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Great cruise on the Eurodam!

aloisia

By aloisia,
in Holland America Line

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aloisia

aloisia

Posted
Posted

Eurodam Jan 21st -28th

Precruise:

We flew to FLL on Friday and stayed at the Comfort Suites Airport & Cruise Port. This hotel offered a free shuttle from the airport + a continental breakfast.

The shuttle took 50 minutes to arrive and it was only a 10 min drive to the hotel.:rolleyes: The location is very good as we llike to shop at Total Wines. Not as close as the Embassy Suites but a quick walk. Stopped at Five Guys for a bite to eat & shopped for our wine. The Comfort Suites was ok. We much prefered the Hilton Marina & Embassy Suites but for 1 night it was clean at least. The hotel offered a shuttle to the port but a taxi seemed the quicker choice.

Ship:

The Eurodam is a beautiful ship!! One of our favorites now. We had a wonderful week - terrific crew & service. Our 1st HAL cruise was on the Veendam and while it was a nice week's vacation there is no comparison to the Eurodam in service & style. Followed the great info here on CC & booked a large J cabin on Main deck. The cabin was huge and the location was perfect. Very close to the mid elevators & a quiet area. Our cabin steward Fathuri was terrific. The DVD player wasn't working properly but was quickly replaced.

Most evenings we popped into the 8PM show and enjoyed the entertainment. Not 5 star but for a cruise ship the shows were very good.

Retreat Cabanas:

Wow! :D We loved this area & felt the extra $$ was well worth it. Sunny & Gilbert were so nice and spoiled us the entire week. Our cabana was Naples and we thought the location was perfect.

DH ordered lunch from the Retreat menu most days however I preferred heading to the Lido to pick up a salad for myself. DH enjoyed his fresh orange juice & champagne and his glass was barely finished when more champagne was offered! The chocolate strawberries each afternoon were also a nice touch.

We loved having the shade over our table and loungers however other loungers and comfy chairs were available in the sun, The Retreat Cabana added that special touch to an already great week.

Dining;

I'm somewhat picky when it comes to dining however the food on the Eurodam was very good to excellent. Dining room highlights: Roast beef, Filet Mignon with Prawns, Surf & Turf ... actually most of the beef dishes offered were very good. Thanks to the hints from CC I tried the frozen watermelon pie and bread pudding. So good!

Everything in the Lido was presented wonderfully with lots of choices. I especially enjoyed the sorbets.

The only food I found not good or appealing was the BBQ lunch at HMC. I tried a burger & found it under cooked. Threw it out and had some of the fruit. (didn't hurt to skip a meal at this point anyway! - LOL)

Ports:

The weather was warm and sunny at each of the ports with the occasional sun shower.

Grand Turk: We walked over to the beach and found a few loungers. Later We stopped by Jack Shack for a drink before heading back to the ship. Perfect beach day.

San Juan: Found the free trolley and rode it up to El Morro. Toured the fort and walked down through the streets back towards the ship. Very pretty buildings & streets although I think it would have been more interesting if we had taken a tour. For us we enjoy hearing about the lovely sights as well as looking at them.

St. Thomas: We booked an island tour with Air Force 1 - lots of fun! Decided to head back to the ship instead of continuing on to the beach. Another beautiful, sunny day.

Half Moon Cay: White soft sand, clear blue water and yummy drinks. Perfection.

Anyone sailing on the Eurodam will have a terrific holiday. The one comment I made on the survey - "I hope the Eurodam or N.A. offer more 10- 14 day Caribbean itineraries in the future - 7 days isn't long enough".



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djhsolara

djhsolara

Posted
Posted

Thank you for the review. We'll be on Eurodam in just a few weeks. Do you have any photos of your stateroom that you would be willing to share? Part of our family will be in a J on the Main Deck.

 

Thank you!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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aloisia

aloisia

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thank you for the review. We'll be on eurodam in just a few weeks. Do you have any photos of your stateroom that you would be willing to share? Part of our family will be in a j on the main deck.

