Holland Norway Lines Reviews 581

De bewuste review is na het faillissement van HNL niet meer van toepassing.

Easy to get on and off board, good instructions.
Food was a bit expensive but quality was good.
Nice and helpful personal also at the service area.
The mattress however are really old, a bit moldy and are crumbling down.

It was our second trip to Norway, the cabin was very clean and comfortable, the buffet was full of fresh fish and quality foods, the staff were friendly and polite, recommended 😍

We checked in in Kristiansand at 1 pm. Had then to wait in the car for 3 hours until allowed on the boat. We were one of the first car on the car deck but one of the last car to leave in the morning. Lost an hour on our way home. Worst organization ever! And on top of this bad organization our room was full of dust and hair and very outdated. Far too expensive for what you get. The three course meal in the Grillhouse for 42€ was also very expensive for what you get (frozen french fries and package soup!) Never again!

Ship's staff was friendly but seemed heavily overworked. I got the feeling that the cruise was not a cruise but was more a ferry for people and their cars. Many of the ship's amenities were not available (Sauna, wifi, disco-bar, various machines). The cabins were quite good, based on my previous experience with a very nice cruise ship. The food was OK, a bit overpriced but that's normal. At our dinner we were seated at a table that was shaking violently (glasses and cutlery moving around). We informed the waiter and I half expected he would suggest we move to the empty table next to us (not shaking) but he simply remarked "it's a ship".
Anyway my biggest qualm would still be the wifi being out. This made the trip difficult to bare. Even the staff complained and from these conversations I could deduce that it was not a priority to be fixed. If you don't want a frustrating/boring trip to Norway and back, I could not recommend this trip less. If you want to ferry a vehicle in a pretty nice ship and then explore Norway, I would say this is a great option.

Wow!!! Such an incredible experience, everything have just been way over expectations. After reading reviews we where no sure what to expect. But had a lovely cabin and the staff where so kind, even celebrated my birthday! Food was great but the real highlight was the entertainment! Every night they have a band playing in the large theatre and then the highlight of the evening is their Bingo/Quiz show! Have never enjoyed myself so much, brilliant entertainers! You need to experience it yourself! We will for sure soon be back for more fun on the seven seas!

The information and check-in/boarding went great both ways, with car. Old boat, a little dirty in the corridors and it shines through the doorframe of the cabin all night.
Bad bed, thin sheets that slip off the duvet, no towels for washing hands, just two old towels for shower.
No light in one of two nightlights and a glowing green knob under the TV that lights up the cabin at night.
Me Pinacolada tasted like pineapple juice with water.
The dinner buffet was not good and the dining room not very cozy. A very hard light all night and a lot of tables for 8 people, most people are 2-4 in one group.
The breakfast buffet was good and the cakes probably very good, as the dutch people on the next table filled up bags with cakes which they took with them in a rucksack.
Few people on the boat make it boring on board, even if those who sang were ok. We are used to Colorline Kiel/Oslo and will probably choose it next time. Sad, as we were looking forward to this new route to Norway.

Was attending a festival in NL, booked 2way trip with HNL. After a while received mail about change of port, so the boat went from kr sand to emden, germany instead of eemshaven, NL. Not that big detour i thought. Om the return trip we arrived 15.45, having much trouble finding checkin, because of poor signing. Went to the terminal, they told us to go down to the gate, at the gate we got told no access, and the gate closed. Shortly after we heard the siren of mechanical movement on car deck, the car ramp got retracted(the entry way for foot passengers in that port) heard the horn, then the boat left us ashore at 16.35. with 4 people left on shore. And in the aftermath we needed to go by 3train and kiel-oslo ferry. They refuse to come to an agreement on settling the economical losses due to early departure. Can really not reccommend these guys.

Took the ferry from Kristiansand to Emden without car. Boarding in Kristiansand is effective and okay. The cabins are nice. The Grand buffet is under average for those kind of ferries (Color Line, Dfds), but the desserts are good. Plus for soft drinks and wine/beer included in the buffet price. The hopeless thing about this trip is that you have to be out of the cabin 9:15 when the ferry embarks 10:15. And even worse, you have to wait to 11:00 to disembark the ship! This is idiotic and makes the total experience no more than 3 stars out of 5.

Departure and arrival time, it is on time. The accommodation was also interesting.

IT WAS A LOVELY TRIP. WELL WORTH DOING.

