Back from HAL Med cruise on Oosterdam

[Boatdrill]

15 hours ago, terrydtx said:

No confusion, the Rotterdam was her first post Covid HAL cruise and she found the food quality to be poorer quality than what it was on other HAL ships she had cruised on pre Covid. I believe that the Rotterdam cruise is the only HAL cruise she has done Post Covid.

 I see now that her opinion is referring solely to the food quality on the Rotterdam, and not HAL in general,  although she told you "the HAL food quality has gone so downhill since COVID."     

 

It sounds like your agent has always steered you in the right direction according to what kind of cruise experience you want.  An acquaintance who is in the TA/cruise business refuses to sell Carnival Cruises. He's very familiar with their product and just can't recommend it to his clients. One of his  clients (married couple) book Carnival cruises online when they have friends want to cruise together on CCL.  When that couple want to book Princess or HAL, they use him.           

 

 

  

 

 

[albingirl]

5 minutes ago, Boatdrill said:

 I see now that her opinion is referring solely to the food quality on the Rotterdam, and not HAL in general,  although she told you "the HAL food quality has gone so downhill since COVID."     

 

It sounds like your agent has always steered you in the right direction according to what kind of cruise experience you want.  An acquaintance who is in the TA/cruise business refuses to sell Carnival Cruises. He's very familiar with their product and just can't recommend it to his clients. One of his  clients (married couple) book Carnival cruises online when they have friends want to cruise together on CCL.  When that couple want to book Princess or HAL, they use him.           

 

 

  

 

 

Any TA who refuses to sell Carnival cruises would be a friend of mine.  Last one we cruised, years ago, kids were running up and down the hallways and knocking on doors all night long.  I said never again. 

[terrydtx]

32 minutes ago, Boatdrill said:

 I see now that her opinion is referring solely to the food quality on the Rotterdam, and not HAL in general,  although she told you "the HAL food quality has gone so downhill since COVID."     

 

It sounds like your agent has always steered you in the right direction according to what kind of cruise experience you want.  An acquaintance who is in the TA/cruise business refuses to sell Carnival Cruises. He's very familiar with their product and just can't recommend it to his clients. One of his  clients (married couple) book Carnival cruises online when they have friends want to cruise together on CCL.  When that couple want to book Princess or HAL, they use him.           

 

 

  

 

 

Since the Rotterdam is the supposed to be the latest and greatest ship in HAL's fleet and if one's opinion that the food was not great on board, I think it is fare to say HAL's MDR food has gone downhill. Even if that is the only HAL cruise one has been on since COVID. Or are you saying one must cruise on every HAL ship before they can justify making a statement about the food quality going downhill? 

 

You are correct my TA will not steer me to a cuisse line she thinks I will not like, that is why she has been my TA for over 15 years. We did a Haven Cruise on the NCL's Breakaway pre Covid, against her suggestion, and for us it was one and done with NCL. I do not need to sail in the Haven on every NCL ship to say the food and service was terrible, but I know we will never do it again.

Edited June 13, 2022 by terrydtx

[Seasick Sailor]

15 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Since the Rotterdam is the supposed to be the latest and greatest ship in HAL's fleet and if one's opinion that the food was not great on board, I think it is fare to say HAL's MDR food has gone downhill. Even if that is the only HAL cruise one has been on since COVID. Or are you saying one must cruise on every HAL ship before they can justify making a statement about the food quality going downhill? 

 

You are correct my TA will not steer me to a cuisse line she thinks I will not like, that is why she has been my TA for over 15 years. We did a Haven Cruise on the NCL's Breakaway pre Covid, against her suggestion, and for us it was one and done with NCL. I do not need to sail in the Haven on every NCL ship to say the food and service was terrible, but I know we will never do it again.

 

We were on Rotterdam from Dec 11th for 34 days. We are 4* Mariners. We felt the food and drinks were delicious, ship was so clean, service was great. 

 

We have sailed on Viking cruises, NCL multi times, and Cunard. Viking can't be compared (price wise) and we have always enjoyed our time on HAL.

 

Everyone has different experiences. That's life!

 

P.S. we are cruising Rotterdam once again this year. Dec 11th til Jan 25th. 

[Boatdrill]

5 hours ago, albingirl said:

Any TA who refuses to sell Carnival cruises would be a friend of mine.  Last one we cruised, years ago, kids were running up and down the hallways and knocking on doors all night long.  I said never again. 

At least they didn't throw the deck chairs overboard !

