Review of the Volendam

Volendam

written by Krusty posted on 26/09/12

This was our 2nd cruise so we do not have a great deal to compare with.. The previous boat was the Diamond Princess, quite a bit bigger.

Our Cabin was some sort of mini suite, clean enough but looking very much in need of an update. All public areas looked as if they had been recently updated and were excellent.

Food and entertainment were all excellent, the evening shows were all of a very high standard ( except for one ) and the trivia quizzes were good fun.. We stayed away from bingo sessions as they were grossly overpriced and the casino was of no interest to me..

90% of all staff we came into contact with were friendly and helpful. The exception to this was one particular bar manager and the manager of the lido cafe... both were arrogant and thought they were far superior to mere customers... particularly the lido cafeteria manager.... One night the food I chose was very poorly cooked. I politely mentioned this to the manager and his comment was " Yes I noticed it was rubbish....but once we cook it we have to put it out.... there?s plenty more nice stuff there".. !! Not a single word of apology. If this guy were running his own business he would soon go broke. I complained about his attitude and was compensated with 4 chocolates ...

Our other little disagreement was with the crows nest bar manager, during the Holland America version of Happy Hour.. The happy hour wording on the menu said

?Buy one drink...get a second drink half price? So I thought I would buy a drink for my wife and I who are very light drinkers ... I ordered a vodka for myself and a cocktail for my wife. The barman brought us two of each . When we pointed out the specific wording of the happy hour offer we were told that it had to be two drinks for the same person and of the same type.. I explained that we could not drink two glasses each and the bar manager got very stroppy about it and was unwilling to rectify the situation.

Sorry if I am sounding like a miserable old bugger ? Just telling it as it was..

I am not a great lover of the auto tip system, So I wanted to make an adjustment to mine. Once again the staff did their best to put obstacles in our way. And we had to wait for a specific day before any adjustment could be made..

Lets find a few positives... Library was excellent, restaurants and food excellent, pool was good, even though we didn?t have the weather for it really. We did not take any of the optional excursions, but from what I could see, everything seemed to be very well organised.

One of my biggest gripes about Holland America was the relentless hard selling everywhere. It seems pretty obvious that they either own or have large shares in the jewellery stores that they constantly try to persuade you to visit and which seem to be right under your nose every time you step off the ship. Who in their right mind is going to buy expensive jewellery from a store you are never likely to be able to return to? Every day there would be flyers for these stores left in our cabin... I realise they company is in business to make money but H.A. really go over the top with the selling.

Alaska itself was fairly interesting, but not somewhere I would bother with again. The same goes for Holland America, it was an ok company but I would not use them again, Our Princess cruise was far more relaxed and laid back.