roaming_kiwi58

Esimon-

Several reasons why-

Food is not the most important part of a cruise for us - itinerary is. I commented on the food for the information of other cruisers, but food is subjective, and it is definitely not a reason to put us off an itinerary we like the look of. I am well aware that other people may love HAL's food.

Just because we weren't particularly impressed with the food on one particular cruise does not mean other cruises on the same line on a different ship, or even the same ship, won't have better food, in our opinion.

Every cruise is unique and every cruiser has different likes/dislikes.

I have submitted a review which I presume will appear in due course. But here it is, in case anybody has any questions. This cruise followed the cruise we did on the Prinsendam, which I have already reviewed in another thread.

This was our third cruise with Holland America and first on Westerdam. We have also cruised with Azamara, Oceania, NCL, Windstar, Louis, Katarina and several river cruise operators. This cruise was 12 nights, starting in Civitavecchia and finishing in Barcelona.

The ship is looking very smart in the public areas. We were in an ocean view cabin on deck 1. The cabin looked a little tired. The job done by our room stewards was not very thorough.

We felt a little insulted when we got a letter saying because we had not gone to the muster drill, we had to go to a repeat later one, or be disembarked. When we pointed out to a man at guest relations that we were indeed definitely at the muster drill (and would never ever consider not going!) he was very offhand, telling us to just ignore the letter! We did not want it remaining on record incorrectly that we were absent, when we were there, but he didn't seem to think it was important! So do they offload muster drill absentees or not?!

On our previous 2 HAL cruises we had found the food to be boring, bland and repetitive. This food on this cruise was no different. The service in the Lido Market was poor – they supposedly served water and lemonade at the tables, but we usually had to go and get our own – it was difficult to attract any waiter attention. Plates were often not cleared between courses.

There were no lecturers. The concerts by the HAL entertainers were not to our taste. A guest pianist one evening was very good,and the resident pianist on deck 3 was good. We also tried the chamber music group in the Lincoln Centre on several occasions, which was okay.

It became very windy while we were anchored off MonteCarlo. The crew did an excellent job of ensuring passengers were tendered safely on and off the ship. The following day was still windy, leading to the cancellation of the St Tropez stop. The advice that this port had been cancelled was very late – we only found out because of the lack of shore excursion staff in the theatre when we went to join our booked tour. St Tropez was replaced with Villefranche, where the harbour was sheltered and tendering was straight forward.

Disembarkation instructions were confusing. We booked a HAL tour with drop off at the airport, but we still received a letter telling us to disembark when our tag colour/number was called. This happened before the reporting time for our tour, and when we went to the theatre for the tour meeting time there were no shore excursion staff there, which made us wonder which instruction we should be following. Eventually someone showed up to allocate bus numbers. This tour with drop off at the airport worked very well,and certainly solves the problem of what to do with the luggage for the day.

Holland America would not be our choice of cruise line,but if the itinerary was of interest we would consider it.

Port Reviews:

Civitavecchia: Embarkation port. Cheap and easy enough to catch the train from Rome to Civitavecchia (provided you don’t have too much luggage), but the port itself has become something of a pain since they shifted the cruise port transfer point further away from the railway station. We have been to Rome multiple times and it is such an interesting place to spend some time either side of a cruise from/to Civitavecchia.

Livorno, Italy:There are many options for day trips from Livorno, but the big industrial port is not very user friendly for those wanting to DIY. We did a HAL tour to Cinque Terre. This was new territory for us, but did not really come up to expectations.

Monte Carlo, Monaco: We did a half day HAL tour to Eze & Nice. A bit too early to be in Eze – the shops were only opening as we left. The gardens at the top of the village are supposed to be excellent,with great views, but it is not worth paying the hefty admission price because of the very limited time you get to spend there. In Nice we only had an hour’s free time, which was only a taster – will have to go back! Our guide was extremely hard to understand because of his strong accent. On our return to Monaco we did our own walking tour of Monacoville, the old town on top of the hill. The cathedral is impressive, the aquarium is an amazing building (we didn’t go inside), the palace was a disappointment. We enjoyed wandering the old town and admiring the views. It became very windy in the afternoon, and we were scheduled to stay here until 11pm. HAL made sure we were safely transferred to the ship after a rough tender ride from shore.

