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Cruise Line: Holland America
Ship: Statendam
Date of Cruise: January 7, 2002 - January 17, 2002
Mexican Riviera on the Statendam
By: Bill & Lu Schwartz
schwartz49@accessus.net
MEXICAN RIVIERA
My wife and I decided that January and February are ideal months to get out of
the Midwest weather. Since we were visiting kids in California in January,
we decided to take a Mexican Riviera cruise and try a new cruise line, Holland
America. The Statendam was leaving from San Diego on January 7, 2002, and
returning to San Diego on January 17. As long as we were trying out new
things, we decided to book a guaranteed inside and see what happened. This
was our sixth cruise. The others have been on Royal Caribbean and
Princess. We have cruised the Caribbean, been to Alaska and sailed through
the Panama Canal. We booked our own airline reservations.
In San Diego the cruise terminal is in close proximity to the airport making
transfer very easy. No cabin had been assigned when our cruise documents
arrived so we eagerly anticipated our cabin assignment. Before checking
our baggage at the ship, we learned that we were assigned Cabin 303, a six
category upgrade from inside to outside albeit with an obstructed view cabin.
In fairness to Holland America, we arrived at the beginning of embarkation which
was part of the reason for the long lines waiting to check in. However,
the embarkation process for Holland America was not nearly as smooth, organized
or efficient as either Princess or Royal Caribbean. First there was the
line to check-in. This was to check paper work and identification.
They do not deal with the opening of onboard accounts at the check-in.
Then you have to wait to be processed through security. Then there was a
small wait for photographs to be taken. Then you have to wait to have
someone take you to your cabin. It seems to me that are too many steps
with all too much waiting.
Apparently, it was the cabin steward’s responsibility to collect luggage from
some location and take it to the passengers’ cabins. The plan does not
work very well. The cabin steward was attempting to meet the passengers
and to handle their immediate requests while attempting to locate luggage and
distribute it to the cabins. As you can imagine this was a lengthy
process. Much longer than it takes on other cruise lines.
The ship and our room
The ship was quite nice. The Rotterdam dining room is at the rear of the
ship. It is on two levels with an open middle area having two curving
staircases linking the floors. It is very nice! There are plenty of
quiet hide away places for relaxing, reading or conversing throughout the ship.
The Van Gogh show lounge is lovely! It has a balcony and is designed for
performances. The Lido dining room and the main pool are on the same
level. The arrangement is good. The Statendam has a retractable roof
over the pool which was particularly useful on this cruise as the temperature on
the northern portion of the cruise was a bit cool for swimming outside but
perfect with the roof closed. Many folks rave about the Crow’s Nest
lounge. It is located at the uppermost reaches of the ship with a
panoramic view. The view was great but the furnishings just do not go with
the rest of the ship. Service was terrible. This was not one of my
favorite areas.
To the credit of Holland America, the lovely art was subtly highlighted
throughout the ship. Princess has art that is hidden by the second rate
auction art on easels and leaned against it. There is a small amount of
art auction merchandise displayed on the Statendam but it does not overwhelm the
resident art.
Our room was located on the Lower Promenade deck, Cabin 303. The room had
a window which looked out on the main outside deck. The view beyond was
fully obstructed by support beams for the upper levels. Another problem
with 303 is that it is located in proximity to forward areas where storage and
equipment is located. Consequently, there was quite a bit of residual
noise and there was no sleeping when anchors where dropped or holding lines
where drawn up.
The room has the standard bedding arrangement (modified queen when put together
or twin beds). It also has a small couch with a table and a desk with
chair. As advertised, Holland America has the largest (but by no means
large) standard rooms in the industry. The suitcases fit under the bed and
there was ample closet and drawer space for clothing. Each room has a
television with limited programming. There was a safe in the closet.
There was no refrigerator. The bathroom has a small bathtub/shower
combination. The commode is poorly located at an angle toward the tub
making it uncomfortable for a large person. A hair dryer is located in the
bathroom that probably would not do the job for a person with lots of hair.
There are loads of shelves in the bathroom.
