Sidekick32

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the late response. It has been busy at work getting caught up from the week off. I did not mean to instill any fear of anyone going on the Eurodam soon! I really really hope all of you going on her have an excellent time! Reading through all these posts have made me wonder if I had perhaps too high of expectations of trip? But, even if I compare this trip to my 10 day on the Zuiderdam (similar class of ship, well the Eurodam has one extra deck, right?) the differences were night and day. I think a few of you hit the nail on the head - the crew needs a bit of R&R. I realize I went during peak travel season. The ship was sold out (and I overheard some crew up in the Tamarind bar saying the next few cruises were sold out too) and I can only imagine that adds a lot of stress on them.

Hi All, Let me preface this rather scaring review with some context. I've been on over 30+ cruises in my life. With, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn, Windstar, Celebrity, Norwegian and of course; HAL. Of the HAL ships, I've been on the Rotterdam 2x (both the old one & new one), Zuiderdam, Koningsdam, and just recently disembarked the Eurodam on an Alaska trip on July 22nd. My previous cruises with HAL were pre-pandemic and were absolutely wonderful, except for some plumbing issues on the old Rotterdam ship. The (new) Rotterdam and Koningsdam stay in my mind as top five cruises I've ever been on (beating out Sebourn when you consider value for $). However, I don't know what happened on the Eurodam and I do hope that this is not fleet wide, but I seemingly has whip lash after the very, very poor experience I just recently had on the Eurodam: In succinct: atrocious staff attitude, poor dining experience, poor ship cleanliness, poor live music choices. Usually on a cruise, if a staff member is rude, that one rude experience sticks with me; however, on the Eurodam the opposite was true. There was only a few experiences the entire 7-day voyage where a staff member was actually polite and courteous that stuck me with me. Instead, I was met with a standoffish attitude from nearly every single member of the vessel. The absolute worst offenders were those at the Explorations Cafe; how nice would it be to at least be acknowledge or greeted at 7am in the morning while ordering a specialty coffee? Well, not on the Eurodam. When I got to the front of the line the staff taking the order would just look at me, and I would proceed to order - what an odd occurrence I thought to myself, perhaps it was just because of the turn day weariness. No, this cavalier attitude continued throughout the entire voyage. A specific example, when I asked if they had skim milk I was greeted with a "No", there was no substitution offered, when I asked if there was whole milk, again "No" at lease this time though they said they had 2%. Okay, got it, they call themselves a "Coffee Bar" but literally only have one (1) type of milk - this lasted for the entire voyage. Even McDonald's will give you skim milk if you ask for it. This staff "attitude" just continued throughout the whole voyage, it was quite bizarre. I don't know if they were frazzled out, nearing the end of their contracts, or missed home the poor attitude of the staff was just beyond me. They were just genuinely unhappy folks. The only positive experience I have is of the server up in the Tamarind bar - he gave recommendations on cocktails and actually seemed happy - cool! I will make the other disappointing items quick (no order of importance): 1.) No pastry selection in Main Dining Room Breakfast - the bread plate was there, but no one ever came around to offer pastries 2.) Pinnacle Grill experience was awful. Fayth (server) did her best, but the steak I had "Medium" was tough as leather, I had trouble cutting it even with those huge Pinnacle grill knives - what? Also the Key Lime pie dessert was awful, and the sides absolutely pitiful, the side of "beets and bleu cheese" was literally 2 slices of beets, quartered and sprinkled with blue cheese. The "Wedge Salad" had dirty lettuce (not wash) and an uninspired dressing 3.) Filthy buffet, tables were bussed quite promptly I will say; however the carpet, tables, chairs, and window ledges were filthy. So many crumbs underneath the table, even at breakfast! That made me wonder, was it even cleaned at night? 4.) Dining Room Food for dinner portions were absolutely laughably small. I realize the "Petite Fillet" would be small, but four tiny (overcooked) slices of beef is an insult. Another example: the "Roasted Cauliflower" at lunch, was you guys, literally a stalk of Cauliflower, one stalk about 1.5 inches tall, cut in half and served roasted - what (this was served on a large plate too, and it really was quite a funny photo) 5.) Ocean Bar had the same soundtrack 4 songs, that repeated, over, and over, and over. The poor staff working there, like change up the music. 6.) The pools were filthy. I have photos of rust, calcium or other "mysterious" build up around the edge of the water in the pool. This was especially bad in the seaview aft pool. 7.) No more Lincoln Center Stage, that area was absolutly dormant except for the the "Art" Auctions, of over-priced giclee's. There was a Piano on the stage there, that was covered the entire time - how sad. I loved HAL for its yummy food, upbeat and friendly staff, and great live music - but none of these expectations were met. I don't know if this is indictive of the entire fleet (someone please tell me I am wrong), but I cannot recommend HAL to really anyone after this experience. P.S: The Wifi was actually fantastic, download speeds were awful. But for facetiming, texting, web browsing and streaming everything was A-OK.