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Holland America Line

MS Westerdam

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Mark Massop
# previous cruises: 2
Date of Trip: January 23, 1999
Itinerary: Caribbean - Eastern

We encountered a problem as soon as we boarded. We had booked two inside cabins for a romantic getaway, however, we we dismayed that the beds in the inside cabins do not convert to doubles. We immediately contacted the front office and were told to contact the guest relations manager the following day. When we met with her, we were told that there were no other cabins available. That same day we spoke with another couple who were unhappy with their cabin and were given a choice of three others. Finally, midway through the cruise, we were told that two cabins had become available. When we moved to the "new cabin" it was very obvious that the rooms had never been occupied during our cruise as the welcome aboard information packet was laying on the desk. In addition, we had to pay an additional $150 for the "upgrade". When we returned home, we immediately contacted Holland America with our concerns. It has been approximately two months since that contact and we have not heard from the company.

The only item that we enjoyed aboard the MS Westerndam was the casino and the staff. We found that the staff in the casino we very friendly and helpful and took their time to learn our names.

We ate dinner every evening in the main dining room. We were looking forward to the experience after reading the Holland America brochure. Imagine our disappointment when we found that the food had almost no flavor and that the service was terrible. Water and ice tea glasses sat empty for better than twenty minutes at a time (at one point, we asked the waiter to leave the water pitcher so we could serve ourselves). The wait between courses was 15 to 30 minutes.

In addition to what I previously stated, the new cabin we were moved to was very spacious, however, the two single beds that were put together to make a double were offset about 3/4" which was very uncomfortable if you happened to roll over on the raised center.

We didn't see many of the shows as we spent a fair amount of time in the casino.

Typical Caribbean tours. Beaches and historic ruins.

Average age was in the 50's and most of the people we met were nice.