Holland America Reviews

The ports of call were quite nice, though we visited one port twice (a change that was made after we booked and paid). Don't miss Norway, it is beautiful. As usual on HAL the food was good, cabin was spacious and convenient with lots of storage, the bed was comfy, and the stewards were readily available. The decor on the new Rotterdam is simple, though it seems rather it's that way to reduce cost. The effect is nice anyway. This itinerary was sold as a 14-day cruise but it was really 2x 7days back-to-back with complementary itineraries. We expected that was the case because the itinerary looped back to Amsterdam for a night. What we didn't expect was that the food and entertainment on the two legs were identical. That made the second seven days rather a dud for "onboard experience". Add to that our impression that the new Rotterdam seems to have been designed by accountants looking to maximize return on every square meter of space. There are no grand spaces, the ceilings feel low, the promenade has no deck chairs and has some areas where two folks cannot pass each other, the stairwells have a stingy narrow layout, the bars and public areas don't have enough room to accommodate all the guests on sea days. With both legs sold over capacity we found the onboard experience disappointing. The now-very-small Ocean Bar and the revamped Explorer's Lounge (old Crow's Nest) have very limited seating, so there are very very few places to hang out with friends away from the cacophony of the Music Walk. Other disappointing changes are that lobster is now a chargeable menu item, there are many fewer bar staff so that it is better to just go to the bar to get your drinks, and they eliminated port talks except for reviews of the available excursions. On our other cruises with HAL the port talks would start with an EXC guide giving an overview useful to those not taking excursions, followed by the Excursion people reviewing all the available paid options. We will sail HAL again, but never again on the new Rotterdam (all the charm of ocean cruising gone on this ship), and never again on back-to back round trip cruises.