Infi

We have sailed over Christmas/New Years for the last 13 years, with the notable exception of 2020. HAL does a lovely job with the holidays, and your kids are in for a treat. We are eagerly looking forward to Christmas at sea again this year and are curious to see what the traditions will look like during COVID-times. Our favorite program is the Christmas eve event in the theater, with caroling from the Indonesian, Filipino, and International choirs - very beautiful and moving, a must see. The Christmas tree lighting and caroling on the first or second night of the cruise is also nice with its "snowfall", as is the Christmas morning program in the theater with Santa. In the past, Christmas cookies and eggnog or hot chocolate are served at the latter two events. 

The ships feel very festive, and the atriums especially are decorated to the nines with trees and gingerbread houses. We also like to bring a small (fake) tree for the cabin and decorate our door with garland and other holiday décor. The holiday meals are very good, too: Christmas eve dinner is an "international" themed meal, with dishes labeled by country, and Christmas day will feature the usual holiday entrees like turkey, ham, and beef. 

Lastly, regarding presents - we always wrap our Christmas presents before leaving home and have never had an issue, either at the pier or through TSA. Our gifts are usually smaller (jewelry, small electronics), so YMMV especially with larger gifts and TSA, but the ship should not be an issue. Hope you enjoy your Christmas at sea - we always have, and once you celebrate the holidays this way it's hard to go back!

Thank you for sharing this review and your thoughts on Eurodam; it's great to hear what the ship is like now that she's on her Caribbean sailings. How were the crew onboard? Was the ship at half capacity or more? We're sailing on a B2B over Christmas and New Years, so any Eurodam-specific tips/insights would be much appreciated!

The Indonesian and Royal Dutch teas. Was just having a conversation today about how nice and special those events were.

Count me in as another who had their holiday cruise on Zaandam canceled with a mediocre replacement (2 7 days on Eurodam as B2B) offered. We are very disappointed here. 

I'd like to hope for the best for Volendam and Zaandam and do note that they are scheduled for their respective GVs in January 2022.  I see above that only 6 of the 11 ships will return to service this year, but why wouldn't you stress test Volendam and Zaandam with a few small cruises before such big, marquee voyages? Either the writing is on the wall for the last of the R class, or they're really going to proceed ahead with two huge January GVs without a dry run first. 

After last summer's unceremonious sale of 4 of our favorite ships, I am very wary of HAL and what may be going on behind the scenes.

On 3/12/2021 at 7:29 AM, kazu said:

Zaandam - 20-Dec-21 - 14 day Caribbean Holiday
Infi - 1st annual Christmas cruise

Hi Kazu, minor edit here: we are still on this sailing, but it will not be our first Christmas cruise. (In fact, far from it...we have been lucky enough to sail at the holidays every year since 2008 - except 2020 of course!) Would you mind deleting this part? Thank you!

Have done 5 full transits, the last in January 2020, and seconding the suggestions above. HAL will also open the bow (access is through the showroom and up a flight of stairs) for a great viewing space. Though everyone wants to be there for the first set of locks, the crowd will wane significantly afterwards, leaving a great viewing space. I also like to be at the back of the ship on the promenade deck. At that level, one can truly appreciate the height increase or decrease while in the lock. Gatun Lake takes awhile to sail through, so it makes for a nice mid-day break to refuel with food or water and rest. It is a very long day - a marathon, not a sprint! - so be sure to rest when you can.

Also, try the Panama rolls - little sweet buns filled with custard, only served on Panama Canal day, both outside at serving stations and in the Lido. 

3 hours ago, Sharon in AZ said:

We are on this as well. Nice to have someone on the Future Cruise list with us. 

Agreed! I'm surprised to see so few folks signed up for the holiday cruises; they are usually quite popular. Fingers crossed we will sail as planned when December comes. 🤞

Stryker was always our favorite piano bar entertainer - so talented and also hilarious, he really knew how to work a crowd. We last saw him on the Rotterdam in August 2019. Sorry to hear he is no longer with HAL, but understandable given the circumstances. They lost a great one. 

