Kruising Kathy

Pools do not open until 9 AM. I was on Rotterdam March 29 to April 29, 2023, Fort Lauderdale to Amsterdam. The first 5 days was a spring break loop Fort Lauderdale to Nassau, Key West, back to FLL. There were 150 kids aboard and areas were not limited to adults only. It was like Carnival and Royal Caribbean combined with about 100 people smoking on the rear pool deck)..There were some children of the staff on board with another parent (we were on Rotterdam 6 Voyage of the Vikings in 2016 36 days where this also happened). The ship was full 2700. The hot tubs are smaller than on the old HAL ships (Rotterdam, Statendam, Volendam, Prinsendam...). The thermal suite costs about 40-50 dollars per person per day.. At the end of our cruise, there were 2 5 days sailings where the Dutch cruise director told us HAL is trying to attract a Dutch crowd. There were some kids aboard. 42 days on Koningsdam in April 2017 transatlantic from Fort Lauderdale 12 days Nieue Statendam April 2022 transatlantic from Fort Lauderdale I have used the pools on all of the above named sailings...

Nieue Statendam Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona April 2023 (12 days) Rotterdam Fort Lauderdale thru NYC to Rotterdam to Amsterdam (30 days) Basically no lectures except the "canned" cruise director presentations. On 150 anniversary sailing this year, we had Bill Miller doing historic lectures on the history of cruising. We also had a pianist from NYC who we enjoyed. America's Test Kitchen, Microsoft lab and Lincoln Center quartet are gone, gone, gone. Just the music walk stuff. The smoke from the casino permeates the entire front of Rotterdam, including the World Stage, Music Walk, hallways, forward stairwells and the forward elevators. I am hyper sensitive to the smoke, so I did not go to any activities in the music walk area except as required to do customs (World Stage), or shore excursion meeting point. I wore a mask or covered my mouth/nose with hand towels from the women's bathrooms. Even the shops were permeated with the smoke smell. I won't be doing this ship again.... Free laundry was taking 48 hours to get clothes back, as virtually everyone on the ship were repeat customers.

4 star: we were on Nieue Statendam April, 2022, and the laundry did not come back until the second day. The ship had been occupied by 100 staff members for 2 years during Covid. Room was only cleaned once per day (interior cabin). You can send laundry every day if you want, and I take clothes that have been previously washed. Headed to Rotterdam 7 next month for 30 days, so will be using their laundry.

We did NS April 17 FLL to Barcelona. Rooms were only cleaned one time per day. Window washing, live flowers, Microsoft and America's Test Kitchen were gone. Bread pudding was only available at lunch time in Lido. I also missed the BBC earth programs that used to be on room TV. We like cabin 5108 interior behind the mid-ship elevator (Koningsdam 42 days crossing and NS this year). HAL was unable to Covid test us when we disembarked in Barcelona May 1st. 2012 we did Eurodam in storm from Rhode Island to FLL,. Had thought about doing this cruise, but glad we did not sign up. Kathy

Enjoying your photos. Did VOV on Rotterdam 6 a few years back. We were fortunate to make both trips thru Prince Christian Sund. We were on NS Easter April 17 sailing from FLL to Barcelona. Rotterdam was also sailing that day. We stood in line 2.5 hours to board, as everyone on both ships was required to have a negative rapid Covid Test. Crew was wearing N95 masks. We were required to wear marks getting on/off the ship thru security, but found people in Azores and Spanish stops on land were not masked. HAL was unable to test us before we departed the ship at Barcelona. Irish captain told us at one of the Stripes presentations that positive people were left on the pier at Port Everglades...