Oosterdam Review - January 24-31

[xznwfd]

Oosterdam review – January 24 – 31, 2009

This review is going to be very long and detailed. If you just want the highlights here they are – I’ve tried to hit the points people seem to be the most concerned about on the boards:

Likes:

· New Pinnacle menu (love all the new seafood and vegetarian choices)

· SY suite

· Anytime dining! We usually never waited at all for a table for 2, and only 10 minutes the one time we did have to wait (formal night). They give you a beeper, so it’s not a big deal at all

· Wonderful HAL staff

· No trays in Lido – seemed to cut down on waste, and we never had a problem carrying our plates

· HAL shore excursion in Cabo (whale watching – fabulous)

· Room service (used for breakfast every day – only forgot items twice, and quickly brought them to us)

· Massage on the beach at Krystal Resort in Puerto Vallarta!!!

· Grapefruit Cosmos

· Elemis products in bathrooms

Not so much:

· New 2 person room steward teams. Our guys were great, but had far too many rooms to take care of, and always looked exhausted. Many times our room was not made up when we came back.

· Not as many fresh flowers as in the past around the ship

· Dining room menus somewhat lackluster

· Vendors in Mexico on beach and in shopping areas – seemed much worse than in Caribbean

· Hair dryer in room. Granted, it’s not the wall mounted kind, but it’s mounted in one of the desk drawers. It doesn’t heat up much, and you have to hold the button down the whole time you are using it.

If you’re still with me, grab a coffee or a nice grapefruit cosmo, and let’s get started!

Friday, January 23, 2009

We Depart the Frozen Wasteland of Michigan for Sunny Southern California

My best friend Joan and I have been taking an annual trip together since we were in college – which was far too many years ago to think about. We started with drive 24 hours trips to my Nana’s in New Smyrna beach, graduated to mini-breaks in Florida at nice hotels with spas, and experimented with all inclusive resorts. Then, in 2001, we discovered cruising and were hooked. Our first cruise was on the Celebrity Millennium and we quickly realized it was the perfect vacation for us. Every since then, we’ve booked a cruise annually, and prepare for it like an army prepares for war.

This year, after a lovely Caribbean cruise on the Caribbean Princess last year, we went back to one of our two favorite cruise lines, Holland America. In the Spirit of Change that is happily sweeping our nation, we decided to forgo our beloved Caribbean for the Mexican Riviera. The reasons were twofold, the first being my sister and her family live in San Diego and it would give us a chance to see them, and the second being we’ve never been to the Pacific side of Mexico and were curious about it. So, we booked the lovely Oosterdam for the week of January 24-31.

Now, I work for one of the Big Three American automakers, and Joan works for a bank, so for a while we questioned the wisdom of flitting off on a cruise when the economy and our industries are in such awful shape. But the combination of unbelievable rates and the strong desire to bolster our flagging economy by spending some of our money convinced us it was the right thing to do. Also, this has been the coldest, snowiest and longest winter we’ve experienced in years, and we were desperately craving some sunshine. We had already spent almost 3 months navigating to our jobs (and happy to be going to them, I might add) over snow and ice covered roads, and we’d had enough. Off to the Mexico we went!

We got an amazing rate on an SY suite on the Oosterdam through an on line cruise agency. We’d sailed on the Zuiderdam in a similar mini suite a few years back and loved the room – the size is much bigger than your average verandah room, and the balcony is huge. We also appreciated the tub and separate shower and the huge double sinks so we knew we would be happy with our choice. By some strange alignment of the planets we were actually able to use frequent flyer miles for the flights we wanted, so we felt we were both good little bargain hunters and at the same time strong supporters of our economy. A true win-win situation.

The week before our trip was hellish at work. Our flight left Detroit at 7:30 pm on Friday and I was exhausted, having slept very little in days. My wonderful boyfriend, the Melancholy Italian (or MI), was in charge of chauffeuring our luggage and us to the airport, as well as moving in to my house to tend to my flock of cats (who prefer live in help). We packed a bit more carefully than in the carefree days of unlimited luggage checking, but still had enough dresses, shoes and evening purses to open a small boutique should the need arise. After multiple document checks, we finally climbed aboard our flight and started to head west to San Diego, one of my favorite cities in the world.

