Food on Veendam

[mskaufman]

We have cruised HAL before and were thinking of Veendam this summer. However, the cc cruise reviews are fairly negative (consistently) about the food. Anyone with recent experience want to chime in on the subject?

[Crazy For Cats]

We sailed on the Veendam this past August and I found the food to be very good. We had one dinner in the PG and it was excellent. A few breakfasts in the MDR again very good. Most of our dinners were in the lido and again no complaints. Of course when I do not have to cook or clean the dishes I am easily pleased.

[Shmoo here]

We have cruised HAL before and were thinking of Veendam this summer. However, the cc cruise reviews are fairly negative (consistently) about the food. Anyone with recent experience want to chime in on the subject?

 

We sailed on the Veendam last Oct/Nov for 21 nights. Granted, our experience on HAL ships is limited (only been on 3 ships, thus far), the food on this cruise was the best we've had so far. We ate in the MDR every night.

[Laminator]

I thought the food we had on the Veendam was the best of any HAL ship that we had been on.

[ScriptOhio]

I did the Voyage Of The Vikings last summer (on the Veendam) and thought the food was as good as it had been on any other Holland America cruise.

Edited March 17, 2014 by ScriptOhio

[sail7seas]

We were pleasantly surprised with how much we enjoyed meals on Veendam last August.

[WisRiver]

In April, 2013 we were on the Veendam from Buenos Aires to Boston for 34 days. i think I was able to get a good sense of the quality of the food on the Veendam. This was our fourth HAL cruise, including two lengthy trans-Atlantic repositioning cruises in 2011 and 2013.

 

On a whole we enjoyed the food. I never had a bad meal. A few times a meal was below average, usually meals were well above average, and in a few cases excellent, especially the Pinnacle Grill. A few caveats. We almost never ate in the MDR. The pace of meals in the MDR is too slow. In the Lido if there is something you do not like, set it aside and get something else. You could also get two or three appetizers in lieu of a main dish. I like soup. If I tried a soup, and it was not to my taste, ask for another. If I wanted a steak, I would ask the cooks to make me a rare one. I would wait and would get a steak off the grill. Hot food in the Lido was hot and cold food was cold. Plus there was always a wide assortment of condiments.

 

The pizza was terrible, but I am not cruising to eat pizza. Breakfast was great. You can get eggs cooked to order. I had to cut back on breakfast because everything was so good. I am allergic to shell fish, so I cannot comment on dishes with shrimp, crab or lobster.

 

You will not be eating cutting edge cuisine, but it was enjoyable.

[Marigold252]

We were on the Veendam for 14 days last month and ate dinner in the MDR 12 times, the Pinnacle once and the Lido once. We also had breakfast and lunch in the MDR a couple of times. The rest of those meals were in the Lido. We thoroughly enjoyed the food in the MDR. Several times I asked for substitutions in menu listings, such as rice in place of potatoes or a different salad dressing, and was always accommodated with a smile. All the meals were good, very good or excellent and the presentation was always excellent. If you are at a table for 2 you can be finished in an hour, a table for 4 or 6 in 1 1/2 hours, but 8 or 10 seatings will be more like 2 hours. We obviously do open seating. The Pinnacle is fantastic. Too bad they can't hold the uneaten portion of your meal and serve it to you the next day like they do with a bottle of wine. The Lido food is very fresh or made to order, and like a previous poster said, if you don't like the taste of an item, leave it and get something else. The French fries and sweet potato fries are awesome.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forums mobile app

[Iwant2BatC]

Glad to hear the food has improved. In November and early December I thought it marginal at best. The Pinnacle was borderline horrible. I was on four HAL ships last year and the Veendam ranked fourth in food quality.

[sparty1]

HI. We just bkkd the same voyage for this summer, 2014. Did you write a review? The reviews I've read of the Veendam make me want to cancel! I won't becuzz the poc's are so interesting. Would you recommend this cruise, especially with it being 35 days ? We've cruised a lot, and it takes a lot to make me complain about the opportunity to cruise anywhere on any ship, so I'm just wondering your perspective? thx

 

on this ship? anyQUOTE=ScriptOhio;42084339]I did the Voyage Of The Vikings last summer (on the Veendam) and thought the food was as good as it had been on any other Holland America cruise.

[mskaufman]

I also am glad I am hearing betting things on this thread than in the reviews.

[Hlitner]

We spent 28 days on the Veendam this Sept-Oct and found the food to be typical HAL food. This means some things were good, some were not so good, and most was what we would categorize as average cruise/banquet cuisine. So, you have little to fear and will certainly not go hungry. Probably our biggest disappointment (with food) were the lunch buffets and desserts (most not worth eating). Cut backs in the overall food budget were too obvious at lunch (how many ways can you make chicken) where you will seldom to ever see a large shrimp or decent beef. And trying to convince the cooks to put "more meat" on a sandwich is sometimes like pulling teeth.

 

Hank

Edited March 18, 2014 by Hlitner

[jellybeana]

Ate at MDR, lido, and room service. Thought the food was great. I loved the french and sweet potato fries on the lido. Loved the choice of eggs benedict in the Lido and waffles. Only complaint is Lido closes for dinner at 8. Really wanted an ice cream one night at 9

[gatorima]

We were on the Veendam June 2013 Quebec City to Boston for 7 nights. We thought the food in the MDR for dinner was probably the best of our approx 16 short cruises on most of the mainstream lines; primarily with Celebrity. In contrast, our last trip was on the Ruby Princess and the food for dinner in the MDR on that sailing was actually pretty bad. The Veendam was our first sailing with HAL and we leave tomorrow for our second cruise with them on the Eurodam.

Edited March 22, 2014 by gatorima
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[mskaufman]

Interesting,

 

Last summer we were on the Ruby P. and thought the food was fine. I guess it might be luck or different tastes.

 

Thanks for the input.

[catl331]

I have never said UGH to any Hal dishes. I always find food to satisfy me for Breakfast. Once, I took back some pancakes as they were cold. Lunch--usually salads or a sandwich. Good selection. Dinner- sure I have had some tasteless things or too spicy etc. but this occurs eating on land also. Pinnacle Grill--I like the desserts! Never had a bad meal there though. Favorite--Tamarind

 

On longer cruises (more than ten days) I tend to get tired of eating.... but nothing really wrong with the food. I look at the menu and think...Oh dear time to eat again!!!

[Spinner2]

On the Veendam right now, using up the last of our internet minutes while we still have a little time here as we'll be leaving the ship in a couple of hours. We have found the food to be absolutely fabulous; the dining room crew among the very best that there is, a great experience. I should say that we are main dining room diners; don't go to the Lido much at all and this trip did not go to the Pinnacle for dinner. I am not a fan of the final night menu but there was nothing wrong with the preparation; just not my choice of selections.

[BumperII]

Don't pay too much attention to the "negative reviews". The dissatisfied tend to speak more loudly. You might want to take that into account.

 

A few years ago, it seemed to us that HAL food fleetwide had slipped a bit, but the last three or four cruises, it has been much improved on every ship.

[BJzink]

We have cruised HAL before and were thinking of Veendam this summer. However, the cc cruise reviews are fairly negative (consistently) about the food. Anyone with recent experience want to chime in on the subject?

We just returned from the Veendam yesterday (Mexico Pacific Coast, 7 days). We had no complaints about any of the food - we had room service breakfast every day but one, only ate in the Lido for 2 lunches. We found the MDR menu with lots of choices, the temperature good, presentation very nice, and.............great flavor. Hope your cruise is as good as ours.