Westerdam, February 19-March 9, Hawaii. Long report

The Ship

Everything seemed clean. As usual the stewards were unseen, but the clean towels, beds made, chocolate at night, etc. appeared as usual. The laundry was returned within one day. We were in an outside cabin on Main Deck. It seemed that the draperies were new, the TV was new, but the walls had not been updated as I saw a bit of a tear in one wall. It certainly did not take away from our enjoyment. Workers were constantly cleaning. We had no problems with the plumbing. The A/C was a little slow in responding, but it did work.

Lido Marketplace and the Main Dining room have been redecorated. Only problem is, the new chairs are difficult to move. It appears that the carpeting is also new.

The Food

Because food is so personal, I hate to even respond to this. Our first cruise on HAL was nearly 20 years ago. I still have the menus from that cruise. When I compare the menus, it seems to me that HAL has definitely down-graded the menu. Our earlier cruise had food which seemed to me to be of the same quality of a Top Restaurant. The choices are greater now, but the food seems to be of an average quality.

Changing the menu so that it seems you only have three courses (even though it is possible to order an appetizer, a soup, and a salad in addition to the entrée) is certainly a way to cut down on the food budget. There were times it was difficult to find an entrée that appealed to me; however, I readily acknowledge that I am not daring when it comes to entrees with which I am not familiar.

For example, the last evening had a choice of seven starters, soups, salads: 1. Cannelloni Couscous, 2. Salmon Tartare with Baby Zucchini, 3. Duck Confit Puy Lentils, 4. Noodle Soup, 5. Potato Soup with Shrimp, 6. Gazpacho with Crab, and 7. Coconut, Carrot and Radish Salad.

The entrée choices were: 1. Pappardelle and Veal Ragout, 2. Black Sesame Jumbo Shrimp Baharat Salad, 3. Pan-Seared Rainbow Trout, 4. Slow Roasted Striploin of Beef, 5. Lamb Shank, 6. Roasted Chicken with Cheese Gnocchi, and 7. Vegetable Curry with Forbidden Rice. I am certain that many people would know immediately the ingredients of those items, but me, not so much.

Pinnacle Grill: It has become almost impossible for me to get a “medium” steak at the Pinnacle Grill. Either it is “rare” or it is “well-done.” The rest of the food was, as usual, very good, but the service left much to be desired. One of the diners at the table next to us never received his baked potato even though he had asked several times. They told us they had ordered the soufflé when they gave their order for dinner. I believe they said they were now into sitting in the Pinnacle for over 1½ hours and still no dessert.

Lido: The food was good. I was trying to “cut down” on lunch, but a number of times I felt the choices in the Lido surpassed the selections in the main dining room (my opinion only.) However, I enjoy “dining”, so we did not use the Lido for the dinner service.

Room service: we rarely use room service. However, one day my husband “overdid” the spices at Bubba Shrimps and his stomach was rebelling. We ordered off the main menu. The food came when it was expected (45 minutes) and was hot and very good. We received a call about 15 minutes after the food was delivered to see if it was satisfactory. It was.

Activities

More activities were available during the sailing to Hilo. Lei making, ukulele lessons, hulu lessons, etc. were some of the hands-on activities. Each day there was at least one “lecture” about Hawaii presented by a native Hawaiian, very informative and interesting. America’s Test Kitchen had a different demonstration every morning and every afternoon.

During the sailing back to San Diego, the America’s Test Kitchen simply repeated the morning demonstration in the afternoon, and one day just repeated one of the demonstrations from earlier in the cruise. There were two Q/A sessions, one with the support personnel, and one with the captain on the return sailing. We sat on the first level but back several rows to be able to see the AV presentation. When it was time for the Q/A portion, nearly all the questions were taken from the first four rows (the “lounge-type” seats) even though there were many “hand up” in our section.

Entertainment

We went to only a few of the evening presentations, and we left quite early for the most of them as they just didn’t appeal to us. The pianist was fantastic, he but would have been really effective if the “back-up” band would have been silent so that we could have really enjoyed the piano music. The other music was just loud. (Again, this is my opinion, and many others enjoyed the band back-up.) During the Q/A session with the Hotel Staff, many passengers expressed dissatisfaction with the loudness of the music. We were told the volume was “toned down” for this cruise. I hate to think how loud it would have been otherwise.

Revisions to the ship:

The Rijks museum is a great addition to the ship. Often saw many people sitting in this area. My DH love this and enjoyed especially looking at the “moving” artwork.

Crow’s Nest: Not having a Library is a real bust. A very small shelf for “take one, leave one” was available. By the end of the cruise, it had expanded incredible as people were leaving books for others. The interactive tables are, to me, a real waste of space. I saw very few people utilizing them. Most of the time, it seemed that people sitting at that area were just waiting to speak with the Future Cruise Consultant.

The only place for jigsaw puzzles was a small table, only slightly larger than a regular card table, which made it very difficult for doing puzzles. My DH is a puzzle fan. One evening an employee brought a cloth insert and placed it on one of the interactive tables which worked fine for working a puzzle. A few days later I was in the area and saw another employee remove the insert and loudly say, this does not belong here. When I asked about working a puzzle, he just said to use the “card table”.

Ports:

Hilo. Great, Honolulu: two days extended to three days as the weather would not allow us to dock at Niwiliwili, Kauai. (A day too many, IMO, but I’m sure that others appreciated the extra day.) Lahaina and Kona were also great. The sailing past the volcano was changed from 10:55 p.m. to 1:15 a.m. We did not stay up to see it as we had seen it on a previous trip to Hilo.

Seas:

The first 2½ days were quite rough, and I heard conversations that many people were seasick. The captain did mention that there was one time when he was quite worried as the waves were coming from two directions. The trip home was very smooth; we didn’t have much sun, but the seas were calm

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We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, would love to do it again, but other destinations are also attractive.

