~*rOTTERDAM Ancient Capitals*~

[Kam7185]

~*WARNING: I AM A BLABBERING FOOL. BARE WITH ME!*~

 

This morning, My mother and I just found this cruise, looked at reviews for about 15 minutes and booked it! I feel absolutely crazy, but it was too good to be true!!! We are so excited! She has been very ill for the past 6 years and we are FINALLY doing something amazing! I'm ecstatic. A little worried that I didn't do enough research though!!

 

Here is what we came up with..... just under $6800 for a category E (1815 maybe?) room with airfare from Phoenix. We also got a $50 shipboard credit, one night hotel stay and car rental for free. Is that a good deal? What is a category E like? We've only been on Celebrity, about 5 years ago though. How is the food? We looked at a couple of menus, but they were from carribbean itineries. We assumed the cuisine would be altered, probably with a mediterranean flair??

 

Any info is appreciated! Are there mini-fridges in the rooms? My Mom (59) has medication that needs to be kept cool. I'm a 21 year old law student, and really need a break as well!!

 

Thanks so much, this is going to be absolutely amazing!

[Jade13]

Is the 6,800 for both of you? is this a 10 day, 12 day, 14 day...?

 

You can rent a refrigerator for $2.00 per day. Call Ship Services because the number they have is limited. I believe only the Suites with minibars have refrigerators.

 

If the Rotterdam is going from Rotterdam that will be amazing because I believe the first Hal ship was called the Rotterdam and left from that port..

[Kam7185]

Sorry, it's a 16 DAY:

0 Piraeus, Greece

1 Kusadasi (Ephesus) Turkey 7:00 am 6:00 pm

2 Santorini, Greece 1 8:00 am 11:00 pm

3 At Sea

4 Messina, Sicily 8:00 am 5:00 pm

5 Naples, Italy 8:00 am 5:00 pm

6 Civitavecchia (Rome) 6:00 am 8:00 pm

7 Monte Carlo, Monaco 8:00 am 10:00 pm

8 Marseille, France 7:00 am 6:00 pm

9 Barcelona, Spain 8:00 am 10:00 pm

10 At Sea

11 Cadiz (Seville) Spain 8:00 am 6:00 pm

12 Lisbon, Portugal 7:00 am 6:00 pm

13 At Sea

14 At Sea

15 Le Havre (Paris) France 7:00 am 7:00 pm

16 Harwich (London) England 7:00 am

[LFM]

Sounds like a winner to me. Just keep in mind that you most likely will spend a ton of $$$ on shore excursions if you want to really see much.

[Wini18]

We did that exact itinerary last year and it is wonderful. We stopped at Malta instead of Santorini - that was the only difference. It is absolutely great - very tiring if you want to see it all and as noted it can be very expensive.

 

Enjoy it! We sure did!:D

[jtl513]

Are there mini-fridges in the rooms? My Mom (59) has medication that needs to be kept cool.

It has been mentioned on another thread that the available refrigerators will only cool to about 25 degrees below ambient room temperature, which means if you keep your room at 75 the medicine will be at 50.

 

If the particular medicine your Mom uses needs to be kept colder, the infirmary will store it for you, but they are not open 24 hours a day. Maybe if you brought along a small insulating bag, "withdrew" 12 hours worth of medicine when the infirmary closed for the day, and kept it in the bag in the room refrigerator you would be okay.

 

I'm sure they've encountered this situation before, and will have a solution.

[Kam7185]

Wini, What was the food like?? Thanks!!

[Jade13]

Kam,

 

Naples would be my first choice to secure a private driver if you want to drive along the Amalfi Coast. You would have t9ime for a short stop in Pompeii as well. I have been to pompeii and Naples but over 20 years ago. This year we have a drive so we can drive along Amalfi. Hals shp tour execursion do not do both Pompeii and amalfi coast..

 

Plan on approx $2,000 in toyr execursion ($1,000 each) perhaps more for 16 days if you want to see alot. Post on your roll call so that you can join others...

[Funny Daddy]

Fabulous Itinerary!! You'll love it! Rgds PD

[Toots]

Kam - congratulations on a great-sounding plan! We did half of your itinerary last year, Rome to Dover, and loved it. We did spend a lot on shore excursions but felt it was worth it for a once in a lifetime trip. In April we'll do the other half, Rome to Greece on the Rotterdam and can't wait. We are also cat. E oceanview and I'm sure it will be fine.

 

We've been on HAL ships several times and had great experiences. The food and service have been wonderful, with lots of variety. If you need anything from the staff, just ask, they go out of their way to help.

 

I'm wondering where your free rental car will be?

[LILynn]

Hi kam -

 

We were on a med cruise last year on Princess and loved it so much we are going back again thie year on the HAL Prinsendam. You will love it.

 

I do agree with the previous posters - shore excursions - be it with the ship or private drivers get very expensive. Last year we met another couple on the roll call for our cruise and would up sharing private drivers with them. It worked out great. For example - in Naples we had a great driver - it cost the 4 of us 350 euros (plus tip) and we got to see so much at our own pace. We went to Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano, Ravello and then to Pompeii for a couple of hours. It was one of the best days I had on our cruise.

