Westerdam Reviews

The ship was older, but still very well appointed. The service overall was of an excellent standard. We chose the "Have It All' package, which gave us onboard credit and saved paying for beverages individually; meaning we had no account to pay at the end of the cruise. We were in an SY Suite, which was more of an extended balcony cabin, but a good size and perfectly adequate for all our needs. The itinerary and excursions were well planned and organised. Entertainment on board was of a very good standard. The highlights were the classical duo, the 'regional soloist' - guitarist and singer and the crew shows which were organised over the Christmas holiday period. The food was superb. The speciality restaurants were a la cart standard, but the main dining room was also excellent as were the choices in the 'Lido Market' buffet - although it could get busy and crowded at times.

Interesting itinerary Staff are very helpful and polite Ship clean, needs improvement so in for dry doc now Few extra choices in breakfast will be a good idea

Ports of call were good

Food brilliant ,crew fantastic. Inability to land us on Koh Samui ridiculous. Ship full of leaks and needs a refit. Looking dated and tired. Would have given 5 stars but for the above.

We had a great time with a good itinerary. We enjoyed most of the trips. Although organisation for disembarking at various ports was often slow & disorganised. It’s a shame most of the stops were commercial ports, so you could not easily access the town on your own. The food was of a high standard, particularly the sit down evening meals. Having to be served at the so called buffet, meant a lot of queuing in the Lido. Also this often led to waste, as servings were large, even when small were requested. Only the Crows Nest served coffee, needed some other outlets (other than eating areas). Parts of the boat were very cold, especially at beginning of cruise. The crew were very friendly & did a good job. The ship’s own dance group were exceptional, with very professional singing, dancing & choreography. ‘

Overall, a very pleasant experience. All depends on demographics of passengers. Did two cruises , completely different experience on each cruise. One very quiet, next one relatively lively . Multiple nationalities on both as it was a trip mainly to JAPAN. . All crew could not do enough to help, never seen so much cleaning on a ship. Dancers and singers excellent, but individual acts in the theatre left something to be desired, and certainly not a party ship. On the CRUISES we did, certainly an older age group. But then that includes us. 😂 Ships tours left a bit to be desired. Would we use HOLLAND AMERICA again and would we go on the same ship again? Pretty sure we would. .

We booked a partially obstructed oceanview stateroom on Deck 4, as all the balcony cabins were fully booked. As can be seen from the photos, this was not a partial obstruction. In addition to this, crew were often working and carrying out maintenance outside our cabin, with no prior notice. Therefore, our privacy was interrupted on several occasions on a morning. In the dining areas, there was little or no routine wiping of tables after plates, cutlery etc had been cleared. We had to ask that this be done. My husband developed a chest infection 5 days after embarkation, in fact most of the passengers seemed to have some form of cough or cold. At times, in communal areas, it was like being on a respiratory ward! We witnessed passengers, on occasion, using the cloth napkins as handkerchiefs which together with the lack of table cleaning was probably the cause of my husband's infection (which lasted over 2 weeks). I mentioned this to a senior officer in the buffet restaurant, as although I appreciate Holland America cannot be responsible for passengers bad habits, perhaps notices could be placed asking for other passengers to be considered when using napkins other than for the use intended. This was completely refuted by him and he insisted that napkins were washed at high temperatures which would kill any bacteria and that waiting staff always cleaned and sanitised tables after clearing. Lectures were poor and infrequent, in fact one of them was a repeat from a cruise we did earlier in the year! Musical evening entertainment was amateurish and repetitive. We enjoyed the destinations and the crew were extremely friendly but the lack of hygiene and poor entertainment did impact on our overall experience.

A first class experience on board the Holland America westerdam. The food was exceptional, catered for all cultures. Even to the dessert. Proper size portions, not your usual finger size portions, with loads of choice, from cold to hot desserts. Even my favourite, crispy cone with several choice of proper ice-cream not your usual whipped ice-cream that tastes of nothing. The ship was kept exceptionally clean. The staff was always friendly and helpful and available at all times. We was kept up to date everyday by written information left in our cabin of all activities on the ship and also any tours available when we was docked. Our cabin with a balcony was perfect. Entertainment was excellent. My hubby doesn't normally like live entertainment but he enjoyed it that much you could not keep him away. It was 100% first class entertainment. The navigation app for the ship is a must, I found this very helpful keeping us informed daily of our bookings. And other activities. I found that it was very helpful. I would highly recommend using this app. We can only give our full praise for this ship, 100%. We would definitely book another cruise with this ship. Without a doubt 💯 👌

The Westerdam was a perfect ship to take us around Japan. Its size meant we could get to some great ports. On board ship, everything was kept very clean, our stateroom cleaned twice a day. The food was good and the friendliness and helpfulness of the crew was outstanding.

Crew and ship and food and entertainment were beyond exceptional