Cruise Review-Eurodam 7 day RT Rome May 4

[outoftowner]

Here is my review or our 7 day Mediterranean Glamour round trip from Rome cruise. I have never done a review before but I have definitely benefited from other reviews, so I decided to give it a try. It is a little long, so I thought to break it up a bit.

 

It was a wonderful cruise. All of the advance planning and research and the sharing of it on the cruise critic roll call helped make our trip a roaring success.

My husband and I were celebrating our 28th Anniversary with our first visit to the Mediterranean and a cruise is a good way to “meet” an area.

We arrived in Rome the day before and stayed at a delightful little B&B called Flowerome. It has three rooms and a very nice gentleman with the name of Andrea. It is clean, comfortable, right by the Termini Roma and perfect for one or two nights. We had emailed him ahead of time to let him know of our arrival and he was waiting for us. We explored Rome and found quaint streets, the Spanish steps, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain, all at night. After a good night of rest we departed the Termini by the fast FrecciaBianca Rome to Genoa train that makes a brief stop in Civitavecchia. We had booked a couple of months in advance and received the mini price which was very reasonable and we were in Civitavecchiain less than 45 minutes. After a 10-15 minute walk down the main road of the port town and we found the shuttle that takes you to your ship.

The Eurodam is a magnificent ship. It is the epitome of ship shape. Everyone is friendly, helpful, and all are part of a hardworking crew. It shines. The public restrooms are very clean. We did notice some vibrations at different locations throughout the ship, but nothing that was major. All of the dining options are fantastic. We enjoyed the anytime dining and just had to remember to reserve a time and place the next day. The flexibility is perfect for us and we did not suffer in any way. The food and service is terrific. In fact I am gluten free and my meals had no trouble following me around to the different venues. We tried the Tamarind our first night and enjoyed it immensely. As I had sent a Gluten free request form from Holland America about 90 days before the cruise, all of the servers, when they saw our reservations, knew of my diet restrictions and made sure I did not order anything I should not eat. If we ate in the Rembrandt main dining room, they gave me a menu for the next night to choose my meals. If what I wanted needed adjusting to make it gluten free, they did it! I also enjoyed a gluten free hamburger and pizza. It is very difficult to find the words to make clear how splendid that was.

[Himself]

Thank you for a nice report on the Eurodam

[CathyK2]

This sounds like it was getting off to a wonderful start. We will be on the Eurodam for a Baltic cruise the end of next month, so looking forward to more of your review. Thank you for sharing.

 

Cathy

[Coolcruise02]

Thanks for your review! Can't wait. :)

[localady]

So happy to hear that they were able to cater to your dietary restrictions and make it enjoyable for you. :D Notifying them 60 days before seems to be the key.

Glad you enjoyed your Anniversary cruise, and your pre-stay in Rome.

Hope you threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain! ;) :D

[sandij]

Can't wait to see the rest of your review, we do the Eurodam next April Rome to Rome.

[TylerRose]

Thanks so much for taking time to write this review. I will be on Eurodam in 30 days! :D

Looking forward to reading more!

[erewhon]

Thank you for your report.

Pleased to learn that your dietary needs were met so well.

[outoftowner]

Thank you for everyone's encouragement.

 

We enjoyed our category G obstructed view room and our cabin stewards Ansari and Tomi did a brilliant job of keeping everything stocked and clean. The room had far more storage than we needed. We found the drawers under the bed and sofa the day before we left! WE always planned to eat breakfast in the MDR, but we were usually running a little late so all of our breakfasts were in the Lido. It was great! Fresh omelets, English breakfast, fresh fruit, bacon, potatoes, juice, coffee and every morning is a new view of the world through huge, clean windows. We had never seen cows wandering around an industrial port area before we ate breakfast in Tunis Africa. And we are from Texas! The welcome cacophony of four blue clad gladiator musicians led by a rotund red clad gladiator is another sight there we will not forget soon. They made more noise with four instruments than the marching band at Buckingham Palace! The shows were great, in the words of a red suited piano playing comedian, the best “ever, ever, ever, ever”. The photographers were not too annoying and did great work, the shopping was fun, especially when I realized that they changed out the products and every day was something new. We enjoyed the Crow’s Nest with the guitarist and the Explorer’s Lounge with the Adagio Strings. We did some dancing at The Northern Lights disco until it turned Techno and at the Ocean Bar. The Silk Den was very elegant and quiet. The HAL cats were great. We did a daily check of the HAL Explorer to find the happy hour specials. We loved strolling around the Promenade watching the light change over the ocean. We enjoyed the art throughout the ship, but did not have time to take the iPod tour of it. There was so much to choose from, that we did not get to do everything we wanted to do. We did make it to the Meet and Greet that one of our roll call companions had organized for right after the Muster Drill. It was a great way to put faces to the cruise critic names and very nice to see some familiar faces around the ship and occasionally on shore. In fact, if we had not seen them in Barcelona, we might have missed the ship as I had the return time wrong by an hour! Note to self and to everyone else…Always check the sign as you exit the ship to get the return boarding time, repeat it to yourself and to your companions so as to not forget!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

 

You were very wise to contact HAL 90 days before your cruise about your dietary needs.

