Thoughts on Volendam for 45 day cruise

[redcruzer]

Hello. I am looking at a 45 day cruise to Mediterranean roundtrip from NYC. This would be our first Holland America cruise. A little nervous with the smaller size and traveling across the Atlantic. I imagine it would be felt quite a bit. Does anyone have any insight to this? Also is this a nice ship? I see it's on the older side. Spending the amount of $$ on such a once in a lifetime trip, I want to be sure my husband and I will just love it. thanks so much.

[CGinMTL]

You never know how the crossing will be 

We did a TA on azamara one year wear captain did everything to avoid a hurricane

It was rough, but in those extreme cases, you will feel it no matter the size of the ship.

Other crossings, smooth as glass .

[OlsSalt]

Can you try a shorter cruise first to see if you like it or if you find you do get sea-sick?. The Atlantic can never be predicted, but we love the Volendam and would not hesitate at all. But that is us and we now have hundreds of days on small HAL ships and long-distance cruises.   HAL ships are built to take rough seas and do ride well. 

 

Captains also like to sail around bad weather if they can avoid it, because they don't like unhappy passengers or crews either. But sometimes when it cannot be avoided, it might only be a day, or even a few hours of rough seas.  They will warn you up front if high seas are ahead, so you can plan to lay low for awhile if this affects you. 

 

There are medications and options others have tried that do work very well for sea sickness, from acupressure bands, ginger  to Bonnie and stronger. 

 

Also check out the website "Windy.com"  and track the Atlantic ocean to get an idea of how often, how high,  and where the seas might be rough. 

[kazu]

Rich (richwmn) is on the Volendam right now for 134 days and doing a live thread.  You might want to follow along or read some of it.  He seems quite happy with the Volendam and I know I will be happy to return to her in April.

 

As far as the crossing goes, size does not make a difference overall.  Some of the larger ones (bigger than HAL’s ships) can provide a rougher ride.

 

I’ve crossed on the Prinsendam and volendam’s sister ship happily.

 

Now, no one can control or predict King Neptune but generally speaking in all my crossings there’s only been the odd rough day. The smoothest crossings have been on the smaller ships. 

 

 

[cruising sister]

I am on the Volendam now for 94 days. Despite what others have posted she is in good shape. The food is good and the crew is great. She has been and will be in rough seas on this sailing and has handled it like any other ship I have been on. Unless it is an ocean liner any ship will feel the rough seas. 

[Gigi1977]

Volendam is one of HAL’s oldest ships.  It is not going to have the most up to date stabilizers.   I would not book a long trip on it before ‘trying’ the ship on a short cruise.  We prefer at smallest the vista class ships - Noordam, Westerdam, Zuiderdam and Oosterdam but even those do not have the advanced systems that the signature and  the newest pinnacle class ships do.  

[Dutchman48]

1 hour ago, redcruzer said:

Hello. I am looking at a 45 day cruise to Mediterranean roundtrip from NYC. This would be our first Holland America cruise. A little nervous with the smaller size and traveling across the Atlantic. I imagine it would be felt quite a bit. Does anyone have any insight to this? Also is this a nice ship? I see it's on the older side. Spending the amount of $$ on such a once in a lifetime trip, I want to be sure my husband and I will just love it. thanks so much.

Wife and I did 25 days on Sister ship Zaandam last June and had a great time. Ship maybe smaller but was very comfortable and there was plenty to do.

Based on that cruise we are also looking at the 45-day med round trip from New York, will probably book it on our upcoming cruise (get a few more perks when we book a future cruise on board).

[kazu]

51 minutes ago, Dutchman48 said:

Wife and I did 25 days on Sister ship Zaandam last June and had a great time. Ship maybe smaller but was very comfortable and there was plenty to do.

Based on that cruise we are also looking at the 45-day med round trip from New York, will probably book it on our upcoming cruise (get a few more perks when we book a future cruise on board).

 

I am eyeing that cruise as well.  Our recent cruise on the Oosterdam was a good one.  

[OlsSalt]

That is a fantastic itinerary NYC-NYC, or FLL -FLL. Hope you are very happy if your finally that choice.

 

5-6 at-sea days coming and going across the Atlantic, and then pretty heavy port-port-port. So once you make it across, the rest should be easy cruising.

 

 If the Transatlantic part is too terrible for you going over, and you don't want to face going back, you could always jump ship fly back home. (???)

