First time on HAL (Oosterdam) - my review

[TheJester]

 

Oosterdam 7 nights. Athens, Sea day, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Sea day, Naples, Civitaveccia

 

Background: We’ve done around 20 cruises with other companies, mostly MSC of late but also Royal Caribbean, P&O and others.  We’re MSC Diamond tier members. 

We’ve done smaller ships in the distant past so it’s been a long time since we’ve been on a ship with less than 2100 guests. Recent cruises have been on MSC ships with between 4000 and 6700 guests. 

 

Booked flights and transfers with HAL. We paid to include the have it all package added to our booking.

Itinerary was the main reason for booking. 

 

Flights and transfers: Flight timings were a bit tight, I would have preferred an earlier flight, but our (1 hour delayed) flight from the UK with the HAL transfer got us to the ship 90 minutes before departure. 

There were 24 of us joining Oosterdam on the same flight.

We were literally the last group to join the ship and so it took us 5 minutes from getting off the coach to getting on the ship. From speaking to other guests who arrived in the early afternoon, the boarding process was lengthy for them and it took them a long time from arriving to boarding the ship. 

 

Ship: Oosterdam is very well maintained for a 22 year old ship. The public areas were all immaculate and furnished to a good standard. There were lots of fresh flowers around the ship which was nice to see. 

Also nice to see was a library on board, we borrowed a couple of books. 

The crow’s nest is a good place to spend time on a sea day, it also doubles up as the coffee shop and games area.  Both of our sea days were hot sunny days so the deck areas got very busy as expected but there were still lots of inside areas you could find to sit if you wanted. 

The internet was pretty good around the ship. There were periodic short outages which I took to be issues with the provider (Starlink) rather than an issue with the ship. 

 

Cabin: We booked a guarantee and ended up with an inside (1063), which unusually for an inside cabin was square. It was also fairly large. From looking at the deck plans on the HAL website it looks unusual as most of the inside cabins were rectangular. It had a connecting door to the next cabin, which maybe explains the shape. 

Fairly standard facilities for a cruise ship cabin. The Elemis toiletries were good quality so I ended up not using the shower gel and shampoo I had brought. A little surprised to see the paper make up my rom cards still in use - the MSC ships have an indicator switch in the cabin. It also took us a little while to figure out that the thing on the wall by the door was an emergency torch and not something to use to control things in the cabin! If it was explained what this was for, I missed it.

 

Food: We were on open seating dining so we couldn’t make reservations, except for 5pm or 8pm, any other times we had to turn up and queue. At busy times there was a wait for a table so we ensured we ate at 6:30 each evening. When we were leaving after dinner there was usually a long line to get in. 

I found the food in the main dining room to be good, with good quality ingredients and a good selection of dishes. 

We ate breakfast there a few times and again the food was good with a good choice. 

We ate at the Pinnacle grill once, which was good and on a par with pretty much every other additional charge steakhouse we have been to on other ships. 

The Lido buffet, although a bit of a scrum at busy times (this is true of all cruise ships), again I thought to  be of good quality. The sandwiches at lunchtime were a nice touch as I don’t always fancy a hot meal at lunchtime, but if you did the choice was decent. It should be noted that the buffet is not open all day and closes between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. 

Dive-in burger was ok, my burger was ok and Mrs J reported her hot dog was acceptable. The fries were excellent! 

The build you own taco/nachos/fajitas station on the lido deck was a nice touch and I had a very tasty chicken fajita on the first day. 

 

Entertainment: Highlight was the two pianos in Billboard Onboard. Gabe and Megan are both stars and doing 3x45 minute sets 6 days a week are surely the hardest working cruise ship entertainers going. 

Whilst it wasn’t a traditional duelling piano bar, as they played and sang together it really was excellent. They knew very many songs (which Mrs J stress-tested by getting them to play Green Day, Blink 182, Bowling for Soup and Sum 41) - sorry guys! A very popular place to spend the evening and it’s not difficult to see why

Rolling stone lounge was also excellent. 7 piece full band doing a wide variety of songs in themed sets. 

