Oosterdam Post Dry Dock

Has anyone got any updates on the Oosterdam since it came out of dry dock?

we are on right now. all the new music venues are done and beautiful. new cabins and cabanas on observation were not done. still about 100 workers on board. lido redo is stunning. i cannot speak for the suite upgrades. we are in a PS. the electronics were upgraded and nice but not much else changed. the billboard onboard and lincoln center live are great. Performers are super. the new gallery bar area is absolutely beautiful. A lot of new art. gone is the old northern lights disco. i have not been up to crows nest yet, but it is open.

Dennis

we are on right now. all the new music venues are done and beautiful. new cabins and cabanas on observation were not done. still about 100 workers on board. lido redo is stunning. i cannot speak for the suite upgrades. we are in a PS. the electronics were upgraded and nice but not much else changed. the billboard onboard and lincoln center live are great. Performers are super. the new gallery bar area is absolutely beautiful. A lot of new art. gone is the old northern lights disco. i have not been up to crows nest yet, but it is open.

 

Dennis

Any chance of sharing some photos of the new and improved Lido?

we are on right now. all the new music venues are done and beautiful. new cabins and cabanas on observation were not done. still about 100 workers on board. lido redo is stunning. i cannot speak for the suite upgrades. we are in a PS. the electronics were upgraded and nice but not much else changed. the billboard onboard and lincoln center live are great. Performers are super. the new gallery bar area is absolutely beautiful. A lot of new art. gone is the old northern lights disco. i have not been up to crows nest yet, but it is open.

 

Dennis

Thanks,Dennis, for the ''on site feedback''.

I knew HAL had opted to ''defer'' the cabanas till late '17 or thereabouts...but are you saying the new staterooms on observation deck ) like Noordam & Zuiderdam) were actually not done at all ? I wonder

if HAL had a change of heart on the entire concept of jamming staterooms & cabanas up there ...perhaps guests feedback has been too negative.

I also knew already that they have over 100 contractors still working onboard. Hopefully, they are not too intrusive .It did cause a ''slight issue'' in Rome during embarkation as some juggling had to take place to account for the somewhat unplanned presence of contractors on board.

Glad Oosty seems satisfactory to you.

happy sailing

Any chance of sharing some photos of the new and improved Lido?

Yes, please.

I knew HAL had opted to ''defer'' the cabanas till late '17 or thereabouts...but are you saying the new staterooms on observation deck ) like Noordam & Zuiderdam) were actually not done at all ? I wonder if HAL had a change of heart on the entire concept of jamming staterooms & cabanas up there ...perhaps guests feedback has been too negative.

According to the new deck plans on the HAL website, the new staterooms were installed but the Retreat cabanas were not.

Also, FloridaTourist has an excellent "live from Oosterdam" thread (with photos!) here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2343974

According to the new deck plans on the HAL website, the new staterooms were installed but the Retreat cabanas were not.

The website shows the Retreat here

The website shows the Retreat here

Thank you for correcting my error. I was looking one deck too low.

By the way, do you have any secret knowledge about when these changes are coming to Noordam? All of the promotional materials are frustratingly vague. For example, HAL indicates Billboard Onboard and Lincoln Center Live will be added to Vista and Signature ships through 2018. That's a frustratingly long time given that there are only four ships without the upgrades. Thanks for any help you might have.

The Retreat is physically there. You can see it is completed. The foliage is still wrapped. You, however, cannot access as the area approaching thru the new staterooms on deck 10 is not open. There is a barrier in the Crow's Nest for that entry.

With regard to the Lido I will try and get some pics. If you check out the color tones of the suite upgrades you will get a good idea of the new brightness of the furnishings.

Dennis

Thank you for correcting my error. I was looking one deck too low.

 

By the way, do you have any secret knowledge about when these changes are coming to Noordam? All of the promotional materials are frustratingly vague. For example, HAL indicates Billboard Onboard and Lincoln Center Live will be added to Vista and Signature ships through 2018. That's a frustratingly long time given that there are only four ships without the upgrades. Thanks for any help you might have.

The sooner the better to get this redo fleetwide in my opinion. The fresh concept on entertainment is brilliant and brilliantly executed. To give you an example. The Lincoln Center Stage is composed of a string / piano quintet of young classically trained American musicians. The late program last night was called 'All American' and ranged from Copeland to Bernstein to Gershwin to Armstrong to Dave Matthews and back to Copeland. The arrangements are fresh and jazzy. Brilliant show.