(true story).  

[terrydtx]

5 hours ago, albingirl said:

Any TA who refuses to sell Carnival cruises would be a friend of mine.  Last one we cruised, years ago, kids were running up and down the hallways and knocking on doors all night long.  I said never again. 

Same thing happened to us on our one and last RCL cruise. Carnival, NCL and Royal are for families with young kids whose parents think the ship is a babysitter and it's OK to let them run amuck unsupervised for 7 days.

[gailellen12]

On 6/5/2022 at 11:23 AM, Torquer said:

Question on transfers from Trieste back to Venice

 

Wow!  Hope things improve for our cruise on Oosterdam later this summer.

 

Can you tell us about the transfers from Trieste back to Venice when disembarking.  What time did the buses leave Trieste?  HAL has refused to tell us what time they will leave, and specifically if they will be early enough to catch flights out of VCE around noon.

I was on this recent cruise. Since I had a 12:15 flight I was on the first Trieste airport shuttle at 6:30. We made it to the airport in pretty good time but the security lines at the airport were horrendous. I don’t think anyone with a flight much earlier than noon would be able to make it  I thought the cruise was nice but my thoughts are similar to previous posters. My feelings about HAL are mostly due to a complete breakdown by them in booking my flights   I am more specific in my recent Fright ease post. I just wasn’t overwhemed by this cruise as I had been by previous ones 

[VMax1700]

15 hours ago, anniel2 said:

Wow, We will be sailing on Oosterdam June 25.  We booked a two nights at a hotel in Venice pre-cruise.  I was concerned about the two hour bus ride to Trieste and at least I know what to expect.  Since we are arriving three days before the cruise, we will need to get tested Covid tested in Venice.  We were planning on testing at the Venice airport, but now I'm worried that that will shut down, since they just lifted the covid testing requirements for flights back to the US.  Any recommendations as to where to get tested in Venice?

 

If you read my current 'Almost Live from Oosterdam' thread, there is a link to testing site in Venice Pza Roma and the link mentions times for Airport.

It may change in the coming weeks, but if you book, then they probably would advise you if they change.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2858000-nearly-live-from-oosterdam-med-empires-june-13th-25th/

 

[terrydtx]

5 hours ago, gailellen12 said:

I was on this recent cruise. Since I had a 12:15 flight I was on the first Trieste airport shuttle at 6:30. We made it to the airport in pretty good time but the security lines at the airport were horrendous. I don’t think anyone with a flight much earlier than noon would be able to make it  I thought the cruise was nice but my thoughts are similar to previous posters. My feelings about HAL are mostly due to a complete breakdown by them in booking my flights   I am more specific in my recent Fright ease post. I just wasn’t overwhemed by this cruise as I had been by previous ones 

We get off the Oosterdam on Sept 4th, however we are not returning to Trieste,  we come back to Maghera port in Venice, but we decided when we booked our air to fly home the day after on the 5th at 11:20am. We want to avoid the long cruise passengers lines.

[nyold]

17 hours ago, albingirl said:

I'm always surprised at the comments on food quality on these threads.  I have found food to be delicious on all Holland America ships, and I am no cheerleader either.  I wonder what people are eating at home to say the food is not good?  I think there is room for improvement, particularly in the area of entertainment, but I found the food to be consistently fine.

What? You don't have a personal chef that makes Michelin quality dinner each night at home? 🤣

 

I jest. I do think HAL's food is a step up above RCL/NCL (the other lines I have tried), although in terms of entertainment I think it's NCL > RCL > HAL. So I agree with you there. Maybe they are comparing it against other lines like Celebrity because HAL and Celebrity's prices are comparable?

 

[gailellen12]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We get off the Oosterdam on Sept 4th, however we are not returning to Trieste,  we come back to Maghera port in Venice, but we decided when we booked our air to fly home the day after on the 5th at 11:20am. We want to avoid the long cruise passengers lines.

Allow plenty of time for all the hassle at the Venice airport. The customs line for return flights to US took probably over an hour in itself. The airport was mobbed and it is only now the start of the vacation season

[terrydtx]

25 minutes ago, gailellen12 said:

Allow plenty of time for all the hassle at the Venice airport. The customs line for return flights to US took probably over an hour in itself. The airport was mobbed and it is only now the start of the vacation season

We knew this from past flights and posts here. So many airports in Europe have been a mess all this season, another reason we didn't want to connect there and only book direct flights back to the US. Our first cruise in the Med we flew home from Barcelona the day we got off the ship. there were hundreds of passengers from our cruise all checking in at the same time and it took us over 2 hours to check in, that was 15 years ago. We learned our lesson back then.

