Not so "live" Review from the RSVP Charter of Eurodam 2.9.13

Hello everyone!

Since there seems to some interest I figured I’d compose and post my own review/summary of the RSVP full ship charter of the Eurodam on 2.9.13.

My past couple of cruises I have done live reports onboard, and have enjoyed doing them! This cruise I considered doing one, but changed my mind for two reasons. First I thought there would be no interest (how wrong I was!) and secondly when would I find time. As you’ll see in future postings we were busy, busy, busy!

This will be posted in installments over the next few days. If you have any questions or comments as I’m going along feel free to ask!

Prior to this RSVP Cruise my partner Alex and I had been on 4 other RSVP Cruises (Queen Mary 2, Eurodam x 2 and Nieuw Amsterdam x 1) making this our 5th RSVP Cruise (a very small number compared to some long time RSVP-ers!). In addition to our RSVP Charters I have taken one regular Holland America Line cruise on Eurodam in 2010 with my mom.

First I want to start out by saying we had a fabulous time, and LOVE Holland America Line. We are booked for next years RSVP cruise, but sadly it is is on MSC. We are excited about trying MSC combined with RSVP (how’s that for alphabet soup! :-) ) but will miss HAL. This summer we may just have to book a New England Canada cruise on HAL out of Boston or NY!

We had not planned to book a RSVP cruise for 2013, we had planned a long trip to the Philippines but those plans changed and we made our booking for RSVP. Due to our late booking we weren’t able to secure an interior cabin but were assigned cabin 4116 an obstructed ocean view. As you’ll see in later pictures we actually had a descent view through the tender to the water or the port, but we missed the darkness of our interior cabin when we wanted to sleep in!

Pre-Cruise:

Given the hassle and expense of flying we decided a few years ago that any RSVP cruise out of Florida we would drive. It is a LONG and boring drive, but we take our time heading to Florida We leave two days early, spend one night in Florence, SC, and the night before the cruise in Ft. Lauderdale. Not only does it break up the driving of I-95 it gives us 2 nights of extra travel time if a mechanical or traffic issue would arise.

To justify the long drive, spread out the travel expenses, and to rest up prior to RSVP we booked a pre cruise cruise. Most people do pre cruise hotels, but we booked an entire cruise prior so we would be ready for our RSVP cruise! With the help of our wonderful travel agent I began shopping for our pre cruise. We had considered doing the cruise before the RSVP cruise on the Eurodam (the 2.2.13 cruise) but our cabin was booked. If we had to pack up and move cabins then we figured we’d switch ships as well! Had our same cabin been available on the 2.2.13 cruise we would have booked the Eurodam, but since it wasn’t we decided to book the 6 night Carnival Freedom cruise departing 2.3.13. Yes, Carnival...GHASP! Personally I don’t have any issues with Carnival, they offer a lot of value for what they charge, and their food is pretty darn good! Back in 2010 my mom and I did this same B2B configuration, 6 nights on Carnival Freedom and 7 nights on the Eurodam. It was wonderful having two completely different cruise experiences!

The night prior to boarding the Carnival Freedom we stayed at the La Quinta Inn & Suites Plantation at SW 6th St. Overall for the price we paid (less than $70) on priceline.com we thought it good hotel. One added bonus there was a TotalWine and a plaza with plenty of restaurants in walking distance to the hotel. We would have no issues staying there again! For dinner that evening we discovered a charming little restaurant called “100 Montaditos” it is a chain tapas restaurant that was surprisingly pretty good. Fine dining, no, but casual good food, yes!

(click on any picture for a larger version)

After a long drive those beers went down easy!

The way the restaurant works is you fill out a form and take it to the counter, when your order is ready they call you you bring your order back to the table. Like most tapas, the best way to enjoy your meal is order several small orders as you progress. We watched a few people come in, look at the menu in bewilderment, and walk out. My only negative comment about the restaurant is I just don’t think they explain themselves to those who don’t understand tapas. Other than that the platters and sandwiches made for an excellent meal!

As you can see from this picture the menu is pretty massive. You just note the sandwich number, and your quantity on the order form and bring it to the register

The chocolate sandwich to end the meal with was tastier than it sounded!