The billboard onboard (dueling pianos / singers) area is now completely open to the casino. Again brilliantly executed. Excuse the smoking reference, but yes this openness to the casino now makes the casino smoke free. I have yet to smell cigarette smoke onboard.

Dennis

Thank you for correcting my error. I was looking one deck too low.

 

By the way, do you have any secret knowledge about when these changes are coming to Noordam? All of the promotional materials are frustratingly vague. For example, HAL indicates Billboard Onboard and Lincoln Center Live will be added to Vista and Signature ships through 2018. That's a frustratingly long time given that there are only four ships without the upgrades. Thanks for any help you might have.

All I've seen is it's coordinated with when their next dry docks take place

The sooner the better to get this redo fleetwide in my opinion. The fresh concept on entertainment is brilliant and brilliantly executed. To give you an example. The Lincoln Center Stage is composed of a string / piano quintet of young classically trained American musicians. The late program last night was called 'All American' and ranged from Copeland to Bernstein to Gershwin to Armstrong to Dave Matthews and back to Copeland. The arrangements are fresh and jazzy. Brilliant show.

 

The billboard onboard (dueling pianos / singers) area is now completely open to the casino. Again brilliantly executed. Excuse the smoking reference, but yes this openness to the casino now makes the casino smoke free. I have yet to smell cigarette smoke onboard.

 

Dennis

Thanks for the positive review! I'm glad you enjoyed them and feel that they are an enhancement of HAL's brand. I'm sailing solo for 16 nights on Noordam in April 2018, so I'm really hoping that the new entertainment concepts are installed by then.

And photos would be much appreciated. Thanks again.

Hoping for some pictures of the redone bathrooms in the Signature suites. Also wondering if any upgrades were made to balcony cabins? Hoping for some more pics as this first post dry dock cruise comes to an end.

Hi Dennis!

Thank you for the Oosterdam updates post dock. I am boarding in a little over two weeks and am hoping the Retreat will be operational. Is the Retreat available now for you? Any update would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Pam

Thanks Dennis. We will be on the Oosterdam on Nov 25 for 21 days. We have been on 3 of the Vista class ships before and we really enjoyed the Piano Bar :cool: and the hosts. We were just on the Zuiderdam from Oct 14 to Nov 9, Med & TA. That ship had the extra Veranda cabins on deck 10 and the Cabanas. But nothing was done to the Piano Bar on deck 2. It still was a separate room isolated from the casino and the Sports Bar.

To clarify, is the old Piano Bar now called the Billboard Onboard ? And does it have twin pianos? If that is the case, how does it work with the noise of the casino? Is there still a "Piano Man" (or lady) onboard ? In some of the pictures I saw, there appears to be around 20-24 chairs around the twin pianos. Is that true ?

I would appreciate any descriptions/pictures you could provide. Thanks.:)

Would someone please post some pics or video of the new balcony room on oosterdam on observation deck? Were these rooms finished? According to the oosterdam web site, the rooms are available after April 18?

thanks so much, happy cruising!

Would someone please post some pics or video of the new balcony room on oosterdam on observation deck? Were these rooms finished? According to the oosterdam web site, the rooms are available after April 18?

thanks so much, happy cruising!

I would also like to know if these cabins are finished for the next cruise beginning April 30. If they are, it means the Retreat will be open for business.

I have a cruise starting May 12. Ship Services doesn't have much info./or help. We are a family of 8 traveling together and use it as a meeting place. So hope one of the cruise critic members will know! Thank you

Would someone please post some pics or video of the new balcony room on oosterdam on observation deck? Were these rooms finished? According to the oosterdam web site, the rooms are available after April 18?

 

thanks so much, happy cruising!

I also share your interest in regards to these deck ten rooms as we will be sailing in October on this deck. Would also love to hear about and see photos of the new "Music Walk" area. Have they upgraded the TV's to larger flat screens? It's been a while since our last HAL cruise and back then they were still the old CRT TV's!

I also share your interest in regards to these deck ten rooms as we will be sailing in October on this deck. Would also love to hear about and see photos of the new "Music Walk" area. Have they upgraded the TV's to larger flat screens? It's been a while since our last HAL cruise and back then they were still the old CRT TV's!

We just finished a cruise on the Oosterdam. We were in 4185 which is a wrap around balcony Neptune Suite. I don't know what the decor looked like prior to the dry dock the only other HAL ship we've been on was the Zaandam. Our room was beautiful.

My husband loved the big flat screen tv. I'm not sure how to attach a pic here but I'll try! They have free movies, tv series (like year 1 of Vikings) news stations, shore excursion info and ESPN channels all available with a touch of your remote. The only draw back to the tv (which is temporary) is the non emergency cruise announcements are not broadcast through that one tv station yet. Depending on your hearing level you have to open your room door for cruise director announcements. It will be corrected soon they said.

