Review of the Eurodam

[Sles23]

My wife and I recently traveled on the Eurodam from Dec. 27 - Jan. 3. First, a little background on us. We are 39 and 31. This was our 3rd cruise together but overall, we have been on over 30 cruises combined. We're Diamond status on Royal Caribbean but have also taken Carnival, Princess, NCL, and Celebrity. This was our first time on Holland America.

 

Overall, we had a nice time on the cruise. However, we both thought it was lacking a "wow" factor. We expected it to be closer to the experience we had on Celebrity but found it to be closer to the old Carnival cruises we had been on.

 

To start, we flew in the night before and booked the hotel and transfer to the ship through HAL. The hotel was fine but the transfer to the ship was AWFUL. It took forever to leave the hotel and then the driver didn't know what he was doing. He had trouble maneuvering the bus and then he took us to the wrong ship. The Nieuw Amsterdam was also in Port and he tried dropping us off at that ship. Then, he didn't know how to get over to the Eurodam. By the time we got to the pier, the lines were outrageously long. Needless to say, we were not happy.

We didn't find the ship to be overly clean in the public areas. The carpet in the theater looked like it hadn't been vacuumed in weeks. Also, the bathrooms in the public areas weren't very clean either.

Our waiter in the dining room was awful. He wasn't very attentive and after he served us, he never came back to ask us if we needed anything or if our food was okay. They also didn't have any of the gluten free items my wife had pre-ordered. They would let her look at the next nights menu to order what she wanted so they could make it Gluten Free, but they didn't have any of the preordered bread or meals. On lobster night, I asked for another lobster tail and the waiter told me he would have to ask the Maitre' D if it was okay. However, other waiters at the tables next to us were practically shoving the lobster down the throats of the people at their tables. I did eventually get another one, but never on any ship that either one of us have been on, have we ever been told anything like that. It just seemed like everything we asked in the dining room, we were told no.

We did think that the Lido buffet was a step up from other ships. They served us all week and the service overall was very good in there. We didn't necessarily love the selections, but it was a nice environment and definitely better than the buffets on Royal Caribbean.

We also enjoyed the night life very much. The guest entertainers were pretty good and we LOVED the BB King Blues Lounge and the piano bar. We visited both every night.

We went to two of the specialty restaurants, Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind. Pinnacle Grill was okay. Food was good but we like Chops on Royal Caribbean better. On the other hand, Tamarind was outstanding. We ended up eating their twice as the food and service was outstanding. Barbara was a great waitress and was so sweet.

One thing we found to be missing was a pool band. We definitely missed that. Also, there is very little shade at the pool, which we found to be disappointing. Also, while we were in Puerto Rico, we stayed on the ship and sat at the pool with the retractable roof. It was raining on and off so this was the perfect place to sit. However, by 2pm, they kicked us out of our chairs because they wanted to set up for a BBQ buffet for dinner that night. It was disappointing to not be able to sit out by that pool all day.

Overall, we had a good time. We just weren't impressed with Holland America. As I said, we thought it would be a step up from Royal Caribbean and we didn't experience that at all. We liked the itinerary and don't regret going on the cruise.

Also, Miami Airport is a mess. The transfer from the ship to there was fine. We arrived by 9:30 for a 12:15 flight. The lines were so long as all the cruise ship buses were dropping off in the same place. They only had one agent working for a while and the conveyor belts for luggage weren't working. We waited in line for almost two hours. By the time we got to the gate, they were boarding the plane. It was quite stressful. By some miracle, three of our four suitcases actually made it home. We got the last one the next day, which wasn't a problem.

Edited January 17, 2016 by Sles23

[cruz chic]

Thx for your review. I was on the eurodam in October and also found the staff in the MDR to be not very accommodating. That is ridiculous about the lobster. I'm happy that you enjoyed parts of your cruise. It's unfortunate that Hal doesn't do much to attract new customers. All to often I hear people on this board say that Hal service is excellent and so above other lines. It's not true in my experience. I cruise princess on occasion and their service is every bit as good, sometimes much better than Hal.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

Sorry you were disappointed in your first HAL experience.

Hope you have a better cruise experience on whatever line you choose to sail on again. Sounds like you will be going back to RCI.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[sppunk]

Yikes I hope that waiter gets a stern talking to, or moved to another role.

[andlil]

We didn't find the ship to be overly clean in the public areas. The carpet in the theater looked like it hadn't been vacuumed in weeks.

 

We were on the same cruise and since almost all carpeting in the public areas had been replaced during dry-dock two weeks earlier there was a lot of loose fibers (pilling?) on the new carpeting.

 

I was happy with the overall cleanliness of public areas, same as Maasdam in July and Nieuw Amsterdam last summer.

 

//A

[cormike1]

Thanks for your review. We are on the Eurodam in 3 weeks and are looking forward to it. We had sailed Princess for most of our cruises and when we tried HAL last year we really enjoyed our cruise. We found the Nieuw Amsterdam a step above Princess. We are hoping we are not disappointed with the Eurodam!

[luv2travel06]

We were on the last Eurodam cruise before it went into drydock. We posted comments about our cruise here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2287946

 

The dining room managers were walking around every night. We have had issues in the past and addressed them with the manager. Usually dining room stewards are promoted up to that position so they have to be good. It would not seem that one who receives negative comments/reviews would be in the position long.

 

Wishing you a better experience on your next cruise.

[uncnurse]

We were also on the Eurodam--Dec 27-Jan 3 and had a wonderful cruise-11 of us;my husband,myself,our children and grandchildren. It was a great week of beaches. Since the ship was just out of dry dock most of the carpet was new as well as the TV's with more stations. All of the bathrooms that I was in were spotless. We were all given 2 lobster tails(if we wanted them) but they did seem to be overcooked. Our waiter wanted to know why I didn't eat all of mine and would have brought me another if I had wanted one. The New Year's Eve Party was the largest we had ever been to and was followed by a buffet featuring foods from around the world.Not sure how many people knew but in Puerto Rico the CEO and his wife came aboard for the remainder of the cruise. They were very friendly as we met them in the elevators and around the ship. We ended the cruise at Half MoonKey---a day in paradise and left with wonderful memories!!

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your Eurodam cruise.

Hope the next cruise you take, is more to your liking.

 

Did you fill in a "Let us Know" card and hand in at the front desk, re the public bathrooms?

[Miamichile77]

I just got off of the Eurodam today, and think that the public spaces were pretty clean. This was our third time on the Eurodam, and find that the waiters, like the rest of the staff, were mostly nice and helpful. I wish you greater success with your next cruise.