Mike B Landlubber

23 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

Interesting that you mention the beds.  When we checked in, the women at guest services gushed that they just put in new mattresses.  DH and I thought the bed one of the most comfortable we have slept on, including our own bed.  The added topper and duvet were heavenly. Firm mattress with a soft topping. Did your bed look like the bed in my photo?

My beds did look like that. What specifically bothered me was that my mattress felt saggy and back a little sore after first few hours, but then I shifted to sleep on the center of the bed and it was fine for that and succeeding night. I may have gotten a bad individual mattress or just have been unlucky and giving them a unfair black mark. I still like and recommend the hotel.

23 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

Interesting that you mention the beds.  When we checked in, the women at guest services gushed that they just put in new mattresses.  DH and I thought the bed one of the most comfortable we have slept on, including our own bed.  The added topper and duvet were heavenly. Firm mattress with a soft topping. Did your bed look like the bed in my photo? 

 

Our bathroom was adequate enough, but with this type room, we expected two sinks.  I realize that all rooms are different, so perhaps the configuration did not allow for a larger bath.  The bedroom was very large.  There are two sections not shown in my photo.  One other odd thing about the bathroom was that the toilet had a beam going up beside it that caused one to have to sit at a slight angle.  Got us ready for the ships toilets. 😁

 

Looking forward to following the rest of your review.

2 hours ago, grannyshell said:

Thanks for the hotel review. We're also staying there in September pre-cruise. Are those ramp-like structures alongside the stairs actual ramps and wide enough to wheel a suitcase up/down?

Alas, no. I manhandled my suitcase and carry on up one at a time. There wasn’t a lot of space at the top of the stairs to organize either. I arrived about 9:30 in the evening and the the front area had only one clerk. I left at checkout time and there was a porter there who carried the big bag and made it easy. If you were arriving at more conventional hours, you will hopefully get help. I really liked the hotel but this was an annoyance. I suspect they can’t change the front because of historic preservation laws. When I checked out, I asked if there was an easier alternate route and they just referred me to the porter. 

On M/S Rotterdam, they have 2600 passengers to serve, so the pre-breakfast staff meeting is important!

@Iamthesea I think your theory about spotlights being used to give the feel of a ship is probably correct, though I think of them more as being associated with a theater. To cover the traditional review items that I didn’t cover because I was focused on the weird stuff in the room, I should mention that the bathroom was excellent for me with a modern walk-in shower and fixtures.  My bed was not a strong point. A mattress pad had been added to the bed, apparently to try to squeeze another year out of an aging mattress. The combination wasn’t terrible to sleep on, but definitely wasn’t great. I am not a member of Team Carry-on Only, and on my evening arrival I had some trouble at the hotel front entrance moving my checked bag and carry-on up some stairs and through a classic revolving door setup with little maneuvering room in front of it. When I checked out, a bellhop was on duty, and with his assistance the exit was easy. In the hotel restaurant, the added-cost breakfast buffet was very satisfactory and my lunch was excellent.

This is a sea day for us, so I can spend some time on my interesting hotel room. Viewing this post, remember that the building was originally built as the office for Holland America Lines. I reserved their most basic style of room, which their website accurately describes as being in the interior of the hotel. It is on a light shaft so light from the outside does come in the windows. But the view is of windows on the other side of the light shaft. One of the earliest things I noticed about the room is that there are two massive spotlights hanging from the ceiling where you might expect a more normal lamp. I’ve gone back-and-forth over whether they were actually in the room for some reason I can’t imagine, or they were added later as a curiosity. 
 

More interesting is the unusual set of closet doors I noticed. On examination, they proved to be very thick and massive and made of steel. This had originally been a vault! The locking mechanism had been removed, and it was dark when I looked inside. Opening the doors found that there is quite a substantial area inside, and it has been set up to be used with a chair, hangers and lights. I can conceive of Holland America wanting to store Money or perhaps sensitive documents in 1901 when digital money transfers and records were not even in science fiction. But I noticed that, in addition to the one vault in my room, in a nearby hall, there was a double level vault, one above the other. I find it difficult to believe that HAL needed that many vaults, but there they are! The spotlights are another problem. I see no reason to put spotlights in our room with the vault. But it is certainly odd to imagine an interior designer overseeing the conversion to a hotel room saying “Let’s get some big spotlights and put them in the room just to freak people out!”. It remains a puzzle for me.

