Westerdam good but little things lacking

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 7

Review summary

Ship size was good and you could familarize yourself quickly. Not as glitzy as other newer / larger ships, but it had a quaint Dutch charm with intimate spaces throughout the public areas. The itinerary was quite good - Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. While we didn't realize Aruba was as dirty and depressed as it appeared, the snorkling there was pretty good. Curacao was a suprise gem - reminiscent of both Amsterdam and Charleston, SC. Bonaire was excellent and the snorkling off of Klein Bonaire extraordinary. We benefited from an extra large cabin and lots of privacy on our deck/verhanda that wrapped around the back corner of the ship. Small details were lacking however. For example: - Dining room staff were good at taking your order and bringing you what you asked for...but if you needed a condiment (mayo, ketchup, lemon wedge, whatever...), you had to ask 2 or 3 times...and by the time you received what you wanted, your meal was cold. - Laundry, if collected by 0900, would be back by 5pm next day...unfortunately not consistently the case. - Delivered high tea to the room and provided nice sandwiches, cakes, jam, but no scones...why then the jam? - Entertainment was OK, but quality far less than expected - specialty drinks (coffee or chocolate) where generally incorrectly made - often staff smiles at you when they see you but sigh and frown once going the other way - most work staff seemed overly stressed - food was good, but was not to the level expected of a 5 star ship - wait staff could only repeat a menu item to you when asking about it, no insight about menu was provided - wine stewards inconsistent overall - wine knowledge much less than expected. These small things, however, did not spoil the trip and we did have a great time.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Pros: Large verhanda deluxe suite

Cons: lack of attention to details

Recommends Westerdam? No.

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