VEENDAM 8/26 to Bermuda. Photo revieiw of the FOOD & SHIP

[sppunk]

cruisenanny, was the officer a pretty tall (say 6') blonde Dutch female?

 

Also IMO no ship sailing today is as elegant looking than that Disney ship. It's lines are just gorgeous.

[Shebba]

Thanks again for your greg review. I really enjoyed the pictures. Looks like a lovely ship. Too bad she is having the problems listed here.

[madera1]

Enjoyed the review and especially the wonderful photos. Although you had some issues it sounded like there were also many positives aboard the ship. We will be on the Veendam in 5 more months so am paying close attention to all reviews of the ship.

[cruisenanny]

Great photos! I'm surprised at how much the cabin photos look like the same category on Carnival. I have to say the pleather sofa looks a dang sight better in black than that awful salmon color.

Thank You!! The cabin was very nice looking. I think our HAL cabin layout was comparable to Carnivals regular balcony cabin vs. this being a suite on HAL...

Of course our balcony was larger than a regular CCL balcony, and our bathroom was larger & nicer also, with a small whirlpool tub. I think this is where most of the extra square footage was in our HAL suite (the balcony & bathroom). Our suite also had SUPER closets & storage.

 

We were in room 320 on deck #6 and had the same issues, we were given a fan as well but it was still hot till day 5 of the cruise and they got it working a little better.

Our food service was comparable to yours as well, the butter for lobster we all had to ask for it and it seemed like they were short staffed in the dining room or something because our service was not good at all. This was our first Holland America cruise and it didn't leave a good impression at all...

 

Love the pictures, what kind of camera were you using?

 

I know the issues with hot cabins had to be widespread, because I walked a few of the decks (6 being one), and you can just feel the temp go from cool to hot to warm to cool to hot, etc etc. This is why I didn't even bother to keep complaining, I would rather live with it than be yes'd to death with no results. (Or be sent a plate of chocolates that would melt before I could eat them!! LOL)

 

I may also have asked for the drawn butter, sour cream, horseradish etc, if our meals had ever been checked on, but they weren't. Yes, it did seem like they were short staffed.

 

My camera is an Olympus HD 10x wide zoom, I don't know the first thing about cameras & this is my first digital. I got it right before doing my first review last fall. I love it!

[George C]

Thanks, great review and great pictures, thought the lack of ice a bit strange never heard that before on any cruises ( they were very good filling our ice bucket and wine bucket in May)

[chipq]

The food pictures are such a tease. Can't get anything like them at home. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[Skipper's Mom]

Debbie:

 

Thanks so much for sharing your review and photos. I especially enjoyed the ones as you sailed back into NYC, being a former NY'er myself from Massapequa!

 

Lynne

[lazey1]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

Your photos are great and have made us very hungry and very anxious to begin our 9/22/12 New England/Canada cruise. The ship is beautiful as usual with HAL ships.

 

We only hope to have one of the warm cabins as on most of our cruises the cabins have been way to cool for our comfort. (Can't stand the temperature below 75 and not really comfortable below 78)

 

Please let us know who the Captain and Hotel Manager are.

 

Jane & Gary

[cruisenanny]

We were on the Zuiderdam in April in Panama and had the same problem with the AC. Needless to say it was very hot there. Maybe it has something to do with the equipment HAL puts on their ships.

 

Wow that must have been hot!

I'm hoping it won't be as big of an issue for awhile, for the folks sailing her in the upcoming months to cooler places?? (if, in fact, she is sailing to cooler places after Canada?)

 

Thank you for your review.

Love your pcitures.

We have long since stopped ordering Caeser salad on HAL ships -- it is prepared too far in advance an is warm and wilted. Even on our last couple of cruises we though we would get a good one in the Pinnacle made fresh -- didn't happen. Even though it was made table side -- it was already wilted.

We experienced the new system of drinks in the main dining room on our Maasdam cruise in February. Don't like it. We sat at table #78 and watched manhy times as the ice melted in our drinks. The waiters have way too much to do and don't need this extra chore of of handling drinks. And on our cruise the wine stewards stood around doing nothing as very few people ordered bottles of wine at the 5:45 dinner time.

Thanks! Doing the review was my pleasure! (and thank you for the help you gave me in the months leading up to our cruise, with menus & such)

I had the Ceasar 3 out of the four times that we ate in the MDR, I wouldn't have ordered it again. It was actually still tasty but I was getting tired of wilted & warm romaine. Sorry to hear it wasn't just a bad week for Ceasar on the Veendam.

I agree that the waiters have too much to do to be delivering drinks also...

Neat that we had the same table as you:)

[fatcat04]

Oh dear... I just ate and now I'm hungry again. Fantastic pics. Thanks for sharing. :D

[cruisenanny]

One more time. Thanks for the great review and pictures.

You are very welcome & I do hope that you have a super cruise on the beautiful Veendam!

