sunviking90

Volendam is the sister to the Zaandam, so if you liked Zaandam you will also like Volendam. She’s had a very nice refurb/renovation in the last year or 2. We were just on her for 18 days and loved it, but I love a smaller classic ship. Our stateroom (Vista) was in great shape, and the inside and outside rooms have also been redone all with nice new showers. Our stateroom on Celebrity’s Solstice last year looked very shabby in comparison. We were on a Hawaii cruise, and did notice as we got into hotter weather our room wouldn’t cool as much, but we weren’t uncomfortable. We’ve noticed this on other cruises into hot climates especially this summer on Princess to the Panama Canal. I honestly suspect that they change the settings so as not to over stress the AC and not allow people to try and cool their rooms to 60f. We were never uncomfortable. People we met were in an outside room and said their room wouldn’t cool lower than 71 while we were in Hawaii, which to me is fine. We noticed many of the Lanai cabins on the promenade leaving their doors open, and were also wondering if this was messing with the cooling system. We experienced no plumbing issues at all. Food is subjective, but we enjoyed most meals in the MDR. I did find the food salty, but I usually do on cruises. We loved the lunch menu, but didn’t enjoy all the dinner menus as much. We felt the food we’ve had on Princess in the last couple of years to be better, but once again subjective. We avoid the lido except to grab tea or coffee or an afternoon snack, but be warned the hours are SHORT! Don’t get hungry between 10-11:30 am or 4-5:30 pm. There is NO food except Dive in burgers, or room service. We were wishing we could just grab some fruit, etc, so eventually preplanned better. I think the Lido also closed for Dinner at 8 pm which, so it would be very busy during the open hours. Loved the ship overall and would sail on her again! Wish we were still on!

Have a wonderful cruise! We are very envious. Your itinerary is fantastic and I think I would much prefer it to a world cruise. We are just off the Volendam December 10th and she’s in great shape.

Glad you made it! What a stressful night. Enjoy your cruise and Hawaii 🌴

Sounds convenient to me. We were under the lido on the Volendam last month and we did hear the occasional trolley, but it was super handy to run up and get a cup of tea.

I booked with a CVP for the first time a couple of years ago as we were restarting cruising after Covid. Hearing of the horrendous wait times when calling, etc I figured it was easier and it was. Anytime I needed something changed an email or call to her got it done. For example, I have won bids for upgrades twice and didn’t like the location assigned, but knew there were other cabins in the category available. Called her, and told her which one I wanted it changed to and she did it. The second time, I used an large online TA and asked them to do the same thing, and they argued back and forth with me that the cabin won could not be changed and actually spent more time sending me emails to that effect than it would have taken them to call Princess and do it. I ended up calling Princess myself to do it. You’re right that the price is the same as online, but she does also occasionally have offers that don’t come up online, or minimal OBC on certain cruises. She has a Facebook page she posts weekly offers on, that sometimes don’t come up on the website. I hear what you’re saying about liking the anonymity though. I booked a cruise with her yesterday for 2025 and now I see that I could book it through a large TA (not the same one I mentioned) and save about 8%, and it is a pricy cruise. Now I’m feeling bad and wondering if I should cancel with her and rebook with the TA. I can’t tell you if it’s best to use one, but these have been my experiences.

Agree. These days with untrained staff, etc, I would never take the first response I get if I don’t like it. I just say thank you and call back and hope the next person gives me a better answer. Good Luck. Let us know how it goes.

I see. That makes sense. Thank you.

Interesting. I am able to go through to the payment page if I do a mock booking and the deposit is only $100 pp usd ($135 cad)

I saw the same prices shown, except I did think is was CAD! We are usually last minute bookers, and I always feel the launch prices are high, so from that stand point they are not great, but it is an unusual itinerary round trip from LA. These are attractive to a lot of people who no longer wish to fly. I think it will be popular and I don’t think it would go down by much. For comparison HAL has a similar itinerary this January but 94 days and more Australia/NZ stops and it’s selling for a lot more if you look at the per diem basis. Hopefully I’m wrong as we didn’t book yet. I’m waiting for something to sweeten it like OBC, etc.