The room was clean but well worn. It fact, it was so worn that it bordered
on shabby. The track holding the shower curtain had been damaged and it
allowed one or two curtain holders to repeatedly fall out. A leak
developed behind a wall in the bathroom and two of the wall tiles fell off and
were not repaired. One of the plastic trays in the shelf unit in the
bathroom was missing. There was a curtain which screens the sleeping area
from the rest of the cabin. The ends of the curtains could no longer be
hooked and were hanging loose. There are two wing curtains which partially
come out into the room for decorative purposes. The ends no longer could
be hooked and they were hanging. The bed skirt had been torn loose from
one side of the bed and was hanging ready to trip the unwary. We
repeatedly tucked it under the mattress (as did the cabin steward) but it kept
coming out. Not exactly what you would expect from the Holland America
line.
There is a laundry room on each floor and they are not identical. Some are
larger than others. They are really nice. They are clean and user
friendly. Two dollars gets you a load of wash, the use of a dryer and the
laundry detergent. There is an ironing board and an iron. There
facilities were a whole lot better than those on the Princess!
A final word on the overall condition of the ship. Any one of the problems
that I observed could be written off to wear and tear. My concern is the
number of these problems. There was a window that was broken in an
exterior door on the Lower Promenade deck. It was broken when we boarded
the ship and it remained broken throughout the cruise. My question is when
will it be fixed? There certainly was more than enough opportunity to fix
it during the 10 days we were on board. Two of our dinner companions, Marv
and Edy were sitting on deck chairs on the Lower Promenade deck when black oily
liquid came down from above covering them and their belongings. No one
came to their assistance and they had to go to the front desk to get any
assistance. The staff offered to clean their clothing but what about the
ruined book and other belongings? In one port I observed the exterior of
the ship being maintained. It was obvious to anyone looking that the
exterior of the ship badly needed it. This is totally unlike Princess
which has the crew working on the exterior at every port. There seemed to
be a lack of pride or investment by the crew in keeping the ship in the best
condition possible. Rather when they were performing maintenance it was in
a half-hearted manner.
Collateral facilities
The ship has a regular movie theatre with theatre type seating. Free
popcorn is offered for the movies and there was a pretty good variety of movies
available. Drinks will cost you. Located across from the theatre is
the Java Café where you can get a free coffee, expresso, or cappucino.
The only problem with the Java Café is that the person operating the café also
must pop the popcorn, bag the popcorn, serve the popcorn, and sell the drinks in
addition to making the coffee. Furthermore, it is likely that you are
going to have to wait behind one to three staff members of the ship waiting to
order coffee.
The casino is small but adequate. In is interesting that you can have
chits placed on your shipboard account for chips each day without a surcharge as
is taken by other cruise lines. Blackjack, craps, roulette, Caribbean stud
and slots are available.
There is a nice variety of shops with some good prices.
Food
The Rotterdam dining room is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was
of the impression that the staff was not thrilled that anyone showed up for
breakfast or lunch. The breakfast menu can best be described as ordinary.
It never changed during the ten days of our cruise. The lunch menu was
only marginally better than the breakfast menu. I would describe it as
uninspired. The service was only slightly better than non-existent.
It did not take me long to decide that cold, heavy pancakes where not my idea of
an attractive breakfast. Even though my wife likes to be waited on when at
a restaurant, we had the majority of our lunches and breakfasts in the Lido
dining area. There was a better variety of food, it was warmer, and, since
you serve yourself, the service was much better. As compared to the
Horizon Court on Princess, I found the Lido much better. However, the
hours of the Lido where quite limited unlike the hours of the Horizon Court.
Dinner in the Rotterdam, as far as the food is concerned, was quite good except
for two courses which were consistently disappointing: the salads and the
desserts. I wasn’t very fond of the beef courses but that may be my
taste. Each night the supervisor prepared a dessert. And each night
he would begin the preparation and then leave it cook. As you might
imagine, such inattention does not make for haute cuisine. Let me say that
the ice cream was very good.
Somewhere in the hierarchy of Holland America (or the Carnival Corporation)
there is a budding accountant who thought that a good way of cutting costs was
to reduce the dining room staff. This brilliant move probably looked good
on the books but the person who developed the policy never had to sit through 10
nights of excruciatingly slow dinners! Now I ask you, isn’t eating
dinner one of the events that makes cruising special? Why would you tamper
with one of the foundations for your business? Well, they have done it!
