I Am A Celebrity!: Cruising in Japan - Holland America's Westerdam

AS FORESHADOWED here previously, in late April, we spent 15 days cruising around the island of Japan. Our ship - Holland America's Westerdam - and cruise line was a new experience for us (though by no means a new line).

THE ITINERARY was ambitious with 11 ports of call. While a few of them were well-known areas, some were not so much, and were in a couple cases, "new" to the cruise line (new meaning we were only their second or so time stopping there - and in one case - in South Korea, it may have been our first). Having family in Tokyo, we spent 3 days there before embarking on the cruise, at the port of Yokohama. The cruise originated and finished in Yokohama, and being the world's largest metropolitan area, I strongly urge you to spend some time in Tokyo and Yokohama prior to or after (or both) the cruise. There is so much to see!

WE ARRIVED in the port area a couple hours before our assigned boarding time, so we spent some of that time walking around the bustling cruise port. The old, traditional cruise port is the Shinko Pier in the Osanbashi Cruise Port. Situated in an area inside of The Yokohama Bay Bridge, the newer, "mega" ships are unable to safely navigate under the bridge, and a few years back a secondary pier was constructed on the island to the northeast of the port, which also serves as a cargo port for the Port of Yokohama. Unfortunately, our ship was assigned to that new pier (even though it is one of HAL's oldest, and therefore smaller, ships, and would easily have sailed into the Osanbashi Port and under the bridge.

I HAVE seen numerous photographs of the shoreline from the Osanbashi Port cruise pier and was really looking forward to shooting from the deck as our ship sailed away in the evening. There is a Ferris wheel which is nicely lit in the foreground of a very dramatic (at night) city skyline. Because we were well away from that spot, it was not visible from our pier. Ironically, we sailed back into the Osanbashi Pier, but on a cloudy, overcast morning, well after the lit city skyline was in daylight. Maybe next cruise.

OVER THE next several weeks, I will blog about the substance of the cruise and the ports we visited. Obviously, culturally, Japan is about as different as we have seen. Our United States grew, of course, primarily out of so-called "Western Civilization" from Europe. Japan - 12 hours around the globe, is the northeastern part of "Eastern Civilization." Yet Japan (perhaps more than any other eastern nation), has borrowed, or assimilated an awful lot from the U.S. In many ways technologically advanced, they also seem to embrace (and change) fashion more quickly. It is an interesting mix of old culture and values, and modern civilization.

THIS POST will focus mainly on the cruise ship and line. Holland-America is today a U.S. based cruise line (based in Seattle) which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carnival Cruise Lines (as is Princess; our other often-cruised line). While we have not cruised on HAL before this trip, I have often thought of the two as pretty comparable lines. Holland America was actually first started as a passenger steamship line, in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1973 (actually, Dutch-American Steamship Company). Its focus was on passenger liners and cargo/shipping. The original route was Rotterdam to New York (actually, Hoboken, New Jersey). With quite a lot of history from 1873, through 2 world wars, they maintained their transatlantic business right up until the demise of transatlantic passenger travel with the advent of air travel in the 1960's. Over time they added stops in LeHavre, Southampton, Cobh, Montreal, Halifax, as well as Antwerp, Boulogne, Bilbao, Santander, Gijón, A Coruña, Vigo, Havana and Vera Cruz.HAL ended transatlantic passenger services in the early 1970s.

DURING BOTH wars, HAL ships were used by the military as troop ships. Several were sunk - particularly by U-Boat activity during both wars. Some of the U-boat sinkings resulted in 100's of passenger deaths. During the May 1940 invasion of Rotterdam by the Germans, a number of HAL ships were destroyed.

HAL OFFERED its first pleasure cruise early in its existence, but concentrated on passenger liner and cargo shipping until it did away with both such ships in the early 1970's, to focus solely on the cruise industry. Carnival bought HAL in 1989. Interestingly (and happily from my perspective), Carnival has historically left both HAL and Princess pretty much intact, allowing them to continue to run their operations separately from Carnival's (and each other's). They are very willing to work together, however, when it suits their goals. For example, they own the White Pass/Yukon train route that we took on our Alaska Cruise many years back. They also own a hotel system (Westmark) in Alaska (as does Princess) - primarily used for their "cruise/tour" packages. When I did the research for the Alaska trip, I boiled our choices down to HAL and Princess. I have said before, that although we ultimately chose Princess, had we gone the other direction, it is possible that our entire cruise history would be very different. But even back then, it was apparent that Princess and HAL had the Alaska cruise routes "locked up."