[Unlvswezel]

8 hours ago, gailellen12 said:

I was on this recent cruise. Since I had a 12:15 flight I was on the first Trieste airport shuttle at 6:30. We made it to the airport in pretty good time but the security lines at the airport were horrendous. I don’t think anyone with a flight much earlier than noon would be able to make it  I thought the cruise was nice but my thoughts are similar to previous posters. My feelings about HAL are mostly due to a complete breakdown by them in booking my flights   I am more specific in my recent Fright ease post. I just wasn’t overwhemed by this cruise as I had been by previous ones 

Would you mind expanding your return experience? We are on a sailing that ends in Tireste next month and am worried about getting off the ship and transferred in time for our 12:30 flight.

[gailellen12]

7 hours ago, Unlvswezel said:

Would you mind expanding your return experience? We are on a sailing that ends in Tireste next month and am worried about getting off the ship and transferred in time for our 12:30 flight.

I was able to make my 12:15 flight with enough time to spare. Not sure that those I heard who had even much earlier flights would have been ok The security line took at least 50 minutes and the airport itself is a maze of different places where your passport is checked multiple times. Disembarkment from the ship was fine. With our flight at 12:15 we were in group yellow 2 and left Trieste sometime around 6:40 or so I think.Approx 2 hr 15 minutes to the airport. Yesterday is still rather vague to me due my current jet lag.🥴

[Hlitner]

Perhaps a few decades of mismanagement and backwards thinking has finally caught up to HAL.  Consider that when nearly all the mass market lines were moving to new ships with mostly balcony cabins, HAL was still trying to market older vessels with few balconies.  Consider that when most lines had upgraded its alternative dining options, HAL stuck with their tired and "stuck in a rut" Pinnacle.  And while quite a few lines were upgrading their entertainment, HAL was reducing the live music and eliminating Production Shows....even on the new ships that were built with state of the art stage facilities.    And now we have HAL playing this budget cruise line game with price add-ons in both their MDR and Pinnacle (this is an add-on on top of a fee).  When HAL developed the BB King concept I thought....."what a great idea."  Than we took two cruises on ships with BB King groups and found they seldom to ever play BB King music.  Instead I had to listen to 70s Disco music.  Irene Cara had her moment, but that is not music that you ever would have heard from the real BB King.

 

DW and I are 5* Mariners and truly look for an excuse to book with HAL.  The problem is that our last 3 bookings (with HAL) have been cancelled by HAL!  Even when we try to cruise with HAL it does not happen.  We have no problem taking our cruises with Seabourn, Princess and MSC.  

 

And I will again toss out a pet peeve which is how HAL is years behind their competition when it comes to suite amenities.  The Neptune Lounge?  Really?  You cannot even get a free adult drink in that lounge.  Take a look at what Celebrity does for their suites that are part of the "Retreat" concept.  Or look at MSC and their amazing Yacht Club where folks get an entire section of the ship (including lounge, restaurant, pool deck, buffet area, etc.).  What do you get on HAL for paying the big bucks for a Neptune or Pinnacle Suite?  A nice suite!  Oh...and I guess you can get breakfast in a special venue with the same eggs you can get in the MDR.  Speaking of MSC's Yacht Club, their private restaurant is opened for lunch every day...even when in port!  And I guess we could talk about NCLs Haven Suites, Cunard's Grill Suites, etc. etc.  HAL is in a class of their own with no class when it comes to suite amenities.

 

Hank

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

What do you get on HAL for paying the big bucks for a Neptune or Pinnacle Suite?  A nice suite!

 

What's wrong with that?  Looking at, for example, Koningsdam, the Pinnacle suite is 5.5 times the size of a regular Veranda cabin. If you want that kind of space on a ship, where space is a very valuable commodity, why shouldn't you expect to pay at least 5.5 times more?

 

But then I'm not a suite customer, nor a fan of a "ship in a ship".....