One table steward for way too many tables. There are assistant table
stewards but I’ll be damned if I could figure out what they were doing.
We saw ours maybe 5 times during the entire cruise that is not 5 nights but 5
times. During our 10 day cruise our table was unable to make a
single after dinner show on time. The dinner always took more than two hours and
often times it took two and half hours because of the limited number of table
stewards and assistant table stewards. Our table steward had virtually no help.
The help which the supervisor offered was just slightly more than nothing. One
couple sitting at our table has been on 13 HAL cruises and they were shocked by
the service.
Speaking of table companions, we could not have done better. There were
two other couples at our table and they were wonderful. If it were not for
them, I am afraid that the dinner debacle might have soured our entire cruise.
It did not and we have Bernie and Ruth and Marv and Edy to thank for that!
An alternative to the Rotterdam dining room is the Lido. An observation or
two is in order concerning the Lido. It was a rare occasion to observe any
steward carrying a pitcher to refill coffee or iced tea in the Lido area.
This was not for a lack of stewards as they were regularly huddled in groups of
two and three chattering away. During these chats they were totally
oblivious to the needs of the passengers and I never once saw them reprimanded
by a superior. I watched one elderly woman spill her drink on the table
and become very upset as she tried to contain the liquid. The three
stewards close to her stopped talking to watch the event. Not one offered
to help while the surrounding passengers took their napkins and assisted her.
The clustering of stewards was not an isolated incident. They frequently
left tables unbussed. Passengers had to mill around looking for a clean, open
table. It was painful to watch senior citizens trying to walk with a tray
on a moving ship looking for an open table while the stewards watched.
This simply does not happen on other lines. The stewards would assist
those having difficulty but I never saw them help anyone on the Statendam.
The Lido is apparently the dining room for the staff of the ship. One of
the reasons the passengers mill around for tables at lunch is that many of the
tables are occupied by the staff. It is one thing to wait in line with the
rest of the passengers. It is quite another thing to wait in line behind
several staff members.
There are some really good things in the Lido. For breakfast they have freshly
squeezed orange juice (yes, you can watch them squeeze the oranges) and an
omelet station. There is a continental breakfast line if you are not
looking for something hot. At lunch there is a sandwich station, a dessert
station, and an ice cream station. The pizza in the Lido was really quite
good. Just outside of the Lido there is a hamburger, hotdog, sausage grill
and a taco/nacho station.
There is no alternative dining room on the Statendam.
Service
Ar Nes, our cabin steward was great. He was attentive and always ready to
be of assistance. I mention the problems with the room but they seemed to
be coming from higher up rather than from a lack of attention by Ar Nes.
Frequently overlooked are the front desk personnel. They were as good as
any I have encountered. They were always pleasant, efficient, and
thorough. Rarely was there ever a line at the front desk.
We felt sorry for our table steward Dibia. Our poor dining experience had
little to do with him and a lot to do with terrible corporate decisions.
He worked very hard but was unable to keep up with the demands placed on him.
I have never seen a single person responsible for tables on any of my five
previous cruises.
Excursions
Excursions seem to be an after thought on the Statendam. You could book
excursions by dropping a form in a box. However, if you wanted assistance
then you had to be present for the limited time the excursion window was open.
We only booked one excursion and dropped the form in the box. I did want
to speak with the excursion staff about one or two of the ports but the window
was never open when I thought of a question. As an alternative to the
excursion desk, passengers can often get their questions answered by the
shopping and excursions guide. Unfortunately, this service seems to have
been contracted out by Holland America. The shopping and excursions guide
was totally worthless for anything other than information about the recommended
stores. In fact, she knew nothing about the sites in the area other than
what was included on her preprinted form.
Many cruisers talk about booking excursions independently. If you are
considering a tour of a town or a tourist site that carries no risk and can be
easily reached by taxi, you may want to consider touring independently.
Alternatively, if the tour is unusual or runs the risk of delay or physical
injury, you should consider booking with the cruise line. If something
goes wrong, and you are on a cruise line excursion, the cruise line is
responsible for working it out. If you are on an independent tour and
something goes wrong you are on your own. However, when the risk is
minimal or non-existent, the cruise line excursion will cost you more; it will
be less personal; and, the delays will be exasperating. We learned that
when the situation is right we can see more of what we want to see in less time
with a lot less aggravation at a much better price by touring independently.
