Westerdam Review - April 27 to May 9th on the Adriatic

[brm]

Just back from a wonderful 12 night cruise on HAL’s Westerdam. It was a great vacation for my wife and myself. This was the first cruise on the Westerdam since it left dry-dock. We picked the cruise for its Adriatic itinerary. We visited 6 countries (Italy, Malta, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia) with 4 countries being new to us. It was our 6 and 5th time in Rome and our 4th time in Venice. We also picked the season (mid spring) because of the expected temperate climate. We were well rewarded as the temperature was mostly 68-72 in port and usually sunny. It rained the day we left Rome and it also rained the day we left the boat in Venice. I will try to break out my impressions into different parts. Sorry if I am too wordy. We had lots of fun. Great itinerary and lots of fun.

[brm]

The Westerdam and its Crew.

 

The boat was beautiful. It felt like a new boat to us with new carpeting and it smelled great. They had issues completing work on Deck 10 so it was closed. We got a combined refundable $400 credit so we had a credit balance when we got off the boat. There were a couple of small problems on day one as our door did not work with our key but that was quickly fixed. On rare occasion, the toilet did not flush but that resolved itself very fast. Our room was 4077 which was an obscured view (life boats) but gave us good lighting in the morning and more view than I was expecting. It was perfect for us as it placed us in the middle of the boat. It helps a bit for our seasickness issues. I should point out that the water was mostly calm and we never felt seasick. The medications seemed worse as it made us drowsy and dry month. I stopped taking anything after our sea day. The ports were pretty close once we got to Corfu so sometimes you barely knew the boat was moving. My wife and I remained healthy for the entire cruise with no colds or stomach inflammations. Others did have colds. I had a lot of sanitizer with me and put it to good use.

Embarkation was efficient and fast. We got there a little before 12 and had to fill out papers attesting to our health. Once we did that, we got on a fast line and we received our keys. They quickly called our boarding number and we were in our cabin. I think maybe things worked well because this was the first trip out of dry-dock so there was no passengers to move out before we moved in.

Cabin was very comfortable with a nice double bed and a couch. Bathroom was functional but the shower never drained well. We were hardly in our cabin. I did not grasp the concept of on demand movies in your room.

The service on the boat was great. Our 2 cabin stewards did a great job of keeping the room clean and supplying us with new towels. Everyone on the boat seemed very friendly.

Disembarkation was just as easy. We were staying in Venice one night so we filled out their form for the time we wanted to leave and we received tags for that time and were off the ship by a little after 8 AM Again, I think because we were already docked in Venice the day before, it was probably easier to get us off the boat since they can take the luggage any time after midnight and move it to the terminal. Only complaint here is that it was quite a walk to the main area so we had to schlep our luggage a bit. We shared a water taxi to our hotel with another couple from cruise critic.

[brm]

Food

 

 

I thought the food was very good, other then I ate much more than I should have. We did not do any specialty dinning. I thought the food in the main dining room was sufficient. My wife is not a big eater so it was much more comfortable there.

Breakfast for us was always at Lido. If you could not find anything for breakfast, then you are just not a breakfast person. They made omelets, crepes and Belgian waffles. They had a British, Dutch and Asian Breakfasts. Lots of breads and cheeses. The orange juice was good but I don’t think it was fresh squeezed. They had smoked salmon. When we were on a tour, I usually opted for cold cereal

When we were onboard, we ate all of our lunches at the Lido Buffet. My only complaint for lunch is their hours. Many of the stations closed at 2 and we arrived a lot of times back between 2 and 2:30.

I liked their pasta bar and the salad bar a lot and they were open the entire day. The salad bar was slow at times since they made your salad based on your personal choices. We also like their pre-made sandwiches as they had a lot of flavor and often hit the spot when we came in about 4-4:30. I never tried their Asian station since it was usually closed by 2. I did not like their Pizza. Wait staff was there to supply lemonade, ice tea and water.

