Review Westerdam Dec 4-11

[KalenaD]

My review will be mostly about the ship and service, the weather was awesome, with only one day of any rain. We had one night of rough seas but the majority of the cruise it was pretty calm. We had an eastern itinerary and went to Nassau, Tortola, St. Maarten and Half Moon Cay (which is our personal favorite)

 

First let me tell you a bit about our background, I am 43 and my husband is 64, we have been on 5 cruises on Carnival, NCL, and RCL. This cruise was our 2nd on HAL. I work full time and my husband is retired.

 

We flew in from Seattle 2 days before the cruise and stayed at the Hollywood Holiday Inn. It was a great hotel and the manager was AWESOME. He personally drove us to a store so I could buy a battery for my camera, and even picked up two other guests who were walking back to the hotel. It was a bit far from the pier (6 miles), and there wasn’t much in the area to walk to, but it had a nice small restaurant ,bar, and beautiful pool. For an overnight stay, or if you have your own vehicle, I would highly recommend it. The whole weekend we were there they were in the process of putting new furniture in every room. They had a free airport shuttle and the shuttle to the pier with their own vans was $10 each. We paid $104 per night.

 

Our previous sailing on HAL was on the Zaandam which is a smaller class of ship from the Westerdam so some of my comments are comparisons to that. These are MY OWN personal opinions and observations.

 

Embarkation was easy, we arrived around 12:00, security took the longest, maybe 30 minutes. The computers were down so we had to register a credit card and have our security picture taken within the first 48 hours, not a big problem and no line when we went to do this.

 

The ship: The ship itself was spotless and beautifully decorated. The ship was decorated for Christmas so there were lots of trees and poinsettias everywhere around the ship. The constant Christmas music at the aft pool did get annoying after a while. In comparison to the Zaandam I liked the layout on the Z better. The W had lots of long hallways and small lounges everywhere, it had a slightly closed in feel as opposed to the Z. It would in no way make me not choose to sail on the W again.

 

Our Room: We usually book a middle of the road outside room, but got a great deal on a verandah for this cruise. We booked a VD guarantee and received a 3 category upgrade to a VA on deck 8, we were just a few doors down from the bridge, and only one floor down from the lido deck below the spa, we did not have a lot of noise above us. The lido dining room was a quick one flight up . A small thing I noticed was that even though the verandah has more square feet than an outside. they put more furniture in the room so it seemed about the same size to us. We loved our verandah, I was able to go out there and read to my hearts content, and we watched several sailaways and sunsets with a glass of wine in our hand. Our room steward ,Eko, was wonderful, always helpful and had a smile for us, yet was not intrusive. He was very excited when we were in Tortola as his brother was on the Zuierdam which was there the same day and he got to spend the afternoon with him, he had not seen him for 3 years. He figured out our schedule pretty quick and he only came to the room once when we were still in it. We did get towel animals on most nights, which I think is fun. Our gifts from our TA were in the room when we got there, and our pre ordered drink package arrived ten minutes after I called about it. We ordered room service for the last morning and it arrived on time and with no errors.

 

The Food and Dining: We ate in the dining room every night except one, when we went to the pinnacle grill. The food was beautifully presented and cooked well. There were a couple of things we personally did not care for but it was personal taste issues , not preparation. We went to the on deck BBQ, and it seemed very unorganized, I got a piece of salmon that was not cooked thoroughly, but that was the only problem we had. The food in the lido was good, but lines were a problem. The table stewards were always helpful in carrying trays and cleaning up the tables. Our waiter in the dining room was good , not super personable, but did an good job, the assistant waiter made more of an effort to talk to us. Our wine steward, Fernando, was exceptional, I had talked to him right when we got on the ship, we received a wine package from our TA, and he was very willing to exchange some of the wines, we NEVER had to pour our own glass. Even though he did not get the tip for the wine we drank, he did everything as if he did, I did give him an extra tip at the end of the cruise. The Pinnacle grill was wonderful, we had the best steak we have ever had in a restaurant, my husband is a retired meat cutter, so believe me that is saying something. I had the volcano cake, it was good, but not what everyone raves about. My husband had the flaming baked alaska with cherries jubilee and we enjoyed the show as well as the dessert. They also served a flaming Spanish coffee in one of the lounges that was very entertaining, the server tossed sugar in the flaming drink to create it’s own little fireworks show. The young lady Rhia, who served us our first drink on board was a delight, my husband kept forgetting our room number, she would always remember it for him, we looked for her whenever we wanted a drink.

