At the end of the cruise people were calling the Prisendam, the damn prison. It is a sick ship, Avoid this one.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...q=hand+washing
There are a few articles here too. Bye bye.

jackwatch, Of course people should wash their hands. How silly. There are number of antibacterial liquids people rub their hands with in lieu of washing their hands. Many of these do not prevent bacteria. It does not matter when the health policies on certain ships are lax as was with this one. On this ship sneezing and coughing in the kitchen and while serving was the norm. Seems to be some strange connection to this ship with some of you. Maybe you enjoy the rampant illness, frozen commercial desserts and racial/culturally inappropriate jokes. For those concerned about their health avoid this ship.

"Maybe you enjoy the rampant illness, frozen commercial desserts and racial/culturally inappropriate jokes. For those concerned about their health avoid this ship." You have really fallen off the deep end with that kind of comment. Too bad people can't disagree with you lest you resort to personal attacks like this. You should be ashamed really. Afterall it was you who initially stereotyped older people and now you accuse others of racial and cultural insensitivity? I just shake my head at this thought process. Comment further if you like. I'm done with you.

The truth hurts. For those who are new to this you will see that some folks will defend a bad ship and its practices. Makes you wonder if they are associated with the cruise line, doesn't it?

Ok, enough!!! Hopefully this was just a one time problem with sickness. We were on another HAL ship in Jan and several people had the noroviris and were quaranteened. HA immediately took all precautions. We could not even pick up a sweet and low from the drink area. Someone was right there to hand it to you. Everyone had to use cleanser when entering the dining areas. They really do their best to contain any illness as soon as they are aware of it. The Panama Canal partial transit was one of the best cruises we have done. And we are hoping to take the Princendam next June to Europe from Rome to Amsterdam. I am sure that any problems that occured on the trip mentioned will be straighted out by them June 2010. The itinerary which inclueds Barcelona, Seville, Lisbon, Fraince, Channel Island, London, Brugge and Amsterdam sounds wonderful. I wish I could go this June. I hope other posters will update us on the Prinsendam.

HOLLAND AMERICA'S SHIPS ARE PRONE TO VIRUS HARBORING. The Center Disease Control (CDC) have noted this condition for the last three years many times as a result of their Cruise Ships Inspection Programs. HAL have chosen to continue to delay needed piping overhaul and redesign their water conveyance system to avoid the conditions that make their ships fertile grounds for Norovirus infestation.

HOLLAND AMERICA HAS THE WORST VIRUS OUTBREAK RECORDS IN THE LAST THREE YEARS. IT IS NOT A ONE TIME OCCURENCE AND THEY KNOW IT.

DO NOT GO ON A HOLLAND AMERICA CRUISE. THEY KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO GET SICK AND THEY TAKE OFF ANYWAY.

TO JACKETWATCH WHO STATED >>I have never, ever seen ANY crew members allowed to eat in passenger areas. Sorry, I don't believe this one<<. During my cruise this past December with Holland America, not only large HAL Crews REPETEADLY ate and occupied the best sections of the dining rooms, but these areas were CORDONNED OFF TO PASSENGERS and dare any paid passenger even attempt to get a table on those sections, he/she was immediately intercepted and send to the other side where there were hardly any tables left. THIS I SAW WITH MY OWN EYES MANY TIMES ABOARD SHIP VEENDAM. ABSOLUTELY REAL.

If you look at the CDC scores for HAL the range is 90-99 with the ship you mention having a 98. A satisfactory score is 86. Sorry but your shouting doesn't prove anything. Thats what all caps is btw.

Actually I checked the CDC for the VSP (vessel sanitation program) and found some interesting results. You do have a point though I'm not sure if you looked up the statistics first. Anyway here it is for the past three yrs. 2006-2008;
There have been 70 outbreaks defined as "above the expected" illnesses on cruise ships. The occurences per line are:
Cunard 2
Carnival 3
Regent 4
Celebrity 7
Princess 9
Royal Caribbean 10
NCL 12
HAL 17.
A few miscellaneous lines have 1 each for fill out the number.
Of course the number of occurences has to be equilibrated to the number of ships in each line and the number of chances or the number of cruises. Thats too much info to get into but for HAL 17 of 70 seems like quite a bit. I was surprised to see this.
The number of overall occurences has declined in each of the past three yrs. with 34 in 2006, 21 in 2007 and 15 in 2008. Ther are 8 so far in 2009.

jacketwatch-- thank you for proving my point. Yes, a sad a and dismal record indeed for HAL. My only regret is not doing
the research PRIOR to purchasing the trip last year.