You were at Lahaina on Mar 1, right? We were there on a land vacation.

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

We also are not fans of loud music.

It is a shame that the library was removed.

Thank you for your review.

Thank you. I have never done a report before, and was apprehensive as to how it would be received. My mistake in the restaurant in Lahina, it was Bubba Gump,not Bubba Shrimp. (It was the shrimp sauce that was too much for my DH.)

Fantastic! Thanks for this great, detailed review.

Who was your Captain and Hotel Manager?

Captain Vincent Smit, Hotel Director, Florin Dragomir, Cruise Director, Keri Noble

Thank you for your review!

Very nice report.

Glad you enjoyed the cruise.

Keith

Thanks for the great review. I've read reports from different people complaining about the service in the Pinnacle Grill, we might go once on a cruise just for something different, but am not a fan of the Grill. Also the remake of the Crows Nest does not seem get many positive reviews. Glad you enjoyed it.

Allan

Thanks for your thorough review. We will be on board to Hawaii in a month so this is very timely.

Great report.

Thanks so much for taking the time to do it and sharing with us.

The Crow's Nest sounds disappointing and I am sorry to hear of the loss of books and puzzle space for those that enjoy doing them.

Thank you for the report. Very nice review.

My husband and I were also on this sailing. I agree with most everything you said about the ship, crew, and menus. For the first time in my long experience with HAL I had difficulty picking something out for dinner a few nights. I was not looking forward to seeing the new Crows Nest area as we enjoyed the library on all ships. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised I didn't mind it. Yes I wish the library was back but I found the area much quieter than when on other ships Crows Nest. I could actually take reading material up there and read. I did enjoy the big info screens they have on the position of ship, depth of water and so on. When the water was rough in the first few days it made for interesting info to see how the azipods were changed. Anyway I am kind of a geek. Overall the cruise was very relaxing for both of us and I would sail this ship again.

I wonder if we ever crossed paths? I agree that the Crow's Nest was quieter with this revision, but I thought it was because it was a much larger open area and because the bar was combined with the coffee area without a place for people to lean against the bar as they enjoyed their drinks and chatted with the bartender.

We had just always enjoyed the Library in the past--the chairs were comfy, there were desks for use if someone wanted to write or to use laptops, etc.

I know that everyone's body structure is different, but I found the chairs in the middle of the Crow's Nest to be uncomfortable.

Thanks for your input.

calteacher and paganwoman: any comments about the Cruise Director? With Hawaii having so many sea days it is a hard job for the CD.

Thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

We were also on that cruise. Keri Noble was the Cruise Director. She was very pleasant - fairly new at her position. I wouldn't think sea days are difficult to program - much more difficult would be the plan B when they cancel a port (never got to Kauai because of winds and rough seas.) Would like to see the Queen's Lounge better utilized with ballroom dancing style music exclusively at a reasonable volume for a couple of hours before dinner each night since the dance floor no longer exists in the Ocean Bar. And make it one of the happy hour bars. This would much better serve the majority of guests on this cruise and other HAL cruises. Another note: During part of the cruise, a custom cover over one interactive table in the Crow's Nest provided ample space for two jigsaw puzzles at once - and the puzzles were assembled a couple of times. While many have complained about the Crow's Nest makeover, most seats were filled during much of our cruise. HAL needs to create a partnership with Amazon or some other company to provide book downloads to replace the library they removed. That would greatly expand the available titles to guests.

twodjs: What a brilliant idea for for Holland to partner with Amazon to download books!

twodjs: What a brilliant idea for for Holland to partner with Amazon to download books!

Thanks! For the price they paid for those interactive tables (which I never saw anyone use) they could have tons of Kindles for guests to use during the cruise. Just sayin' HAL needs to be thinking outside the box with solutions to problems they create.

Thank you for reviewing your Westerdam cruise.

You should post this great reviews under Ship Reviews.

We were on the Westerdam just prior to you. I think the interactive tables are way too large, waste space, and spread germs. They need to put wipes next to each one as they do for the computers.

We were also on this cruise. We had just been on the Oosterdam for the Xmas cruise and we like the "old" Crow's Nest much more than the "new" Crow's Nest. I must agree that the "interactive" areas were never used...at least not in the numerous times we were there. Our room stewards were wonderful...and let me "keep" 8 towel animals on my table for my "zoo"!!! Pretty fun! DH got the flu in Hilo (102.7 fever with chills that afternoon) and he was "confined to the cabin" until his fever was normal. I had great help from all the Lido staff...providing me a tray to use to take him food...and even carrying the tray for me back to the cabin a couple of times. I thought the staff were very responsive to each and every request/need we had during this illness...and really appreciated that! Re the food...we thought the soups were the best...as well as the breakfasts options...the dinner menus in the MDR...we learned...way too late in the cruise ...to order the pasta or the fish...as the meat just never was right (for us) Loved the hot dogs...and they would let me do a "made to order one"...hamburgers were good as well!!! And the salad bar was terrific...as were the lovely ladies who were the servers!! We have done this HI cruise a # of times since we live in SD...and the seas were quite rough those first couple of days...and I was sorry for the many 1st timers to HI that we had pretty cloudy weather the entire trip. Thanks to the ship's medical staff for their care and the Lido staff for their help with me being his waitress! :) LuAnn

You should post this great reviews under Ship Reviews.

We were on the Westerdam just prior to you. I think the interactive tables are way too large, waste space, and spread germs. They need to put wipes next to each one as they do for the computers.

Don't shared puzzles and "library" books spread germs too?

Calteacher,

With regards to the Rijks Museum, I thought I read somewhere that HAL provided "art supplies" and someone was there to help cruisers learn how to "draw". Is that correct?