Oosterdam Review
Here is the review of our trip that I posted to Cruise Critic. Enjoy.
Sorry, it is quite long. I know when I research a ship, I like longer reviews with lots of details. That is why it is so long.
Next post, I'll have pictures from our trip.
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My wife and I, along with some friends, took a cruise from San Diego to Cabo, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta, from December 13 to December 20, on Holland America's Oosterdam. This a chronicle of the trip.
We left from Tucson, AZ, on December 12, and drove to San Diego, staying with some friends. I think from now on that that is how we will do it, going in the day before. It is less stressful in that if something happens, you have a day to deal with it and you won't miss the boat.
On December 13, embarkation day, we arrived at the terminal right at the busy time. The line was long. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to get through. Funny thing, though, someone recognized us from my wife's Cruise Critic avatar, and came up to us in line.
When we got onto the ship, we went straight to our room, which was not ready yet. We waited until they opened the doors.
Our room, when we got there, was huge compared to other ships we'd been on. We had an aft balcony room: 5185. The balcony was also huge compared to other balconies on the ship; I'd say about 15 feet by 15 feet. In fact, it was large enough to hold a small table and chairs, along with two lounge chairs. This was the first balcony room we've ever had, and I'd say that we are now spoiled. I'm sure that we will never have another like it again, especially since the Oosterdam is going to have a butt lift real soon, and will change all the rooms aft.
Getting under way, it was cold, rainy, and dark. Regardless, we had our friends to our room to drink champagne as we sailed out of San Diego bay.
At dinner that night, they started out right with some of the best prime rib I'd ever had. In fact, that was the best dish the entire trip. It was funny; we'd taken a Carnival cruise earlier this year and I remember the first dish on that cruise was a New York steak. That had been one of the worst steaks I'd ever had -- way overcooked. To compare that meal to this one, I'd felt like I'd come home.
The first full day at sea, we spent some time on our balcony, and explored the ship. Also, we attended one of the cooking shows, the Dueling Salmons, with a guest host, a master sommelier with her own TV show, and her husband cooking salmon dishes side by side.
Also that day, we went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet. It was nice of Holland America to provide champagne for the event. There we met Larry and Paul, a nice couple from California, who became our companions throughout the trip. After the meet and greet, we stopped by their room to check out what a deluxe suite looks like, as we'd never seen one. It was remarkable how much bigger it was, especially the bathroom. They then came over to our room, where we drank wine on our balcony all afternoon.
That night was the first of two formal nights. That could have been a fiasco, because the friends, who had come with us on the trip, forgot their garment bag with their dress clothes. However, they were able to rent a suit coat on board for like 45 bucks, and borrowed a tie from me. In doing that, they could scrounge up dressy enough clothes for the formal nights.
The next day, we were in Cabo San Lucas. Tendering was a pain in the butt. Between getting our tender tickets and touching land in Cabo, it took like an hour and a half. It did not help that the seas were a little rough, so boarding the tender boat was difficult.
In Cabo, we took a glass bottom boat to lands end, followed by a trip to Cabo Wabo. Cabo Wabo, though a landmark everyone should see in Cabo, was very expensive. I think we spent about 40 bucks on three drinks and some nachos.
The following day, we were in Mazatlan, where we rode horses on the beach. We highly recommend Randi's Happy Horses for people who wish to do that. The horses are well taken care of.
Finally, rounding out the port stops, in Puerto Vallarta, we took a whale watching excursion. That was amazing. I was expecting to see one or two whales if we were lucky. No. We saw tons of whales, up close a personal. In fact, at one point we saw as many as six spouts whooshing in the air.
The weather could not have been more perfect on our port days. Highs were in the mid-80s and the weather was sunny and clear. In fact, it was good on the sea days as well, other than the little bit of rain in San Diego when we left. Also, our last day at sea was a little rougher than the other days, but still not bad.
Every night, after our excursions and after dinner, we'd stay up long after most people had gone to bed, and talked with Paul and Larry in the Ocean Bar, talking about the day's activities, listening to the soft ballroom music played by the band, mostly old jazz standards.
As great of a time we had, all was not perfect. We had a terrible time with room service. Often times when we'd call, say after an afternoon nap on the balcony, thinking that we'd like a snack to hold us until dinner, they'd never pick up. Five, 10, 15, 20 minutes we'd wait and we'd stay on hold. Most of the time, we just gave up and went to the Lido.
We had problems in the morning too. We'd stick our menu card on our door to deliver breakfast, and though they delivered on time, they'd always forget something, like coffee cream. They did that twice. One time, they forgot butter for the toast. Another time, they added sausage to the breakfast plate even though we did not order it. They never seemed to get it right. Forget calling them; they'd never pick up. That was frustrating.
Late one night, right before bed, we went to fill out the breakfast card to find out, to our surprise, that it was already filled out with someone else's order. We called room service, who again never answered. We finally called the front desk. They apologized profusely said that they would deliver an empty card right away. We waited and waited and they never came. We actually fell asleep waiting. Finally, I woke up and called them again to tell them to forget it, that we were just going to bed. Whoever answered said that they would deliver it personally. When all was said and done, it took them like a hour to get us the card.
We thought that maybe it was just us. However, the second to last day, we gave up on room service and went to the dining room for breakfast. There, we met some people and told them our plight with room service. They told us that they had ordered dinner the night before at 11:30 at night, and it had not been delivered until 2:30 in the morning. Outrageous.
So much so was our frustration, we actually went to the front desk and complained. They had us fill out a comment card, which we did, outlining the issues.
Let's face it; room service on the Oosterdam is just plain bad. For a cruise line that prides itself on service, there really is no excuse.
It is funny because service on the rest of the ship was impeccable. Everyone greeted you with a smile. Your dinning room staff all knew you by name. In fact, we ate out on deck one night instead of going to the dining room, and the next day, when one of dining room attendants saw us, they said, Mr. so-and-so, we missed you at dinner last night. It was nice to be pampered.
We went to the spa one evening, after our whale watching adventure, and they treated us like royalty (and quite frankly, it was well priced because it was a port day).
Well, there was one other thing: We went to the Pinnacle Grill one night, and though the service was okay, it was not as good as it was in the dining room. They seemed to let our glasses get empty. Also, we brought a dessert wine to dinner, and despite asking for a wine steward to come over and open it a couple of times, we could not get anybody to open it. Finally, we got up and went to the bar to have somebody open it -- little details, but noticeable. Maybe it was a bad night, because the next night, our friends, Paul and Larry, went there and said the service was great.
The food at the Pinnacle Grill was good. I had the lobster bisque and the bone-in rib eye, both excellent. My wife had the New York, but tasted my rib eye and thought that it was better.
One thing that we did that I highly recommend is that we brought all our wine on board, about a case for the week. In fact, we brought a bottle to dinner each night. Corkage fees have gone up. The fee used to be 15 bucks and has now gone up to $18.
As far as entertainment is concerned, most of the time, I feel that ship board entertainment is a bit cheesy aboard any ship. Generally, because of that, I find that funny is better than serious. We saw two shows, the Elton John impersonator, who was quite funny, and the magician, who was not. As a result, I liked the Elton John impersonator much better. One thing that was interesting, though, is that the magician had like three birds and two dogs on stage with him. I had this image the whole time of him in his tiny state room with all his animals, and that brought me some amusement.
That really is about it for our trip. Disembarkation was easy. The line was long getting off the ship, but moved quite fast. We drove home that day. All in all, despite the minor service problems, it was a good trip.
