CruiseMates' Readers Cruise Reviews

We just got back from our 9 day voyage from NYC to Lisbon on Holland America's Rotterdam. We had a great time and liked the ship very much, but there are some minor criticisms too.

For you lazy readers out there, here's my quickie guide to this cruise:

Cabin: A

Food: B-

Staff: A-

Activities: B+

Ports: B+

For the truly information deprived, here are all the details....

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The Cabin: We had a Category A mini-suite which was quite sizeable, with a veranda. We had the 2 beds put together to make almost a king sized bed and the sitting area near the veranda had a very large leather couch which was very comfortable! It was definitely larger than the comparable room on the Celebrity Galaxy which we sailed in December. The bathroom was nice and had ample storage and a small whirlpool tub, which I always enjoy a good soak at night before bed--you can make your bubbles get real big by turning on the water jets! The veranda was slightly bigger than the Galaxy's as well with a full lounge chair, a regular chair, and small table, enough to put some drinks on and your book. There were 5 closets and 13 drawers, very ample storage indeed. This room also has a TV and VCR which we utilized a couple of times to rent movies from the Library (free of course) since we had 5 "at sea" days on this cruise. There was a safe in one of the closets. The decor of the room was a somewhat subdued Scandinavian modern look which I liked, although the finishes on the furniture seemed a little less real wood-like than on the Galaxy, but it was a nice big attractive room nonetheless. The coffee table in front of the couch could be raised or lowered according to your likes, but looked rather formica-like. There were also a chair and a stool under the vanity, really more seating than you would ever need for 2 people. The wall and the door to the veranda were floor to ceiling glass, providing very nice sea views at all times, a big plus--we kept our curtains open at all times! All and all a rather attractive room which we enjoyed spending time in. The veranda was nice and I took a few naps out there while we were at sea. The cabin also had 2 nice robes for our use on the ship and one of those hairdryers in the bathroom with the vacuum-hose-like tube.

The Public Spaces: We loved the Crow's Nest at the top of the ship and the Ocean Bar. Both rooms were used for various functions throughout the day (and night) and were among the nicest rooms on the ship. In both rooms HAL would serve appetizers before each dinner seating, a very nice touch. Since there were so many days at sea one needed to fill one's time with activities at times. To that end, we attended the team trivia at 11:00 am in the Ocean Bar nearly every morning with Jason, who was a very funny man. Everyone had a good time. My partner, the Java Junkie, loved the Java Cafe one level down and got capuccino and espresso every day there and brought it up to the Ocean Bar for our trivia fix. He thought the coffee in the Lido restaurant and in the La Fontaine dining room left something to be desired so the Java Cafe was a must stop for coffee lovers on board. In the Crow's Nest, in addition to having great views out to the ocean, had wonderful leather chairs and ottomans to read in by day or relax in by night. They also had these Biedermeier-esque leather chairs that we very much wanted to take home.

The Lido pool area became a favorite place to sit and read while people watching. I liked the big seal sculptures at the foot of the pool but didn't like the use of the color yellow (but that's my own personal taste--I don't like yellow) and the tiles at the bottom of the little kiddie wading pool were yellow too, which under water makes the water look dirty-- not a good choice. The Lido pool has a retractable roof which was opened on nice days--about half of the days were good weather and half not. There is also a nice open air pool area at the back of the ship as well which I enjoyed on sunny days and got a nice tan, which I wasn't expecting on a transatlantic crossing, but then again, I tan easily!

The LaFontaine dining room was very nice and we had a table for 6 on the upper level in the back of the ship right next to the windows looking out the back of the ship. It was a very nice view but it was hot every night back there in ways that it wasn't hot in other areas of the dining room, even on cloudy days without the sun streaming in. Guess they needed more air conditioning back there! We did enjoy looking at the wake of the ship every night thought. The one public room that I thought did not work was the main theater, the Queen's Lounge. It needs a design overhaul. Lots of yellows and golds that didn't mix well together (but remember my bias against yellow.) It just wasn't harmonious. The seating was haphazardly designed in some ways and not attractive. But that was the only room I really didn't take to. The other decor problem I had was with the antiqued mirrored tiles they used to line the staircase wall in the atrium--in a word, yuck. A little too glitzy for my taste on a ship that was generally low key and classy looking.

The flow of the public spaces I thought was pretty good once I figured out where everything was. The signage was generally in the 3 elevator lobbies on each deck. We are "stair" people generally on cruises since we need to work off all those extra calories and if you're taking the stairs you don't see a lot of the signage. This sailing was not full, they said around 1000 people on a ship that fits 1300+. We liked the somewhat smaller size from the Galaxy, which that combined with so many days at sea meant we would bump into people we had met on a regular basis, which was nice. Speaking of meeting people--we had arranged a lunch the first day at sea with 4 other couples we met in advance on AOL. It was wonderful meeting them and we felt like we had friends onboard from the first day which was very nice. We had a great time bumping into them onboard all week (hi gang!)

