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Name: Benjamin Smith
Email: benjs@ix.netcom.com
Age: 39
Occupation: Page Layout/Publishing
NumberOfCruises: 2
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Holland-Veendam
SailingDate: August 20, 1998
Itinerary: Canada New England
FoodDiningRoom: 92
CruiseDirector: 88
CabinComfort: 90
FoodRoomService:
CruiseStaff: 90
CabinAmenities: 95
FoodLidoDeck: 90
DiningRoomService: 92
CabinQuietness: 95
FoodMidnightBuffets: 95
CabinSteward: 100
ShoreExcVariety:
FoodVariety: 95
DeckService: 90
ShoreExcValue:
GoodForHoneymoon:
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 80
LoungeService: 90
TenderService: 95
GoodForSeniors: 99
BeautySalonStaff: 75
EntertainmentLounges: 78
WheelchairAccess: 95
ExerciseFacilities: 88
EntertShowLounge: 81
OverallPortsofCall: 90
BeautySalon: 80
EntertainmentPoolside: 85
CruiseActivities: 80
Casino:
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 90
EmbarkDisembark: 95
DiscoNightclubs: 70
DeckSpace: 80
Stabilization: 88
ShopsOnBoard: 95
SpaceRatio: 99
OverallCruiseValue: 95
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 01 Sep 1998
Time: 23:26:36
Remote Name: 209.109.230.228
Remote User:
Comments
Got to the airport in 15 minutes. So early we got the 6:45 flight
instead of the 8:45. The flight steward gregarious, flight
smooth. Breakfast was reasonably
good. Surprised by hot tomato. Excellent weather.
Embarkation: pretty simple. Waited on 2 lines, one for HAL list
and to show passport. The other, basically, to board the ship and
be photographed.
Ship: a rather close critical inspection reveals a ship that is
very clean. Most dirt to be found was on the aft deck stairwells
and there were areas with
small minor spills that were not wiped yet. Very minimal wear to
most upholstery in the public areas, there is some evidence in
the form of stains of spills
from previous voyages which is inevitable.
Decor: I have the video of this ship so I was familiar with the
interior decor. The atrium was smaller than I expected but
overall I was very impressed. This
ship is opulent although not at all ostentatious or stuffy. It is
one of the most artistic environments I've been in. The
combinations of shapes, colors,
textures, shading, lighting, artwork, placement of art, patterns
of upholstery are truly exquisite and uniformly of a very high
order. I would say art is
showcased in this ship and much of it is classic paintings and
sculpturs but there is also a good deal of modern art. Make no
mistake about it this ship is
fancy and upscale. Lots of marble, etched glass, stained glass,
including the ceilings, leather seating, suede covered ceilings,
wood, quality crackle glass,
polished brass, leather covered railings and design elements work
well with their surroundings. The rooms transition very well with
no jarring change of
mood or themes (which some feel is not the case with the
Rotterdam VI). Even the roomy elevators are nicely designed and
contain leather covered
padded seats. Overall, public rooms are beautiful. There is not
an ugly or plain room on this ship. I particularly liked the
Piano Bar, Explorer's Lounge,
Ocean Bar, and the Crows Nest.
Ship operation: the ship is smooth, at least over calm seas, with
gentle long motions. There is noticeable vibration in some areas
of the ship, however. The
atrium's sculpture, Jacobs latter, for instance, shook while the
ship was in motion. Vibration was very noticeable in several
areas of the ship. It seemed
most severe in the Explorer's Lounge. Since this is only my
second cruise I'm not sure if the level of vibration is normal or
excessive. My feeling is that the
ship is due for wet dock in October and that the vibration was
excessive.
Activities: seem to be the standard ship activities. Shows
consisted of Broadway type of show tunes, Las Vegas revues,
ventriloquist, comedian, juggler.
There were some big band requests for couples to dance to, some
quizzes, bingo, casino which was closed in Canada and at port,
four art auctions,
lectures on cruise ships of the ages. I liked the ventriloquist
and the comedian. The shows were just OK, as I expected.
The ship’s major problem is that it “sleeps” much
too early and this may have much to do with the overall age of
the passengers. For whatever reason
Holland America attracts a majority of senior passengers.
I’m 39 and my wife is 32 and we found few people our age or
few people in the 30-45 age
group. There were also few people in the 45-55 age group. Most
people were over 55 and most of these were in their early 60s to
mid to upper 70s.
