Prinsendam, strange review

[happy cruzer]

I was reading some reviews just for general entertainment and education and this one really was a lu lu.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=48392

 

This cruiser seems to had a very strange trip.

 

Wow

[Nancyquilts]

Considering that he was so sick and still took excursions day after day, and went to the entertainment --:). If he was so ill, he should have stayed in his cabin and not infected others.

Obviously he wasn't on the same ship that we were going to Antarctica early this year. And he didn't try the croisants in the morning. Yummm.

We found the food more than passable, and the service outstanding. I do know what he meant by references to the cruise director and his wife, but you can't win them all. Nancy

[roohound]

Wow, that was, uhhhhh interesting LOL

 

I agree with you, Nancy. Mind you, I've never sailed on the Prinsendam, but I've heard just fabulous things about her. Not saying bad things can't happen on any ship, but well, this just seemed very uncharacteristic of this ship.

[happyglobetrotter]

Some people are just plain unhappy !!! Complaining becomes a raison d'être. I read the critic and I took it with a grain of salt...

[rochelle_s]

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of today`s laugh!!

 

Rochelle

[Pam in CA]

OK. Some of the posters points were valid, some were mis-informed. I was on this cruise and it was a 28-day cruise from Athens to Athens. Some people disembarked in Rome mid-way and others embarked. I believe 279 passengers were on the full 28-day cruise and the ship wasn't full for the second two weeks. I didn't notice that there wasn't a "Welcome Aboard" party mostly because I, and 278 others, had already been aboard. We did go to the 2nd Muster but I bet some people thought they didn't have to do two Musters on the same cruise. I was surprised when told that I had to go to two Musters because I've never had to go to two on the same cruise before. It was explained that this was Maritime law but even on a previous 31-day cruise, I didn't have to go twice. That didn't make any sense to me.

 

The seven short/one long alarm at about 2AM one night was a bit of a surprise and it was amazing how people reacted differently, from going to their lifeboat in their jammies to others in the hallway in robes, asking what was going on. There was a fire in the Lido kitchen that was quickly put out.

 

FYI, the Cruise Director was Thom Faulkner and the cruise consultant the poster mentions is his wife, Tina Faulkner. I found both of them professional and never heard Thom tell an off-color joke.

 

My friend and I found the service in the dining room so slow that we gave up and just went to the Lido every night. We had Main Seating for the first two weeks and switched to As You Wish for the second two weeks. We had three different waitstaff and every time, no matter what time we got to the dining room, dinner was at least two hours long. One night, I asked for a Caesar salad for my entree and was asked if I wanted chicken on it. Sure! They put chicken on it but it was very pink and rubbery inside -- obviously not cooked. When the waiter saw me pushing it aside, he told me that it was cooked and that's the way all of the other passengers like it. His response was another reason why we wound up going to the Lido. I wasn't impressed by the dining room waitstaff nor was I impressed last year on the Prinsendam. It certainly wasn't the "excellent" service I've heard so much about.

 

On the second half of the cruise, from Rome to Athens, I noticed a lot of people with hacking coughs. My friend caught a cold but fortunately recovered in a few days. Others were really hacking away so I can believe that this was pretty widespread.

 

A lot of passengers were disappointed by Argostoli as they thought they were going to be able to go to the museums and shop on their own. Unfortunately, it was a Holy Day and everything was closed. I was on tour and had a great time.

 

The flight that the poster mentions is the HAL cruiseair flight going from Athens to JFK where most had connections. I booked this independently months ago and when I booked it, the Delta flight was scheduled to leave at 12:35PM. Delta changed the flight time to 10:05AM. Since the ship was scheduled to arrive at 7AM, that was going to make it very tight. I was one of those that alerted Thom (the CD) before Rome about the flight change and that I'd learned that many HAL passengers were on this flight. The ship modified the arrival time so that we arrived and disembarked at 6AM. There were three buses specifically for passengers on this flight and we arrived with plenty of time to make the flight. The plane did NOT wait for the HAL passengers as I was on the last bus and was checked in by 8:30AM. The blame is Delta's, not HALs, for tight flight connections. As a matter of fact, when I arrived at JFK, I looked at my boarding pass for my next flight and discovered that they'd put me on a completely different flight 2 1/2 hours earlier to LAX. That was fine with me as I was able to walk in the door at 11PM and not 1:30AM.