The Vista Class Westerdam's smaller size is said to give it a less-crowded feel. Our perception was just the opposite!

IN 2003, the line inaugurated the first ships in the Vista Class: 85,000-ton, 1,848-passenger Zuiderdam (II) and Oosterdam. The third Vista-class ship, Westerdam (III), was launched in April 2004, and the fourth and final, Noordam (IV), debuted in March 2006. HAL has 11 ships in their current fleet, arranged in 4 different classes: "R" class, Vista Class, Signature Class and Pinnacle Class. Their two smallest and oldest ships constitute the "R" class (Volendam - 1999 and Zaandam - 2000). The next oldest class is "Vista (2002 - 2006)" of which our Westerdam (2004) is a member. Being the largest group of the fleet, it stands to reason that our odds were good of cruising on the Westerdam. Smaller than the two newer classes, they are said to have a less crowded feel. Our perception was just the opposite! The two Signature Class ships (Nieuw Amsterdam - 2010 and Eurodam - 2008) are slightly smaller, and slightly newer. As such, they include all three (Pinnacle Grill, Canaletto, and Tamarind) specialty restaurants and both B.B. King Blues club and Rolling Stone Lounge (live-music venues). The much newer, and larger "Pinnacle" Class ships contain 5 specialty restaurant venues and all 3 of the entertainment lounges (B.B. King, Rolling Stone, and Billboard). The theatres are said to be much larger, better and more state of the art.

Entertainment Venues is an area where I think HAL excels

OUR PERCEPTION of the Westerdam: "old." There is an old saying that "there is no 'bad' pizza." My own view of this cruise and cruise ship fits. In our overall universe of cruising (admittedly a bit narrow - including only Princess, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Oceania, and now HAL), HAL clocks in at our 5th favorite (the choice between HAL and Oceania is not clearcut). Oceania's food was excellent. HAL? Not so much. But other amenities (notably room size, space on the ship, entertainment and entertainment spaces, and cigar-smoking area) trumped Oceania. Like every cruise we have ever been on, there were some very good points, along with the not-so-good.

Let's comment on a few specifics:

General - The embarkation process was relatively smooth. Like Celebrity, HAL has adopted the process of processing you on to the ship with your pass (issued electronically on their app) and leaving your ship card in the "mailbox" outside your stateroom. This means that even if your stateroom is not completely ready, you can drop your carryon items in your room, and then go out on to the ship as you normally would. It beats the old experience of having to wait somewhere on the ship with our carryon items until it was announced that your room was ready. In our case, our stateroom was ready, and after we did the obligatory muster-station check-in and upgraded our drink package at one of the bars, we found our baggage already outside our door. A smooth check in experience.

There were multiple elevators. We usually work hard to get a stateroom relatively close to the mid-ship elevators. The Westerdam also had ample elevator banks at the front and back of the ship. In the midships area, in addition to the double elevator banks in the center, there is a shaft that goes up outside the ship on both port and starboard sides. This cruise we were on deck 5. We found that these tended to be less used, and more easily and quickly accessible. We liked that. Each of the decks were named (not uncommon), but in the elevators, rather than being announced and shown by number, they were announced and shown by name. I found this slightly annoying. I never really memorized my own deck name, much less the others. Numbers, please! Prominent.

Our Perception of the Westerdam: "Old"

The ship was very clean everywhere. The staff paid a lot of attention to these details. One thing that was kind of a quirky - but probably nice - touch was that the carpet was changed in every elevator daily, reminding us of what day it was. Nice touch - I guess.

