Review Ms Rotterdam, jewels of the baltic april/may 2019.

[jakkojakko]

The ship.

It had been two years since we sailed ms Rotterdam and the ship's inside public places were extensively done over in a very nice way. New carpets, new upholstery and a general new feel when walking around deck 4 and 5. Inside our verandah cabin the couch was new, not leathery this time, and the cabin was clean with no defects. Airconditioning worked fine the whole two weeks. The washroom however was not updated. Everything worked, hot/cold water, flush, but the general condition of the bath, although clean, was bad. Apparently the area around the bath faucets was and had been leaking with a lot of rust as a result. This was painted over, but rust was already apparent again. This fortunately did not lesson the enjoyment of the cruise, but is something HAL should attend to as they will keep ships like Rotterdam for another ten years as told by the hotel director on the ship.

 

Dining.

Admittedly a subjective subject, we think the choice and quality of the meals in the mdr has improved greatly. I liked every course I selected, which has not always been the case, and it was never a problem to order seconds. There is no charge for a second main course. The lido was used for breakfast and lunch. Quality is good with lots of choices, italian corner, far lands (asian) corner, sushi corner, salad bar, fixed sandwiches etc. On the aft deck you can order made to order pizza, we did that once and it was good and in the covered pool was a snackbar with hamburgers and fries, also good. I sometime read about bad attendance by lido waiters but that is not the case here. Tables were cleaned in record time and they came around for water/koffie etc very often. It seemed like a full house and that reflected in a very busy lido, so to have a table of choice you would have to come early. We did not do pinnacle or canalletto.

 

Crew.

They were fabulous as ever. From cabin stewards, dining stewards, in fact everybody you met, it was all smiles and helpfullness.

 

Itinerary.

Due to strong winds the harbour of Warnemunde closed and it was not safe anyway to dock there. This was to be the start of Berlin tours and was a great dissapointment for passengers who had embarked on the previous cuise and had stayed on for this one, they had already missed two ports and this would be the third. So another seaday, but the captain announced already at noon that the next day's scheduled sea day would be replaced with an impromptu port stop at Riga and that turned out to be a great one! Rotterdam had never been there before, in fact only Prinsendam had. Every other, scheduled, stop was in general early to arrive and on time to leave.

 

Overall.

It was a great cruise, despite the unusual cold weather for the baltic.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise and found the Rotterdam to be in great shape (except for the bathroom).

[kazu]

Thanks for the review.

 

Sorry to hear about the bathrooms 😞 

 

But nice on the impromptu spot replacing a sea day. 🙂 

 

 

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your cruise.

Shame about the bathroom.

[rotjeknor]

Thanks for your review ! We've got 2 cruises booked on the Rotterdam ( june and august) . Always re-assuring to read that the ship in is good shape. On most of our past 7 cruises on the Rotterdam we had issues with either the ac or hot/cold water. Always solved within a day, but annoying nevertheless . 

[txstephie]

Thank you for your review! We’re sailing the Baltic in 2 weeks and I can’t wait!

[Tampa Girl]

On 5/13/2019 at 5:52 AM, jakkojakko said:

The ship.

It had been two years since we sailed ms Rotterdam and the ship's inside public places were extensively done over in a very nice way. New carpets, new upholstery and a general new feel when walking around deck 4 and 5. Inside our verandah cabin the couch was new, not leathery this time, and the cabin was clean with no defects. Airconditioning worked fine the whole two weeks. The washroom however was not updated. Everything worked, hot/cold water, flush, but the general condition of the bath, although clean, was bad. Apparently the area around the bath faucets was and had been leaking with a lot of rust as a result. This was painted over, but rust was already apparent again. This fortunately did not lesson the enjoyment of the cruise, but is something HAL should attend to as they will keep ships like Rotterdam for another ten years as told by the hotel director on the ship.

 

Dining.

Admittedly a subjective subject, we think the choice and quality of the meals in the mdr has improved greatly. I liked every course I selected, which has not always been the case, and it was never a problem to order seconds. There is no charge for a second main course. The lido was used for breakfast and lunch. Quality is good with lots of choices, italian corner, far lands (asian) corner, sushi corner, salad bar, fixed sandwiches etc. On the aft deck you can order made to order pizza, we did that once and it was good and in the covered pool was a snackbar with hamburgers and fries, also good. I sometime read about bad attendance by lido waiters but that is not the case here. Tables were cleaned in record time and they came around for water/koffie etc very often. It seemed like a full house and that reflected in a very busy lido, so to have a table of choice you would have to come early. We did not do pinnacle or canalletto.

 

Crew.

They were fabulous as ever. From cabin stewards, dining stewards, in fact everybody you met, it was all smiles and helpfullness.

 

Itinerary.

Due to strong winds the harbour of Warnemunde closed and it was not safe anyway to dock there. This was to be the start of Berlin tours and was a great dissapointment for passengers who had embarked on the previous cuise and had stayed on for this one, they had already missed two ports and this would be the third. So another seaday, but the captain announced already at noon that the next day's scheduled sea day would be replaced with an impromptu port stop at Riga and that turned out to be a great one! Rotterdam had never been there before, in fact only Prinsendam had. Every other, scheduled, stop was in general early to arrive and on time to leave.

