bcscot

But what can he do?

When we boarded for our recent Rotterdam cruise, we received a letter in the cabin outlining the new alcohol policy. They said that fortified wines such as sherry and port, would be confiscated. Whether they will or not, I do not know. I suppose it is a gamble. Whether it is worth it or not depends on whether you have room in your luggage for it at the end of the cruise.

And to the poster who said an engineer blames the ladies for toilet issues - pardon my pun but that is a load of crap.:D I can attest to that myself having become very good friends with the plumber on my cruise, LOL. There are deficiencies with the vacuum pumps. Two (or it might have been 3) were replaced during our Panama cruise, but they still continued to have problems in areas throughout the ship.[/quote

On our recent Rotterdam cruise, we had the delayed flush for the whole cruise, the toilet blocked easily and on one occasion, it overflowed onto the floor, when no one was there. The same plumbers could be seen visiting lots of cabins in that section of the ship during the entire 21 day cruise, so I suspect that others were having toilet problems too. The public toilets around the ship were also frequently closed for maintenance. I do not believe that these toilet problems were all caused by careless passengers. There seemed to be an on going toilet issue around the ship.

We have been unfortunate in experiencing lots of A/C and ventilation problems on HAL ships over the years, but this is the first time that we have had significant plumbing issues.

Good grief. Are you in Northern BC or Saskabush. I have a bro. in Regina & it is -30 there.:eek:

 

Not as far away as you think. ;)

I have noticed some stuffiness at night on several ships (all lines). I think in part it's because I always sleep with a fan at home, and I like it pretty cold to sleep.

 

Something we've done that's helped tremendously is to make sure we ask for our bed to be made up with a top sheet and a light blanket. No matter how cold it is in a room, I find the big duvets too heavy and warm. Being able to shed layers has helped me be a lot more comfortable at night.

 

I do think for whatever reason the air just isn't as effective at night. If I left my air during the day at the temperature I set it at for sleeping, I would be wearing a parka in the cabin!

But you live in Texas, I live in Canada! :D It's been -27 C around here lately (after spending 3 weeks in the Eastern Med!). :)

Thank you, one and all, for your input and for sharing your experiences. It is interesting that others have had this problem too.

We set the A/C to minimum and leave it there all cruise. The cabin can be very cold during the day, but still warm and stuffy at night.

On a previous Oosterdam cruise when we found our cabin to be too hot, an engineer was sent, who diagnosed the problem. The previous passengers had been too hot and had complained. Apparently there is some sort of baffle or valve in the A/C vent on the ceiling that can be adjusted to alter the temperature range in the cabin. When this was opened, we were fine. While experiencing our nocturnal stuffiness problem on the Oosterdam this summer, I insisted that they send an engineer to do the same (they were reluctant and a lot less helpful than previously). It was eventually done, but did not help. As I said the A/C was working well during the day, but seemed to be turned down during the night.

I do not believe that on these occasions, the problem was caused by other passengers.

Stuffy rooms yes, on every HAL ship we've been on. Solution for me is to ask for a fan to circulate the air. No matter how well the AC or Heat is working I need to be able to feel the air circulating. If it does not circulate I begin to feel almost claustrophobic.

 

Joanie

For us, this problem has been far worse over the last two years, but only with HAL. We have recently come off the Rotterdam after 21 days on board. We had a large fan blasting the air around, for most of that time and it did help. However, the fan only circulates the stale air around the cabin so it was still stuffy and we still were not sleeping well, both of us experiencing bad dreams almost every night.

I have shared my experiences on the Zuiderdam thread, but felt that a new thread was required as the existing thread is specifically about cabins on Zuiderdam with no A/C. I have never sailed on the Zuiderdam and I have never experienced a total absence of A/C on a HAL ship (although I have on another line).

Over the last ten years, we have sailed on 11 of the 15 HAL ships and have experienced various problems with smells and smoke but this thread is about a specific problem that we have only encountered (but regularly encountered) in the past two years, on ships upon which we had sailed before but without problems. We have experienced warm, stuffy cabins at night (OK during the day) on the Oosterdam, Zaandam and Rotterdam. This has been enough to cause us considerable discomfort with poor sleep, to the point that we would consider avoiding HAL ships in the future if this problem persists. My theory (and it is only that, no scientific evidence offered), is that the ventilation is being reduced at night in order to save on fuel. With a decrease in the provision of fresh air and reduced elimination of stale air, I think that the cabin air quality becomes poor.

Some people are sensitive to this type of problem and others are not. We like a cool bedroom with an open window, if possible, otherwise good ventilation and air conditioning, otherwise we sleep very badly.

The crew tend to focus on the room temperature, but a cabin can be warm and stuffy with poor air quality, without being very hot. Have any others experienced this specific problem on HAL ships? It would be good to know. Thank you.

I am a big believer in voting with my feet and with my wallet.

 

If enough people simply avoid these problem ships on the respective cruise lines perhaps the revenue impact will be felt. Or, if there is enough warning and bad PR about them on boards like this, it may encourage the cruise lines to remedy the situation.

