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

[hillside]

I think I'll hold off on booking the Rotterdam! I would like to do the Hawaii, Tahiti, and the Marquesas cruise some time, but not on the Rotterdam until the issues posted are fixed!

[St. Louis Sal]

Thank you so much for your review Scrapchick. My dh and I had the same cabin that CinderAgain had when we were on the first leg of the Rotterdam's cruise post drydock. I can echo all of her comments regarding the cabin problems. Many of your comments regarding the Christmas celebrations (or lack thereof) sound just like my comments from last year. However I had blamed the fact that the ship was just out of drydock for the lack of decorations and activities. Apparently I was wrong.

 

The main reason I really appreciate your review is that my dh and I were seriously discussing the other day whether we should give the Rotterdam a second chance. We figured that many of the problems we had experienced last Dec/Jan had been ironed out. From your review we can see that is not so and I think we will steer clear of the Rotterdam.

 

I have been traveling the last month and off these boards so I don't know if anything has been said here about removing the Rotterdam's Retreat and new cabins that were added at last drydock. The future cruise consultant on the Eurodam told my friend that they would be taken out at the next drydock whenever that is. I don't usually pass on rumors but that is what he was told. Anyone know anything about this?

 

St. Louis Sal

[drcpa]

We have our first cruise on HAL, a Sept, 2011 cruise on the Rotterdam, scheduled for the (mostly) Iberian itinerary.

We were told that the Rotterdam was the proud flagship of the line and that HAL compares favorably (or similarly) to Celebrity.

After reading posts of issue after issue, disappointments, and unwillingness to even book this ship I'm starting to wonder if it's "flagship or failure".

[DAllenTCY]

If I recall correctly, the Rotterdam's Christmas decorations were accidentally dropped into San Diego Bay this year while being loaded onto the ship. There was no time to replace them before the ship left.

David

[pmd98052]

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.

 

The US always seems to forget there are twelve days of Christmas starting on Christmas Day and ending on Jan 6th. I'm always

disappointed that Christmas seems to stop dead on the 26th here in the USA. I even saw Valtine's day and Easter items on sale in stores on the 27th!

[bepsf]

I have been traveling the last month and off these boards so I don't know if anything has been said here about removing the Rotterdam's Retreat and new cabins that were added at last drydock. The future cruise consultant on the Eurodam told my friend that they would be taken out at the next drydock whenever that is. I don't usually pass on rumors but that is what he was told. Anyone know anything about this?

 

St. Louis Sal

 

Not a snowball's chance in Hades that all of those new cabins would be removed - If any, only those 3-4 insides on Deck 7 aft where a swimming pool tank belongs.

[ScottishMaid]

double post

[ScottishMaid]

We were on the Rotterdam for 30 nights immediately before the Christmas cruise. Our cabin #2601 had no problems whatsoever. The toilets worked, the heat and a/c worked, it was clean. There were crew on deck painting and inside cleaning to keep the ship in a good state. The Christmas decorations were all over the ship and beautiful. If you are thinking of booking a trip, go ahead, but keep away from one of the "new" cabins under the Retreat area.

[Hal San Diego]

:) We were on the same 12-Night Holiday Cruise on the ROTTERDAM and quite frankly, we had absolutely no idea that anyone was having such major problems...we talked to a lot of passengers and most were pretty happy with their cruise experience. We had a midship balcony on deck 6 and absolutely no plumbing or a/c problems. We did have a neighbor that constantly let the cabin door slam...but have learned not to let such minor irritations spoil a cruise. One interesting tidbit in regards to the Retreat pool which we also considered useless by design, is that Brian may be very correct. One of the ship's officers told us that Seattle is considering a conversion to a regular outdoor pool during a future drydock which would result in the loss of only the new inside cabins on deck 7. We also agree that future cruisers should avoid the new cabins and the possibility of leaks and other problems!

Happy New Year!!!

 

HAL San Diego

[whogo]

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.

 

The Lido restrictions are understandable and if they help to control sickness then I'll all for it.

