Does Holland America Add Cabins by Subtracting Public Space?

[knittinggirl]

On Royal Caribbean's Navigator, they converted public space into 70+ passenger rooms. We sailed on Navigator right after they did this, and found it crowded. Recently, Oasis's private balconies were converted to suites, and they added other rooms too.

 

Does Holland America add passenger rooms at the expense of public space?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Recently HAL has taken away an area up on the Sports Deck -- bow -- where people sun bathed. They turned it into a Retreat Cabana Area. Then on the Observation Deck right below these cabanas HAL took away more deck space to add cabins -- 18 balcony cabins and 7 inside cabins. This was done on the Noordam first. There were a few other cabins added on various decks that had formerly been storage areas.

The Zuiderdam will be heading to Europe in March to have the same thing done.

But nothing as drastic as you described.

Eventually the Oosterdam and Westerdam will get the same remodeling.

A number of years ago the aft section of the Veendam and Rotterdam were altered (and added onto) -- aft pool removed and below that area more cabins added. Maasdam had her escaltor removed (midship) and inside cabins added -- just read about this the other day. I don't see them on the HAL's site.

[cbr663]

Unfortunately, I fear that more and more lines will be forced to do this with their ships. The years of lower ticket prices due to the recession have taken its toll and cruise lines have to find new revenue streams to offset lower ticket prices.

[Folk Singer]

Recently HAL has taken away an area up on the Sports Deck -- bow -- where people sun bathed. They turned it into a Retreat Cabana Area. Then on the Observation Deck right below these cabanas HAL took away more deck space to add cabins -- 18 balcony cabins and 7 inside cabins. This was done on the Noordam first. There were a few other cabins added on various decks that had formerly been storage areas.

The Zuiderdam will be heading to Europe in March to have the same thing done.

But nothing as drastic as you described.

Eventually the Oosterdam and Westerdam will get the same remodeling.

A number of years ago the aft section of the Veendam and Rotterdam were altered (and added onto) -- aft pool removed and below that area more cabins added. Maasdam had her escaltor removed (midship) and inside cabins added -- just read about this the other day. I don't see them on the HAL's site.

 

Thanks for this.

[Hlitner]

The answer to the OP is "absolutely" on some of their ships. One can certainly debate the impact this has on public spaces and services (having a single pool on the Rotterdam and Veendam is not a good thing) but on the HAL CC board you will mostly here from big HAL fans (we like to call them Cheerleaders) who will minimize the impact. Personally, we think the impact of the extra cabins is minimal (except on the Rotterdam and Veendam) and dwarfs the impact of other HAL cut-backs.

 

Hank

[igraf]

In addition, the two newer Signature class ships (Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam) have effectively done so by design. Both in regards to additional staterooms and privatized deck areas. More so in fact than the examples mentioned by KK below.

 

igraf

 

 

 

Recently HAL has taken away an area up on the Sports Deck -- bow -- where people sun bathed. They turned it into a Retreat Cabana Area. Then on the Observation Deck right below these cabanas HAL took away more deck space to add cabins -- 18 balcony cabins and 7 inside cabins. This was done on the Noordam first. There were a few other cabins added on various decks that had formerly been storage areas.

 

The Zuiderdam will be heading to Europe in March to have the same thing done.

 

But nothing as drastic as you described.

 

....

[take us away]

Only ship where we have felt the impact of added cabins is the Prinsedam. The Lido is a bit more crowded on an average day and most noticed on busy days like disembarkation day where you have to search for an open seat. They also added extra chairs to the show lounge to accommodate the added passengers which makes it a bit more difficult to navigate down a section.

[bcd2010]

There has been discussion here that in addition to losing public space, there is an impact on HVAC and plumbing systems that were designed for x number of cabins but now have to support x + y number of cabins.

[RuthC]

Sometimes public space is taken away without adding any cabins, too. The Lower Promenade on the Veendam (especially), Maasdam, and Rotterdam are examples. Outside cabins were converted to Lanai, taking loungers out of public use, and reserved for the people who book those cabins (whether they are sitting out there, or not).

[Lizzie68]

Recently HAL has taken away an area up on the Sports Deck -- bow -- where people sun bathed. They turned it into a Retreat Cabana Area. Then on the Observation Deck right below these cabanas HAL took away more deck space to add cabins -- 18 balcony cabins and 7 inside cabins. This was done on the Noordam first. There were a few other cabins added on various decks that had formerly been storage areas.