[Lindancer]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Perhaps a few decades of mismanagement and backwards thinking has finally caught up to HAL.  Consider that when nearly all the mass market lines were moving to new ships with mostly balcony cabins, HAL was still trying to market older vessels with few balconies.  Consider that when most lines had upgraded its alternative dining options, HAL stuck with their tired and "stuck in a rut" Pinnacle.  And while quite a few lines were upgrading their entertainment, HAL was reducing the live music and eliminating Production Shows....even on the new ships that were built with state of the art stage facilities.    And now we have HAL playing this budget cruise line game with price add-ons in both their MDR and Pinnacle (this is an add-on on top of a fee).  When HAL developed the BB King concept I thought....."what a great idea."  Than we took two cruises on ships with BB King groups and found they seldom to ever play BB King music.  Instead I had to listen to 70s Disco music.  Irene Cara had her moment, but that is not music that you ever would have heard from the real BB King.

 

DW and I are 5* Mariners and truly look for an excuse to book with HAL.  The problem is that our last 3 bookings (with HAL) have been cancelled by HAL!  Even when we try to cruise with HAL it does not happen.  We have no problem taking our cruises with Seabourn, Princess and MSC.  

 

And I will again toss out a pet peeve which is how HAL is years behind their competition when it comes to suite amenities.  The Neptune Lounge?  Really?  You cannot even get a free adult drink in that lounge.  Take a look at what Celebrity does for their suites that are part of the "Retreat" concept.  Or look at MSC and their amazing Yacht Club where folks get an entire section of the ship (including lounge, restaurant, pool deck, buffet area, etc.).  What do you get on HAL for paying the big bucks for a Neptune or Pinnacle Suite?  A nice suite!  Oh...and I guess you can get breakfast in a special venue with the same eggs you can get in the MDR.  Speaking of MSC's Yacht Club, their private restaurant is opened for lunch every day...even when in port!  And I guess we could talk about NCLs Haven Suites, Cunard's Grill Suites, etc. etc.  HAL is in a class of their own with no class when it comes to suite amenities.

 

Hank

Your criticisms are undoubted valid.  But what I do like about having a Neptune Suite on Konigsdam or Nieuw Statendam, is that Club Orange members have their own private dining room.  We get our favorite table every night and the staff knows our likes.  

[Seasick Sailor]

17 minutes ago, Lindancer said:

Your criticisms are undoubted valid.  But what I do like about having a Neptune Suite on Konigsdam or Nieuw Statendam, is that Club Orange members have their own private dining room.  We get our favorite table every night and the staff knows our likes.  

 

You don't need a Neptune to get into Club Orange. Our waiters in MDR, Tamarind, Sel de Mer, Canaletto, and Pinnacle know our names and our table choices within the 1st week. We are only 4 star Mariners but like to sail 30 to 45 days and have Vista Suite's. Accessible..

[*Miss G*]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Consider that when nearly all the mass market lines were moving to new ships with mostly balcony cabins, HAL was still trying to market older vessels with few balconies.  Consider that when most lines had upgraded its alternative dining options, HAL stuck with their tired and "stuck in a rut" Pinnacle.  And while quite a few lines were upgrading their entertainment, HAL was reducing the live music

 

Statements like the above highlight that you haven’t sailed on any of HAL’s Pinnacle-class ships.

[terrydtx]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Perhaps a few decades of mismanagement and backwards thinking has finally caught up to HAL.  Consider that when nearly all the mass market lines were moving to new ships with mostly balcony cabins, HAL was still trying to market older vessels with few balconies.  Consider that when most lines had upgraded its alternative dining options, HAL stuck with their tired and "stuck in a rut" Pinnacle.  And while quite a few lines were upgrading their entertainment, HAL was reducing the live music and eliminating Production Shows....even on the new ships that were built with state of the art stage facilities.    And now we have HAL playing this budget cruise line game with price add-ons in both their MDR and Pinnacle (this is an add-on on top of a fee).  When HAL developed the BB King concept I thought....."what a great idea."  Than we took two cruises on ships with BB King groups and found they seldom to ever play BB King music.  Instead I had to listen to 70s Disco music.  Irene Cara had her moment, but that is not music that you ever would have heard from the real BB King.

 

DW and I are 5* Mariners and truly look for an excuse to book with HAL.  The problem is that our last 3 bookings (with HAL) have been cancelled by HAL!  Even when we try to cruise with HAL it does not happen.  We have no problem taking our cruises with Seabourn, Princess and MSC.  

