robinsandiego

On 12/7/2022 at 1:21 PM, happilytorn said:

We are booked for our first AIDA trip, and departing in less than 10 days. We don't speak any German and honestly we are pretty confused with everything right now but I've decided to just try to figure it all out once I'm on the ship. We booked some kind of all inclusive package that includes drinks and internet. I hope we'll be able to figure out exactly how all that works, especially considering I'll have to be working from my phone/laptop on the ship. We are arriving one day early to get on the ship but we'll also need to get a COVID test in order to board (I believe it's required even though we are vaccinated). We are traveling with our two children too, and I plan on leaving them in the childrens' club on sea days. Fingers crossed everything will go well. LOL!

Hi happilytorn,  

can you please give some feedback on how your Aida cruise went? I am curious how you made out without German. Were you able to fly to your port of embarkation from the U.S. or did you have to take the charter flight from Germany? I look forward to your reply. Thank you.

On 11/21/2022 at 7:47 PM, Sir PMP said:

You're not alone, friends of mine just came off the Pacific trip and called it the cruise from hell!

 

My wife and I were on that 45-day cruise through the South Pacific,  just before your San Diego to Florida cruise. It WAS the cruise from hell. There were a lot of annoyed passengers.

We were big Holland America supporters and took 3 prior cruises on their ships before COVID-19. This was our first cruise after the pandemic. Suffice to say, Holland America has used it as an excuse to cut the quality of food and service on board ship. The Zuiderdam is 20 years old and is used for the cruise line's longer itineraries. During our cruise almost every deck had leaks, where there were buckets catching water in the hallways. A big leak forced us out of our cabin for 2 days until it was fixed. We had the constant smell of sewage in our hallway, due to pipe leaks. It was not solved for 7 weeks! The cruise director Ian Page and Captain Frank Van Der Hoeven were horrible. The entertainment was poor (e.g. only one good comedian out of four). We were constantly lied to by the cruise director about having to wear masks in foreign ports due to those countries' regulations. As soon as we got off the ship, NO ONE (including local goverment officials) were wearing them in multiple ports. The cruise director's pre-port briefings were often about 25% incorrect and he blamed it on a port only being recently opened up and details were unknown. Why did he not contact the local HAL port agent or the local tourism authority to verify things then? 
Food portions were shrunk so bad in the dining rooms that we often had to order two appetizers to equal a normal one. The food was really hit and miss, and often was no better than high school cafeteria in quality. Holland America used to be famous for it's top quality food. No more. 
The ship's internet was down for several days while we crossed the open ocean. They had two days in Tahiti where they could have gotten local IT support, but the Captain failed to when the problem started. Even when it was up it was slow.
The only saving grace was the outstanding service by the room stewards and waiters on this ship. They are polite and very attentive, always going above and beyond to please you. 

Holland America cut three port visits about 10 days before our cruise. They had known at least a few months in advance they were going to do this because private tour operators already knew we were not coming, yet HAL waited to bait-and-switch us after people could not cancel. The HAL itinerary planners at their corporate level are clueless. They sent us to very-religious places on Sundays, when most places in the town are closed due to the sabbath. Then we went to nearby beach stops on Mondays. Why did they not switch that around? it occurred at least twice on our cruise.
The only way my wife and I will ever go on a Holland America ship again is if we find an itinerary with a new ship and it is only about a week long, with only a day at sea at most. 
 

Thank you for replying, Diddn. 

I have read that an English-Speaking person living in the US should phone AIDA in Germany, or contact a German travel agency that also works in English, to book a cruise.

Can someone please private message me with details of a travel agency they used that worked well in English, when booking an Aida cruise?

I also read that one should use a travel agency as they can get some included perks, whereas the cruise company will not include them (just like a travel agency in the US does).

My wife and I want to take a 14-night trip on AidaPerla from Barbados in late January, 2023. We do NOT speak German, but are up for the challenge of cruising on a primarily German-speaking cruise. It sounds like many English speakers have done it before and liked it. We love the itinerary it has, as it's going to all the islands we have not visited yet, and no other cruise line stops at all of these ports.

Thanks in advance.

I have read that an English-Speaking person living in the US should phone AIDA in Germany, or contact a German travel agency that also works in English, to book a cruise.

Can someone please private message me with details of a travel agency they used that worked well in English, when booking an Aida cruise?

I also read that one should use a travel agency as they can get some included perks, whereas the cruise company will not include them (just like a travel agency in the US does).

My wife and I want to take a 14-night trip on AidaPerla from Barbados in late January, 2023. We do NOT speak German, but are up for the challenge of cruising on a primarily German-speaking cruise. It sounds like many English speakers have done it before and liked it. We love the itinerary it has, as it's going to all the islands we have not visited yet, and no other cruise line stops at all of these ports.

Thanks in advance.

I have been researching the same thing. The best I have found is this: Holland America's 51-night Tales of the South Pacific. It sails from San Diego, California on Oct. 28 2019 and returns there on Dec. 18, 2019. Holland America seems to offer this long cruise only about once every 3 years. Here's a link to it's itinerary:

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/fromsandiegocalifornia-28oct2019.html

Be aware it spends about 3 1/2 weeks of it's 7 1/2 week itinerary at sea. This cruise covers ports in:

- Hawaiian Islands

- Kiribati

- American Samoa

- Samoa

- Fiji

- Vanuatu

- Tonga

- Niue

- Cook Islands

- French Polynesia

I have been trying to find a cruise (or two) that cover the same islands but spends a lot less time at sea So far, I haven't found any, regardless of the port it leaves from.

By the way, CruiseTimetables.com ( https://www.cruisetimetables.com/#home ) is an excellent web-site to research something like this. It lists cruises by their departure ports, ports of call, and cruise ships. Pick an obscure place in the ports of call list (all categorized by country) and then you can find what cruise itineraries will be going there. It cover about the next 2-3 years of cruises, so you can plan well ahead.