cruise review:(very long)

Just returned (Feb 1, 04) from a western caribbean Hollandamerica line
(HAL) cruise on the oosterdam. Although we usually cruise on princess we
thought it would be nice to try something different. I will try to be as
fair and honest as possible in comparing this cruise to a princess
cruise. We flew from boston to ft. lauderdale & after picking up our
baggage were to follow a HAL guide to our invisible bus. It finally
showed up 40 minutes later & took us to the ships embarkation terminal
where we sat on the bus another 20 minutes before unloading. We had
checked in electroniacally but HAL lost our info so we went through a 45
minute line. At last the oosterdam. All I can say as I boarded was
Wow, this ship is beautiful. The ships crew directed us right to our
cabin where we met our cabin steward Jon. A pleasant fellow who seemed
genuinely polite and friendly. The cabin is advertised as 25% larger
but my question is larger than what? The only answer I could figure out
was their previous cabins. The room layout was very crowded as well as
the storage, (made for a lot of toe stubbing) The bureaus consisted of
three bible size drawers, the closets (3) were somewhat better & we did
find two drawers under the love seat couch which were filled w/extra
bedding. The cabin decor was very bland but the roon was clean w/plenty
of bright lghting. The beds were more than comfortable but slightly
narrow when used as twins (bad back).. The cabin had an easy to use safe
and a fridge that was so full of HALs product (Beer, Alcohol, soda etc)
that there wasn't any room for your own things. even though we did not
buy anything I checked the prices, a can of soda was $2.00 and a 10 oz
bottle of wine was $6.50. The balcony which contained 2 wicker chairs &
a small table was about equal in size to other cruise ships we have been
on. One thing that bugged my was the balcony door which swung out
hitting the chair in front of it. This door could not be left open to
air out the cabin. I prefer the sliding glass door w/a screen. The
temperature control system was very noisy and had no means of shutting
it off. One problem we had was ice, we had to call room service everyday
for more. We also had to call for more shampoo. (to be fair we found
out later that our cabin steward wasn't up to par and had a slight case
of the flu.) He never even showed up the last night (tip time) but we
still left him a little something. This ship holds 1,848 passengers &
was full. However it did not feel crowded as there is plentyof room &
things to do. We enjoy juice & coffee room service as we are early
risers. The room service was so prompt that they came 1/2 hr earlier
than requested. Not good if you are in the shower:-) We ate our
breakfast & lunches at the indoor/outdoor lido deck. The food was very
good but I suggest you get a table first as it is very crowded during
peak hours. You should go 1/2 hr before or after peak. The variety was
excellent with choices from burgers to plush. They also have a nice
taco bar. Our dinners were in the vista dining room where the service
was wonderful. We had a great waitstaff & a wonderful humorous wine
steward. The food was well prepared and presented eloquently. The
desserts were scrumptous. One bad meal was a fish dish I ordered. It
looked so good I gobbled up a big bite & to my surprise it was loaded
with very sharp bones. That became very embarrassing as I sat there
picking the bones out. but it was either that or choke. Our waiter
called another waiter over who successfully proceeded to de-bone the
fish but by this time it ws cold so I settled for dessert. I didn' let
this bother me as I felt no one person is perfect all the time and
neither is one cruise line. In fact we actually had a few good laughs
over it. The ship also had a nice gym which my wife & daughter would
normally spend a lot of time at. However they were a little upset when
theyfound out the fee for aerobic classes was $11.00 pp per class.
Needless to say they walked instead. (by the way it's free on princess)
The ship shops did not carry to much product except in the jewelery
store where the prices seemed reasonable. The ship also has port &
starboard exteriior elevators which allow a great view while riding
them. The entertainment was excellent & would easily match las vegas.
The oosterdam cast singers & dancers were superb as well as the
comedians. One young group called the 5 mikes sang the oldies fr/the
fifties & sixties as good as shanana did even`though they had not been
born yet.
Now for the tours. Our first port of call was HAls private island, Half
moon cay where we took a tour to eco lagoon.($29›00 pp) The two tour
guides were excellent and very informative. We even got the chance to
hold two super large starfish before carefully releasing them back in
the water. We also saw & held various sea creatures as well as seeing
an old indian village replica. Half moon cay is a gem w/plenty of for
fee (very reasonable) water sports Geat beaches w/lounge chairs &
terrific food with plenty of shaded bench areas. One nice thing is a
bar if you would like a drink, but they do not hound you with waitstaff
constantly running around asking. This private island is very well
decorated w/plenty of help constantly keeping it clean, a real pleasure.
Our next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. terrible port unless you enjoy
seeing how the very unfortunate live. This place is filthy and full of
slums. I think HAL should take it off of its itinerary. Enough
said.,,Our next port of call was Georgetown, cayman islands where we
were suposed to take a flight seeing trip but it was cancelled due to
bad weather. The ship had to moor on the east side of the island &
ferry us into spot landing where we took a taxi to town ($16.00 pp)
round trip. We opted for a llittle sightseeing & shoping, Nice town
w/nice people. Our next stop was Cozumel, Mexico where we took the
atlantis submarine tour ($89.00 pp) This coast guard approved sub was
amazing. We saw seascapes & sea creatures as well as beautiful coral
formations that only underwater divers see. I now know why scuba diving
is such a fasinating sport. I would highly recommend this tour. We got
back to town with time for a little shopping & boy did we, well our
wives did:-) We now left Cozumel for our home port, ft. lauderdale where
we spent a not so enjoyable evening packing our suitcases' We
disembarked the next morning (Sun,, Feb 1) & after immigration to those
dreaded busses which were nothing but bad luck for us. This time as we
arrived at our bus #711, we heard very loud yelling and hollering. The
next thing I saw was this very irate bus driver who was ordering people
off his bus & then proceeded to throw their luggage on to a very wet
tarmat as it was pouring. After some 45 minutes of continued arguing he
fianlly pulled his bus out & left us standing there. I have to also
blame HALs personnel for spending that much time arguing with him while
we all were getting soaking wet. Finally another bus showed up but I
do think some people missed their plane unless they did as others did
and took a cab. When I started this review I said I would be as just &
fair as possible, but I am not sure after only one cruise on HAL & 5 on
Princess I will be. I guess the main question is: would I cruise on
HAL again? The answer to that is yes. I think HAL & Princess are fairly
equal in that each line has many good points a very few bad ones. On a
scale of 1 to 10 w/10 being the highest I would rate them both around 7
to 8. I still lean a little more towards princess probally because I am
more famiiar with them. I hope this review wasn't too long or boring
and I close by saying: "Happy sails to you".
Jim......