Villefranche-sur-Mer, France:This was a replacement stop for St Tropez, which was cancelled due to wind making tendering unsafe. Villefranche is small, with a citadel and a pleasant enough old town to wander. Of note was the “Rue Obscure”, an underground street which dates from the 13th century. Villefranche was also a tender port. There is a big tourist information centre near the tender drop off, which had free wi fi.

Ajaccio, France: Famous for the Napoleon connection,this place is pleasant enough. We docked adjacent to the town and just wandered.

Almeria, Spain: Many people went to Granada to see the Alhambra, but it is quite a long drive from here and we had been before, so we spent the day wandering Almeria on our own. It is walkable from the cruise ship pier to the sights of the city. We climbed up to the Alcazaba, which is impressive, and free to enter. Then we walked up the San Cristobal hill to the monument and more views of the city and the Alcazaba. The cathedral, which is built like a fortress is also worth seeing. There are also many churches, most of which were closed.

Ceuta, Spanish Morocco:There were tours into Morocco, but we stayed in Ceuta, which is pleasant enough for a walk. We berthed right alongside the town. There is an impressive castle alongside a canal, many churches, some Arab baths, a beach, and quite a long shopping street, but not much in the way of souvenirs. There was free wi fi at the info kiosk on the pier, but we found it to be useless, as it kept dropping out.

Marseille, France: A base to go further afield if you want, but we stayed in Marseille for the day and did our own walking tour –about 25kms of it! The cruise ships dock quite a long way out. There are several transport options to get into Marseille, but for convenience and to save time we used the HAL shuttle, which was US$14 per person return to Rue Barbusse, near the History Museum. There are lots of sights of interest in Marseille, including the Palais Longchamp, Notre Dame de la Garde, Vieux Port,St Victor Abbey, Palais du Pharo, Fort St Jean, Hotel de Ville, Cathedrale La Major, Le Panier (Old Marseille). We really enjoyed Marseille.

Sete, France: The cruise ships dock at the industrial port quite a way out. There is a shuttle to get into town. We did not investigate Sete, choosing to take the HAL’s “Carcasonne on your own”. It was well worth the long drive there and back. At Carcassonne buses cannot drop off near the old town. There is a bus park which they must use, and a shuttle is provided from there. So you lose time waiting for shuttles to get to and from the town.The tour description said you get 4 hours on your own at Carcassonne, but this is not true – it was 3 hours actually in the town. The walls of the town are very impressive. We went into the castle. It would have been useful to have known before hand that part of the castle is closed from 11.30am to 2pm. If we had known we would have done that part of the castle first, but the entrance is not obvious. As it was by the time we had done the main part and discovered there was an entrance across a courtyard to another part, it was closed. We had no time to return later, as the meeting time back at the shuttle stop was 2.15pm.

Barcelona, Spain:Lots of options here. We had been before so we decided to just concentrate on a couple of major sights. We only saw La Sagrada Familia from the outside on a previous visit, so this time we went inside. I booked online beforehand. There are several bus options from the port to near the Columbus monument. We used the most convenient one, which ran specifically to/from the Westerdam. It was 5 Euros per person and could be used all day, as many times as you liked. Having caught the shuttle out of the port,we then walked to La Sagrada Familia, stopping at several churches and various buildings in the Parc de la Ciutadella along the way. We spent 2 hours in La Sagrada Familia, including going up the Nativity tower. A truly amazing place and a must see in our book. From here we walked up to the Hospital de Santa Creu I de Sant Pau. This is a lesser known sight in Barcelona and is well worth a visit, even if the entrance fee is a bit steep. It is an amazing collection of modernista buildings, built as a hospital, with interconnecting tunnels.

We had an overnight in Barcelona before disembarkationthe next morning. We did a HAL tour to Montserrat, which then dropped us off at the airport. We had done Montserrat before, but it is a pleasant excursion and this was a convenient way to fill time before our afternoon flight. Our guide was good, and we got to Montserrat ahead of most of the crowds of tour buses.

