Rotterdam Jan 7, 2018 out of Tampa!

[RMS Olympic]

Booked this cruise yesterday; haven't sailed HAL in quite a while. I read the Rotterdam will be going into dry dock the end of October for about a week or two.

For those that have been on the Rotterdam within the last year, what was your opinion on service, quality of food, beverages and entertainment? Have cutbacks greatly impacted the HAL experience? I know everyone has their own tastes, but in general is the quality and or standards being maintained?

Very curious to see how the current HAL compares to the competition 🤓

Tom

[Alberta Quilter]

You should read this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2474965. It's very recent.

[barjoem]

Thinking about booking this cruise also Alberta. We are in Dunnellon and have never sailed out of Tampa. We were on the Koningsdam in Dec. and the food was excellent. Prefer smaller ships like the Rotterdam. Concerned about

updates......

[RMS Olympic]

Barkley, I called HAL about the dry dock......cabins to be refreshed to include new beds and new tv's. New carpeting throughout the ship and possible new furniture. Since the drydock is in early November, any kinks should be addressed by January.

I watched a YouTube video of the Rotterdam in 2017......amazed at how intimate she is compared to the new huge cruise ships out there. Looks very elegant, less crowded and just much more civilized. I am so ready to go, not to mention a quick drive down the Veterans highway to Tampa.

Hope you decide to book.

Ps.....Dunnellon.....we are neighbors

[rajkr74]

We also were on the cruise listed in the link in post #2 above. It was a 30 day cruise across the Atlantic to Rotterdam. We found the Rotterdam in good condition. The staff was the greatest as usual. The art work on board is one of the best of the HAL ships we have been on. HAL has cut dinning room staff over the years but we found our service on AYWD was not hurt. The entertainment was just OK nothing great. However, we felt the HAL singers and dancers were much improved from prior cruises we have taken. HAL is now using a different agency that provides the singers and dancers for ships and it shows. We enjoyed their performances. The food in the dinning room was good but we felt that the selections during lunches in the Lido were repetitive and some what boring day to day. We had no barbeques on the lido deck during them whole cruise. There has been some discussion about this on another thread on this board.

 

This was the first time for us on the Rotterdam and we really enjoyed the ship and staff. Here is a link on OneDrive to some of our photos of the ship and staff.

 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsptL998yK8HgcMF6Q8b_rQpqOSuUA

 

Just click the first photo and it will start a slide show.

 

Sorry but it appears the link is not working, so just copy and paste it into a browser.

Edited June 13, 2017 by rajkr74