Veendam Review- A bit long

[suek113]

Veendam Review May 29, 2011

 

First I want to say please ignore typos, fragmented sentences, grammar errors and other things I know someone will find in this review. Also I typed this in Word so I am not sure how it will look here. So I'm sorry if it's harder to read, or a bit choppy. Thanks! Sue

 

I’m going to start with the embarkation process, which for us was seamless.

We arrived at the New York terminal at 11:00 AM, and were greeted as soon as

we arrived by a HAL rep. We were then handed some paper work to fill in and sent to

a sitting area to fill this in and were handed out numbers. Be sure to get a number they

are needed to go to the next step, which is lining up for your boarding passes, etc. That line was a bit long, but went fast. After that we sat and waited to board, by number.

They started that around 11:30 and we were on the ship and in our room by 12:00.

 

Okay, we are on the ship! Down to our cabin we go, we had an outside cabin on the main deck. The room was spotless and there was no trace of smoke or any type of odor.

We thought the cabin was a very nice size, plenty of room for the two of us. We met our cabin steward, who seemed overworked and exhausted. We asked for wine glasses and extra ice and they were in our room in 10 minutes. So in spite of his being tired, he took

care of us right away. And this treatment continued the entire time we were on the ship.

So we were very pleased with the cabin and service there.

 

Okay on to the Lido deck, here is the one place I found the most to complain about.

The service was slow, sloppy and painful at times. The staff was always polite and

I do believe tried but they were understaffed and had too few doing much. The food at the outside grill was overdone and dry. One day my husband ordered a cheeseburger and was handed the burger and a slice of cheese still in the plastic

wrap. No lie! He then asked the server about the cheese and the server asked if he

needed help unwrapping it, he told him no he would like it melted on the burger. The

funny thing was the two guys behind him made sure they told them to put their cheese

on the burger also. Never had dinner there just breakfast 2 days and lunch 2 days.

 

The dining room was lovely and we had wonderful service at dinner every day.

Breakfast however was painfully slow each time we ate there. The food was good,

it was just the slow service that kept us from going there every day. We had breakfast

in our cabin 2 days and that worked out really well. We did get coffee in our cabin each

morning, the room service staff was great. We did the afternoon teas twice and it was

a nice break after running around each morning.

 

Entertainment was a bit disappointing. We know the ship catered to an older crowd, my DH and I are in our early 50’s, but one show with a bit more contemporary music would have been fun. My DH, who loves oldies, was even bored. They really need to revamp

it a little bit to appeal to everyone. The casino was small, but only crowded on one night. There was always a place to play if you wanted to do so. We went to karaoke night and that was fun, we enjoyed the people who performed. Both the good and the not so good.

 

 

The pool was very small and I do mean very small. There were not enough lounge chairs around for the amount of people who wanted them. There were plenty of tables and chairs if you just wanted to sit at a table. My husband and spent a day just reading at a table and that was okay. On the Retreat deck where the hot tubs now reside there were more lounge chairs but on the first day at sea they were all saved by 11:00 AM. This is a problem on all ships so we were not surprised. We did keep walking and found 2 chairs in an hour or so. People do come and go at least and chairs do open up. There were also chairs located in other places on the ship, but on that first day at sea everything was packed.

 

For the smokers there were plenty of tables and chairs in the Retreat area on the bar side.

I do not smoke but my DH has and outdoor cigar on occasion so he was happy to find

others who would not be giving him the evil eye. So if smoking is something you enjoy you can do that there or on any outside deck where there are ashtrays. There are at least two floors to smoke outside; the 6th and the Retreat area have ashtrays. There may be more I did not really notice.

 

 

Disembarkation was a bit tiring; we arrived with another large ship so it got a bit crazy.

The second day of our trip we received a form to fill in regarding the time we would like to disembark, we chose 9-9:30 AM. The day before we were to disembark we received a letter telling us our time had been changed to 8:15-8:30 since there were three ships that would be in port. No problem for us we are early risers. When our number was called we went to disembark and found the other ship had started to disembark also so we had to wait. People were stuck on stairways and in the hallway for up to half an hour. That was painful. After that it did get a bit smoother, we got our luggage and got though customs

in 20 minutes tops.

 

Bermuda itself was beautiful and we enjoyed every minute there. The buses were great, the taxis also terrific. We did a 5 mile Railway Trail walk which was also lots of fun, a little hot but fun. Shopping was a bit disappointing, but I really wasn’t there to shop.

If you have your laptop and want free WiFi head for the public library, you can use your laptop outside or inside not problem. We stopped by twice to keep tabs on someone who was sick at home.

 

I am sure I am leaving out so very much but I have to stop at one point. I hope this helped. I would do this trip again in a heartbeat!

[CtheW0rld]

nice review, thanks.

 

i have always found breakfast service to be slow in the MDR of all the lines i've sailed with. i don't know why.

[martini cruiser]

Thanks for the review. I'm sailing on the July 3rd sailing and apprciate your tips.

