Used to be really good, a few years back. Food has gone downhill. Service, since tipping is now automatic, is pathetic. Celebrity is the same price level & many times better overall experience.
Splendour of the Seas 97
Veendam 05
Westerdam 06
Serenade of the Seas 07
Liberty of the Seas 07
Jewel of the Seas 08
Westerdam 09
Volendam 09
Solstice 10
Solstice 10
Caribbean Princess 11
Nieuw Amsterdam 11
Oasis of the Seas 12
Queen Elizabeth 12
Eurodam 13
Carnival Valor 13
Aah, it's our heart attack troll. The guy who wants us to pay for his stupidity. I have only a few words for you:
You ARE the weakest link, goodbye
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Past Cruises:
February 2008: HAL Zuiderdam: Eastern Caribbean
November 2009: HAL Noordam: Caribbean Wayfarer
November 2010: Norwegian Jade: Western Mediterranean
January 2012: HAL Eurodam: Eastern Caribbean
May 2012 HAL: Noordam: Transatlantic Riviera
Used to be really good, a few years back. Food has gone downhill. Service, since tipping is now automatic, is pathetic. Celebrity is the same price level & many times better overall experience.
this is a matter of opinion and we all have one. Our experience has been just the opposite: we still consider HAL a primium line and think Celebrity has got down hill. One thing everyone needs to remember, regardless of the ship or line you choose to cruise: prices have remained pretty steady over the years while cost of everything has skyrocketed. There is no way for what we pay we can expect the cruise esperience we had 20 or even 10 years ago. I do think auto tipping has played a part, but a very small part.
ok, I now notice he/she has posted a thrilling 5 times. Troll, troll, troll your boat...
"I just returned from a 4 day cruise on Century this morning. This was my 10th Celebrity cruise, & I was very disappointed in the food. Choices & taste have taken a big dive . Only one of the 4 dinners was good . My tablemates were not happy with their food, either. I was on HAL in November ( Veendam ) & the food was much better than Century. I never thought I'd say that, but it's true. Hopefully it's only a Century problem."
Which is it, dude?
By his posts, he is over 18 cruises....right!!!!
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Dan
Peace through superior firepower.
I do travel HAL a bit and will say that the service is lower than in the 80's-90's. Then again most of us now pump our own gas, carry our groceries to the car, and shop at Target, so we have grown to expect less service. Food is good, although the big, formal blowout midnight buffets are pretty much history.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sarasota
Used to be really good, a few years back. Food has gone downhill. Service, since tipping is now automatic, is pathetic. Celebrity is the same price level & many times better overall experience.
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Amadeus:09 Diamond;Celebrity:10 Summit; HAL: 87 Rotterdam V,89 Nieuw Amsterdam II,93 Nordam III,94 Ryndam III,96 Westerdam III,99 Veendam IV,01 Maasdam V,02 Amsterdam III,03 Volendam III,03 Zuiderdam II,04 Westerdam IV,04 Oosterdam I,05 Zaandam III,06 Statendam V,06 Prinsendam II,07 Nordam IV,08 Eurodam I,08 Rotterdam VI,09 Veendam IV,09 Volendam,10 Nieuw Amsterdam IV,12 Ryndam III;11 P&O:Artemis;RC:07 Splendour of the Seas,11 Navigator of the Seas,12 Majesty of the Seas
My only cruise on HAL was my first cruise in 87. It was on the Noordam in Alaska.
My mother who is now passed sailed on approx. 25-30 cruises and she maintained that HAL is good but not as good as it was before Carnival bought them out.
Again, I think if you focus on the negative the negative grows and if you focus on the positive the positive grows.
I found out that the moment you step aboard you can remove tips from automatically being charged to your account. Since you want excellence inservice - do this and wait till the last evening and tip those who "deserve" the moeny for excellent service during your voyage.Sorry to hear you had bad service. I have been on 20+ cruises and only (1) prior with HAL- I had no issues.
