Westerdam-Question

[Shelley G]

My husband and I are planning to take the Scandinavia/Russia cruise on the Westerdam in July. We are booked in room 7126. Has anyone stayed in that room before? What is it like? How will we like HAL compared to Celebrity?
Shelley

[Charliesmom]

We were in 7133 which is an aft suite with a wrap-around balcony. We loved it. In fact, we liked it so much we booked another aft suite (5187) for another December cruise. You will love your balcony. It is a lot bigger than other balconies and you will love the view from it. We had a peek into the aft rooms and they looked pretty spacious to me.

We sailed on the Celebrity Mercury two years ago and the Westerdam in December this year. We thought that HAL's food in the Lido was 100% better than Celebrity's. The food in the dining room was on a par with Celebrity's. For whatever reason, I was more comfortable on HAL. The service on HAL was extremely friendly. I have never been on the Millenium class ships. One difference in food that I noticed was the HAL does not have much of a fish selection. However, in the Lido there were wonderful displays of pates and smoked salmon on a pretty regular basis and the salad greens were top-notch. If you are a red meat lover, you will love HAL. They did have Asian food and Italian food just about every day in the Lido. And they had wonderful desserts.

Try the Pinnacle Grill. We were very impressed with the porterhouse steaks. We took the leftovers back to our room and enjoyed them for lunch the next day.

We did the Baltic and Russia with Radisson Seven Seas on the Radisson Diamond. It was very sightseeing intensive and we were very tired when we came home. It is very different from a Caribbean cruise.

Have a wonderful time.

Roberta

[SANDY BEACH]

Our cruise ships of choice are Holland and Celebrity, Celebrity being our favorite. We do sail M class and enjoy their size. I believe you will find Holland quite enjoyable. Go and compare for yourself.

[Shelley G]

Bump!

[sailorbill]

Did the Fall 2004 transatlantic aboard the Westerdam in stern veranda stateroom 5181 which should be similar in shape and size to 7126. I also did the Fall 2003 transatlantic aboard Celebrity's Constellation in a stern veranda stateroom. The Constellation stateroom and stern veranda were far superior to the Westerdam. I discovered that there are two different shapes to the Westerdam's stern veranda staterooms, short and wide vs. long and narrow. I had the long and narrow. In it the first wardrobe was 4 inches less deep than the other two to permit the bathroom door to open completely. The other two wardrobe doors nearly touch the bathroom wall when open. Getting into the wardrobes was very awkward. My friends had a short and wide stern stateroom and the bathroom door missed the wardrobes by about 2 feet, making for much easier access to the wardrobes. All the veranda staterooms on the Westerdam, side as well as stern, have a dinky, shallow, uncomfortable sofa. In the short and wide stateroom the sofa barely fits between the bed and veranda door. In the long and narrow stateroom there is about four feet extra floor space between the sofa and the bed. A full size sofa like those found in the outside (no veranda) staterooms would easily fit. The long and narrow stateroom could easily accomodate a much longer desk, but only the standard miniscule desk with no storage space is provided.

The stern veranda stateroom on the Constellation is far superior to the Westerdam although they are advertised as the same square footage. There is better storage, better desk space, a full size sofa and better bedside lamps. The veranda is much larger and longer. It is one third covered by the steel decking above, then one third covered by a canvas awning and the last one third open to the sky. It can be used in all weather conditions. The Westerdam veranda is 90% open to the sky so there is no protection from the sun or rain.

If I decide to sail on a HAL Vista class ship again, I will choose an outside stateroom or one of the square J category inside staterooms over any of the veranda staterooms. If I sail again on a Celebrity Millinneum class ship, I will pay the extra cost for a stern veranda stateroom.

Bill