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Veendam in Aruba

amster65

By amster65,
in Holland America Line

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RuthC

RuthC

Posted
Posted
Mutilated? what happened?

 

Did she run into something, or did I miss some reconstruction?

 

Just about 5 years ago, the aft of the Veendam was totally reconstructed. Not only was the aft pool removed in order to put cabins there, but the two decks involved were extended further back, well beyond the two decks below.

It gave the profile of the ship a strange---very non-ship---look. Most unattractive.

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Krazy Kruizers

Krazy Kruizers

Posted
Posted
The OP is referring to this, I believe: www.portarubawebcam.com.

 

While she's not my favorite ship, I would go on her in a heartbeat if she's going where we want to go! We did...to Bermuda...and will do so again in '15.

 

 

Thanks Sheila for the link.

Her Aft looks so bad.

At least she got to dock at the main pier area -- not like what happened to us on the Maasdam 2 years ago -- way out in the freight area.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
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Groan..... Rear view is Not Pretty !!! Sigh......

 

BUT I have to say we were very pleasantly surprised at what a good cruise we were on last August when we sailed Veendam. She exceeded our expectations and her crew is fantastic.

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Robin7

Robin7

Posted
Posted

Hmmmm. Not as elegant looking as she was but not as horrifying as I was expecting. Of course, I still haven't had time to find pix of the aft area with no pool. (I hate that search is not working!) We sailed on her in 2001 and are soooooooooooo looking forward to sailing on her again in 65 days!!!

 

Robin

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Shmoo here

Shmoo here

Posted
Posted
Hmmmm. Not as elegant looking as she was but not as horrifying as I was expecting. Of course, I still haven't had time to find pix of the aft area with no pool. (I hate that search is not working!) We sailed on her in 2001 and are soooooooooooo looking forward to sailing on her again in 65 days!!!

 

Robin

 

2iivqe9.jpg

 

1z4wytx.jpg

 

2lxunf5.jpg

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Robin7

Robin7

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thank you, Shmoo here! Wow! How very Carnival-like. (Don't get me wrong. Our last two cruises were on Carnival because we took teenagers. THEY LOVED IT!) Very non-HALish. I can see why that has created some controversy.

 

Edited to ask: We are not hot tub people. (We used to own one.) But I'm also not a fan of salt water pools. We always sat by the aft pool and then showered to cool off. I don't think that change will bother us much. But I'm not sure I'll enjoy the huge TV. Unless they do 'Movies Under the Stars"? We LOVED that on our Carnival cruises. Does HAL show movies on that at night?

 

Robin

Edited by Robin7
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RuthC

RuthC

Posted
Posted
2_retreat2-600x450.jpg

2_retreat2-600x450.jpg

2_retreat_pool_2-473x351.jpg

 

The first three links opened to a page that said "Oops".

 

The two pictures looked like Retreat 1.0, which was a water trough, but fairly low to the deck level. That was later changed to a large mound (for lack of a better word), that's fills that entire footprint, but is too high to look over. There's about 4 hot tubs in Retreat 2.0.

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted
Thank you, Shmoo here! Wow! How very Carnival-like. (Don't get me wrong. Our last two cruises were on Carnival because we took teenagers. THEY LOVED IT!) Very non-HALish. I can see why that has created some controversy.

 

Edited to ask: We are not hot tub people. (We used to own one.) But I'm also not a fan of salt water pools. We always sat by the aft pool and then showered to cool off. I don't think that change will bother us much. But I'm not sure I'll enjoy the huge TV. Unless they do 'Movies Under the Stars"? We LOVED that on our Carnival cruises. Does HAL show movies on that at night?

 

Robin

 

 

Thankfully, we never were disturbed by the huge TV. They had no movies or sound coming from it during our cruise. Phew.... I did worry about that. :o

 

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Topsham

Topsham

Posted
Posted

In this era of 'norvirus'... why does anyone even want to step into a hit tub? Yuch!!!!

 

A pool? Well, perhaps, but a tub is just too close for comfort!

 

A good reason to get rid of them on the VEENDAM and have the old pool that used to be there. ;-)

 

Stephen

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igraf

igraf

Posted
Posted

On the other hand, HAL is offering 7-day cruises to Mexico on the Veendam out of my home town of San Diego for under US$500. No airfare, no pre-cruise hotel.

 

So we are going to Mexico in a week and a half! I'll take the ugly stern over another week at work. At least they will have the good manners to park the ship bow-first at the San Diego port.

 

igraf

 

 

 

Just about 5 years ago, the aft of the Veendam was totally reconstructed. Not only was the aft pool removed in order to put cabins there, but the two decks involved were extended further back, well beyond the two decks below.

It gave the profile of the ship a strange---very non-ship---look. Most unattractive.

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Topsham

Topsham

Posted
Posted

Want for an idea?

 

Remove the kid's place behind the funnel.... and that dreadful TV....

 

Instead... built an attractive structure... behind the funnel..... from one side to side and then a bit around to the sides... full height glazed windows.

 

In the middle... an Opium Den ( well I call it Tamarind Den).... as a bar and then... on one side... for say 80 diners... a beautiful Pinnacle Restaurant. On the other side... a Tamarind... another 80 diners.

 

At least it would be better than just a kids spa!

 

I can dream.....

 

Stephen

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Robin7

Robin7

Posted
Posted
Thankfully, we never were disturbed by the huge TV. They had no movies or sound coming from it during our cruise. Phew.... I did worry about that. :o

 

I did find the TV blaring during the day to be quite...CRAZY! We are not pool people, thankfully, especially on the Carnival ships. Too much...activity...for us! Even my teenagers did not use the pool area! (Being lifeguards may have had something to do with that, however.)

 

We did like the movies at night though. It was so gorgeous to be sitting out in the dark under the stars watching an old favorite. It was fun but not required for our cruise enjoyment. :)

 

Robin

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