A HAL fan Once again!

[jmvt]

In all fairness to HAL, I feel I must post an update on my feelings about Holland America. After a disasterous cruise on the Maasdam last Halloween with many problems, we took another short repositioning cruise on the Oosterdam on Sept. 27th. The difference between the two cruises was huge. This crew and staff were unbelieveable! Happy, courteous.......a joy to be around. :) The ship was beautiful...this was our 14th HAL cruise, but our first on this style ship----we LOVED the size and style!

 

The food and selection was head over heels better than the Maasdam last year and the waiters top notch! We had really great upbeat music around the pool and the band in the Crow's Nest drew a large crowd every night and a great time was had by all. Everything on this cruise was perfect including our wraparound balcony cabin.

 

It is amazing the differences in the mood and tempo of each cruise. I will say that having happy crew makes such a difference. Last year on the Maasdam, no one even cracked a smile and actually seemed indifferent to all the passengers. This Oosterdam crew was totally engaged in doing the extra "little" things that bring a smile to your face----the towel animals, the origami napkin figures made by the bar staff, etc.

 

Thank you HAL for redeeming yourself! We'll be back!

[cruzbums]

I am glad you are back.

 

We have never had a really bad cruise on Holland America, but some can be better than others. We have sailed several times on the Amsterdam. Usually the service and ship were top notch but one cruise things were just not quite up to par. I mentioned to the consignore that the service seemed a little below par and she indicated that there had been a large crew change after the last cruise. She had a bottle of wine sent to us at dinner which was not my intent and we also received an apology which was not my intent.

 

We have sailed on the Oosterdam once and are booked on it next May. We still like the smaller ships best but also like the Oosterdam. We found the crew to be very good and we like the layout of the ship. The only complaint we had was the furniture in the suites.

 

Happy Cruising!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you tried HAL again and had a wonderful cruise.

[Islandbuoy]

I think the maasdam is jinxed as it's the only HAL ship where we've had crummy service(dining room--short of staff)

[crossingfan]

I could not agree more with the above posters review. We were also on the "Oosterdam" Sep 27 sailing and found it to be a wonderful experience.

 

However last Dec we were on the "Westerdam" and it was a terrible cruise. The crew was among the worst we had ever had.

 

We too will also consider HAL in the future as an alternative to our favorite cruise line which is Celebrity. We are sailing on the "Zenith" soon and are looking forward to a smaller ship.

 

Hope to sail on the "Oosterdam" once again or maybe we will try a Statendam class ship......?

Rick

[Bramcruiser]

Hi. I was on the same Oosterdam cruise and loved it too - first time on HAL. Glad to hear that others are writing positively on this experience. I wrote my own experience on this sailing on this board too. Despite the fog which is out of anyone's control the cruise went well, the service was wonderful for the most part (the Crow's Nest was a difficult place to obtain a drink) and the experience just plain classy. Thanks for your post.

[Randyk47]

Glad to hear you had a great time on the Oosterdam. We sailed her in March of last year and were not impressed. The service, which looks like it's been fixed, was the worst ever on a HAL cruise. We've not given up and are off on the Volendam in February next year and looking forward to our typical wonderful HAL experience. Again, it's good to hear they've worked on the service.....that really was the only truly bad part of the cruise.

[RuthC]

It was nice to read that in spite of a less than stellar cruise you were willing to give HAL a second chance. Glad that it worked out so well for you.

I had a lovely cruise on the Maasdam last summer; felt the service was fine---even outstanding in some respects. But the staff/crew does change from time to time on each of the ships, and one person's experience may not be anything like another's. There is always turn-over; sometimes there is a shortage, sometimes not. That can make a difference.

I am concerned how the addition of another Vista-class ship will impact the level of service. Time will tell.

[jhannah]

Thanks for the post. Each of us is subject to having "bad days." (Sometimes lasting longer!!) A restaurant, salon, or ship is the same way. I'm glad you gave HAL another try and that things were more to your liking.

[synman]

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip on the Zaandam recently, after 2 fabulous trips on Vista class. I love the Zuider and Oosterdams, but I think I like the smaller format better. The music theme throughout the Zaan didn't hurt (I'm in the music instrument industry), and it showed bits of wear, but the overall experience was better.

[RevNeal]

I am concerned how the addition of another Vista-class ship will impact the level of service. Time will tell.

 

Based upon what I have been told the HAL staffing situation has just about reached the saturation point ... nearly every ship has a full compliment of stewards and officers, with an over-staffing situation beginning to present itself in a few cases. This is necessary to enable to staffing of the Noordam without decimating service and operations on the rest of the ships in the fleet.

 

Assuming an even distribution of staff (which isn't the case, but let's just assume that it's so for the purposes of this discussion), HAL will need to take about 67 crew members from each ship in order to staff the Noordam.

[RuthC]

Based upon what I have been told the HAL staffing situation has just about reached the saturation point ... HAL will need to take about 67 crew members from each ship in order to staff the Noordam.

Nice try, Greg, but I'm still not convinced.

On my last (not so long ago) cruise frequently my cabin steward didn't get to my cabin until early afternoon. That isn't a problem for me, but does serve to show that he already had a full-time job. My table steward was able to stop and chat for only a few brief minutes.

We are still getting reports that the stewards are working flat-out; I've read no reports that they aren't working to capacity.

I'm still concerned that reducing the current staff for a new ship will return us to those days of (recent) yesteryear when the staff shortages impacted our cruises.

I certainly hope I'm wrong and you're right on this one. As I said: time will tell.