Quite a few I would guess were in their 80s. The Crow’s
Nest, the designated hot spot for late night, was always sparsely
populated. There is no reason
why younger people should not cruise on Holland America. These
are not party ships but they those seeking a refined atmosphere
and seeking late night
activities with dancing to party music were not a part of the
ship. The Veendam had plenty plans for these types of activities,
including a 50s night,
Karaoke and the like, but not enough people were involving
themselves for late night reveling.
Food and Service: Although I heard numerous complaints from
passengers about the food I found it to be excellent. Only one
night the lobster was dry.
Otherwise the food was tasty, well prepared, well seasoned, the
correct temperature, with good presentation. My wife and I and
the couple next to us
were very pleased with the food. The desserts were also very
tasty and the coffee very good. The lido food was also very good.
Our dining room servers
were all excellent and personable and provided fine service.
Stateroom: spacious, well appointed outside room on the A deck in
excellent condition. Our cabin steward, Dani, was superb. We kept
the room fairly
messy and he always did a good job keeping it ordered and clean.
Entertainment: this ship had a special entertainer and those who
are going to cruise HAL should look for this fellow. He is
pianist Perry Grant and
performs in the Piano Bar. He is a true gem who speaks in a
purposefully high brow manner poking fun in a kind way at high
society folks. He had
regulars seated at the bar with whom he would banter back and
forth. He had an excellent rapport with all in the bar making
sure to involve them. His
between song comments and antics are hilarious. One of the things
that he said frequently about one of the couples, Patricia and
Marvin, is that they met
him on the Maasdam, and were on the ship for four months.I never
thought a sing-along could be this much fun and I will say that
Perry’s Piano Bar was
the hot spot of the cruise. Some thought he made the cruise. I
found the Ocean Bar trio to be very good as they played for the
cocktail hour before
dinner that was heavily populated. I also found the Veendam
orchestra to be of a very high caliber and the Resario String
Quartet were also excellent.
Beauty and Fitness: the fitness room has a decent amount of
modern Cybex workout machines and dumbbells. My wife was not so
pleased with the
Beauty salon. She had her hair styled twice for the formal
dinners and both times found that although her stylist was
friendly, the style was staid and
old-fashioned.
Highlights: Day 3 was sailing up and down the Saguenay Fjord. At
one point the ship stops for whale watching. There were many
small vessels and
excursion boats also in the area also for whale watching.
Fortunately the weather was clear and sunny and plenty pods of
menke and beluga whales
surfaced rear the ship. Here is a tip. The best place to
photograph whales is from your Cabin if it is fairly low. Our
cabin was on the A deck, very close to
the water and I saw two beluga whales about 30 feet from the
ship. Unfortunately, my wife had our camera and took pictures
from the lower promenade
deck further away from the whales. So, check from your cabin, or
get an A deck outside cabin if you want the best photos of whales
(or seals).
Art auction: 4 days of auctions. Auctioneer sold only about 20%
of what he displayed. Great works, serigraphs and lithographs, of
notable artists such as
Erte, Peter Max, and Picot. It was put on by Park West and the
bidding prices were excellent. I think that most people on board
cruise ships do not plan
to buy art and those buying are not going to spend hundreds or
thousands of dollars to bid for or buy artwork. My wife ended up
buying three pieces of
art by Russian artist Krasnyanski because the prices were so
attractive. There wasn’t much action in bidding, most sales
occurred at the initial bidding
price. The auctioneer did have some fun with some pieces starting
the bids at $2 just to get some action. Most of these that
started at $2 sold at between
$40 and $60 at the conclusion of the bidding action.
From day 4 to the remainder of the cruise the Veendam sailed
fairly rough seas . The Veendam's digital display near the atrium
reported winds of 28-34
knots and rough seas of 8-14 ft. waves for some period of each
day (this sign was usually not up to date). In these conditions
the shipped rocked and
pitched a bit but was controlled. Rocking and pitching were felt
more in the upper decks and towards the front of the ship. There
were many reports on
CNN about the huge hurricane, Bonnie. The very personable
caption, Captain Jonathan Mercer, reassured us that he had no
intentions of sailing the
Veendam anywhere near the hurricane and that passenger's safety
was his primary concern and seemed absolutely sincere about this.
Ultimately Bonnie
caused the captain to cancel the Newport port of call as much of
our travel that night on the way to Newport would have had us
sailing through Bonnie, a
strong tropical depression at this point. Also Newport was an
anchor port and this also weighed in heavily on the
captain’s decision.
