Amsterdam post-drydock?

[rkacruiser]

I boarded the Amsterdam today and here is a picture of the Explorers Lounge. [ATTACH]350899[/ATTACH]

 

Thank you for posting this photo. The Lounge looks much as I remember it.

[maz1838]

Hi,

 

Just off the Amsterdam in San Diego. As a previous poster mentioned there were no major changes, new carpets, new blue day of the week mats in the lifts, the ship had a new/clean feel and smell. I overheard the Hotel Manager mention that pipe work had been replaced, there had been no leaks in the dry dock, but once we were underway there were some leaks and buckets placed under them. Did not use the internet, the pricing was the traditional pricing structure (too expensive)

 

There were contractors on board renovating the lower prom deck, they were stripping the teak and renewing the jointing material, they departed the ship midway to San Diego, parts of the deck were still in need of maintenance. There were also contractors working below decks.

 

The cruise was enjoyable, the staff were excellent as usual and seemed to be relieved that their dry dock was over.

 

Mary

[USVIcruizer]

Can't address "changes" as a first time Amsterdam cruiser...although sailed HAL exclusively many years ago. Lots of changes since the "old days" which I won't get into here.

 

Definitely new bedding, which was wonderful - hallway carpeting also looked brand new. Was onboard from Ft. Lauderdale through to Seattle and the one bucket for the leak at the starboard entrance to the lower level of La Fontaine was replaced by 3 towels and 2 "Cuidado" signs by the 2nd to last night.

 

Internet speed excruciatingly slow - often 5 minutes simply to log on. Forget trying to download anything. Temperature issues throughout the ship, and from San Diego onwards, you could hang meat in our cabin, despite the thermostat being turned to the highest setting. Luckily we found some wool deck blankets which came in very handy, as attempts to repair failed. No plumbing issues for us, thank goodness and yes, we even had towel animals!

 

Minor issues indeed, all in all she's in great shape for a 15 year old ship and we enjoyed our 19 days onboard. But if we choose HAL again, will likely be on a newer vessel.

[cruzingnut]

I knew that all the plumbing wouldn't be replaced. One of the staff (upper, as in one who should know) told me that certain decks would be taken care of, but not all of them.

 

These problems, and others, are things I addressed in my email survey after the World Cruise. It's just inconceivable that this ship that is ONLY 15 years old (typically are good for 30 years!) is this kind of condition. It's deplorable that the flagship of the line and the one that is used for the World Cruise is in this kind of condition.

 

Seriously, this needs to be totally taken care of BEFORE undertaking a World Cruise. Not only the leaks, but yes, temperature problems, toilet problems and some folks even were forced to move to different cabins due to these issues not being fixed. We were lucky (this time) to not have problems like a lot of other people did.....

 

HAL, are you listening? Reading this?

 

Linda R.

....who has more days on the Amsterdam than any other 'dam ship.

 

 

Can't address "changes" as a first time Amsterdam cruiser...although sailed HAL exclusively many years ago. Lots of changes since the "old days" which I won't get into here.

 

Definitely new bedding, which was wonderful - hallway carpeting also looked brand new. Was onboard from Ft. Lauderdale through to Seattle and the one bucket for the leak at the starboard entrance to the lower level of La Fontaine was replaced by 3 towels and 2 "Cuidado" signs by the 2nd to last night.

 

Internet speed excruciatingly slow - often 5 minutes simply to log on. Forget trying to download anything. Temperature issues throughout the ship, and from San Diego onwards, you could hang meat in our cabin, despite the thermostat being turned to the highest setting. Luckily we found some wool deck blankets which came in very handy, as attempts to repair failed. No plumbing issues for us, thank goodness and yes, we even had towel animals!

 

Minor issues indeed, all in all she's in great shape for a 15 year old ship and we enjoyed our 19 days onboard. But if we choose HAL again, will likely be on a newer vessel.

[rkacruiser]

I feel I need to support cruzingnut's comments. For a ship to come out of drydock and still have a leak near the entrance to the MDR: well, this is not acceptable in my opinion at all!

 

The problems are due to the original quality of workmanship and construction. The old cliche of " You get what you pay for" applies. Bottom line bids frequently mean "bottom quality work". One Chief Engineer I heard speak said, "The people who build these ships ought to be made to live on them!"

 

I was aboard the Veendam when she was less than 2 years old and my non-critical eye saw workmanship issues.

