Oosterdam Disappoints

[Roz]

I visit some of the other cruise line board here at CC, and I hear the same thing - declines in service, cutbacks, lesser food quality, etc. Nothing is what it used to be. At the same time, there have been a lot of innovations and improvements since I first started crusing in 2001.

 

I hope you can find a line that's not had to deal with the financial realities of the past few years. There's a cruise line for everyone.

 

Roz

[AncientWanderer]

We are not entirely brand-loyal. Depending on itinerary, we hop around. We've found a couple of things to be consistent with HAL cruises: Great libraries, great destination speakers onboard, and excellent crew. These are high on our list of priorities, so we keep coming back to HAL. But as others have noted, all priority lists are valid and there's a cruise line for everyone.

 

I'd just also add that we recently did a California Coastal cruise on another line and were so disappointed that there was nobody to speak about California's rich history. I mean, the missions, the Gold Rush...

 

That's the kind of thing we notice on a cruise. We have just learned so much about the world when traveling with HAL.

[SilvertoGold]

I found it very interesting reading everyone's comments. Obviously, people have different expectations in their cruise experiences. Comments here were very polarized.

 

Perhaps though, not everyone who commented read my post thoroughly. I posted that my wife and I have a strong bias for entertainment, in particular shows in the theatre. We have sailed HAL before and found that quality had decreased significantly since our previous cruises on the Noordam and Niew Amsterdam. I also noted that we took this port intensive tour as HAL is the only line to include a land tour of the Yukon. The comedian was mentioned - old recycled jokes heard a million times but he had a lot of charm and his presentation was excellent. The illusionists were OK though they did one amazing card trick that blew us away. Perhaps we were spoiled as our the shows from our last cruise on the Celebrity Silhouette in March were some of the best we have ever seen.

 

Someone commented about Oceania. We travelled on this line several years ago when we toured Asia and really enjoyed it... even though it had no theatre. It did have several activities on sea days that were NOT scheduled during dinner. We did not expect this cruise to be X or NCL or RCCL, we were just not prepared for how much less was offered on this cruise compared to our first Noordam cruise several years ago that was really great.

 

Thanks to everyone for their criticism and reinforcing comments. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and we all look for different things and experiences. If my post can help someone pick a cruise that will meet their expectations, great. I was not being hypercritical, mean or nasty... just an observation of our experience - all that was good and not so good.

 

Oh yes, thanks for pointing out the Captain. I was remiss in not mentioning him. Captain Peter Bos did a fantastic job at providing daily updates for the ship, pointing our wildlife and giving approximate times for particularly scenic viewing as we sailed through channels. In fact, I recall that he was Captain on our Noordam cruise several years ago.

 

Regards,

 

Alan

 

Oops - had to edit my document. AngelCat - the self appointed grammar and spelling police might have pointed out some errors.

 

OP: Glad you thought Captain Bos was good. He is perfect for Alaska and we were thrilled to have him!

 

Thank you for coming back and commenting further, too.

[igraf]

I also look forward to good entertainment on a ship and I found that your comments agree pretty much with our recent cruise on the Westerdam. Dancing with the Stars should be a casual afternoon activity and not prime-time evening entertainment. The "Band" certainly was bland; a jazz vocalist in place of one or two instrumentalists would have been much better.

 

One exception I have to your comments is that I would classify the crew shows as an extra, as the crew shows are scheduled late after the regular entertainment.

 

 

 

...The Vista Lounge presented only two production numbers both of which were mediocre... a mishmash of songs thrown together with no story to speak of. Sets were minimal, costumes poor, dancers below average - though I will give credit to the singers who were superb - when they weren't lip syncing to prerecorded music and vocals. No show band. Three of the shows in the theatre were not really shows at all: 1. movie night; 2. dancing with the stars (sorry, but I do not view watching fellow passengers dance on stage as entertainment.) 3. Philipino crew show.

 

Lounge entertainment was generally good: We really enjoyed Adagio - a piano/violin duet, the BB King Allstars, and the pianoman. One lounge band... The Band, should have been called "The Bland". No vocals and a sound similar to a one-man electronic keyboard. HalCats no longer exist.

 

...

Edited July 11, 2015 by igraf

[kazu]

I also look forward to good entertainment on a ship and I found that your comments agree pretty much with our recent cruise on the Westerdam. Dancing with the Stars should be a casual afternoon activity and not prime-time evening entertainment. The "Band" certainly was bland; a jazz vocalist in place of one or two instrumentalists would have been much better.

 

One exception I have to your comments is that I would classify the crew shows as an extra, as the crew shows are scheduled late after the regular entertainment.

 

On our Westerdam cruise, the Crew show was earlier in the day. I really like that and it was a FULL house. I hope they spread that throughout the fleet whenever possible.

[SilvertoGold]

On our Westerdam cruise, the Crew show was earlier in the day. I really like that and it was a FULL house. I hope they spread that throughout the fleet whenever possible.

 

I LOVE the afternoon crew shows!!!

 

This works on longer cruises well. On Alaska cruises with all of two sea day it is scheduled late evening always.

[Himself]

I spent two weeks on the Oosterdam and I thought it was great. I ate in the Pinacle one night and I found it to be very good!

Edited July 12, 2015 by Himself

[Myrtle Ave. Mayhem]

I can understand what the OP is talking about. Based on my experience and IMHO, HAL has become a shadow of it's former self. I mix my cruises up amongst the major mass market lines and have to say that the cost cutting seems most blatant on HAL. All the lines have their strengths and weaknesses but HAL seems to have the weakest CD/social staff. HAL social staff seem to merely "conduct" activities then run back to their offices. The hotel and food and beverage departments have been hit or miss my last three HAL cruises. What brings me back more than anything are the comfortable naugtically correct ships, aft pools, and the general genteel atmosphere on-board.