Review of our Christmas cruise on the Rotterdam that just ended...

[Scrapchick]

This is my review of our recent holiday cruise on the Rotterdam, which speaks for itself, so I won't add any more here. I am sorry it is so long...

 

 

 

 

It is safe to say that this cruise did not live up to expectations. We have cruised 40 times and taken several voyages with HAL, so we consider ourselves to be experienced cruisers. We are two adults and a 9 year old daughter. We took this cruise for the holiday at sea experience and because it was a convenient drive from our house. We did not take this trip for the ports, as we have been to Mexico many times before. We cruised to Hawaii last Christmas on the Golden Princess and hoped to have a similar fun experience on the Rotterdam this time. We booked a verandah suite on Deck 6, the last cabin at the back on the starboard side, which we were told was the last remaining triple occupancy cabin on the ship. We booked direct with HAL Reservations.

 

We got off to a very bad start when we arrived in San Diego and checked in only to find we no longer had an assigned cabin, despite having checked in online and printed baggage tags out successfully. It took a while before anyone could tell us anything and the best they could do was that there was something wrong with our cabin, they didn’t know what and we would find out when we got on the ship. Getting on the ship without an assigned cabin is not easy. Our cruise cards set off siren alerts at the security check on the ship and we had to be escorted to the front desk area where we sat for half an hour with absolutely no idea what was going on. Finally, someone emerged to tell us that our cabin had apparently been “flooded” by rain during the stormy arrival in San Diego that morning. Somehow enough rain had come under the 6 foot deep covered balcony and managed to penetrate four feet inside the cabin door, soaking the floor. Quite how this could happen is beyond me. We were escorted to the cabin where we found a large fan roaring away drying the floor out, which was still very damp. The HAL girl insisted the cabin was in rentable condition.

 

It was quite obvious from the uneven floor by the balcony door and the pitted, rusted threshold that this cabin has been “flooded” on many previous occasions and probably will be again in the future. It is hard to believe a rainstorm could do this and even harder to believe that ours was the only cabin affected. Clearly, this cabin has water issues. There was also a large crack in the side window panel glass and wallpaper that has been improperly applied in large areas by the cabin door.

 

However, more important to us was the fact that there was no sofa in the cabin and a gaping big space along the wall where one should have been, which was filled with two upright chairs and an adjustable table. I asked the HAL girl where exactly the third person in this triple occupancy cabin was supposed to sleep, as there were only two beds. All eyes went to the ceiling in search of the pop down bed that did not exist. We were in a double occupancy cabin and there were three of us on a sold out ship... At this point discussion turned to moving cabins, but of course, as was confirmed as we headed out to sea, none were available and we were well and truly stuck. The solution was that HAL delivered a rollaway bed to our cabin for our daughter to sleep on and we had two upright chairs to sit in during the day. The first night the rollaway bed sunk in the middle and had only a thin sheet on top of the cold, plastic mattress. Not a good way for anyone to have to sleep. We insisted that the bed be made up comfortably with a mattress pad cover the following night and was propped up so it did not sag in the middle, and asked that it be removed from the cabin during the day so we had space to move. The balcony came in very handy for furniture storage.

 

It was later confirmed by HAL that we had indeed booked a triple cabin and the error was theirs. Before the end of the cruise we received a substantial shipboard credit as compensation for the cabin situation, in addition to an apology letter and plates of gourmet cookies etc during the cruise.

 

So not a good start at all and not enhanced by the first two days of not being able to serve ourselves in the Lido for hygiene reasons. We could not even help ourselves to tea and coffee without assistance and it was just infuriating. I was just fed up and wishing we hadn’t come at this point. I regained my sense of balance and humour a couple of days into the cruise and we got on with it as best we could.

Other than the previously mentioned cabin issues we found our verandah cabin to be quiet and comfortable, well appointed with ample storage space and a newly remodeled bathroom. Had it been waterproof, in good repair and containing a sofa bed like every other verandah suite on the ship, we would have been even happier.

 

We felt the service overall was excellent and the food was extremely good, both in the MDR and the Lido buffet. We had no complaints about the food at all. Our dinner table was fine, our waiters were wonderful, the food was well presented, tasty and always hot and fresh. We ate at the Pinnacle twice and thought the food was perfect both times, although the service was great the first time and very slow the second.

