So happy with our cruise on the Rotterdam
Rotterdam Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 6
21 Night Viking Sagas & Baltic Jewels (Amsterdam Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 16, 2023
Ship: Rotterdam
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 7 months ago
Review summary
A brief overview is hard, because this was a 21 day trip and every part of it was wonderful The ship, food, ports of call, the staff exceeded our expectations.Embarkation
Our experience with getting on board, settling into our room and getting wonderful food by lunch time went very smoothly.
Short line to get onto the ship because of a set time to arrive ( which we were a bit early)
our room was ready for us and so was lunch.
The ship had many wonderful places to sit or walk around and when the ship left port, it felt like a celebration, horns blowing and people to wave goodbye to.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We ate most of our meals in the buffet.
The food was always very fresh, plenty of healthy choices, and a wide variety of food choices.
The staff was so helpful and friendly and worked hard to keep everything clean.
We did eat several meals in the main dining room. The service was first class and the food delicious.
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
The few shows(three) we went to, we throughly enjoyed.
Casino Action
We were surprised by the generous play of the casino. We won money on the first day and had fun playing the whole cruise.Someone even won a $5,000 jackpot on the third day. I was there to see it. The staff in the casino was so friendly, they learned your name and didn’t mind just bringing us water to drink. We loved Laura, she would bring us water and say hello every time we went into the casino.
Service and Staff
The staff, to us is what made this cruise so good. They are well trained and were always working hard at their jobs with a friendly smile and a hello as you passed.
The ship was spotless and the bathrooms were always clean.
The staff in the Crows Nest (Explorer Cafe) were so busy from the minute they opened ( wonderful coffee and any other morning drink you wanted) to afternoon drinks.
Montaa who works up there, learned my name quickly and had a wonderful smile and sweet personality. The whole staff up there was fabulous!
We had to have some of our clothes washed. Dani exceeded our expectations.I want to add more, but I am out of room to keep commending the staff.
Ship Quality
The Ship is beautiful, well maintained (the staff was always painting or checking out life boat equipment, practicing drills etc.)
We would liked to have seen some more outdoor sitting areas. Not just around the pools. The ship had plenty of outdoor games to play and a nice outdoor walking path.
The ship is easy to learn where everything is. You get to feeling at home very quickly.
Cabin / Stateroom
We felt very comfortable in our cabin. We had plenty of storage space to unpack, our suit cases fit under the bed, out of the way.
The room was roomy enough and clean.
The bathroom was just big enough.
Our balcony was large enough for the two of us. We enjoyed beautiful views from our sixth floor balcony. The weather unfortunately didn’t allow us to be out there when we were cruising between different locations.
Our room stewards kept our room very clean, and as many towels as we needed.
Ice in our ice bucket every day.
Room service was excellent, we had coffee many times in our room. Breakfast several times. They were quick and service friendly.
Ship tip
Excursions do book up quickly, so book early. We reviewed the sites we wanted to see in each port and if the best sites to see( which they often were) were within walking distance, we wouldn’t book an excursion. I really liked the excursions, but couldn’t afford to book them in every port.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Must city city! Beautiful, Historic city!
We came in a day early so we could see more of the city. We could walk anywhere we wanted from where we were staying.
Very crowded city, most everyone rides a bike or walks here. Watch out as you walk around.
The history of the city is everywhere and so interesting to learn about as you float on the canals. I preferred the open tour boats, the closed ones limit your ability to see everything.
We really enjoyed the Rijksmuseum where many of Rembrandt’s masterpieces are displayed. He was from Amsterdam.
This was our second favorite place to see.
The natural beauty of Flaam made our trip!
The day started off rainy and low clouds were blocking some of the views. But thank goodness the weather cleared and we got to see astounding beauty!
Water falls everywhere, green everywhere even in October. Small town feel that was easy to walk around to pick up apples and see the beautiful area.
The welcome center had a tourists guide center where we booked our own boat ride and excursion to a lookout point.
We went on a tour that we enjoyed very much.
We road out to the country side first.
We enjoyed a visit to a farm where they made us a nice lunch and shared with us their local champagne and history.
Then we visited an estate that had been turned into a school and now is an very interesting view into the past.
We learned about the people and their way of life which I find very impactful.
Later we went back into the city and visited several historical buildings and were brought to some very beautiful outlooks for pictures.
I was surprised that this was such an interesting place to visit.
We didn’t go into the Berlin on the train.
We decided to visit the countryside and see the local area. We did go on an excursion and enjoyed it very much. They took us to a 12th century church that is much as it was back then. The oldest church (maybe in the world?) that hasn’t been restored.
Then we took a nice old fashioned steam train ride through the countryside and through a small town. I enjoyed seeing a bit of their lifestyle.
Right next to where our ship was docked was an amusement park that had a Ferris wheel. We haven’t been on a Ferris wheel in decades, so we ended our day riding the Ferris wheel.
It was a nice ending to a relaxing day.
We enjoyed this simple day
This was our favorite stop!
This city is amazing!
We were able to walk to see all of the sights we were interested in seeing.
This was the only city that had volunteers all around the city sights to help as needed or to make suggestions. They suggested we walk up to their roof top garden, because the views up there were amazing. They helped us map out how to walk to their new Aros contemporary museum that features a rainbow circular walkway on top of the museum giving you spectacular views of the city! You walk around inside of it. Amazing!
Aarhus Cathedral, was a 12th century church they have painstakingly renovated and it was free to go into. It is a must see!
We walked all over the city and enjoyed every part of it. Sailing into this city you knew it was going to be a special place. If we wanted to move somewhere else, this would be high on our list.
Every person on this ship was outside, on their balcony or in the Crows Nest to watch the amazing beauty as we cruised along.
Nature really is the Masterpiece!
We wished that we could have been in the daylight going in, but couldn’t have that both ways and have time to get off and explore Flaam.
The ship was able to cruise through the fiords and the views from our balcony and the Crows nest were fantastic. The weather was cloudy and rainy, but the beauty was still evident.
Our third favorite stop.
Sweden is a natural and man made beauty.
We had two days here.
We didn’t take many pictures unfortunately.
Sailing in and out was as interesting as being in Stockholm.
We visited the Vassa Museum which is devoted to telling the story of this fantastic salvaged war ship from the 1600’s that sank on its maiden voyage. It was underwater for 300 years. Many museums to visit, we enjoyed this one.
We did do an excursion here and would never have seen or leaned as much without it.
I like to ask questions about people’s life style and I was able to ask our tour guide many questions. I highly recommend an excursion here. They have so much history to learn about. Surprisingly interesting city!
We visited an amazing church built out of rock. The Rock Church in Helsinki is a must see!
The weather was bad this stop, so we didn’t go far. We didn’t have an excursion booked.
I wish we would have, then we would have been able to stay dry. We walked around close to the ship and walked up close and around the Oslo Opera House.
We didn’t go into Hamburg, but decided to do a tour of Keil. We enjoyed an easy, relaxing visit and got to see the beach there in Kiel.
Disembarkation
We never saw long lines of people waiting to get off the ship ( as we have experienced on other ships) We had a nice breakfast and left when it was our time to leave.
No hassles at all.
Traveler Photos