 

Bronchitis is easy to contract whether you're on a cruise ship, on a plane or teaching a bunch of kids. Blaming exposure on HAL is naive. If people are stupid and walk around coughing on others, of course it's going to spread. Sounds like that's what the poster did.

 

And finally, the average age was NOT 70s. You don't find too many 70 YOs doing many of the tours we did which required a lot of mobility and stamina.

 

The Captain and crew of the Prinsendam are the best I've experienced on ANY cruise, and if you look at my signature, that's going some. Captain Turner is terrific, Thom Faulker is on top of everything all of the time, and Frits Goehner is downright incredible. I don't know of any other Captain who is on the dock seeing passengers off for the day, AND, greeting them as they arrive back! That sure blew me away.

 

Sadly, one of the passengers passed away while on tour in Ephesus the day before disembarkation. :(

[fun*n*sun]

A lot of things seem to be a matter of personal taste. I certainly wouldn't want to try to please every passenger. I have seem complaints that dinner in the dining room took "over an hour" and that "dinner was only an hour and a half." :rolleyes:

[Pam in CA]

A lot of things seem to be a matter of personal taste. I certainly wouldn't want to try to please every passenger. I have seem complaints that dinner in the dining room took "over an hour" and that "dinner was only an hour and a half." :rolleyes:

True. But if you've been on tour since leaving the ship at 5:30AM, arrive back at 6:30PM in 100+ degree heat, and will be getting up at 5:30AM the next morning to leave the ship at 6:30AM, you are hot, tired and not very patient. That's true. Most of the passengers with few exceptions were on similar schedules. However, if you're waiting for your entree, you see it sitting on the serving table for 15 minutes before they get around to actually serving you, and it's lukewarm when they do, it's not the best dining experience. Neither is sitting with dirty entree plates for 20 - 25 minutes before they remember to clear it off and give you the dessert menu. Did I mention that we were the only two at a table for eight the nights we were there so it's not as if the waitstaff was overtaxed. This was an extremely port-intensive cruise where we stopped at 21 ports in 28 days. Many people were just plain too tired to relax and "experience" a leisurely dinner. Normally, I love late Traditional dining but this cruise/itinerary just wasn't restful or relaxing.

[fun*n*sun]

I'm sorry if I sounded as if I were questioning your account of the dining room service. I didn't mean it to come across that way. It sounds by as if the dining room service was horrible and HAL should be made aware so that they can hopefully improve it. It's a shame that they were made aware of it by passengers during the cruise and yet it did not improve. I would have been unhappy with them.

 

I find it interesting how people can complain about and want the exact opposite things sometimes, but I didn't mean to insinuate that you didn't have a valid complaint.

 

Different people want different things out of a their dinner experience, and it is hard to please everyone, but a good waiter tries to ascertain what the diner wishes and serve accordingly. This is why I prefer fixed dining so that my waiter has an idea of the pace I prefer. Of course that may vary with the days activities, as you pointed out some nights are better for lingering over a meal than others. If you communicate what you want to your waiter you would expect them to try to serve accordingly. It also may vary between people at the same table though. At any rate it sounds as if you had a bad experience with it and I hope that HAL will work to improve.

[chrismch]

Pam..Thank you for your thoughtful review. I was hoping you would post a response to that extremely negative one from a poster who has only done 1 post. That is always suspect to me.

 

In regards to the dining room problems - not clearing plates and telling you that you don't understand how poultry should be cooked is bad service. I hope you brought it to the attention of the maitre d'. Not good to hear that you had similar experiences on Prisendam for 2 yrs in a row. Something is wrong with the mgmt if that is a continual problem.