The P.A. system was awful. The only place I was ever able to hear any announcements was in the hallway outside my stateroom. Virtually anywhere else on the ship, the clarity was awful and it was generally drowned out by ambient noise, including passengers on the public areas, wind on the decks, and music. You could hear, but could not understand. For those of us old enough to remember the old SNL McDonald's parody of their drive through speakers: "blah, blah, blah, blah. . . . . would you like a hot apple pie with that?" It was that bad. Needs attention HAL!

Our stateroom was fine. Older, like the Princess Ship rooms we have had, it was clean and roomy enough. We always book a balcony (or veranda/verandah) room. It was everything we expected.
Cigar smoking area - HAL Westerdam - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

The Cigar Smoking Area - Readers mostly know I enjoy a cigar, and never more so than on a cruise ship. I know there are crusaders against us. But there are also some really great people I have met over the years during this part of my cruise experience. "Don't hate us because we are beautiful!" 😁

I have commented about this "venue" on other ships. It seems to me that ships (and to some extent cruise lines) are anywhere from very accommodating, to the appearance of ostracism. I get that there will always be - occasionally militantly so - crusaders against smoking would ban it anywhere and everywhere. I have a live and let live attitude, though I strongly agree that the emphasis should be on placements where the outside (or perhaps completely filtered inside) air carries it away from the rest of the ship. And let's face it, the majority of most ships are truly smoke free. There is plenty of room for non-smokers.

HAL approaches it from a middle of the road (and pretty reasonable) stance. There are said to be two areas on the ship that allow smoking. I never found (nor sought) the other (smaller, I believe) area, as it was cigarettes only. The main area is near the small, "Seaview" pool the top deck on the aft of the ship (starboard side only on the Westerdam). It is set up rather traditionally, with tables and chairs, rather than the more relaxed and comfortable seating found on the other ships. But it is not uncomfortable. Nor is it uninviting. Its only downside is that if it is cold, very windy, or rainy, it is likely not going to be useable. That having been said, there were only one or two days in 15 that I wasn't able to sit out and enjoy my cigar. I would not let that change my plans to book a HAL cruise.

Entertainment Venues - This is an area where I think HAL excels. I include the small, general bars around the ship in this assessment. I remember our first cruise - on The Diamond Princess' - we our ship had a number of small, bar-like venues with live music. They were very cozy and it was nice to have some variety. The Westerdam reminded me of that. There were several venues that featured live bands, combos, or a piano player.

My only disappointment was that Westerdam has converted its B.B. King Blues Lounge to its other, "Rolling Stone," lounge. In 2013, B.B. King's Blues Club lounge was debuted on the Eurodam, and later added to a handful of ships. It has long been known as a HAL favorite. Once on the Westerdam, it has been eliminated, mainly as a consequence of lack of space. At some point Holland America teamed up with Billboard Onboard to add its Billboard Musical Experience. On ships like Eurodam, Koningsdam, Westerdam and Oosterdam, it consists of a sing-along piano/guitar spot focusing on hits from a number of eras and genres like pop, rock and country.
The rock and roll band on the ship was very good, as was the music. We enjoyed it, but I felt that the Billboard Lounge - literally just up the hallway, was kind of redundant - and I think it has missed the mark. Touted as a sing-along venue, the two or three times we stopped in, there was zero singing along, and the piano play was just o.k., with a pretty limited repertoire. Her singing was not that great. In my view, put B.B. King back and keep Rolling Stone. Time for Billboard to go away quietly.
Ocean Bar - HAL Westerdam - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

We spent a lot of time (every day and night) in the Ocean Bar (the closest thing to our favored "Martini Bar" on Celebrity ships). It was smaller, but well laid out and the off-bar seating intimate and comfortable. The bar itself was fun and we got to know the bartenders there fairly well. I will comment on staff separately, but I have nothing but good things to say about them. In addition, the bars at the Pinnacle Bar, Rolling Stone, Billboard and on the back - the Oceanview Bars were fun and well run. I was in the cigar-smoking section of the Oceanview Bar daily.