 

I find the incident with the "Officer" in your cabin very, very strange!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me too. The more & more I thought about it, it made me pretty upset & angry. What could I do though, I know they have the right to enter your cabin at any time, BUT a small part of me wonders if it was on the up & up...(or did they think we had done something wrong?? Had something on board that we shouldn't have?? Etc etc. That's why it was upsetting after I thought about it, you know?)

[cruisenanny]

cruisenanny, was the officer a pretty tall (say 6') blonde Dutch female?

 

Also IMO no ship sailing today is as elegant looking than that Disney ship. It's lines are just gorgeous.

 

When I read your question I couldn't remember for the life of me what what she looked like, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't 6 feet tall!. I asked Chris if he had seen her from the balcony (he had stayed out there when I happened to go back into the cabin that night) and he said he did. He recalls that it was an Asian woman.

 

Aren't the Disney ships gorgeous? So classic looking, I would love to sail on one someday!

[Yodalicious]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

We only hope to have one of the warm cabins as on most of our cruises the cabins have been way to cool for our comfort. (Can't stand the temperature below 75 and not really comfortable below 78)

 

Jane & Gary

 

to each their own! We would much rather be cold than hot. PLEASE give me a cabin below 70!!!

[cruisenanny]

Thanks again for your greg review. I really enjoyed the pictures. Looks like a lovely ship. Too bad she is having the problems listed here.

Yes, it really is a shame because she is a very lovely ship indeed.

 

Enjoyed the review and especially the wonderful photos. Although you had some issues it sounded like there were also many positives aboard the ship. We will be on the Veendam in 5 more months so am paying close attention to all reviews of the ship.

There definitely were many positives!

I wish you a fabulous cruise with no issues:)

 

Thanks, great review and great pictures, thought the lack of ice a bit strange never heard that before on any cruises ( they were very good filling our ice bucket and wine bucket in May)

Yes, it was strange!

I think maybe one of the lido ice machines was broken. I'm not positive but it seemed like every time we went up there the one side was closed & there was a staff member doling out ice from a big clear tub on the other side. To say they were stingy would be kind!! LOL

Our in cabin ice bucket was faithfully filled in the a.m. & p.m.(at turn down), but we found the "bucket" to be very small (held maybe 2 drinks worth of ice) and it melted VERY fast. So, if we wanted afternoon or pre dinner drinks in our cabin the ice from the a.m. was long melted and the search for ice began...

[cruisenanny]

The food pictures are such a tease. Can't get anything like them at home. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us.

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

My pleasure!

The food really was good!

 

Debbie:

 

Thanks so much for sharing your review and photos. I especially enjoyed the ones as you sailed back into NYC' date=' being a former NY'er myself from Massapequa!

 

Lynne[/quote']

I'm so glad you liked them, I was happy I woke up early, really enjoyed sailing in!

 

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

Your photos are great and have made us very hungry and very anxious to begin our 9/22/12 New England/Canada cruise. The ship is beautiful as usual with HAL ships.

 

We only hope to have one of the warm cabins as on most of our cruises the cabins have been way to cool for our comfort. (Can't stand the temperature below 75 and not really comfortable below 78)

 

Please let us know who the Captain and Hotel Manager are.

 

Jane & Gary

Thanks!

The Captain is Marco Carsjens and the hotel manager is Douglas, can't find his last name in the few "Explorers" that I saved, sorry.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Great job ..

[kazu]

Debbie,

 

I just had to come back to say how wonderful the rest of your pictures and comments were - really well done:) Thank you SO very much.

 

As to your officer in your cabin - I have a thought - if you were having issues, housekeeping often checks in - if it appears they were not satisfied and officer checks it:) This happened to us on the Zuiderdam. There were no complaints but they do periodic checks on various cabins. An officer came by to check the PH. We happened to be 'in' at the time, but I'm betting if we weren't they would have let themselves in to 'check' on things:)

[cruisenanny]

Oh dear... I just ate and now I'm hungry again. Fantastic pics. Thanks for sharing. :D

My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed the pics!

 

Great job ..

Thanks!

 

Debbie' date='

 

I just had to come back to say how wonderful the rest of your pictures and comments were - really well done:) Thank you SO very much.

 

As to your officer in your cabin - I have a thought - if you were having issues, housekeeping often checks in - if it appears they were not satisfied and officer checks it:) This happened to us on the Zuiderdam. There were no complaints but they do periodic checks on various cabins. An officer came by to check the PH. We happened to be 'in' at the time, but I'm betting if we weren't they would have let themselves in to 'check' on things:)[/quote']

Thanks for the nice compliment, I really enjoyed doing the review!

 

Your thought could be true! An hour or two before she entered our room, a technician had knocked and asked to check our toilet. He said there was a clog and he would be working on it. We didn't think anything of it, because to our knowledge our toilet was never clogged...

Anyhow, I hadn't connected the two.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for the awesome photo's of your cabin and all the food shots. Very nicely done.