 

We found the entertainment to be lacking in many areas. There just isn’t enough going on, or enough variety. We were very disappointed overall in the offerings. We love to play Trivia and had a great team of dedicated players who begged for more Trivia during the days. The CD was Steve James, brand new to the ship and to HAL on this cruise, and he only had a certain amount of Trivia questions downloaded and that was that. The Explorations Lounge became an important part of our lives and we did a lot of jigzaw puzzles to pass the time. We warmed up to the CD as the cruise progressed but felt the entertainment left a lot to be desired. Not nearly enough enrichment on board, no dance hosts, no lectures. The computer classes were of no use to us as we do not use PC's.

 

We liked the gym very much and felt it was a good size and very well equipped with a good range of cardio equipment. We also appreciated the fact that it was lightly used and took advantage of that.

 

The biggest disappointment to us were the holiday festivities, or lack of them. The ship was tastefully decorated but the holiday aspect overall was very muted. The tree lighting ceremony on the first evening involved a lonely looking fake tree in a corner of the pool deck, a handful of staff singers, the CD, a bit of hot chocolate and a few gingerbread cookies. It was between the two dinner sittings and about 20 passengers showed up to watch a child flip the switch and light up the tree. Incredibly lame. The design of the ship means there is no central gathering space, so this sad looking tree by the pool was the start of the festivities. Christmas movies were shown, all black and white extremely old films that would have little appeal for anyone under 50. There were 140 children and their families on board but the whole focus was on the older passengers and what HAL assumed they wanted, not on providing anything for families of all ages to enjoy.

 

The Christmas Eve carol service was performed in Indonesian and Filipino by the crew and took place at 11PM at night. I asked the CD if we could do anything earlier that families might be able to participate in, as most passengers would be in bed by that time, but no, Club HAL handled the kids and their needs, so there was nothing else planned. We did not bother staying up. Club HAL had nothing Christmas related planned at all for the kids until Christmas morning, when Santa made his appearance. Santa was very patient and did a great job with the kids and it was a nice effort. It was all over by Noon and there was nothing else after that to celebrate, not even a religious service on Christmas morning.

We did have a lovely Christmas meal in the dining room, the most festive place on the ship. Waiters wore Christmas hats, but there were no table crackers, no Christmas music from the orchestra, no yule log parade... It was a most un-Christmas like Christmas... Given that many people went on the cruise in order to celebrate the holidays at sea and paid a premium to be on the ship for this sailing, we felt very let down and disappointed. New Year’s Eve was a lot more fun with a poolside party and midnight countdown and when we woke up on New Year’s Day the ship had been completely stripped of all holiday decorations and it was as if Christmas had never happened. I think HAL were relieved it was over and they didn't have to pretend anymore.

 

We thought the ship was in good condition and as updated as it was possible for it to be, but it seems a lot older than its 13 years and part of that is down to its outdated design, as well as its subdued daytime atmosphere and lack of activities. The average age of passengers was lower than normal because of the holidays but there was still a lot of extremely old and frail people on board and a significant number of walkers, wheelchairs and motor scooters, many utilised by middle aged passengers while active seniors had no need of them. Traveling with much older passengers doesn’t bother me at all and we had many wonderful interactions with seniors, but overall it is hard to feel you’re not in a floating rest home and many people have all but given up on life. HAL responds in kind and treats them as if they have...

 

Our daughter spent little time in Club HAL this cruise, as she is now beginning to lose interest in kids club activities. We thought the Club HAL staff worked hard and did a good job with the kids from what we saw. We thought the kids on the ship were well behaved and low key, although I’m sure others will say otherwise. I have defended HAL as a great choice for families on the CC boards for a long time and we have had some marvelous experiences on HAL ships in previous years. Our best cruises were on ships with personable, highly visible captains such as John Scott on the Noordam and Mark Rowden on the Ryndam. The Rotterdam captain, Robert-Jan Kan was practically invisible and except for a brief appearance at the Mariners Brunch, we never once saw him anywhere on the ship. Maybe that is why the Rotterdam seems so utterly rudder-less and anaemic.

 

Overall this ended up being a good cruise, but definitely not a great one. We did not sense that Signature of Excellence in any way. We blame the management, not the hard working and wonderful crew who did such a lovely job and made a difference. They deserve better and so do the passengers. It was a lacklustre experience on a ship that struggled to display any enthusiasm or holiday spirit. We will sail with HAL again at some point but are going to take a break for now. I will find it hard to recommend this ship to families and we would definitely not take a holiday cruise with HAL again on this or any other ship in the fleet.

