Ladybentley

We visited Kristiansand a few years ago and thought it was a very pretty town. It was easy to walk around from where we were docked by the fish market. We walked into the centre of town to the Cathedral where they used to give free organ concerts at 11am and 3pm on days when cruise ships are in. I don’t know if they still do. The Cathedral itself was very attractive with a beautiful ceiling in light Scandinavian woods. Next we walked through the old town of terraces of old, white wooden houses, called Posebyen. Then we went over to the waterfront and saw the Christiansholm Fortress with 8 big cannons. That led on to a series of delightful parks and gardens with lots of statues and even large sand sculptures. There was a lovely fountain with three connecting ponds, each with a big modern stone fountain. There were lots of flowers everywhere. The fish market is also worth a visit. Later my husband took a walk out to Odderøya Lighthouse. We thought it was a very nice place to visit.

2 hours ago, mawvkysc said:

For reference I am zero star and got a response back within 48 hours, but I wrote pretty soon after this thread started. No response yet to my husband’s email which was sent about two days ago. 

I wrote to both four days ago and still haven't had any response other than the form letter. I live in hope....

6 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

I sent a letter to HAL_Ship_Services@hollandamerica.com and already received a reply. So at least we know they are reading them. The reply mentioned the reference to lunch in the MDR, so it wasn't completely canned.

I sent another note today to mariner_society@hollandamerica.com

 

I’ve also sent a letter to both, saying we always used to look forward to lunch served to us in the MDR on the first day. It was part of the thrill of being on a ship again. I said that although we have two cruises booked later this year, reading about the continual HAL cutbacks has made us realise that they will probably be our last HAL cruises. In fact, we’ve already booked a cruise on another line for next year. HAL seem to be eliminating nearly everything we used to enjoy – classical music, a show every night, hors d’oeuvres before dinner, the Royal Dutch tea, cabin turn down service, etc, etc, to say nothing of all the other reductions in service. Such a pity as we love HAL ships and like their itineraries but as they are clearly on a path of downgrading the cruise experience, we will go elsewhere.

Several years ago, family members booked the connecting cabins 2633 and 2635 on the Zaandam, sister ship to the Volendam. They were very disappointed to find that they both have a significant amount of vibration. They eventually got used to it but weren’t happy. So perhaps check out what those cabins are like on the Volendam. We had an inside on Deck 3 years ago on the Volendam and were happy with it. Good size and only a few steps to get out onto the Promenade deck.

30 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

I hope the cruises meet your expectations and that, regardless of the experiences, you'll come back and update us on how things went. I really appreciate reading the feedback, both positions negative, as I consider my future bookings.

Thank you. I'll be posting reviews after the cruises. We're looking forward to the cruises and are hoping that HAL will bring back things we've loved in the past. 

We book mostly for the itinerary which is why we like HAL but we do want a good overall cruise experience. That means a comfortable cabin, good food, and some decent entertainment. In the evening we do enjoy a cocktail, a nice dinner with good service and an entertaining show. Surely not too much to ask from a 4 star cruise line and what we’ve had in the past. We have two HAL cruises booked for later this year but have concerns when we read of the loss of the Lincoln centre and classical music, fewer cabin and serving staff, no more hors d’oeuvres served before dinner, and other general cutbacks. We will see what we get. But if these cruises prove disappointing, we may not book with HAL again.

Since booking our first cruise in some years because of Covid, we're very dismayed to read about all the cutbacks including the loss of classical music. That combined with shows no longer being given every night make us think we could be looking at very boring evenings. We booked for the itinerary but are already starting to think this may be our last HAL cruise.

We're doing this cruise next year - with a few itinerary changes. So thanks very much for all the helpful information you've posted. Really great and much appreciated. Your threads are terrific!

Thanks for the explanation and the link. I understand better now. I've played all my life. My father bought a traditional Mah Jong set in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Maybe there will be some other traditional game players on our two cruises next year. Looks like you could play the traditional game with the sets provided if you remove the Joker tiles. Here they're optional and we only use four of them. We call them Looseys. 

8 hours ago, WisRiver said:

We were on the Noordam last fall on the San Diego/Sydney and circumnavigation of Australia cruise.  Mah jongg was scheduled every afternoon in the Half Moon roomon deck 3.  HAL provided four sets.  Passenger were playing American Mah jongg rules and brought their own 2022 cards.  In addition there were two more MJ sets in the game area of the Crows nest on deck 10.  In October, 2021 we were on the Rotterdam transatlantic.  HAL had four sets available and we played in the MDR on deck 3 next to the bridge players.  We will be on the Oosterdam this November.  I am fairly sure people will be playing MJ. 

