Rotterdam June 13 to 27

[calteacher]

We are in day 10 of a 14-day cruise. So far, nearly everything has been positive. The Rotterdam was in a two-week dry dock in Hamburg just about a month ago. All the carpet has been replaced. The decorative strips along the hallways have been replaced and the walls from waist level down have also been replaced.

 

The bathrooms are new. Only down side is the medicine cabinet has been replaced with two shelves which doesn’t allow for as much storage. The shelf under the sink now has a spot for a waste paper basket to be inserted so you lose about 12 inches of shelf space.

The beds are new. Our steward said they had to move about 2,000 beds and from the expression on his face it was quite a job. The bedding seems to be new as well as the towels. So the condition of the ship is great.

 

We were told that there are only 1,100 passengers instead of the 1,400 capacity. I was also told that 75% of the passengers are European, and most of them are Dutch. All announcements are made in English and then followed in Dutch. The menus are printed in both languages. A number of different newspapers are available—NY times, a London paper, an Australian paper, a Canadian paper, a Dutch paper, and a couple of other European papers.

 

The food is not as “first class” in selection, but is great in taste—but, of course that is personal taste. The portions are smaller which is OK by me. When I consider that the cost of this 2-week cruise compared to the first cruise we took in 1998, I’m OK with the changes. If I need to eat only the "best of the best", I can do that after the cruise. That cruise was a 7-day Alaska with an added 3 day land trip. I will need to check when I get home, but I think the cost for those 10 days in an M class cabin was nearly as much as we paid for an OV cabin for 14 days.

 

We have not gone to many of the shows. There was a Juggler show which, as my DH commented, “I’ve seen better juggling on the pier in San Francisco”. I left after about 15 minutes as there was little juggling involved. My DH and a DF stayed for the entire show, but said that after one “skit” about 1/3 of the audience got up and left.

 

The weather has been cool in all of the ports. It was definitely not what I expected from reading the 10-day forecasts prior to leaving. We had one day of a constant drizzle while in Tallinn.

 

The biggest downside is the Internet. (As I reported in an earlier post.) As we will be gone from home for nearly three weeks, it was important to us to be able to keep in contact with our children without them needing to spend a lot of money calling us. While I don’t think HAL was intentionally blocking Yahoo, the gal in the Explorations Café told us that whatever they did in “upgrading” their system definitely greatly diminished the ability to get a yahoo account to come up. Usually after watching the “circle” go around for five minutes without uploading the e-mail, we simply gave up and tried to use the free e-mail in port. Most of the cruise terminals did have some free e-mail. All you have to do is look to see where all the crew is sitting with their phones.

 

My thinking is that it would be responsible for HAL to simply indicate that you may have trouble with yahoo e-mail but just surfing the net is fine so that one knows prior to purchasing the package. Our DF who is traveling with us has a gmail account and has had no trouble downloading her e-mails.

 

The photographers are not pushy and simply walk away if you indicate that you do not want a photo.

 

All in all, it has been a great cruise. The ship, while old, has been greatly upgraded. Of course, the painted areas around doors, windows, etc. are chipped in places, but the parts that could be up-graded in the two-week dry dock has left her in great condition.

 

I'll try to answer questions (assuming I can get on-line). I'd cruise this ship again, just might change the e-mail address for friends while gone.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for checking in.

Glad you are having a great cruise.

[pv girl]

Thank you, thank you, for this report. I board her in a few weeks and have been anxious for reports. I have sailed her from Rotterdam before, so expect the majority of guests to be Dutch, and know that all announcements and show introductions are in both languages. Also, all the little signs describing dishes in the Lido buffet in both languages.

 

I also found that the majority seemed to "dress up" for dinner, bars were busier, and folks actually dancing. Is this still true? Appreciate weather tips - need to pack a jacket and umbrella.

[scm1848]

Thanks so much for the objective review. We board the Rotterdam in 10 days, and were so glad to hear that everything is in "ship shape" for us!

[calteacher]

One thing I forgot to mention is that when they replaced the "black out" shades, they must have used a less expensive material a they let in a significant amount of light. And since we are in the north and are enjoying the longest days of the year, we do have light in our room from 3-4 a.m. unless it is cloudy.

 

Will add more in a week or so when we get home.

[bonvoyagebites]

Thanks for your review. I am now to HAL. We just went on our first HAL cruise about a month ago, and I have just started putting the reviews on my blog (listed below) . I will definitely continue sailing HAL when the opportunity presents itself. I have been typically too cheap to purchase ship internet, but since my personal email is yahoo, the email information you gave is very helpful.

Thanks for posting...

[Tina G]

Does the Rotterdam still have self service laundry?

[calteacher]

Yes, the Rotterdam does have a self-serve laundry. The laundry by the bag is $20 for all you can stuff into the bag. The unlimited is about $100 which we used and found it very convenient as we sent laundry out every second or third day which eliminated the number of clothes we brought. We traveled from the US to Amsterdam and were able to do it with just carry-on luggage--one roll aboard and one personal item.

[erewhon]

Thank you for reporting from your Rotterdam cruise.

Wishing you safe travelling.