[jasl]

Your post caught my eye because we are sailing the Rotterdam in May and I wanted to get recent info on the ship.

In December we sailed the Nieuw Amsterdam and our check-in was a copy of yours, although no security alarms went off. Embarkation documents were printed before our departure and I checked a few days prior when all seemed OK. At check-in all details such as passport, emergency info, etc had to be re-done and we were finally given our keys only to find that they did not work. A trip to the front desk solved this, but our Mariner Status was never recorded either. I checked our sailing history and the cruise has not been added as a credit, but the one following (we did B2B, and no problems with the second booking) has been shown on our records.

So sorry to learn that your Christmas experience was such a disappointment. In the 80's and 90's we did many Holiday cruises and they were always excellent with good entertainment, happy atmosphere and great food. Decorations were beautiful and plentyful.

Although our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise was prior to Christmas, the ship was very well decorated with lots of trees in the public areas.

HAL used to do such a wonderful job to create the Christmas spirit and I am sorry it was lacking on your sailing.

[ccure911]

We had the same flooding problems 11/22/10-12/22/10 in our suite on the seventh floor, plus fans to dry out the carpet, etc, and learned most aft passengers on the sixth floor had major flooding plus mold in their cabins throughout our 30-day cruise to the South Pacific. There is a huge water leaking problem on this ship!!

 

As we returned to San Diego from five days at sea, there was very little rain, only mist, so HAL was not telling you the truth about the flooding of your cabin due to rain.

 

Water leaking in cabins, was an ongoing problem for 30-days, plus the constant plumbing problems with toliets not flushing. Won't sail HAL again due to our 30-day experience.

[HappyInVan]

We had the same flooding problems 11/22/10-12/22/10 in our suite on the seventh floor...

Water leaking in cabins, was an ongoing problem for 30-days, plus the constant plumbing problems with toliets not flushing. Won't sail HAL again due to our 30-day experience.

 

I was on the ship before your trip. I guess you didn't see the leaks in the public areas. The leak in the ceiling outside the Mix needed buckets (lots of them).

 

 

 

Overall this ended up being a good cruise, but definitely not a great one. We did not sense that Signature of Excellence in any way. We blame the management, not the hard working and wonderful crew who did such a lovely job and made a difference. They deserve better and so do the passengers.

 

 

 

Welcome to the new world of HAL!

[Krazy Kruizers]

THank you for taking the time to write your review.

 

So sorry that your cruise got off to such a bad start. Glad that you were able to make the best of a bad situation.

[Scrapchick]

We had the same flooding problems 11/22/10-12/22/10 in our suite on the seventh floor, plus fans to dry out the carpet, etc, and learned most aft passengers on the sixth floor had major flooding plus mold in their cabins throughout our 30-day cruise to the South Pacific. There is a huge water leaking problem on this ship!!

 

As we returned to San Diego from five days at sea, there was very little rain, only mist, so HAL was not telling you the truth about the flooding of your cabin due to rain.

 

Water leaking in cabins, was an ongoing problem for 30-days, plus the constant plumbing problems with toliets not flushing. Won't sail HAL again due to our 30-day experience.

 

Thank you for posting this... I had read of many water issues on the ship before our sailing but never thought we'd get caught up in it like we did. The flooding due to heavy rain story never rang true with me, and the uneven floor and condition of the door threshold area (I took pics) told me this cabin had a lot of problems with water. There's no way rain could have come in and soaked a cabin that was protected from the elements by a covered balcony and cabins above unless it was a typhoon and the rain was coming in at a horizontal angle through an open door...

 

The sun dried the carpet out on day 2 but HAL kept wanting to send in the fans when we left the cabin and I just refused to have anything more to do with fans in the cabin after the first afternoon. We could hardly hear ourselves think over the noise of them and I wasn't about to call them very time we left the cabin so they could bring the fans in and remove them later. We were annoyed enough already with the constant back and forthing over the bed situation and all the concerned phone calls from the Front Office about whether everything was okay or not, which of course, it wasn't!!

 

I'm going to give my TA a copy of the review plus pictures to pass on to her HAL rep.

 

The irony is we only accepted the aft cabin because we needed a triple and cabin 6221 was said to be the last remaining triple cabin on the ship... We much prefer a midship location but the triple was necessary so we took that location, and ended up in a double cabin anyway...

 

I appreciate you posting and sharing your thoughts with me.