For a non-American, could you please explain American Mah Jong? And what are these cards you refer. I play weekly in a Mah Jong club in New Zealand  but get the feeling that perhaps we play differently  to you. 

Family members were in cabins 2633 and 2635 on the Zaandam some years ago and found there was quite a lot of vibration. We noticed it on the corridor when visiting them.  Think they got used to it but we wouldn't have liked it. But we do love the Zaandam.  

As suggested by SueMo above, think about staying in a hotel overnight. We did that a few years ago as did some others and found it much less stressful as well as costing no more. The ship’s tour is very expensive. We were able to buy better seats at the Tattoo than the ones very high up that those on the ships tour had. And it gave us much more time in Edinburgh. We took a bus into the city from the Queensferry pier on our first morning, taking a small overnight bag with us which we dropped off at the hotel. We’d bought a two-day HoHo bus ticket which we took up the Royal Mile late in the afternoon to get off near the restaurant where we’d booked dinner. After dinner it was a short stroll to the castle. Actually on our cruise HAL had a problem with the tenders which meant their tours were very late and they had to race up the hill to barely get into their seats before the Tattoo started. In fact, they missed the early part when the Scottish clans were welcomed onto the esplanade.

After the performance we joined the enormous crowds walking back down to our hotel. It meant we had lots of time to continue exploring the city the next day as we were up and about by 9am. That gave us time to go out to see the Britannia at Leith and do more of the HoHo tour before taking the bus back to the pier late afternoon. We felt we had a much better experience than spending so much time shuttling back and forth to the ship four times in two days.

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

 It is not Celebrity's responsibility or obligation to inform you of world events all hours of the day. That's what internet package is for. Pay up if you want around the clock news coverage.

As the ship was sailing in New Zealand waters and docked in a New Zealand port, the simple courtesy of an expression of sympathy to their New Zealand guests would  have been appropriate and appreciated.

We were on the Celebrity Solstice in Tauranga, New Zealand, on Friday when the dreadful Mosque attacks happened in Christchurch. By coincidence, we were also on a cruise ship, Holland America’s Volendam, eight years ago when the second, disastrous earthquake struck Christchurch. We remember that after passengers had returned to the ship that day, the captain made an announcement telling everyone about the earthquake and offering sympathy from himself, the crew and Holland America, to the New Zealanders on board. The ship screened news coverage of the disaster for the rest of the day and evening on a large screen in one of the lounges. We were among many of our fellow New Zealanders who gathered there in shock to watch what was happening. What a contrast to Celebrity who did nothing. No announcement; no expression of sympathy – it was just ignored. We didn’t find out about the horrific attack until late in the evening when we turned on the BBC News in our cabin. We were appalled to think that we had been enjoying the life on board not knowing that this dreadful event had occurred in our country. Not impressed with Celebrity.

We were on the Solstice in Tauranga, New Zealand, on Friday when the dreadful Mosque attacks happened in Christchurch. By coincidence, we were also on a cruise ship, Holland America’s Volendam, eight years ago when the second, disastrous earthquake struck Christchurch. We remember that after passengers had returned to the ship that day, the captain made an announcement telling everyone about the earthquake and offering sympathy from himself, the crew and Holland America, to the New Zealanders on board. The ship screened news coverage of the disaster for the rest of the day and evening on a large screen in one of the lounges. We were among many of our fellow New Zealanders who gathered there in shock to watch what was happening. What a contrast to Celebrity who did nothing. No announcement; no expression of sympathy – it was just ignored. We didn’t find out about the horrific attack until late in the evening when we turned on the BBC News in our cabin. We were appalled to think that we had been enjoying the life onboard not knowing that this dreadful event had occurred in our country. Not impressed with Celebrity.

Ship: Eclipse

Cabin #: 6328

Deck #: 6

Class: 1A

Area: Mid aft. Back of the second hump

Bed near: Bath

Quiet?: Yes

Balcony view: Good but you can see a bit of the top of the first lifeboat

Balcony size: Larger than usual but not so deep as to create a tunnel effect with a good view back down the ship

Wind a problem?: Well protected from the wind

Soot a problem?: No

Problems/comments: No but think this cabin is a little overpriced as a 1A as there is a slight view obstruction from the lifeboat but we loved it and would book it again.

