Report on 1 week on Veendam (Quebec-Boston, May 23-31)

[RuthC]

What is "the added wall on the LP Atrium area?"

The starboard side of the Lower Promenade atrium area was lined with offices when you were on it. That made the atrium feel wide open on both sides. When the Lanai cabins were installed in that area a separation between the cabin doors and the atrium was necessary; a passageway was created by adding a wall. So when you head aft from the elevators, instead of quite a bit of open space to your left, there is just that wall.

 

As if that weren't enough, a long dining room type table was placed there, along with several chairs. It feels closed in to me.

The table and chairs do make for a nice place to meet, and are used quite a bit by people on laptops, though.

[Barrheadlass]

I suggest you look at Oceania. We've taken 4 HAL cruises in the last couple of years and just did a TA on Oceania. Food and service were both terrific...the ship was clearly not understaffed. We'll never return to HAL.

[Linda&Vern]

The starboard side of the Lower Promenade atrium area was lined with offices when you were on it. That made the atrium feel wide open on both sides. When the Lanai cabins were installed in that area a separation between the cabin doors and the atrium was necessary; a passageway was created by adding a wall. So when you head aft from the elevators, instead of quite a bit of open space to your left, there is just that wall.

 

As if that weren't enough, a long dining room type table was placed there, along with several chairs. It feels closed in to me.

The table and chairs do make for a nice place to meet, and are used quite a bit by people on laptops, though.

Well dang. I must have looked at HAL deck plans 100 times since I booked this cruse and never noticed that wall. I noticed the offices gone and cabins in their place ... but never noticed the wall to make a hallway. Thanks so much for explaining!!!

[mudscraper]

A recent review of the Veendam (13 May by poster Qc-MTL-To) says that the Veendam was spotless and the food was very good. I'll take my chances on this old tug this summer.

[Chuck]

I suggest you look at Oceania. We've taken 4 HAL cruises in the last couple of years and just did a TA on Oceania. Food and service were both terrific...the ship was clearly not understaffed. We'll never return to HAL.

What you have to remember is that alot of us cannot justify the money that Oceania charges. I know I can't.

[MrOZ]

As a follow-up, we've decided to book our next cruise on Oceania. It is definitely expensive (from the itineraries I looked at, and considering the "included" air, probably averaging 50% more than a Neptune suite on a comparable HAL ship?), but for us, we don't vacation often, so we want to make the most of the vacations we do get to talk. The next trip is a milestone anniversary (10 year, but we're doing in 9 months early due to the academic calendar), and if you ever peruse the Oceania forum on CC, it's full of people who left HAL for the reasons we're leaving.

 

I do want to thank everyone for their support and friendliness on this board! It's interesting to see that different forums seem to have different personalities (as determined by the people on them, obviously), and the HAL one seems friendlier than many others on CC.

 

Ph. and as an additional denouement, HAL responded to my survey, and they seem to have missed my point; they apologized for the typos in the "On Location" program. *sigh*

[Jim Avery]

Although we still had an enjoyable time (we try to make the best of things, even when they're not ideal), I'm still strongly considering a different cruise line in the future. We're open to recommendations based on the things we disliked here.

 

Try Seabourn. It will blow you away in the areas you mentioned were important to you.:D