Back from Westerdam...January 2nd

[cricri7]

Hi guys.....I sailed on January 2nd on the Westerdam going to the Carribean. I am a woman in my early 40's and used to cruising solo. I cruise with friends and family, but also by myself and this one was solo. It is my 5th cruise on Holland, I also sailed with Celebrity and Carnival, so I can compare with a few others.

 

To start off...

 

Cabin: I booked an inside on which I got a really good price, around 50% rather than 100% like the usual when you cruise solo. It is on the small side, I sent pictures to Joanie for those who are interested, but quite okay for 1 person. I will talk about the stewards in the category staff later.

 

Food: It was good....not outstanding, but good. I had dinner twice in the Pinnace grill and it is excellent there. It is worth the 25$, especially if you get a big steak!

 

Entertainment: I can't talk about it since I went on this cruise to relax... I read 6 books in my 10 day vacation!!

 

Staff and clientele: I was disappointed....I am used to a much higher standard from Holland but the staff looked exhausted! I am talking about the staff with the clients onboard because I think it goes together. I will go down in flames probably for this, but I have never seen a more obnoxious crowd on a cruise!! People were very demanding from the staff and not at all polite. I saw people go in the Lido barefoot just going out of the pool dripping wet and being impolite with the staff that asked them politely to dress up! I saw people go in the dining room in cutoff ripped jeans and flipflops!

 

As for the "adult" pool, the rule was never enforced by the staff. I firmly believe that if you are a parent and you help your kid to transgress rules, you are not doing your job. I saw someone tell a parent, in front of the kids, that it was an adult pool and the parent completely ignoring the person. The kid gets the message that he can do whatever he pleases.

 

The room stewards are always so nice and hard working on Holland cruises and I almost never saw mine. My room was never really made up in the morning. I don't mind since I am alone but I just found it different than what I am used to.

 

Since it was a time of year where people get vacation time, there were lots of families and big groups of friends traveling together. I traveled once with my family and we never roam the hallways yelling and laughing. It was the case here. There were lots of young guests (mid 20's) that were doing bombs in the pool....walking around and yelling about all the drinks they had the night before....it was not really relaxing!

 

Disembarkation: Total chaos!!!!! The plank did not want to level with the ship so we were late getting off. The problem was that there was no staff to handle the unruly guests!!! People were bunching up with their suitcases instead of following the line that was forming. It was complete hell!!! No staff was there to enforce a line, to explain what was happening....nothing....I never saw that before on Holland.

 

 

Conclusion: I met some very nice people....some of the staff were very nice....and I read and went to the spa....All in all, it was a great cruise but with many bumps.

[kazu]

Thanks for your review. I hate chaotic disembarkations. there is no need of it. We had the same problem on the Nieuw Amsterdam in 2010:(

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

 

All too often the last few years we have experienced bad disembarkation.

[josie724]

Thank you for your review. I was originally booked on this cruise and opted for the Nieuw Amsterdam instead. Now I'm glad I did, we also had a large group of kids and young people on our cruise I heard about 400, but I have to say the behavior was the opposite. As a matter of fact Alaischeif made a comment about how the younger people dressed to the nines at night even though we didn't have a formal night. Sorry it didn't live up to standards.

[revsrobson]

We were on the Westerdam b2b Holiday cruise Dec. 18th - Jan 2nd and had a fabulous time. Felt the staff ( esp. in the MDR) were the best of any HAL boat we have been on.

 

One thing we noticed was that the aft pool signs only say "Children under 14 must be supervised" it is not an "adult only" pool anymore. I don't know if those signs change depending on the time of the year but during the holiday cruise there were approx. 300 kids on board. I was quite surprised with how well behaved the kids were on our cruise. I will admit that I had two of them (11 and 15)but I have VERY high expectations on behavior and will speak up if I see something inappropriate (must be the teacher in me). There were 2 young kids at the aft pool running like maniacs and climbing over people trying to suntan and when I mentioned to those 2 kids that they had to stop running and climbing over people they were quite respectful. Didn't see any dive bombing etc in pools or I would have been upset too! But yes, I agree that sometimes the parenting is a bit lax!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review, glad you had a good time. Six books is a lot of reading in ten days.