>Just returned (Feb 1, 04) from a western caribbean Hollandamerica line
>(HAL) cruise on the oosterdam. Although we usually cruise on princess we
>thought it would be nice to try something different

One word. Paragraphs.
Mike

We were on the same trip and will add a couple of notes

Ships photogs, worst we have ever encountered. They did not even get
over to our area (table 166) on the formal nights, very rude and then the
location of where you buy photos is lousy.

Entertainment, as was mentioned was very good, even for an older crowd
almost every act got a standing O, whereas last year on the Z, most of the
older folks did not want to get up and down. The groups in the various
lounges were: B4 crows nest, excellent sound excellent variety, great for
dancing, danced there ever night, the trio in the ocean bar left something
to be desired.

Food was ok for ship board food, plenty to eat, plenty of selections,
Lido deck is a giant buffet. The vista dining room had great selections and
presentations, although the portions have gotten smaller over the last few
years and it was hard to get something that was not on the menu.

half moon cay was great, they are adding horse back riding and a sting
ray complex in June

Ochio rios, we went to sandals for the day, great, snorkeled for 50
minutes, lunch drinks all included.

We did our own flights to and from boston, got off as about the 10th and
11th folks grabbed a cab, they started to disembark at 0845 and by 910 we
were at gate F8 waiting on the flight. We would not use the cruise lines
transfers, much easier by cab/

Overall, Holland is good, the vista ships are a change for them.