 

Overall.

It was a great cruise, despite the unusual cold weather for the baltic.

 

Thank you for your review.  I have had my eye on that particular cruise and hope to do it within a couple of years.  BTW, can I assume that the Rotterdam still has its library and the Crows Nest?

[jakkojakko]

36 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Thank you for your review.  I have had my eye on that particular cruise and hope to do it within a couple of years.  BTW, can I assume that the Rotterdam still has its library and the Crows Nest?

Library yes, librarien no. Crows nest is still going strong and full during happy hour and sailaway.

Edited May 15, 2019 by jakkojakko

[DocNoosa]

Thank you for your review always great to have up to date insights!

 

Post 18 on “Rotterdam Entertainment” in Jan 2019 said:
I recently sent a Facebook message to HAL about entertainment on the Rotterdam for our cruise in April. We were very concerned as we were big fans of BB King on our past cruise on the Rotterdam and a recent cruise on the Oosterdam. This is the reply I received.”as of April 2019 Rotterdam will have Billboard Onboard and Lincoln Center Stage, which are fantastic. BBC Earth Experiences include the Live Concerts and the ship also has The Mainstage”

 

Could you confirm if in fact Billboard Onboard was installed and running for your cruise.

 

Would also appreciate any comments you could make about the bars and associated live music and dancing venues.

 

[GCHAN]

Thanks for the review. It sounds like you had a good time.

 

Just wondering what activities they had during the day. We quite often do the trivia and I am wondering whether they still have these on Rotterdam. Also do they have any sports competitions like table tennis, golf etc.

[jakkojakko]

15 minutes ago, GCHAN said:

Thanks for the review. It sounds like you had a good time.

 

Just wondering what activities they had during the day. We quite often do the trivia and I am wondering whether they still have these on Rotterdam. Also do they have any sports competitions like table tennis, golf etc.

 

Yes, trivia is very much alive and daily.

There is a tennis court as well as table tennis, but I never observed any organised activity. It was a very port intensitive itinerary.

[GCHAN]

thanks

[DocNoosa]

21 hours ago, DocNoosa said:

Thank you for your review always great to have up to date insights!

 

Post 18 on “Rotterdam Entertainment” in Jan 2019 said:
I recently sent a Facebook message to HAL about entertainment on the Rotterdam for our cruise in April. We were very concerned as we were big fans of BB King on our past cruise on the Rotterdam and a recent cruise on the Oosterdam. This is the reply I received.”as of April 2019 Rotterdam will have Billboard Onboard and Lincoln Center Stage, which are fantastic. BBC Earth Experiences include the Live Concerts and the ship also has The Mainstage”

 

 

 

Could you confirm if in fact Billboard Onboard was installed and running for your cruise.

 

 

 

Would also appreciate any comments you could make about the bars and associated live music and dancing venues.

 

 

 

Hi Jackjacko

Can you make any comments on queries above.

Thanks

[jakkojakko]

22 hours ago, DocNoosa said:

Thank you for your review always great to have up to date insights!

 

Post 18 on “Rotterdam Entertainment” in Jan 2019 said:
I recently sent a Facebook message to HAL about entertainment on the Rotterdam for our cruise in April. We were very concerned as we were big fans of BB King on our past cruise on the Rotterdam and a recent cruise on the Oosterdam. This is the reply I received.”as of April 2019 Rotterdam will have Billboard Onboard and Lincoln Center Stage, which are fantastic. BBC Earth Experiences include the Live Concerts and the ship also has The Mainstage”

They did show bbc earth movie on the main stage in one evening, no live concert.

 

Quote

 

 

 

Could you confirm if in fact Billboard Onboard was installed and running for your cruise.

 

No billboard on board as far as I could tell.

 

Would also appreciate any comments you could make about the bars and associated live music and dancing venues.

 

No dancing in crowsnest although it has a dance floor.

Oceanbar has jazzy to somewhat classical live music you can dance to.

Because of the port intensity we usually went to our room after dinner so I don't have much info on late night stuff. There is no bb-king unfortunately.

 

 

There is no ships dancers and singers anymore, just individual performers interspersed with the occasional movie. We did have three singers who did a good job and performed three times, but I am not sure if they were on the ship for a longer time.

We cruise for destinations and quiet cruise life and not bars and or late night life. When walking around at 11 pm it was never very crowded or busy so if you are looking for a party atmosphere, you won't find it I think.

Edited May 27, 2019 by jakkojakko
Addition

[DocNoosa]

Hi Jackjacko thank you so much for all the information you have kindly provided - much appreciated. On the upcoming July Spitsbergen & Iceland cruise we will have midnight sun so a night-time atmosphere will be hard to find!

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for posting your comments. 

It's been a few years since we've been on the Rotterdam, and we loved it too.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[jakkojakko]

3 hours ago, DocNoosa said:

Hi Jackjacko thank you so much for all the information you have kindly provided - much appreciated. On the upcoming July Spitsbergen & Iceland cruise we will have midnight sun so a night-time atmosphere will be hard to find!

 

As for the midnight sun. Our room had excellent lightblocking curtains. Take along some clips to close cracks andd the room is dark for the night.