We booked this cruise as ports looked great (japan to Vancouver via Alaska) and thought would try holland America line. Overall we enjoyed everything - staff great, food amazing, efficient off and on boat, shows pretty good. A different culture compared to our previous celebrity, princess and royal Caribbean cruises. Found the cruise to be very relaxing with lots of time to read, play games and ...
We loved our cruise itinerary. Seeing Japan was our goal and the added days in Shanghai, South Korea, and Alaska were nice additional perks. The ports were all fantastic and the excursions we took through HAL were very good but the excursions team had to make changes to some of the tours and itineraries and instead of being transperent with their reasons, hid behind no-blame disclosures in their ...
I loved the itinerary of my cruise on the Volendam. I sailed from Singapore to Shanghai and discovered many unknown ports and countries. As far as the itinerary was concerned the trip exceeded expectations.
As usual the crew from Holland Amerika was great as well. However there are some improvements that could be made. Especially during the second leg of the trip, from Hong Kong to Shanghai, ...
We chose this cruise because of the itinerary and the price. Apart from Bali, the ports of call were nothing to write home about.....but we loved this holiday because of the ship...not too big, well appointed, quiet, delicious food, excellent service, lovely cabin....we really appreciated the recently refurbished bathrooms. Our cabin stewards did a great job and the nightly towel sculptures ...
3 star Mariners and prefer HAL to cruise due to service and food. We like how the staff is treated. If you are looking for good entertainment than you need to look elsewhere. This was our first time in this area of the world. This was also part of an around the world trip for my husband and I - mostly on our own. We flew into Hong Kong and spent 3 nights in the city. The day of embarkation we took ...
We did choose this cruise for the ports of call selection (Hong Kong, Halong Bay, Da Nang - for Hue, Nha Trang, Phu My - for Saigon, Shianokville - for the beaches, Laem Chabang - for Bankok, Ko Samui - for temples and the beaches and Singapore. Overall, not too many days "at the sea" and nice ports of call selections. Good start and end ports (where you can come in earlier or stay more at the end ...
We needed a cruise that would fit in with my husband's work commitments and had a suitable itinerary. This cruise fit the bill and as we had sailed on the Volendam before, we were happy to book the cruise.Embarkation in Singapore was smooth quick and efficient. We had an oceanview stateroom, midships, as I can suffer from motion sickness. The cruise was fairly calm and the only movement I felt ...
We went to ports in Indonesia that we've never been to before and loved each one. We saw komodo dragons on Komodo Island, saw how 3rd world countries are growing and improving. The crew were the happiest of any group we've ever experienced on a ship.
HAL set up a meet and greet for our cruise critic roll call so we could put a face to a name.
The Volendam singers and dancers are great, as ...
Wanted some warmth and sunshine and chose this cruise as a different experience from the Caribbean. Weather was very good until the last few days but didn't prevent us from some very interesting excursions.
Service and accommodation on the ship was excellent and we met many lovely people too.
Entertainment was varied but always enjoyable.
Dining was very enjoyable - able to turn up when ...
Warning, if you're not a foodie the first few paragraphs will bore you!
FOOD & DINING VENUES
I am a lowly two-star mariner, but know the ropes of HAL cruising and had been going to the specialty restaurants to reduce my meals in the MDR on past cruises. After reading so much about HAL's cost-cutting measures I thought I'd be disappointed with my meals, but instead was pleasantly surprised. ...