My 1st impressions of our Holland America cruise to Montreal Canada were not the greatest. To begin with, a lot of paperwork was required prior to the cruise and obviously through no fault of anyone Covid was a large factor. We received frequent emails which basically stated we had to download their app to keep up with whatever was going on and in order to conduct any inquiries or business with Holland America. The problem was from day one we had difficulty with the app as it did not always work. The app never acknowledged our reservation until 48 hours prior to embarkation and the staff advised us when we got on the boat their computer system frequently did not work. One example when we entered the boat staff tried to look us up and scan us in and the staff member stated the computer is not working again I have to manually input everything taking us time. In general there were multiple times we were requested to provide the same exact information over and over and it became tiresome. At embarkation we were required to show passports and vaccination cards at least 3 separate times despite being “scanned” in. When we went to our rooms our keys immediately did not work we had to go to guest services and get new keys. When we got in the room there were a few maintenance issues chief of which was some of the bathroom equipment had essentially fallen off and had not been mounted correctly. So before the ship ever left port we had already had multiple frustrating times.
We were on the Zaandam which is one of their older ships. Overall it was adequate and comfortable. We were in what they call a Vista “mini” suite which in truth was a basic cruise ship room. The major difference was the outside balcony which was one of the largest we have ever seen. The only problem was we almost never stay outside on the balcony that long so the increase in space was not that much. The room was well stocked and our steward was always helpful and willing to meet our requests and other than initially being placed on top of the loudest nightclub on the ship with the loudest drummer we slept well. And that is why I will never sail with Holland America again because Guest services was worthless and lied to us. It turned out our beds were directly above the drummer who was in an enclosed plexiglass cage which dampened the sound in the nightclub but directed the sound directly upward under our beds. The ship was not full and we found out there were 600 open rooms, yet Guest Services told us there were no available rooms to move us too and they would give me ear plugs. We clearly benefited from the services of a travel agent on this trip as we complained to them and they had direct communication with Holland America corporate offices who sent an order to the ship to move us and when they did it was an identical room on the other side of the ship with no noise. They knew all along they could move us but were too lazy to do so and lied to us. We heard from others that Guest Services(the old Purser desk) were not helpful with them. So in general Guest Services was one of the worst we have seen and will prevent us from sailing with Holland America again.
One reason to take the cruise was the availability of specialty restaurants and we were booked at all of them with the exception of two nights where we dined in the main dining room. Our 1st dinner was the Pinnacle Grill Steakhouse and again 1st day problems persisted as the 1st item I ordered off of the menu I was told sir we're sorry we don't have that tonight we are already out. Overall the food at the specialty restaurants was very good and worth the cost and time and effort. I must mention however that the two dinners we had in the main dining room were also very good and as we reviewed the menus every day we noticed that the main dining room would always have 2 or 3 dishes from the specialty restaurants and again the service and food was very good. I actually wished I had done dinner more in the main dining room.
One of the worst experiences with dining was dessert. We only had one acceptable dessert and that was a chocolate souffle at the Pinnacle Steakhouse which was perfectly prepared but every other place we had dessert they were awful, under cooked, sometimes raw, etc. It appeared they do not have a pastry chef to oversea this and deliver a quality product.
Our ports of call were fine though the cities and areas close to the ship did not offer much. The best port was Quebec City and the tour there was good and I recommend including a day or two next time to better explore Quebec City. We had planned to stay in Montreal for a few days after the cruise so it was not an issue there. I also should mention one reason to take this cruise is to see the fall colors. Oops, climate change has changed that. There was no color change and it looks like it will be November before that happens so best to check the past years history when the leaves changed prior to booking.
Overall we have had better cruises. We learned a lot from this one and will do a better job in the future of researching cruises. I will say that in all of our years of cruising problems with Guest Services has always been the area that has failed and resulting in our not booking that cruise line in the future. Why companies do not put their best people in those positions with a skill set of solving problems and being people friendly is beyond me. To me it is the most important job on a ship and the one that will encourage future bookings.
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