Beautiful Ship and Great Staff

Item: Rotterdam Retired
Rating: 5
Author: JeffN4

Rotterdam Retired Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

JeffN4

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 34

Overall rating:

5 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Alaska Explorer (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 04, 2010

Ship: Rotterdam Retired

Cabin type: Oceanview

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 14 years ago

Review summary

Beautiful "classic" style ship with large well maintained staterooms, great cabin and dining stewards. The itinerary was good but a longer stay in Ketchikan would have been better as we left there early to race to Victoria and were then only there from 6pm to Midnight. Overall a very good experience and we are likely to choose Holland America for our next cruise.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Good buffets and a very good evening menu in the main dining room. Room service was timely and an excellent quality.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Great floor shows, movie selection and entertainment (band, guitar player, piano player) through out the ship.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Cabin and dining room stewards were top quality. The front office staff failed to sufficently explain the ships gratuity policy when we asked - told us to tip "what we feel is appropriate" and only after we recieved our final on-board bill were we made aware of the $11 per day per passenger gratuity that was automatically added on our bill. This was after we had alreayd given the dining room steward a very nice tip.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Well maintained beautiful "smaller" ship with large cabins and a very nice promanade deck and bow deck for viewing the scenery and glacier. The interior art, dining room and theatre were all beautiful.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

We recieved a free upgrade when we arrived on the ship. Our cabin looked new and was a nice size. Included a bathtub, queen bed, couch, tv, etc. The cabin steward catered to our every need.

Ports of call

Juneau, Alaska

5 out of 5

Mendenhall Glacier (we hiked out to it after taking the excursion to the ranger station) was way cool. The Rainforest Garden tour was also great and gave a great view of the area. The tram to the top of the mountain overlooking Juneau was a little pricey ($27 per person) but offered an amazing view and nice hiking trails.

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Don't Miss: Mendenhall Glacier

Ketchikan, Alaska

5 out of 5

Our stay was too short and the "Bear Wilderness Adventure" was kind of lame - it was in an area over which a zip line course ran. We saw a lot of spawning salmon and a veriety of birds but never got close to seeing a bear. Many shopping options here but we were only in port about 5 hours so had little chance to look around after our "bear adventure."

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Don't Miss: shopping

Victoria, British Columbia

5 out of 5

Very cool city but we arrived in town at 6 pm after much of the downtown was closed. It was still fun to walk around.

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Don't Miss: waterfront and Provincial capital building

Sitka, Alaska

5 out of 5

Best port on the trip. Beautiful city with a small town feel. Shopping here was limited but offered better deals than in Juneau or Ketchikan. The whale and sea otter watching was magnificant.

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Don't Miss: Sea Otter and Whale Watching Excursion

Pros: Great staff, beautiful boat and large staterooms

Cons: Policy on gratuities was not clear or explained by the "front office" staff until we recieved out final on-board bill

Recommends Rotterdam Retired? Yes!

1 Comment

Gwbigdog 2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.

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