[Mary Ellen]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. :eek: :eek: :eek:

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[sapper1]

It is so refreshing to read a critical review that is not posted in the form of a rant. Your ability to remain coherent, rational, calm and factual while writing about what must have been a very distressing situation is admirable. Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experiences and I am glad that you were able to see on the bright side and salvage some enjoyment out of your cruise.

Console yourself with the thought that the next one has just got to be better.

[PaulMCO]

We had the same flooding problems 11/22/10-12/22/10 in our suite on the seventh floor, plus fans to dry out the carpet, etc, and learned most aft passengers on the sixth floor had major flooding plus mold in their cabins throughout our 30-day cruise to the South Pacific. There is a huge water leaking problem on this ship!!

 

As we returned to San Diego from five days at sea, there was very little rain, only mist, so HAL was not telling you the truth about the flooding of your cabin due to rain.

 

Water leaking in cabins, was an ongoing problem for 30-days, plus the constant plumbing problems with toliets not flushing. Won't sail HAL again due to our 30-day experience.

 

 

 

 

What cabin numbers were you all in??

[DAllenTCY]

Sorry about the major issues that you encountered; however, your comment "So not a good start at all and not enhanced by the first two days of not being able to serve ourselves in the Lido for hygiene reasons. We could not even help ourselves to tea and coffee without assistance and it was just infuriating".

All HAL cruises nowadays observe a 48-hour "Anti-Norovirus" routine in the Lido Buffet.

The purpose is to prevent the spread of any virus unknowingly brought onboard. So far this fall-winter season, I am unaware of any outbreak of Norovirus on any HAL ship except the Niew Amsterdam's Atlantic Crossing at the end of October. So apparently the process is working and in my opinion, it should be continued.

David

[bepsf]

There is likely a structural issue at hand there - I daresay that the water isn't coming from under the door at all:

6221 is now at the end of the row, where before the addition/update last fall there used to be one more side-facing cabin before the end of the row.

It would appear from the OP's description of the extent of the water damage within the space that either the removal of the adjacent cabin and/or the installation of the steel wall next to 6221 was faulty, resulting in the water leaks into 6221 from the newly-exposed side where an exterior steel panel had to be installed with the cabin module already in place - which is backwards from the way it's done at the shipyard. Seems obvious to me that the work was done improperly and the shipboard crew don't have the capability to pull the cabin module apart to do the necessary repairs properly while the ship is at sea.

 

There was obviously sofabed in that room originally, which was likely ruined and simply disposed of due to the severe water damage sometime prior to the OP's arrival.

 

The solution is for HAL to take this room completely out of service until after the room can be torn apart, the source of the water leak identified and corrected and the room re-fitted properly.

[ShipsAreTheBest]

Sorry about the major issues that you encountered; however, your comment "So not a good start at all and not enhanced by the first two days of not being able to serve ourselves in the Lido for hygiene reasons. We could not even help ourselves to tea and coffee without assistance and it was just infuriating".

All HAL cruises nowadays observe a 48-hour "Anti-Norovirus" routine in the Lido Buffet.

The purpose is to prevent the spread of any virus unknowingly brought onboard. So far this fall-winter season, I am unaware of any outbreak of Norovirus on any HAL ship except the Niew Amsterdam's Atlantic Crossing at the end of October. So apparently the process is working and in my opinion, it should be continued.

David

 

I agree. First, to the OP, sorry about your lacklustre experience. I would have been disappointed as well, especially with the cabin issues!!! But as far as the Lido service issue, I agree with David. This has been HAL's policy for the last few months (year?), at least since July when we were on Veendam and December on Westerdam.

 

Unfortunately, there is too much risk at the beginning of a voyage with the possibilty of sick people (who may not know they are yet or who won't identify themselves as ill for fear of being confined to their room!) cross-contaminating the buffet, beverage stations, and condiments. Better safe than sorry needs to rule the day here. I'll put up with slow service for 48 hours before I let some other passenger ruin my cruise because they can't (or won't) wash their hands after using the toilet/touching their mouth/wiping their nose/you name it!

[Cinder Again]

I can identify the source of the water, I think. I was in cabin 7059, the last cabin aft, Starboard, on the level above yours. I was on one of the early cruises after the drydock last year in January. Our balcony was flooded to the point of water washing around about 80-90% of the 33 day trip! It was unusable, due to the fact that there was actually garbage floating in it...disgusting! One day there was a shrimp tail floating in the water and on days when the water was "sucked" out by a water vacuum, the water would actually squish and bubble between the teak deck boards, they were so saturated, and I am sure water was stuck below those boards, which would have been your "roof", I think.