Desserts were good and I ate more than I should of from the ice cream man as the cones and the rocky road ice cream were delicious.

With the exception of one night, we were in the main dining room. When we came back from our day in Taramia, we arrived at 8 PM and were hungry and did not have the patience to sit in the dining room. We discovered that some of the stations again closed a little after 8 so we had to move fast that night.

We did not have a set time for dinner. The front desk of the restaurant on Deck 2 was great. Some days, I made a reservation and others I just showed up. We never had a problem getting a table for 2. They were very gratuitous. They remembered our request for a table in the middle of the restaurant (again for seasickness). We did not always have the same wait staff and some were better than others. It took us generally an hour to 1.5 hours to eat. My wife had 3 course and I splurged for 4 course most nights.

I thought the choices were okay. I had a lot of fish, some pretty good pasta and of course I had the surf and turf on the gala night. My wife is a simple eater so she had fish some nights or opted to the usual standards of chicken or salmon with a baked potato. They were able to adapt any dish to changes when I wanted rice instead of potato or my wife did not want the fancy sauce on her fish.

Again, desserts were my undoing and I ran the table with a banana crisp, blueberry crisp, strawberry crisp and peach crisp during the cruise. Of course they came with Vanilla ice cream. They also had some very good cakes and sundaes.

Though they set food upstairs from 10:30 to 11:30, I think we had a cup of tea on the entire cruise.

I should also mention the dive bar where they grilled burgers, dogs and chicken. I had a burger the last day with their fries. Yum.

[brm]

Entertainment

 

 

I came away a bit mixed on the entertainment. I think I lot of folks we met, toured hard during the day, had dinner and crashed in our room. We were more up early and out touring from 8:30 to 2:30. I enjoyed the boat in the afternoon and did a lot of their entertainment in the evening.

It was generally quiet on the pool deck on sale away days. They did have a wine and cheese on our sale away from Kotor (though they did charge for the wine). 2 pools with one convertible to indoors or outdoors with it staying mostly open during the day and closed at night. There were various hot tubs which I used twice. I never could figure out whether you could control the bubbles which they seemed to turn on remotely.

There was a very nice piano player in Ocean bar. It was very nice sitting and listening to him. After dinner we took advantage of the 3 main fixtures which was the Lincoln Center Quintet, BB Kings Blues Club and Billboard on Board. All 3 were excellent.

We met the pianist for the Lincoln Center group (Christine) right after lunch the first day while they were rehearsing. We really enjoyed taking with her and meeting her later in the cruise. This was their first gig so it was exciting to share what she was thinking. I think we attend at least 8 of their shows and probably more. It was a very diverse program. I enjoyed their session of American composers, especially Aaron Copeland. It was a small space so you had to get there early to see things or you were forced to listen from the adjacent room.

The BB King Band and singers were also very good. They had a great sound and singers had a lot of personality. Miss Olivia Lee had a cabin near ours and my wife was able to talk with her when they met at the elevator.

Danny and Vinnie from Billboard on Board were piano players and singers. They were great. They had lots of personality and played a lot of songs. It was fun when Vinnie’s wife (from the main cast) sang a duet with him. It was pretty crowded where they played with folks often standing or stealing a chair from the casino.

I thought the big shows were loud and bright but it was not to my taste. The magician was more of card trick guy (as opposed to sawing a women in half) so it was not my favorite. The singer was adequate. I liked the British comedian a lot and I was sorry we only saw him once. There was a local folk singing and dancing troop in Dubrovnik which was good.

My main compliant was the evening live entertainment ended between 11:15-11:30 and there were enough folks including me who would be happy going to midnight.

They also had American Test Kitchens on board which my wife enjoyed but she only saw them on our sea day and the day we went to Messina since we did not arrive until 1 PM. They had other shows but never late in the day so I guess they were useful to the folks who were not touring.

