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About Your Ship: Veendam

21 Night Panama Canal Westbound
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Departs Boston aboard Holland America Line – Veendam

Sailing Date(s): October 19, 2013


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	Average Veendam Rating



	SORT BY: Most Recent \| Positive \| Negative \| Helpful 1 - 10 of 11 \| Next 1 >
	Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 50 - 65 Cruise Experience: 4 - 6 cruises Traveler Type: Family w/older children Stateroom Type: Oceanview Canadian cruise by Barbara Plucinski from New Jersey Sailing date: May 2013 Pros: The ports Cons: As you wish dining was a diaster The Veendam was small ship and our cruise was port intense so we didn't explore the ship that much. Odd layout having the kitchen in the middle of the 7th deck, to get to the main dining room you need to go up or down a level. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dining/Food Food was good, as you wish dining was a disorganized mess most wait times were 45 minutes for 4 people who were willing to seat with other. Stateroom Quality Ship Staff Quality Entertainment & Activities Entertainment was geared towards older generation, Atlantic City free comp shows quality. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 30 - 49 Cruise Experience: 2 - 3 cruises Traveler Type: Family w/young children Stateroom Type: Inside the worst cruise of my life by Anastasios Tom Tsocanos from Woodridge, NJ Sailing date: Aug 2012 Pros: the end Cons: everything, including lack of service, rude and crude boat personell, horrible ride, made the wife dizzy food service was the worst ever that I have experienced. extra charges very extreme and annoying, will call credit card to fight some of them. air condition not cool enough first 3 days, then room extremely cold for last 4 days, 1 child caught cold. safe borke, tv would not shut off. wait for basic water for 18 minutes was unexceptable. no help with baby sitting request of only 2 hours for 1 day quite saddening. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dining/Food lack of service unexpected. Stateroom Quality Ship Staff Quality Entertainment & Activities very boring Children's Programs few available 6 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 30 - 49 Cruise Experience: First cruise Traveler Type: Couple Stateroom Type: Inside A wonderful cruise by Ustaman from New York Sailing date: Aug 2012 Pros: Onboard amenities and the destination itself Cons: A few servers were rude but I believe they were working very long hours The value for money in terms of all the onboard amenities - food, entertainment, activities, gym etc was great. Also, there were not too many young children and that was a plus. The few things I wished are - the swimming pool, hot tubs, spa and the gym closed at 9 pm - wished they remained open longer. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dining/Food If possible arranged seating is probably better than open seating - because I noticed that with open seating, one has to wait in long lines if wishing to go to the best restaurants. Stateroom Quality This was my first cruise so I am not sure if this is a problem with all ships - the toilet would not flush sometimes - apparently clogging in someone else's toilet affected mine too. Ship Staff Quality Entertainment & Activities 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 50 - 65 Cruise Experience: 4 - 6 cruises Traveler Type: Couple Stateroom Type: Oceanview Pleasant cruise by Dimitry and Genny P. from Long Island, NY Sailing date: Jul 2011 Pros: Food in the dining rooms was excellent, classical music quartet was outstanding, ship's decor was very tasteful (in a conservative way) Cons: Rectangular jacuzzis were the worst I've ever seen: to uncomfortable nobody used them. Ship's showing its age: rust spots here and there., The ship carries about 1200 passengers, so it is not one of those behemoths we see in advertising brochures. This means that getting into and out of the ship is an efficient and fast operation. On the minus side, it means that there is less variety in the facilities onboard. The Holland America Line caters to a rather sophisticated crowd, so there is emphasis in certain degree of formality: on a short, week-long trip to Bermuda there were two formal-attire nights when tuxedos were suggested or formal suits at a minimum, and although the ship had the usual contingent of bars, casino and shows, it also had an excellent quartet playing classical music three hours each evening. Very good library and communications center. The crew was obsequious and helpful (faulty toilet repaired within 10 minutes, shoes shined in 5). Food was excellent in the dining rooms, but lagging somewhat at the Lido cafeteria (stale bread once, spoiled strawberries once). Overall, a very pleasant voyage. Ship Details: Ship Quality Dining/Food Stateroom Quality A bit cramped, and some rust in the porthole and bathroom door. Ship Staff Quality Entertainment & Activities Read this user's port of call reviews: Hamilton, Bermuda; St. George's, Bermuda Collapse List of Ports Ports of Call: Hamilton, Bermuda Everything is more expensive than in the US. This is a place to window-shop,o enjoy the beaches, rent a scooter, roam around and go back to the ship to eat. Highly recommended: Horseshoe beach. Perhaps the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. You can go to the bus terminal (about 4 blocks from the ship), get bus tokens (about 4 dollars), take the #7 bus and be at the beach in 20 minutes. Rental of chairs and umbrellas: $11 each. Or you may go by taxi. St. George's, Bermuda Very little place, reached by tender. Go to the beach and visit the small boutiques but these are expensive. 