11 Nights Mediterranean Splendor: Amalfi Coast & Ancient Cruise

Great repositioning cruise and wonderful amenities

This repositioning cruise was very enjoyable, and better than recent Holland America cruises we've taken. We had greatly missed The Lincoln Center (classical to contemporary in small venues) group, and were pleased to find a classical duo replacement, with a fine pianist and cellist from Ukraine, giving multiple performances per day. We also were very pleased that HA provided expert bridge instructors, with sanctioned duplicate play on all sea days. In addition, a 3 piece jazz combo added a lot to our entertainment enjoyment. As always, the dining, cabin, buffet, and ship services staff were friendly and very helpful. This ship feels much less crowded than mega-ships, with a number of quiet places for relaxation, inside and outside the ship. We also loved our Signature Suite cabin for its spaciousness, large verandah, and bathroom (complete with jacuzzi). Even relatively heavy seas, the ship was quite stable as well. Any issues we had were well resolved by staff. We look forward to future Holland America cruises.

Loved our first HAL Cruise on Oosterdam

We just finished the 14 Day Buenos Aires to San Antonio leg and then continued on to Fort Lauderdale on the 17 day leg to complete our 31 day journey. This was our longest cruise to date and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We found the food and service excellent. The Captain and staff were very friendly and accommodating. The normally cruise on Carnival. This was our first HAL cruise and we were very impressed. Our inside cabin on Deck 10 was very quiet and convenient to the Lido area. Entertainment was good, some shows better than others but this is normal. Lido food variety and service was excellent and efficient. Disembarkation was very easy. We also do self assist. We had a 9:40 flight from FLL and we were off the ship and in the cab by 7:30 am. There were some maintenance issues but the ship was heading to dry dock right after our cruise finished so I’m sure they were being addresss. Overall we were very happy.

An amazing experience in all respects.