Weather: Sunny for most of the day in ports. Most days at port
started cloudy or rainy but clouds usually broke midday and the
remainder of these days
were sunny and pleasant. We were very lucky in this respect.
Unusual occurrence: The ship slowed to a halt and began drifting
in the Saint Lawrence River about 20 minutes after departing
Quebec City. The Captain
then made an announcement that one of the passengers apparently
enjoyed Quebec City a bit too much and missed the ship. We waited
as a police boat
brought the passenger to the ship and boarded her. This took
about 15 minutes. Lucky passenger.
Ship condition: very minor problems. An elevator malfunctioned
for a short time. One of the men’s toilets was out of order.
No problems whatsoever in my
stateroom. Overall I noticed and heard of no problems with
plumbing, no leaking, no rust areas, no creaking or strange
banging noises just normal ship
operation sounds. Most rooms were a comfortable temperature.
Carpeting was smooth and dirt spots were spotted early and
treated and cleaned
promptly. Painting, vacuuming, polishing, cleaning glass were all
done on a regular basis. One thing I did notice was that
Jacob’s ladder, the impressive
glass sculptor in the atrium, was dusty. Perhaps HAL’s
Veendam staff is waiting for wet dock to really shine it up. The
Veendam’s exterior looked almost
brand new as it was painted at every port.
Disembarkation: during the cruise the guests were given a form to
fill out about connecting flight information. Those with earlier
flights were given the
earliest disembarkation number and guests were different colored
tags to put on our luggage. Since we live in NYC we received a
pretty high number.
Disembarkation went smoothly while they collected our
custom’s forms and passenger ID cards. Customs had already
boarded in Halifax so we did not
have to wait on any lines to clear customs.
Ports: Montreal: My wife and I flew up to Montreal to spend 2
days before the day we planned to sail. The key to enjoying
Montreal is to explore areas
outside of the downtown area. Within the downtown area Sherbrooke
St. is a nice street to explore. There are plenty of art
galleries and museums on this
street and interesting, varied architecture. Also north of
Sherbrooke St. is Redpath, an area of beautiful homes on winding
streets near Parc Royal with
fine landscaping surrounding the houses. These are mostly stone
and they almost appear medieval. It's hilly so views are very
nice. Montreal seems to
have residential, near suburb sections within the Centre Ville
(center city) section of town and these are quite picturesque.
(Beware though, some of
these areas are very hilly and the hills are steep.) Montreal is
a reasonably clean city, however, there is quite a bit of
graffiti. Almost every block seems to
have a building with an area of graffiti. This is annoying as it
detracts from the attractiveness of some of the city's
architecture and the feel of the city. Two
tourist attractions are Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal) and Rue
(Street) St. Denis. Old Montreal is a very charming (though
touristy) area of town near the
old Port (not wherecruise ships dock). It's full of cobblestone
streets, old charming quaint buildings full of souvenir shops,
restaurants and clubs and the
like. St. Denis is a very popular street full of character
buildings, shops, clubs restaurants and other trendy outdoor
shops. The downtown area is
standard big city with moderate congestion, skyscrapers and a few
nice historical buildings. Montreal's metro indeed has rubber
wheels .This should
make for a quiet smooth train ride however the train's motors
make loud high pitched whirring sounds and the trains have bouncy
ride motions. They do
run very often however. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a
metro train even late at night (they stop running 1:00 AM).
Overall I find Montreal to be a low stress city. Traffic is
moderate, congestion is moderate even at the busiest times of the
day. The city is diverse and
although some of it looks rather ordinary there are many areas
that are wonderful. It has much to offer culturally and I like
cities that have a large
population of jazz aficionados as Montreal has. One certainly
needs more than two days to sample much of what Montreal has to
offer. Montrealers
speak both French and English, but French first although the
business people tend to speak English. Montreal’s street
signs are in French.
Quebec City: Visually Quebec City feels almost like a European
city in North America. Old Quebec is large with mostly 3 to 5
story, quaint, brightly colored
French styled buildings. These are mostly stores, souvenir shops,
restaurants and the like. The streets are mostly cobblestone.
Most of this area is hilly
offering excellent views and makes up most of the Lower Town. The
Chateau Frontenac hotel is probably the most famous building in
Quebec and is
visible from many areas of the city. It offers a boardwalk that
is well above Old Quebec and is beautiful to walk up. This city
is a waterfront on the Saint
Lawrence river.