 

And I will again toss out a pet peeve which is how HAL is years behind their competition when it comes to suite amenities.  The Neptune Lounge?  Really?  You cannot even get a free adult drink in that lounge.  Take a look at what Celebrity does for their suites that are part of the "Retreat" concept.  Or look at MSC and their amazing Yacht Club where folks get an entire section of the ship (including lounge, restaurant, pool deck, buffet area, etc.).  What do you get on HAL for paying the big bucks for a Neptune or Pinnacle Suite?  A nice suite!  Oh...and I guess you can get breakfast in a special venue with the same eggs you can get in the MDR.  Speaking of MSC's Yacht Club, their private restaurant is opened for lunch every day...even when in port!  And I guess we could talk about NCLs Haven Suites, Cunard's Grill Suites, etc. etc.  HAL is in a class of their own with no class when it comes to suite amenities.

 

Hank

Hank, we had been perfectly happy with HAL until they canceled our Westerdam cruise of Greece last year 2 weeks after final payment, which was over our 50th Anniversary. We then booked the Celebrity Equinox for a Caribbean cruise and we opted for a Sky Suite and their Retreat product which cost about the same as the Signature Suite we had in the canceled Westerdam cruise, We absolutely fell in love with Celebrity and the Retreat. We are 3 Star and close to 4 Star with HAL and after our Oosterdam cruise in August we are done with HAL. HAL's suites have zero compared to all the amenities, benefits and private restaurant with a totally different menu than the MDR every night, not just Club Orange's one extra entree. Until we took the Equinox cruise we had no idea they had a product so much better than what we thought was just fine with HAL. HAL did us a favor by canceling  that cruise last year as we would not have ventured outside our HAL blinders.

Edited June 15, 2022 by terrydtx

[AFNavigator]

On 6/5/2022 at 12:29 PM, cruisemom42 said:

Anyway, got a chuckle out of your typo: Leaning Tower of Pizza

No wonder it's leaning.  Thick crust is kind of squishy.

[Florida_gal_50]

8 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Hank, we had been perfectly happy with HAL until they canceled our Westerdam cruise of Greece last year 2 weeks after final payment, which was over our 50th Anniversary. We then booked the Celebrity Equinox for a Caribbean cruise and we opted for a Sky Suite and their Retreat product which cost about the same as the Signature Suite we had in the canceled Westerdam cruise, We absolutely fell in love with Celebrity and the Retreat. We are 3 Star and close to 4 Star with HAL and after our Oosterdam cruise in August we are done with HAL. HAL's suites have zero compared to all the amenities, benefits and private restaurant with a totally different menu than the MDR every night, not just Club Orange's one extra entree. Until we took the Equinox cruise we had no idea they had a product so much better than what we thought was just fine with HAL. HAL did us a favor by canceling  that cruise last year as we would not have ventured outside our HAL blinders.

I would expect that a cruise to Greece would be much more expensive than a Caribbean cruise so can you really compare the two? I’m not a celebrity fan but they must have gotten at least 100 percent better than when I sailed them.  

[terrydtx]

8 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I would expect that a cruise to Greece would be much more expensive than a Caribbean cruise so can you really compare the two? I’m not a celebrity fan but they must have gotten at least 100 percent better than when I sailed them.  

At least in their Retreat suites, the Retreat is where Celebrity really stepped up their game while HAL made so few improvements, other than their feeble attempt with Club Orange. If we now wanted to just cruise in standard veranda cabins, I do not see much difference in the two lines. It's like the first time we flew first or business class made it very hard to go back to coach, the first time we did a true suite on Celebrity has made it impossible to go back to any lower class. The last few HAL cruises, including our upcoming Oosterdam cruise we booked Signature Suites for the larger cabin and balcony, after our first SS we couldn't go back to a standard Verandah.

[doone]

On 6/5/2022 at 10:36 AM, Oldies123 said:

thank you - but we WILL be looking at other cruise lines 

Other cruise lines are experiencing issues as well, you can't escape, we are just coming out of a pandemic and its going to take time for all cruise lines to get back to "normal", whatever that may look like in the future.  I just came back from a land tour in Italy, we had issues, I was just happy I could travel again......

 

[doone]

4 hours ago, terrydtx said:

At least in their Retreat suites, the Retreat is where Celebrity really stepped up their game while HAL made so few improvements, other than their feeble attempt with Club Orange. If we now wanted to just cruise in standard veranda cabins, I do not see much difference in the two lines. It's like the first time we flew first or business class made it very hard to go back to coach, the first time we did a true suite on Celebrity has made it impossible to go back to any lower class. The last few HAL cruises, including our upcoming Oosterdam cruise we booked Signature Suites for the larger cabin and balcony, after our first SS we couldn't go back to a standard Verandah.

And Celebrity costs more than HAL.