For those interested, his website is here: http://sirstryker.com/

Hi Kazu - as always, thank you for maintaining this for us. Gives us all something to look forward to and dream of better days ahead. We booked these two cruises awhile ago, but just am getting around to adding them to the list:

Infi - Zaandam - 20-Dec-21 - 14 day Caribbean Holiday

Infi - Volendam - 3-July-22 - 14-Day Voyage Of The Midnight Sun

One is our annual Christmas cruise and the Norway/Midnight Sun cruise is a do-over of our July 2020 Rotterdam cruise that was canceled. Fingers crossed that we will all get back to sailing soon! 

Hopeful that the next two ships to go will be the Imagination and Fascination. HAL has taken a disproportionate hit to their fleet, especially compared to Carnival and Princess' substantially larger fleets. The majority of Carnival's Fantasy class is older than at least the Veendam/Rotterdam/Amsterdam, and the transferring of the two Princess ships seems like just more CCL's shell games that they like to play with their various international brands rather than an actual sale/loss of ships. 

I understand HAL's ships are smaller and some may be less profitable, but for one line to lose 20% of its fleet overnight while the others to remain relatively untouched doesn't sit right with me. 

Realistically, I'm thinking summer 2021 will be the earliest for us. With no vaccine, crew and ships scattered to the four winds, and the tentative start or cruising we have seen in Europe thus far, I can't imagine HAL or any line will be ready anytime for even a limited return to operations soon. We are booked on a holiday cruise in December, but given Princess and Crystal's recent cancellations through December, it feels like it is only a matter of time before HAL pulls the plug on 2020 cruises altogether, sadly.

Hi Kazu, not a new Rotterdam booking, but if you could please add this one for us, that would be great. We switched over after HAL took our Amsterdam holiday cruise from us a few weeks ago. Not sure it will sail, but booked just in case. 

Volendam - 21-Dec-20 - 14 day Holiday & New Year’s Cruise

Infi

As always, thank you for maintaining this for all of us. Gives us something to look forward to during these times. 

1 hour ago, RuthC said:

Thanks for the alert. Will do. 

I was booked on the Rotterdam for the unusual New England/ Canada cruise that went to Newfoundland, and over to Greenland before turning around. I saw on a link that the ordinary New England/Canada cruise was considered the alternative. It is not. 
Since the letter I received noted that my booking was 'canceled' and not 'moved' or 'transferred' (or similar), it never crossed my mind to check. 

Agreed - there is no comparison between those two cruises. I saw that Rotterdam itinerary to Greenland and it looked like a lovely one, almost a mini version of VOV. 

Note to HAL - your version of a suitable alternative itinerary may not be the same as a guest's. 

21 minutes ago, richwmn said:

I was successfully moved from Amsterdam to Volendam. I called my TA Wednesday evening when the news came out, and let them know what I wanted. Yesterday morning I talked to them and got confirmation that I was moved over and even got the cabin I wanted.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with successfully moving to the Volendam, I'm glad there is still space on that sailing. I need to call back my TA to move us over, but I was truly shocked HAL had moved us to the NA without our knowledge or consent. When I received the new invoice, HAL had simply ported over everything, including our cabin number, which does not even exist on the NA. The only thing that DIDN'T get ported over was our extra OBC we had earned for booking during a promo onboard. Sigh.

Interestingly, the Amsterdam cruise still appears in both the personalizer and the HAL app, and even allows one to make bookings for shore excursions. The same is also true in the HAL app for our canceled July 25th Rotterdam cruise, which still has a countdown and options to book onboard dining and shore excursions. One would think that with the lead time HAL likely had prior to this decision, they could have done a better sweep of the app, bookings, the website, etc. 