Pete
"Jim O Brien" <jmob@> wrote in message
news:6520-40215578-99@storefull-3116.bay....
Just returned (Feb 1, 04) from a western caribbean Hollandamerica line
(HAL) cruise on the oosterdam. Although we usually cruise on princess we
thought it would be nice to try something different. I will try to be as
fair and honest as possible in comparing this cruise to a princess
cruise. We flew from boston to ft. lauderdale & after picking up our
baggage were to follow a HAL guide to our invisible bus. It finally
showed up 40 minutes later & took us to the ships embarkation terminal
where we sat on the bus another 20 minutes before unloading. We had
checked in electroniacally but HAL lost our info so we went through a 45
minute line. At last the oosterdam. All I can say as I boarded was
Wow, this ship is beautiful. The ships crew directed us right to our
cabin where we met our cabin steward Jon. A pleasant fellow who seemed
genuinely polite and friendly. The cabin is advertised as 25% larger
but my question is larger than what? The only answer I could figure out
was their previous cabins. The room layout was very crowded as well as
the storage, (made for a lot of toe stubbing) The bureaus consisted of
three bible size drawers, the closets (3) were somewhat better & we did
find two drawers under the love seat couch which were filled w/extra
bedding. The cabin decor was very bland but the roon was clean w/plenty
of bright lghting. The beds were more than comfortable but slightly
narrow when used as twins (bad back).. The cabin had an easy to use safe
and a fridge that was so full of HALs product (Beer, Alcohol, soda etc)
that there wasn't any room for your own things. even though we did not
buy anything I checked the prices, a can of soda was $2.00 and a 10 oz
bottle of wine was $6.50. The balcony which contained 2 wicker chairs &
a small table was about equal in size to other cruise ships we have been
on. One thing that bugged my was the balcony door which swung out
hitting the chair in front of it. This door could not be left open to
air out the cabin. I prefer the sliding glass door w/a screen. The
temperature control system was very noisy and had no means of shutting
it off. One problem we had was ice, we had to call room service everyday
for more. We also had to call for more shampoo. (to be fair we found
out later that our cabin steward wasn't up to par and had a slight case
of the flu.) He never even showed up the last night (tip time) but we
still left him a little something. This ship holds 1,848 passengers &
was full. However it did not feel crowded as there is plentyof room &
things to do. We enjoy juice & coffee room service as we are early
risers. The room service was so prompt that they came 1/2 hr earlier
than requested. Not good if you are in the shower:-) We ate our
breakfast & lunches at the indoor/outdoor lido deck. The food was very
good but I suggest you get a table first as it is very crowded during
peak hours. You should go 1/2 hr before or after peak. The variety was
excellent with choices from burgers to plush. They also have a nice
taco bar. Our dinners were in the vista dining room where the service
was wonderful. We had a great waitstaff & a wonderful humorous wine
steward. The food was well prepared and presented eloquently. The
desserts were scrumptous. One bad meal was a fish dish I ordered. It
looked so good I gobbled up a big bite & to my surprise it was loaded
with very sharp bones. That became very embarrassing as I sat there
picking the bones out. but it was either that or choke. Our waiter
called another waiter over who successfully proceeded to de-bone the
fish but by this time it ws cold so I settled for dessert. I didn' let
this bother me as I felt no one person is perfect all the time and
neither is one cruise line. In fact we actually had a few good laughs
over it. The ship also had a nice gym which my wife & daughter would
normally spend a lot of time at. However they were a little upset when
theyfound out the fee for aerobic classes was $11.00 pp per class.
Needless to say they walked instead. (by the way it's free on princess)
The ship shops did not carry to much product except in the jewelery
store where the prices seemed reasonable. The ship also has port &
starboard exteriior elevators which allow a great view while riding
them. The entertainment was excellent & would easily match las vegas.
The oosterdam cast singers & dancers were superb as well as the
comedians. One young group called the 5 mikes sang the oldies fr/the
fifties & sixties as good as shanana did even`though they had not been
born yet.
Now for the tours. Our first port of call was HAls private island, Half
moon cay where we took a tour to eco lagoon.($29>00 pp) The two tour
guides were excellent and very informative. We even got the chance to
hold two super large starfish before carefully releasing them back in
the water. We also saw & held various sea creatures as well as seeing
an old indian village replica. Half moon cay is a gem w/plenty of for
fee (very reasonable) water sports Geat beaches w/lounge chairs &
terrific food with plenty of shaded bench areas. One nice thing is a
bar if you would like a drink, but they do not hound you with waitstaff
constantly running around asking. This private island is very well
decorated w/plenty of help constantly keeping it clean, a real pleasure.
Our next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. terrible port unless you enjoy
seeing how the very unfortunate live. This place is filthy and full of
slums. I think HAL should take it off of its itinerary. Enough
said.,,Our next port of call was Georgetown, cayman islands where we
were suposed to take a flight seeing trip but it was cancelled due to
bad weather. The ship had to moor on the east side of the island &
ferry us into spot landing where we took a taxi to town ($16.00 pp)
round trip. We opted for a llittle sightseeing & shoping, Nice town
w/nice people. Our next stop was Cozumel, Mexico where we took the
atlantis submarine tour ($89.00 pp) This coast guard approved sub was
amazing. We saw seascapes & sea creatures as well as beautiful coral
formations that only underwater divers see. I now know why scuba diving
is such a fasinating sport. I would highly recommend this tour. We got
back to town with time for a little shopping & boy did we, well our
wives did:-) We now left Cozumel for our home port, ft. lauderdale where
we spent a not so enjoyable evening packing our suitcases' We
disembarked the next morning (Sun,, Feb 1) & after immigration to those
dreaded busses which were nothing but bad luck for us. This time as we
arrived at our bus #711, we heard very loud yelling and hollering. The
next thing I saw was this very irate bus driver who was ordering people
off his bus & then proceeded to throw their luggage on to a very wet
tarmat as it was pouring. After some 45 minutes of continued arguing he
fianlly pulled his bus out & left us standing there. I have to also
blame HALs personnel for spending that much time arguing with him while
we all were getting soaking wet. Finally another bus showed up but I
do think some people missed their plane unless they did as others did
and took a cab. When I started this review I said I would be as just &
fair as possible, but I am not sure after only one cruise on HAL & 5 on
Princess I will be. I guess the main question is: would I cruise on
HAL again? The answer to that is yes. I think HAL & Princess are fairly
equal in that each line has many good points a very few bad ones. On a
scale of 1 to 10 w/10 being the highest I would rate them both around 7
to 8. I still lean a little more towards princess probally because I am
more famiiar with them. I hope this review wasn't too long or boring
and I close by saying: "Happy sails to you".
Jim......

