Rotterdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

For our very first cruise we can say the ship was gorgeous, the staff did everything they could to make us happy. The food could be improved and the interior rooms were ridiculously small and therefore cramped and uncomfortable!

The Cruise was Amazing. The Ship was so beautyful. It was my first experience wichtig HAL

The bottom line on HAL’s Rotterdam? It’s hard to argue with a classic. It’s got the basics—pleasing décor, comfortable cabins, decent food, pools, spa, casino, entertainment, shops. No, you can’t ride a carousel. But it delivered a relaxing, rejuvenating vacation.

Stay out of the tourist traps. Also don’t book excursions with the cruise line unless you want to pay 2 to 3 times the amount. If you’re flexible, find an excursion directly in port and save some money.

As always, we enjoyed our Holland America cruise.

We have sailed with Holland America before and were disappointed as the experience was not at all like the first cruise. There really did not appear to be enough staff for a lot of the areas and/or staff changing mid voyage. Lots of issue with the 18% tipping automatically applied in areas on top of crew appreciation fees. The cost of drinks was very expensive as well as were most things on board.

Very clean ship! The worker to passenger racial is amazing. The live entertainment at The Rolling Stones Club, BB King, billboard on board, and the Lincoln Centre were top notch! To us it just seems like Holland American cruise line goes over and above on the little things. The other cruise lines that we have been on seem to neglect. We have been on Costa, Carnival, Royal Caribbean. This was our first time on Holland and it was our best cruise so far!

Holland does tend to have more seniors and hardly any kids. If you want to go go go, best to do excursions. I cruise Holland due to my sister is a 4 star and invites me. I tend to be outgoing, so I easily make friends. We had a table of 6, and none of us moved. Staff is awesome!!

Beautiful ship, excellent service from staff, but boring. If you want to just relax and read- it's perfect. Food was good in Lido Market.

Overall, it was exceptional. Other than the process for back-to-back cruisers, there was nothing I would change.

My main complaint about the Rotterdam is that my stateroom was very noisy with the constant slamming of doors, the worst entertainment I have ever encountered on a ship, the failure of the Hotel Director to replace missing food items during the cruise, and the smell of smoke as one walks through the casino, and out on the rear pool deck. But the real reason I would never recommend anyone to take a Holland American cruise is that I suffered for half the cruise with food poisoning. The doctor and his staff tested me for the norovirus, and COVID-19, and I was negative for both, and had no temperature. I have narrowed it down to an incident of a large lobster tail, that was raw, and was not cooked properly, or one of the juicer carrot drinks, where the carrot was not cleaned properly. I have to say that the medical diagnosis and the help from the doctor and his staff was exceptional. I took the medicine, but I was supposed to eat bananas, but as I have mentioned, the ship ran out of bananas half way through the cruise, and never obtained a resupply. This cruise is cutting corners any way they can to save money. They have a beautiful baby grand piano sitting with no player in a bar on the way to the main dining room, so there is no before dinner entertainment or dancing. The ship is so poorly designed that the music venues are right next to each other, which leads to the bleeding-over of the sounds, which I recorded at over 100 decibels. When I walked through that area, I had to wear earplugs. They were so cheap that they would not put show the World Cup game between the US and Iran, even though their other cruises lines, Princess and Carnival all carried the game. I tried to get some compensation from the Carnival Company for what I had to endure with the food poisoning, and I was only offered a $500 credit for a future cruise on Holland America (HAL). I paid $3,300 dollars, and requested a credit of $2,300 to be used on any other cruise line EXCEPT HAL, because I missed half the cruise ports because I was forced to stay close to my stateroom. This whole cruise was a horrible experience, and all I have to say is, Never Again!

Best cruise ever. Scenery is spectacular! Loved the ship.

Norwegian Fjords cruise... gorgeous scenery... excellent itinerary

Beautiful ship. Staff pleasant. Plenty to do. Didnt want to get off. Traveled with 2 20 year olds and they had time of their life.