In an effort to try to figure out the water problems, I looked forward, and in the "scupper" there was a drainage hole about 3 cabins forward and NO OTHER DRAIN past that point. When the ship was still, the water would subside a bit. As soon as we sailed, the bow would rise, and our balcony would fill. Water just washed right on past that hole, so I'm convinced it was clogged. If the drain is full, stopped up, or the water washes by, for any reason, including a downpour, there's no place for it to go, if the ships in motion, other than 7059's balcony. It's an engineering problem from when they stuck these new cabins on last year and since that was a year ago, and I'm now hearing it's still a problem, I'm guessing they can't figure out the fix! We had other plumbing issues too, but the loss of the use of the balcony in Tahiti/Hawaii was pretty agregious, I thought. I wrote more than one letter to Mr. Kruse, with dated pictures of the flooded balcony, shrimp tails and all. It doesn't take a genius to figure out water flows downhill...

It honestly was the only time I've ever felt "cheated" by a cruiseline, as I am quite sure the staff on board knows these are substandard cabins, particularly since, in our case, it was supposed to be an "upsell!" They've apologized, and I've accepted a monetary amount of compensation, but I'll never forget, and the fact that I had to work hard to get them to acknowledge there was a problem in anything other than the most basic terms. I am glad I took daily pictures of the wet, and carpet stains, etc. At least we still had a couch! And, I'll never sail a ship directly after drydock again! I'm on the Maasdam in about a week, right before she goes in for Drydock! I'd rather deal with rust and old carpets than the nightmare that cabin was! 7059, Never again!

[ccure911]

We were on the Port Side in the Concierge Neptune Suite #7010, and saw 3" of standing water on our balconey, which we reported. Other passengers in Cabins #6022 + continued major water in their cabins throughout this cruise.

 

The ship sent a letter mid-way thru the cruise they were cutting off water & toliets to repair a pipe. This did not stop the leaks. So, they are fully aware of the water leaking problems. HAL should advise all new bookings of this problem.

 

Hope this helps.

[Scrapchick]

Thanks so much for the comments and feedback, especially on the water issues! I wondered if it had anything to do with us being two decks below the Retreat pool area, if you can call the Retreat a pool... When I stood in the bathroom I could hear water gurgling through pipes at a high rate of speed and it was pretty constant, so I thought that maybe it was somehow Retreat related.

 

I will pass on the water comments to my TA who will forward them to her HAL rep and maybe we can spare someone else from having to deal with it on their cruise...

 

The Lido restrictions are understandable and if they help to control sickness then I'll all for it. I was already cranky and annoyed by the cabin issues by the time we found out about the Lido, so at that point it was just more thing to fume about. I'm English born, and the idea of having to stand there and direct someone how to make the perfect cup of tea, was just more than I wanted to deal with at that time. It was a very minor part of the cruise. I've cruised a lot.... Things happen. I get that. We dealt with it, got on with it and were not going to let it spoil our trip. Life's too short to get bogged down with the small stuff and we were lucky to be able to even take a cruise over the holidays, so I don't want to sound like I'm whining over petty details. The cruise wasn't all bad by any means, but it wasn't nearly the cruise it should have been and could have been and that's partly why I wrote the review.

 

To the person that asked... We were in Cabin 6221, the last aft cabin on the starboard side on Deck 6.

 

Thanks for the VERY interesting comments on the water issues!

[Blondie62o]

Thanks, Scrapchick for your candid review. I'm so sorry to hear about your unfortunate start to the trip and less than desirable stateroom situation.

 

I was also on this cruise and share many of your same sentiments. The "holiday spirit" was really missing from this cruise. As you said, there were very few holiday themed events. I was actually completely unaware there was a Christmas tree lighting! :eek: I would have attended it if I had known. Was it in the Explorer newsletter?? Maybe we just missed it.

 

I attended the Christmas Eve Crew Show and I have to say that it was rather nice, but I agree it was quite late and I saw very few children or families in attendance. Unfortunately, the biggest disappointment of the show was the audience (at least where I was sitting). Few people wanted to join in singing Christmas carols which is fine it's not everyone's cup of tea, but many people became very critical of the performances and loudly made rude comments about it while it was going on. It really destroyed any sense of Christmas "cheer" unfortunately.