We had booked the Holiday Inn on the Bay though Hotwire after reading rave reviews in Cruise Critic for its convenient location across the street from the cruise terminal. We got to SD about 10:00, and took a cab from the airport, only $12 with tip. The trip began auspiciously when I asked for a harbor view room and was upgraded at no charge. The rooms were fine if not luxurious; clean, a decent size, and with a nice pillow assortment on the beds. Since it was about 2:00 am Detroit time by the time we were settled, we fell into bed, buried ourselves in pillows, and slept like dead women.

Saturday, January 23 (Embarkation)

In the morning, I, being an annoyingly early riser, bounded out of bed about 7 and flung open the curtains. There, almost close enough to touch, was the beautiful Oosterdam in her slip in the harbor. We quickly showered and dressed and called my sister and her family to come and meet us for a fabulous breakfast at the Elephant and Castle in the hotel lobby. About 11, they headed home, and we raced back to pack up our room and walk the short distance (literally across the street) to the cruise terminal to check in. We got there about noon, and there were no lines at all. We walked right through the whole check in process and onto the ship, and were allowed to go immediately to our room. The cruise the week before was a charter with only 900 people on it, so the turnover was much faster than usual. We dropped off our carryon bags and headed out to the dining room for a wonderful lunch, accompanied by my favorite HAL drink, the grapefruit cosmo. If the price of grapefruits has gone up in your area you can blame me – I drank little else on this cruise. Our bar waiter George even wrote out the recipe for me so I can recreate them at home. He was the first of many bar and restaurant staff who suggested that we come back to their sections for the rest of the week. We did wonder why everyone was so insistent that we come back to their sections, but guessed it was probably a good reflection on them if we asked for them when we returned. Several of the housekeeping and bar staff mentioned the small group aboard the prior week, so we wondered if perhaps their tips had suffered because of it. We did our best to make up for the shortfall in the week to come.

We had flowers and champagne in the room from our on line agency, and ordered a bottle of vodka from room service for our room ($30 for a liter of Stoli). We used juices for mixers – only drank about half of the bottle over the week, but it was very nice to have. I brought a bottle of port and a bottle of wine for the room as well, so we were all set.

After lunch, we headed back to our room to hopefully unpack. No suitcases yet, so we hung out on our balcony and admired the San Diego skyline. Our room steward Darma (with assistant Ali) came by to introduce themselves, and we headed to muster at 4:00. It was painless, although we prefer the Princess muster where you are seated comfortably in a lounge and don’t have to put on your life jacket until seated. At any rate, by the time we got back to our room our cases were there and we quickly unpacked. The storage in the SY suites is awesome – a big 3 part closet with both a long and short hanging section and lots of shelves, plus several drawers and oodles of cabinet and counter space in the bathroom. We got everything stowed neatly away, and then ventured out in the ship to explore and make reservations for some Pinnacle dinners. We got a reservation for 7 for that first night, so once we finished our wandering we returned to trick up a bit and flounced down to the Pinnacle for our first night’s dinner.

We’ve always liked the Pinnacle, but really enjoyed the new menu. I eat very little red meat, so I appreciated the many new seafood entrees. I started with the crab cake, while Joan had the jumbo shrimp. We both had the broiled lobster tail with butter for our entre, and the chocolate volcano cake for desert. Everything was perfect, even though we could have shared the volcano cake as we just couldn’t finish the giant ramekin by ourselves.

We don’t usually do the ship shows (find them a bit amateurish) so we headed back to our room and had a wonderful night’s rest on the fabulous beds.

Sunday, January 25 (sea day)

We were cruising down the coast of Mexico, and set the clocks ahead an hour. The weather was sunny but cool, probably in the mid 60’s. For us, it was a heat wave, so we had no complaints. We had a great room service breakfast, and I headed up to the gym. The spinning class was cancelled, so I used the treadmills and did some yoga in the group exercise area. The gym was great – lots of equipment all in good condition and plenty of room for all.

We ate in the Lido for lunch, and it was quite crowded. Food choices and quality were very good. We had a wine tasting at 2 for $15, 2 reds, 2 whites and one sparkling. All were good, and the pours were VERY generous. In fact, after the tasting, we went back to our room for 3 hour naps!

