Review - Passage to Spain - Eurodam - April 5 to 19

Passage to Spain 2015 - Eurodam - April 5 - 19

We returned a few days ago from Spain and the Eurodam. What a glorious trip we had. Spain in the spring is absolutely wonderful and the Eurodam did not disappoint at all.

Overall impression of the ship: A well maintained and well run ship. We did not notice any significant defects nor did we have any particular issues this cruise.

Embarkation was smooth and rapid. Our bags were all in our cabin by the time we returned from the Mariner's embarkation lunch.

We sailed in Cabin 6103 - a signature suite located mid-ships, aft of the center stairs. Our ride in this cabin was excellent and the cabin itself was wonderful. I would like to take this cabin home with me and have it back every time we cruise. Everything in the cabin worked - nothing was shabby. The storage space was more than ample (we actually had a couple of empty drawers and shelves). We had no water or plumbing issues (thank goodness) and we only had to press the flush once each time.

We really enjoyed the luxury of two desk/vanity areas in this cabin as well as the double sinks and separate bath and shower. We also note that the depth of the bath tub is more shallow than that on the older ships making entry and exit much easier.

I spent many hours during our crossing enjoying our generous balcony (two chairs with footstools, small low table between the two big chairs and also a table with three chairs where we could enjoy a meal or snack should we choose). Most of our days at sea were sunny and relatively smooth - glorious out on the deck with the water and sounds of the ocean. No issues with someone else's smoking so I guess we were lucky there.

Our cabin stewards Nyoman and Santana were the best. Their service was perfect. It took them only about 36 hours to learn our habits and have the room clean and fresh as soon as we left for breakfast or dinner. They seemed to anticipate all of our needs before we had them. On the first day I left them a note for an extra bar of soap (I use the soap bar in the shower) and after that we never wanted for soap or anything. No need to write any more notes for anything.

Our dining room service was also excellent. Alam and Taryama saw to all of our needs and served the meal at a reasonable pace. We could have left the dining room most evenings at 9:30 had we not been chatting with our wonderful table mates. For an 8:15 seating this is a very reasonable turn around. No complaints, only kudos here.

The food on board was very good. There was only one night that I looked at the menu and did not have multiple choices that I coveted. It was probably me that one night. Presentation of food was elegant. Quality just fine. Meats always tender.

Breakfast service in the main dining room was also well done. Again no issues. We did not use the lido for breakfast or dinner.

Lunch time, however, we ate in the lido most days just because the timing is more generous there than the dining room. Noon dining room lunch was too early for us with an 8:15 dinner. We found the lido very crowded no matter when we went. The staff just barely able to keep up with cleaning the tables. We miss the other lido services we used to receive (TRAYS for food, especially but also waiters who brought us water, tea and coffee, carried our food and helped us to find a place to sit, etc.). Eating in the lido for us is not a pleasant experience but rather one that we endure to prevent hunger. This is true of the lido on all the ships. Each day there is a struggle to find a seat, there is the eating and holding a table space while DH gets his meal, beverage, dessert, salad, etc and then he waits while I do the same. In the lido we do not eat together - we take turns - not how I really like to do things.

DH ordered hot dogs or hamburgers from the Dive In every day - he really enjoys the food from that venue. Kudos to HAL for this.

We ate at the Tamirand two evenings. The food and personal service was excellent and we particularly enjoy the Asian cuisine. Can't say enough for that venue and wish there was one on the smaller ships as we prefer it to the Pinnacle Grill. Though quite honestly, we are also happy just eating in the main dining room.

I have more to post about the ships and ports, but if anyone has questions or comments, just post and I will try to answer them.

Thanks for your review!

Thank you for a lovely and comprehensive review. We board the Eurodam on June 1. We have sailed on her before and had an excellent experience. Your cabin sounds wonderful, we did a balcony guarantee, my only hope of a cabin like yours is an upsell!!!

Could I ask you about the entertainment? In particular did they have the BB King Blues Club?

Thank you.

Thank you for the review.

Thank you for you review.

RCCL continues to have very attentive servers who bring your drinks to you for lunch. I'm sorry to hear HAL doesn't provide that service any longer. Without the trays, you have to go back through the crowd to get your drinks.

We were on the Nordaam in Feb. and the waiters brought drinks to us, especially coffee in the morning, hardly were seated and they were there with coffee. Same at lunch with ice tea and lemonade.

Excellent, readable review!!