 

The Zuiderdam will be heading to Europe in March to have the same thing done.

 

But nothing as drastic as you described.

 

Eventually the Oosterdam and Westerdam will get the same remodeling.

 

A number of years ago the aft section of the Veendam and Rotterdam were altered (and added onto) -- aft pool removed and below that area more cabins added. Maasdam had her escaltor removed (midship) and inside cabins added -- just read about this the other day. I don't see them on the HAL's site.

 

So can I take it that the Westerdam is still "intact" without cabanas? I hope so, as that's my next cruise. I don't like feeling crowded in public areas.

[knittinggirl]

There has been discussion here that in addition to losing public space, there is an impact on HVAC and plumbing systems that were designed for x number of cabins but now have to support x + y number of cabins.

I wondered about this myself. And I also wonder about the drain that all those extra cabins have on the power generators. We personally go for the Junior Suites with the sitting area on Royal Caribbean. It gives us a place to hide out from the crowding. I asked on Navigator where the Diamond Breakfast area was, and they told me it had been remodeled into something else, passenger rooms, I think. We personally didn't have a problem in Royal's equivalent of the Lido, because we arrived when it opened. But we would sit at our table and see the crowds lining up. Quite a roar in the main dining room each night.

[Folk Singer]

There has been discussion here that in addition to losing public space, there is an impact on HVAC and plumbing systems that were designed for x number of cabins but now have to support x + y number of cabins.

 

 

Wouldn't have thought about that.

[Folk Singer]

So can I take it that the Westerdam is still "intact" without cabanas? I hope so, as that's my next cruise. I don't like feeling crowded in public areas.

 

 

We do not either.:eek:

[neptuno]

fwiw, our recent sail aboard ms Amsterdam was the most luxurious in term of public space/passenger is all of our fourteen(some) recent cruises. However, the trend is to cram more passengers into less space for economic reasons, the newer 'big box' ships being the case in point. In your research, there are published numbers called 'passenger space ratios', which while not totally indicative of public space, or area per passenger(like in the MDRs), it is a starting point. So far, in our experience aboard four lines, we prefer the smaller more intimate (sometimes older) ships, like ms Amsterdam.

[solocanadian]

So can I take it that the Westerdam is still "intact" without cabanas? I hope so, as that's my next cruise. I don't like feeling crowded in public areas.

 

No Cabanas on Westerdam.:) CU soon.

[InTheWASide]

On Royal Caribbean's Navigator, they converted public space into 70+ passenger rooms. We sailed on Navigator right after they did this, and found it crowded. Recently, Oasis's private balconies were converted to suites, and they added other rooms too.

 

Does Holland America add passenger rooms at the expense of public space?

 

It's a mix...

 

First all, KK's description below is correct, except she makes it sound like they took away space twice to add the cabanas. They took away one patch of space... that is all. They took the open deck, built staterooms there, then the space above that became the cabana area.

 

However some additions of other rooms have created public space as well.

 

Zuiderdam, Oosterdam and Westerdam had rooms added to the backs of decks 5, 6, 7, 8 and that gave significantly more space to the aft pool deck. So one could ARGUE that the space created from those dry docks around the 2007-2009 timeframe and that deck space lost when the rooms were added more or less cancel each other out.

 

Also on Prinsendam, the rooms added to the aft made way for the larger pool deck there as well. The aft pool on Prinsendam was kind of a joke and barely fit the pool. As a result of the larger space there was more deck area and a way to put a bar out there as well.

 

Just giving you a little fuller picture OP

[Lizzie68]

No Cabanas on Westerdam.:) CU soon.

 

Thanks for that. And yes, can't wait.:)

[igraf]

I still see two evils: reduced deck space plus more passengers. Then there is setting the precedence of privatizing public decks. This will only get worse.

 

I agree in years past HAL made an effort to preserve the space ratio, but not any more.

 

igraf

 

 

 

It's a mix...

 

First all, KK's description below is correct, except she makes it sound like they took away space twice to add the cabanas. They took away one patch of space... that is all. They took the open deck, built staterooms there, then the space above that became the cabana area.

...

[catl331]

So can I take it that the Westerdam is still "intact" without cabanas?

So far - but you can be pretty sure they wll be added on the next dry dock. :(

 

http://www.hollandamerica.com/main/DeckPlansFull.action?ship=we_2&deck=o&deep=0