We woke up about 7 pm, and quickly showered and dressed for the first formal dinner in the dining room. We had Anytime Dining, and loved it. We were seated immediately at a table for 2 and had wonderful service and a very nice meal. I will say that we both prefer the food on Celebrity; they seem to have a better variety and better quality of dishes, but we never went hungry on this cruise. The wonderful staff helped make up for the not so great food choices, and everything was presented beautifully and served hot/cold as it should be. The one outstanding item every day was the soups – every single one was fabulous – perfectly seasoned and delicious. The soup chef should get a medal of honor!

After dinner, we wandered the ship, took some pictures, and found our way into the casino. It was a bit smoky for me, (I’m asthmatic) so I went back to the room and Joan won some money at roulette. Overall the casino wasn’t bad for smoke and most people would have no problem with it. We also had smokers next door to us and often smelled smoke on our balcony. That certainly didn’t keep us from enjoying our balcony though – just smelling a little smoke is no big deal. It dissipated quickly in the fresh air, and we never smelled it in the hallways or anywhere else on the ship except the casino.

Monday, January 26 (Sea day)

We filled our card for an early (7:30) breakfast, because from 7-9 we were touring a bay on the coast that was known for whales. Sure enough we saw several from the ship, and hundreds of dolphins. It was fabulous! The captain lingered for quite a while so we could enjoy the show, and there was narration on whales and dolphins broadcast on the public decks. This was an awesome way to start our day.

We signed up for a day pass at the thermal suite, somehow resisting the spa staff’s pressure to purchase it for the week. We were glad we resisted, as the thermal suite was way too crowded for our tastes. We did manage to get on 2 of the stone loungers, but others passengers stood around the perimeter of the room glaring at us so we only stayed there for about 15 minutes before vacating our spots. We next tried the spa pool, which was nice and warm, but it too was packed with bodies. We only stayed for about 30 minutes and then left, so it was an expensive visit ($40 for the day, $150 for the week per person, or $110 if you waited until Tuesday to book the week pass).

We went back to the dining room for lunch and enjoyed the service and food. We then stopped in the Lido for cookies, which were fabulous all week (much better than the Princess cookies we had last year). We checked out the dinner menu in the dining room and we not impressed, so managed to get another Pinnacle reservation for 6:30 that night. I had the lobster again and Joan had the surf and turf (filet and jumbo shrimp).

Our room wasn’t made up when we got back, so we headed out again and had a drink in the Ocean bar. When we finished, it was done and so were we, so we went to bed after watching a DVD (Seinfeld) we brought with us. We did enjoy having the DVD player in the room, although we never borrowed any of the ship DVDs.

Tuesday, January 27 (Puerto Vallarta)

Following the excellent advice from the Cruise Critic boards, we had booked a massage on the beach at the Krystal Resort, a short walk from where the ship docks (10 minutes max). We asked at the front desk for the spa, and were escorted there in a golf cart. We were a bit early, so we camped out on the beach under a tiki hut and enjoyed the beautiful view of the ocean. The only unpleasant part was the constant parade of vendors trying to sell things; everything imaginable. All were very polite and left when we said “No, Gracias”, but it was distracting and annoying.

When time came for our massage, we were escorted to a tent right off the beach. It was screened so no one could see in, and we had 2 massage therapists (1 for each of us) for 75 minutes for only $75 (for both)! I’m a yoga teacher and get a massage every month, so was amazed at the price and quality of this massage. The therapists were excellent and professional, and they got out kinks we didn’t know we had. We oozed off the table and gave the ladies $100 – still much less than what I pay for a 60 minute massage at home. We truly recommend that everyone give this a try!

We went back to the ship and showered, changed and had lunch in the Lido, then took a cab to the Malecon for some sightseeing and shopping. My father has a time share in Puerto Vallarta and gave us many good tips on what to do. The cab ride was only 70 pesos, and we strolled up and down the Malecon and into the shops. I bought some very exotic tequila and Joan got some souvenirs. We easily caught a cab back to the ship (same price) and had a nice dinner in the Lido. It wasn’t at all crowded, probably since we were in port until 9:00 that night. We met a nice English gentleman who gave us some tips for Mazatlan and then went up to our room. It wasn’t made up again, so we called housekeeping and went back out and had a drink. It still wasn’t done when we got back, so we just caught our attendant Darma in the hall and asked for ice and fresh towels. He was most apologetic, but we said no worries; as no one cleans my room twice a day at home I was pretty sure we would survive. He just had too many rooms to cover, and even with help, the task was overwhelming. He was always working and just couldn’t get through everything as quickly as we might have wanted.