None of the theatre shows grabbed us, so apart from the captains welcome we didn’t go to the theatre. 

 

Bars: Good selection with a good range of drinks. Only downside for me was the lack of draught beer available. Only Heineken and Strongbow cider were available, and by the end of the week that was down to Strongbow. We upgraded from the have it all package to the elite, which was worth it for the number of soft drinks, water, coffee, and red bull we had. 

 

Ports: Dubrovnik, did a ship’s tour to wineries etc. Top top - when you get back to the ship, walk down the road outside towards the old town about 250m and you will come to Dubrovnik Beer Company taproom. Highly recommend.

Kotor, again did a ships tour up into the mountains and then a walking tour of Kotor town. 

Top top - take cat treats. Kotor is home to many street cats. 

Corfu, got a public bus (€2) into the old town. It was only 2.5 km so you could walk in around 30 minutes but it was so hot so it was money well spent. 

Stromboli, our 2nd sea day we were cruising the straits of Messina and past Stromboli volcano. We were lucky that Stromboli decided to put on a show for us and erupted as the ship was passing. We were treated to some fireworks and lava. The captain said that is was the most active he had seen it. 

Naples, we’ve been so many time before (I think it’s a legal requirement that every MSC cruise must visit Naples), so we decided to relax and stay on board. The ship was very quiet and it was an enjoyable time. 

 

Niggles: The fire alarm at 2am on the first night (a faulty band on an air-conditioning unit) was causing smoke to be pumped into some cabins. Being woken twice was annoying but it was good to see an efficient response to the issue. 

The drinks package not being unlimited was something we were not used to be we adapted!

 

Disembarkation and transfer to Rome airport were well-organised. 

 

Overall I was very impressed with HAL, we would certainly consider going with them again if the itinerary was of interest. 

 

Thanks for reading

 

J

 

Edited September 2 by TheJester
Straits not straights

[Sea42]

Thanks for taking the time to us about your experience. I'm glad you enjoyed your time on the Oosterdam.

[POA1]

Thanks for your review!

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your comments.

[whogo]

Great report, thanks.

[Lido deck main]

Thanks for the review, we were in cabin 1063 on the Nieuw Amsterdam this summer I just check Oosterdam deck plan and for deck one, Main deck both ships are the same, I loved the cabin and location.  We will be doing an Oosterdam cruise in the future, same ports.  Glad you enjoyed your cruise. 

[FlaMariner]

Enjoyed the review....Thanks for taking the time to write that.....We love the Oosterdam.....Great size ship. 

[bbodb1]

We are doing a Nieuw Amsterdam cruise in November and I have been curious about other folks recent experiences on HAL.  Entertainment on HAL (compared to Carnival) will be an important factor to us but I do have to wonder about the musical preferences of Mrs. J! 😉

 

Seriously though, thanks for the report Jester!

 

 

[iowacruiser]

On 9/2/2024 at 9:20 AM, TheJester said:

 

Oosterdam 7 nights. Athens, Sea day, Dubrovnik, Kotor, Sea day, Naples, Civitaveccia

 

Background: We’ve done around 20 cruises with other companies, mostly MSC of late but also Royal Caribbean, P&O and others.  We’re MSC Diamond tier members. 

We’ve done smaller ships in the distant past so it’s been a long time since we’ve been on a ship with less than 2100 guests. Recent cruises have been on MSC ships with between 4000 and 6700 guests. 

 

Booked flights and transfers with HAL. We paid to include the have it all package added to our booking.

Itinerary was the main reason for booking. 

 

Flights and transfers: Flight timings were a bit tight, I would have preferred an earlier flight, but our (1 hour delayed) flight from the UK with the HAL transfer got us to the ship 90 minutes before departure. 

There were 24 of us joining Oosterdam on the same flight.

We were literally the last group to join the ship and so it took us 5 minutes from getting off the coach to getting on the ship. From speaking to other guests who arrived in the early afternoon, the boarding process was lengthy for them and it took them a long time from arriving to boarding the ship. 