I will go through our excursions as I cover each port.
Entertainment
Rusty Martin was the Cruise Director. His jokes were either extremely lame
or quite dated. The activities were not well advertised and I would rank
him at the bottom of the Cruise Directors I have experienced.
I do not think the entertainment on Holland America changes nearly as frequently
as on other lines. Our table companions told us how many times the various
programs had been presented on their 13 cruises. Unfortunately, the service at
dinner was so bad that we did not make a single after dinner show on time.
From what we saw the entertainment appeared to be okay. Some nights were
better than others but that is to be expected.
Cabo San Lucas
Prior to the cruise, we booked a fishing trip with George and Mary Landrum of
Fly Hooker Sportfishing (www.flyhooker.com).
They were great. We were met at the end of the tender pier. The boat
was ready to go. We had arranged for lunch and bait to be on board to
maximize our fishing time. The boat crew was knowledgeable and helpful.
Best of all, they located dorado and we landed 8 ranging from thirty to forty
pounds. At the end of the trip, George and Mary were there to help us back
on the tender. They run a good business and I would recommend them.
Cabo San Lucas is a place I had heard much about but I was not that impressed
with the place. From what I saw, if you have seen the picture of the rocks
at Cabo you have seen Cabo.
Mazatlan
We were met by friends in Mazatlan who gave us a private tour of the city.
The terminal is located in a commercial port and, consequently, is not very
attractive. There is an extensive mercado which we found to be very
interesting especially with a person to explain and communicate for us. We
are forever indebted to Isaac and Bibi for showing us their home.
Acapulco
We had been to Acapulco previously and knew that we could tour on our own.
You should always determine the rate up front and be sure you do not let them
side track you for special deals at merchants that are family or friends.
We caught a cab in downtown traffic and it was not a location to negotiate
rates. We let him take us to some shops which we actually enjoyed.
However, at the end of the “tour” he wanted $40.00 which was at least double
what he should have been paid for the ride. After arguing for a short
time, I paid and took it as a lesson to follow my own advice. Out of 5
cabs we used, he was the only one to rip us off.
We did some shopping. Jewelry bargains can be found in Acapulco. You have
to bargain hard for them. You have to be able to walk away. But if
you can bargain as hard as the merchants, there are some great deals available.
We arranged the Shotover Boat Adventure on our own. Even at our age we
enjoyed the daredevil antics with the jet propelled boat. The Shotover
Boat Adventure is located quite a way out of town. It was an interesting
ride and would have been more pleasant had the company used a respectable
vehicle to get us from town to the river and back. They used a vehicle
which had been used as the Popemobile when the Pope visited Mexico City. I
swear it could not go over 30 mph! The tour guide who informed me of the
origins of the vehicle said that the owners never realized that the Popemobile
was specially geared for going very, very slow as there is no need for the Pope
to speed along. The vehicle lost speed going up hill (and there were a lot
of hills) to the point that it was doing well under 5 mph as it approached the
crest of the hill! I told the tour guide that the owners seriously needed
to replace the vehicle. Do not let the Popemobile dissuade you from
experiencing this adventure. Everyone who went on it, enjoyed it.
You do get wet so dress accordingly.
We got back to Acapulco in time for the first of the three nightly exhibitions
by the cliff divers. We viewed the afternoon performance on our last
visit. I thought the night exhibition might involve torches but it does
not. The area is completely illuminated and I do not think the night
exhibition was nearly as good as the afternoon exhibition. My speculation
is that the afternoon exhibition is for the cruise ship passengers and they
really put on a show for the tips from the vacationers. The night show was
primarily attended by Mexican citizens and I suspect the tips are not as
munificent.
Acapulco is very nice and it is an interesting city. It is a big city with
big city amenities including big time night life. It has a beautiful view;
gorgeous resorts; plenty of activities; and, is tourist friendly.
Zihuatanejo
The only bad weather we had occurred during our visit to Zihuatanejo. The
skies opened and it poured. Zihuatanejo is located six miles down the
coast from Ixtapa. It is a tender port. Whether is was the rain or
the fact that it was Sunday or a combination of both, there was not much
activity. As it rained the police closed the streets to traffic because
there was 6 to 8 inches of rain overflowing them. Nevertheless, my wife
and I together with Edy and Marv braved the elements and had a really good time
walking around the market area. Marv decided there was really only one
supplier since every stall had the same variety of the various items.