Wednesday, January 28 – Mazatlan

When we woke up, we were docked in Mazatlan. We had a decent view of the harbor, but the view from the Starboard side of the ship was of a rather icky shipping yard. Our English friend from the day before had told us about a free shuttle that took you from the ship to a little shopping area, so we headed over to see what they had. It was pretty much the same stuff we had seen in PV, and the vendors were quite pushy. We did get a few gifts and then headed back. I’m not a good bargainer and don’t like being harassed, even though we sympathized with the poverty so apparent in Mexico.

We went to the Lido for lunch and enjoyed some pasta and salad. We also stocked up on cookies as there was a fabulous new one that resembled a pecan sandie. As a baker, I truly appreciated the quality and choice of the cookies – they were never dry or overbaked and always delicious.

Had dinner in the dining room, and again had excellent service, with the waiters trying to persuade us to come back to their stations on future visits.

Then, dull girls that we are, we retired to our room to watch Seinfeld videos and have another good night’s sleep.

Thursday, January 29 – Cabo San Lucas

When we woke, we were anchored in Cabo San Lucas. Since our whale watching tour wasn’t until 1:30 pm, we had another lovely room service breakfast and took our time getting ready. We finally wandered down to the theater to get our tender tickets about 10:00. The wait was supposed to be about half an hour, so we took our tickets and went to the coffee shop for a coffee while we waited. Here we had the only poor service we experienced all week. First the attendant ignored us while he carefully put little signs by the pastries in the counter. Then 2 other ladies came in, and he finally asked us what we wanted. We gave our orders, and then he took the other ladies’ orders at the same time. He then started making their drinks first, then started on ours. Just then, they called our tender, so we had to go. He hadn’t even started my drink (which I had already paid for) so Joan grabbed hers and we ran off to the tender without mine. He wasn’t rude, just very slow and uninterested, and we didn’t understand why he made the other drinks before ours. But, as I said, this was the ONLY time all week the service on the ship wasn’t outstanding, so we didn’t dwell on it.

The tender went quickly (10-15 minutes) and we landed at the Cabo marina. We wandered around the marina area for a bit, and found the flea market. We checked it out, but every stall seemed to have the same stuff and nothing was priced so we gave up and left. We then started into town looking for Cabo Wabo. After a few wrong turns, we finally found it, and went in for a drink and some chips. It was nothing special and quite expensive, but at least we can say we’ve been there! After that, we headed back to the marina for our tour.

The tour was well organized, and soon we were herded into a line and shuffled onto a good sized boat with 2 levels. The top had a nice sunscreen over it, so we headed up there. We were soon underway out of the bay, and a waiter came by to bring us margaritas, beer or sodas. We didn’t know that refreshments were included, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Almost immediately we started to see whales! The gentleman doing the narration was wonderful, he could spot the whales even before they surfaced, and had a good system of telling us where to look (using the hours on a clock – i.e. – whale at 1:00!). The spouted and surfaced and some even slapped their tails for us. Several other boats were also whale watching, and when one surfaced all the boats would race in their direction. We were supposed to stay 100 yards away from them, but it didn’t look as though some of the smaller craft obeyed that rule. The waiters kept the drinks coming, and even brought plates of fresh salsa and chips, so it was a wonderful couple of hours. The weather was warm and sunny and the coastline is just beautiful. This was a great excursion, and one I highly recommend!

Once we got back to the marina, it was time to tender back to the ship. That went smoothly, and soon we were back on the lovely Oosterdam. There were 3 ships in the harbor that day, Oosterdam, Celebrity Mercury and the Sapphire Princess. We all headed out for the trip north about the same time, and we saw the two ships off in the distance all the way back to San Diego.

