Holland America Rotterdam Review

Olden, Norway in late May

Weather

The weather was typical of early spring. The flowering trees were just starting in Denmark and highs were around 10-14 C in Norway. Wedged in the middle of these cool temperatures was Day 8 in Rotterdam with 26 C (79 F) and clear skies. We also had pleasant full sun all day in Volendam (pre-cruise), Visby and Tallinn. We had at least an hour of sunshine in every port excursion except Bergen and even there the sun broke through while we were at the top of the funicular. So, I’d have to say we totally lucked out on the weather on our Baltic / Norwegian voyage. Also, we found it was a good time of year to visit Norway, as the colder weather provided lots of snow capped fjords and heavy waterfalls.

HAL Rotterdam, Balcony Suite 6045

Rotterdam Review – Balcony Suite

The Rotterdam balcony suite 6045 was excellent. We found it very quiet and comfortable. Thanks to our travel agent for choosing the right spot for us. People we met who had a room above the BB King lounge did not enjoy their suite.

The large glass shower with a swinging glass door was fabulous. Anyone miss the days of sardine can showers with plastic curtains and water sloshing all over the bathroom floor? I didn’t think so.

Rotterdam Review – Music Venues

Older clients will love the music venues on the Rotterdam. Billboard features two intimate back to back pianos with passengers almost able to touch the keys while the two pianist play and sing. After 45 minutes, the Rolling Stone Lounge takes over which is in the same large space but on the other side of the ship. They switch back and forth between these two music venues every 45 minutes.

The BB King Blues Club has its own separate two story stage, so you can also listen from some seats on the second floor. We found the sound volume a bit too loud on the second floor though, as the drums seemed to be amplified by the roof there.

HHHolland America Rotterdam Review – Food

The Lido food was a disappointment. Not in the same universe as Oceania. Luckily the dinning room meals were fine. On the third week, we switched to assigned dinning, which we had never done before. We really liked being able to walk straight to our table without assistance and the table service began immediately. The meals were much better than the Lido and the service was superior.

We loved the Grand Dutch Cafe but on the third week of our cruise the 70% Dutch passenger presence meant the Grand Dutch Cafe was extremely busy. We also discovered that New York Pizza served breakfast including fried eggs. We enjoyed this because no one seemed to know they were open early and we were able to avoid the breakfast crowds in the Lido.

We were also able to avoid lunch in the Lido by trying room service or sandwiches from New York Pizza, but still overall found that lunch was a problem for us.

Rudi’s Sel de Mer

Elite Drinks Package

At early booking of the cruise, I assessed the value of the Have It All package and discovered it was a better option financially for us even though we rarely drink alcohol. The Elite Drinks Package provided with Have It All was insane. Unlimited specialty coffee, unlimited mocktails and 15 alcoholic drinks each per day was something beyond reason. We really did enjoy it though. My favourite was “Unleaded” strawberry margaritas.

Even though we never drink much at home, we had wine every night at dinner. At other times I tried Warsteiner beer, draft Heineken, Baileys coffee and even an amaretto sour. I enjoyed sitting at bar counters and chatting with the friendly bar tenders – a new me!  Lots of fun. We met a couple from Australia, who also had the drinks package and weren’t drinkers. They were challenging themselves to drink as many different alcoholic beverages as they could during the cruise.

Crowsnest

Crowsnest

The Rotterdam ship has a traditional crowsnest, which is a disappearing item on cruise ships because of a trend to convert this space to luxury suites instead. The Crowsnes had great views and on our first two weeks it was almost 50 % filled with tables of people making puzzles. On the third week, with mainly Dutch passengers, no one was interested in puzzles.

Pinnacle Grill

Rotterdam Review – Specialty Restaurants

We enjoyed our three specialty dinners. We ended up at the Pinnacle Grill once and we enjoyed Tamarind enough to go twice. The extra care in meal preparation was evident. The creme brulee at the Pinnacle Grill was immaculate whereas in the dinning room, the consistency of the finish was not comparable.

Tamarind

World Stage

The World Stage on the Rotterdam is impressive. The theater is two stories with no pillars blocking any views. Performances were excellent and had good variety. The full set of dancers and singers were accomplished performers.

Shore Excursions

Holland America charged about twice the rate of local excursions, so we avoided them whenever possible. We even visited Gdansk from Gdynia on our own by Uber which was very inexpensive. We arranged our own self guided tours in most ports and only used Holland America excursions in applying the shore excursion credit provided with our cruise booking.

Keeping Healthy

There are 3 things that caused the spread of germs on the Holland America Rotterdam. A significant portion of people, possibly 1/4, wouldn’t wash their hands entering the Lido. Secondly, Holland America uses a lot of self-service tongs in the Lido. So, that’s 2 good reasons to avoid the buffet. The third reason for the spread of germs is that Holland America makes you sign for every coffee and mocktail drink, even on a Have it All plan. I guess Holland America is hoping you will tip staff above and beyond the 18% gratuity that is automatically applied. This is very frustrating, as it not only passes around a lot of germs on the pens, but it slows down service delivery too.

Rotterdam Review – Summary

Overall I think the Rotterdam provides a great cruise and lots of passengers will enjoy the experience immensely. By the way, with a majority of Dutch and Australian cruisers, we found that the overall opinion of the United States was that the country had gone somewhat crazy. We didn’t meet many Americans and easily avoided politic discussions on the voyage. So, politics doesn’t seem to be a concern at all when you cruise in Europe.