 

You are too quick to forgive. I too understand the restrictions, but HAL does nothing to help out. Instead of having waiters delivering coffee, water, and tea to your table, they have one poor sap filling and doling out drinks in a painfully slow manner. Get in line and wait for it. Already have your meal? It's lukewarm now. Instead of bringing you a napkin and flatware, you can fetch it yourself if you can find out where it is being issued. Oh, and the server in charge of the flatware is serving food, too, so get in line and wait for it. Already have your food? It's lukewarm now. Oh, and you have been tying up a table for 10 minutes now and you haven't even sat down. No wonder the Lido is so crowded. Now, where's the salt?

 

The way HAL manages norovirus also helps their bottom line since there is no apparent increase in staffing and cruisers give up rather than have all that they wanted to eat. Some bean counter in Seattle is happy.

 

After a few days you get used to it and develop a system and forget that other cruise lines have fewer noro outbreaks without these restrictions.

[ScottishMaid]

I'd agree that the Lido can get frustrating in these norovirus precautions conditions. But then the first one or two days are often sea days. We eat lunch at a table for two in the dining room and marvel at the fact that so few people are there.

[kazu]

Thank you so much for your review. On the NA last year, I heard a couple tell the FCC that the Rotterdam was a rust bucket and falling apart. I thought they were harsh as we were on her just three years ago and just loved her.

 

Now, I see that they were right ( not that she's a rust bucket, but there are definitely issues). thank you for the warnings and the very fair and honest review.

 

really got my eyes opened tonight.

[Scrapchick]

You are too quick to forgive. I too understand the restrictions, but HAL does nothing to help out. Instead of having waiters delivering coffee, water, and tea to your table, they have one poor sap filling and doling out drinks in a painfully slow manner. Get in line and wait for it. Already have your meal? It's lukewarm now. Instead of bringing you a napkin and flatware, you can fetch it yourself if you can find out where it is being issued. Oh, and the server in charge of the flatware is serving food, too, so get in line and wait for it. Already have your food? It's lukewarm now. Oh, and you have been tying up a table for 10 minutes now and you haven't even sat down. No wonder the Lido is so crowded. Now, where's the salt?

 

The way HAL manages norovirus also helps their bottom line since there is no apparent increase in staffing and cruisers give up rather than have all that they wanted to eat. Some bean counter in Seattle is happy.

 

After a few days you get used to it and develop a system and forget that other cruise lines have fewer noro outbreaks without these restrictions.

 

I wasn't in a very forgiving mood at the time... I was quite irritated by it but Hubby takes a kettle when we travel and I take my own tea bags, so I ran to the gift store to buy one of those nice big mugs, took some milk from the Lido (it was handed to me..) and retired to my leaking, sofa-less cabin to make a decent cup of tea for myself! I did this every morning and carried my mug up to breakfast.

 

Breakfast did take a long time because I was constantly scurrying back and forth to get something for me or my DD, but I am also one of those people who wants my food hot and fresh so I would stand in line and order my omelette and then go eat that before heading back to the waffle line etc. I prefer my food course by course rather than all at once. This did stretch out the dining time. I have to say I didn't think the Lido was bad... I've had worse seating issues on most Princess ships and I found the food for the most part was fairly good up there. My DD is pretty fussy and would only eat scrambled eggs that were freshly cooked and I would ask for these every morning. It wasn't long before the chef had them cooked and handed the plate to me before I had even placed my order.... I really have no complaints about the food or service, but I go to a buffet in order to help myself and am not great at being made to ask for every single thing, like where the salt shaker is and for a carton of milk...

 

If these restrictions truly help reduce the norovirus then that's one thing, but I do think that communicating that message to the passengers beforehand would go a long way towards keeping people on side about it.