The upper town has also many European styled buildings and
Grande-Allee Street is the Champs d’Elysee of Quebec with
many restaurants and sidewalk
cafes. Very charming. The modern area of Quebec has plenty of
well spaced tall buildings. Overall Quebec is a very low stress
city, rather small, not noisy,
very populated by tourists, sometimes congested with tourists,
very picturesque city. It is primarily a French speaking city
while a large number of
Quebec’s residents speak English, but secondarily, not as
well as they speak French, and not as well as Montrealers speak
English. The city has minimal
graffiti and is very clean. Nice place to spend time, even nicer
if one can speak French.
Sydney, Nova Scotia: HAL offers a choice of touring Ingolnish and
meeting the Veendam in Sydney or sailing to Sydney and exploring
Cape Breton. This,
for me, was not at all an interesting port. I did not take any
tours anywhere but I heard that the Cape Breton tour was not very
interesting. They could
have skipped this port, in my opinion.
Halifax, Nova Scotia: Halifax is clean, quite clean. I found the
people in this city to be the friendliest of all the cities
visited, many saying “Hi” when we
passed them by on the street. The city has a beautiful waterfront
with restaurants, souvenir shops, boat rides and tours. It’s
downtown area is not
congested and the buildings are attractive. The citadel area is a
big tourist attraction and is worth visiting. The city was
destroyed by a devastating fire in
1917 (a result of a collision between a ship and a munitions
ship) but seems to be well restored. Halifax, like Montreal, has
residential areas within the city
that are near suburbs. Overall, a pleasant city, although it may
not be the most diverse or interesting Canadian city visited.
Bar Harbor, Maine: Bar Harbor is a very attractive port and I
found the people here to be very friendly. It is easy to walk
around the city and sample its
many shops and tourist attractions, its shore path, visit the
many inns and bed and breakfast inns. My wife and I stopped into
one of the inns and had a
very pleasant chat with its owners. They were gracious and
generous and gave us a lot of information about Bar Harbor, what
to see and do. A tour is a
good idea (although we did no tours) especially to Cadillac
Mountain for beautiful views of landscapes.
Boston, Massachusetts: I like to visit areas of minimal to
moderate stress. I live in New York City and my wife and I were
looking for cities to visit that are
relatively low stress, and reasonably picturesque. We do not find
New York City to be either of these. So when we arrived at
Boston’s downtown section
what we felt was a familiar feeling that was unwelcome. It was
congested, people moved quicker and the stress level, although
not as high as New York
City, was much higher than any of the other cities visited. We
took a trolley ride through Boston. We stopped off and went to
Harvard, and walked around
the Back Bay section and the Beacon Hill section of Boston. My
wife and I both agreed that we did not care for the architecture
(or maybe it was the lack
of variety with the architecture in these areas). It was
primarily red brick, very monotonous and walking down five blocks
on Beacon Street felt like one
long block because the architecture and color and size of the
buildings did not change. Even the sidewalks were red brick.
There was some brown and
white buildings to break up the monotony somewhat but not really.
So visually it was unappealing to us, the noise level and stress
level seemed rather
high. Quincy Market was congested and not terribly interesting
although activity is high. Boston may be a nice city in terms of
history and culture, and to
some degree its architecture in some areas is nice, but it was
not to our liking at all.
Newport, Rhode Island: skipped due to the effects of
hurricane/tropical storm Bonnie.
New York City: not a port of call but a destination point. Six
ships came in on Sunday morning. The temperature was in the upper
80s. Getting a cab was
mayhem and frustrating and some people’s tempers were short.
New York City is diverse with plenty of culture and lots to do
for those staying for a visit.
Can be expensive. Be prepared and know what areas of the city to
avoid, especially late hours. Plenty of museums and some
historical points but be
prepared to wait on lines and deal with crowds and know that it
is a highly charged, high stress environment that seems even more
intense in the summer
heat. It is not the jazz mecca it used to be either. Jazz clubs
are expensive and often full of tourists although many great jazz
musicians live in the NYC
area and play in the clubs. The best non tourists, most
picturesque and fairly safe spots are some of the Dutch style
houses between West End Avenue
and Riverside between 70th St. and around 85th St., Riverside Dr.
from around 72nd St up to 122nd (take the 5 bus for a quick
tour), and the streets in
the upper 70s on the West side between Columbus and Amsterdam
Avenues. Greenwich Village is very touristy and full of people
within the 18-22 years
old range. Central Park is magnificent. Watch out for
rollerbladers!!!
I’m home, I see my cat. I write my cruise review.
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