 

Entertainment: Ironically the cruise director was the same as we had on the Z, Michelle Worthley. We went to the 2 production shows and the comedy show. The production shows were better on the W than on the Z and appealed to a broader age range. On the Z it was almost all geared to an older crowd, even my husband got sick of 50’s music. The comedians were a juggling act and very funny. There was a magician that we heard was awesome but we personally didn’t go to it. It was a bit weird that they had the one adult comedian in the smaller queens lounge, instead of the larger vista lounge, it was too full and we could not get in. The various bands around the ship were all good and there were several types of music available.

 

In General: The average age on the ship seemed right in between mine and my husbands, so 40’s to 60’s. There were not many children on board, and in my observations they were having a good time and the parents were having fun and supervising them. We had 4 groups on our cruise, only once did it create any inconvenience for us, we were waiting in line for formal pictures before the captain’s reception when a group of about 25 with Lou Ferrigno ( the incredible hulk) was led to the front of the line so they could all have pictures with him. We went around because if we would have waited we would have probably missed the reception. Another group had reserved almost all the tables on the lido deck the night of the BBQ, so we had to go into the lido dining room, neither was a big deal, just a tiny bit annoying. I can’t say enough about the service, whether it was an officer or a maintenance person we were always greeted and asked if we needed any help, both my husband and I have worked with the public in retail so we know how hard it can be, I only had one instance when a clerk in the onboard store was a bit grumpy. We tipped our room steward and the wine steward above the auto tip as we felt they gave us better than normal service. Rhia, Eko and Fernando were three crewmembers who made our trip just a step above the average.

 

We stayed post cruise one night at the Amerisuites, it was clean, and the shuttle service was no problem, they picked us up at the port, and we were able to check in about 12:30. We had the breakfast buffet and left for the airport at 7 the next morning. I don’t think however, that I would book this hotel for a PRE cruise stay, I heard of several accounts of overbooking and the shuttle TO the pier was utter chaos from our observations when we arrived at the hotel.

 

No trip is absolutely perfect, but there were no problems large enough that they would keep me from sailing on HAL. We do prefer the smaller ships regardless of which line it is, but we would sail on the Westerdam again as well. We had the relaxing, FUN, WARM vacation we were looking for.

 

Last but in NO WAY least of all. I have to tell you about the WONDERFUL people we met through our cruise critic roll call. A special thanks to Jeff and Mary who hosted two parties in their aft wraparound suite! It was so nice to have people to meet up with and share a drink or two and a laugh! My husband was very leery of my “friends” that I met on the internet, after ten minutes he was raving about what great people they all were. I am sure we made friends we will communicate with long after our cruise.

 

[LolaWiz]

Thank you for your thorough review! i am glad you enjoyed the W and i am now even more excited to sail on her next month!!!:):cool:

[willowoodf]

Thank you, Kalena, it was our pleasure to host you all! It was so great to meet all the wonderful CC'ers we met on the cruise!

 

I agree with most everything Kalena said in her review. Some things I can't comment on because we didn't see any of the shows. We had way too much fun in the dining room sitting and talking with our tablemates past the start of the shows, and then we usually wandered to the piano bar and then to the casino to lose that $20 I felt I needed to lose before I could go to sleep! (Kalena's husband seemed to do pretty well in the casino, though!)