Our problem is deciding which ones are the problem ships, or is it a fleet wide company policy that is the problem?

[quote name='sapper1']Train front desk staff not to treat passengers with a patronizing attitude. It is often not so much the problem that is infuriating as it is the denial that there is a problem. They should be more human and less scripted.[/quote]
I have always been very impressed by the front desk staff, their cheerful and professional demeanour and their ability to cope with unhappy passengers. I have often commented on this in the end of cruise questionnaire. However, during my last two cruises, I found their attitude to be perfectly summarised by the above statement, which is a very disappointing situation. Problems can so easily be defused or enflamed by the response of the front desk staff. I think that it must be one of the hardest (and most important) jobs on the ship.

I am so glad to see this thread as I was wondering why nobody else was experiencing these problems. I was thinking of starting such a thread myself, but not about the Zuiderdam, upon which I have never sailed (nor the Veendam), I have, however, sailed upon 11 of the 15 HAL ships over the last 10 years and have experienced numerous ventilation problems.

It has been suggested that these problems are to be expected on old ships. I like old ships but do not regard the HAL fleet as old. Indeed the old HAL ships are still sailing under the Thomson flag. I have sailed on many old ships though, including QE2, Regal Empress, Ocean Islander, Saga Rose, Saga Ruby, Black Watch, Aegean Odyssey and more. I have also sailed on newer Cunard and Celebrity ships. Yes, any ship can have these problems but my experience has been that ventilation problems have been disproportionatley high on HAL ships.

It has also been suggested that these issues are caused by careless passengers. If this was the case, then I would have expected to experience problems in the same proportion on all lines.

It has further been suggested that if any of us do not enjoy the experience, then, rather than complain, we should just go elsewhere. Well we really like HAL and have persisted, but are coming to the conclusion that we may indeed have to cruise more with other lines because, above all, the ability to breath in our cabin and have a good night's sleep is of paramount importance to us for the enjoyment of a cruise for which we have invested both valuable time and money.

One of the things that we have found difficult to get through to people is that we are not just talking about cabin temperature here, but ventilation, which requires the provision of oxygen in fresh air, along with the removal of CO2 in stale air. Failure to achieve this, results in a 'stuffy' cabin with poor air quality, even though the cabin is not too hot. We have also noticed that many people are just not sensitive to stuffy rooms and can sleep happily in a hot and stuffy bedroom, so they do not understand our problem.

Initially we had problems only on the lower decks of S-class ships, with cigarette smoke, cooking smells and smoke from burning fat coming into our cabin from the crew area below. We named these ships the 'Smelly Class' ships. It is only in the last two years, however, that we have started to have the problem of warm and stuffy cabins and usually only at night, even on ships upon which we had not previously had a problem. We wondered if they might be turning down the ventilation at night as a cost cutting exercise. We had this problem on the Zaandam, then the Oosterdam and most recently on the Rotterdam (she had the delayed flush and frequently blocking toilets too!).

We have been through the full cycle of complaints, excuses, letters, compensation etc (as described so well by others, as if from a script). We do not want compensation, we want to be able to sail with HAL, breath and sleep well in our cabin. If we cannot do this, even though we are looking forward to the rewards of 4 star Mariner status after our next cruise, we will reluctantly have to start cruising more with other lines. We have indeed already booked another Celebrity cruise.

I am sorry if some people think that this is 'whining,' but I just think that it is very sad.

We have just returned from our Eastern Med. cruise, during which we had a one day stop in Alexandria. The cruise ship tours were going to Giza but not into Cairo. We had arranged a day with Ramses, to the pyramids and the Cairo Museum, with a felucca trip on the Nile. Ramses were easy to deal with for arranging the trip and we were met on arrival, as promised. The drive to Cairo was comfortable and passed quickly as our guide chatted to us about life in Egypt. We have been to many poor and dirty countries, but were still very surprised at how dirty Egypt is, especially with the large amount of litter lying thickly everywhere. Driving out of the dock gate gave quite a contrast between the clean dock with it's beautiful cruise terminal and the streets beyond the gates, covered in litter, with huge pot holes in the road.

We stopped at a petrol station on the way to Cairo, allowing us to use the toilet. Having small change is helpful here but you could always buy a drink or something of the sort there, to get some change. Our guide gave us an Egyptian pound each, as we only had larger banknotes. It may be worth carrying some extra toilet paper too, as it is rationed. The toilets were clean.

The cruise ship company informed us of a WHO concern over contaminated bottled water in Egypt, using this as an excuse to sell lots of overpriced bottles of water to anxious passengers. They did not tell us however, that only certain brands were affected; our guide assured us that well known brands such as Nestle and Aquafina had no problems.

The Cairo Museum was interesting and we did not find it to be too hot. There were lots of European tourists, but I am sure that we benefited from it being a lot quieter than usual. The only negative part of the trip was that our guide, who was very pleasant, knowledgable and helpful, did not have great English, so I found it quite difficult to follow what he was saying, partly due to the background noise in the museum. My wife translated some of the commentary for me, but I eventually gave up listening and just read the notices.

