Thinking of trying Holland America

[phinn]

Sis and I are thinking of taking a cruise on the Westerdam. It would be our first time on Holland America having cruised Celebrity and RCI exclusively. We are looking at room SZ6117. Can anyone tell me why that room seems to be available on a number of different cruises even close to sailing? Anyone sailed in that room that can post a pic of the balcony? I would appreciate any feedback.

[CruiserBruce]

Take a look at the Sticky at the top of the board titled "Photos of Cabins/Saterooms". There may be some info there for you.

[lvz2cruz]

We love Celebrity--were afraid to try something else--but love HAL. They are very similar in ambiance, food, service, passenger demographic.

I have not sailed RCI but would bet your experience on HAL would be more like X--no rock climbing, ice skating,--a smaller, quieter ship.

[George C]

I have done 11 cruises on RCCL and one recently on Celeberity, I think you will really like Westerdam did it last year the sz/ss cabins are really nice. MDR on HAL is much better than the other lines ( at least thats what we think ).

[barbarah33]

I have 17 Royal Caribbean cruises and 14 Celebrity. Earlier this year we decided to give Holland a try after hearing such great things about it for years. We sailed on the Westerdam and loved every second of it. So much so that we are sailing on the Eurodam in 3 months. We didn't even think of going back to one of the other lines when picking the Eurodam.

 

I think you will really enjoy Holland.

[groinky]

I have 17 Royal Caribbean cruises and 14 Celebrity. Earlier this year we decided to give Holland a try after hearing such great things about it for years. We sailed on the Westerdam and loved every second of it. So much so that we are sailing on the Eurodam in 3 months. We didn't even think of going back to one of the other lines when picking the Eurodam.

 

I think you will really enjoy Holland.

 

I totally agree with you!

We just cruised on our first Holland cruise on the Eurodam after many many Celebrity and other cruise lines. Love Celebrity but also fell in love with Holland America. If you love one you will love the other.

We leave on the Soltice next week, can't wait and then in January back on Holland. We now have 2 favourite cruise lines!

[jdvmd]

Sis and I are thinking of taking a cruise on the Westerdam. It would be our first time on Holland America having cruised Celebrity and RCI exclusively. We are looking at room SZ6117. Can anyone tell me why that room seems to be available on a number of different cruises even close to sailing? Anyone sailed in that room that can post a pic of the balcony? I would appreciate any feedback.

 

 

phinn, I had to re-read your question because I thought it was one that I posted. Almost exactly.

 

We have booked #6117 on the Westerdam for next April 1. We have 45 cruises under our belts including two with Holland America. Both of those were longer, European cruises so we were looking to try their Caribbean product.

 

We are big fans of Celebrity, Princess and NCL. Not so much for Carnival or RCCL (Diamond members of Crown and Anchor). For us, the price looked good, the itinerary was fairly different and included Half Moon Cay and I was intrigued by the two SZ suites on the ship. Apparently, it is the same room as the SS and SY suites but the balcony will be larger and angled. I think there is an extra chair in the room also.

 

Here is are some pics of the other SZ -- #6052.

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=westerdam+6052&hl=en&biw=1217&bih=741&tbm=isch&tbnid=OTMH1MHn61MVUM:&imgrefurl=http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2399485780100985637jtLHrR&docid=qX1CE18PvuMLgM&imgurl=http://image89.webshots.com/173/4/85/78/2399485780100985637jtLHrR_ph.jpg&w=800&h=533&ei=mJu6TufwDojc2gXRns2kBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=899&vpy=421&dur=839&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=167&ty=90&sig=113169799752118034667&page=1&tbnh=122&tbnw=164&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:0

 

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2474909520100985637kqUujk

 

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2207077630100985637GJtzzq

 

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2540474420100985637cAFKzq

[SwissMyst]

I have 17 Royal Caribbean cruises and 14 Celebrity. Earlier this year we decided to give Holland a try after hearing such great things about it for years. We sailed on the Westerdam and loved every second of it. So much so that we are sailing on the Eurodam in 3 months. We didn't even think of going back to one of the other lines when picking the Eurodam.

 

I think you will really enjoy Holland.

 

Your intriguing post begs for more details. What did you like best about this switch because you really did know those prior cruise line ships will with that many prior cruises with them. Thanks.