Can you give us a run-down of who was who? Captain, HM, CD, Ex Chef. There are obviously some officers who deserve some credit here!!

We will be on board Eurodam on June 13th and we are glad to hear the positive reviews! How was the entertainment and music?

I'm so glad to hear you had a lovely cruise and look forward to reading more about the ports along the way. Last fall we did the Spain - Ft Lauderdale trans-Atlantic and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Your experience echoes ours.

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)

Thx for the review. The eurodam is my favorite ship.

Sounds like a great trip aboard the Eurodam. We also love the Tamarind. Thanks for your review

No doubt the Lido buffet crowding is worse on the Signature class ships as compared to the smaller HAL ships.

igraf

Passage to Spain 2015 - Eurodam - April 5 - 19

....We found the lido very crowded no matter when we went. The staff just barely able to keep up with cleaning the tables. We miss the other lido services we used to receive (TRAYS for food, especially but also waiters who brought us water, tea and coffee, carried our food and helped us to find a place to sit, etc.). Eating in the lido for us is not a pleasant experience but rather one that we endure to prevent hunger. This is true of the lido on all the ships.... .

Thanks for taking the time to write and post a review of your Eurodam cruise. So glad you had a good time.

"No doubt the Lido buffet crowding is worse on the Signature class ships as compared to the smaller HAL ships.

igraf"

I can only imagine what it will be like on the Konigsdam! I understand it will be a redesigned lido but I am not yet sure what that means.

I, too, am enjoying reading your review. Thank you.

I also would like to know who the Captain, Hotel Director, and Cruise Director were.

SilvertoGold - in answer to your question

Master: Frank van der Hoeven

Hotel Director: Charles Verwaal

Staff Captain: Steven MacBeth

Chief Engineer: Wubbertus Kiers

S.E.H. Officer: Martijn Van Dam

Cruise Director: J. T. Watters

Guest Relations Mgr: Maja Milanoska

Purser: Dharsono Djasmin

Culinary Operations Mgr: Rico Wessels

Executive Housekeeper: Allister D'Souza

Beverage Manager: Ivan Braganza

Executive Chef: Martin Kusin

Dining Room Manager: Hadi Prayitno

Shore Excursions Mgr: Lori Hammond

Event Manager: Mark Beasley

Captain van der Hoeven left us for his leave time in Cartegena, Spain two days before the end of the cruise. Never did get the name of the Captain who replaced him as it was only spoken and not written anywhere.

Mr. Godfredo

We went to very few shows - but there were several entertainers that folks talked about the evening and day after.

Adagio (violin and piano) were very good and a pleasure to listen to

We went to see the BB King Group and they were OK but VERY loud - when the female singer was at the microphone the reverberation of her voice, unfortunately, hurt my ears. Comments from those on board seemed to feel that the particular BB King group we had was OK but there are others that are better.

We very much missed having a solo guitarist in the Crow's nest.

The piano bar was well attended and the piano man played upstairs in the Crow's Nest the last few nights.

Thanks arzz for posting the officials names. With the exception of J. T., all of the names were new to me.

Disappointed, like you, that there was no solo guitarist in the Crow's Nest. That was my experience on the Noordam in January and I was thinking on a longer voyage such a person would be hired.

Eurodam - April 2015 - Segment Number 1

I am not blogging this trip but I am still writing a journal. It is nice to just sit back and enjoy at times. We were blessed, through the affordable wonders of the "upsell fairy", with a wonderful signature suite that is very midships on deck 6. I would like to wrap this cabin up and take it home with us so that we could always cruise from here. We have been very comfortable with a delightful verandah on which we have spent many happy hours, a cabin with two desks, a nice sitting area and a bathroom with double sinks and separate tub/shower and shower stall. It is the little things but it certainly adds to our comfort. We ordered flowers on our first evening so we have also enjoyed the beauty of bright blossoms, something that our herbivorous felines at home do not allow us.

Our first five days at sea were absolutely glorious. Temperatures in the mid to low seventies, sun and flat seas. On Saturday I awoke to an uphill climb to the bathroom, downhill on the return. I confirmed the situation with DH. Usually this means that within a couple hours all hell is going to break loose with the seas and weather. Later, we received a letter from the Captain informing us that there was an unavoidable storm headed our way and it listed precautions that we should all take from not wearing "inappropriate shoes" to stashing all heavy objects someplace safe. We waited Saturday for the "worst" to come ... it didn't. I took a whole bonine ... and in the end I found I was sleepy all day for no real reason.