Puerto Vallarta
It appears that the majority of the shore excursions in Puerto Vallarta are
contracted by Holland America through Vallarta-Adventures. These
excursions can all be booked directly with Vallarta-Adventures without paying
the toke for Holland-America’s excursion office. However, we wanted to
do the San Sebastian flight seeing adventure and we followed our own rule (small
plane flying into mountain country - possibility of problems and the
consequences of those problems was high enough to warrant booking through the
excursion office). There were 13 on the tour but only four from the
Statendam. What a great tour! We flew out of Puerto for 25 minutes
into the Sierra Madre mountains. The plane landed on a gravel landing
strip outside of San Sebastian. A truck with benches in the back took us a
short distance to the La Quinta coffee plantation where we had a tour of a
cottage operation of coffee production. The coffee beans are grown
organically, then roasted on the premises. It has only been in the last
couple of years that they have acquired an automatic roaster. Prior to
that the beans were roasted over a fire pit and hand turned during the roasting
process. They are then placed in plastic bags and sealed over a burning
candle. Amazing! The coffee was quite good.
From La Quinta we walked over cobblestone streets into town. Our guide was
outstanding and very informative not only with respect to the history of the
town but its customs as well. San Sebastian has been in existence since
the 1600s and has served as a mining community. Now most of the working
age adults work outside of town returning either in the evening or on weekends.
The church is magnificent. We ate a native lunch at the hacienda. It
was very good. After lunch we toured the buildings surrounding the square
and loaded back up on the vehicle for our return to the landing strip. It
was truly a super tour.
Two days at sea and we arrived in San Diego. On the eighth night of our
cruise we were awakened by raucous activity somewhere in proximity to our cabin.
If you have ever been awakened in a hotel or motel by loud guests that is
exactly what was happening to the sound of music. Investigation by me
determined that the crew was having a party which was not clandestine since
every staff and crew member I spoke to knew about it. The problem was that
the party occurred in the passenger area! Specifically, the fire doors to
the passenger hallway in the forward lower promenade deck were closed to screen
the activities and noise of the party. The party wound up on the forward
Lower Promenade deck and the forward Promenade deck both inside and outside.
The crew ran up and down the passenger hallways and in the forward areas between
decks talking, singing, and playing music. It was great fun except for the
fact that passengers were not invited and it occurred at 2:00 a.m.! It
took two phones calls to security through the main desk to get things quieted
down. I realize that hotels and motels are only somewhat accountable for
their guests but these were not guests, these were staff and crew. It is
even more aggravating to know that the officers of the ship were aware that the
party was planned and permitted it to happen!
The final assault to my sensibilities occurred on the final day at sea. A
poor woman passenger suffered a heart attack and had to be transported off the
ship. This was done by United States Coast Guard air evacuation using a
helicopter and a litter which was lifted from the deck of the ship. Not
wanting to waste the opportunity to make another dollar, the photographers from
the ship were standing by to memorialize this woman's tragedy. That
evening, and for the rest of the cruise, any passenger wanting photographs of
this unfortunate woman being lifted off the deck of the ship by helicopter could
purchase copies in the photo gallery with the charges added to their ship board
account!
Debarkation was delayed an hour by one individual who refused to respond to
countless pages to report to immigration. Once that problem was resolved
debarkation seemed to move relatively smoothly.
Conclusion
The experience on one ship does not necessarily reflect the quality of the
entire cruise line. However, with recent problems on the Rotterdam, the
myriad of problems being experienced on the Noordam and my experience on the
Statendam, the question has to be asked, what is going on with Holland America?
Is the influence of corporate Carnival behind these problems? I will not
say that I would never sail Holland America again. I will say that after
having read and heard so much about the elegance, the service and the stature of
Holland America that I was shocked by what I encountered. When you spend
as much money as you do on a cruise and take hard earned vacation time you
expect the experience to be something very special. Holland America has
forgotten this and it was a major disappointment.
We would be happy to answer any questions. Just drop us an E-mail.
Bill & Lu Schwartz
schwartz49@accessus.net
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