Rotterdam September 15, 2012

[hawkeye3d]

Rotterdam September 15, 2012

This is just a quick summary of the ship/cruise if DW gets fired up she can post a complete review later.

 

Embarkation/Debarkation

Rotterdam flew in the day prior to the cruise. Took the train from Schiphol to Rotterdam. The high speed train stops at Rotterdam Centraal station, the lower speed trains require a change of trains in Liden. You don’t have to change platform just pick up a new train. Signage, directions are very good.

Arrived at the ship at 3PM, no lines in cabin by 3:10PM

We are going to self-debark as we are meeting up with a guide for some sightseeing as we have a 5:45PM flight. Debarked at 7:30 very easy, met our friends, guide and off to kill a few hours.

 

The Cruise

This was supposed to be Portugal and Spain with a stop at Gibraltar. On day 2 HAL threw the whole schedule out. There was/is a work action by the harbour pilots in Portugal. Nothing on Cruise Critic about it that I could see. This affected both this cruise and the subsequent one too. Went direct from Rotterdam to Gibraltar and then Spain, Spain and more Spain, with a stop in Cherbourg. Safe to say that we never went anywhere on the days previously planned but did get to see everything on our bucket list

 

Ship

A little wear, paint on railing, rust in bathtub. ( strong letter to Seattle to start the flow of OBC’s I think not)

Ship was very clean, constant cleaning WIP

At the start Seas smooth, little winds. Coming back to Rotterdam weather turned cool and had a swell from the bow, a little rough walking as one minute you are going up hill, the next downhill.

Casino, passing through or near smells like a very used ashtray so avoid

There was a water leak from one of the cabins on deck 6 but from the looks of it they cleaned it up pretty good.

This is my favourite sized ship no need to use elevators

Cabin

BC guarantee upgraded to a B 6130, nice location. But 6129, on the opposite reported noise from bar below on deck 5

Cabins have a set of drawers below the foot of the bed, that’s what I broke my toe on last year on Westerdam, great medical department but not exactly, the high point of that cruise

Cabin has only 1 110v socket. I suppose we could have asked for a power bar but we worked around that

Cabin cleaned while we went to breakfast except one morning; well everyone has to have an off day

 

Food

Pinnacle usually we do Pinnacle first and last night as we know it’s not a formal night. Great food, quantities are large DW would have been happy with 1 piece of steak Diane , very good service.

MDR very good food at dinner and breakfast. On the last formal night they did have escargots and steak and lobster tails

Lido lunch OK, breakfast to much same old things, nice omelettes light and flavourful. Dinner mirrors some of the MDR menu, sometimes slow to bus tables. Salads are a disappointment. Every day 3 kinds of greenery, tomatoes, onions, no olives, broccoli etc. Several kinds of made up salad like chicken and pineapple.

Canaletto, no charge previous Norway cruise, $10 this cruise, not worth it. Mostly deserted the few times I walked by, but this was before 8PM

Pizza, as discussed on other threads the best thing HAL could is send their pizza cooks over to Princess. Rotterdam’s pizza ranged from edible to you could shingle a roof with this thing. They really need to keep their pizza fresh.

BBQ, what can I say except that I hope whatever animal was attached to those ribs was treated better by the jockey in life than it was by the cooks at the BBQ

Debarkation morning both Lido and room service available

 

Tours

Without starting a debate we generally prefer private tours, but due to the schedule changes we ended up with a mix. We had good tours all around both sips tours and private ones. One disconcerting thing was when we boarded there was a list of the ships tours/ports in our room which included the port agents contact info. Ever since the schedule changes this info has been totally lacking, nothing in the daily Explorer nothing at all, anywhere. Without knowing the port agent info you could wind up with some troubling times should you miss the ship.

 

 

Staff

Always pleasant

Front desk will kill you with their smiles, but I think they really mean it

Laundry

By the bag, returned the same day first time, new bag but no form, left a note for the cabin steward and a new form instantly appeared.

Internet

$55 for 100 minutes +$3.95 activation fee

$100 for 250 minutes

Speed mostly good, but I try to logon after 10PM. One night horrible, logout seems to take the longest, I use a tablet do all my typing off net and cut and paste when I go on line

Fellow passengers

Heavy European content mostly Dutch with some Germans, daily condensed NY Times in 3 languages except for one day when the English version was AWOL

Formal nights in the MDR were mostly Tux’es or dark suits. Some sports coats, with/without ties and very few no coat/tie

Entertainment

I didn’t go to any of the shows but fellow passengers on our tours said it was good. Daily activities really tended to peter out towards the end of the cruise almost to say ok we’ve done all that so just sit around and read

[ansjefitnes]

Thanks for your review of the Rotterdam. Looking forward to sail on her again in 2 weeks.:D

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[aliaschief]

Thank you for your review.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for writing and posting the review of your cruise on the Rotterdam. Sounds like you had a nice time on your vacation.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review. The Rotterdam is one of our favorite ships.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info ....

[erewhon]

Thank you for your review.