I was also disappointed that they did not show too many movies and the most of the movies they showed were either at noon or 2 PM on touring days. We did see Patriots day one evening and my wife and I were the only 2 there at the beginning so maybe that explains things.

I felt our sea day was pretty boring. The captain was sick so his talk about the boat was cancelled. They did not show a movie that day. I did enjoy walking laps on deck 3 and I did more than 3 miles. Cruise director was very enthusiastic but we rarely saw her at the events we attended and we did not see her the last few days.

We were grateful to HAL for the self-directed Jewish services we attended on May 5. We met one very nice couple from San Diego and shared some Kosher Wine and challah. That was a very nice experience.

[brm]

Touring (Part 1)

We arrived in Rome on Tuesday, April 25. We had a direct flight on Alitalia from JFK and we came in about an hour early. We spent 2 nights in Rome and really loved it again. We did a lot of walking and eating outside. My wife through a coin into Trevi fountain so I think we will have to return.

We arranged a taxi from RomeCabs and Dana was at our hotel early on Thursday, April 27 and whisked us to the port on a rainy day.

 

 

We arranged a taxi from RomeCabs and Dana was at our hotel early on Thursday, April 27 and whisked us to the port on a rainy day.

On our first full day on the ship, we went to our meet and greet for everyone who I met on the internet. I collected money from 3 couples and I paid for the day's trip. Our shared trip with 12 other folks was to Taormina and Castelmola. Nice views from the mountains but nothing special. Taormina had a nice feel walking about. Still not sure it was worth investing 6 hours for the tour.

Beautiful weather as we arrived at 8 am in Valletta, Malta on Saturday. We were up early and left the boat at 8:30. We found the taxi people and bought 2 hours for 55 euros. We wanted to go to Mdina and Rabat. The driver also stopped at a really nice gardens in front of the prime minister's residence.

 

Rabat was a waste of time. Mdina was very nice. We were able to wind our way to this old city. Nice church and lots of fortifications. They were having a dress up day so there were lots of locals dressed as knights, kings and queens and drummers.

 

Our driver left in Valletta where the boat is docked but in the town. We needed to take an elevator to get down to the ship and back up. They charge a euro. We walked for 1.5 hours. Pretty crowded with our boat and another in town. We took in the entire atmosphere and some stunning views. We had a nice sandwich lunch on the boat and spent 2 hours in the afternoon but most of the museums and main church were closed. They seemed to be filming a movie.

We left Valletta early morning on Sunday and arrived quickly to the nearby island of Gozo at the port in Mgarr. We had to take a launch to shore. Very choppy water so it was not easy for everyone. We got in at 10 and negotiated with a taxi to drive us around part of the island for 3 hours. It was surprising delightful. We stopped first at Dahlet Qorrit which had a nice little church and a beautiful view of the sea and inner lagoon. Water was a perfect blue and green. Also saw some big cliffs.

 

Now we went to the big city of Victoria. The town was very much alive with lots of tourists. He left us at the old fortress and we walked around. We had 360 degree view of the island and the waters surrounding it. We walked through the Cathedral and discovered that a wedding was going to take place. Soon both the bride and groom arrived in separate cars. We finished up at Ggantija Temple which had ruins from thousands of years ago.

After the dreaded sea day, we were in Corfu on May 2. We had a very pleasant morning here in Greece. We were here 10 years ago and saw most things except the old town. We took a quick cheap bus into town. I could never find a good tourist map which would have been handy on the winding streets with Greek names and Greek alphabet. We stayed on the main street. We stopped at an old English Manson which had a really good Asian art museum. We then worked our way to the old fortress and got some great views of Corfu. We passed a very nice park and took a drink break.

 

Working our way back into old town, we stopped at the big Saint Spyridon Church. Greek Orthodox here so it looked very different than the churches we saw in Rome. Next, we found a very old synagogue. The Jews here got destroyed by the ****s during WWII. We later stumbled on to a memorial to the Jews who perished. We then used our time to wander about. 3 boats including ours were in town. Very commercial but some nice small churches and some interesting side streets.