My review of this trip has now been published in the Review section, but it is incomplete. I did not realise several of the ports we visited would not be available to comment on, and I did not seem to be able to go back and add extra info in the main part of the review. So here is the complete version and if anyone has any questions I will try and answer them. Following this cruise we transferred to the Westerdam, so I will add a review for that one too. Sorry it has taken me a while to get these posted.

PRINSENDAM review August/September 2017.

This was our second cruise with Holland America, and first on Prinsendam. We have also cruised with Azamara, Oceania, NCL, Windstar, Louis, Katarina and several river cruise operators. This cruise was 20 nights, starting and finishing in Amsterdam.

The ship was looking a bit worn in places. The public areas were in better state. We took an upsell from an ocean view cabin on deck 5 to a verandah cabin on deck 9. The room was comfortable enough, but looking tatty, particularly around the verandah door. Our room stewards did a good job.

Our first HAL cruise was on the Zaandam, on a South America/Antarctica trip. We loved most of the itinerary but we found the food to be boring, bland and repetitive. On this second HAL cruise on the Prinsendam we again found the food to be mainly pretty boring, with a distinct lack of vegetables. The service in the Lido Market was pretty good, particularly from the two wait staff we saw most of. However the area never seemed very clean – there were always excessive food scraps all over the floor. We did not eat in the Main Dining Room, partly because of reports that the service was extremely slow and we preferred to get through meals at our own pace. Also, on checking the menus for the MDR and the Lido the food was the same in both venues.

There were 2 lecturers. Both were okay, but the one who did fewer lectures had a much more engaging manner.

The entertainment was quite good. We enjoyed most of the shows by the onboard entertainers as well as the guest entertainers. There was also a piano/violin duo which we enjoyed after dinner each evening.

The weather meant we could not stop at Heimaey. That port was replaced with Scrabster, but when we got there it was too windy to get into the harbour, so that port was also cancelled. Weather can’t be helped, but we were disappointed to miss Heimaey.

We had been to Iceland before, so a lot of the places visited on this cruise were not new to us. Iceland is an interesting country and has some impressive scenery, but it did not have the wow factor for us. This cruise also confirmed our dislike of "at sea" days! Holland America would not be our choice of cruise line, but if the itinerary was of interest we would consider it.

Port Reviews:

Amsterdam: Embarkation & Disembarkation port. Pier is convenient and easy to access. We walked from our hotel to the ship for embarkation. For disembarkation we walked back to the railway station to catch a train to the airport.

Lerwick, Shetland Islands : We did a ship excursion to Jarlshof. We had a good guide and it was a very interesting day. We were dropped off in Lerwick at the end of the tour. Didn’t have much time left, but were able to have a quick walk around the town before catching the last free shuttle back to the ship dock. The Shetland Islands stop exceeded expectations.

Torshavn, Faroe Islands: There was a free shuttle to take us in/out of the industrial port. We spent the morning walking around the town. In the afternoon we took a ship excursion for a drive around the island.

Eskifjordur, Iceland: This village is small and there is nothing there! It is the starting point for visiting some places of interest. We had been to this part of Iceland before and no desire to spend a lot of time in a bus to go to somewhere we had been previously. So we just went walking through the village. It was a magnificent day and there were great reflections in the fjord.

Akureyri, Iceland: Again this is a base for some interesting territory, but we did not wish to travel to previously visited places, so we spent the day walking the town. There are numerous museums and good shopping.

Isafjordur, Iceland: Another small town, which meant travelling some distance to places of more interest. We went walking. Not many shops if you are looking for souvenirs.

Nanortalik, Greenland: Isolated town, with a museum, a church, an interesting cemetery and a fantastic info centre with many great souvenirs! We walked all through and around the town. HAL did not offer any shore excursions.

Qaqortoq, Greenland:Another isolated town, but bigger than Nanortalik. An ugly new church, a picturesque old church, a town square with some old buildings. The info centre did not have as interesting an array of souvenirs as in Nanortalik. The trail of stone carvings was disappointing – the ones by the info centre were in the best condition. HAL did not offer any shore excursions.

Aappilattoq, Greenland:This was an unscheduled stop. This is a very isolated village. Unfortunately it was very foggy in the morning, and we had to wait for this to clear before the tender process could be started. We were organised into three groups and as part of the first group we should have been going ashore about 8am, but tendering was not started until 10am due to the weather. Consequently we only had about 30 minutes ashore, barely time to walk around the village. Nevertheless the stop at this village was an unexpected bonus. Many of the villagers came back to the Prinsendam for food and drink.