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 30 - 49 Cruise Experience: 4 - 6 cruises Traveler Type: Couple Stateroom Type: Oceanview What a wonderful trip, despite the rain by Sharon C from NY, NY Sailing date: Sep 2010 Pros: Great food and reasonable Cons: Lunch buffet closed too early really enjoyed being on a ship that was not tremendous. The room was nice, the service was excellent, the staff really knew us. We had fresh fruit in our room daily. Our cabin steward knew are names & addressed us as Mr. & Mrs. The breakfast buffet was plentiful, but if wanted to sleep in, you have to wait until 11:30 for lunch, by 10:30 it was shut down. Dinners were excellent. You must make a reservation if you don't have assigned seating. The shows were okay, but the comedian was great! Best ship show I have seen in a long time. The casino was a little small, but good enough. I enjoyed it. My husband loved the texas hold 'em tournaments & cash games. The weather was not the best, but the retractable roof over the pool allowed for you to enjoy the water even in the rain. I loved the afternoon tea. And the spa was reasonable, offered great deals when in port and the service was wonderful. The staff was very professional. I liked the library/game room as well. You really had a lot of options while on board. Ship Details: Ship Quality the only thing that needs improvement woulde be retreat. some of the tiles were missing. Otherwise the public rest rooms were always neat & clearn. Dining/Food Excellent food. Breafast and dinner was always good. Dessert was also good. Stateroom Quality room was average size, bed was nice and the tub in the bathroom was a plus. Ship Staff Quality Always went above & beyond. Addressed us by name and was very accomodating Entertainment & Activities Show quality was average, but the comedian was the best I have seen. Often activies conflicited. So it was eat dinner or happy hour, dinner or kareoke. It was hard sometimes to do everything you wanted - especially if you had the later dinner Read this user's port of call reviews: Hamilton, Bermuda; St. George's, Bermuda Collapse List of Ports Ports of Call: Hamilton, Bermuda The beach was beautiful. We spent a lot of time at horseshoe bay. The waves were very rough. St. George's, Bermuda Not much to see. We did some exploring on our own. We ate lunch out, which was delish, but service was slow. The only bad thing was waiting 2 hours for the tender ferry. 11 out of 11 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 50 - 65 Cruise Experience: First cruise Traveler Type: Couple Stateroom Type: Oceanview Veendam to Alaska - just okay by Patricia M. from Dallas, Texas Sailing date: Aug 2009 Pros: Food Cons: Sea sickness and plumbing issues on ship The ship was nice enough and the stateroom was adequate for our needs although I would have preferred a room with a bathtub instead of a shower only. Ship Details: Ship Quality Did not appreciate the plumbing issues. Sometimes the toilets worked; sometimes they didn't. The Veendam is a smaller ship and you really feel the motion of the water! Dining/Food The food was generally good but not outstanding. The chilled soups are not to be missed. A couple of the desserts were outstanding (brownie baked Alaska and a caramel banana pie) but the desserts at the Lido buffet and the midnight chocolate extravaganza were pretty but bland (grocery store quality). Stateroom Quality Clean and comfortable and well maintained by our cabin steward. Ship Staff Quality Joko did a good job, was friendly and helpful. Entertainment & Activities We enjoyed the musicial theatre at the Showroom at Sea. Our cruise director Eric was equally entertaining. Skip the "how to shop in port" talks unless you're interested in buying expensive jewelry. We enjoyed the casino slots (won some money). There weren't just a whole lot of activities/talks that interested us, so we skipped those. Read this user's port of call reviews: Haines, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Ketchikan, Alaska Collapse List of Ports Ports of Call: Haines, Alaska Book a shore excursion. The town is quaint, but small and you can pretty much see everything in a couple of hours. Juneau, Alaska Nice town. We enjoyed just walking around and shopping. Ketchikan, Alaska Very touristy. Lots of high end jewelry stores, but I really didn't go to Alaska for that. 9 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 50 - 65 Cruise Experience: 4 - 6 cruises Traveler Type: Couple Just what we needed. by Michele from Orlando, FL Sailing date: Mar 2007 Pros: The friendly staff. Relaxing vacation...good food and wonderful service. We got to see some new (to us) ports of call. Overall great cruise. Ship Details: Entertainment & Activities Read this user's port of call reviews: Belize City, Belize; Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico; Key West, Florida; Santo Tomas De Castilla, Guatemala Collapse List of Ports Ports of Call: Belize City, Belize Cave tubing in Belize. What an experience! Our guides were the greatest. It was quite a hike to the site. It wasn't just a lazy river float through a cave. Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico Speed boating in Costa Maya. We had a great time outside of Costa Maya in Mahaual. We went on the xpeed boats...two seaters. Lots of fun. Key West, Florida Back to Key West. We revisited places we had been to just last year... on a land vacation. Had to go to BO's Fish Wagon and Sloppy Joe's. We did a lot of walking. The best way to see Key West. Don't Miss: If you're there for the sunset, a sunset cruise on a smaller sail boat is the best. Santo Tomas De Castilla, Guatemala 18 out of 20 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 65+ Cruise Experience: 7+ cruises Traveler Type: Couple Ship Review by Ann from Fayetteville, GA Sailing date: Mar 2007 Ship Details: Entertainment & Activities Read this user's port of call reviews: Belize City, Belize; Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico; Key West, Florida; Santo Tomas De Castilla, Guatemala Collapse List of Ports Ports of Call: Belize City, Belize Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico Key West, Florida Santo Tomas De Castilla, Guatemala 8 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 30 - 49 Cruise Experience: 2 - 3 cruises Ship Review by Melissa from Reading, PA Sailing date: Mar 2007 Ship Details: Entertainment & Activities 6 out of 8 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful? Overall Rating: About the Reviewer: Age: 50 - 65 Cruise Experience: First cruise Traveler Type: Couple Wonderful experience. by Susannah from Washington Sailing date: Sep 2006 Pros: The staff. This cruise exceeded my expectations in so many ways. Beautiful cabin, excellent staff, great food, and scenery that took your breath away. Ship Details: Entertainment & Activities 6 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you find this review helpful?
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