A quick note if I may-- you seemed to be very quick to dismiss. As it turns out, YOUR POSITION is the unsustainable one; HAL does possess a horrendous virus outbreak record, the crew DOES INDEED eats frequently in the main dining room along with passengers, and I am well aware the intent of caps on posts having been a frequent poster on travel forums for more than 15 years

Happy Travels!

If my position proving your point is unsustainable then your point is? ... Get it? Duh. Have a nice day.

Jacketwatch - my comment regarding viajero2 is (now I will be in trouble) someone with such cruising experience should know that there is a different between ship's crew and ship's officers and staff. The crew have their own eating area below decks - the staff and officers dine usually in the Lido area because of their schedules. It is perfect acceptable to have a cordoned off area for them. They have other duties to perform and I can hear the complaints because an event, bingo or whatever didn't start on time because the "staff" couldn't get a seat in the lido.

Traveller69: You are perfectly correct. For someone with such experience posting on travel boards to know all caps means shouting and is dong so anyway ruins ones credibility. Why listen to a shouter? I actually did post this question on the HAL board on cruisecritic because I wanted other input. Basically there have been about 29 replies and the concensus agrees with what you just said. They also say when the officers dine with passengers they buy the wine! I hope they dine with us some day. I'm here to have fun and talk with interesting people. Thanks for the nice reply. Larry

Hi Larry

Yes, the officers do buy the wine. A very good friend of mine was married to the Chief Engineer on a Holland America ship and she used to join him for 2 - 3 mos at a time. We always planned our cruises around when she was going to be there and we sat at his table. The wine always flowed freely. Of course the officers don't come to the table that often usually just formal nights but it was fun. On my most recent cruise last September I did get to sit with the Captain one night as a VIP (haha). Actually I received my medallion for 300 days on HAL. There was also a darling very very elderly lady who received a medallion for 1000 nights. She said she was just seeing if she was still able to handle the round the world cruise. At that point she thought it would be just fine and as far as I know she is probably on board now - the Rotterdam was due to start the cruise in late January. Happy cruising to you - any plans in the works?

ps I enjoyed your photos of the last one.

Cool. We have booked CCL for a 7 day NE/Canada cruise out of NYC on early Oct. If the foliage is as nice as we are told it would be the pics should be really nice. Hopefully after that the Greek islands on the Solstice looks very appealing. We'll see. we have a stop in Halifax and whats really neay, at least for me, is that they have a Titanic museum there. I've been a nut about her since I was in 6th grade. Don't know why really but anytime something is on TV about her I watch it, even the repeats so this will be nice for me. What about you? Whats on the agenda? Gotta run now but I'll check tomorrow. Cheers, Larry

Larry - I forgot about your cruise. I actually gave you info on Portland and really recommended the bar/restaurant beside the dock for wonderful clams (and other seafood). It is a very casual almost open air type restaurant so you really get the atmosphere you would expect from Portland. My daughter is absolutely obsessed with the Titanic as well. She has just about every book that was written about it. Did you see the Imax movie?(Not the fictional one - the one with actual footage) It is an older film so I don't think it will be on anymore in the theatres but we had it playing when we did the Titanic exhibit in Victoria at the Royal BC Museum.
we don't have any immediate plans for cruising right now but we will certainly do one in the next few months. As I said in my other post of all the cruising we have done around the world the Canada/New England was my favourite.

Oh yes! We did not see the movie but did see the exhibit when it was in Chicago. I wonder if your daughter knows where the movie (Winslett, DiCaprio version) was filmed. We vacationed there in 1998, the yr. after the movie came out. The place is just south of Tijuana in an old resort town named Rosarito. We drove past the location where they made it and you could see one of the smoke stacks from the mock up ship they made. From what I read the Mex. govt. was quite perturbed about how much debris was left there when the filmers left. Do you live in Victoria? We had a port stop there in 2005 and really liked it.

Hi again Larry - Yes our home is in Victoria but we are fortunate enough to have a place in Southern Arizona where we spend the winters. Victoria is a great place to live - your ship would have docked within a few blocks of our home. We love walking to the inner harbour on summer evenings mingling with the tourists and watching the buskers. We are indeed spoiled.

Buskers? Que pasa? Are you in AZ. when the baseball teams are there for spring training and if so are you near any of the camps?