Oosterdam Questions (Mex Riv '08)

[jrtmouse]

There will be a group of about 20 of us sailing next January. Ages ranging from 9 to 55, some college kids as well. Some of us have cruised before but the majority will be new cruisers. We've heard very good things about HAL, great food and excellent service. My concern is whether or not there will be enough to keep everyone busy. What is there to do onboard in addition to the standard trivia and bingo? On my last cruise with Carnival, they had other games such as Scattegories, Pictionary, Survivor, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Deal or No deal, etc. There was always something going on, especially at sea days. What does HAL have to offer? And what is the night life like?

 

Food - Is there food available 24 hours? The Liberty had a 24 hr pizza joint along with ice cream. Is there anything like that on the Oosterdam?

 

I think those are my only questions for now. Any comments you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Green Onions]

Seeing that we are sort of neighbors, I’ll give this a shot, although I was hoping someone who was more into the activities would respond first.

 

We sailed on the Oosterdam in January and picked it because our TA told us that HAL had a reputation for being quieter than some of the other lines. My wife and I spent most of the sea days walking the promenade and observation decks, or seeking out the perfect spot to sit and read. There were activities, however, and I will do my best to recount some of them.

 

During the day there were various sports challenges (basketball, ping pong, etc.) where you could earn “dam” dollars (good towards redeeming logo merchandise at the end of the cruise). They did have several “game show” activities, but the only one we attended was the Newlywed Game, which turned out to be quite funny, although slightly risqué.

 

There were a fair number of children on the ship, which surprised us as it was right after the Christmas Holidays. We could see that they were having fun at club HAL when we walked by, with a good counselor to child ratio.

 

During the evenings the public areas would be mostly deserted by 10. There are two shows per night in the Vista Lounge, these were ok, but might not do much for the under 40 crowd. They did have an excellent juggler that week (his name is Bob Cates). Besides the two nightly shows in the Vista Lounge, there were musicians to suit most older tastes in the various bars. However, most of these venues were not crowded. Again, this suited us fine as we enjoyed listening to the solo pianist or the jazz trio.

 

The only 24 hour food available is through room service. There is pizza and garlic bread available at the Lido buffet at night from 9-11, with a late snack served at 11. The only one of these we checked out was the dessert extravaganza. That was nice.

 

If you have a big group you will hopefully generate enough entertainment amongst yourselves, just don’t look to have the ship provide an exhaustive list of options. I would advise that you read some of the recent reviews posted in this forum to get a better feel for the ship.

 

As for us, we had exactly the experience we hoped for and will sail again with HAL.