WORST travel experience I ever had.
I was moving from Oslo to Spain and booked the boat from Kristiansand to Eemshaven as I had to travel with a dog that can’t fly and had bags. They rebooked my trip one month before, which meant I had to pay for an airbnb for 2 days - ok.
Arrived in Kristiansand 2 days before the trip (the day I was initially supposed to travel and after receiving an email confirming the boat) they simply announce the new boat was canceled and not sure of when would be available again. Customer support was less than empathetic with my situation and basically told me they had nothing to do about it and I had to find another way and, of course, pay for everything - the agent also hung up on me after accusing me of being rude to him as I said that someone should sue their company for such a bad service.
Now, 4 months LATER I get an email offering me a lousy discount as compensation, after not being relevant for me anymore and having to pay for hotels, another boat to Denmark, and several train tickets + hotel to actually get to the Netherlands and enormous emotional and physical stress.
Really, do not trust this company with your vacation or travel plans, it is not only unreliable but, in the event of a problem, they'll offer you ZERO zupport.

We booked our trip in February, for a minicruise on easter-weekend. In the meantime i've read a lot of bad reviews, but my experience is quite positive.. Off course, some negative issues: tv not working (no/chopping signal, at least in our cabin), mcp and wifi didn't work, and it's the only company i've travelled on minicruise with, were we had to check in again for the return. Tax-free is also the same price as grocery stores in Norway, at least on the sweets.
Hopefully they will get a gangway ashore in the future, so the passengers don't have to walk via cardeck, the stairs in Kristiansand is not easy if you have heavy luggage..

On the other hand, my experience was mostly positive.
Good and quick responce on e-mail, when i had questions after making the booking, good information on sms/e-mail the last days before departure. The ship looked clean, and not at all old (as many reviews claims). Most of the crew was very friendly (our little boy became very good friends with waiters Anne and Miroslav, hope i got the names right), and the food at both the grill house and grand buffet were superb.
Free bus transfer to and from Groningen for minicruise-passengers is a big plus.
Other than what i have pointed out, i would not hessitate to take a trip again.

Cabin was filthy. Very filthy!
Crew was polite.

booked my minicruise via Social Deal, I was excited. Booked my trip for march 23rd 2023, yesterday morning (march 22) I received an email with a message that my cruise was cancelled. 24 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE!! We almost booked our train tickets (€180+ tickets). When I received the email, I was searching reviews. They were BAD. Don’t book with this company.

Turned up at Kristiansand at noon (check in opens 11am) nobody there. Went to office, nobody there, ship was in harbour but just a couple of crew on deck. Rang helpline, no answer. Eventually found a port authority staff member who said the ship has been in dock for three weeks, they just keep cancelling sailings with two days notice. I didn't even get an email. Had to take a ferry to Denmark instead,so another 8 hours of driving. I wouldn't use this company again.

Ferry trip canceled 48 hours before departure. I wish I had seen the other reviews, many faced similar issues over different weeks, I would have never booked this ferry. Luckily we found an alternative through Danemark (that they propose) , but 10 hours driving more. Due to short notice we could not chose a better option.

I would give a star for something if it wasn't for the fact that they cancelled our trip twice. They share a port with another company and if they are delayed it's a screwed you your problem kind of deal. So I will be asking my money back. No use booking.com a trip when it's cancelled twice.

Cabin was extremly filthy, severe water damage on the batroom floor.
Buffet was a joke.
The ship was late to port in Holland due to lack of port, result was that all roundtrip pasengeres had to stay onboard and didnt get to se Groningen.
Was waken up in Kristiansand by a angry screaming man in my cabin turned out to be the cheif securety officers way of waking up everebody that didnt wakeup of the speaker anoncment of ship porting in Kristiansand, pepole where shocked by this behavior.
Was going to ask for a new trip since we didnt get the Groningen experience, but in aftertought i have landed on that i will never go onboard that ship again.
Bar and casino crew was polite and did a good job and was rewarded.

On the way down to Netherlands, we got a delay which was announced only a couple hours before departing. Was due to a storm, so when we travelled at Night it was a terrible experience. The boat should not have departed on that day, no one could sleep or eat all the 20 hours omboard. On the way back to Norway they informed the Night before (when call center was not open so we could not Get more clarifications) that due to operational problems the ship would not sail. We had then 2 more nights in Netherlands, without knowing if we would Get some refund. In the end we got 80euro per Night per person, which covered the hotel but not food and other expenses. Old ship and uncomfortable beds/cabins, dirty, food expensive and bad. We took our own food on the way back because its not worth it to eat there. You have to walk through stairs and weather with luggage on both ports, not suitable for older people or bad weather. The staff was friendly and we got the refund pretty quickly after the trip, the only good part. I took a short break and didnt pay a lot of money for the trip, if I had used more money on this I would be Even more disappointed