After dinner we visited TotalWine to buy our wine for the next two weeks, one bottle a piece onboard Carnival Freedom (their limit) and a case for the Eurodam! (Full disclosure all the wine consumed on the Eurodam was either consumed in our cabin or we paid the corkage fee in the restaurant that day). In the end HAL made more money on corkage fees from us than they would have if we bought an overpriced bottle of wine directly from them, so thank you Holland America Line for allowing us to bring wine onboard!

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I’ll fast forward through the Carnival Freedom cruise, but to sum it up, we had a great time! We splurged and did their chef’s table one night ($75 p/p) it was wonderful! It is better than you can imagine! Eventually I plan to type of a review of at least the chef’s table portion of our Carnival Freedom cruise and post it in the Carnival forums.

Saturday Feb 9th. Disembark Carnival Freedom and board the Eurodam.

Carnival Freedom docked at terminal 19, and those who drove to the port are asked to park in the open parking lot next to terminal 19. I didn’t follow those instructions as I was leaving a case of wine in the trunk of the car and didn’t want to drink vinegar on the Eurodam, so we parked in the mid port parking garage. After FINALLY clearing customs in terminal 19 (what a slow process, it wasn’t the terminal or Carnival’s fault, just not enough customs agents), we had the porter take our luggage outside. Alex stood outside the terminal with our luggage while I made it back to the midport parking garage. (one tip don’t even think of trying to take luggage from terminal 19 to the parking garage it is hard enough walking let alone schlepping luggage with you). I found our car, paid for our 6 nights parking, made my way back to terminal 19 where we took off our Carnival disembarkation luggage tags and added our Eurodam luggage tags. After cramming everything back into our Honda Civic we made our way over to terminal 21, dropped the luggage off with the porters, re parked the car (shockingly in the same parking spot!), entered the terminal, received this beautiful boarding number:

went through security, checked in, and began the wait to board. While waiting in the terminal we noticed many familiar faces from both the RSVP staff, and fellow guests. For those who haven’t experienced the RSVP product, it is truly like coming home!

Going back to the car did serve a purpose for us, we left one suitcase of dirty clothes in the car and retrieved a suitcase (and my wine) that were stored in the trunk with our costumes for the coming cruise! You maybe thinking, “what costumes?” Just wait... an RSVP cruise isn’t an RSVP without costumes for the theme parties!

Approx 11:30 the ship was ready we boarded the ship! Our RSVP Cruise had begun! After crossing the gangway onto the ship we both whispered, “welcome home!” To us the Eurodam truly feels like home when onboard!

After a quick enjoyable lunch in the Lido we dropped our luggage off and began exploring the ship to see if we could notice any of the changes done in dry dock since we last sailed on her. Overall we noticed a few things (new granite in the Lido, elevator floor mats with the days of week, new carpets) otherwise she was in excellent shape! YES, if you looked hard enough I’m sure you could find signs of “age” but we didn’t. The crew does an excellent job keeping her in tip top shape!

For those who are wondering how different an RSVP cruise on HAL is compared to the regular HAL product I’ll start posting a few pics to illustrate the differences.

First the public restrooms. Being that the ship is filled mostly with men, the ladies rooms onboard would be wasted space, so this is done:

Although there are some public restrooms still designated

At the aft Lido pool the RSVP staff was busy setting up the light and sound equipment for the many parties to follow

Thanks for the report!

Oh, more please!!!! I'm loving your enthusiasm.:D

Oh, more please!!!! I'm loving your enthusiasm.:D

Thank you!

More to come shortly!

As you can tell from these next couple of photos, the gentleman onboard for a RSVP charter enjoy to party!

All of these bars are setup on the aft pool deck to help keep up with demand during the parties. Although I didn’t take any pictures, the main show room has two satellite bars setup at the back on deck 2, and the Queen’s Rooms also has a satellite bar setup in the evening. We only walked through the Crows nest once or twice during the day but I would imagine if there was a scheduled event up there, HAL would also setup a satellite bar.

Loving the review and the pictures!! Keep em coming!

Well... I may not have to do a review since you are doing a fine job - with pictures! :D

Great start!!

And I love that you are inserting the pictures as you go along on your review.