Reykjavik, Iceland: A good base to do the “Golden Circle” from, but we had done it before, so stayed in Reykjavik. There is a large array of museums. As we didn’t see the northern lights on either of our trips to Iceland we went to the Aurora Reykjavik, which is a small museum. It has a great continuous film of northern lights. The info centre at the town hall is useful for free wi fi. There are lots of very interesting shops, though not cheap. The cruise port is some distance from the centre of the city. There was a shuttle, which you had to pay for. We walked into town in about 45 minutes. Fortunately there was only a little light drizzle for part of the time.

Heimaey, Iceland: Our stop here was cancelled due to adverse weather for tendering. It was replaced with Scrabster, but it was too windy to dock there, so we ended up continuing to Kirkwall and arriving the evening before we were scheduled.

Kirkwall, Orkney Islands:Also exceeded expectations. We did a HAL excursion to the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae & Skaill House. The Ring of Brodgar & Skara Brae were interesting, Skaill House ordinary. Unfortunately the weather deteriorated into rain and wind and it was very unpleasant. The local council ran a free shuttle from the port into the town of Kirkwall. At the end of our tour we caught it into the town which was quite interesting. A pity about the weather, otherwise we would have spent more time wandering.

Rosyth, Scotland: Many people went into Edinburgh, but we did not want to return there. Rosyth is an industrial port and even though it is not very far, you are obliged to catch the free shuttle to the cruise terminal building, where there is an info centre and free (slow) wi fi. The locals manning the info desk are very helpful. You can get tickets for the free shuttle they operate to Dunfermline. Dunfermline is quite an interesting town and it was pleasant to wander. There is a magnificent cathedral, a ruined abbey and pleasant parks. The shuttles returning to the ship did not operate very late in the day and if they were full you had to wait for the next one. On the way back they stopped at Queensferry so we could get off the shuttle and get some photos of the Forth bridges. Leaving Rosyth we got some great views of the bridges as we sailed underneath them.

Everyone is different and IMHO you have to try the options for yourself to find which suits you.

We have done 2 Oceania and 5 Azamara cruises. Azamara is undoubtedly superior in our opinion. That includes food –I have never understood why people rave about the Oceania food! We had a lot of cold/very salty/bland food on both our Oceania cruises. Gratuities have always been included in both lines. We are not big drinkers, but do enjoy a glass of wine with dinner.

However, we would travel either Azamara or Oceania if the itinerary/timing is right. Indeed, We have both Azamara and Oceania bookings coming up.

Interesting to see where everybody has started and ended!

For us:

Ocean Cruises: Piraeus, Barcelona, Civitavecchia, Venice, Valletta, Split,Amsterdam, Istanbul, Stockholm, Southampton, Singapore, Honolulu, Valparaiso,Buenos Aires, Miami, San Juan.

River Cruises: St Petersburg, Moscow, Budapest, Brussels, Nuremberg, Luxor, Abu Simbel, My Tho (Saigon), Siem Reap, Mandalay, Yangon.

Booked to add in the next 14 months: Hong Kong, Shanghai,Tokyo, Ushuaia, and Giurgiu (for Bucharest) on a river cruise.

Marazul -

I totally agree with you, and we are careful of what we wear.

I was just stating what happens in reality, in response to the question.

Good question!

We stopped at Trujillo last December, as a replacement for a cancelled port.

It was certainly not commercialised like so many ports, but I rather enjoyed the rustic feel. We spent the day just wandering the town and enjoyed it. I left hoping that, while some improvement to the infrastructure would help the tourist trade and income for the obviously poor locals, it could do without being overwhelmed with tourist tat. I hope it manages to retain some of the unspoiled feel.

We were there on 17 September. They say "to dress respectfully". They were not enforcing anything the day we were there. The place was packed, queues to get in, heaps of males and females in shorts and sleeveless tops.

We just returned from 2 cruises last week.