 

Ship: Oosterdam is very well maintained for a 22 year old ship. The public areas were all immaculate and furnished to a good standard. There were lots of fresh flowers around the ship which was nice to see. 

Also nice to see was a library on board, we borrowed a couple of books. 

The crow’s nest is a good place to spend time on a sea day, it also doubles up as the coffee shop and games area.  Both of our sea days were hot sunny days so the deck areas got very busy as expected but there were still lots of inside areas you could find to sit if you wanted. 

The internet was pretty good around the ship. There were periodic short outages which I took to be issues with the provider (Starlink) rather than an issue with the ship. 

 

Cabin: We booked a guarantee and ended up with an inside (1063), which unusually for an inside cabin was square. It was also fairly large. From looking at the deck plans on the HAL website it looks unusual as most of the inside cabins were rectangular. It had a connecting door to the next cabin, which maybe explains the shape. 

Fairly standard facilities for a cruise ship cabin. The Elemis toiletries were good quality so I ended up not using the shower gel and shampoo I had brought. A little surprised to see the paper make up my rom cards still in use - the MSC ships have an indicator switch in the cabin. It also took us a little while to figure out that the thing on the wall by the door was an emergency torch and not something to use to control things in the cabin! If it was explained what this was for, I missed it.

 

Food: We were on open seating dining so we couldn’t make reservations, except for 5pm or 8pm, any other times we had to turn up and queue. At busy times there was a wait for a table so we ensured we ate at 6:30 each evening. When we were leaving after dinner there was usually a long line to get in. 

I found the food in the main dining room to be good, with good quality ingredients and a good selection of dishes. 

We ate breakfast there a few times and again the food was good with a good choice. 

We ate at the Pinnacle grill once, which was good and on a par with pretty much every other additional charge steakhouse we have been to on other ships. 

The Lido buffet, although a bit of a scrum at busy times (this is true of all cruise ships), again I thought to  be of good quality. The sandwiches at lunchtime were a nice touch as I don’t always fancy a hot meal at lunchtime, but if you did the choice was decent. It should be noted that the buffet is not open all day and closes between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. 

Dive-in burger was ok, my burger was ok and Mrs J reported her hot dog was acceptable. The fries were excellent! 

The build you own taco/nachos/fajitas station on the lido deck was a nice touch and I had a very tasty chicken fajita on the first day. 

 

Entertainment: Highlight was the two pianos in Billboard Onboard. Gabe and Megan are both stars and doing 3x45 minute sets 6 days a week are surely the hardest working cruise ship entertainers going. 

Whilst it wasn’t a traditional duelling piano bar, as they played and sang together it really was excellent. They knew very many songs (which Mrs J stress-tested by getting them to play Green Day, Blink 182, Bowling for Soup and Sum 41) - sorry guys! A very popular place to spend the evening and it’s not difficult to see why

Rolling stone lounge was also excellent. 7 piece full band doing a wide variety of songs in themed sets. 

None of the theatre shows grabbed us, so apart from the captains welcome we didn’t go to the theatre. 

 

Bars: Good selection with a good range of drinks. Only downside for me was the lack of draught beer available. Only Heineken and Strongbow cider were available, and by the end of the week that was down to Strongbow. We upgraded from the have it all package to the elite, which was worth it for the number of soft drinks, water, coffee, and red bull we had. 

 

Ports: Dubrovnik, did a ship’s tour to wineries etc. Top top - when you get back to the ship, walk down the road outside towards the old town about 250m and you will come to Dubrovnik Beer Company taproom. Highly recommend.

Kotor, again did a ships tour up into the mountains and then a walking tour of Kotor town. 

Top top - take cat treats. Kotor is home to many street cats. 

Corfu, got a public bus (€2) into the old town. It was only 2.5 km so you could walk in around 30 minutes but it was so hot so it was money well spent. 

Stromboli, our 2nd sea day we were cruising the straits of Messina and past Stromboli volcano. We were lucky that Stromboli decided to put on a show for us and erupted as the ship was passing. We were treated to some fireworks and lava. The captain said that is was the most active he had seen it. 