 

We've had bad service on a Celebrity similar to what you experienced and since it was traditional dining it was fixed by moving to another table. We had quite the opposite experience with Princess where they were clearing the table of bread, butter, salt & pepper while we were still eating our entree. They too also forget that we might want dessert. That was anytime dining and was fixed by moving to a different dining room venue.

[Pam in CA]

Pam..Thank you for your thoughtful review. I was hoping you would post a response to that extremely negative one from a poster who has only done 1 post. That is always suspect to me.

 

In regards to the dining room problems - not clearing plates and telling you that you don't understand how poultry should be cooked is bad service. I hope you brought it to the attention of the maitre d'. Not good to hear that you had similar experiences on Prisendam for 2 yrs in a row. Something is wrong with the mgmt if that is a continual problem.

 

We've had bad service on a Celebrity similar to what you experienced and since it was traditional dining it was fixed by moving to another table. We had quite the opposite experience with Princess where they were clearing the table of bread, butter, salt & pepper while we were still eating our entree. They too also forget that we might want dessert. That was anytime dining and was fixed by moving to a different dining room venue.

Thanks. I've had good, bad and outstanding stewards and waitstaff on Princess (on RCI, it was mostly bad) so I know that not everyone's experience is going to be good or great, even on the same cruise. I don't book or leave a cruiseline because something was or wasn't up to my expectation. My friend and I were so pleased with the Lido that we plan to bring only informal clothes and eat in the Lido on our Amsterdam cruise in January. We figure we're going to go from super hot to super cold weather on this cruise and we'd rather pack clothes for the climate than the dining. And this from "Traditional" afficionados. :)

 

Life is too short to sweat the small stuff. Overall, we're having way too much fun to get upset by a few details.

 

P.S. Something else I just remembered: our flight from Athens to JFK left on time but we hit 175mph headwinds for most of the flight and thus arrived late. That probably contributed to quite a few super tight connections for some people. Again, not HAL's fault nor was it Delta's. Blame "Mother Nature."

[brucory]

That is a nasty review... Must have been a terrible time... Have never heard of that ship being called "the prison dam"...

 

I will be sure to watch out for people doing "polls" of other passengers in order to avoid contageous bronchitis on my next cruise....

 

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Pam in CA]

That is a nasty review... Must have been a terrible time... Have never heard of that ship being called "the prison dam"...

 

I will be sure to watch out for people doing "polls" of other passengers in order to avoid contageous bronchitis on my next cruise....

 

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

It was, overall, a GREAT cruise. Plus, the reviewer sure didn't poll me. :) His bad (or good) luck. I would have told him what I thought. :):)

[Copper10-8]

A dessert, a dessert, a kingdom for a non-stale dessert!:eek:

 

btw, when the alarm bells come a ring-ding-a-linging in the middle of the night, don't grab your life vests and start trotting for your lifeboat. Wait for instructions! Not all alarms mean instant doom and icebergs ahead

[happy cruzer]

Thanks to Pam for helping us put things in perspective.

 

Looks like there was some room for improvement but not quite prison quality. duhhhh.

 

I will once again start dreaming of someday going on an exotic itenarary on the Prinsendam.

 

Thanks.

[Boytjie]

Well, that was an interesting read... :rolleyes:

 

The line about 'cruisers who did this ship multiple times told us to avoid desserts and stick with the ice cream' made me wonder: why go back to a ship over and over again when something as simple (and small) as dessert is a known failure? And why keep ordering the pie when it has been bad three days in a row? Maybe it is time to try mousse or creme brulee? :rolleyes:

[norcal2]

The evidence points to a man who got sick on a cruise and wrote a review too soon. There is nothing sadder than a man sick on a ship or at home or for that matter, anywhere. Hopefully as health returned the memory of the good things about the trip also crept back in. :D

[Seavoyage]

Regarding that review- I could not imagine what life would be with someone like that! Pie everyday with the pie - goodness - What a whiner!:eek:

Ok I'll stop now!