44 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 

 

OP, great photos!  Not sure if you are finished with your review of the hotel, or if you have pictures of your room to share.  I have some if anyone is interested.

 

Have a wonderful cruise!!!

My room was fascinating in itself, pics will be forthcoming! 🙂

The Hotel New York was the original headquarters building for Holland America company. They used it from 190 one to 1977. But now it is a hotel right by the pier. I was able to check out of the hotel and roll my luggage behind me right to the boarding area for Rotterdam yesterday. I spent two days at the hotel and it was nice.

16 minutes ago, RedIguana said:

That old building the original headquarters/hotel for Holland America line?

Yep, I’ll have a LOT more to say about it!

Last year when I read Norwegians were serious about limiting cruise ship access to certain destinations I did a few minutes of confirmation research and signed up for this cruise on the spot, without even leaving my chair. I thought I had beaten the restrictions, but soon after I signed up, several controversial ports were edited out anyway! But here I am anyway. 😉 After a short land bound visit to a Baltic port, I arrived in Rotterdam to board Rotterdam and we are off today. Boarding today was routine, just before checkout time from my hotel at 10:55 AM I was able to drag my luggage behind me for just a couple of minutes and walk right into the baggage drop. I walked through the process almost without stopping until it actually came time to board the ship. That took perhaps ten minutes of waiting in line. I made it to the Dutch Cafe a few minutes before they opened at 11:30, and slurped down my pea soup and headed for my room. Here are a few pics….

Note the small old-fashioned building, I’ll have more to say about it soon.

“What, you mean there’s another Rotterdam!?”

I was not the only one watching as we sailed out of the harbor

“Look here, Chopin is a tough ship, and we will have no namby-pamby piano playing, see?”

Oops, double-posted, sorry!

I had a stern cabin and did occasionally leave but really liked my own space and view.

This photo is exactly ten years and one month old today! Taken on April 26, 2014. I stumbled upon it while looking for something else. It shows the M/V Aegean Odyssey, which I don’t think is in service now, from a hill overlooking Monemvasia, Greece. Monemvasia is still probably my favorite port ever. Aegean Odyssey was operated by Voyages to Antiquity, which ceased operations I believe in 2019.

On 5/24/2024 at 3:40 PM, roxybear135 said:

How long did it take everyone to get confirmation of the redeemed offer? I loaded the offer onto my card about a week ago and booked and paid for my cruise this morning (so about 5 hours ago now) but still haven’t received the congratulations email. The charge is pending on my card and the cruise consultant said the transaction went through. 

I don’t remember the exact time before I got the congratulations email, but it was an hour or less.

(Mostly) Success!

I had noticed that the original offer I clicked on was for $250 back, but the congratulations email I received mentioned $350 back. I am lucky I even noticed the change. Naturally, I hoped to get the $350 offer. Last night my payment went from pending to done, and my rebate posted as well. Alas, it is for $250! But I’m glad to have success at getting that. I still count it as a win, especially since it is what I actually signed up for.

2 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

What is the AMX  CC that you are getting $350 back from AMX ?  We have only the  blue AMX CC & would get $260 for $1000  ;but ,we like the $350   AMX credit rebate  .Is your AMX CC   one of the free ccs or do you pay a yearly fee /

Thanks in advance for your reply

It is pretty common for there to be slightly different versions of offers for different people. And many people never get offers that would seem very appropriate. Either it is a carefully-programmed algorithm sending the most profitable offer to each customer based on detailed data analysis, or it is a random scattershot thing. You choose! 🙂 but I strongly suspect you are stuck with the offer you received.

4 hours ago, BBQ Bacon said:

 

I was hoping it would be open early for first breakfast.  But as a snack for third breakfast and a pre-lunch snack will have to suffice.  Then a mid-afternoon snack followed by pre-dinner snack and pre-bedtime snack will have to do.

