Almost invariably, anyone that reports a bad experience with the line is met with vilification or at best total disbelief. In some cases you wonder whether a contract may be out on the complainant.

I consider Holland America to offer one of the best products in the North American popular cruise market. Lets hope it stays so.

Whats my point? Why is this line so heavily defended. They have one ship sink from an onboard fire and recently named a new vessel in the fleet identically. This takes nerve.

Recent suggestions for the almost blind support were as follows:

An additive is placed in the tea each day similar to the practise used by the military with new recruits.(It doesn"t work by the way)

The air conditioning and water systems have some odorless factor added to produce some form of brainwashing.

The onboard MUZAK has hidden messages.

They did win last years Travelpage Poll, so their are some fans here. I must admit that I've not heard or read too many complaints abot HAL cruises.

Many posters have mentioned the 'coming home' syndrome - maybe one of HAL's slogans says a lot, "We never forget whose holiday it is.".......and live up to it - no pressure to join in - you do what you want to do with few restrictions, all of which are made for the benefit of fellow cruisers.

Nothing is ever always 'perfect' for everyone. We've experienced little upsets on HAL but nothing that will change our loyalty to the Line......we appreciate the 'coming home' welcome.

As Malcolm says, "they please most of the people most of the time!."

12 more days 'till we join the Statendam!!!!! We're looking forward to meeting up with the Dolphins.

Until now I used to say "I never met a cruise I didn't like".

We sailed the Zaandam March 4-March 14 as our 2nd HAL cruise (out of 17 total cruises).
The entire staff is marvelous. Waiters, cleaners, Maitre'd, bar help, Wine steward, mechanics, etc, etc,. They all smile constantly, are friendly and are very willing to assist.
The ship is beautiful and comfortable.

But that's it!

HAL's "system" is awful and its kitchen is worse.

Here's a partial list.

..We arrived at 1:30 pm and waited for an hour and a half for the FIRST group of numbered guests to be permitted to board. We were #18.
..Our cabins were Cat.D with large picture window and very poor lighting except (thankfuly) in the bathroom.
..The safe locks only with a magnetic backed credit card. Not by keying in numbers. We therefore had to lock the safe with our most valued possesion-which we wanted to lock in the safe-our credit card.
..There was no refrigerator in the room which was of a category normally having one on other lines.
.. There was no pitcher of drinkable (iced) water in the room. Rather, they had plenty of bottled water there for you to purchase.
..At least once a day and sometimes twice some mysterious person slipped advertizements for cheap watches, T-shirts, semi-precious stones, art auctions, etc under you cabin door.
..A large bottle of sparkling water was not available ANYWHERE! At the dinner table one had to purchase a $2.50 ($1.75 on other ships) tiny bottle of Perrier (enough for one good gulp). We normally use a large liter bottle each night.

I really could go on and on but you must get the idea by now.

The kitchen was out of control!!!

(I must let you know beforehand that we enjoy and look forward to the dining experience on ships very much. As usual we ordered a bottle of wine each night. We also tipped the dining room staff as usual.)

We were a group of ten sailing together. All of us sailed at least twice before. For the first time ever we returned entrees. Veal chops were unchewable. Lamb was over cooked. Baked potatoes were burned. The best entree of the 10 day trip were the lamb chops and although delicious not one of them came out of the kitchen cooked as ordered.
The icing on the cake was lobster night. I've never failed to eat two orders of lobster tails. Half way through my second unchewable bite I pushed the plate away (as did two others at the table), rose from my seat and ran to the Maitre'd.

He was very nice and apologetic. He came over to the table , wrote down our cabin number and offered other entrees.

No thanks!

By the way we never heard from anyone afterwards.

I have recently removed this site as the prime login location on my browser due to its lack of interesting input.

Sorry If I seemed to rub you the wrong way. (Do you have CARNIVAL stock?)I just called it like it was!

I got on the 3500 passenger Explorer of the Seas at 1:30 pm with a 20 minitue checkin and no waiting in a lounge.

And it was Wolfgang who seemed determined to send everything out of his kitchen hard and dried up.
Did you ever see lobster tail meat pink in color?

Well, this is rather a very interesting discussion. I haven't cruised HAL yet, so I can't say. It does seem that most people who cruise them like them... I do hope to try HAL sometime in the near future, to compare them with Princess, who are, at the moment my favorite. I also liked Celebrity when I tried them, but I haven't been in a long time, so I'll try to try them again as well... I fear that RCCL have too much influence now... I am not an RCCL fan.