Saturday night we encountered some significant wind and waves and we awoke yesterday morning to a salt encrusted balcony. Large crystals of salt gleamed on everything including the windows and cabin door which are significantly back from the sea. Since the winds were on the port side of the ship, and our cabin and balcony are on the starboard side I have to say we were impressed. Not only with the winds and salt spray, but with the fantastic stabilization of this ship. We had not sensed that the winds were that high. To their incredible credit our perfect room stewards cleaned up the salt crystals on the windows and balcony as soon as the weather allowed.

Yesterday was also our first port of this cruise - Ponto Delgado on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. This was our first time in the Azores. As we lined up at the dock the winds were still high, the sky grey, the temperat

Eurodam - April 2015 - Segment Number 1

I am not blogging this trip but I am still writing a journal. It is nice to just sit back and enjoy at times. We were blessed, through the affordable wonders of the "upsell fairy", with a wonderful signature suite that is very midships on deck 6. I would like to wrap this cabin up and take it home with us so that we could always cruise from here. We have been very comfortable with a delightful verandah on which we have spent many happy hours, a cabin with two desks, a nice sitting area and a bathroom with double sinks and separate tub/shower and shower stall. It is the little things but it certainly adds to our comfort. We ordered flowers on our first evening so we have also enjoyed the beauty of bright blossoms, something that our herbivorous felines at home do not allow us.

Our first five days at sea were absolutely glorious. Temperatures in the mid to low seventies, sun and flat seas. On Saturday I awoke to an uphill climb to the bathroom, downhill on the return. I confirmed the situation with DH. Usually this means that within a couple hours all hell is going to break loose with the seas and weather. Later, we received a letter from the Captain informing us that there was an unavoidable storm headed our way and it listed precautions that we should all take from not wearing "inappropriate shoes" to stashing all heavy objects someplace safe. We waited Saturday for the "worst" to come ... it didn't. I took a whole bonine ... and in the end I found I was sleepy all day for no real reason.

Saturday night we encountered some significant wind and waves and we awoke yesterday morning to a salt encrusted balcony. Large crystals of salt gleamed on everything including the windows and cabin door which are significantly back from the sea. Since the winds were on the port side of the ship, and our cabin and balcony are on the starboard side I have to say we were impressed. Not only with the winds and salt spray, but with the fantastic stabilization of this ship. We had not sensed that the winds were that high. To their incredible credit our perfect room stewards cleaned up the salt crystals on the windows and balcony as soon as the weather allowed.

Yesterday was also our first port of this cruise - Ponto Delgado on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. This was our first time in the Azores. As we lined up at the dock the winds were still high, the sky grey, the temperature was in the low 50's and it was raining on and off. Not the best way to start a port day. We had the pleasure of joining another pair of cruisers that we met on line on Cruise Critic to join them for a private half day tour. Sanda, our guide, was waiting for us with her vehicle, a large van, and a sign with our names on it as we left the terminal.

Our first stop was at a pineapple plantation. Historically this island produced oranges as their main source of income. Some years ago the orange trees fell victim to a disease and the orange crop failed. The resourceful locals then switched from oranges to pineapples as their major crop. The pineapples, however, cannot grow well outside - they are cultivated and grown in greenhouses. We were taken from building to building to see the growing plants in various stages of development and then to the gift shop to taste the homemade jams, chutneys, juice and liquors. One odd and notable element of the pineapple cultivation process is that they "smoke" the pineapple plants with smoldering pails of damp leaves as they found this produces sweeter and larger pineapples. Sanda explained that we made this stop first in order to allow time for the wind and rain too blow away. She was right.

After we left the plantation she drove us from scenic view point to scenic view point. This island is very green and covered with lush green farmer's fields that are sectioned off by hedgerows, and full of cows that scamper, like mountain goats, up and down the very vertical landscape. The mountains look furry as they are so densely covered with green vegetation. The towns are charming with lots of homes made of stone, white painted concrete and stucco - most with orange tile roofs.

As we made our way up to the top of the large volcano and stopped for the views we kept intercepting those pesky large Holland America buses which made several of the same stops we did. We stopped at a beautiful park with a quaint church, and we stopped at a high ledge where we could see in the now sunny landscape the ocean shore and a small town by the name of Mosteiros. The craggy sea shore was clearly visible, particularly four rather large rocks. The largest was shaped much like a house, the other three much smaller. Legend has it that there was once a Monastery on the sight (Mosteiros means monastery) and that a priest fell in love with one of the nuns and they had a child. God was so angry at this that he turned the monastery and the family into stone.

