Great cruise on the Veendam

[Himself]

On 10/2/2019 at 6:49 AM, lisakoivu said:

Since I often see people wondering if they should book Veendam, I just thought I'd drop in and say that my Mom and I recently returned from an amazing Canada New England cruise on her. The ship was in great shape, the food was amazing and the service ... I can't even talk about it, just so, so good. My last few cruises have been on NCL, and the service there has been dropping like crazy. It's almost like I got used to it and forgot what great service looked like! Anyway, I'll be back to HAL for sure now, it was just so great and so restful. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone to book her. 

Thank you for the positive comment on this S class ship.

[mommyz]

Awesome to hear!  We just booked for our family for a holiday cruise in December and was a little worried as well seeing some negative reviews.  We were on the Oosterdam for a Greek cruise last summer and it was small compared to what we were used to but we really enjoyed it.  We only had one day at sea so the relaxing environment was well needed.

 

I know it's hard to predict but how many kids were on your sailing?  I am hoping for a few more bc of the holidays.

Also do they have the America's Test Kitchen classes on the Veendam?

 

Would love to hear more from anyone that has recently been on the ship.  Heard it was refurbished in April 2019?

[Biorag]

On 10/5/2019 at 9:04 AM, ghstudio said:

 

We'll be on-board with you....visiting family in Boston and continuing home in Fl.  Looking forward to this, our first HAL cruise (we (ocean) cruise mainly on Celebrity and Princess).

As will I....starting from home in Montreal. Our family loves HAL, we took our first HAL cruise for our honeymoon 20 years ago and have stuck with them since. 

[genmasjoy]

We're going on the Western Caribbean itinerary on Veendam on November 6 out of Fort Lauderdale.  At the time we booked, it was going to two ports in Cuba, but when that changed, the cruise was repriced (lower) and we decided to keep our reservation.  We have been on Veendam twice before, once for a Canada/New England cruise and last year to Bermuda.  I'm glad to hear the positive comments.  I enjoy the ship because of its relatively small size.  It's so much easier to get everyone organized at a port call and you get to know the other passengers.

[FortySeas]

 

 

Just off this ship a week ago and agree with all the posts.  We have already book a cruise on the Veendam out of Tampa for next year.  Really enjoy the small ships. 

[mommyz]

Yay!!!  Awesome to hear 🙂

[sevenseasnomad]

It's nice to hear that you had such a lovely time on Veendam, a much-maligned ship in the HAL fleet.  When we sailed her in 2011 to Bermuda from NYC, we had a wonderful time with excellent service.  I recall that we were hesitant because even 9 years ago, passengers were complaining about this ship.  Most of the reviews were negative about some aspect of the cruise, so we decided to take the cruise with some hesitation.  Like the OP, we were presently surprised and wondered if this was the same ship reviewers had written about.  

 

Glad you had a great time and made some marvelous memories.

Edited October 8, 2019 by sevenseasnomad

[Biorag]

7 hours ago, sevenseasnomad said:

It's nice to hear that you had such a lovely time on Veendam, a much-maligned ship in the HAL fleet.  When we sailed her in 2011 to Bermuda from NYC, we had a wonderful time with excellent service.  I recall that we were hesitant because even 9 years ago, passengers were complaining about this ship.  Most of the reviews were negative about some aspect of the cruise, so we decided to take the cruise with some hesitation.  Like the OP, we were presently surprised and wondered if this was the same ship reviewers had written about.  

 

Glad you had a great time and made some marvelous memories.

I've learned that some people tend to find stuff to complain about no matter what. Only negative to any HAL cruise I've taken is other passengers' behaviour. Some real princesses out there.

[Longstraw]

I and a friend were on a Canada-New England cruise on the Veendam this past October and were quite disappointed in the service. It wasn't exactly horrible but it was way below the quality of service we've experienced on other HA ships. It was odd....at virtually every breakfast or dinner one person at the table was apparently invisible to dining staff. The poor soul who was invisible generally couldn't get anyone to take their order or get refills for water, tea, etc. We complained gently twice and the following day had great service but then the next night someone was again invisible. 

 

I also noticed the day we boarded in Montreal after going down to the main lobby for ship's services, that the very elaborate, huge floral arrangement in the lobby was mostly dead...not slightly wilted....dead. While that did not impact my enjoyment of the cruise in the slightest, it was characteristic of the way things seemed just slightly off throughout the cruise. There were a couple of other minor issues that I don't even recall.   Again, it was far from awful but it was so far less than what we'd experienced on other HA cruises as to be very noticeable to us. 

[Hobbsey]

14 hours ago, Longstraw said:

I and a friend were on a Canada-New England cruise on the Veendam this past October and were quite disappointed in the service. It wasn't exactly horrible but it was way below the quality of service we've experienced on other HA ships. It was odd....at virtually every breakfast or dinner one person at the table was apparently invisible to dining staff. The poor soul who was invisible generally couldn't get anyone to take their order or get refills for water, tea, etc. We complained gently twice and the following day had great service but then the next night someone was again invisible. 

 

I also noticed the day we boarded in Montreal after going down to the main lobby for ship's services, that the very elaborate, huge floral arrangement in the lobby was mostly dead...not slightly wilted....dead. While that did not impact my enjoyment of the cruise in the slightest, it was characteristic of the way things seemed just slightly off throughout the cruise. There were a couple of other minor issues that I don't even recall.   Again, it was far from awful but it was so far less than what we'd experienced on other HA cruises as to be very noticeable to us. 

RE: Dead Flowers - Just wondering, was this a Holloween Cruise?

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Great news all sounds good.

We will be on her next year for 87 days