 

We also shared a driver in Rome - again well worth the money - he was awesome! We saw so much - and we chose what we wanted to see. He had prearranged a guide for us a the Vatican so we did not have to wait on any lines. The guide was an American living in Rome and was so knowledgable. We were in ROme overnight and used him both days. I still cannot beleive how much I got to see.

 

We did the same thing in Kusadasi as well. The driver and guide picked us up at the pier and took us to Ephesus. What an amazing place. After he took us to a wonderful Turkish restaurant for a late lunch. I think we wound up paying around $65.00 per person since there were 6 of us that shared this driver.

 

Some ports we did shore excursions and some we did on our own. Just do your homework so you know what do do when you get the port. I was so suprised how easy Monte Carlo was to do on our own. We took the bus to Eze for 1.3 euros - Eze is a beautiful medievel city. WE took another bus for 1.3 euros from eze to Nice and walked around for hours in the old section. It was so charming. We lucked out - there was a wine festival that day and we had so much fun just checking out the different wines. This was such a fun and cheap day!

 

I have already started looking at private drivers for this year - the better ones book up fast. You can get recommendation in in the ports of call section on this board. Everyone that we used last year were great. ANd check out the roll call for your cruise - other people may have done planning and may be looking for people to share the cost with them.

 

Lynn

[ldog]

We've been on the Rotterdam in the Med for the past two years. You will have a wonderful time!

 

My advice is to do a combination of ship tours and private tours depending on what are "Must Sees" in each port. Don't try to see it all. You can always go back. There is so much to see in Europe.

 

Join your Roll Call to find people to share for private tours and check out the Europe board for specific info.

[burny]

:) Hi Kam,congratulations with your cruise.The Rotterdam is fantastic and so is the food.We did almost the same tour in august 2005 but then from the city of Rotterdam.A lot of excursions you can do by your own like Barcelona and Cadiz and Lisbon with a hop on hop of bus .Only in Lisbon you can do it with the old tram,much nicer and very cheap.Monte Carlo is easy to do when you don't have troubles with walking and so is Marseilles.In the center,just follow the red line on the street and you can visit the hole old town and come back on the same place.So,search the INTERNET on the names of the towns you are gonna visit and you find Lot's of wonderful tips.

Burny

[gemz]

I too am seriously considering the same itinerary but I'm worried about the condition of the Rotterdam. I have read serveral reviews and they all said that the ship was in poor condition, eg, terrible smell on one entire floor, dirty washrooms, ship in need of repair, ants, etc. Having been on all new and relatively new ships with Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity and Carnival, this will be our first time on Holland America and we don't want a bad experience. Please share your recent experiences with us if you've been on the Rotterdam lately.

 

Thanks!

[burny]

I too am seriously considering the same itinerary but I'm worried about the condition of the Rotterdam. I have read serveral reviews and they all said that the ship was in poor condition, eg, terrible smell on one entire floor, dirty washrooms, ship in need of repair, ants, etc. Having been on all new and relatively new ships with Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity and Carnival, this will be our first time on Holland America and we don't want a bad experience. Please share your recent experiences with us if you've been on the Rotterdam lately.

 

Thanks!

 

IMO,Don't worry,and don't believe everything you read.Why should HAL let their flagship in poor condition.Ofcourse it isn't the newest ship you can book but it is still a real ship.Not an all inclusive resort!And please don't compare her with ships of Princess ,Royal Carribean and Carnival.Don't get me wrong,these are wonderfull ,but o so different.

[sadie mae]

Kam, what a great cruise, I hope to do this one next year. To be sure it ends great please consider insurance mostly for the medical since your mom has has health problems. I usually put in 0 trip value, but is still covers medical, evacuation, delay flight on return, etc (figure I can eat the cruise/flight costs but not 15 to 50,000 for evacuation). On Insuremytrip.com you can compare costs from several companies and some cover pre-existing conditions if purchased within a certain time of deposts. You've probably thought of all this but having had to use my insurance in Feb (did something really dumb, fell on gravel, skinned up my shin, which wound up with an infection and on the first full day of the cruise, I'm an even bigger beliver in insurance. The fall slowed me down, but didn't stop me, and I had a great time.

Have a wonderful cruise and enjoy the time with your mother.:)

JA

[archimedes]

Hi Kam. My wife and I did this cruise last year and are going back again this year. It really is fantastic and there's an extra day this year.

Just a warning though. We are British and have visited much of Europe before so we tend to take it easy at the ports of call. Many Americans we spoke to last year had booked lots of excursions and were absolutely shattered after a few days. Bear in mind that there are only 4 sea days out of 16 so, if your on excursions every day, you're going to get very tired.

At some ports there is a lot of travelling: Civitavecchia is quite a distance from Rome and Le Havre is a long way from Paris so the excursions can be tiring.

Fortunately, some of the stops are very convenient for the cities - Messina, Naples, Marseilles, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Cadiz, Lisbon so we find it enough to just visit the city for a few hours and avoid expensive excursions. It's easy to see the sights by taxi or local transport.

Finally, we love the Rotterdam and are sure that you'll have a wonderful time. We'll hope for great weather - not a spot of rain in 15 days last year!

[Jade13]

Sadie Mae - Interesting. I never thought to put on $0 for insurance to cover med and evacuation. So, is that still figured by age?