 

A couple things I'd like to expand on. Kalena said she thought the volcano cake didn't live up to her expectations. Well, the night we were in the Pinnacle I was really looking forward to it (I've had it twice before!). When it came it was COLD! UCK! It was OK, tasted like a cold brownie. But not the ooey gooey gob of chocolate it is supposed to be. Sweto the Pinnacle maitre'd apologized profusely and gave me a big hug, which made up for it!

 

The other thing I can think of to mention is our cabin. We had the much talked about 5187 (we also left our names in the cabin - kind of fun - can anyone find them?? DH will probably mention more on this later). Anyway, I've read threads on this cabin and want to mention a few things. First off, it was a GREAT cabin. The balcony was WONDERFUL and enabled us to have to two CC get togethers. The cabin itself did have a little less room between the end of the bed and the couch, but not that bad. And I liked the way the dressing room/closet area was set up better than the S suite we had on the Ryndam. There seemed to be more closet room, DH and I could have our separate closet areas. There were less drawers, however, which I missed.

 

And there definitely was a vibration. As Kalena mentioned, we had some rough seas, "very rough" the HAL TV channel said, with wind force 8, gale. That back cabin swayed and creaked and groaned. It didn't bother me, though, but other people who visited our cabin mentioned it. Lying in bed with my eyes closed at night I imagined I was on an old sailing ship listening to the creaks and groans of the wood. It didn't stop DH and I from sleeping like babies on that great bed. We even tried to get in our daily naps when all the various ships activities permitted it! But for all you who have asked, yes, at least on our cruise of maybe rougher-than-usual seas/wind, we did have a noticeable vibration in that cabin. It definitely wouldn't stop me from booking that cabin again, though!!

 

Mary

[Ziggy7]

great review! Thanks for sharing it with us! Welcome Home!!! :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Enjoyed reading both of your reviews.

Glad you both enjoyed your cruise.

[LollyT]

Welcome home Kalena - it was GREAT to meet you and Denny and we hope to see you again in the future.

 

I must agree with your words about Eko - he was our cabin steward as well and was extremely sweet. He never did bump into us in our room and always did a fabulous job. We loved his towel animals too - Den tried to de-construct one to figure out how it was done, but no luck. That would be a fun class to have on ship, wouldn't it? I think Den would do that for our guests if he knew how. He already puts chocolates on the pillow in the guest room!

 

I am going to write a review of the W as well - probably will begin working on that today.

 

Please give Denny our best and enjoy the holidays!

 

Laura

[rubrrick]

Thanks Kalena for your wonderful and truthful review.

 

Yesterday I wrote a full review, and then CC database had a problem, so I added this to our CC roll call, and copying it here to back up what you have said.

 

"I wrote a review about 5AM Arizona time this morning, and when I went to upload it, CC had died!! I can never write a review like the one that I wrote this morning.

So here is the short version for the lurkers!!

Embarkation.........quick, easy and we were aboard within 30 minutes.

Food..................first night prime rib, the best I have tasted!

Service...............From the head of the hotel down, none finer than this trip.

Ports of call.........Excellent..........Tortola, and St Marteen, both beautiful islands.

HAL Half Moon Cay...............The BEST!!!! Try a cabana!!

Disembarkation...........easier than the embarkation!

 

We will cruise HAL again."

 

Rick

 

PS..........It was great running into Denny and you at the Outback for a farewell drink!

Jeff and Mary.........thanks for providing your cabin for the CC get togethers!

[LollyT]

Oh Rick, don't you hate that? Oh well - I'm doing my review now but am writing it in Word and will do a cut and paste, just so I don't go through the same pain. I'm sure your review was wonderful though!

 

PS - I sent Bobbie an e-mail, but tell her that if she responds she might want to use the alternate e-mail I provided as the firewall here at school is very strict and sometimes people can't get through.

 

Miss you guys!