The Staff: We found the service in the dining room and our cabin steward to be great. Warm and friendly without being too friendly if you know what I mean. They were genuinely nice people and their tips were most certainly earned. Our wants at the dining room were anticipated, for example I like iced tea with dinner and decaf with dessert. It took Robertus and Jaya one day to figure that out. Our cabin steward, Sam, kept our room very clean and well stocked with towels and soaps and stuff like that. The one thing that mystified me about Sam for several days was what his voice reminded me of--ET the Extra Terrestrial! You'd have to hear him to believe it. In any case, speaking of soap, I liked the bathroom products HAL has, the soaps and skin lotions--pretty nice stuff. On our disembarkation day we had one irritating thing happen, Sam came into our room while I was half naked very much rushing us to get out. That left a somewhat sour note so I reduced his tip! We literally needed 10 minutes more (it was quarter to 8 am for goodness sakes) and we would have been gone soon enough so I felt a little bit like "don't let the door hit you on the way out". Otherwise it was all very nice service. Robertus, our waiter, thoughtfully remembered to give me a copy of our dinner menus for the whole cruise, which being the information junkie that I am I loved. The Cruise Director was Gary Walker who we basically enjoyed, but I think most of these type people come off as pretty fake and cheesy, and he was no exception. I am cynical 36-year old what can I say? But he was nice and friendly when we saw him out and about on the ship. by the end of the cruise we were on hello terms with most of the cruise and entertainment staff, a friendly bunch. Jason, the triva king, and Jenny, his occasional substitute, were both lively and entertaining.

The Food: It started off not very well. Maybe the kitchen staff was just tired and bored since the Rotterdam was just finishing up her world cruise for 1999. Not very interesting desserts and small, tired looking cuts of meat. My dining mates liked the seafood entrees though and one lady had a very large lobster tail one night that she liked. Some of the cold soups were very very good but the salads were not imaginative usually. Too much iceberg lettuce! Some nice salad dressings though--including a chardonnay sesame seed and a few other interesting ones. They couldn't seem to cook rice without making it too mushy. Oh well, the food did get better as we went along, and started coming close to the more interesting food we had on Galaxy. We are foodies to a certain extent.

The Rotterdam also has a special Italian restaurant onboard (the "Odyessy") which you need reservations for (but which is otherwise free, of course) and we didn't get to eat there until the last day onboard--which was a mistake. Run and make reservations your first day on board to eat there--the food is absolutely terrific and puts the dining room food to shame in terms of quality and presentation.

The food from room service and up in the Lido was acceptable. I generally avoid buffets on a cruise ship--after going to school for 20 years and then working for the government the last 15 years the last thing I want to do on vacation is wait on line for food served cafeteria style! I don't know why people find this attractive. Speed is one thing I realize, especially when you are on a very port intensive cruise and are in a rush, but for me the dining room and sitting down is always the way to go. No one says you have to order every course and sit there for an hour and a half for lunch. Just get an iced tea and the entree and you can be on your way in no time. No waiting on line for me unless I have to! We loved having the soft serve ice cream in the Lido late in the afternoon in a very large waffle cone! Now that is worth the wait! We also did enjoy getting capuccino and baked goods and an omelet or two in the morning via room service to eat out on our veranda--always a nice thing to do. Our friends up a deck in the really high rent district missed having a butler to bring appetizers before dinner and such.

The Activities: I tend to think most of the production shows on these things are pretty tacky and stupid and certainly this cruise didn't change my mind at all. The women in the shows were the better singers but the men were the better dancers. They were trying certainly. The best show was the Salute to Broadway or whatever it was called. Good reliable show tunes and production values. The other 2 shows were only passable, but hey go anyhow (what else are you going to do for 5 days at sea!) The ship's orchestra was very good and handled the music for some special acts with quite a bit of professionalism, I was impressed. There was a comedian on this sailing who did impressions, Joey Van, whose act was 30 years old (at least) but very funny. There were quite a number of musical cues for his act and the band was on the money and well rehearsed. The most intriguing act were two older ladies who called themselves the Marimba Mamas who played the marimbas, instruments which are like bells you hit with little mallets. They were a hoot and had a good schtick going. To think they could do all that playing just exhausted me looking at it. They were lively and fun and had a sense of humor about themselves, very refreshing.