If/when things get back to normal, I wonder if HAL envisions using the Zaandam and Volendam as the Amsterdam and Prinsendam replacements (respectively). Zaandam to do the WC and any exotic sailings in the Fall (Grand Africa, Grand Asia, Tales of the South Pacific), and Volendam to do the Grand South America and Grand Med, possibly with exotic itineraries in between. 

The question of future deployments and itineraries is the biggest one for me in all of these shifts. HAL is known for its unique and exotic itineraries and regularly receives awards for them. Itineraries are what drew us to HAL in the first place and one of the things that keeps us coming back time and time again. With only two smaller ships to cover these routes (and, arguably, they are the best choices to provide exotic itineraries - it's harder to fill a Vista or larger for these types of sailings), will HAL's biggest selling point - its varied itineraries - disappear?

A PSA for anyone who had bookings on the Amsterdam, Maasdam, Rotterdam, or Veendam. We were booked on the Amsterdam's holiday cruise for this year, and just called our TA this morning. I wanted to move our booking over to the Volendam holiday cruise, and instead was informed that HAL had switched us to the holiday sailing on the Nieuw Amsterdam. We never received an email notification about this from HAL beyond the announcement that the ships had been sold, nor does it appear in our personalizer online. Needless to say, this was quite the unwelcome surprise, so wanted to tell others to check their bookings. Hope this helps those who are in the same boat - HAL may have chosen your new cruise for you without your knowledge!

On another note, does anyone know how or if the crew was informed about the sale? Spoke with a few current and former crew yesterday, and most weren't aware the sale had been made. If they weren't given a slight heads up and had to find out via a blog post, that's incredibly poor on HAL's part. This is their livelihood and an employer should inform them of any major decisions made.

With HAL decreasing their fleet size by 4 ships (essentially 20%!) overnight, not only does this create a lot of holes for future deployments and itineraries, it also eliminates many positions onboard. I'm sure the pandemic will make many reconsider their decision to work on ships, but I think there are many who are waiting for the opportunity to return to work. With so many positions gone (and across all lines, not just HAL), where will they go?

Like so many others here, we are incredibly saddened by the sale of the Amsterdam, Maasdam, Rotterdam, and Veendam. Received the email message yesterday, as we were booked on the Amsterdam's holiday cruise this year. Feeling grateful today that our last HAL cruise was the Amsterdam's final holiday cruise in December, the last full cruise she actually completed. Disembarkation morning sadness was alleviated slightly knowing we'd be back this December for her next holiday cruise, and on the Rotterdam this summer. As we all know, neither of those came to pass. We treasure the memories made aboard these ships - there will never be ships quite like them again.  

We've sailed only the Prinsendam, S-class, and R-Class since 2012, consciously choosing to vote with our feet about what ships and experience we enjoyed the most. This is the end of an era for cruising on HAL, and I'm very curious (and a little nervous) to see how they will proceed going forward. 

Thanks for sharing, OP. Surprised to see some of the HAL ships with lower PSRs while the big RCI ships like Oasis and Allure hold their own quite well. No surprise to see the R-class, Prinsendam etc. with quite favorable ratios - they are some of our favorites because they're so intimate. 

Haven't looked into PSRs for many years, but was wondering: wasn't there a different PSR ratio calculated at one point that took into account more nuance of ship design? I remember the argument being made that tonnage/passengers formula didn't encapsulate "wasted" space onboard: for example, airy, multi-deck atriums that held space that passengers couldn't actually "use". Does anyone else remember this?

Appreciate those who have shared their experiences with EXC. It seems that the EXC concept is heavily dependent on the enrichment staff onboard, both in terms of quality (for lectures, activities, etc.) and quantity (who's going to drive all those zodiacs?)

