I went on a cruise last weekend. More on that later. You need some history first.
Let me say first that I'm not really a fan of cruises. There's not much to unless you're super rich and can afford to go on all the shore excursions. There's not much to do on the boat unless you're old or really young. I usually get bored after the first night on a boat. Then there's the chances of getting sick on the boat, not from sea sickness, but from the fact that you're on a contained vessel and if someone on board is sick, you're likely to eventually get sick as well. I also hate lots of people and especially hate lots of rude people. Old people are rude in general. They can't help it. I still don't have to like it.
The things I do like about cruises and what makes me go back to them:
You can find pretty good deals and they can be pretty cheap. The customer service is amazing. The food is pretty solid for the most part and it's included in your base fee. It's great for me to sample many things if I haven't tried whatever before.
With that said. There aren't many things I like about them, so when I go on a cruise. I expect those few things to be great.
I've been on quite a few cruises for my short cruising carrier. I've been to Mexico once or twice (I can't remember), the Virgin Islands, a short Pacific Northwest one, and two to Alaska. The lines I've been on have been Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Norwegian. All of these have been amazing. Until I went on the most recent line. Holland America.
This is my second cruise with Holland America. Last year Christi and I went to Alaska. I love Alaska so it made up for sub par food on board as well as the sub par service. Apparently I forgot about this when my parents asked if we wanted to go on a short Pacific Northwest cruise.
I have never seen so many rude staff members in my life. Fellow cruise members were requesting what I was consider to be "normal" things on a cruise. I saw so much eye rolling from staff members as well as staff members pointing and complaining about cruiser in front of them! At one point in the buffet line, I asked for "scrambled eggs and bacon, please". The young lady dished up some eggs for me and forgot my bacon. I said, "I'm sorry, but I could I get some bacon too please?" I've been there, I've worked in customer service for over a decade. This young lady sighed and rolled her eyes, threw some bacon on my plate and then proceeded to toss my plate at me. That's just what happened to me. I saw many other examples of similar actions directed to others. Along with that, calling the front desk was basically useless. We requested to have something sent to the room. They told us it would take up to an hour because they were busy. 2 hours later we called back inquiring about our request. It hadn't even been processed yet. I heard others on the boat complaining about the same thing. Also there was a huge line on the last day of the cruise with complaints about charges to peoples' accounts that they had no idea what they were.
The food was crap. I understand trying to put out 650 dinners at once (there were 1300 people on the boat with I believe 2 dinner seatings) is a big task and sometimes quality isn't top notch. It's no big deal if something is wrong with the food when it happens once. It happens. However, when I see on a consistent basis
throughout an entire week, proteins that isn't properly cooked, vegetables that are so overcooked that they fibers are breaking down, sauces that are over reduced or broken, rotting and oxidized garnishes and inconsistencies in serving sizes of the same dishes on the same table.... I get mad. I'm mad because whoever is in charge in the kitchen, doesn't give a shit. That person doesn't give a shit with the food that's coming out, and doesn't give a shit who cares. A weeks worth of food in the dining room, consistently looked like shit and didn't taste much better.
With all of this said. I would still recommend people to go on a cruise. It can be a great experience if you're into that kind of thing (remember I'm not). However, I will never and will never recommend anyone go on a Holland America cruise again.
Holland America sucks.
I wish I took a crap in the pool.