Sorry but this should be for cabin 6238. Someone pointed out that I muddled up two of the numbers.

How ridiculous that you were refused the fruit tea.

 

On which ship do you experience the shabby cabins, broken toilets, non-functioning air-conditioning and general poor service?

It was on the Noordam. Our toilet flooded and our daughter and her husband had no airconditioning in their cabin for the whole cruise from Sydney to Hawaii. You can imagine how hot it got travelling through the tropics. Our son-in-law is disabled and has to spend a lot of time resting in his cabin which was always hot and uncomfortable. At first they got the run-around from the Front Desk who insisted their cabin temperature was normal and said no fans were available. Finally tests established how hot it was and a fan was miraculously produced. But even then there was a fight to get any compensation and all they were offered at the end of the cruise for 16 days without airconditioning was a miserly $200 onboard credit. Not surprising that they don't intend to book HAL again. You judge a company on how they handle problems and complaints.

We also found that cruise rather bland and boring with the lack of activities etc on so many sea days. We too miss the pool BBQs and other special events that seem to have all disappeared. I agree with the comment that HAL had a niche market that we fitted right in to but they don't appear to want us any longer.

I last cruised on Holland America (NIEUW AMSTERDAM) in 2011, my second cruise in her. Previous trips were in ROTTERDAM (59), MAASDAM (twice) and EURODAM. Won't be going back.

 

Why? Because everything I liked about HAL has been methodically removed. I liked it precisely because it offered a good, traditional cruise experience without the noise, the mindless blaring music on the open decks and in every space, the stupid pool games, the jumbotrons and the relentless pandering to millennials of the other lines. I liked the silver service, the elegant place settings, the teak decks and wood steamer chairs, the chance to be near and smell and hear the sea, not blaring music. I liked the Dutch and Indonesian traditions. Dressing for dinner. The library. And being treated like an adult who didn't have to have things done to, at or for me 24/7. I liked an ocean holiday not a week at a theme park. I liked that it offered real value for money as a good, honest middle of the road product.

 

Frankly, I don't want to give my vacation dollar to a company that views me and what I value in a holiday (and once derived from that company) as a old fuddy duddy as it goes through a bigger mid-life crisis than I ever did. The fact that HAL is run by a man who never ever set foot on a cruise ship before pretty much sums it up. HAL has no idea what it wants to be, I just am content not to be there while it's finding out. The idea that every company has to "attract new customers" by completely altering its product and thus offending its loyal customer base is... a recipe for disaster.

You'vesummed up our feelings perfectly. We used to love the traditional feel andambience of HAL ships. But our last cruises have shown that HAL is enacting aprogram of "death by a thousand cuts". Nearly all the things we lovedhave gone or are going - the wrap around decks where you could sit by the sea,the libraries and open spaces of the Explorations café, the relaxing excellentservice at dinner while string music was played, the great art works, the traditionalDutch and Indonesian food (do they still serve pea soup on deck while cruisingin Glacier Bay?), the feeling of being served rather than being pressured tobuy, buy, buy! If I had to nominate one thing, it would be the demise of thetraditional afternoon tea, in particular the wonderful Royal Dutch andIndonesian teas. We so enjoyed those but now afternoon tea is served in a barand when I requested a fruit tea as I've always done, it was refused. When Iasked why, I was told it was a directive from Seattle. That made us wonder justhow many more petty cutbacks can Seattle come up with. We didn't go back toanother afternoon tea and now, having taken one or two cruises for years, wedon't intend to go back to HAL either.

IfHAL thinks that losing us will be more than compensated by gaining a youngerdemographic then they may be in for a surprise. Our son and his family alsoloved the traditional feel of the old HAL and aren't interested in booking acruise on a sell, sell, sell, theme park style resort ship. Our daughter andher husband accompanied us on their first HAL cruise last year and weredisappointed with the shabby cabins, broken toilets, non-functioningair-conditioning and general poor service. They won't be back either. It's sucha shame but clearly Seattle doesn't want our custom.

Did you have any people on your river cruise that used a walker during the tours? If so did it create a problem - trying to decide if my friend would be able to take a Danube cruise with a pre-cruise extension in Prague and post cruise extension Budapest. She wouldn't use the walker on the boat - possibly a cane.

