First cruise on Holland America (Eurodam) - My thoughts

[LabMom57]

We just returned from our first cruise on Holland America. It was a 7-day Alaskan cruise, Seattle to Seattle. My overall impression is that we enjoyed the experience a great deal. We already have another cruise booked on HAL for April 2024 (Japan) and wanted to be sure we liked the line before that bill comes due. 

 

There has been a lot posted about how things have slipped on various lines since COVID, so I thought I would share our impressions. We have been on 2 previous cruises, both on Oceania. We cruise in Veranda staterooms. 

 

Why I chose to try HAL: 

The cost for Oceania is very high when compared to HAL. Even though a lot is included in the Oceania fare, I was feeling like I wasn't getting my money's worth. We have traveled extensively throughout our lives and like a bit of luxury. However, we also want value for the money. We decided to try other lines just so we could compare for ourselves. For my wallet, I felt HAL veranda cabin with HIA was an excellent value (standard HIA not early booking with the upgrades).

 

What we liked best:

The food. It was pretty uniformly excellent.  Tamarind was spectacular and an excellent value. The food in the dining room was also excellent. The buffet food was also very good, though some entrees were overcooked for my palate. Not a big deal to me. Since it is a buffet, I can go back for something else! I love a good cruise buffet. 🙂

 

Choice of venues. We enjoyed checking out all the different entertainment venues on the ship and the various bars. There is something for everyone compared to the small ships we had been on before. We liked some venues more than others but had the freedom to choose, which I really liked.

 

Lots of places to hang out. The ship had a lot of places to sit and relax or read. I really liked that. It was Alaska so outside was often not the best place to be. Fortunately, we found different places all the time. Loved that.

 

Library. I actually really liked the library concept on the Eurodam. I don't actually need any books as I travel with a Kindle. However, my husband (who is not a reader) was able to find a book that interested him and he enjoyed.

 

Space for all. One thing we worried about was the number of people on the ship. We are used to sailing on ships that have room for less than 700 people. There were almost 2100 on our sailing. We worried about lines and having to wait for things. We really did not have to worry. Even in the buffet, there are so many stations available and the staff so good at serving, lines are short and waits are brief. We had no problem getting off the ship for excursions, which was great. However, we did not have any tender ports on this voyage!

 

Cabin size. As I said, we choose veranda cabins for cruising. One issue with some of the small ships is the size of the stateroom, and in particular the size of the bathroom on Oceania's smaller ships. I was pleased with what we had on the Eurodam and would not hesitate to book it again.

 

Things that weren't great:

The food in Pinnacle Grill was very good but the service was terrible there. It took 90 minutes from when we were seated to when we received our entree. It was clear the kitchen couldn't keep up that night. We had a LONG delay between our appetizer and our entree. 

 

Express lunch in the main dining room on a late start port day was not great. The staff was a mess and couldn't seem to get everyone's orders served for each course. Someone was always missing a dish at our table. Embarkation meal in the MDR was also not great. Fortunately, other meals on different days were great.

 

Staff in some bars kept making mistakes. Not a huge deal. We eventually chose to stick to the bar where we got better service (Billboard Onboard).

 

Room service delivered our breakfast 30+ minutes early twice -- one of which we were still asleep! I always plan for up to 10 minutes or so early but 35 minutes was a bit much given it was 5:25 am. I know why it happened (early port call). Again, not a huge problem.

 

Water. I don't like that water is part of the beverage package. I drink about 3 liters a day and it was very hard to do for this voyage. HAL should install self-serve bottle refill stations or allow passengers to bring on water. I would buy a case from them but the price was absurd. This was the one thing that really annoyed me. 

 

Bottom line: For us, Holland America was a pleasant surprise. Itinerary is still the most important item for us when cruising but HAL just moved up to the top of the list in preference for us. We have a Celebrity cruise in 2024, so we will see how we feel after that.

 

My thanks to everyone who shared their opinions, experiences, and information here on CC. It was a great help to us in researching prior to our cruise. 

 

Ellen

[Roz]

Thank you for a balanced review.  

[Mary229]

Nice review. Thank you.  Some ships do have water bottle refill in the lido.  I just bring extra water reusable water bottles and keep them in the cooler in the room. I definitely understand your POV.  The key to bar experience is as you said, find a bar and stick with it.  

[Sunset Viewers]

Did you try drinking the tap water? We find it tastes fine.

[YourWorldWithBill]

3 hours ago, LabMom57 said:

There has been a lot posted about how things have slipped on various lines since COVID, so I thought I would share our impressions. We have been on 2 previous cruises, both on Oceania. We cruise in Veranda staterooms. 

Thanks for your very balanced review. We are going in the opposite direction: after a couple of Holland America cruises we are trying Oceania for our next cruise, mainly because of what I've heard about the food. How would you compare the food on the two lines? 

 

We have also cruised on Viking, and felt there was a noticeable difference between that and HAL; not surprising, as Viking is considered to be in a similar luxury class as Oceania. 

[LabMom57]

1 hour ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Thanks for your very balanced review. We are going in the opposite direction: after a couple of Holland America cruises we are trying Oceania for our next cruise, mainly because of what I've heard about the food. How would you compare the food on the two lines? 

 

We have also cruised on Viking, and felt there was a noticeable difference between that and HAL; not surprising, as Viking is considered to be in a similar luxury class as Oceania. 

I understand.  We feel the same way about food.

 

I was really surprised by the quality of the food on the Eurodam. It was excellent,  as good or better than Oceania. 

 

We still sail Oceania. We have a cruise booked for December on the Insignia in fact. My enjoyment of our HAL cruise is not a dis on Oceania. We still intend to enjoy whatever cruise we get a good price on an itinerary we like.

