very sorry for the crew dealing with it all. And the ship seemed understaffed, especially in dining areas.

And this is not where Veendam is now. The last 6 inspections have been either 99 or 100%. As I've said, pay attention tocurrent reports, not old ones.

[crusinbanjo]

In the past 15 years or so I have cruised about 20 times on various mass market cruise lines: HAL, Celebrity, Princess, RCI and once on Oceania. NEVER on another ship have I experienced the sewage-smelling odors that permeated through the public areas and corridors of the Veendam. And no, I didn't "love hating it." It was my hard-earned vacation. Ship happens" is when you miss a port. It's not when your cabin corridor smells like "ship."

 

 

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Mrs Banjo and I have sailed a lot of times on many different cruise lines, occasionally we have encountered issues with smells, bad service, and about every condition you can imagine. The bottom line is Veendam is still a quality ship, will she have issues? I’m sure, but the cruise is mostly what YOU make of it. If you are expecting bad things, bad things will happen, if you go with the flow and enjoy what is good, you will most always come away happy with the experience. We will be on Veendam again in May, we are looking forward to a great cruise on one of our favorite ships in the HAL fleet