 

Thank you!!

 

 

Sent from my iphone using tapatalk

1656140190_EurodamJan2012002.jpg.b046776d07b46868901555e2d6652581.jpg

 

1505476331_EurodamJan2012003.jpg.d6bb9703f36e418a468607d34b24ccf5.jpg

I`m sorry the photos are so small but I think you can click on them for a larger view. Where is computer DS when you need him?:rolleyes:

 

Your family will love the space.

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aloisia

aloisia

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I'm glad everyone has enjoyed the review.

 

I forgot to add thoughts on disembarkment times. We chose independent 9:30 to 9:45 AM, thinking it was a 10 min taxi ride to FLL & our flight wasn't until 12:15PM. We arrived at SWA departures to find a LONG line down the sidewalk right over to AirTran! :eek: The line was for people waiting to check their baggage IN the airport. I've never seen it so busy but as a gentleman pointed out there were 25,000 people disembarking that morning. We did finally arrive in the departure area at 11:25 .... boarding 20 mins later - but by this time I was feeling a little anxious. Lesson learned for us - get off the ship earlier! ;)

Thought I'd share this so others wouldn't make our silly mistake. :D

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djhsolara

djhsolara

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Another way to avoid that is by using the Luggage Express/Direct (whatever it is called). You pay a fee and once you put your luggage out on the last night you don't see it until you get to your home airport. It was some of the best money spent on our last sailing. It is relatively inexpensive and the cost is nothing compared to the headache of waiting in the obnoxious lines at the airport.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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cbr663 Great Review Rare

cbr663

Posted
Posted

We were on the same cruise and were extremely disappointed with the ship. We would not recommend the Eurodam. You can read my review of the ship and cruise here: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=96447.

 

Isn't it amazing how different people can have such differing experiences on the same ship.

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RMLincoln

RMLincoln

Posted
Posted
Another way to avoid that is by using the Luggage Express/Direct (whatever it is called). You pay a fee and once you put your luggage out on the last night you don't see it until you get to your home airport. It was some of the best money spent on our last sailing. It is relatively inexpensive and the cost is nothing compared to the headache of waiting in the obnoxious lines at the airport.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Southwest Airline didn't used to participate in that program. Maybe they do now?

 

I'm interested to hear the OP's report as we have a 12:50 departure afte our next cruise and were also planning on late disembarkation. I was thinking we'd have a long sit at the airport waiting... but maybe most of it will be outside the terminal on line? OY.

 

Thanks for the review and glad to hear you enjoyed your vacation. m--

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RMLincoln

RMLincoln

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We were on the same cruise and were extremely disappointed with the ship. We would not recommend the Eurodam. You can read my review of the ship and cruise here: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=96447.

 

Isn't it amazing how different people can have such differing experiences on the same ship.

 

Sorry to hear that your experience on Eurodam was poor for you. I haven't been on her and will be on the old lady Maasdam next, so maybe the small ships have more than charm, better service?

 

Glad you got to enjoy Half Moon Cay; I was only there once, only for an hour because Maasdam had engine trouble and we were quite late arriving. So it goes. Beats shoveling snow! (Although we do wish we had more of that problem here :) m--

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hal lover

hal lover

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Posted
We were on the same cruise and were extremely disappointed with the ship. We would not recommend the Eurodam. You can read my review of the ship and cruise here: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=96447.

 

Isn't it amazing how different people can have such differing experiences on the same ship.

 

Just read your review. Found that it was quite similar to my Oct 2010 solo cruise on the Eurodam. She's a beautiful ship and I loved my little inside room, however I felt the service to be poor. I was so very disappointed.

 

Dec 2010, DH & I were on the Maasdam and it was a totally different experience. Loved that cruise and the service was excellent.

 

My gut feeling here is that the Eurodam trip was a 7 night and the Maasdam trip was an 11 night. Different feel totally.

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