Sailed into Dubrovnik, Croatia on Wednesday. We got here an hour earlier than expected so we were one of the first off the boat. We took the local bus 15 minutes into town as the dock is not right in town. We were jealous of the other boat in Dubrovnik as they did a tender right into the old town. Boat was charging 8 euros each way and we did it for 25-30 Kunos (they won’t take euro) for 2 which was about 4 or 5 dollars. I did end up with too many Kunos at the end of our stay in Croatia.

 

Very beautiful place but lots of steps and a fortification wall. We were very careful with the walking so we tried to stay on the main drag and adjacent streets. We went through some churches, saw some great views, especially from the old town harbor and up into the mountains and people watched. We also went to their synagogue which unfortunately is just a museum. It is no longer active. I especially enjoyed their mini Spanish like steps. We opted for lunch in town and came back 6 hours later. I think we were pretty tired today so we did not do as much as I thought we would.

We had our wow day today (Thursday) in Montenegro and the port of Kotor. We awoke this morning as we sailed into Kotor Montenegro. It was so beautiful with the port surrounded by mountains. Really, lots of fjords. We met up with our group trip. He drove us to Perast. A beautiful little town where we took a short boat trip to the little self-made island of Our Lady of the Rock and explored a beautiful church. Lots of paintings.

After our return boat trip we explored the town and then drove around the bay and took a ferry ride back and headed for the resort town of Budva. We had 45 minutes here and I would have liked more. Nice old town with a citadel and a really nice harbor on the Adriatic. We drove back to Kotor and stopped for a great view of the valley, the bay and our boat. We stopped in Kotor and toured the old town and saw some interesting churches, especially the Serbian Orthodox Church. We also enjoyed sail out and the views of the bay and the fjords.

 

Best day of the cruise.

 

[brm]

Touring (Part II)

 

Friday, May, 5, we are anchored off of the Croatian island of Korcula. We tendered into town and arranged for a 2 hour taxi ride around the island. We did not realize our assigned driver didn't speak English so it was a quiet ride. Really not too much to see. A good view of town and grapes and olives growing. We stopped in a town with a nice little harbor and a church. Pretty uneventful trip. Our port town was also simple so I don't think we spent more than 1.5 hours there. Old town was pretty similar to what we have already seen along the way but smaller. I know others I talked to liked the day as they spent some time with the vineyards. To us, there were more interesting places to be in Croatia.

We arrived in Split on Saturday. It is a very beautiful city and we were once again blessed with fabulous weather - sunny and about 68. We walked in to town about 8:30 and were back on the ship at 2:30. No tender today even though they told us we would tender.

 

We started at the old Diocletian Palace. It is pretty old so not too much left but there are a bunch of old structures and winding streets. We toured St. Domnius Church and its crypt and saw St. John's baptistery. We saw the brass gate, Iron Gate, silver gate and golden gate. We found an active synagogue which was pretty hidden but it was closed for Saturday but no service. We found a beautiful park outside the walls and it had flowers shaped like animals. We went through a very active fish market and strolled on a very modern and affluent street. We found a little church which was having a wedding. We never saw the bride.

 

We then strolled on the big harbor street - Riva. Beautiful harbor on one side and lots of outdoor restaurants and stands selling all sorts of stuff. We went back to the palace area and had lunch in town. It was a long walk to the boat so this was simpler. I also had Kuna to burn. I later changed excess Kuna back to euros. We ate outside in the shade. We both had capresse sandwiches and cokes. We saw a couple we knew from the boat eating nearby and ran into other folks along the way. We found a great outdoor market with great looking vegetables. After some sitting and admiring the view, we marched back to the ship.