 

On another note, this actually was a frequent occurrence at the Showroom at Sea. While the shows certainly were not "Broadway" quality, they were never advertised to be such. For what they were, they were pretty good. I didn't understand the response of some of the audience. People would loudly criticize the performers, distracting their neighbors throughout the shows. We had one woman loudly talk the entire way through a performance even after we and her other neighbors kindly asked her to lower her voice. If you don't like a show, don't ruin it for everyone, just leave. I left two times because I wasn't enjoying the performance, but I didn't make a public proclamation of my dissatisfaction. I was so surprised by how many people stayed to just loudly talk about how horrible the show was.

 

I really enjoyed the food and service in the MDR as well. Our servers were always cheerful, friendly, and attentive. Our assistant server was still learning English and even though he told us he didn't always understand, he always made an effort to ask us about our day. Our main server was also just as nice, asking us about our excursions, sharing little stories about his day, and even telling us about his family in Indonesia. Our wine steward, Rochelle, was one of our favorite crew members and it wasn't just because she suggested great wine (in fact we don't really even drink that much, most nights we ordered sodas or mocktails!). She has a great personality to her and we would talk to her a lot at the dinners. Whenever we would pass her during the day at the Lido bar, she would wave to us or stop by our table to say "hi." We really enjoyed those little personal touches.

 

We stayed in a PS on the Navigation deck, so we were quite spoiled by the Neptune Lounge staff which was a wonderful perk. While our stateroom was large and quite sumptuous, we did have some problems, though not nearly as bad as your issues! Our toilets did not work for two days and for the entire cruise there was a horrific odor coming from both. Though they finally got the problem fixed, it was rather annoying having to use the public restrooms. Regardless of what category of room you're staying in, no one should have the inconvenience of using public restrooms! We had read some posts about the restroom issues on CC before we even went, so when we had this problem we weren't necessarily surprised. They obviously need to inspect their plumbing! I wonder if your flooding has something to do with the Retreat...There used to be a full pool instead of the Retreat and I'm wondering if when they changed it out they screwed up all of the plumbing lines. Regardless, this is absolutely horrible that it happened to you!

 

You're right about the general age being younger, but there was still quite a bit of "ageism" on the ship I thought. I'm in my mid 20s and my parents are in their mid 50s and we were happy to talk to many of the seniors and younger families on the ship, but I often felt very discriminated against in regards to my age. I've been out of college for several years and I'm currently earning a doctorate degree and I'm a teaching assistant of undergrad students at my university. I know that I'm still young but I'm certainly not a child. I'm very clearly an adult and act as one, but I didn't always receive the same respect level as other adults on the ship. On several occasions I had crew members brush me off or speak to me in a condescending manner (specifically the librarian, IT specialist, travel guide, and future cruise consultant) because they assumed I was a teenager or a college student. It got so frustrating I actually mentioned it to the Neptune Concierge who said she had heard this from other people my age or a little bit older on previous cruises. I also felt this from several of my fellow passengers who would treat me very oddly on shore excursions. I had one lady who couldn't have been more than year or two older than my mother tell me that I needed to stand in the back of the group because I "was so young would have plenty more opportunities to see these places in the future" but she "was old" (her words, not mine) so she needed to see everything. I brushed it off as a joke, but she consistently cut in front of me or interrupted my questions, it was all very odd and upset me a bit. It's just very strange to me how there was such extreme ageism on the ship. Some people were furious there were older passengers with mobility issues who were doing everything they could and some were furious there were young children passengers who were giggling and having a wonderful time. I was actually quite impressed by the tenacity of some of the older passengers, one in particular who I was amazed walked up and down all the steps in Acapulco to see the cliff divers. Inversely, it was great to see how happy the children were when Santa was "spotted." The crew just needed to be a little bit more prepared for the range of ages that were present on this cruise compared to their normal clientele.

 

I didn't want to make this response so long because you did a great job of summing this cruise up nicely, Scrapchick, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts too. You're definitely right that it was "good cruise" but not a great one! ;)

[HappyInVan]

Thanks, Scrapchick for your candid review. I'm so sorry to hear about your unfortunate start to the trip and less than desirable stateroom situation...

 

While our stateroom was large and quite sumptuous, we did have some problems, though not nearly as bad as your issues! Our toilets did not work for two days and for the entire cruise there was a horrific odor coming from both. Though they finally got the problem fixed, it was rather annoying having to use the public restrooms. Regardless of what category of room you're staying in, no one should have the inconvenience of using public restrooms!...