Yes, I was looking at the 54 day South Pacific/Australia itinerary and thought the prices were surprisingly good until I got through to the payment page and everything was 35% more. The deck plan selections were also all messed up showing suites and insides when balcony categories selected, etc. I called my CVP and prices were too good to be true. Looks like a great itinerary.

We did come across a tropical storm and missed a port, then had Boston subbed for it, and then that was cancelled when they closed the Boston port due to the storm. The ship did a great job of going around the storm. All part of cruising fun!

If you look at the cruise you’re interested in, there will be a tab that will take you to excursions offered. I haven’t heard of multi day excursions offered through the cruise line, but I think they do have some cruise tours available for Europe.

We did a 13 day repositioning from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale in Oct 2019 and loved it. The weather was dry but cool. Halloween decorations in a Quebec City were lots of fun to see. Very quirky. It’s a great time to see the colours changing too. We rented a car in Sydney, NS and drive the Cabot trail and it was beautiful. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

You’re off again! Enjoy your trip. I’ll be following along as we are cruising on the K’dam for the first time next month. Enjoy Hawaii. Its one of our favourite places.

I have been on these boards for quite a few years now and I can probably count on one hand the number of threads I have started. I have learned a lot, and hope that I have helped others occasionally. I had no interest in starting “click bait” and that wasn’t at all my intention, but rather to get some information from those who have cruised HAL more than I have recently. This will be the last thread I initiate.

We don’t attend a lot of shows aside from the occasional production show in the main theatre, and definitely be there early for that. The second show “may” be easier to get into. Are you talking about some of the game shows, etc in Princess Live? It’s a fairly small venue so I’d arrive there about 15 min early too. Just prioritize what you want to see. We are more laid back, so maybe someone else can advise.

We book our dining times in the MDR as soon as we can. This can be done in the app. You’ll be given options for 2-3 dining rooms, but they all have the same menu. Shows do not need to be prebooked, but arrive at least 30 min early.

Yes, Princess now charges unless you have their package or pay to “activate” their food delivery service. Breakfast is still free delivery. Their buffet hours more than compensate though. It seems to be open almost all day with a wide variety of options. We’ve found the short lido hours on HAL to be annoying. When we get back from a day in port it’s nice to grab a healthy snack, but we really had to preplan and keep snacks in our fridge. They even put away the fresh fruit (apples, etc) at 2 pm.

I see. Maybe that explains it.

We recently disembarked the Volendam and I noticed when checking our account through the cruise that every time we ordered room service it showed up on our statement as a $0 charge. This made me wonder if the free room service on HAL is ending and the systems are being set up to have a charge, following other lines such as Princess. I don’t remember noticing this on our statements previously, but our last HAL cruise was over a year ago. Has anyone heard anything along these lines? If it is coming, then HAL will need to expand Lido hours to compensate. On our cruise it was completely closed except for beverages between 10-11:30 am, 4-5:30 pm, and 8-10:30 pm.

Everything is made to be thrown away now. When I was a kid almost everything was made in North America, and prices reflected that. I don’t think people would have stood for an appliance only lasting 10 years back then as things were expensive! I think my parents paid $500 for their first dishwasher back in 1979, and it was still working 30 years later. You can still get a low end dishwasher for $500 now, but it won’t last that long, nor will a higher end one.

How lucky for you to be able to visit that ship. What a classic.

I wonder about this as the only ships we’ve experienced plumbing issues on have been HAL ships. Our cabin was flooded on the last day of a Zaandam cruise and she was about 10 years old at the time. Certainly not ancient. We also had water spraying out into the hall on a Zuiderdam cruise when she was only about 6 years old. We have taken almost 40 cruises over the last 30+ years and haven’t experienced this on any other lines. I’m not sure why.

Great info on here. We are taking our first cruise out of Barcelona next year, and read that the cruise ships will now have to dock at Moll d’Adossat pier. Does this info still apply or is it that much farther out?

If you are planning to cruise out of Seattle with the HIA, I would recommend booking soon when you see a price you like. We book Alaska last minute, but we go out of Vancouver (superior itinerary imho, and convenient for us) and we don’t drink so we just do a standard fare. There a lot of variables depending which itinerary you are looking at, etc.