[Scrapchick]

:) We were on the same 12-Night Holiday Cruise on the ROTTERDAM and quite frankly, we had absolutely no idea that anyone was having such major problems...we talked to a lot of passengers and most were pretty happy with their cruise experience. We had a midship balcony on deck 6 and absolutely no plumbing or a/c problems. We did have a neighbor that constantly let the cabin door slam...but have learned not to let such minor irritations spoil a cruise. One interesting tidbit in regards to the Retreat pool which we also considered useless by design, is that Brian may be very correct. One of the ship's officers told us that Seattle is considering a conversion to a regular outdoor pool during a future drydock which would result in the loss of only the new inside cabins on deck 7. We also agree that future cruisers should avoid the new cabins and the possibility of leaks and other problems!

Happy New Year!!!

 

HAL San Diego

 

I'm glad you had a better experience. I think the whole Retreat concept is quite bizarre for such a traditional line like HAL... The adults didn't like the kids being in the only pool on the ship inside and the kids didn't like they couldn't go in the adults only Retreat area... It seemed no-one liked the set up. I personally think it was a mistake to replace a pool with the Retreat. If they could have added it somewhere else without removing a pool that's one thing, but to take out a pool altogether for a wading pool with loungers in it seems like a strange idea. I'm not sure who they were trying to appeal to. There is a big outdoor screen out on the Retreat deck and they showed movies at night out there. My DD went to a couple of them but the temps were down in the 50's at night and she didn't last too long even with blankets around her.

[Scrapchick]

Thank you so much for your review. On the NA last year, I heard a couple tell the FCC that the Rotterdam was a rust bucket and falling apart. I thought they were harsh as we were on her just three years ago and just loved her.

 

Now, I see that they were right ( not that she's a rust bucket, but there are definitely issues). thank you for the warnings and the very fair and honest review.

 

really got my eyes opened tonight.

 

I think overall the ship is in great shape... The public areas are well maintained and there was someone constantly stationed in the atrium cleaning all the brass, which is an endless task on a ship like the Rotterdam. There's brass everywhere. I wouldn't describe the ship as a rust bucket at all. It doesn't look like it's in bad condition in the slightest, it just looks dated in certain areas. The late 2009 upgrade is definitely visible.

 

However, there are obvious water issues and HAL needs to get them under control and stop lying to people about it... Telling us our cabin was flooded by rain was an absolute joke... A little honesty goes a long way. If they had told us the cabin had known issues, it shouldn't have been sold to us without telling us, the sofa was removed because of water damage etc and we would be compensated the moment we arrived would have gone a long way towards mitigating the problem, instead of feeding us a story about heavy rainstorms and sofas being removed for maintenance reasons... We're not stupid... One look at the uneven floor and pitted threshold was all we needed to know...

 

Thank you for your comments.

[Cinder Again]

However, there are obvious water issues and HAL needs to get them under control and stop lying to people about it... Telling us our cabin was flooded by rain was an absolute joke... A little honesty goes a long way. If they had told us the cabin had known issues, it shouldn't have been sold to us without telling us, the sofa was removed because of water damage etc and we would be compensated the moment we arrived would have gone a long way towards mitigating the problem, instead of feeding us a story about heavy rainstorms and sofas being removed for maintenance reasons... We're not stupid... One look at the uneven floor and pitted threshold was all we needed to know...

 

Thank you for your comments.

 

That's exactly what I wrote to them when I returned last year. 7059 was sold to me as an "upsell", meaning it should have been better than the my original cabin. They couldn't know that I already knew "St Louis Sal" from this board, and she would tell me that the cabin was a shambles as they moved out and I moved in...clearly, Sally was moving because she had told them she wouldn't stay in that cabin to continue her cruise! Instead of thinking to themselves "maybe we should leave this cabin open,and get to the bottom of the problems," they used the opportunity to get me to pay more for it! I really think sending all the ships out full, without even one open cabin is not a good P/R practice. On our trip, when people were finally moved to working cabins, we all knew they were being moved because someone had passed away, since the cabins "suddenly" were open. Telling people they have to deal with a problem for more than a few days isn't smart business.

The Tahiti/Hawaii cruise WAS awesome, and I would do this cruise, even on this ship again in a minute. I just would avoid the "new aft cabins".