On our Antarctica cruise in December 2017, we spoke with Peter Carey, who was the head of the onboard "Expedition Team" of 3 lecturers who spoke about the geology, biology, and the culture of the region. He had been tapped to head up the EXC concept for the Maasdam, and was very excited to spearhead the new program. When complimented on his Antarctica lectures, he was gracious and always told those to mention it in their surveys, so HAL would see how important destination-based lectures are to HAL passengers. Based on his lectures and the program he ran for us in Antarctica, I know that any ship with him aboard would have been quite lucky and had the EXC concept live up to brochure promises. However, there are only so many Peter Careys (and other fine lecturers/naturalists/etc.) to go around, and I can't help wondering if HAL didn't fully think the personnel piece through, given the uneven execution of this concept. Staffing the Maasdam year-round and across a wide variety of specialized destinations can't be easy and requires quite a bit of forethought and planning. It's too bad, this concept could have been a real winner.

We cruise every summer due to work schedules, so it feels like a very odd year. Right now, we're sad about the loss of our summer cruise, and wondering if we will sail again at Christmas as scheduled. 

Looks like the same link, posted 3 times...and across multiple threads. 🤨

17 hours ago, kazu said:

 

I agree with your entire post but on this in particular.  The EXEC in depth and the Maasdam is NOTHING like the Prinsendam.  An imitation at best and a poor one at that.  It’s itineraries no where near match what the Prinsendam did.  Not saying Maasdam doesn’t have nice itineraries but they are limited.

HAL has sunk money into the Maasdam with zodiacs etc so I agree they may hang onto her.  On the other hand, everything is for sale if the price is right.  After all, Prinsendam had the highest profit per person of all of the ships and they sold her.

Exactly. The Maasdam EXC is a completely different concept, built on a more affordable expedition-type travel concept and less of a cruise experience (i.e. no shows/traditional entertainment). It's similar to the Prinsendam in that they don't really repeat itineraries and the destinations are relatively exotic, but it's not the same. I know there has been speculation here that HAL would build a new Prinsendam or at least replace her with a similar size vessel someday, and can't help but feel that the pandemic and subsequent gloomy outlook of the cruise industry has put the kibosh on any dreams of that happening. Such a shame.

If I had to make my bets, I would say Maasdam is safe for now, but you're absolutely right - everything is for sale if the price is right.

As others have noted, if HAL ships are chosen as part of the 6, I imagine the S class would be the first to go. The R class serves its purpose for now: destination-based cruising on smaller ships, with the potential to do Grand Voyages as needed. 

Which of the S class will go? For better or for worse, HAL seems committed to the experiment of the EXC voyages on Maasdam, and has dumped a lot of money into her recently, i.e. the new Zodiacs and other modifications. HAL seems to recognize there's demand for a Prinsendam-esque replacement to do the exotic voyages. While EXC in depth isn't quite the same as the Prinsendam, I can't seem them in a huge rush to get rid of the Maasdam for that reason. As we all know, the Veendam hasn't been kept in great shape for awhile now and her awkward design represents a series of failed HAL experiments (aft poolette, extra cabins). HAL would probably love to offload her if given the chance. The question is, who has the final say in what ships from a brand leave? Carnival Corp or HAL?

Lastly, who's buying or who even needs a ship during this market? It's not likely the luxury cruiselines would want an S class in need of some TLC, not to mention her larger size. Carnival Corp loves to play the shell game of sending their older tonnage off to Australia and Europe, slapping on some new paint and giving them a new lease on life. I doubt P&O Australia is in the market, especially now since they've essentially gotten rid of both the Pacific Aria and Eden (Ryndam and Statendam) after just a few years of service. So, where will all of these ships go? My worst fear in all of this is that this unexpected early retirement may mean that some of our beloved smaller ships go off to the breakers, never to be seen again. 

On 6/4/2020 at 10:57 PM, KirkNC said:

It also could be they don’t think the 21 WC is a go and they can just reuse the itinerary.

Reusing the itinerary is an easy fix, and in theory, perhaps they can. But, even reusing the same route still requires negotiations with ports for dates, times, etc. What worked in 2021 may not work for a port in 2022.