This was an amazing bucket list cruise for me. I am on the elderly side of life taking every opportunity to experience as much of the world as possible while I still have the energy and mobility to do so. This was my first time in South America. I am glad I arranged three days pre-cruise in Santiago and highly recommend spending more time here than in Buenos Aires. There is so much to see nearby and weather, traffic, public transport, prices and food quality are superior. In addition to a four hour city tour on day of arrival, I had a private full day tour of the Perez Cruz winery in the Maipo Valley on day 2 and an educational and cultural tour of Valpariso and the Casablanca valley the following day. Both tours were with a very knowledgable local guide. I worked with Esteban at Private Tours in Santiago who arranged everything for me. I stayed at the Hyatt Centric in Las Condes, a very safe and walkable area with lots of great shops and restaurants. Boarding Oosterdam in San Antonio was delayed several hours due to intensive ship cleaning and sanitation due to what HAL referred to as an "intestinal" bug that inflected a large number of passengers on the inbound voyage. HAL warned us of the delay the previous day so I took the opportunity to stock up on antiseptic wipes, lotions and spray at a local pharmacy. There were related cases of illness during our voyage, but I never had any issues. The 14 night cruise included 7 ports of call, including an overnight in BA, and 7 sea days that included some spectacular scenic mountain and glacier cruising through the Chilean fjords. I was fortunate to be in a suite on the port side with a great balcony view most of the time. I highly recommend a balcony cabin on the port side if sailing in this direction. I like HAL because they are largely focused on the destination experience. I found the port talks all very interesting. Our cruise coordinator Ed did an amazing job at these talks and during our scenic cruising. It was very great to hear his talks while watching the bow camera on my TV, and being able to step outside on my balcony to take some great close up photos. I am not into shows and late night entertainment so the fact that HAL is not highly rated in these areas is fine with me. I do enjoy fine dining and I thoroughly enjoyed my evenings at Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto. The service, food quality and variety are excellent. Some of the scenic glacier viewing, Cape Horn viewing and some shore excursions require very early mornings, So I am quite happy with early to bed nights. My shore excursions experiences were as follows: Puerto Monte - Petrohue Falls, Lake Cruise & Chilean Countryside. The falls and countryside parts were great, the lake cruise was scenic, but way too crowded. There were several tour groups crammed onto the boat. Puerto Chacabuco - The Natural Beauty of Patagonia. The was a great tour, even though we had light rain most of the time. We were divided into two smaller 20 person groups that walked through a beautiful forest area along a river to view the "Old Man with Beard Waterfall". I took some great photos of interesting plants and the waterfall. The nature walk was followed by a nice sampling of local foods and entertainment by a local dance group. This tour turned out much better than I expected. Punta Arenas - Off the Beaten Track: Magdalena Penguin Reserve -This tour is pricy and started at 6:30AM. The 250 passenger catamaran ride to the island is 2.5 hours each way. The seas can be quite rough en-route, and this excursion is often cancelled due to weather. Nobody was seasick on our boat and our boat was only half full. There are lots of Magellanic penguins on the island and you can get very close to them. You will have about an hour on island before returning to port. I wanted to include this tour in case we were not able to dock at the Falklands. After returning to port, I had time for a pleasant walk around town and enjoyed a seafood chowder lunch with local draft beer at La Luna restaurant, which is one of the few restaurants that opens for lunch before 12:30PM. Ushuaia Argentina - National Park & Beagle Channel - We did the beagle channel first followed by a two hour visit to the National Park. The Beagle Channel part includes great close ups to three small islands that are filled with birds and sea lions, so lots of great photos. The National Park tour was not so amazing, just a long bus ride through a not so spectacular area. We were there later in the afternoon when the end of the world post office was closed. On return to th ship, there was no time to visit the picturesque town of Ushuaia. Next time, I would skip the park tour and walk around town instead. Falklands - Bluff Cove Penguin Rookery - This was my favorite. I'm glad we made it into port as around 50% of visiting ships are not able to due to weather. The 08:30AM three hour penguin tour was amazing with lots of Gentoo and several King penguins that you can get very close to. There is also a cozy tea and souvenir shop with complimentary tea and home made biscuits. We returned to town with plenty of time to enjoy a real pub lunch with local draught English style beer. After lunch, I was able to walk around town and visit some Falkland War landmarks and memorials. Montevideo - This was one of two non-HAL tours I booked since we were only a few hours drive to BA so there was no concern about getting back to the ship ontime. My guide for the all day private tour I booked through Viator was excellent. I had no idea Uruguay was such a prosperous country with lots of amazing history. My guide Carlos, who I found out also did tours for George Bush Sr. and Hillary Clinton many years ago, was my age and knew exactly the kind of places I wanted to see and what time to be there. He is well connected in town and personally greeted everywhere we went. He also took me to an amazing beef restaurant for lunch. Buenos Aries - We had two nights here and I booked another private tour to a country vineyard and restaurant. "Bodega Gamboa Small-Group Wine Tasting Tour with Lunch" This was a bit disappointing. The vineyard is not in a good wine growing area and produces wine from imported Mendoza grapes, not the grapes they grow. The lunch was good and plentiful, although a bit late in the day for my eating habits. The wine was nice and flowed freely. The drive to the venue was about little over an hour through not so interesting landscape. Buenos Aries is in a relatively un-scenic flat area. Weather and scenery reminded me of Houston TX. That's all I have to say about that. Argentina is known for its beef so I arranged dinner at La Cabana, a popular well known restaurant a short walk from the Hilton where I spent the night after disembarking. I ordered a fillet steak with a glass of Malbec. The wine was excellent, but the steak was one of the toughest I have ever eaten. I get much better steaks at Walmart. So, you can probably tell I was not very impressed with Buenos Aries. Before returning home, I am glad I arranged a three night visit to Iguazu. Many others on my cruise also took the opportunity and visited Iguazu. I was able to visit both Argentina and Brazil sides. The views are quite spectacular on each side, but the Brazil side offers more close up encounters (you will get wet) and panoramas. Don't worry about getting wet, it is so hot you will dry off. My hotel was the Iguazu Grand, which is a 20 minute drive to the Argentina falls, but very close to the Brazil border. I recommend staying on the Argentina side if you are flying from BA in order to reduce the number of border crossings, which can be time consuming. In summary: Do allow extra days in Santiago. Do get a balcony cabin on the land side of the ship. Do try the Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto. Do the Bluff Cove Rookery tour in Falklands. Do arrange a visit to Iguazu. Do not bother booking extra days in Buenos Aries.