I'm one of the few that "sort of" liked the Retreat area, except that the tables, etc. should have been bigger, and higher since you have to set all your stuff somewhere if your chair is surrounded by water! I liked the waterfall area and the hot tub area as well. I thought the screen would have been fun, too, but they certainly didn't use it to it's advantage. It could have been like having the "old" MTV on all day, with music videos, and of course, the few things they played at night, it was windy, and a pretty poor selection. In 7059 we could hear the "boom, boom!" of the Elton John Concert or Cher concerts they did show at night. It's like they got the technology, and don't quite know how to use it to it's advantage.

[HappyInVan]

:) We were on the same 12-Night Holiday Cruise on the ROTTERDAM and quite frankly, we had absolutely no idea that anyone was having such major problems...we talked to a lot of passengers and most were pretty happy with their cruise experience... We also agree that future cruisers should avoid the new cabins and the possibility of leaks and other problems!

Happy New Year!!!

 

HAL San Diego

 

 

I think the point is that the water problem isn't limited to just under the Retreat.

 

 

I was on the Rotterdam in November. One night, there was a gusher near the Mix. The next night, it was leaking one floor down. Finally, it arrived in my lanai cabin. I shudder to think what kind of mold is developing in the superstructure.

[iancal]

It would be really good if someone knowledgeable could put together a 'live' list of HAL ships/cabin numbers to avoid-cabins with ongoing HVAC issues or with water/flooding issues as noted above. I am sure that a lot of cruisers would appreciate the heads up.

[HappyInVan]

It would be really good if someone knowledgeable could put together a 'live' list of HAL ships/cabin numbers to avoid-cabins with ongoing HVAC issues or with water/flooding issues as noted above. I am sure that a lot of cruisers would appreciate the heads up.

 

Gulp!!!

 

I hope that you don't mean me?

 

I'm a cruise newbie. I've only been on HAL twice.

 

Someone like Ruth or Joanie should do it. It will be a public service! :)

[IRL_Joanie]

Gulp!!!

 

I hope that you don't mean me?

 

I'm a cruise newbie. I've only been on HAL twice.

 

Someone like Ruth or Joanie should do it. It will be a public service! :)

I do not have the time to do it guys, sorry. It is enough for me to keep up with the site now. Can you imagine if I had to also keep up with all the "bad" staterooms":eek::eek::eek::)

 

Joanie

[cruisinjudy]

No water problems reported As yet on our Rotterdam cruise.

[RuthC]

Someone like Ruth or Joanie should do it. It will be a public service! :)

If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.

[Mary Ellen]

It would be really good if someone knowledgeable could put together a 'live' list of HAL ships/cabin numbers to avoid-cabins with ongoing HVAC issues or with water/flooding issues as noted above. I am sure that a lot of cruisers would appreciate the heads up.

As to the A/C problems, how do you propose posters differentiate between problems caused by "ongoing HVAC issues" and those due to the A/C to their cabin being shut off because an inconsiderate, self-absorbed fellow passenger wanted some fresh air or to hear the sea and propped open their verandah or lanai door? All they will know is that their cabin, at that time, doesn't have properly working A/C. They won't know if someone (possibly decks away) is causing the problem. This proposed list makes no more sense than keeping a list of cabins where someone had problems with smelling smoke in their cabin or verandah.

[Boatdrill]

 

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...

 

Actually the seniors who are cruising have not "given up on life" as witnessed by the fact that they continue to travel, meet new people and see the world.

 

HAL treats them "in kind" because they, like all passengers, are genuinely welcome onboard. There's a reason HAL has a vast pool of loyal older generation passengers. It's because they're treated with the respect and honor that's hard to find on land.

 

The service comes naturally to the Asian and European staff. In their culture, family comes first, and includes respect for elders.

[drcpa]

...that (a) someone on a cruise who unknowingly opens their veranda to smell the fresh sea air and feel the cool evening breeze is so castigated and (b) a multi-ton modern cruise ship is so delicate that an open veranda door causes AC havoc throughout the vessel.