Supplement to Travel Trade
March 2004

Holland America’s Oosterdam:

A Forward-Looking Legacy

By John Stone

Holland America Line’s MS Oosterdam, the second in the line’s 1,848-passenger Vista-class series, is in many ways a floating homage to the 130-year legacy of the HAL fleet, as well as to the traditions of Dutch maritime history.

Passengers wandering the decks and stairwells of Oosterdam, even with only casual interest in nautical heritage, are faced with images that can impart new awareness of both HAL’s impact on cruising and the Dutch East India Company’s influence on modern international trade. Artifacts and artwork from places like India, Italy and China, as well as Holland, are visible at every turn while onboard.

Bermuda artist Captain Stephen Card, reportedly the retired master of a cruise ship, has created some magnificent oil paintings of historic HAL ships shown in exotic international settings. On the Oosterdam’s forward stairway landing above Deck 7 (Rotterdam deck), for example, is Card’s painting of Ryndam II in 1964 in the Suez Canal “outward bound for Australia.”

Below Deck 6 (Upper Veranda) in the same stairway system is a painting of the Nieuw Amsterdam in 1939 in the Panama Canal on her first circumnavigation of South America.

One of the first things the unaware passenger learns is that most of the current ships in the HAL fleet have had one, if not more, predecessors in the line’s history under the same name.

Thanks to a $225-million “Signature of Excellence” initiative launched fleetwide by Holland America last September, all of the Oosterdam staterooms and many public rooms are in the process of being fitted with new premium features.

All staterooms are being outfitted with plush “Euro-Top” mattresses; 100% Egyptian cotton bed linens; fluffy towels and deluxe terry cloth bathrobes. All guests will be welcomed with a complimentary fresh fruit basket and a stainless steel ice bucket and serving tray.

Additionally, all suites will be fitted with bed duvets, a fully-stocked minibar, and VCR or DVD players and access to a movie library.

The staterooms onboard Oosterdam are notably spacious There are 461 outside staterooms, each with 254 square-feet of space, including a 54-square-foot veranda. Additionally, there are 162 suites in various sizes all with larger verandas ranging from 100-square-feet to 318-square feet of veranda space.

Even non-veranda staterooms are generous in size, with 165 outside rooms of 194-square-feet each, and 136 inside rooms of 185-square-feet each.

Each of the staterooms has good closet space, as well as a love seat, desk and chair. Dutch orange is a predominant color scheme in many of the accommodations.

Overall, 85% of all Oosterdam staterooms feature an ocean view and 67% of all staterooms have verandas with privacy screens, tables and chairs in the uniform faux bamboo decor that makes them far more stylish than standard outdoor furnishings.

On Oosterdam’s Lower Promenade (deck 2), the guest enters a hub of ship activity featuring the “Pinnacle Grill at the Odyssey” alternative restaurant on the port side, opposite the Windstar Coffee Bar on starboard side.

The Pinnacle Grill at the Odyssey is a 130-seat upscale establishment, with reservations always required.

There is a pleasant Pinnacle Bar just inside the restaurant from the maitre d’ station, where guests can share a wine or a drink while waiting for their table or for other guests to arrive.

The striking feature of the restaurant — which draws attention from anywhere in the second-deck atrium — is a backlit, glass mural painting, in Rembrandt style, of historic Dutch royal personalities in their period dress. These characters, depicted in interesting clusters, are assigned positions of perpetual envy as they survey the feasting diners seated at tables before them.

The dramatic decor in the Pinnacle includes blue and purple carpets, ornate sliver chair frames, gold marble tile and brown wall coverings, and purple seat cushions and banquettes. As part of the Signature of Excellence program, all meals in the Pinnacle are served on Bulgari china and beverages poured in Riedel crystal stemware.

The “Pacific Northwest cuisine” in Pinnacle includes steaks, prime ribs, racks of lamb and Alaskan salmon that are uniformly excellent, as well as service from an attentive staff of white-jacketed European waiters. The service charge is $20 per guest, a bargain for the generous portions, including artistic appetizers with some Asian-inspired tastes.Opposite the Pinnacle in the midship area of deck 2 is the Windstar Coffee Bar, which brings the ambience of HAL’s sister sailing ships of Windstar to the second deck of Oosterdam.