Great day in Slovenia on Sunday May 7. Up early today for our 7.5 hour tour of Slovenia with 3 other couples I met on line. I booked the tour and got money last week from everyone. We started at 8:30 and we drove 1.5 hours from our port in Koper to Vintgar Gorge. We walked 45 minutes adjacent to the river and saw some great waterfalls, beautiful clear water and some great terrain. Really a stunning place.

 

Next, it was on to Bled Castle. It was a difficult up and down for the group. There was nothing impressive here other than the views of Lake Bled below. We then drove to the lake and had about 20 minutes to walk around part of the lake and some breathtaking views of the surrounding area. Some of the nearby mountains still had snow on top.

 

Next, it was on to the capital city of Ljubljana for a great walking tour of the old city including all the shops and restaurants adjacent to their river, great squares, city hall and some beautiful churches. We used our free time to eat a quick lunch - risotto and salad. We drove an hour back to Koper and drove by the old city gate. After we were dropped off, we walked back for a quick walk into for a really nice venetian plaza with a church.

We arrived pretty early on Monday, May 8 in Venice. So we started to town about 8 AM and it was real foggy. Looking for the vaporetto stop. I bought an all-day ticket and walked a long time. Folks were kind to tell us we were going in the correct direction. As it turns out, I discovered that the stop was across the water from our boat but you couldn't go that way.

 

We found it and took the boat to San Marco. We wandered about and found our hotel for tomorrow and used their bathroom. We walked over to Rialto Bridge and rode the vaporetto up and down the Grand Canal. We sit outside in the back. You just can’t beat any of the views. We stopped across from the main plaza for a beautiful church and found a really nice hotel for a bathroom break. We did a quick visit to San Marco church and headed back to the ship.

 

We were smart this time. We took the vaporetto to the bus terminal and took the monorail to the port. Still, it was a big walk to the ship. Out 6 hours. Cool today. No sun but really none of the forecasted rain.

Tuesday was the end of our cruise. Quick breakfast and off the boat. We found our luggage and met the couple we shared a water taxi to our hotel. It was raining and we had to schlep our luggage to the taxi port. It was not raining too hard. Quick ride and we came in through the hotel window. They had our room ready and we joined the other couple who had some coffee while we had tea. We were waiting for the rain to stop.

At 10 and under improving skies we walked over to the Accademia art museum. It was a nice walk and we stopped at a bunch of churches and enjoyed the museum. We then walked over to the Rialto Bridge area. Lots of views of the Grand Canal and people watching. Along the way, we stopped for lunch of spaghetti and a very tasty cheese and tomato pizza. At Rialto, we saw a food market. The strawberries looked pretty tasty. We finish our walk back at San Marco. We were out about 5 hours and it was nice to have a hotel nearby. Sun came out so at times I was wearing a fleece and other times just a light sweater. Dinner was local and it was a new experience to have to pay for the meal after 13 days on the Westerdam.

[brm]

I hope folks enjoy my comments. I have relied on Cruisecritic for so much of my research and meeting folks for the cruise. It is now my turn to give back and answer any questions. Happy cruising.

[mame42]

Thank you for your thorough review. I feel I know more about what to expect when I board in October.

[easyboy]

Thank you for your detailed review.

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great review.

I liked the way you broke your review down in various parts for crew, food, etc. and the each day.

Thank you for taking the time to do this.

[Alex_II]

thank you for sharing this great review - i had verry good time reading it

we will board Westerdam in about a month - cant wait

 

hope works on ship will be over by then - looks like its not a real issue, but still

[DeeniEncinitas]

Loved your review!!!

Different, and I agree with KK, enjoyed how you broke up the subjects! This was more interesting to me and kept me wanting to read more!

Appreciate the time you put into this marvelous review! 👍 thumbs up.

Denise:)

[vino100]

Great review. Loved the way you broke you revise in categories. We will be boarding the westerdamn in Venice on the 24th of this month and can't wait. What hotel did you stay in in Venice.

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your cruise.