 

Martini Cruiser

[kazu]

Thanks for the review. Although I am not a lido fan, I am surprised at your cheese. I've never experienced this.

 

Hopefully overall you had a good time. sounds like it? Welcome home and thanks for sharing:D

[Lesinindy]

Thanks for posting the review, I have two cruises on my list for the coming year, one to Alaska and one to Bermuda.

[ConnCruise]

And I completely agree with your review. (See my review put up on Sunday.) Anyway since great minds clearly think alike, thanks so much for your spot on review.

 

We had a great cruise and enjoyed the boat, but like you we found the entertainment dated and thought the Lido was really substandard, at least in comparison with our cruises on Royal, Celebrity and NCL.

 

Thanks again

[coka]

Hi Suek113, Thank you for writing about your trip. I am on the Veendam at the end of the month if all goes well. Can you tell me if the walk/trailway is near the ship in Hamilton? Can you walk to it? Did you see many bike riders on it? I have only done the rail trail from King's Wharf to Somerset Bridge and I remember having to bike ride in the streets before I found the beginning of the railway. Thanks in advance for any information about it.

 

coka

[BillMD]

Thanks for this review! We're sailing on the Veendam in 11 days and we're so excited b/c of your review!

[suek113]

Hi Suek113, Thank you for writing about your trip. I am on the Veendam at the end of the month if all goes well. Can you tell me if the walk/trailway is near the ship in Hamilton? Can you walk to it? Did you see many bike riders on it? I have only done the rail trail from King's Wharf to Somerset Bridge and I remember having to bike ride in the streets before I found the beginning of the railway. Thanks in advance for any information about it.

 

coka

 

We took a bus to the beginning of the trail, near the dockyard and walked it for about 5 miles. If you want to rent bikes you can do that from Eve's Cycles near Paget. They have a website and you can email them for info. We did have to hop on to the street on occasion. You should try the ride from Paget, I think that would be more interesting. We liked the walk, but it was very hot and I got a little dehydrated on the walk. I was afraid to drink too much since I have the bladder of a 90 year old. :)

 

I am glad we did it, we saw some wonderful things. Just hydrate better than I did. We almost walked to Horseshoe Bay, but didn't realize how close we were and hopped on the bus right before it. I hope you have a great time!

[erewhon]

Thank you for this report of your cruise.

[ChaCr]

Thanks Sue for your good review.

 

Charles

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review, sounds like a nice trip.

 

Kirk

[NancyJewel92]

suek113 - Thanks for your review and tips -- espeically the one about the WiFi at the library! You've got me excited about my September sailing. :D

 

....[snip] i have always found breakfast service to be slow in the MDR of all the lines i've sailed with. i don't know why.

 

CtheWorld - I, too, have found breakfast service in the MDR is at a slower pace on various lines. I've concluded that it's a difference of expectations. USA folks are use to the fast service of hotels, chain restaurants and diners as we're there to *eat* in at an efficient pace. Whereas MDRs are for leisurely *dining*.

 

This year, Costa modified their MDR breakfast by setting up self-service buffet area in the dining room (and removing tables to create the space) that offered boxed cereal, pasteries, bananas, etc. (I suspect this was only for their Carribean sailings out of the US.) I found this to be great for me as the foods I chose for breakfast don't need to be preapred in the kitchen, but my DH enjoys freshly prepared eggs, etc. :)

[zookiebird]

OP's comment about the overcooked burger was directed towards the poolside grille, not the lido. We had a similar experience, it was consistantly pretty bad but that was the only complaint I can think of. We had a great time on the Veendam and HAL does things right.

[suek113]

OP's comment about the overcooked burger was directed towards the poolside grille, not the lido. We had a similar experience, it was consistantly pretty bad but that was the only complaint I can think of. We had a great time on the Veendam and HAL does things right.

 

Very true it was the poolside grill, I did just lump the two dining venues into one. But the service I was complaining about was in the Lido restaurant itself.

Other than the cheese incident the workers at the grill seemed to do a very good job serving everyone. Also the french fries at the grill were delicious. ;)

[marco]

We were on last month and I too found the bugers by the pool WAY overcooked. I guess they are over paranoid about undercooked beef because everytime I ordered one, he cooked it and I waited for it, they were never made "sitting and waiting".

[earlbird]

We will be on the Veendam on June 19, and this review was very helpful.

[portofrome]

Thanks for the review.

[CtheW0rld]

This year, Costa modified their MDR breakfast by setting up self-service buffet area in the dining room (and removing tables to create the space) that offered boxed cereal, pasteries, bananas, etc. (I suspect this was only for their Carribean sailings out of the US.) I found this to be great for me as the foods I chose for breakfast don't need to be preapred in the kitchen, but my DH enjoys freshly prepared eggs, etc. :)

 

i do like the way costa does the MDR breakfast. i can grab a pastry (or 2 ;)) and some of those delicious meat and cheeses they put out while my eggs are cooking. the experience is still much nicer than the regular buffet.