I walked up to the level above the Crows Nest peeked through the window, the cabanas are out there and look ready. A sign on the locked door said to contact guest services for rental information.

The Billboard bar which is new after the dry dock is really cool with the two piano players. They play fixed sets so you can't make requests but they are so good no one seemed to mind. They have music theme drinks, we tried a couple and they were very good.

Hope this helps!

zesti1 - thanks very much for the info and posting the pics. We are in the same cabin, only port side, on an upcoming Med cruise, so we are very interested to learn more. Do you happen to have any pics of the bathroom? If not, do you remember if it was all "brand new"? I had read that they were completely redoing all the bathrooms but someone posted a pic of a Signature Suite bathroom and it was still the old tub and shower in the picture. Don't know if the Signature Suites were not redone and it was only the Neptune Suites, so wondering about the bathroom...

Thanks so much,

Canuck

Thanks for the update Zesti1. With the new updates to the "Muscic Walk" area, when they did away with the sports bar did they replace it with a new sports bar or any thing with multiple TV sets for sports fanatics like me?

The Neptune suites are nice so I wonder how the new balcony rooms that were added to deck 10 during dry dock stack up to other balcony cabins? Did anyone stay in those deck 10 cabins that you might have met?

zesti1 - thanks very much for the info and posting the pics. We are in the same cabin, only port side, on an upcoming Med cruise, so we are very interested to learn more. Do you happen to have any pics of the bathroom? If not, do you remember if it was all "brand new"? I had read that they were completely redoing all the bathrooms but someone posted a pic of a Signature Suite bathroom and it was still the old tub and shower in the picture. Don't know if the Signature Suites were not redone and it was only the Neptune Suites, so wondering about the bathroom...

 

Thanks so much,

 

Canuck

I don't have a picture of the bathroom. I don't know what it looked like before but I know the room steward was very excited to show us the new tile in the bathroom and the new night light feature in the bathroom. The walls had a herringbone tile pattern in the softer muted colors of the new decor. Floor tile was new as well.

On the Zaandam we had a Neptune Suite mid ship with a regular bath tub & shower combo in a beige plastic color. The Oosterdam had a separate shower stall on the right when you walk in the bathroom. Further down on right, separated by a glass wall yet still in line with the shower stall was a jacuzzi tub & shower combo which I used quite a bit and really enjoyed. Tub was the same beige plastic color as the Zaandam. Straight ahead was the toilet and running the wall length on the left was the dual sinks and mirrors.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the update Zesti1. With the new updates to the "Muscic Walk" area, when they did away with the sports bar did they replace it with a new sports bar or any thing with multiple TV sets for sports fanatics like me?

The Neptune suites are nice so I wonder how the new balcony rooms that were added to deck 10 during dry dock stack up to other balcony cabins? Did anyone stay in those deck 10 cabins that you might have met?

Noooooo and my husband was a little bummed about the no sports bar with multiple tvs.

I didn't notice anyone staying up on that floor, nor did I hear of anyone. When I first went up there there was no staircase hand rail, no carpet on the stairs and the strong smell of stain was in the air. I don't think I was supposed to venture up there but it wasn't blocked off either. Door at the top of the stairs was locked.

I went back to the same area the second to the last day and everything in the stairwell was completed. Hand rail and carpet were there and no smell of paint or stain in the air. Door was still locked at the top. Peeked through the window and I could see the cabanas but same as before it seemed very quiet up there.

Possibly they were still working in that area when we arrived? Maybe the first rentals will come on the group that boarded after we departed.

I don't have a picture of the bathroom. I don't know what it looked like before but I know the room steward was very excited to show us the new tile in the bathroom and the new night light feature in the bathroom. The walls had a herringbone tile pattern in the softer muted colors of the new decor. Floor tile was new as well.

 

On the Zaandam we had a Neptune Suite mid ship with a regular bath tub & shower combo in a beige plastic color. The Oosterdam had a separate shower stall on the right when you walk in the bathroom. Further down on right, separated by a glass wall yet still in line with the shower stall was a jacuzzi tub & shower combo which I used quite a bit and really enjoyed. Tub was the same beige plastic color as the Zaandam. Straight ahead was the toilet and running the wall length on the left was the dual sinks and mirrors.

 

Hope this helps!

zesti1 - thanks very much for the description! It sounds like it has been redone but maybe not the tub/shower area, but the new tiles and colours sound nice.

Cheers,

Canuck