 

I thought your avatar was a maple leaf, but I guess it is a hobbit in disguise…. 😉

I just used my Green card with the AMEX offer ($350 off $1200 for me) to make payment on an existing reservation with a prominent online cruise agency. A few minutes later, I got an email from AMEX congratulating me on using my HAL offer, which is usually what happens when I redeem an offer. I will watch for the payment to post. My Vacation is ready to go…

I had the offer on my AMEX Platinum and Green cards. If you have the Green Card, I recommend adding it there, because the Green Card gets 3 Membership Rewards Points per dollar on cruises, while the Platinum (and I believe the Gold) only get one point per dollar. You’ll only be able to add the offer to one card, so choose wisely!

You will figure out your own preferences, but here are mine: As with many others, I like to book specialty meals on sea days. I sometimes book them on the first night of the cruise, especially if I expect that my boarding will have been easy (no last minute travel arrivals, etc. ). Once I ate in the Mexican Restaurant on Norwegian Dawn the first night, and there was only one other couple there! If I eat on a port day, I try to eat on a day where the ship leaves port early to avoid weariness or rushing to clean up. I like to book all my specialty meals early to ensure I get the days and times I want. This is especially important for Teppenyaki (sp?) in my experience. But you might find all these choices horrible, so pick what makes sense to you.

I was on a Baltic cruise from Norwegian Dawn last year and did the Berlin trip. Since I’m not sure when I will make it there in a way that gives more time, and it is the site of a lot of important to me history, I really wanted to grab the opportunity. Time on the train wasn’t a complete waste, I enjoyed viewing the countryside, although there is nothing extraordinary to see, and I had a chance to go up in the cab of the train, which was interesting. No regrets from me.  But I wouldn’t be critical of someone who decided that wasn’t a good use of their time. 

Bladerunner’s comment brought me back here, and I realized I left off the link to the article on the Iceland eclipse…. https://www.space.com/total-solar-eclipse-2026-a-complete-guide

20 minutes ago, Ian Ando said:

Hello, I have read your many posts with interest. I am looking at this cruise for 2025. I have a couple of questions you may be able to answer.
(1) how many hours were you docked at Fuerte Amador, Panama? The full day?

(2) was the cruise ship full? And do you know the numbers of Americans, Canadians, Australians etc?

Thanks Ian

 

We were docked overnight at Fuerte Amador, but didn’t get a second port day out of it. After spending the night, we lifted anchor before dawn to get “in line” and enter the Panama Canal at about sunrise.

i heard from another passenger that the ship was fully-booked, though it didn’t feel that way to me. Crowds were never a problem at all. So I’m not sure that was true. For those who do not want a crowded ship this was a good cruise. I never heard any official numbers on national make up. Anecdotally most of the passengers I talked to were from the USA or were from Canada, though I don’t remember any Australians. I noted a small percentage of Asians and some from Spanish-speaking countries. I was impressed that the population seemed even more geriatric than the usual Holland America cruise. I doubt there were 20 passengers who were under 40 on the whole ship. I’m in my mid-sixties, and (unscientifically) I thought I was younger than at least 80% of the passengers I saw. The length of the cruise, time of year, and being off the usual popular cruise routes was the reason, I’m sure. Most of these people were hardcore cruisers of great experience, though I did talk a couple of times with a couple who were on their first cruise!!! The wife had some sort of deal from her work, it wasn’t a newbie picking this cruise off a brochure. 🙂

Here is an excellent article on the Iceland/Spain eclipse. Sounds like Iceland and the waters around it may have overcast problems, and the duration of totality is a bit short. I have my eye more on the Egyptian eclipse (That’s where I would prefer to go to see it, most likely from land), but that has its own problems of political stability! 

I successfully booked a solo cruise on MSC last year, my first with them. After having eaten my way across the Atlantic in their MDR, I’d say it was quite a public service for them to not let people book their cruises! But different strokes for different folks… 🙂