On 17 September we had a day in Marseille. We caught the shuttle into the city and spent the day on our own (2 of us) walking this lovely city - did about 25 kilometres on foot. We had no issues at all and loved the sights. This day ranked as one of the best during our 5 weeks travelling.

Questions have also been raised about safety in Barcelona. Ok, the situation seems to have deteriorated in the last few days, but we had a day in Barcelona on 19 September and again, walked around on our own - did about 20 kilometres on foot. A couple of days before we had actually had a letter from the cruiseline (HAL) warning us of safety issues in Barcelona, and suggesting that HAL excursions were the best option. We did not see anything to concern us in our day ashore.

Everyone has their own level of comfort, but we would not hesitate to explore Marseille or Barcelona on our own at the moment. Of course you have to be alert to your surroundings and common sense should prevail.

Not on Prinsendam in August, or on Westerdam in September

We used the side entrance at Roma Termini train station on the 8th September 2017, so less than 3 weeks ago. No problem. Very convenient. It did say you needed a ticket before you entered that way, and there was a man on the gate at train track level, but he wasn't interested in checking tickets of the people going through there. We had bought our tickets at the little shop inside the entrance at street level, next to the lift and the stairs.

Yes, at Civitavecchia you have to go down stairs, under tracks, then back up stairs again to exit the station.

We just returned from a Civitavecchia to Barcelona cruise yesterday, hence my delayed response!

The side entrance at Roma Termini is very convenient for the Civitavecchia train, and you do not have to worry about stairs - unless I am suffering from memory loss, and I just asked my husband if he remembered stairs after we got out of the lift, and he also said no - only at the Civitavecchia end - and I certainly remember those stairs!

We stayed at the Radisson Blu hotel in Via Filippo Turati overnight before the cruise started in Civitavecchia. The side entrance at the Termini Station was very useful, and very close to the hotel. We got the train tickets at the small shop just inside the door (there was also a supermarket inside that entrance), got the lift (not the stairs) up to the platform level, and exited through the gate very close to platform 28, where the Civitavecchia train was leaving from. Five minutes from hotel to train platform.

This is the second time we have cruised from Civitavecchia and have used Termini station both times - much prefer to catch the train at the beginning of the route, as it is always very busy.

Hubby was pleased with how well it worked from hotel to train at Roma Termini, using this side entrance, and said that is definitely the way to go next time. He was not impressed with how far we had to walk at the train station last time we did this, from a different hotel!

We did a trip to China, with Tibet and a Yangtze river cruise, a few years ago, with APT.

It was an excellent trip. Fairly expensive, but we were well looked after in a very small group. Can't comment on Uniworld or A & K in China, though we have had excellent trips with Uniworld in other parts of the world. Our trip was, from memory, about 18 days.

We were pleased we did the Tibet part. It felt quite different to the rest of China and very interesting. We are unlikely to have another opportunity to see it so it was the obvious time to include it.

We did notice the altitude in Lhasa, but it was not a serious problem for us. The worst time was at night, when we felt as if we had something very heavy sitting on our chests, so we slept quite badly every night. Drinking lots of water helps. We had medication with us but did not take any. During the day we did lots of walking, including climbing up through the Potala Palace, with no major issues - just took things steady and not too fast.

One of our group did opt out of one of the sightseeing days in Lhasa, and stayed in the hotel with some oxygen. The altitude affects everyone differently and there is really no knowing how it will affect you until you get there.

A great trip and worth paying a little extra for the right itinerary, IMO.

We have done 2 Oceania and 5 Azamara cruises. Absolutely no doubt that we prefer Azamara. We have another Azamara cruise booked for December.We also use other lines, because it is itinerary and timing that are most important to us.

We are not overly social and the interaction with the crew is not a factor for us.

We considered the food on both our Oceania cruises to be quite poor. It was often cold, bland or very salty. Azamara food much more to our taste, and always hot when it was supposed to be.

We are not big drinkers, but quite enjoy the included wines with dinner on Azamara.

We think the service on Azamara has been better than Oceania.

We often do our own thing ashore, but have also had good shore excursions on both Azamara and Oceania.

We like the size of the R ships.

Would prefer Azamara any day and from choice we would avoid Oceania in the future. However if Oceania had an itinerary we liked at a good price, we might consider them again.

