Overview
About
Passengers: 1,404 | Crew: 600
Passengers to crew: 2.34:1
Passengers to space: 42.6:1
Launched: 1997
Decks
- Deck 1
- Deck 2
- Deck 3
- Deck 4
- Deck 5
- Deck 6
Additional decks
Deck 1 layout
Cabins
Large Ocean-View Stateroom (D)
Standard Interior Stateroom (N)
Large Interior Stateroom (MM)
Large Ocean-View Stateroom (FF)
Large Ocean-View Stateroom (F)
Large Interior Stateroom (M)
Large Interior Stateroom (J)
Large Ocean-View Stateroom (G)
Large Ocean-View Stateroom (E)
Large Ocean-View Stateroom (EE)
Cabins
Balcony
Cabin size: 228 - 405 sq. ft.
Connected rooms: 130
Accessible rooms: 25
Maximum passengers: 4
Number of cabins: 852
Reviews
Traveller rating
- 17
- 21
- 9
- 5
- 3
Time of year
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+1
We purchased the “have it all” plan and chose the Pinnacle Grill as one of our 2 specialty restaurant nights. 8pm booking. Quiet and elegant (but not stodgy) ambience. Lighting not too dim, not too bright, comfortable chairs. We ordered the crab cakes and mushroom soup starters, very good. The salmon main course had a dill sauce, excellent! The filet mignon (medium) was delicious! Our sides were a baked potato (perfectly cooked, served with butter, fresh bacon bits, sour cream), asparagus and the mushrooms (a great compliment to the beef dish!). Tamarind (Far East delights) the previous evening was very good, but Pinnacle had a bit more memorable dishes. Rotterdam is an amazing ship. Even though there are 2,500 guests, there are so many decks, venues, restaurants, bars, the massive Green House Spa, etc that it never feels crowded. We paid $200 each for 11 day passes to the Thermal Spa, well worth it. Do some research on that!…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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This was our third cruise with Holland America but not our favorite. Perhaps we were spoiled on our Panama cruise last year with a boat that was half full. No problem getting seats anywhere and specialty dining called us to make reservations for dinner back then. Since Rotterdam is a new boat, that may account for the crowds that accompanied us on this cruise. As others have said, some passengers feel entitled--I'd call it piggish--reserving chairs, sometimes the same people reserving multiple chairs in the pool area. Then when I tried to use my specialty dining credits to make reservations early in the cruise, I was told the only times still available were 8:30 or later, not a healthy option for us so we passed. Other disappointments: the narrow promenade deck without deck chairs and lifeboats blocking the ocean views, the buffet was hit or miss, much of the entertainment on the big stage seemed recycled from our previous cruise, the internet lounge shown on deck plans appeared to be missing and just that you had to get to a venue a half hour before any program to get a good seat. Highlights: the pristine condition of the ship, the outstanding service of course, the Rudi's Sel De Mer French seafood restaurant for which we used our room credit to make a reservation, the awesome rock band at the Rolling Stones Rock Room, the swimming with the sting rays shore excursion at Half Moon Cay, and the desserts onboard.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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This was the first time I have travelled with Holland America Line, I had booked a South Pacific cruise, but due to constant changes to both the itinerary and ship I requested a cancelation and refund. I was unable to cancel and get a refund but was offered a change to booking. I changed the booking to a 21 day Caribbean cruise on HAL Rotterdam. The ship is new, the decor and the art work throughout the ship is very good. The main age group on the Ship seemed to be elderly; we are in our mid sixties and were some of the youngest on the ship! There were many eclectic wheel chairs and scooters around. I did not like the smell of the ship, but this did seem to improve on the second leg of the cruise. My biggest issue was that the ship was not stable, in what looked to me looked like calm seas – the English Channel on a good day- the ship was rocking and rolling about, each sea day the ship rocked about. It was so bad that the water in the back pool was spilling out all over the deck. As I have not been on HAL before I don’t know if this is normal, but I have been on Celebrity, round Cape Horn and never felt this amount of movement. The size of the balcony cabin was small but adequate, the storage area was good and the shower in the bathroom was large and the water pressure good and always had hot water. Our cabin attendants Soli and Aris were fantastic. The layout of the 9th floor on the Ship was odd, as there is a pool at the back, then the buffet area then a pool, with retractable roof at the front. So the buffet area is used as a thoroughfare. Also the smoking area at the back is close to the doors so the smoke wafts through to the buffet area. On the theme of smoking, smoking is allowed in the Casino, there is a stair case down to the music walk on the third deck and the smoke also wafts down into the music walk. I was very surprised that smoking was allowed inside, especially on a new ship. Both pool areas were very busy and the amount of sun beds was inadequate. There were a lot of tables in both pool areas, the tables were busy with people playing cards, games, sewing ect. Whist the ‘Music Walk’ od BB King Blues Club, Rolling Stone Rock Room and the two pianos was good, actual activities and the entertainment team and cruise director were poor, we did not see the cruise director and could not understand his announcements via the tannoy. The ship also had a cruise entertainment manager; she did some dancing at BB Kings Blues Club. Activities on sea days were Origami, flower arranging and colouring, there were a couple of line dancing classes, no energetic dancing like Zumba, Salsa or Aqua. No sports braced competitions, really very boring and apart from enjoying the bands in the evening there was not much variety in activities. FOOD. A lot of passengers were complaining about the food, this I do not understand and think maybe they employ gourmet chefs at home? The food was outstanding. The Lido Buffet is open from 06.30 for breakfast, 11.30 for Lunch, 17.30 for dinner. It has many stations, the food is served to you, and there is a salad bar, sushi, pasta made to order, roast meats counter, sweets, breads, fabulous sandwiches, cold meats, fish….. the same food that is on the menu in the formal dining room is also served in the Lido Market. The tables are set with cutlery and the drinks service is fast. The dining room is more formal and opening times vary depending on if it’s a sea day, we ate in the dining room and found the food to be very good, plenty of choice, always hot and drinks service good. As well as this there is the New York Deli and Pizza for sandwiches, salads and Pizza made to order from 11.30 till midnight, the Dive in for Burgers and hotdogs ( and really crunchy chips) from 11.30 to 18.00. Movie night snacks such as Nachos / chicken wings on movies by the pool nights. The Dutch Café have Dutch food from 06.30 to 22.00. As well as 24 hour room service should you want it. Then there are the speciality restaurants! The crew working in the restaurants, bars, cabins and cleaning the ship are outstanding, hard working and very polite even when dealing with some very obnoxious, entitled passengers – and they were a lot of these type of people! Although I enjoyed the food and music walk due to the rocking and rolling movement of the ship, lack of (active) activities on sea days and some extremely rude and entitled passengers onboard I would not go with HAL again.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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The ship was nothing special, not enough loungers around both pools, When roof closed it is stuffy and smelly and excessively humid. Food was poor, and without trying to sound snobby, the crowd was low end, crude and loud. We got covid after 4 days as the ship appears to do nothing to mitigate the spread of infection. In 4 days we saw nothing done to wipe down railings etc. Rather than be quarantined, we escaped and flew home from Barbados. No help from the ship at all. A nightmare that has convinced me that after over 20 cruises, I will never set foot on a cruise again.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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Beautiful ship with wonderful crew. The restaurants are excellent. Get to the pools early because there are only limited seats available. The rooms are spacious and comfortable. One downside is this is not a tour for kids and young adults. It seemed the average age was in the late 60's and mid 70's.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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