jmob@ (Jim O Brien) wrote in message news:<6520-40215578-99@storefull-3116.bay.>...
>The variety was
> excellent with choices from burgers to plush.

They're serving stuffed animals in the buffet?

Lee

"Jim O Brien" <jmob@> wrote in message
news:6520-40215578-99@storefull-3116.bay....
Just returned (Feb 1, 04) from a western caribbean Hollandamerica line

Thanks for an interesting review, Jim. Was surprised that cans of soda were
$2.~they were still $1.50 on the Radiance. I think we (on the Radiance of
the Seas) saw the Oosterdam in Ft. Lauderdale on Jan.25th and at one of the
ports~Grand Cayman perhaps??

--Jean

Jean when you bought a soda from the bartenders etc it was 1.75. 2.00 for
the one in the mini fridge. And those are not even 12 ounces. We found to
that for a glass of white z, it was 4.35 in the crows nest, but 4.50 in the
dining room. We just brought our own water and soda and used the fridge.
On the last day they lock the mini fridge, so they can close down your
account.

Pete
"Jean O'Boyle" <j.oboyle@> wrote in message
news:FXXUb.19826$zb7.11122@newssvr24.news.prodigy. com...

"Jim O Brien" <jmob@> wrote in message
news:6520-40215578-99@storefull-3116.bay....
Just returned (Feb 1, 04) from a western caribbean Hollandamerica line

Thanks for an interesting review, Jim. Was surprised that cans of soda were
$2.~they were still $1.50 on the Radiance. I think we (on the Radiance of
the Seas) saw the Oosterdam in Ft. Lauderdale on Jan.25th and at one of the
ports~Grand Cayman perhaps??

--Jean