 

Happy cruising!

[Saga Ruby]

The evidence points to a man who got sick on a cruise and wrote a review too soon. There is nothing sadder than a man sick on a ship or at home or for that matter, anywhere. Hopefully as health returned the memory of the good things about the trip also crept back in.

 

I agree that the OP was focused on kicking HAL in the shins rather than a fair overall review. I ran his member name on the "Members List" and he has no posts whatsoever, so evidently he "joined" CC just to post an angry review for Prinsendam. Bile floods the OP's review and I take his intent as such.

 

No ship is perfect, no ship perfectly fits the wonts and wishes of all passengers on a specific cruise. I agree that the review is to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Ruby

[bucktoo]

We are leaving in 10 days for our third cruise on Prisendam and are already booked for one next year. We love the ship and can't understand why they had such terrible complaints. I can honestly say we have never had a bad meal. Even the desserts are terrific.

As for the crew..we have gotten to know some of them and it's almost like "coming home" when we board. Capt. Chris Turner is wonderful and truly likes the passengers. It's sad they had a bad trip but of all the HAL ships we have sailed on she is the BEST!!!

[IheartHAL]

That is a nasty review... Must have been a terrible time... Have never heard of that ship being called "the prison dam"...

 

 

On these boards, the ship's name often appears as "Prisendam." I wonder if that's how the posters pronounce it, too?:(

 

She is the ms Prinsendam:)

[MightyQuinn]

I usually read many reviews to get a range of opinions before making any sort of judgment. While it’s clear that the OP didn’t enjoy his Prinsendam cruise, others report quite a different experience. For example, here are several CC member reviews for comparison. Curious that the reviews on either side of the OP gave the ship 5* http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=249

 

We sailed the Prinsendam for 26 days in spring ’08 & have recently deposited for another 38 days in fall ‘09. We wouldn’t go back to a moldy prison-dam (but we did hear the ship called that by some crew).:eek::eek:

We thought the Prinsendam was a beautiful ship worthy of the name “elegant explorer”. The public rooms were among the finest we have seen on HAL ships and the refurbished staterooms were lovely. The smaller size encouraged an intimate & convivial atmosphere on board. The crew was professional and friendly & the senior officers were accessible and visible. I agree that Captain Chris Turner, Hotel Manager Frits Gehner and CD Thom Faulkner were an unbeatable trio. Absolutely first-class.

 

Beyond that, the Prinsendam offers much the same as the rest of the HAL fleet. In our experience, food, service & entertainment were the typical HAL product - not better, not worse. I must admit, this was a bit of a disappointment as we were expecting the "wow" factor. I do believe HAL is missing an opportunity here & could distinguish the Prinsendam in these areas.

One of the attractions of the Prinsendam is her interesting itineraries & exotic ports. Her smaller size allows her to sail where larger vessels simply cannot go. How unfortunate that the OP even had issues with the ports! Makes me wonder…….:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[bucktoo]

I stand corrected! I know the proper spelling but my typing skills are getting worse.

[jcrandle]

We met Thom and Tina on a previous cruise. Tina was the on-board cruise consultant, and Thom was deadheading as he was "off-duty" for that cruise. Demand for the FCC was very high, and Thom, on his own time, set up a table next to Tina's and assisted with passenger's questions about future cruises. We were also near the infirmary, when we came across a couple who were on their way there because one had suffered a fall and was limping badly. Tina waited with the two passengers while Thom went down to the infirmary, got a wheelchair, and wheeled the pax down to the doctor.

 

I was impressed by their attitude and service, and we mentioned this in a note to the captain.:D

[sfocruiser]

... Have never heard of that ship being called "the prison dam"...

 

This label is usually used (tongue and cheek) by the crew. They have a number of nicknames Statendam is Satandam... etc..