 

We thought the SY suite was the best of all possible worlds for cabin size and design. I wish the smaller HAL R and S ships had this size cabin available as we found the R and S suites are way more room than we need or can even use. And while the regular cabins on these R and S ships are larger than other ships, a few extra feet in width and windows in the SY suites does give a lot more open and spacious feel to the whole cabin experience.

[phinn]

Thank you so much for all your answers and jdvmd for the pics. I was not able to pull up pics from top sticky. It appears we will be quite satisfied. I have 14 cruises myself and I feel confident we will enjoy a Westerdam cruise. My only disappointment was that you are not able to choose your own cabin unless you are in a suite category. My sis prefers to have that option, but since we are considering this SZ it will not matter much. It will be interesting to see the comparisons. We mainly decided to make this move because of the itinerary of the southern caribbean.

[jdvmd]

Thank you so much for all your answers and jdvmd for the pics. I was not able to pull up pics from top sticky. It appears we will be quite satisfied. I have 14 cruises myself and I feel confident we will enjoy a Westerdam cruise. My only disappointment was that you are not able to choose your own cabin unless you are in a suite category. My sis prefers to have that option, but since we are considering this SZ it will not matter much. It will be interesting to see the comparisons. We mainly decided to make this move because of the itinerary of the southern caribbean.

 

Not sure what you mean by not picking your own cabin unless you are in a suite. I was able to pick 6117 and did just that. Are you saying you have a guaranteed cabin?

[Megsie1000]

We were able to pick our own cabin and we're way down in an inside category. I would guess the only thing available for you must be a guarantee (?)

[NetwrkEng]

Thank you so much for all your answers and jdvmd for the pics. I was not able to pull up pics from top sticky. It appears we will be quite satisfied. I have 14 cruises myself and I feel confident we will enjoy a Westerdam cruise. My only disappointment was that you are not able to choose your own cabin unless you are in a suite category. My sis prefers to have that option, but since we are considering this SZ it will not matter much. It will be interesting to see the comparisons. We mainly decided to make this move because of the itinerary of the southern caribbean.

 

Many times the SZ is only offered as a guarantee. About the only cabins I would not want from that booking are the SY's all the way forward 5001 and 5002. They are handicapped rooms besides. But of course it is considered and upgrade from SZ.

 

We have been upgraded from an SZ guarantee to everything from SY to SA over the years but yesterday (we sail 11/11) our luck ran out and we were assigned...you guessed it...5002. Had to buy our way up to an SC GUAR but you will probably fair better. Good Luck! BTW we were assigned an SA today from our SC GUAR. :)

[jdvmd]

Many times the SZ is only offered as a guarantee. About the only cabins I would not want from that booking are the SY's all the way forward 5001 and 5002. They are handicapped rooms besides. But of course it is considered and upgrade from SZ.

 

We have been upgraded from an SZ guarantee to everything from SY to SA over the years but yesterday (we sail 11/11) our luck ran out and we were assigned...you guessed it...5002. Had to buy our way up to an SC GUAR but you will probably fair better. Good Luck! BTW we were assigned an SA today from our SC GUAR. :)

 

Curiius if we may end up elsewhere from our SZ, No. 6117. We didn't book through Holland America but an online travel agency and definitely picked this cabin. I know on the Holland America website, it says something about if you want to accept a complimentary upgrade to check this box etc. but there was nothing like this on my booking with the online agency.

[phinn]

I tried several balcony cabins in the "V" category and was surprised to see guarantee only available. Changing dates I noticed that is not the case, so I guess I retract my statement. That would have been a real bummer. Still haven't settled on an exact cabin, but working hard on it for now..

[Koshlong]

I've found that the "guarantee only" thing comes up when a category is pretty much full. On the Eurodam trip we just booked, all verandah categories below VD were guarantee only, from there on up you could pick a stateroom, but the selection was getting limited. I think they close off the lower parts of a grouping first, as they're most likely to get booked. ie SZ might be guarantee only, but SS would allow particular choices.

 

I'm trying my first guarantee this March because the cabins I really wanted were taken. It'll be interesting to see where my VH guarantee actually lands me. (Probably in a VH stateroom, but we'll line with it and spend the money we saved on a spa pass.