I don't do shows much. I probably average one or two per cruise. More likely if there is a comedian. My wife goes to them more often than not, though. She thought the on-ship entertainment crew was as good as any. Over the years we have felt that Princess does that the best. I did attend a couple of the scheduled lectures. They were very good. I will probably make it a goal to look at and perhaps attend more of them. The theatre itself has some limitations. If you are fortunate enough to find a seat on the main floor in the middle section it is fine. If there is anything on the big screen at the back and you are on the second floor or off to the side on either floor, you cannot see the entire screen. This was annoying to me when the speaker was using a power point or slideshow. Not sure what they can do better - maybe a smaller screen. Perhaps most importantly - it is just not big enough! I think this is a common problem where there is a lot of on-ship time and shows are good - on all cruise ships (though I have to say I have never seen a Celebrity theatre jammed full). There were times when there were no seats available.

The only space on the ship that I think is poorly placed is the Crows Nest ...This should be a premiere space!

On this cruise, there was a comedian. If that is the best they can do, they needn't bother. He was awful. I like comedians and am probably easier to please than most (though I can now remember two instances where I thought the comedian fell flat - once years ago on princess, and on this cruise). I wasn't alone. We took in the late (two showings) show. I counted less than 40 passengers in the theatre. That probably should have told us something. My wife and I, out of courtesy, stayed for the entire 45 minutes. Others got up and left. I think I half chuckled once. No jokes or one-liners. Just a lame and largely unbelievable story about getting to the ship. Kind of a hackneyed idea already - but especially bad if not well told. Then some mediocre voice impressions. I hope HAL reads my survey comments on this one.

As Cruise Directors go, ours was fine, save a couple of lame remarks on boarding day. He did do a nice job with his "about the port" series with recent observations and comments about the ports a day or so prior to our visiting. Overall, I would give him an A- grade. 😐

The only space on the ship that I think if poorly placed is the Crows Nest. At the top deck on the bow of the ship, this is/should be a premier space. It is a very nice space, but it is very badly utilized! It is essentially isolated. The only way to get there directly is from the forward elevators. In many cases, this means you have to walk down stateroom corridors, or other spaces (e.g. the commercial spa), all the way to the front of the ship. The only other approach is to walk on the 10th deck, of which the forward section is also kind of isolated (and not very good in inclement or very windy weather - ironically the very time I would be most inclined to head to the Crows Nest), and then through stateroom corridors. It is neither well-marked nor intuitive to approach from the 10th floor. Adding insult to injury, this is where the specialty coffee bar is located. Isolated, and inconvenient, unless the only place you intend to consume the coffee is in the Crow's Nest itself. This one begs for improvement!

there seems to be no such thing as "Lobster night" on HAL ships any more

The Food - This is one of those things people use to distinguish cruises. My verdict in two words: mediocre and inconsistent. In fairness, my own observation is that all food on all mainline cruise ships have dropped in quality and availability since the 2021 worldwide pandemic. I think this is a product of two things: significantly increased food costs, and lack of qualified personnel. There are 3 categories of food venue aboard the ship: The buffet (The Lido Market on HAL ships), the main dining room (MDR) and various "specialty restaurants or venues." In my own experience, the type of passenger we see on our cruises with mainly frequent the MDR for dinner meals. We do. We only eat our dinner meal in the buffet on rare occasions when we are just too tired to get ready for dinner, or timing. Given that for us, it is the food venue by which we judge the overall ship food experience, I will start there.

The MDR on Holland America ships is the traditional, single venue two story grand dining room. It is nicely appointed. We do "anytime" style dining these days, and our party of 6 showed up around 7:00 p.m. on the first night. It stands to reason that we hit them at their busiest time, and we were neither surprised, nor put out that we had to wait a few minutes. In the great scheme of things, it really was only a very few minutes. It went downhill from there, though. It was (giving them the "first night" benefit of the doubt - but come on, it was not their first "first night"), they could not have been more disorganized. Again, I can chalk some of this up to the hangover from the Pandemic (though we are going on 4 years since we "re-opened" and at some point, the excuse doesn't work anymore). In this case, as the week progressed, my own sense was that things were as much because of a rather poor (but pompous) maitre' de as much as anything. Our first night was a disaster, with apparently inexperienced wait staff, and issues with orders. Ironically, the main course I had was one (of few) that was actually pretty good. The next day, one of us visited the restaurant during the day and made arrangements for a different table, different wait staff, and a more or less set time of 7:15. That worked out well, as we got a "pro" waiter and service went swimmingly for the rest of the week. The food? Not so much. I think that out of the 12 nights we ate in the MDR, I had about 4 meals that I thought were pretty good. The rest were anywhere from so-so to just not so good. And there was a notable lack of variety most nights. Most of the appetizers and soups were excellent, however, and toward the end, my wife started just ordering multiple apps and no main course.