It was formal night, so we cleaned up and dressed in our finery and headed down to the dining room. We noticed throughout the week that every followed the dress code and there were no rebels in casual dress on formal nights. We were given a pager and it was just a short wait before we were seated at a table for 2. We were seated next to a charming couple from San Francisco, and spent the meal visiting with them. I really like the option of a table for two, having had my share of dull or unpleasant dining partners with assigned seating. As You Wish Dining was great, and I will always request it in the future. We loved the flexibility of dining whenever we wanted, and only waited one night for a seat. We think HAL has a winner with AYW Dining!

After dinner, we took some more photos and went back to the casino for a bit. Then, surprisingly, it was back to our room and off for another good night’s sleep.

Friday, January 30 – Sea Day

We woke up to cooler temps as we made our way back up the coast to San Diego. We spent the day enjoying the lovely ship and revisiting our favorite places. We had our final Pinnacle dinner that evening, and we both had the lobster tail once again. I had lobster 4 of the 7 nights on this cruise – that was a real treat for me! I loved just having the tails, and one was the perfect amount. I don’t approve of whole lobsters as I have a strict policy against eating food that is looking back at me. Our friends at the Pinnacle welcomed us back with open arms and it was another great dinner. Well worth the $20 cover charge in our opinions!

Our dear room attendant Darma had been sick for a couple of days with kidney stones (!), but was back to work again today. We left him and his assistant Ali an additional tip before we headed out that the morning, and we rewarded with the best towel animal of the week, an adorable elephant. We had towel animals most nights, and really enjoyed them.

We packed, and put our suitcases out for collection. We had another great night’s rest, and when we woke up, we were back in beautiful San Diego.

Saturday, January 31 – San Diego and disembarkation

We work up docked in San Diego, and had our last room service breakfast. HAL lets you enjoy room service even on the last day, as long as it is delivered before 8:00. They also let you relax in your room until your color luggage tag is called, so there was no waiting around in a crowded lounge for us. About 9:15 – right on time – our color was called and we headed off the ship. We turned our Custom Declaration cards into the agent who didn’t even glance at them, and then quickly found our luggage. We wheeled it off the ship and heard a honk – it was my sister and family coming to pick us up! We spent the morning with them, and then my dear BIL dropped us off at the airport. The flights home were hellish – due to an electrical failure we had to make an emergency landing in Vegas and were stuck in that airport for hours. We finally got a flight out to Minneapolis, where we were delayed again, due to an engine that wouldn’t start. It certainly didn’t build our confidence in flying Northwest! I finally got home at 11:30 am on Sunday, after leaving San Diego at 2:30 pm on Saturday. A most unpleasant ending to a wonderful week, but at least we made it safely.

Thanks for sticking with me throughout this missive, and please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you might have.

May your next cruise be your best,

Cathy and Joan

[johnlcruise]

Great review. Looks like you had a super time.

Thanks for posting.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Cathy and Joan, What a very well easy to read review:) Thanks for taking the time.

I am so glad to hear you had a great time that sounds very relaxing.

I too love going to Krystal for a massage and it truly is a bargain. I have had a massage done there numerous times. But I was surprised to hear they were doing the massages back in the tents near the beach. When I was there in October they quit doing it in the beach because of the construction/noise of the new facility that was being built next to the tents. They actually were doing the massages in one of Krystals Villas. At that time I thought I would be returning in February (which sadly I had to cancel :( ) and told them that when I was there and they told me by Febuary they should be in their new building. I take it the new building/Spa is not done, did you by chance ask when it would be?

The other question I have that I am curious about is the Lobster you were served in the Pinnacle, obviously it was good or you would not have had it a 2nd time ;) But we were recently on the Eurodam in December and they would discourage everyone from ordering the lobster saying it was extremely small and was the size of what you get on the last Formal night. Would you say that it was larger and of higher quality?

Thanks again for taking the time to write your review.:)

[liv2cruise4ever]

You described your cruise so well that I thought I was right there with you. If fact, we will be boarding next weekend. Like yourself, we have massages book at the Krystal. If you wouldn't mind, can you describe what your where told to do, to go to the Malecon? Did you take the bus, cab? After turning to mush at the Krystal, then cleaning up, it would be nice to head there. Welcome home!:D

[Northshorecruisers]

Glad you had a great trip. We just love the Oosterdam!!