 

I didn't want to make this response so long because you did a great job of summing this cruise up nicely, Scrapchick, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts too. You're definitely right that it was "good cruise" but not a great one! ;)

 

 

Blondie,

 

 

I commiserate with scrapchick and you. I was on the Rotterdam in November, and noted that there were a number of issues. I received a heads-up from the reviews on the South Pacific cruise.

 

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=37

 

 

 

 

Note that there have been no reviews for December. The best thing you (and scrapchick) could do is to post a short review of the issues you encountered. At the least, you would give a warning to others.

 

 

Thanks

[moggyhill]

We were going to book 2012 in Polynesia but will now look at Oceania in light of continuing issues with this ship and the lack of appropriate response from Holland America.

[Scrapchick]

HappyinVan... my review was officially published by CC this morning. I also read many of the reviews when we booked and hoped things would go better for us, but recent reviews on this ship are very inconsistent and we got very unlucky with the cabin. I checked for holiday reviews from last year but all the reviews then were centered on the re-fit and the subsequent problems and didn't discuss the holiday aspect.

 

Blondie, thank you for your comments... I really encourage you to write this up as a review of the trip and post it on the CC Home page... It is always interesting to get other perspectives from people on the same cruise, even if they differ from your own! We would have loved one of the deluxe suites on Deck & and the Neptune Club access, but at the time we booked we considered ourselves fortunate to get what we did. Little did we know!!!

 

I did not experience any "age" issues like you did, but I'm a bit older than you (early 40's is all I'll admit to!) and I do have a child too. I've also taken many cruises and wouldn't let anyone push me around on a ship anymore. I don't feel defensive about being on a ship and can hold my own.

 

Go write your review!! And it's great see a "young person" getting involved with CC. I hope you cruise more and stick around.

[PaulMCO]

We were going to book 2012 in Polynesia but will now look at Oceania in light of continuing issues with this ship and the lack of appropriate response from Holland America.

My DW speaks :D

[GrammieK]

Moggyhill,

I have sailed on both HAL and Oceania and I think you will find O a step above. However, and this a big however, the rooms and suites are considerably larger on HAL. (and don't forget the Neptune Lounge on HAL) O is a little quieter, food is better, dining arrangements are much easier and of course, for those that it matters to, smoking is much more restricted. Enjoy!!

[PCruzer]

We were going to book 2012 in Polynesia but will now look at Oceania in light of continuing issues with this ship and the lack of appropriate response from Holland America.

Moggyhill -

 

I don't blame you for looking at Oceania. We were on the Rotterdam for the January 2010 Hawaii/French Polynesia cruise. Many of the same issues were happening on the ship then. Our cabin problem was no air conditioning. They kept sending people who would look around the cabin and then take the air temperature. Every day we were told that it would be fixed that day. We tried to be patient during this, but long story short...we had no A/C for 19 days. We were not in a balcony cabin, so we were not able to open a door for cooler air at night. I was not able to use a blow dryer after shampooing my hair because it just added even more to the heat in the cabin. There were many cabins all over the ship that were having flooding problems. From the bottom deck all the way up to the deluxe suites, and also under the Retreat "pool." Fortunately we did not have that problem, too!

 

 

So, I can see why you would want to look at other cruise lines for this cruise. It is not a cruise that I would repeat with HAL.

[Aussiemick]

We were going to book 2012 in Polynesia but will now look at Oceania in light of continuing issues with this ship and the lack of appropriate response from Holland America.

 

Thanks for the detailed review. We were on the Amsterdam just before Christmas in 2010 and besides a lot of little irritations and screw ups there were absolutely no Christmas decorations or activities. We assumed it was because the ship was going into drydock after our cruise. Guess not. We were considering a Christmas cruise this year but after your review, it won't be on HAL.

[Infi]

Scrapchick, thank you so much for the detailed review. I'm sorry to hear of all your troubles with the cabin - it sounded awful. I just wanted to let you know that I found your review particularly helpful because earlier I had been considering doing a HAL cruise for next Christmas. Everything I had read on CC was positive about HAL handled the holidays, but offered no specifics of what they actually did, which left me curious. Now I see that the activities are rather lackluster at best. Like you, I have always been pleased with how Princess celebrates Christmas on their ships and think we will go with them again next year. What's that saying - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"!