Wonderful so far!!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Great review so far - looking forward to reading more. Love the pictures.

Iam enjoying the review so far! Keep up the good work.

Thanks for taking the time to do this! There have been a few charters that have piqued my interest but I had a hard time with the price. It does seem, at least in this case, that the added entertainment options would make the price worthwhile!

Judging by the pictures of the bottles by the deck, it looks like one fun time.

Tell me, did the sound systems make it loud out there? Or could people still talk to each other when the music was playing?

Thanks for taking the time to do this! There have been a few charters that have piqued my interest but I had a hard time with the price. It does seem, at least in this case, that the added entertainment options would make the price worthwhile!

I completely understand the price issue. You look at the price of a regular cruise compared to a charter and the charter can easily be double or triple the price. You're paying for the onboard experience, and our experience has been RSVP delivers a quality product for what they charge!

Keep it coming. Looking forward to the rest.

Judging by the pictures of the bottles by the deck, it looks like one fun time.

Tell me, did the sound systems make it loud out there? Or could people still talk to each other when the music was playing?

Loud is an understatement (personally I've never understood the need for such loud music, but that's just me!). I never went to an afternoon party (Tea Dance) or an even Party without ear plugs in. I value my hearing too much! If you went all the way by the aft railing in the corner you might be able to hold a quick conversation...you'd be better off one deck up or at the midship pool.

Our cabin, 4116:

Our view

(you could look straight through and see water, or down to the Promenade deck)

You may notice the decorations in the window say “Carnival” on them, our friends who joined us the week prior on the Carnival Freedom bought the Bon Voyage cabin decorations for us (that was VERY nice of them!) so we figured we’d bring them along with us for the Eurodam and add some color to our cabin for the week!

Our door

One tradition on RSVP is to decorate your door! At the end of the week the staff will pick a winner and they will receive an OBC! This year the penthouse won, although I don’t have any pictures...WOW! They actually decorated the entire hallway outside their cabin!

Overall we were very pleased with our cabin. Previously for the RSVP charters we always had a small interior cabin on deck 6 (one of the SMALL interiors), it was very nice to have the larger cabin with the couch in it which gave us plenty of extra storage space. Although we enjoyed the extra storage space, we’d rather have an interior cabin. We both sleep much better in complete darkness. Plus, interiors are cheaper!

Here are some other doors decorated for the cruise. Speaking of doors, we found out from friends onboard our door became known as, “the door that Valentines Day threw up on!”

Although we did try our best to walk every hallway at some point during the cruise to see the decorations sadly, we didn’t take many pictures!

OMG funny "I see gay people".

Looking forward to more of your report!

Right after muster drill begins the first party! The sail away party! As I mentioned before every party has a theme that most bring a costume for. Since not everyone will have their luggage before sail away the first party is kept simple. Home Town. You are encouraged to wear something to identify your hometown. Since we are from Delaware (just outside Philadelphia) I wore an Eagles Jersey, and Alex wore a T shirt from University of Delaware. We did meet someone else from Delaware who was very creative with their T Shirt. They had custom shirts printed with what we’d consider our state’s biggest embarrassment. Although I have a picture I won’t be posting it, nor mention the subject of the shirt except to say, “I’m not a witch,” and some other quotes were written on it under the persons picture who said those quotes. We watched some people get it immediately, or just have no clue!

Here are some other pictures from the hometown party. (This party like some of the others didn’t have as much participation as we’ve experienced in the past, not sure if there were a larger number of first timers onboard or people just didn’t want to bring the extra clothing).

We did sail late (I think it was just before 6 when we finally left) we were waiting for some people who were impacted by the blizzard in the North East.

I grew up on the Jersey Shore, I appreciated this shirt:

As is our tradition for every RSVP HAL cruise, we have dinner in the Canaletto the first night. We do this mainly so we see people walk through the lido on their way to or from the sail away party in their costumes. Although I do miss the Penne Vodka from the old menu the food was excellent! And yes there was the $10 p/p cover.

After an exhausting day of switching ships, unpacking, exploring the Eurodam I was ready for bed, although that isn’t what we did! We had a full nights worth of entertainment brought on just for us (all the RSVPer’s)!