 

It is just so hard to predict, except they don't really schedule cruising during known rough seasons .Passenger ships that used to go point to point had to take what they got, but tourism cruising can pick and chose what routes to offer and when. 

[Nodakboiler]

Cabins are going quickly on that 45 day NYC cruise. 

[RuthC]

I would jump on that ship, to take that cruise, in a New York minute! 

[happytotravel]

I love all you folks who are able to take extra long cruises.  I`m sure you have had a life time of hard work and are now able to reap the rewards!

Enjoy each and every moment.

happytotravel

[Cruising-along]

Currently on the Volendam for 94 days and booked on the November 42-day round trip Ft. Lauderdale cruise. Basically the same minus NYC. Having a great time on the Volendam!

[kelliebiz]

6 hours ago, cruising sister said:

I am on the Volendam now for 94 days. Despite what others have posted she is in good shape. The food is good and the crew is great. She has been and will be in rough seas on this sailing and has handled it like any other ship I have been on. Unless it is an ocean liner any ship will feel the rough seas. 

Are you staying aboard for the Panama Canal transit in April? I’m boarding April 6 in San Diego for the 15 days to Ft. Lauderdale

[richwmn]

15 minutes ago, kelliebiz said:

Are you staying aboard for the Panama Canal transit in April? I’m boarding April 6 in San Diego for the 15 days to Ft. Lauderdale

They aren't but I am, along with several others.

 

[kelliebiz]

8 minutes ago, richwmn said:

They aren't but I am, along with several others.

 

Hi Rich, yep, I have been following your 134 Days… thread. Thanks for giving a look into daily ship life 👍🏼

[richwmn]

2 hours ago, kelliebiz said:

Hi Rich, yep, I have been following your 134 Days… thread. Thanks for giving a look into daily ship life 👍🏼

See you aboard when we get back to San Diego!

[Mary229]

Any modern mid size cruise ship is going to handle the weather just fine. I have sailed smaller ships in both the far south Atlantic and far north during heavy seas and they were just fine.  If you are prone to seasickness pay special care to cabin selection - choosing something mid ship
 

I have no technical expertise to guide me but I think those top heavy mega ships would be much rockier in a storm. 

[albingirl]

I love love love those long cruises. 💕

[tuolumne couple]

14 hours ago, RuthC said:

I would jump on that ship, to take that cruise, in a New York minute! 

Agreed! They had me at Volendam and 45 nights. 

Edited January 31 by tuolumne couple

[Boatdrill]

17 hours ago, kazu said:

Rich (richwmn) is on the Volendam right now for 134 days and doing a live thread.  You might want to follow along or read some of it.

Is there a way to get a link to the live thread, or what the title is ?

I have a friend onboard and I'd like to read it, but I've gone back 7 pages 

on the HAL forum and don't see it.  I'm sure it's here...just can't find it. 😕

TIA

[FlorenceItaly]

6 minutes ago, Boatdrill said:

Is there a way to get a link to the live thread, or what the title is ?

I have a friend onboard and I'd like to read it, but I've gone back 7 pages 

on the HAL forum and don't see it.  I'm sure it's here...just can't find it. 😕

TIA

 

[OlsSalt]

6 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Any modern mid size cruise ship is going to handle the weather just fine. I have sailed smaller ships in both the far south Atlantic and far north during heavy seas and they were just fine.  If you are prone to seasickness pay special care to cabin selection - choosing something mid ship
 

I have no technical expertise to guide me but I think those top heavy mega ships would be much rockier in a storm. 

 

The old passenger ship joke: the higher you pay, the more you sway.  

 

Since usually the top deck cabins were where they put in the more expensive suites or first class passengers. But that was well before advances in marine engineering and stabilizers. The old Maasdam with its fixed screw propellers would really give the aft cabins jolts, when it popped up and down in rough seas.

[Btimmer]

We've spent well over 100 days on the Volendam and wouldn't hesitate for a moment to return to sail on it.  We are booked for the 11/24 cruise RT FLL just after it comes out of drydock.

 

We just returned from two voyages to Antartica on the Zaandam and the Oosterdam, and they handled the Drake crossing just fine.  I would say, however, that the Oosterdam was much smoother especially in seas that reached 15 feet on the way to the Falklands.

[Boatdrill]

On 1/31/2024 at 9:08 AM, FlorenceItaly said:

 

Thank you ! I never would have guessed that was it.