Altogether, in general, I am not a "company loyalist." No two cruises are alike, and sometimes even the best lines screw up. If my first cruise on HAL yielded pink lobster, I doubt I'd sail them again...

As I've said before, I doubt that the experience that JoeO had was typical. I was not there (to my knowledge none of use were) so I can't say whether his report is true or not, but I have a tendency to belive both JoeO and the HAL loyalists like geno-r, Green, and Dolphins. No two cruises are alike! I've been on the same ship and found the experience much better one time than the other. I know that cruise lines can be inconsistent. What can I say. If I had a so-so experience on my first try, I probably would try not to go back. If I had gone on the line many times and one cruise was a bit off-color, I wouldn't think much of it... If I was underwhelmed more than once, I'd make every effort to avoid going back in the future. And that's all. Do I think that some people are biased towards or against HAL? Sure. All opinions are biased. If they were not, they would be facts, not opinions. None of us here are trying to present the goodness or badness of HAL as a true fact. We are all just stating our opinons and I think all of us here appreciate that. After all, that's why this is my favorite cruise board on the Internet. To me, it's the best out there. To others, it may not be. I am an occasional participant on others, where I have seen many of you as well. But to me, this is the best. To many of you, HAL is the best. To some of you, it's not. Some of you may even dislike it altogether. That's OK, and I appreciate the frankness here. For a change, no flames have be thrown over the issue, and I hope it stays that way. Let's keep this interesting and constructive discussion going.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dolphins:
Just got back from Statendam cruise to Hawaii. The lobster was great and the prawns were spectacular. Plenty of ice in my cabin. Safe card provided in cabin. Few circulars under the door. Prompt boarding and debarkation. Outstanding cruise director (Susan Woods), exceptional musicians in all three lounges. 2 minor plumbing problems in my cabin were corrected promptly and efficiently. Searched in vain to find something to complain about- no luck. This left me with no alternative but to go to the friendly cruise consultant on board and book a future cruise on HAL's new Zuiderdam. C'est la vie.

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Must endorse wholeheartedly Dolphins comments - we had one minor plumbing problem -very promptly corrected - we even had a personal note from the Front Office apologizing for any inconvenience.

Lobster, shrimp, to say nothing of the lamb, were all excellent....the strip loin was good too!
Our Dining Room Steward, Tio, and his Assistant,Dennis, also looked after us in the Lido for breakfast each morning - at each meal they anticipated our needs - even to teaspoons (which we always forgot) for the grapefruit!

We haven't yet booked a future cruise but there's little doubt that we will.....any day now!

I also had one of the finest meals that I've ever eaten at sea in the Marco Polo Restaurant; the menu, quality and preparation of the food, and service were truly excellent. But I did find the food in the Rotterdam Restaurant to be merely average. The Lido Restaurant about the same. Chef Wolfgang is like my Germanic descent mother. Steak, chops and the tuna, listed on the menu as being prepared medium rare, were served well done no matter what temperature ordered or advertised, and the vegetables were always over cooked. Unfortunately this can happen where the chef is preparing such a large number of meals. Honestly overall the food might have been a tad better on the ZAANDAM than last year aboard the REGAL PRINCESS, but not as good as on the DELTA QUEEN or MISSISSIPPI QUEEN.

Until I can afford the Queen's Grille on the QE2 or some other ultra deluxe cruise, I will make some consessions when it comes to dining. I'll enjoy my table partners, and thank the good Lord that I'm able to be at sea on a cruise.

[ 04-12-2002: Message edited by: Frank X. Prudent ]

[ 04-12-2002: Message edited by: Frank X. Prudent ]

[ 04-17-2002: Message edited by: Frank X. Prudent ]

I'm truly glad the recent HAL experience of others was so good. I wouldn't want anyone to have a spoiled cruise just to prove a point.

Unfortunately , I know 10 people who won't find out if it was only a two-time experience.

The city named after my favorite ship LOL.
Came from the Maritime Museum, posted the pics of the Rotterdam prototypes under classic ships.
Has the line's history on diplay. Also the infor in the Droogdak where the Rembrandt and Niew Amsterdam II was built.

Hotel New York was the former HAL headquarters which is now a chic hotel and restaurant.