Babys first Thanksgiving on the Westerdam review (11/20 to 11/27)

[Billz1979]

Just a quick overview of our family trip on the Westerdam. If anyone has questions about traveling with an infant ask! I was nervous about it but in the end it was a great ship for this experience! Anyway here is my "review"

 

Starting off my expectations were a little understated with this cruise for a few reasons. Mainly that we were travelling with elderly relatives, inlaws, 10 month old son...you name it. So obviously this wouldn't be our normal "relaxing" trip. On top of that was the slightly tempered hesitation about sailing a line perceived to cater to the retired and not families with young infants. Some of these worries were realized...many were not.

The Good:

 

Let me first say as we just got off the ship yesterday...I could not have been happier with most of our experience with the Westerdam. Nearly all of my fears about the actual ship and line proved to not be true. A lot of this MAY have been because we cruised over a holiday(Thanksgiving) but the notion that somehow this line thumbed there nose at family cruisers is simply not true. This leads me to my next and most important praise. The staff. The staff on this ship were something we had not experience in any other line or on any other ship. In past cruises we have always had great experiences with staff but not in ALL areas. The staff on the Westerdam were just truly one of a kind. They always remembered who we were, what we liked to eat, our names, our sons name heck I think they must be required to take notes. This wasn't just a few staff this seemed to be anyone who had ever run into us. Truly amazing. Not only was this a wonderful experience but all staff need to go through whatever training HAL provides in how NOT to pester guests into buying things..(drinks of the day etc) the staff was just great and I think this is what stood out the most on this cruise.

 

The OK:

 

The only things im going to bring up here regarding a few minor hiccups that need to be noted or they too would have been considered great. First off the Food. The food in the main dining room was fantastic. The wait staff well see the above points. The only misses here arent deal breakers but need to be noted. The room service wasnt good. It wasnt terrible, but it wasnt good. Also the Thanksgiving dinner was a bit of a let down. I do of course think this is because they only make this dinner ONE day a year and clearly arent experts in Americana homestyle Turkey day dinners. No deal breaker but worth noting.

 

Secondly and lastly, photographers, photographer availabilities and their seemly archaic system of organizing their pictures. We could rarely find them to get family pictures taken. Having taken a cruise on NCL and seeing the face recognition system at play and organization by room numbers the HAL system is just so 1990s lol. Our final night was filled with an hour trying to locate our pictures in large stacks marked by post it notes only to find that the ships printer was down and some photos were missing from their files. What a downer.

 

Finally the Bad:

 

Traveling with large extended families, inlaws, parents etc...lol jk jk but in all seriousness the only things that kind of irked me in the end was the way some people held a sense of entitlement on this cruise more so than others. It could be the age group that was represented but there were a few snide comments about bringing kids on a cruise and allowing our child to come to a formal dinner. In all honesty our son was very well behaved and when he wasn't we took him out of the dining room. AND in MOST cases everyone loved all of the kids on board. but there were just a few rather rude vocal exceptions....anyway.

 

All and all given all the variables it was a wonderful experience and we would sail HAL again. Let me know if you have any questions about cruising with an infant on the vista class ships or anything in General. Really enjoyed our trip!

[c-cruise]

Thanks for your review. Pretty much mirrors our experiences with taking infants and small children on HAL - especially the part about the staff. They have always been fantastic with our kids!

The easiest cruise we ever did with a child was when our first was 5 months old. Only gets more "challenging" as they become toddlers and beyond. :eek:

[Billz1979]

C-Cruise,

 

The attention this staff gave our son was way above and beyond anything we expected. That alone was worth sailing with HAL. Still cant get over the level of service on the Westerdam!

[kenorus]

Gee i was worried wi th taking my daughter who is 25 on the cruise! The last hal cruise we were on we were the youngest and we were in our 40s so have not taken another one till now. Being a christmas cruise we are hoping for more families with young ones and teenagers! Glad you had a great cruise. Let me know what your stops were.

[surfsidemary]

My impression is that the only "bad" thing you commented on was the behavior of certain passengers. Not something the cruise line can control. The HAL staff is very close to 100% wonderful.

[erewhon]

Thank you for your review.

[Himself]

Thank you for an honest and candid review.

[hpf]

Thanks for your review and I'm glad you had a nice time. I think it's great when family's can cruise together and children seem to brighten our days. It's just too bad that some passengers forget that they were young once to. Keep on cruising.

 

Helen

[Billz1979]

My impression is that the only "bad" thing you commented on was the behavior of certain passengers. Not something the cruise line can control. The HAL staff is very close to 100% wonderful.

 

Sorry I should have clarified that we were Thrilled with the Westerdam and the experience with HAL. Even the few negative comments from people I would imagine are the from the same people that come on here bickering over the lack of everyone wearing tuxedos on formal nights and in general people that LOOK for things to complain about. I would say 99% of the passengers were a joy with the kids.

 

For the comments above about the age of passengers, while there seems to be a good bit of 60+ age group there wasn't the overwhelming lack of families and young couples we were expecting. Given the young age of our son we didnt take advantage of the kids facilities but they did seem to always have activities going on and kids coming and going from the kids club areas. I guess my point is if you are reading this worried about going with kids DONT be. If anything the attention the staff provided alone with the kids should be enough to ease any concerns!

[Billz1979]

Gee i was worried wi th taking my daughter who is 25 on the cruise! The last hal cruise we were on we were the youngest and we were in our 40s so have not taken another one till now. Being a christmas cruise we are hoping for more families with young ones and teenagers! Glad you had a great cruise. Let me know what your stops were.

 

Having seen the demographics over Thanksgiving you have nothing to worry about in the way of families on the ship im positive about that. I think they said there were over 200 children on our boat. We were on the Westerdam Eastern Caribbean (Grand Turk, San Juan, St Martin and HMC)

[SmokinActuary]

Thanks for the review.

 

It sounded as if you handled things well with your little one. I know when Sara was that age we knew enough to take her out of the dining room is she was vocally unhappy. If some people can't handle the presence of a baby, tough on them.

[surfsidemary]

Sorry I should have clarified that we were Thrilled with the Westerdam and the experience with HAL. Even the few negative comments from people I would imagine are the from the same people that come on here bickering over the lack of everyone wearing tuxedos on formal nights and in general people that LOOK for things to complain about. I would say 99% of the passengers were a joy with the kids.

 

For the comments above about the age of passengers, while there seems to be a good bit of 60+ age group there wasn't the overwhelming lack of families and young couples we were expecting. Given the young age of our son we didnt take advantage of the kids facilities but they did seem to always have activities going on and kids coming and going from the kids club areas. I guess my point is if you are reading this worried about going with kids DONT be. If anything the attention the staff provided alone with the kids should be enough to ease any concerns!

 

Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with you at all! I was just pleased to hear that except for a few grumpy/stuffy passengers, all went well for you.

[gelo7]

Thank you for your review.

[luxurysailer]

For the comments above about the age of passengers, while there seems to be a good bit of 60+ age group there wasn't the overwhelming lack of families and young couples we were expecting.

 

I think OP is making an erroneous assumption if he is implying that the demographics he observed on the cruise he was on will hold up fleet wide on HAL. In fact it is just the opposite in my experience. Passenger demographics will be decidedly different on a Caribbean cruise during a holiday period as compared to most HAL sailings. And I think this will also be the case on most other cruise lines as well.