A couple other things were disappointing. First there seems to be no such thing as "Lobster night" on HAL ships any more. The last couple Celebrity cruises, they had lobster, but you were limited to one tail (and they were small). I don't know about the other cruise lines. Oceania had it and it was plentiful. But the only way to get it on the Westerdam (and, I assume, all of HAL) was to pay extra ($25). One party ordered it one night and it looked pretty good. But not as good as an additional $25. The same was true for a decent steak ($20, I think). Ironically, they did have steak at their feature one night. It was Ponderosa Steak House quality (but smaller). Thin, overcooked and tough, it was touted as a "filet." Ironically, they offered a New York Strip steak on their every day menu and that was actually pretty good (as good or better than the steak I had in their "Pinnacle" steak house). On the final night I ordered their featured "Prime Rib." I like mine medium rare. What I got was grey. To his great credit, when I pointed this out to our waiter, he immediately got me another one that was indeed medium rare. When he apologized, I said, "hey, you didn't cook it," and he responded that it was still on him as he should have seen it wasn't what I ordered. These guys are busy and overworked - and they are almost to a person, really great!

My biggest criticism here is lack of adequate seating!

The Buffet - All the cruise lines have (perhaps euphemistic) names for their buffet venue. But they are still all buffets. On HAL, the buffet is named "The Lido Market." The Lido is set up like the traditional, older buffets with the lines going bow to stern and serving on both sides of the ship (the kitchen area, is in the middle). Much of it is repetitive side - to side, but that is pretty much the norm in the setups we are used to on Princess and the oldest Celebrity ships.

My biggest criticism here is the lack of adequate seating! I noted above that it has been said the smaller ship size gives a feeling of smaller crowds, and that our perception is just the opposite. I think this is largely because, in spite of the slightly lower number of passengers, the ratio of space to passenger is also substantially decreased. There was not a single day when we were on the ship that I could find a spot (even as a single) to sit during breakfast hours or during lunch hours. And often, inexplicably, they would have closed down one whole side as early as 12:15 even when there were a substantial number of passengers aboard. And there still wasn't adequate seating. Fortunately, most of the time there were tables out on the Lido Pool area. But I don't remember experiencing this issue on any other ship except maybe during high peak times. As noted above, we experienced the same issue with the theatre, especially when it was being used as a staging area for excursions.

Again, there was very little variety day to day and some inconsistency. I like to have eggs benedict and did a couple days. One day they were perfect. The next, the eggs were very unappetizingly undercooked. The powdered scrambled eggs were inedible. I have had them on Celebrity many times, and while I know they are powdered eggs, I find them at least palatable. Often there were unlabeled items on the self-serve areas. Really? Would be nice to know what we are eating. With the lack of staff, it was often hard to get any attention in the Lido Market. I will say that they did a nice job at the omelette stations (two of them) and the eggs cooked to order (also two areas). In the end, they were my "go-to" breakfast spots. Also, while it was pretty pedestrian, with skinny cuts of fish, they did serve sushi most days during lunch. I thought that was a nice touch (but would have liked less rice and more fish). Overall, it was what I might expect from a buffet. mediocre food. - but not horrible food.
Sushi on HAL Westerdam Buffet - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

Specialty Restaurants - The current approach of all the mainstream cruise lines appears to us as observers to be to push passengers to the specialty restaurants being offered on all ships. Many of us account for the fall in MDR food quality to be part of a "plan" (conscious or not) to get customers acclimated to the idea that if you want to have a great food experience, you have to pay the extra charge and go to the specialty restaurants. It used to be that these venues would offer something different, or in some cases, an extra-special experience. Over the years we have routinely done at least one night at one of these restaurants. We have also routinely grown to expect very good to great quality food in the main dining room experiences on board. We have found that to be that case more often than not (there are certainly some "misses") on Celebrity and to a lesser degree on Princess. Ironically, our two experiences on Oceania's specialty venues yielded worse food experiences than any night in the very good main dining room. Still, no matter what the general dining room experience, you expect a better than average (and better than main dining) experience in one of these specialty venues. After all, you are paying a pretty good additional charge for them.