On the Mainstage was “Frenchie Davis” (don’t worry, I didn’t know who she was either!) from NBC’s The voice, and American Idol. We enjoyed her very much! She had a wonderful voice!

In the Queens Lounge at 8:30 was Cabaret with Cashetta (funny drag queen! who later in the week did magic and Psychic readings). “She” performed many times during the week and we enjoyed each and every one of them! She had talent, whit, and just put on an excellent show!

Also on tap that night was The classics with Adagio, Vocal arrangements of guitarist Harley Wood, and Daniel Lincoln & William TN Hall in the Piano Bar.

Day 2, at sea!

And today we have our first **GERT ALERT**

(Gert Crawford is an incredibly talented drag personality, I posted a picture of “her” cabin door, Gert would do quick appearances or skits before some events)

Most people think sea days are relaxing. Not this cruise, BUSY day ahead!

Three signature events that shouldn’t be missed. Pool games, Church Bingo with Sister Helen Holy, and Amy Amstrong & Freddy Allen on the Mainstage!

Plus Cashetta at 8:30 in the Queen’s room, Comedy Club at 10:30, and other smaller acts around the ship!

After sleeping in a bit (9am- that’s late for us! but early for many other RSVPer’s) we had a quick breakfast in the Lido and retired for the rest of the morning in the Silk Den to read and rest for the exhausting afternoon ahead.

At noon we made our first (of 4 in total 2 lunch and 2 evenings) to Tamarind. For those who don’t know, lunch in Tamarind is complimentary and is a set menu, you only choose your dessert.

Hot and Sour soup

Asian Salad

Dim Sum

Coconut Ice Cream

It was delicious!

Before leaving we made another reservation for the next sea day. Tamarind makes a nice alternative to the Lido for lunch.

Speaking of alternative restaurants. RSVP made a change (it was a chance since we last cruised with them on the Nieuw Amsterdam) on how speciality restaurant reservations are handled. In the past they would open bookings online about 30 or 45 days prior the cruise. This year, unless you had a suite, you could ONLY book while onboard for the CURRENT day or the NEXT DAY. At first we thought it was stupid, but in the we preferred it! We ended up dining at Tamarind a second time for lunch and dinner than we had planned as well as we enjoyed lunch in the Pinnacle Grill!

At 1:30 we had the first “pool games” this isn’t your typical pool games. Although the games are absolutely kept “PG” there are plenty of sexual innuendoes tossed around and funny positions the guys have to get into while performing the games. Due to the extreme wind we had that day the games were moved from the aft pool to the midships pool. And this was our our first “GERT ALERT” Gert came out and reenacted the pool scene from “Mommy Dearest” Completely stupid, campy, but it is funny! Although I didn’t take this video (I STUPIDLY left my iPhone in the cabin) I found this youtube video online of “her” performing the same exact skit on a different RSVP cruise.

After watching some of the pool games we had to quickly run down to the Cabin to change for Bingo. Yes, a costume change for Bingo! This isn’t your regular Bingo, this Church Bingo with Sister Helen Holy! (aka Paul J. Williams in real life who would also do standup comedy later in the week) We wanted to get to bingo early so we could get our favorite seats in the balcony to have a good view of the stage and the audience coming in with their hats and costumes. One thing that was different this year, even Sister Helen noted it, the Bingo pots were SMALL, the biggest was only a couple thousand dollars, normally by the end of the week the snowball is $10,000 plus because that’s how many people play bingo on an RSVP cruise! I have no idea why, either cards cost less, HAL kept more, or just fewer people played, whatever the reason the pots were a fraction of what they had been. But we don’t play Bingo for the chance to win as much as we enjoy the whole show that comes along with it!. Bingo is so enjoyable that some who don’t want to pay for the bingo card will sit there just for the show!

That's all I have typed up for tonight! More to come tomorrow!

I'm glad everyone is enjoying this so much! I'm enjoying reliving the wonderful memories!

Well... I may not have to do a review since you are doing a fine job - with pictures! :D

Please do! It is always great to read someone else's take on the same exact cruise!

This report is fabulous and the photos great!!!

Thanks so much for going to the trouble to share with us.

More, We want more ......... :)