Amsterdam
by greg
Southern Caribbean
January 2, 2007
This was our forth cruise with Holland America, and usually we have a pretty good time on board. This cruise was a 12 day Deep Southern caribean cruise. One thing we learned is that you always listen to your travel agent. She told us the longer the cruise the older the people, and she was right. Not that their was anything wrong with that, but we noticed that maybe the crew did not realize that there needs to be more attention to ship hygiene with older people,espcially in public washrooms. The floors needed to be cleaned more often, the smell was really offensive.
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We did notice that there were less staff to help clean up and serve. We always have breakfast out side on deck and trays with dirty old dishes were lying around on tables. Sometimes we had to have our meal with dirty dishes piled up beside us. On our other cruises we never encountered this. Lack of staff or lazy staff who just don't care, we don't know.
We realize there is always on going maintenance on ships, but when things are being painted and alot of chipping is going on ,the area should be tapped off so that paint chips and debris don't fall on passengers and that we don't have to trudge through this debris if we are not wearing shoes on deck.
What we really hated, being non smokers, was that to get from the dining room to the theatre you have to go through a disgusting cloud of smoke. This is because the casino is on, the way right in the middle of the ship.
The ships sports bar where smokers congregate, just happens to be by the shops, so we had to walk through another cloud of smoke.
Why not much ventilation if any, We don't know.
Food quality has taken a nose dive on this ship. We had a vegetarian sitting at our table and she had to order off the same short menu for 12 days, not alot of choice, she was very dissapointed. The desserts were no better than a buffet dinner at cheap restaurant, they used to be really decedant. The dinner presentation was great, but it hid the lack in taste and quality that we were used to and expected on all our previous cruises.
Why the lack of attention by staff and to meals,we don't know. We do know that Holland America has lost a good customer until the level of service and quality returns to that which we have become accustomed to.