I found it interesting to see the burned out National Party headquarters next door! A quiet sail on the Nile followed, which was scenic and a pleasant contrast to busy Cairo. It was interesting to see Cairo and we felt quite safe.

We stopped for a Doner Kebab, take away lunch, which we ate in the van (cheap and quick) before going to see the pyramids. We would have enjoyed a little longer to spend there. People were friendly and the hawkers were not nearly as bad as I expected, being less persistent and aggressive than I have seen elsewhere. The locals wanted to take our pictures, standing with their families, which was touching but we had to call a halt due to the time.

We did not want to go to the market or go shopping, so we got back to the ship early (over two hours before the ship's tours). We felt that we had had a good day and had done and seen quite a lot, without it being exhausting. It was also very good value for money. It was far cheaper and I am sure,far better an experience than was had by the masses on the ship's tours. We are certainly glad that we went into Cairo.

If you get the chance, I would say 'go for it'.

Thank you for your reply gaelsail. I am sure that she would be a fine sight to see around the coast. I would very much like to sail on her, if I could scrape together enough bawbees for the fare! Maybe Caledonian Macbrayne would be a more realistic option though.

 

Graham.

Well yes, thank you for your advice, but this gives the company's advertising information. What I was looking for was opinions from passengers; ie independent views & experiences, the thing this website is known for.

 

Maybe I should rephrase my question. Does anyone have any experience of the newly owned Hebridean Princess?

 

Thanks,

 

Graham.

Does anyone have any up to date information on this little ship since she changed hands?

 

Graham.

Thanks for the trip tip Harald! I think that I will have to put Aranui 3 onto my 'wish list' for the future. Unfortunately it is a very long list!!

 

A couple of years ago, I managed to stay/sail on board three generations of Cunard Queens within a year; Queen Mary in Longbeach, QE2 during her final sailings & QM2. A great tradition indeed. On the two crossings I have made on QM2, there has been a meeting for those who had sailed on the original Queen Mary. I attended both of them, so I could listen to the stories being told. It was interesting.

 

I hope that you like the Azamara Journey. These old Renaissance ships are supposed to be very nice, but I have not yet tried them

 

Graham.

I looked up the website for the Aranui 3 & it looks great. Unfortunately they do not seem to give prices, which I always see as a bad sign! I will keep this one in mind for the future though.

 

Queen Mary & Queen Elizabeth, eh? Impressive! That must have been a wonderful experience also.

 

Thanks.

 

Graham.

Nice pictures. I sailed on her as the Prinsendam & look forward to being able to do so again.

 

I have just recently returned from a Norwegian cruise on the Black Watch (RVL Star). Although the decor is rather 'faded 70s' in style & the cruise experience was a little 'down market', I still enjoyed the trip & the ship.The food was quite good & the service was good, the Captain being one of the most personable that I have met.

 

The ship herself however, was obviously quality built & very stylish for her day. She also handles the sea quite well. One of the outstanding features for us was the full size metal bath that we had in our standard outside cabin. These must be originals & we found ours a great pleasure to use. Being reasonably tall & broad, it is not often that I can lie stretched out in a bath, with plenty of room (& never before on a cruise ship!).

 

Yes, for me Royal Viking Line spells GREAT BATHS!

 

Graham.

I am happy to see that this thread is still going strong!

 

I have just returned from sailing on the beautiful Saga Sisters & am enjoying reading a book written by Captain Phillip Rentell of the Saga Ruby, about his life at sea. As well as working on cruise ships, including 10 years on QE2 (Falkland Campaign as well), he worked on many different types of cargo ship. It is interesting to read about life on these ships & how the different types of cargo have to be handled. It quite puts me in the mood for a frieghter trip, although from the input here, I would want to be very careful which ship I chose!

 

Thanks for all of your contributions.

 

Graham.

[quote=Krazy Kruizers;1580663

 

Farewell song from the waitstaff in the dining room.

 

:)

 

Try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVCeJvnDe9c_

 

Graham.

I would think that Carnival to freighters would constitute culture shock!;)

 

Maybe you could tempt your wife with the French silver service & cuisine.

 

Like you, we would also like to try a shorter voyage first.

 

Graham.

Sounds great. I believe that CMA CGM is the direct successor of CGT, the 'French Line' of French Liner fame; the SS France etc, so they certainly have the pedigree!

 

I will put them on my list (it is a LONG list!).:)

Graham.

Thank you LPG, I would love to (the dram too !!).:)

 

Graham.

I am quite keen to try a freighter trip. Even my wife is keen. She thinks that one of the French ships would be good, both for the food & the chance to learn a bit more French. We have learned to speak a bit of Indonesian while sailing with Holland America!

 

Graham.

Many of us lament the ugly apartment-barge look of today's cruise ships & the loss of the elegant style of the ships of yore. It struck me that there cannot be anything afloat that is uglier than a freighter or a container ship, not that this would detract from the experience of course. Is there an appreciation for the look of these 'working' ships & is it something that crosses the mind of those who frequent these vessels?

 

Graham.