Holland America - Oosterdam Reviews

We really enjoyed our Holland America cruise primarily to see the Panama Canal and several countries in South America. There are quite a few sea days since the ship is navigating an entire continent (almost) . There were plenty of activities onboard on sea days so we never got bored. We highly recommend this cruise.

We saw everything from beaches, to the Panama Canal, to deserts, to ancient Inca culture, to the Andes Mountains, to the Magellan Straits to Cape Horn, to the Falkland Islands, to historic Uraguay, to lively Buenos Aires.

Only disappointing part of the trip was the spa. There are three features in the spa; steam room, heating lounges and hydro pool. The hydro pool was down for three days, and the steam rooms never got hot enough to enjoy.

We were happy overall, but disappointed in the itinerary changes. First, Monte Carlo was taken off, then Venice. We could "live" with Monte Carlo, although we really wanted to see that... but Venice is not just some small port. That one was a REAL disappointment. We were also unable to go into 2 ports due to weather, which we understand, but we have contacted Holland America to see about getting some future cruise credits due to the fact that 4 our of the 10 original ports were cancelled for one reason or another. The cruise we went on ending up being quite different from the one that we originally signed up for. We also had problems with WiFi connectivity for the entire trip which was very frustrating. We loved the aft Neptune Suite cabin with the wrap around balcony. Service was good on the ship. The main issues we have are with the itinerary changes. We are hoping that HAL will compensate us for that.

We felt the quality of the food as well as many of the staff, weren’t as good as we experienced on our last HAL Cruise.

The entire staff were amazing and it was a memorable and wonderful experience

Holland always good on board. Service and food uniformly excellent. Holland excursions hit and miss however. And worst customer service by Holland air we have ever experienced. Absolutely terrible handling of our air bookings. Likely will never book through them ever again

We were on Oosterdam’s first post Covid cruise. While the crew was friendly and professional, their ship was not quite ready for passengers. Our cabin had only scalding hot water for a period of time while others had only cold. Toilets throughout the ship did not function for a period of time. The sprinkler system dripped water throughout the ship leading to wet carpeting and buckets left to catch the water. We were eventually ungraded to a better, trouble free cabin but that process took a couple of days when the ship was less than 50% full. I felt for the crew.

I am 71 and my wife is 68 and the cruise entertainment left a lot to be desired.

Good food and service. Low energy activities with little opportunity to dance.

With a cruise that long would have appreciated more menu variety as we do not use the buffet area

The Panama Canal is an amazing accomplishment and I am really glad to have seen it. The Holland America ship the Oosterdam got us through the trip in grand style. The staterooms are fine but not exceptional. The room stewards were great and looked after our needs very well. They even told us that the bathtub which was worn out and gross could be replaced during the cruise. And we made it happen! The food is very good and the waiters did a fantastic job. The entertainment is the best of any cruise we have taken. All in all a great trip and worth the cost.

Would have preferred more carribean ports vs Mexico.ports

Everything went smoothly except disembarking: HAL mistakenly put us into the group flying out of Miami airport, instead of the Ft. Lauderdale airport. I hadn't caught the mistake when we were issued our boarding passes. Fortunately, customer service was able to correct the mistake and even printed out our boarding passes.

Was a great trip and staff was very helpful, polite and knowledgeable. Food was great and so was entertainment.