I found out that the moment you step aboard you can remove tips from automatically being charged to your account. Since you want excellence inservice - do this and wait till the last evening and tip those who "deserve" the moeny for excellent service during your voyage.Sorry to hear you had bad service. I have been on 20+ cruises and only (1) prior with HAL- I had no issues.
were you also told that if you remove those tips and tip individually at the end those tips still have to be pooled? It is probably better to keep the $10 per day on your account and tip those who go above and beyond extra. If you do that, the extra tips do not have to be shared. Just a thought. It works well for us.
Fndolly,
I agree with Nita !00% on that. Removing yourself from automatic tipping will not improve your service one iota, and certainly not on Holland America where the well trained and carefully selected Indonesian and Filipino crew bend over backward to make your stay just as pleasant as humanly possible.
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RichStacy
Landlocked in Denver, but cruisin every chance we get.
Polynesia, Carib. '86
Cr. Odyssey, Scandinavia, '91, 30 Day S Pac. 2002
Crystal Harm, Aust., N.Z., '94
Royal Odyssey, AK,'96
Old Cr. Pr. Canal, '97
RCCL, Carib, 1998
Volendam, Car, 2000
Ryndam, 35 day S. Am., Antarctica, '03
Is. Pr., Canal, 2004
Statendam, 34 day China, Japan, AK '06
Cr.Pr., Carib. 08
Eurodam, Atlantic, Med. '10 Golden Princess
We just returned from HAL Noordam out of NYC to the Carib. The service was wonderful, the food was good and the ship was lovely. I have also cruised on Celebrity and my one complaint the first time was there was too much smoking on board. That seems to have been corrected, or maybe we just had inconsiderate people on that cruise. You get out of a cruise vacation what you put into it, and if you are a complaining person, Crystal or Silver Seas probably wouldn't be good enough for you. chris.
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Chris Ruggieri
Romantica
Victoria
Voyager of Seas
Freedom of Seas
Rhapsody of Seas
Sovereignof the Seas
Imagination
Celebration
Imagination
old Noordam
New Noordam
Amsterdam
Rotterdam
Century
Constallation
Millenium
ncl wind
ncl pearl
We have cruised on five of HAL's ships and will cruise on an additional one in May (Veendam) We have enjoyed every minute and the service was great, food was wonderful. This coming from a working wife and mother of 3 who has to do it all! We did a 22 day on the Zuiderdam two years ago through the Panama to Vancouver and opted out of the automatic tipping. We asked our cabin steward if he had to put it in the pool and he said no. We did call him into the cabin to give him the tip and a small gift so it would not be seen on the security cameras. I think Mr. Heart Attack needs to take a chill pill and get off this ship!
Dont know what ship you were on but I just returned from the Zuiderdam and it was wonderful. Food great, service great, cabin fantastic. I think it depends on which ship. We used to go on Maasdam (the old gal) but it wasnt as good as Zuiderdam. Better luck next time.
Oh, and by the way, regarding Celebrity, we did a back-to-back from Zuiderdam to Century (Celebrity) and although food was good, service was not and cabin was noisy from engines.
Hello, my wife and I cruised for the first time last August on the Oosterdam to Alaska. We apparently spoiled ourselves booking a SA. We had the most wonderful vacation we were treated royally.We ate at the PG once for dinner and a few times for breakfast the food and service was splendid.We enjoyed the formal nights my wife looked beautiful. We are both 55 years old and really enjoyed the calmness the ship envoked. We went on several excursions the TAKU LODGE and glacier flyover was our favorite..........We have booked another cruise on the Oost. this November15,2008 to Mexico,can anyone give us some tips on tours and what will the weather,seas,and water temps be at that time of year. Thank YOU...Mountain Dog
My only cruise on HAL was my first cruise in 87. It was on the Noordam in Alaska.
My mother who is now passed sailed on approx. 25-30 cruises and she maintained that HAL is good but not as good as it was before Carnival bought them out.
Again, I think if you focus on the negative the negative grows and if you focus on the positive the positive grows.
Did you mean HAL is owned by Carnival now? Really?
Absolutely! So is Princess, Cunard, Seaborne, P&O, Costa and a number of others. Carnival Corp. is a very large holding company, but it allows each line to retain its individual character.
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Holland America is no longer a quality line
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