The Windstar bar features Torrefazione Italia coffee products and accompanying pastries. A flowing barrier separating the café from the passenger walkway alongside is decorated with a life-size photo of the outside deck of a Windstar ship. The white chairs and cushions of the coffee bar recall the ambience of the all-white Windstar ships for guests enjoying coffee anytime from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. the next morning.

Above the atrium’s Promenade Deck 3, where a dance music trio plays most evenings before and after dinner hours, a revolving Waterford Crystal globe provides a visual centerpiece to the whole midship area of Oosterdam.

Two other main restaurant areas of Oosterdam deserve attention because of their visual charm and excellent dining experiences. On Lido Deck 9, the Lido Buffet, situated in the aft section of the ship between the Aft Pool on the stern and the main Lido Pool in midship, is a grand surprise on Oosterdam.

Here is a Lido where, unlike other ships where the issue is strictly self-serve dining and moving on, a guest can actually enjoy lingering. A favorite area is the Lido Restaurant section in the forward part of the space.

This seating area is also operated as an alternative casual restaurant at night with waiter service. A giant, modern, bright salad mural brightens this eating space with red, pink and orange vegetables jumping at your taste buds.

Around the Lido are a carved sandwich station, a pizza bar, an extensive tossed salad bar, an Asian stir-fry bar, an ice cream and dessert bar and other food areas. Outside, facing the Lido Pool area, is the Terrace Grill, where luncheon hamburgers, hot dogs and a Mexican taco bar and buffet are all in service in the middle of the day.

Oosterdam’s Vista main dining room has a colorful ceiling of stylized golden flowers adorning the stairway area of the two-level space.

The Vista, which occupies the aft section of Lower Promenade deck 2 and Promenade deck 3, affords panoramic views of the sea from its stern location.

HAL’s Indonesian crew in the Vista dining room offers its winningly affable service, and meal selections are fresh, tasty and plentiful. Some of the Vista dishes included tasty chilled apricot soup, roasted loin of pork and breaded red snapper in a spicy sauce.

Amusing character touches are featured around Oosterdam’s Lido deck pools, perhaps to offset any notions that the vessel is only for the serious-minded art lover.

There are dancing penguins, a life-sized family of six adults and one pup, who frolic on an iceberg and serve as whimsical permanent hosts at the forward end of the main Lido Pool.

The penguins are complemented by other eye-catching marine creatures at the aft end of the pool, namely cartoon-like fish who stand on their heads and support the bar stools of the Lido Bar with their elevated tails.

In the aft pool, protruding from the water, are colorful modern-art caricatures that look as if they’ve escaped from a Picasso painting to cool off.

A wonderful viewing area of the aft pool is at the Seaview Bar, an oval space tucked between an exterior stairway and a full-length panoramic window. This is where to watch the sea, or watch the pool, from a perfect, open-air refreshment station.

After dinner, the entertainment on Oosterdam includes some of the most varied choices at sea. There are high-energy stage shows like “Rockin’Road” and “Escape” in the 867-seat Vista show lounge.

One of the most versatile rooms onboard proved to be the 170-seat Queens Lounge and “alternative theater” located forward of the Windstar Café and just aft of the casino on Lower Promenade Deck 2.

The Queens Lounge was perfect for business meetings and presentations, and for daily afternoon and early evening screenings of recent feature films which, during a sailing last fall, included “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Seabiscuit.” The room, which features a sleek bar, is fully-equipped for hosting private cocktail receptions.

The Oosterdam also offered a rousing nightly performance of popular standards by a keyboard wizard named “Boston Barry” in the Piano Bar, classical chamber music in the Exploration Lounge, and late-night boogying to DJ music in the Northern Lights Disco.

The casino, in the forward section of Deck 2, is conveniently located opposite both the Piano Bar and the Sports Bar, as well as just aft of the Vista Show Lounge. This means that guests can follow their different entertainment interests in the early evening and then easily meet at a selected point in the same forward section of deck 2.

The Oosterdam is joining its Vista sister ship Zuiderdam early this year in 7-day Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises, departing Sundays from Ft. Lauderdale through April 11.

Starting in May, Oosterdam will be based in Seattle, sailing a series of 7-day roundtrip Alaskan cruises each Saturday during the summer season.

The early year sailings on the East Coast and the mid-year season in the Pacific Northwest will give agents and their clients in all parts of the country the opportunity to experience Oosterdam and learn first-hand what the new Signature of Excellence program from HAL is doing to raise the bar in premium cruise vacationing.