Volendam - General Notes

[Krazy Kruizers]

Hand sanitizers were set up everywhere. Gangway, Lido, dining room, and even before you entered the show room some nights. Nearly every evening a couple of the area captains and the Yum Yum man stood outside the dining room and sprayed your hands before you entered the room. That was a little difficult a couple of nights as we sometimes still were carrying our pre-dinner cocktails.

On embarkation nearly everyone got a 10% coupon to use towards any regular price HAL logo item.

The Yum Yum man and the maitre'd stopped the 6:15 dinners from entering the dining on the top level and using the inside stairs to go to their tables. They made everyone use the elevators or the stairs outside the dining room.

They did try to enforce the dress but it was impossible. One night we observed a couple of men in their 70's wearing bermudas into the dining room. A couple of times, our daily programs indicated that baseball caps were not to be worn in the dining room. A woman on the second segment at a table next to ours oftern wore her baseball cap and no on said anything to her.

Lido: Besides the packets of unsalted butter and margarine, there was also little cups of whipped butterout every morning at the end of the main buffet line. Most of the salt and pepper mills sat on plastic platforms. On the second segment, waffles were made fresh every day (except the last day). But you had to be right there to get one off the griddle, otherwise the person making them just stacked them in a pile and they got cold as there wasn't a warming plate under them. Juices - there was never any V-8 or tomato juice in the Lido. You could ask for it but some days they would make a big fuss like they had no idea where they stored it. On the first segment we had lots of choices of low-carb muffins - all chocolate, apple, raisin, bran, a couple of milk chocolate morsels on top. The best ones were the all chocolate ones. The others tasted like saw dust. The second segment there were only a couple of choices - the milk chocolate ones or the apple ones. At lunch there were 4 or 5 prepared salads like Greek, potato, pasta, etc. available at the salad bar.

ALCOHOL - yes, it was taken away from passengers as they returned to the ship in every port. The biggest load was in St Thomas on our first segment since this was our first major stop. The crew had to get a cart to haul it all away a couple of times. And there were a lot of people screaming - they claimed they knew nothing about the new policy even though it was mentioned in their cruise documents. And the alcohol policy was mentioned a couple of times in the daily program.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

We did the kitchen tour the first segment. It started at the "exit" and went through the various areas. Naturally we got free samples of sausage, cheese, appetizers - shrimp, pate', salmon, and cookies. There also someone doing an ice carving and another crew member was carving vegetables into flowers, etc. Unfortunately his table fell over before half of us got through. The tour ended in the Marco Polo (Pinnacle) where we given a half glass of champagne and one of the amuse' - salmon. Then if you wanted to you could go to the Wajang Theater and watch the cooking demonstration - Dungeness Crab Cakes.

Pinnacle Grill - already talked about the amuse' elsewhere. Every time we went there, there was hardly anyone there. Even as late as 8:30 the place was empty a lot of nights. One evening we changed our minds at the last minute about eating in the dining room and decided to go there - no problem. We observed others dropping in sometimes without any reservations.

Lemonade was served at 10:30 on the open decks the first segment but on the second segment it was mostly orange juice as the ship ran out of lemonade. Ice tea was served at 3:30.

There were no little garbage cans to trip over in the hallways.

More to come later.

[Himself]

You know there was a time not too many years ago when people did not violate dress codes. I think people say more about themselves than anything when they violate dress codes and do it so flagrently.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Gym - 11 tread mills. None of the TV's are positioned so that you walk on the tread mills and watch TV at the same time. There is a new machine - a hip flexer - haven't seen one of those on any of the other ships.

We ate breakfast in the dining room a few times. There was a card on the table listing items available that were low carb: V-8 (the hard to get stuff in the Lido and never in the Neptune Lounge); low carb yogurt; low carb cereal; chocolate pancakes (I tried them - they were very good); scrambled eggs and sausage.