[There were] . . . items on the specialty menus that incurred additional extra charges, over and above the surcharge for the specialty restaurant itself. I found that mildly insulting

Our first specialty experience was in HAL's "Italian" themed Canaletto restaurant. First, it was essentially just a "roped off" area of the buffet. That was mildly offputting (but certainly not fatal to the cause). I ordered a seafood pasta dish that looked great on paper, but in reality: can you say Stouffers?" Our second experience a few days later was in HAL's signature specialty restaurant: The Pinnacle Grill. In its own venue and adjacent to the very nice Pinnacle Bar, it was more the setting I would expect for a specialty restaurant. Against the advice of another passenger, I ordered the ribeye. It was really pretty good. Memorable? Not really. I confess that I have become hard to please with steak ordered out almost anywhere (including high end steak venues), as I have only had one I can recall in recent years that was better than what I can do on my own grill at home. But still for the extra $$$, I expected more.

The other item that kind of took me aback was the items on the specialty menus that incurred additional extra charges, over and above the surcharge for the specialty restaurant itself. Methinks they are taking this extra-charge thing too far. I found it at least mildly insulting. I wonder if that is happening on other lines and it is now becoming a "thing."

"Dive In" - In the pool area, there is one other food venue which cooks burgers, dogs and brats to order. It is called "Dive In." I think every cruise ship has a similar venue, and they are usually pretty popular - especially on sea days when the pool area is in heavy use. I place it under "specialty" because it is not part of the MDR or Buffet and has a limited menu. In my view, it was the best and most consistently good food on the ship. I had lunch there several days and satisfied my afternoon snack craving a couple times with just an order of their very good fries.

Ship Staff - In 25-ish cruises, I have to say that this has been the one truly consistent feature. With just a very few exceptions (and they are exceptions), all of the staff we encounter (and some we never see but appreciate nonetheless) have been spectacular. It is very rare not to see a smile on the face of a waiter, bartender, pool attendant, room steward or other service personnel. There is almost always a cheery good morning, or hello. They are quick to come to your assistance and to a person polite and friendly. We make new friends and acquaintances - particularly with the wait staff - on every ship we board. I have had the personal good fortune to stay connected with some of them (primarily on Facebook - perhaps one of its redeeming features).

The Westerdam was no exception to this. In addition to our attentive and friendly room steward, we were shortly on a first name basis with bartenders in two of the bars (Ocean bar and Ocean View). In my case there were at least 3 that I became "buddies" with on the back deck at the Ocean View. I am not naive. I know it is their job. I tip, and they know that. But I think, too that there is a great amount of sincerity from many of them. And they do it with a smile and apparent enthusiasm. Many of these staff are from countries and cultures not as well off as we are and we always try to remember that and appreciate all that they do!
HAL Westerdam - Japan - Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved

ALL IN all, our final judgment goes along the lines we normally use to plan a cruise. Itinerary is always going to be one of the main factors. Opportunity is another. In this case, we had opportunity to join some friends who had researched and booked this cruise, on an itinerary we found very inviting. Not having established any strong preconceptions about HAL, we looked forward to a new adventure. On balance, it was a good one. Enough so that we wouldn't completely rule out HAL in the future. We would, however, seek out a similar itinerary cruise first on one of our favored Celebrity ships, and perhaps second on Princess, before fully deciding on another HAL cruise. Wishy washy enough?😁 I seriously hope there has been enough information here that you can make your own choices. Given a good itinerary and a good price, I wouldn't necessarily try to steer you away from HAL. It just wouldn't be our first choice.

I Am A Celebrity!

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Cruising in Japan - Holland America's Westerdam

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