 

Thanks

We've just returned from a Gate 1 cruise where several people including myself used canes and managed OK. A couple of our tours had photo tours recommended for slower walkers. In Bamberg there was one tour that didn't go up the hill to the church. Also in Nijmegen, we were lucky enough to have chosen the tour where the guide took a route up the hill to the town that included an elevator however that wasn't advertised. It would be good if it was in future so people with lesser mobility would know to take it.So I would say it's quite possible to enjoy the cruise with a cane but not really if you're reliant on a walker.

No point complaining here and having a go at me. Contact the coach operator. At the end of the day it was a £10 ticket, during a holiday that cost £0000s.

I thought I made it clear that our issue was nothing to do with you. I was merely warning other people that there can be problems with using this service, as at least two users recently have discovered. It wasn't just the demand for another £20 that we didn't like but the unpleasant experience. As I said, everyone else we came across in Edinburgh was friendly and helpful.

I hope you will remember that in the future. Other people obviously agreed about the unpleasant tone of your response.

 

Of course people are entitled to give their opinion. However I see 3000+ people disembarking every cruise day and a significant proportion all hoping to use the shuttle bus so there will inevitably be blips. On the whole however people are happy.

 

BTW thanks to my fellow posters on this board for their support. Much appreciated :)

I'm grateful for your helpful posts in the past and I appreciate that you are a volunteer. Nevertheless I think that being told we could not use the unused part of our tickets from the previous day after being assured twice by the ticket sellers when we bought them that they would be accepted is a bit more than just a blip. This bus company needs to get its policies sorted and then print them on their tickets. Incidentally, although it's not for you to do it, we never received an apology for the rude way we were treated or for promising one thing and then telling us the opposite the next day.

My advice:

 

Stay away from this bus shuttle service.

 

This summer we had a 2 days stop in South Queensferry. The first day I bought two tickets for this bus shuttle. After we had waited for more than 25 minutes for the bus to arrive, we decided to share a taxi with other cruise passengers. In the evening we returned to SQ by train.

 

Next day we wanted to go to Edinburgh again, so I asked the man who sells the tickets if there was any problem in using these two tickets that we had not used the day before. He said that those tickets I was showing to him were for the day before and we had to pay again for the shuttle.

 

The train station (Dalmeny) is only a 8 minutes walk from the dock. A ride to Edinburgh is only 15 minutes and 4.6 GBP for a return ticket.

 

This is just my experience.

We had a worse experience with the shuttle bus. Because we had booked to stay in a hotel in the city after the Tattoo we asked the man directing people to the shuttle buses if we could use the return part of the tickets to come back to the ship the next day. His response was ‘Of course, why not?’We checked again with the lady we bought the tickets from and she also assured us it would be fine to use the return tickets the next day. However, when we returned to Charlotte Square the following afternoon and presented our tickets,the woman there demanded to see our wristbands. We didn’t know what she was talking about and explained we’d been told we could use the unused part of our tickets from the day before. She wouldn’t listen and kept saying ‘You’re not getting on the bus without a wristband’. Finally she called another woman over who was also very rude but finally grabbed our tickets and said to get on the bus. Everyone else we came across in Edinburgh was so friendly but these women made us feel like criminals trying to rip them off when it was actually the other way round. If the tickets are only valid for one day, then they should say so. Also, we wouldn’t have liked to have walked around the city all day wearing bright orange wristbands marking us out as tourists.

Looking beyond all the hype in the video,it becomes clear that this is going to be all about selling excursions. Yet another place to SELL, SELL, SELL. If HAL is going to carry on with getting rid of proper promenade decks, removing libraries, and squeezing public spaces in attempts to increase revenue, they don’t seem to realize they will kill their golden goose. Our children and young grandchildren (the market they’re trying to target) love going on HAL ships because of the wide promenade decks wherethey feel connected to the sea and sitting up in the Crows Nest to watch theviews. Our son, who’s as techie as they come, still wants a library with good referencebooks. He and his wife like the relaxed, gracious air of HAL ships. They’ve already said they won’t be so keen to sail with HAL if they continue down this path of lessening the experience of actually being at sea. Nor will we!

Thanks for the information in the replies to this question but it would be good to hear from someone who's been a ship that did overnight at Queensferry. Perhaps they could tell us if the tenders ran all night. It's possible that with the Festival on, passengers will also want to attend other events, concerts etc in the city that night. Many of us would like to know and the answers from HAL are quite contradictory.

Thanks very much for all your helpful information. We'll consider our options but it sounds doable.