The island inhabitants are very religious - since this is still Easter season, and yesterday was Sunday, they celebrated the season by organizing large processions that march around the island. All dressed in Sunday clothes - the men were in suits carrying red banners - the women carried ornate silver crowns - and there was, in at least one of the processions that we saw, a large brass band following and playing at the rear. Occasionally we could hear what sounded like a cannon shot and were told that these were to announce the beginning and end of a procession.

We made our way up to the blue lake and the green lakes in the volcano's caldera, and stopped for several more scenic views. We found the island to be stunning, bucolic and quaint. This is not a place that has generally embraced tourism which for us was a pleasure. No rows of souvenir shops and due to our Sunday arrival only a few bars or restaurants were open.

On our way back to town we passed a large group of motorcyclists riding everything from buzzing Yamahas to growling Harleys. At dinner our table mates shared that this large group were actually on their way to mass at the church in the city center square - as they observed them there.

At the end of our tour Sanda (who is a lovely young woman who arrived here from Croatia about three years ago and never left) dropped us at the town square. From there we could view another charming church and bell tower - and we stopped for a brief snack/lunch at a recommended small bar. The small establishment was nestled between closed shops in the center of town. It had bright yellow and raw stone walls, a curved ceiling, a few wooden tables with stools and a menu that was translated into English. DH enjoyed a plate of local cheese and homemade bread with a glass of local red wine while I envied his ability to digest what looked like absolutely incredible cheeses (40% of the cheeses consumed in Portugal are produced in the Azores) but was satisfied with a tasty prosciutto-like local ham sandwich on a crusty homemade bun and a glass of local beer. Total cost: 7.50 Euros!

Back to the ship before our 5:30 departure - again the Captain warned us of the unavoidable seas - and this time we noticed them. All of the outside decks were closed (being a newer ship they have these heavy yellow straps that pull out from the wall on one side and attach on the other side that block the doors. Very efficient.) We confined our flowers to the floor of the shower stall encircled by a large towel, and stashed our other stuff. We were in fact (as verified by my close attention to my favorite TV channel on board, the date/time channel) that our winds (again aimed at the port side of the ship while we are starboard) reached a high of Beaufort force 12 (about 73 mph) with apparent winds into the eighties. Don't know if they got any higher while I slept but even with the fantastic stabilization that this ship has, we nonetheless felt considerable motion. The cabin windows were dripping ocean spray as I drifted off to sleep.

Again our trust cabin stewards cleaned the balcony and windows when the weather improved.

This morning as we begin the first of our last two sea days the winds are running about Beaufort 6 (30 mph) - apparent winds 45-50 mph and though the skies are still mostly overcast the temperature is up to 61degrees.

Wednesday we will be in Cadiz, Spain - the port of Seville.

Sorry about the repetitive post above. First try, somehow, the whole file did not paste - so I did an edit and thought I had deleted it and then pasted in the proper file - but somehow I got both. Not messing with it anymore. Apologies.

SilvertoGold - in answer to your question

 

Master: Frank van der Hoeven

Hotel Director: Charles Verwaal

Staff Captain: Steven MacBeth

Chief Engineer: Wubbertus Kiers

S.E.H. Officer: Martijn Van Dam

Cruise Director: J. T. Watters

Guest Relations Mgr: Maja Milanoska

Purser: Dharsono Djasmin

Culinary Operations Mgr: Rico Wessels

Executive Housekeeper: Allister D'Souza

Beverage Manager: Ivan Braganza

Executive Chef: Martin Kusin

Dining Room Manager: Hadi Prayitno

Shore Excursions Mgr: Lori Hammond

Event Manager: Mark Beasley

 

Captain van der Hoeven left us for his leave time in Cartegena, Spain two days before the end of the cruise. Never did get the name of the Captain who replaced him as it was only spoken and not written anywhere.

Thank you! Nice to see some names of those we've sailed with.

Thanks for taking the time.

Thank you for writing your wonderful review.

Thanks arzz for posting the officials names. With the exception of J. T., all of the names were new to me.

 

.

At least 6 have been around for several years.

Thank you for reviewing your Eurodam cruise.