[LabMom57]

2 hours ago, Sunset Viewers said:

Did you try drinking the tap water? We find it tastes fine.

Yes and I did. It works. It's just suboptimal for me. Ice twice a day helps though. 😌 

[kazu]

Great review, well balanced and much appreciated.

 

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences 🙂 

[albingirl]

Thanks for your review.  I really liked all of the positives that you noted; I agree that it's a good value for your dollar most of the time.  The water thing for many people is tough, because it is so expensive, but, like others, we feel tap water is just fine.  I think your review is nifty, since it's so easy to follow.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

[Mary229]

10 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Thanks for your very balanced review. We are going in the opposite direction: after a couple of Holland America cruises we are trying Oceania for our next cruise, mainly because of what I've heard about the food. How would you compare the food on the two lines? 

 

We have also cruised on Viking, and felt there was a noticeable difference between that and HAL; not surprising, as Viking is considered to be in a similar luxury class as Oceania. 

I did not find the food on Oceania all that much better.  There were some highlights just as HAL has some very good dishes.  I found the service atrocious.

[deliver42]

Everybody thinks the grass is greener on the other side, then they find the truth.

[Haljo1935]

21 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

Everybody thinks the grass is greener on the other side, then they find the truth.

There is no green grass - it's what you make it. IMO

[SilvertoGold]

Excellent review, much appreciated.  That Express Lunch is hit or miss.  We went to 4 last year, 3 this year and all had similar menus which were quite short and boring.  Soggy fish and chips was the all-time worst.  

Enjoyed your review and hope you will post a review of your Japan cruise!

[gizmodog]

Thank you for the review we will be on her next year to Alaska. First time on the Eurodam. I have cruised with other HAL ships and the cruises were quite enjoyable, food always too. Service excellent. Love to read reviews on ships I have not been on before.

[Loreto]

Thanks for the review!  We will be on the Eurodam for the 3rd time Sept. 2 Alaska and looking forward to enjoying the Tamarind again.

[YourWorldWithBill]

3 hours ago, Mary229 said:

I did not find the food on Oceania all that much better.  There were some highlights just as HAL has some very good dishes.  I found the service atrocious.

Good to hear what you experienced, in order to lower our expectations! I've read complaints about the service on the O message boards, also. I wonder if that's a top-down issue that trickles down, not only from O but also from NCL. 

[Mary229]

3 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Good to hear what you experienced, in order to lower our expectations! I've read complaints about the service on the O message boards, also. I wonder if that's a top-down issue that trickles down, not only from O but also from NCL. 

NCL was my first cruise line and if they had continued floating smaller ships I would have gladly stayed with them.  That is why I was actually anxious to sail Oceania thinking “great, the service, the fun, the food I liked on a smaller ship”.  Enough said, perhaps things have improved since then. 

[LabMom57]

28 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Good to hear what you experienced, in order to lower our expectations! I've read complaints about the service on the O message boards, also. I wonder if that's a top-down issue that trickles down, not only from O but also from NCL. 

That is very interesting as we also experienced really terrible service at times on our last Oceania cruise. It wasn't all bad service, but definitely not what we had experienced pre COVID on the line. Most of the service was very good. We only had issues in the MDR and Martini's bar.

 

The food in the Regatta MDR also reduced in reliable quality. Most dishes were good but some were really bad, like overcooked steak. I just don't expect that on O.

 

For those who might be comparing food on the cruise lines, I will share that lobster tails are still free on Oceania and are even found in the buffet. You can get two mains without any upcharges in any restaurant. As of my last sailing on Oceania in April, there were NO upcharges for food anywhere. The food in the buffet was all excellent.

 

I don't really mind the upcharges we found on HAL though. We can pick and choose what we want to eat and pay for, which matters to our bottom line. Sailing on Celebrity or HAL saves us thousands of dollars for a similar itinerary and the cabins are larger than the Oceania R class ships for the same grade. We did like sailing on smaller ships but have realized we don't mind the 2000 passenger size as much as we thought. Next up will be a cruise on Oceania Insignia in December and then Celebrity Edge in February. I will be happy to share my thoughts after those as well. I'm hoping Oceania has trained their new staff better before December. I do hope to sail on their larger ships (1200 pax) in the future for comparison if I can get a good price.

[Denise T]

Thank you for the great review. I will be sailing on Eurodam from Seattle to Alaska in 2025. I sailed this year on her sister ship Nieuw Amsterdam and loved every minute of it. Hoping they get the kinks out of the service issues by then. I always drank from the tap water in the state room. I would fill a bottle and take that with me. The water was good. The great thing about cruising is that there is something for everyone. 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for sharing. 

[aliaschief]

Thank you for sharing your cruise experience.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Thanks for the review! I agree that Tamarind is wonderful. I was on Eurodam last winter, and I have to agree that service in Pinnacle needed improvement. Perhaps they were/are short staffed.

 

MDR lunch is not spectacular. I go on the first day because I like the quiet time after the rush to get to the port, check in, etc. It's a calm start to the cruise. Otherwise, I have a salad bar lunch in the Lido most days. I think HAL's salad bar is great. And it's a healthy lunch. Well, until I go to the Mexican station and add some quac and chips...

[Haljo1935]

Thanks for the review - our most recent Eurodam cruise was May this year to AK, r/t Seattle. We had no real issues, couple elevators were out all week which were reported to still be out for several cruises after ours.

Food was good, service, as usual, was excellent, no significant wait times for anything (ship was sold out).

We have enjoyed all our cruises on Eurodam and look forward to another next year.