There were all sorts of other activities like bingo and horse races and the usual cruise ship stuff which you could do or not do depending on your choice. They did make announcements over the PA for such things several times a day which I find annoying! We like Celebrity's policy of not having such announcements better. We can read the daily program for ourselves, thank you! Two other activities I enjoyed were a tour of the ship's galleys and the 3 art tours they had of the ship's art. Denise, the art tour guide on the ship staff, was very good and the art was fascinating in many ways. The large reproductions of the Chinese warriors and horses from Xian are nice but in an inappropriate location for their size. They deserve to be shown off better than they are.

The Ports: Obviously, on a transatlantic crossing there aren't too many ports! We had 5 at-sea days which we spent reading, relaxing, occasionally sunbathing, going to the well equipped fitness center, or napping. To us that is what vacation is all about, but I'll run you through the ports we visited anyhow. Hamilton, Bermuda--we had rain all day there so we didn't do all that much expect walk around Hamilton, which seemed pretty nice. Horta, the Azores--Horta did not have much to offer as a port town. We tendered there and got to take some nice pictures of the ship from some hills in town. Hopefully they will come out nice, but really nothing much to do in town. We probably should have signed up for a nice island tour! Ponta Delgado, the Azores--Ponta Delgado is a bigger, rather attractive town and the capitol of the Azores. We found a nice store in a mall downtown that sold products made on the islands that had interesting stuff. Got a nice bottle of wine for under $5, should have bought more. We brought 2 bottles with us to share at our dinner table, and everyone enjoyed that. Even with the corkage fee it keeps the bar tab down! We took the Crater Lakes tour on this island and took a bus up to the rim of a now dormant volcano. It was breathtakingly beautiful with 2 gorgeous lakes inside the crater with a little village nearby. Quite stunning. Hope the pictures of that come out good! We then went to a pineapple plantation that was skippable. In the store at the plantation they sold pineapple liquer in some cute ceramic flasks which I thought would make nice little gifts until I tasted the awful stuff! Oh well, it was a funny moment for me!

Disembarking: We arrived in Lisbon and took our time having breakfast in the dining room one last time and saw lots of our new friends one last time. We were off the boat after our number was called in no time, but waited on the ground over an hour for a taxi to our hotel. The people who got the bus transfer from HAL fared little better in the speed department. This was very frustrating and somewhat hot and uncomfortable waiting there outside with all our luggage. HAL needs to get it's act together I guess on long lines getting on and off the ships. I suppose they could have had their port representatives call for more cabs in advance?? Might have been a good idea. Lisbon was a very charming city and I would certainly go back there. Other than the immediate compact downtown area (charming old buildings and pedestrianized streets) Lisbon is all hills with many charming cobblestone streets winding their way between old buildings. Not for people in walkers but very charming. We took a cab up to the castle and walked down. The downtown has been largely untouched by the wrecking ball thank goodness. We had a hotel room for the day at the Sofitel which was close to downtown on the Avenue Liberdade, which we booked on our own.

Late that night we hopped a cab to get on the overnight train to Madrid. We also loved Madrid which reminded us somewhat of Vienna or Paris, very grandiose in some ways. We toured the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum, of course, and flew back direct to Washington, DC the next day. My partner hates flying so that's why we went to Madrid--there are no direct flights back to DC from Lisbon. We could have otherwise stayed many extra nights in Lisbon which we like very much. I think we might have to take a nice land vacation to the Iberian peninsula sometime soon to spend more time exploring Lisbon, Madrid, but also Sevilla, Barcelona, and maybe a beach or two, something you don't really have time to do in depth on a cruise. But this cruise gave us a nice taste of the region to entice us back! A nice safe way to check things out in advance of a longer exploration.

It's more than a passing grade, and I hope I don't sound too negative because we really did have a great time. Would we take this ship or Holland America again? Yes probably, but we would take second seating at dinner to get a somewhat younger crowd, although we met many older folks whose company we thoroughly enjoyed. I think the change in seating time probably would have been a smart change and certainly that wasn't the cruise line's fault--we were assigned late and switched to early thinking the extra time at night would allow us to do more after dinner. As it was, even at sea for 5 days we felt rushed going to dinner at 6pm! I guess also more of a passenger diversity mix would have been preferable, but realistically going into this cruise we were aware that on a longer sailing in an off time of the year and on HAL we were likely to have a somewhat older crowd. It was fine though and really we had a great time regardless--we can pretty much get along with anyone and aren't too nit picky! The one other little oddity that we didn't think about was that when you sail across the Atlantic West to East you lose 5 hours to Lisbon, so there were 5 nights that we had to move our clocks forward 1 hour! Imagine our sadness at having 23 hour days 5 times! Next time we'll sail west and have 5 25 hour days instead!!! Much better for catching up on all that sleep on your vacation!

Anyhow, anyone who has any questions about the Rotterdam VI or this cruise in particular (the ship makes 2 transatlantics a year to reposition to/from Europe) certainly can feel free to write me with questions!