Brian Lashchuk

Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Number of Cruises: 15
Cruise Line: Holland America
Ship: Statendam
Sailing Date: October 3rd, 2002
Itinerary: 3 day Coastal Vancouver to San Diego

I went on the Statendam 10-3-02 from Vancouver to San Diego. This is my 15th cruise and 2nd with Holland America. Not all old people go on Holland America. I'm 23 yeas old and I went on it and enjoyed my self. This was the most interesting time. As the ship left dry dock it was stuck by a barge which damage the stern of the ship which we were late leaving 13 hrs because they were fixing the problem. It was really cool watching them fix the problem. Holland America never really said sorry for the delay and did not really tell us what was going on. Then during the cruise we lost one Generator so that cut our speed in half. We came in a day late into San Diego, but I didn't mind because we got an extra day for free. It's just Holland America did not tell you what was going on and never said sorry. I felt bad because the next cruise was going to Hawaii and missed two ports because of us being so late. One bad thing was they were making a lounge into an alternative dinning room so they were working on that all night and was sometime noisy. And a few rooms down they were making a room into a handy cap room so they were working on that until 11 at night. And some of the Elevators weren't working so it was hard on the older passengers. And Ice was not working in lido deck. Also, panels were down from the ceiling when the ship got hit. They did not put them back up just left them on the ground. Enough of the bad things.

The Statendam was a very clean ship and the crew were very nice. You will never see your cabin Stewart's. Most of the crew are very shy and quite, but will give you great service. The food is ok. It depends on what you like. For me I like pastas, but my brother and my dad like steaks which they have more of. Their food is a bigger quantity compared to other cruise lines. You don't need two meals at dinner time. The thing that I do not like is that at the Lido deck buffet they serve you. I like getting my own things because I may want more of this and less of that. Also, sometimes they don't under stand you. You may ask for potatoes and you will get vegetables. Also, they need to have more items for breakfast seems like they have the same food every day. The omelets are very good, so I would get that. At lunch you can have any sandwich made. The chicken with cheese was really good. The ice cream use to be very good, but they change it and now its terrible. I was so mad that they change their ice cream. Don't get the ice cream its like eating freezer burn ice cream.

One of the problems for this cruise was that most of the crew were new and were still learning. For room service you could not under stand them and I asked for a cesser salad and they asked me what kind of salad dressing do I want on it. So the service was kinda bad, but they were very nice.

Holland America is more like the old style cruising so you will see more woods around the ship and lots of flowers. The entertainment was better this time for us you won't have great entertainment like Royal Caribbean. Traveling on Holland America is very different. You may like it or you may not. I like princess more over Holland America just because they have more pastas and you can serve your self at Lido deck. But I like the crew better on Holland America and the ships are much smaller than other cruise lines. Their cabins seem to be a lot bigger than other cruise lines.

One more thing. You don't need to tip because Holland America pays their employees very well. Unlike other cruise lines depends on your tips to pay their employees. But, for us if we got awesome serves we would give some extra money. Its all up to you if you want to tip. We gave our waiter $20 for the 3 of us. Just a little extra.

Overall you will like it. Any cruise is nice. Just relax and enjoy the cruise. Look out for some whales. We saw 4 whales breach.

The Statendam is a great ship, but I don't think Holland America is a 5 star cruise line like they say. But, I would continue to sail on them.

Have a great time cruising,
Brian Lashchuk
Any questions E-mail me
Bdadylash@aol.com

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