Overwhelming secondhand smoke, great food and entertainment.

Item: Rotterdam
Rating: 4.2
Author: spazzmazz

Rotterdam Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

spazzmazz

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 15

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5

9 Night Southern Caribbean Seafarer (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 16, 2024

Ship: Rotterdam

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 5063

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 9 months ago

Review summary

Secondhand smoke was abundant. Lack of outside seating between 4pm and mid morning. Excellent food and entertainment. Unfortunately the classical music has been removed.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Watercolor paint class. Excellent Arts and Crafts Director. Cruise lacked varied canvas painting with only one time slot and only the water lily theme.

Lido Pool & whirlpools

3 out of 5

Chlorinated fresh water. Small in size but has a deeper end.

Sea View Pool

2 out of 5

Area with secondhand smoke, chlorinated freshwater. Saved and unattended chaise chairs.

Hydro Pool

2 out of 5

Chlorinated fresh water. Not saltwater filtered.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Interactive talks with the Ship Director and various guests. These were informative and very enjoyable! Step One dancers three shows that I’ve seen multiple times and never disappoints. Steel Drum Band two shows, Excellent! Comedian was okay. Mindreader/Magician was okay. PLEASE BRING BACK THE CLASSICAL VENUE LINCOLN CENTER STAGE!

Lincoln Center Stage

1 out of 5

Lincoln Stage is not a venue anymore on HAL.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Casino is open mid forward and the cigarette smoke goes everywhere. Out into upper BB King lounge, Shops, World Stage entrance/exit, Forward elevators and travels from elevators into multiple deck corridors. In an attempt to mask the odor, staff uses deodorizer spray that’s just as bad as the smoke. I dealt with headaches the entire sailing. But also be aware of the smoking permitted on the aft outside pool deck. So in order to enjoy your lido market meal outdoors, you are stuck with the inside lido pool area tables. Where it is noisy, busy and it may or may not have pool/hot-tub chlorine odor. And hope the lido pool sky panels are fully opened. Thinking sliding glass partition doors at the casino entrance would help contain some smoke. We can only hope. Common areas for the most part were clean. Lido dining cleanliness was lacking on tables, floors, chairs. More than half the chairs I attempted to sit in needed crumbs wiped away. The running vacuums in lido dining left a lingering musty smell. The last complaint is the Crows Nest was being cleaned every morning just before or at sunrise which was annoying while I was looking for a quiet and peaceful indoor seating area with great views. The cleaner used had an overwhelming fragrance odor and again, loud but not stinky vacuums for ambiance. Staff turned on ALL the lights, full blast. Hence, had to move on to find a better suited view of the beautiful Caribbean sunrise. And don’t plan on sitting outside for the sunrises…all chaise chairs are stacked and locked everyday between 4PM - mid morning. Was quite a disappointment.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Inside cabin. Plenty of storage and room for double occupancy. Great lighting. Flat screen tv, mini fridge, in-room safe. Vanity/desk with stool. Spacious walk in shower with glass door. One small wired corner shelf. A corner metal foot step to aid in shaving legs. Plenty of counter and below counter space as well as three glass toiletry shelves. Bed was two smaller than average twins pushed together to form a queen-king size. Comfortable with a duvet and cover. This was not an adjoining room and we still heard neighbors tv. Housekeeping was next door and we barely heard anything but a few times items being knocked around. Cleanliness was good. Needed some extra care on vacuuming and shower door crevices. Daily stewards were fast, friendly and thorough.