Over the past month I have received a number of reports from people just back from a Holland America cruise saying that things have changed. The service is not as good...the food was lacking...they were starting to cut corners...etc.

I know we have had some folks on HAL cruises over the past few months and would like to hear from them.

How did your trip compare to others? Are things really going downhill or are these reports the normal exceptions to the rule that you get with any cruise line?

The food actually seemed better to us this time - there were more choices that appealed to us compared with last time.

The staff was very friendly and attentive - our wine steward brought Dad 2 Manhattans every night with dinner, without Dad having to ask. Dad did ask the first night for a second, then the next night Imam asked him he he wanted one, then just brought them every night when he saw us enter the dining room.

I am more familiar with this line when we cruised on the old Volendam, Veendam and Statendem with no more than 6-700 passengers.

I do not think that we can expect the type of service that Holland America used to provide.
Since that cruise, we travelled transatlantic on Sunbird and to Bermuda on Nordic Prince in September. Both cruises were much better than with HAL.

We did finally get an onboard credit of $300.00 from HAL for a future cruise and were tempted to give them another try. In the end we decided to play safe and are booked on Sunbird again in January.

I think that when all is considered, most of the Carnival Corporation ships are run in a cookie cutter style, the only difference is the age and income of the passengers.

[ 12-13-2002: Message edited by: topgun ]

The quality of the food was fine with me. Mr. Gizmo thought the food was better on the Volendam. The creamed soups tasted like paste so I stuck to the chilled soups. In the past I loved the creamed soups. The last night there was nothing much on then menu that I liked and would have gone to the Lido if it were not the last night. I did order a cajun rib eye steak that turned out fine but it was the only thing on the menu that I would consider.

All eight of our cruises were wonderful with fabulous service and excellent food.
The ships were in excellent condition and very well maintained.

The flowers were as lovely as ever and we did not see cutbacks at all....and we were looking for them.

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Originally posted by DAMBROSI:
Oh boy, I'm sorry to hear about that. We wanted to book on the ZAANDAM for the last cruise before it leaves
for Alaska. Much to say, I was surprised the price they
were asking for an inside stateroom, over $400.00. I wanted to experience a cruise on HAL ship. Now, I see it's mirroring what I went through on the SENSATION on Sept. 30th this year.

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DAMBROSI: I can't see your September experiences, as explained by you, being mirrored on HAL in any of the above posts?

US$400 is about CA$650 - never seen that price advertised in Canada! With or without Port Taxes?

You perhaps mean that available inside cabins were US$400 more than on the Sensation. Rates on all ships vary by season and demand.

We sailed the Rotterdam in November just past - short of being a 'total nit picker with notebook in hand' we found little to complain about.

A few cutbacks - yes there were - the photographers were a real pain and we were not impressed with the Cruise Director or his Assistant. As for the food, we found it very good and our Waitstaff was well trained in HAL ways.

[ 12-15-2002: Message edited by: Green ]

Among the changes over the past two years are the elimination of the Passport to Fitness program and its replacement by a series of fee per session gym sessions (Yoga ,Pilates etc), the elimination of the position of Social Hostess in many of their cruises and reduction to the number of cruise staff, the elimination in the nember of musicians aboard and it the case of many of their shorter cruise (the Maasdam recently)the elimination of the Show Orchestra and its replacement by canned music for the production shows, the elimination of many of the èxtras in the cabin such as the famous HAL tote bags and Dutch tiles in many of their short cruises, the reduction in the number of bar staff and dining room staff that is starting to slow down the famous service that built the company, some reductions to Front Office staff and indeed in talking to some HAL staff, in all departments through out the ship. At the same time some standards are starting to slip such as more frequent and annoying (too cute) announcements for bingo and other events and reductions in many of the small features that previously charterized Holland America. The cost also of many of the concession services such as the Spa, Gym, Photo and Shops has also gone up but I am not sure that HAL has much control over that. The addition of the new extra pay alternative restauarants, The Pinnacle, aboad the Statendam and Ryndam shows also the direction that HAL is probably moving towards.

OK in an old ship there were problems with water shortages the first night and there was a problem with leaking water one day but that is only to be expected.

After 911 I read that fruit would not be in the cabins, but you could ask for it. We sailed the Veendam and asked to have fruit each day. No problem. I just got off the Amsterdam and fruit was in the suite. We asked for certain fruit and we had it everyday.