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[Rethinking my stance on small ships]
Aug. 22nd, 2019 10:44 amMy brother and his wife just got back from a cruise on the Veendam and they liked it a lot. Did not seem crowded or that small(Veendam has a slightly larger capacity than Prinsendam which was just sold to another line and is 30 years old.Veendam is 23 years old.So slightly newer.)
What I don’t get is a ship like Prinsendam that gets sold, and is admittedly in bad shape, to another cruise line who have to deal with all of her flaws and problems.Which is great if the cruises line has the money to shell out to make repairs and make the ship seaworthy.Thing is, with the last few ships that Holland America has sold to other cruise lines, the buyers do not have the sort of money for repairs that Holland America might(and even Holland America has to do slap dash jobs sometimes which is very troubling, especially when Prinsendam was still in the fleet.
Somehow, Prinsendam had her fans, right up until when she was sold(and still does.)It’s the ship that never “compromised anything” and didn’t go for any of the modern touches. Which is why so many of the diehards(more like blowhards really) love her so much and were sorry to see her go.
Flip side of that is the people that get it and understand why Holland America has to sell their ships sometimes(even if they *do* sell them when they’re in bad shape.)It’s an understanding that Holland America is moving with the times and is not going to stay in some sort of Titanic/Downton Abbey time warp the way that the diehards want it to. That does not do Holland America any favours-if they want to stay in buisness they have to change things every so often. I mean, Holland America was close to going out of buisness a number of years back for that very reason.They were bought by Carnival Corp. and rebounded.That doesn’t mean that there aren’t still the diehards complaining and wishing HAL would go back to the way they used to be.Some things never change.
What I don’t get is a ship like Prinsendam that gets sold, and is admittedly in bad shape, to another cruise line who have to deal with all of her flaws and problems.Which is great if the cruises line has the money to shell out to make repairs and make the ship seaworthy.Thing is, with the last few ships that Holland America has sold to other cruise lines, the buyers do not have the sort of money for repairs that Holland America might(and even Holland America has to do slap dash jobs sometimes which is very troubling, especially when Prinsendam was still in the fleet.
Somehow, Prinsendam had her fans, right up until when she was sold(and still does.)It’s the ship that never “compromised anything” and didn’t go for any of the modern touches. Which is why so many of the diehards(more like blowhards really) love her so much and were sorry to see her go.
Flip side of that is the people that get it and understand why Holland America has to sell their ships sometimes(even if they *do* sell them when they’re in bad shape.)It’s an understanding that Holland America is moving with the times and is not going to stay in some sort of Titanic/Downton Abbey time warp the way that the diehards want it to. That does not do Holland America any favours-if they want to stay in buisness they have to change things every so often. I mean, Holland America was close to going out of buisness a number of years back for that very reason.They were bought by Carnival Corp. and rebounded.That doesn’t mean that there aren’t still the diehards complaining and wishing HAL would go back to the way they used to be.Some things never change.