[RuthC]

Entertainment: I can't talk about it since I went on this cruise to relax... .

Could you at least post the names of the headline entertainers and lounge performers as published in the daily program? Even that info would be helpful.

Thanks.

[cmdchiefthom]

Thanks for your review. I do understand your comments about groups traveling together, I've experienced it on several New Years cruises. It is annoying.:( I am glad you had a enjoyable cruise, and at a resonable cost.;)

[gelo7]

Thank you for your review.

[josey1964]

We too were on this cruise.

We had a wonderful time and our cabin stewards (Lou and Andre) were fantastic.

Great meals in MDR (Albert our server one night was a star), Pinnacle and Le Cirque.

Pity we had to miss Grand caymen due to the rough sea. Loved HMC.

 

Never saw the nightly shows but here are the Headliners:

Piano bar - Tim kelly

Explorers lounge - Adagio strings

Crows nest - Matt Murphy

Vista lounge - Matilda, Andrew norelli

 

We never used the pools due to amount of children in the adults only area.

We too read lots and enjoyed our verandah.

Missed the chaos of disembarkation as we had a 9.30 slot and waiting in our lounge until we were called (which was around 10.15).

Staff throughout the ship exceeded out expectations and we will cruise with HAL again.

[cricri7]

It is a sure thing that I will cruise again with Holland because the positive topples the negatives largely!

 

As for the "adult" pool, I saw the sign saying that children over 14 should be supervised but over the loudspeaker, on a couple of times, they specified that the aft pool was the adult pool.

 

I have to say that I saw very well behaved children and groups but the standard was a little bit lower than usual.

 

It is a good thing that someone answered for me about the entertainment because I could not even tell you who did the entertainement:(

[Himself]

Thanks for the report. I fear the obnoxious people helped make disembarkation a mess. Sorry I hapened as it is bound to leave a bad taste in on's mouth. You might expect this on Carnival but not on HAL

[RuthC]

Never saw the nightly shows but here are the Headliners:

Piano bar - Tim kelly

Explorers lounge - Adagio strings

Crows nest - Matt Murphy

Vista lounge - Matilda, Andrew norelli

Thank you for the information. Knowing who the entertainment is helps when you see their names on your own cruise.

[kenorus]

we were on the christmas cruise. Did not realize that their was 400 kids onboard. that was the most they have ever had and i could not tell. The food was great, not a complaint. Fun crowd, great christmas dinner, everyone had funny hats and flashing lights. Loved it. Staff were great. I will definately think of another christmas cruise.

[mtnmommy]

Thank you so much for your review. It also drives me crazy when people let their kids use the aft pool because we cruise with our kids, and we--probably like most parents--follow the rules.

 

It makes for an interesting "teaching moment" when the kids ask why those few parents let their children in the aft pool, or roll around wrestling on the Lido floor, or run in the halls. "But why can't I do that?" "Because your Dad and I are really, really mean." Well, actually, the kids don't ask anymore. They know we're mean.

[PetNanny]

Thanks for your review.

[revsrobson]

mtnmommy - Sounds like we have the same approach to parenting! There was one family on our last cruise whose cabin was in the same corridor as ours and the parents use to race the kids down the hall! Morning, noon and night! Totally inappropriate! Of course this is the same family whose kids ran wild at the aft pool. Sometimes people are so unbelievably ignorant!

 

I think if HAL truly wants the Aft pool to be an adult only pool then the sign specifically has to state that!

[Jean1946]

We just got off the Westerdam yesterday. Our time to leave was supposed to be 9:15 - 9:30. When we were searching for a place to wait for our time, the guy at the departing door told us to go on and get off. When we got to the terminal, our luggage was right there, picked it up and was in our car before 8:30. I could not believe it was so organized. Would have hated to have been on the cruise that was so disorganised.

 

BTW, the entertainment was wonderful. It was a Delbert McClinton chartered cruise and it had some of the best blues, jazz, R&B, and country stars and songwriters on board.

[cruiseapril]

On our Westerdam cruise a few years ago, the Adult Pool was only adults. That was during April.