Edited June 2, 2015 by rkacruiser

[arzz]

I have to echo the concerns. We love the Amsterdam for so many reasons. We were on board for the first segment of the 2014 Grand Asia and there were leaks in the Crow's Nest, lower dining room and occasionally elsewhere.

 

We were on the Amsterdam again for the two week holiday cruise and the problems were worse. We had plumbing issues in our cabin and the ceiling leaked in the hall outside our cabin - as the cruise progressed the smells in the hallway from the wet carpet became quite intense. We were surprised that HAL rolled this ship out on the World Cruise in that condition.

 

We thought it would all be addressed in dry dock.

 

In April we did Eurodam's transatlantic. We like the Eurodam as it is a well run ship and everything works. The water in the shower stays at the temperature where it is set. The toilet flushes each time the button is pushed. The water in the toilet, in our experience, only went one way. The preferred direction. No drips from the ceiling ... Little things - each one not much but put together when several things are not functioning well - well it becomes annoying. As a ship however - due to size and crowding issues on the Eurodam, the Amsterdam is much preferred by us.

 

We have logged many days on the Amsterdam over the years and as you you can see in my signature we are booked on her again for the fall. HAL please fix her!

[scluvsrain]

I stand corrected! I had no idea that this was available. You'd think that the President and CEO of HAL would have told us this on the world cruise....

 

Linda R.

 

I was on the Westerdam last month to Alaska and they were doing a pilot of the new internet package program. They have 3 tiers of access - and all 3 were very reasonable. I think the "unlimited" gave you faster connections and all WWW available. They have a more limited connection which gives you just email and facebook access or something along those lines. And there was an unlimited package for 24 hours which was pretty cheap - my friend got it for $16 I think. Anyway, they said if the pilot went well they'd roll it out fleet-wide. Fingers crossed!

[bernie5]

Anyone else off the Amsterdam with pictures, thoughts, info about the recent drydock? I am so curious about any changes.

[runchadrun]

I just got off the Amsterdam yesterday and will be posting a review later this week. (Summary: Front Office staff needs serious customer service training but everyone else was great.) There was some kind of grease dripping at the entrance to the MDR near the podium on the left which I almost slipped on a couple times. I saw a few plumbing repairs going on in the hallways in the cabin areas. The also had contractors working on touching up the wood paneling in the elevator lobbies and stairwells. They repainted my mother's balcony floor and revarnished the railing while we were about to enter Tracy Arm, filling up her cabin with fumes on the one day we wanted to use the balcony.

[KNOT2L82SAIL]

I stepped off of the ever so lovely Ms Amsterdam on June 7 after a week of cruising in Alaska.

I think most of the dry dock renovations were well hidden to the cruisers. I know the carpeting on the stairs has not been replaced as it was well worn. The carpeting in the hallways looked great.

There was the leak outside of the MDR on the 4th level. One of the stalls in the ladies room outside of the MDR on this level was out of service all week. There was a leak near the piano bar...and that persisted all week as was evidenced by the blower machine.

I did not see any leaks in the hallways that had been there when I was on her previously. In fact, I did not see any leaks in the hallways where the cabins are located.

Only ONE regular coffee machine was working in the Lido all week. Only ONE. inexcusable.

I am not sure if all of the mattresses were replaced or not as the one in my cabin had a slant to it. But it still was comfy.

I never had any issues with water or water pressure in my cabin. Previous two cruises, this had not been the case.

Would I cruise on her again???? FOR SURE.

I will do a review in a few days. No photos. I have not mastered the art of posting photos.

[rkacruiser]

It is rather disappointing to learn that not all of some of the most basic maintenance issues were not corrected during her drydock. I fear that not enough drydock time is being scheduled for ships that are approaching middle age.

[Tropic]

Temperature issues throughout the ship, and from San Diego onwards, you could hang meat in our cabin, despite the thermostat being turned to the highest setting. Luckily we found some wool deck blankets which came in very handy, as attempts to repair failed. "

 

Would appreciate further comments on temperature problems. ie what type of room and on what level and was it only "too cold". Not on this vessel but another our outside cabin go so hot that you couldn't touch the outside walls or window... only resolved when ship headed north and we only had to deal with morning sun... on the trip south we had afternoon sun... we assumed it was the additional rooms added to the rear of the ship left the a/c unable to deal with this problem... thus my question