On our first segment (Eastern) there were a couple of free digitial seminars offered. None were offered on the second segment (Southern)

We had exploration speakers both cruises. On the first segment we had Dragon Marc Popov. His two presentations were: (1)Oceans and Marine Ecosystem of the Bahamas and the Caribbean and (2)Marine Mammals of the Caribbean. Dr John Palmisano was the speaker on the second segment: (1)What to See at Sea and (2)Amazing Lives of Seabirds.

On every menu they always referred to jello as jelly.

On the first 10 day segment there wasn't any meatloaf listed under "comfort foods" for an evening entree. Don't know about lunch time. But on the second 10 day segment meatloaf sandwiches were offered one day for lunchin the dining room and one evening for dinner.

There were not a lot of trivia games - sometimes it would be offered twice a day - but very rarely. There were more games like taboo, pictionary, guesstures, catch phrase, scatagories, etc., offered.

Heineken beer on tap for you beer lovers. The price was $3.50 for a 12 oz mug. They had one machine at the aft pool bar and the other one was by the pizza stand during lunch and then moved to the Lido Bar area.

No Ben & Jerry's ice cream stand.

Several afternoons there were 2 for 1 drinks at Bingo - any type of drink you wanted.

Bingo was not popular. On our 7 day Westerdam cruise the final jackpot was $4200. On the Volendam, the final jackpot for the 10 day cruise was $2400 the first segment. On the second segment the jackpot of $2460 was won on day 7.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Shops - lots of cheap stuff everywhere. There were a few fancy dresses and sequeen tops hidden in a corner - I doubt if nery many people knew they were there. No Lladro but there were a few pieces of Swarovski.

98% of the tours met on the pier by the gangway in the ports. In the brochures that were in the cabins some of the exursions are marked "Day Spa Special". If you booked one of those tours, if you wanted to get 30% off you had to take your tour ticket to the spa and show it as proof before you went on the tour.

The Pinnacle also passed out coupons at the end of the meal for $20 off an Eramus treatment.

At some of the bingos they were given away dinner for 2 at the Pinnacle, spa coupons, free facials, free excursions on HMC for some of the prises.

Only the Spanish Flaming Coffee was offered on this ship. On this ship it was a diaster the first segment. We went a couple of times and there wasn't even a server there until well after 9 PM even though the daily program offered the coffees from 7 - 11 for $3.75. They weren't even set up to make the coffees - just regular cordials. After 3 or 4 days they stopped advertising them. But the second week was different. There was a server there every day 7 and she always had everything ready to make the coffees.

The Martini Bar was only offered once each cruise. You could have any type of martini and order any brand of vodka or gin that you wanted for $4.75. Poeple went for that.

At the conclusion of several of the shows, free bingo cards were passed out for the next day's final jackpot.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We noticed that while we were in FLL between cruises, very, very little in the way of supplies came aboard the ship. And what we did see was mostly beer. Within a couple of days of our second segment, the pineapple juice was gone, they rationing the tomato juice, some of the wines were gone, potato chips were gone, limited choices of ice creams, Kiwi was only available the first day in the Neptune Lounge, and one woman was complaining because they ran out of peanut butter the last couple of days.

At the omlette stations, they had a toaster where you made you own toast while your omlette was being prepared.

Bami Goreng was offered on the lunch menu and Nasi Goreng was on the dinner menu.

Cereal choices everywhere were terrible - including the Neptune Lounge. Most of it was Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies. There was very little Complete or Corn Flakes. Cheerios were in the boxes where you just added the milk - they put only 6 at a time out of those. And if they ran out you had to wait for someone to get more.

At the Ocean Bar the service was terrible. Hot appetizers didn't arrive until nearly 5:30, if you got any at all. The bar tender was also slow. He would make one drink at a time, then he clean up everything before beginning to make another drink. Both of drink the same thing but he would only make one drink a time. He would get out one glass, put ice in it, pour vodka over it, put away the vodka bottle, and place the drink on the server's tray. Then he would begin the whole process over to make the same exact drink.

 

At the end of the first segment, when we returned from HMC around 12:30 or so, the fruit basket in our cabin had been removed. At the end of the second segment it was still there the morning we left the ship.