Naples, we’ve been so many time before (I think it’s a legal requirement that every MSC cruise must visit Naples), so we decided to relax and stay on board. The ship was very quiet and it was an enjoyable time. 

 

Niggles: The fire alarm at 2am on the first night (a faulty band on an air-conditioning unit) was causing smoke to be pumped into some cabins. Being woken twice was annoying but it was good to see an efficient response to the issue. 

The drinks package not being unlimited was something we were not used to be we adapted!

 

Disembarkation and transfer to Rome airport were well-organised. 

 

Overall I was very impressed with HAL, we would certainly consider going with them again if the itinerary was of interest. 

 

Thanks for reading

 

J

 

We board her Sunday in Athens for 11 days.. We sailed her the year after she was christened and are looking forward to getting back on board. Thanks for the review. Glad you enjoyed the cruise.

[ghstudio]

Our last cruise on the Oosterdam had the same long lines for seating...requiring a wait of over 30 minutes some nights for a table for 2.  Not sure if it's ship design or dining room staffing (I'd bet on staffing).  We are avoiding the Oosterdam at this point.  Just off a wonderful cruise on the Nieuw Statendam...we aren't avoiding HAL.

  

[Petronillus]

We've sailed Oosterdam several times, and I enjoyed your perspective as new to HAL but a well seasoned cruiser. We are booked for 22 days on Oosterdam in Jan-Feb 2025 -- South American round Cape Horn by way of Antarctica. I was particularly happy to hear HAL bumped Billboard Onboard back up to two pianos. 

Thanks for your thoughtful review.

[FlaMariner]

42 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

Our last cruise on the Oosterdam had the same long lines for seating...requiring a wait of over 30 minutes some nights for a table for 2. 

 

Was onboard Oosterdam in April 2024 and March 2023.....fixed seating, table for two....walked right to the table and no issues every evening...no speed bump at all.....We have learned to bypass the lines on day 1 also because we go find our table after lunch at embarkation.

 

If I showed up for "open seating" at 7pm, I'd expect a wait...especially for a table for 2. 

 

Plan accordingly.

 

Enjoy the Oosterdam and dinner in the MDR!

 

 

[ghstudio]

3 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

 

Was onboard Oosterdam in April 2024 and March 2023.....fixed seating, table for two....walked right to the table and no issues every evening...no speed bump at all.....We have learned to bypass the lines on day 1 also because we go find our table after lunch at embarkation.

 

If I showed up for "open seating" at 7pm, I'd expect a wait...especially for a table for 2. 

 

Plan accordingly.

 

Enjoy the Oosterdam and dinner in the MDR!

 

 

Not old enough for "early bird" dining....and not young enough for 8pm dining and dancing into the night 🙂  Solution: Club Orange

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your Oosterdam cruise.

Some years ago we enjoyed a Christmas/New Year cruise on board the Oosterdam, were anchored off Cloudy Bay on Christmas Day.........a beautiful warm sunny day.

[FlaMariner]

15 hours ago, ghstudio said:

Not old enough for "early bird" dining....and not young enough for 8pm dining and dancing into the night 🙂  Solution: Club Orange

 

Good solution for you!

 

We will do almost anything (except spend money on CO...LOL) to adjust our situation to avoid lines/crowds/peak times...whether mealtime, Walmart visits or "peak travel" times.......

[EtaC]

Beat me to it. Glad you enjoyed the cruise. Your impressions were similar to mine. I'm a HAL 3-Star but this was my first post-covid cruise on them. We stayed the second week back to Athens. I'll probably add my 2 eurocents here rather than start new (once I get over jet lag). 😎 One quick comment on embarkation. We arrived in Athens four days early and had arranged transport from our hotel near the Acropolis to the port. We arrived around 1100 and were on board by 1130. Beat early afternoon rush I guess. 

[soccermom4]

Glad to hear that Gabe and Megan are still lighting it up.  We really enjoyed them on a S. America cruise back in March, 2023.  Oosterdam is a really nice ship.

 

[EtaC]

Posting to boost this back to the first page. Some people in the "falling behind" thread are going to be on Oosterdam soon and I mentioned Jester's review.