As others have commented, a good idea to break it into the various topics.

[brm]

Our hotel in Venice was Locanda Orseolo, San Marco 1083 Corte Zorai 30124 Venezia, Italy. Great hotel about 3 minutes from San Marco. Very nice warm place. Best crepes I have ever had.

 

Thanks for everyone's comments. What I wrote was all in my head and I wanted to get it on paper. The descriptions of our tours came from prior notes I sent to my daughter. I am not sure I would have remembered all of it a few weeks later. It took a lot longer to write this then I thought it would but I know how important it is for people that are planning a cruise, especially a port intensive cruise.

 

These type of cruises are very ambitious. They require a lot of planning and the payoff was amazing. Only problem was you have only 1 day in most of the ports so it is only a survey. For our ports, I doubt we will be back as it is really hard to get there. That is the reason we took the cruise. I probably should have mentioned that I am 63 so not too old but not as young as we used to be so there were some limits on our touring.

 

This was port intensive. It was also very walk intensive as many of the ports were merely a long walk into town. It was a lot easier on the days we had private tours as we spent a good amount of time in a van and a little less time walking.

[Alex_II]

glad to read that positive comment about Locanda Orseolo - i have booked same hotel for our precruise in Nov ( mostly from CC member`s reviews )

[0bnxshs]

Thanks for the extensive and thorough review!

[Cindy]

Our hotel in Venice was

 

 

 

This was port intensive. It was also very walk intensive as many of the ports were merely a long walk into town. It was a lot easier on the days we had private tours as we spent a good amount of time in a van and a little less time walking.

 

 

We were on the same cruise, and I second the walk intensive part. My husband did some calculations last night. In our three weeks in Europe we walked 113 miles and climbed 203 stories worth of stairs![emoji15] The worst part of that is I still gained weight![emoji23]

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[vino100]

Our hotel in Venice was Locanda Orseolo, San Marco 1083 Corte Zorai 30124 Venezia, Italy. Great hotel about 3 minutes from San Marco. Very nice warm place. Best crepes I have ever had.

 

Thanks for everyone's comments. What I wrote was all in my head and I wanted to get it on paper. The descriptions of our tours came from prior notes I sent to my daughter. I am not sure I would have remembered all of it a few weeks later. It took a lot longer to write this then I thought it would but I know how important it is for people that are planning a cruise, especially a port intensive cruise.

 

These type of cruises are very ambitious. They require a lot of planning and the payoff was amazing. Only problem was you have only 1 day in most of the ports so it is only a survey. For our ports, I doubt we will be back as it is really hard to get there. That is the reason we took the cruise. I probably should have mentioned that I am 63 so not too old but not as young as we used to be so there were some limits on our touring.

 

This was port intensive. It was also very walk intensive as many of the ports were merely a long walk into town. It was a lot easier on the days we had private tours as we spent a good amount of time in a van and a little less time walking.

So glad you liked the hotel in Venice. We are staying there in a week. I can't believe I said "in a week" , after planning for the last year and a half. :D

[Swice]

Thanks for taking the time to write!!

[draftxhorselover]

Great review! THANKS

[freestyling]

A wonderful review to read. Thank you for that! My DW and I love Croatia and wish HAL would overnight in Split or Dubrovnik. There is so much to see. We can't justify a land trip. Thanks again

[brm]

I agree with docking for more than one night in both Split and Dubrovnik. I was a little jealous of some of the folks who had visited before since they can go and explore other places close by like Bosnia. An extra day in either or both ports would have made a great vacation even better.

[DeathValleyClemson]

Great review.

I liked the way you broke your review down in various parts for crew, food, etc. and the each day.

Thank you for taking the time to do this.

I agree. THANK you so very much for all the detail and break.

[Fozwald]

Wonderful review and a great insight into what we will experience on the Westerdam in August.

Great reading too ... if anyone knows of similar reviews of Med cruises I would certainly appreciate any links.