We didn't opt for the 'Have it all' package as we don't drink much and thought it expensive, especially for a 38 day trans-Pacific cruise!
But by the time you added up the cost of drinks, coffees, shore excursion discounts, speciality dining nights, wifi and gratuities that would have come with the package perhaps it was a false economy? All of these were stupidly expensive.
Gratuities for our cabin for the cruise was over $1000, added to our bill without prior knowledge (steep considering 18% gratuities was added to every drinks bill).
There were so many things that were charged extra throughout the ship. Yoga and spinning classes at $20, bridge visits, galley visits (over $100! I remember them being free), craft classes, several items on the menu every night as extras! People joked that they'd charge for toilet paper if they could.
The cruise ended up being so much more expensive than. Buyer beware.
New Zealand was a beautiful destination and Holland America made it a seemless holiday with great food, service and amenities.
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We went on the Koningsdam after our tour of Canada. The ship was beautiful and we saw so much wildlife life. It was absolutely fantastic
Firstly we had back pain issues but our brilliant cabin boys sorted that out with a topper.
The toilet regularly blocked and multiple attempts to get the suction to work were unsuccessful with the bowl alarmingly filling up to the top.
The major issue is a significant human faecal smell at three places at the back of the ship, flutes, vista, down stairs 5 at latitude and the squid and anchor bar on 7, The smell occurs intermittently but when in full flow! We left as soon as possible otherwise gagging would ensue. I pointed this out to the customer service who could not care less. Eventually I spoke to restaurant manager who said he would get back to me with a report , nothing was forthcoming. He said this was the first time he had heard about it, which is a blatant untrueth as Facebook is awash with reposts from several people on the boat. The staff in vista are brilliant but I feel sorry for them working in this environment.
The preparation handling and consumption of food is potentially hazardous and denial is disingenuous.
Mercifully, after a reconisce of vista restaurant ,the smell had abated on the last night ,so we could eat in the best restaurant.
The RC loyalists won't like me, but this was an average cruise. The main dining got repetitious. and while usually fine we ended up on the Windjammer and Solarium Bistro often. Service was good - they obviously try to please. What really sucked was the lack of information on the ports we visited. We were very pleased with RC's Arctic from Amsterdam to NYC because a college professor gave talks on the ports, culture, and history of Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. This cruise had one 1/2 presentation that briefly described the excursions offered. The worst example was at the Meet The Officers when a fellow in a wheelchair explained that RC had no way to shuttle him into Akita from the terminal. On his here found out that the port has a cruise ship terminal train that is handicapped accessible and cost $2.00 ( the RC shuttle that he couldn't take was $20). The officer said he was as sorry but it was the first time in Akita. What a terrible excuse! Maybe you could talk to the port authorities for five minutes? Or maybe RC just wanted the shuttle money? Anyway, very poor performance.
I got off in Tokyo, where we continue to use the Suica app on our phones to pay for most everything - we watched cruisers taking forever to get train or bus paid, while we breezed through. We luckily did our own research and l will make it a point to put information on Hong Kong's Octopus Card on the Quantum Facebook page - it's super easy to use for transportation, stores and restaurants. And guaranteed RC won't mention it.
Booked a cruise with HA, thinking they offer nice excusions. At the time of the booking they all seemed available. Day after booking I have discovered there is literally none left, besides basic walking city tours for over 100 USD!
In short, I cannot even spend my onshore excusions credit with them.
I have written so many emails and called so many times trying to find a solution, but they dont return any answer.. My phone bill is probably over 500 USD after one month of this now. I simply hate HA at this point of time.
On top of it, they website is super buggy - hundreds of error messages, you cannot check out, you see things as available which are not, and and and...
And they also advertise wrong prices - e.g. Have it all package for 55 USD a day, and when you try to check out it magically becomes 65 USD a day.
Azamara was the most horrible experience we ever had our bathroom didn't work 6 days out of 12 day cruise Customer service from guest relation manager and from Hotel manager to maintenance Manager just useless with bunch of lies the working crew was good but when you need to go to bathroom we had to go to public bathroom on deck above that is unexpectable. We were promised that when we get home to USA the customer service will be able to provide some kind compensation and that was promise from Guest relation Manager that was lie plus their customer service is the worst we ever experience they will lied to you till you will give up. Highly don't recommend Azamara as cruise line their is the reason the company was sold by Royal Caribbean because the ships are our dated need to to be in scrapyard because it's been in service 20+ years and numerous owners. The main company Sycamore Group with business rating big F and that the way they are running Azamara cruises with big F