[elmorejj]

:cool: Thanks for posting all of your thoughts on the Volendam. I am very surprised about them running out of so many things, this is really not acceptable IMO. Also, I know I would have been very perturbed if we had that kind of bartender in the OB. We usually spend a lot of evening time (and money!) in there and there is no excuse for such poor service...........jean

[Krazy Kruizers]

On all the other cruise ships we have always spent a lot of time and money there - not this time. In fact there very little people there until later in the evening when the bar tender went off.

I know there are some other things to report on, but right now I can't think of any.

[Ziggy7]

Thanks KK, I always enjoy reading your reviews! Thanks! Welcome home! :)

[BS Cruisers]

were there pax sick or are they erroring on safety great notes from your cruise thanks.

[liverpool lou]

Who donated the 10% off coupon at embarkation off the HAL logo items? was it given by your TA? I havent heard this happen on other cruises.

[the2ofus]

KK,

Who were the Hotel Manager and the Food and Beverage Manager on your two cruises? Seems like the F&B Mgr. really dropped the ball. Running out of so many food supplies is inexcusable, IMHO.

[sungoddess]

You shouldn't blame the F&B without knowing what happened. It was most likely a delivery problem and the Controller, not the F&B would be responsible for that. But, the supplies could have been delayed due to weather or something else; the F&B is not in charge of ordering supplies for the ship. That is the responsibility of the Marine Hotel Controller.

[Tinknock50]

Very interesting review. I like the way your back- to- back experience showed how a cruise experirence can can differ from week to week.

[peaches from georgia]

KK, did they have the 'Make Your Own Bloody Mary' event poolside on a sea day? I really enjoyed that on the Maasdam. Wonderful choices of different vodkas, mixes and ingredients. :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

peaches from Georgia

Yes, there was the ultimate bloody mary bar on the Lido from 10:30 AM until noon on sea days.

[Krazy Kruizers]

BS Cruisers

There wasn't any sickness on our ship as far as I know. I think HAL was just taking precautions with all the hand sanitizers because of the all the sickness on the Veendam and maybe one other HAL ship along with other cruise lines having the Norvo virus.

[Krazy Kruizers]

the2ofus

The hotel manager was Mark Pells.

The Food and Beverage Manager was was Gerald Zagler.

[Krazy Kruizers]

liverpool lou

The 10% off coupons were from AAA/CAA.

Not certain if everyone got them. In the past we have asked our TA if she sent things like that since we deal with AAA and she said no. So I have no idea where they came from. We used to get match casino $5 play coupons. But now those are given out when you book shore excursions while on the ship.

[Krazy Kruizers]

A couple of other things.

The photographers were not aggressive. Whenever we told them no, they just walked away. We did notice that a lot of people were not buying pictures.

At the captain's welcome party, the chairs in every other row were turned so that people could use the cocktail tables and talk back and forth. That meant that one row was always had their backs to the stage. Several people turned their chairs around.

They are still offering the special wine dinner at the Pinnacle for $50 per person. It was never advertised in the daily program. It was just on the stand outside the Pinnacle. I doubt if very many people knew about it or even did the dinner.

[BS Cruisers]

back to packing

[LOVE CRUISING]

Thank you, BSCruiser for informing me about this very informative review!! Thanks again,

Love Cruising

[LOVE CRUISING]

Krazy Kruisers,

 

Thank you for the extremely detailed review! We booked the Volendam for November. This will be our first HAL cruise. I have been asking for information concerning the Volendam, and thanks to BSCruisers, ifound your review. Your review has supplied everything! Now I am wondering if this will be a good cruise.

[the2ofus]

Sungoddess,

How nice to have information from someone who understands the business end of HAL. It is interesting that the food supplies are ordered and managed by someone not on the ship. From KK's description of the various shortages, it seems unlikely that the delivery problem was weather related. Maybe just mis-calculation?

[sungoddess]

It could have been miscalculation, definitley. But, it was more likely a delivery error; maybe not weather related, but delayed somehow. If it was a miscalculation, I'm sure the Controller is paying the price!!