Everyone is different!

We have done both. 7 nights on the Mekong as part of a Vietnam & Cambodia trip with APT in 2014. Then 14 nights on the Irrawaddy with APT in March of this year.

The Irrawaddy easily wins, though I think the two are sufficiently different to make both trips worth doing.

The people of Burma/Myanmar are delightful and so friendly. (The locals prefer the name Burma because the change of name to Myanmar was imposed on them by the military, so Burma was the name we constantly heard used.)

Vietnam would not rank as one of our favourite places; we enjoyed Cambodia more. Angkor Wat was amazing and we found the architecture in Phnom Penh great too. The actual time on the Mekong was okay, but not particularly special in comparison to other trips we have done.

The architecture in Burma is truly remarkable - so many pagodas covered in gold leaf. And Bagan is just amazing. Such an interesting place. I would like to go back.

If you are able, do both, but my first choice would definitely be Burma. Partly because the country will change as tourism becomes a bigger industry.

We were on Quest for 26 days in December and the internet was extremely variable, and performance did not appear to relate to whether we were in port or not!

Depends what your turnaround port is. We recently did a B2B which turned in Miami, and everyone had to get off the ship. We were not allowed back on board until the ship had been cleared - it was about 90 minutes we had to wait in the terminal building, if we did not want to go out and about anywhere. And then there were arguments between the terminal staff and the Azamara staff as to whether we were allowed to go back on board or not.

Cabin Number: 8032

Ship: Azamara Quest

Month/Year sailed: December 2016

Would you choose this room again: YES

Is noise an issue : No

Balcony size: Normal

B2B 26 nights in total in this cabin. No issues, great in every respect!

Thank you so much for posting this. I have enjoyed reading it all and admiring the photos.

We are due to go to Burma on an APT river cruise next month, so it has been very appropriate reading!

We had an item of hand luggage each, as well as our suitcases. We were told by the taxi marshaller at the cruise port to keep them close to us so we didn't get charged for them. We carried them ourselves and kept them with us on the seat in both of the 2 taxis we caught at the end of December, and were not charged for them. The suitcase charge should only be for items put in the boot. There is a $2 "gas" charge though - this was confirmed by the taxi marshaller at the cruise port, as well as the hotel we stayed at. We were charged $19 + $2 for gas + $2 for suitcases from our hotel to airport.

Fares are regulated by zone, plus a gas fee, plus a charge per suitcase.

At the very end of last month we got a taxi from our hotel in Old San Juan (same zone as Sheraton the cruise port) to the airport. It was $19 plus $2 gas plus $2 for our 2 suitcases. We rounded it up to $25.

We were at Willemstad on a cruise last month, and there were three cruise ships berthed in different places. The big ships dock at the Megapier. Smaller ships can dock on either side of St Anna Bay, having gone through the Queen Emma bridge, which moves aside so vessels can pass up the canal. Any berth is convenient for walking tours. We did both of the walking tours in the links above - Punda and Otrobanda. Very interesting and a pleasant place to wander.

We just got back from 3 nights staying in Old San Juan at the end of our cruise.

We felt perfectly safe wandering the city after dark. There are lots of people around, and many police everywhere.

I think your questions have been answered, but as we are just back from a 3 days stay in San Juan at the end of a cruise I thought I would add our experience.

We loved the forts in San Juan - and we are not "into" military stuff, but the views and everything are just marvellous. These sites are a photographer's paradise!

You can reuse your ticket for both. We were told they are valid for a week. We actually went twice into each fort, over a couple of days, so it was really good value at US$5 per person. We must have spent at least 4 hours in total in each fort, but you will get a good feel with a couple of hours at each one.

It is an easy walk from one to the other, in either direction - just hot and windy! You get good views of the coastline, La Perla (the rundown community outside the city wall) and the amazing Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery en route.

It is easy walking around San Juan, even though there are some hills and stairs. Such a colourful, delightful place! We loved wandering the streets of Old San Juan.

San Juan is definitely a place which deserves longer than a day in port and we were glad we decided to stay 3 nights after our cruise, as I do not expect to be back.

Enjoy those fortresses - we have travelled a lot and they really impressed us as probably up with the best we have seen anywhere in the world.