Volendam Review

Worst cruise experience

Review for Asia Cruise on Volendam
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discodave39
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Dec 2017
Cabin: Large Ocean-View Stateroom

We chose this cruise because we wanted to sample Asia and picked Holland America as this was the most extensive itinerary. Unfortunately we did not believe we would be sacrificing the quality of our holiday. The cabin was not clean. No remote control for the TV. DVD player not working. No air conditioning for over a week. Basic soaps and bathroom supplies were missing. Then we have a major flood in our stateroom on day 1 due to a faulty toilet. We did not know the ship had been in dry dock until the day before we embarked. We were promised they would extract as much water as they could from the carpet and install fans to dry out the carpets but no-one came the next day and we spent most of the next 2 days complaining at guest services. The smell was now horrendous and the dampness was starting to affect our health. It was a week before the carpet was dry enough to walk on without shoes and they managed to mask the smell with shake and vac! This didn't smell particularly nice either. Over and above this the entertainment was pathetic. The singers and dancers had very lame material to work with and appeared very amateurish. Guest entertainers were very hit and miss with some acts being not very good kids party performers (embarrassing really). No buffet in the lido - chefs having to dish up food causing really long lines. Food was not good and cold. Lido closed at 8pm but stations were closing even before this. The ship air conditioning didn't work properly and the ship was hot at the hot time of the cruise then the last few days when the temperature outside was cold the air conditioning appeared to be working now and everyone on the ship was freezing! We were told the engineers couldn't get the system to work properly. If you enjoy spending your holiday waiting in the queue at guest services this is the cruise for you. A whole year of looking forward to this holiday became so so disappointing. Not the way we planned ending the year. This was our first and last experience of Holland America.

Cabin Review

Large Ocean-View Stateroom

Cabin H

Position of cabin was fine. Dirty. Hot. Smelly. Wet. All of these at various times. We even asked to be moved to a broom cupboard.

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