I'm also interested to know the answer to Lisa's question on the lobster tails. On our cruise in October they didn't start the new Pinnacle menu until the cruise after ours. What are they offering for red meat selections being my DH can't eat seafood.

Also, did you feel rushed having your second formal night being on the Cabo day? When we've sailed the Oosterdam in the past, formal night was always on a sea day and I'm not sure I'm going to like the change.

Loved your review. Thanks so much for taking the time to write.

[xznwfd]

Good questions everyone! Lisa, we didn't ask when the new spa building would be done at the Krystal, but we loved being in the screened in tents. They had ceiling fans above, and we had the cooling breeze blowing over us, so it was heavenly. They also had soft "massage" music playing, so we didn't notice much construction noise. They were still doing construction, because we heard it clearly when we were going from the lobby to the massage area, but once we were in the tents we weren't disturbed at all. It seemed to stop completely at about 12:30 pm, so perhaps they take a lunch break. Our massages started at noon.

 

As to the lobster tails, they were an average size - same as we would get at the market here in Michigan. Probably about 6 inches long, so a bit bigger than what we were served on the second formal night. They were properly prepared and nicely tender, not tough or chewy at all. I'm sure a nice Maine lobster would be bigger, but along with my appetizer, salad and desert, I was certainly not hungry when I left the table!

 

Joan is the meat eater, and had a lovely filet one night and lobster the other 2 evenings. They did have a selection of steaks, but since I don't eat much meat, I didn't really notice what they offered. I'll check with Joan and let you know - she will probably remember better than I.

 

We sailed from Cabo at 5, and we were back on the ship by 4, so didn't feel rushed getting ready for formal night. I think we ate about 7:30, so that gave us time to rest a bit before showering and dressing up for dinner.

 

We took a cab right from the cruise terminal to the Malecon, and it was about 10 minutes and only cost 70 pesos (probably about 5-6 dollars). Cabs were available all over the Malecon, so it was very easy to find one when we wanted to come back. The price was the same, so it appears to be a fairly standard amount back and forth from the cruise terminal.

 

It's been 40+ degrees in Detroit this weekend, so we think that cruise was just the ticket to get us through the worst of a very long and painful winter.

 

Thanks so much for all the nice comments!

 

Cathy

[sylteach]

Cathy and Joan--We are flying in to Detroit airport on Northwest on our way back to Ohio and Tennessee from Vancouver after our cruise. I see that you are from that area. What is the Detroit airport like? Is it easy to navigate We will have an elderly gentleman with us and the flight from Vancouver will negatively affect him, even though we convinced him to fly first class. We did request wheelchair service, if necessary.

[brucory]

Loved hearing your story...

 

How wonderful is the Oosterdam?

 

Glad to hear you had so much fun...

 

:D:D:D

[hammybee]

Thank you for a most enjoyable read. I got a kick out of your MI tending to your " flock of cats".

 

For the Love Of Cats/ Kittens

[dobie]

Loved your review, thank you for taking so much time for doing it.

[cheshire cat]

We were on the ship from Jan. 31-Feb. 7. We loved it and will sail on the Oosterdam again.

Irene:)

[marcyjane]

What a great review!!! I too have a best friend since highschool and we have always done thing together and now do a annual trip every year as well. Since my husband passed away and she divorced we do this for ourselves every year.

I too as well work in automotive, a dealership which sells one of the 3 big auto makers cars & trucks. It is touch and go right now.

My friend and I booked a cruise back in May 2008, on the Oosterdam to Europe for August 2009 a trip of a lifetime for us, before all H_ _ _ broke loose with the auto business. She's ok in her job, but mine not looking so good right now for a small town dealer.

I'm holding my breath that all will work out. If not I'll have to cancel by first of May.

Thanks so much for your review you all sound so much like me and my best friend.

Glad you had a wonderful time and I hope and pray we will get to enjoy the Oosterdam as well.

God Bless

Marcy:D

[WillK]

Cathy and Joan-

Thanks for your wonderful review! You mentioned that your father had given you some good tips for shopping in PV. If you wouldn't mind, could you share some of these? PV is a port on an April cruise I'll be on and, instead of just spending the day at the beach, would like to shop for ceramics/tiles.

Thanks-

Bill