[kazu]

Very nice review - looking forward to the continuing saga. So glad you decided to share with us.:) Hopefully anyone with dietary concerns sees your review. You did well letting them know and it's wonderful to see that they took care of your needs:D

[outoftowner]

Thank you all for your kind words.

 

 

Very nice review - looking forward to the continuing saga. So glad you decided to share with us.:) Hopefully anyone with dietary concerns sees your review. You did well letting them know and it's wonderful to see that they took care of your needs:D

 

That was my goal, that anyone who has to deal with dietary restrictions will know that they will be able to enjoy every meal and snack.

[outoftowner]

It was a very port intensive itinerary so the seven days just flew by. We had started walking 40 minutes a day about 5 months before we departed for our trip. Man, am I ever glad that we did. We walked miles and miles each day. We never would have been able to do all that we did if we had not been in practice. We had a last minute change for our first port. It was supposed to be Santa Margherita Ligure and was changed to La Spezia due to a change in Italian law that requires ships to stay too far away from the shore to make tendering practical. We did not mind as this gave us the opportunity to see The Cinque Terre. We did not stop in every town but where we did, it was very lovely and most of the repairs needed due to last year’s rains and landslides have been finished. We walked along the beach at Monterosso, wandered up and down some streets and admired the delicious looking sandwiches and pastries. The locals did not pay us much attention. We walked along the ‘lovers walk’ between Manarola and Riomaggiore. We could always find someone to take our picture and then we would take theirs. We enjoyed a drink and snacks at a little café perched on the cliff. Well, we enjoyed the experience more than the Compari aperitif. That went on the list of items not to ever try again…shudder! We had thought about taking a water taxi up to the five towns, but the weather was a little rough so we decided on the train. It was quite a hike up to the train station but it gave us the chance to go to a bank and a couple of stores. The trains between the towns run regularly and it was a very efficient way to see the area. The return tender was a vast improvement over the departing tenders. There had been about a 45 minute wait to leave the ship and we were glad the return tender was ready to go when we were. A quick shower and off to explore and enjoy fine dining. We never waited for a table, even when we forgot to reserve before 4:00 p.m. We were always willing to share a table, but we also enjoyed a few nights of table for two. Ketut the ‘candy man’ was always happy and very nice.

For Monaco the tenders were running much more efficiently. We joined a tour arranged by a fellow cruise critic and had a blast with Frederick from Dream Tours. We drove the route for the Grand Prix; we wandered up curving roads tight pin turns to the tops of mountains and hills to see a wonderful medieval town of La Turbie. It was amazing to me to enjoy the fact that people still live there, just as they have done for centuries. We went to Nice and enjoyed the market there. The flowers are beautiful, the fruits and vegetables the candies, nuts, spices were a joy to the senses. We went to the wonderful Saint Paul de Vence and loved it. Imagine a medieval, walled town on a hill that has been turned into a place for artists and their admirers. The restrooms or WC’s were interesting. It required a coin of two, I don’t remember exactly how much. You have a limited time to use the facilities and then after you leave, the whole place is washed down. The next person will find a dripping room in which to take care of business. There was no paper; it would have just been drenched anyway so I was grateful for my Cottonelle packages that I brought along. Never leave the country without them! We ate a lovely meal at Le Tilleul. The food is great and the ambiance is unique, not so great service. We made it to Eze; a great place to get lost because you can always find your way out by going down again. Back in Monaco, we went to see inside the entrance of “The Casino” and the area surrounding it. Hubby enjoyed seeing places that have been featured in so many movies, “Remember? That is where Ironman was sitting?” We enjoyed the fancy cars and yachts and made friends with a duck and her ducklings. Fred made it great with his stories and history. He was always where he said he would be, when he said he would be and he was also able to rearrange his route to try to keep us out of the rain. Highly recommend him and Dream tours.

[vivavegas]

Nice review! Glad to hear you had a good cruise! Looking forward to reading more..:)

[outoftowner]

For Barcelona, we decided to explore on our own. After a leisurely breakfast on the Lido, we wandered off of the ship and through a very nice terminal to find a very long line for the shuttle to the foot of La Rambla. We were very glad we stood in line and studied the map, it would have been a very long walk just to leave the port area. It was a long day. 11am to 10pm. We walked La Rambla, we walked some side streets, explored La Boqueria Market. We took the metro to la Sagrada Famíliaand walked around the outside of it. I will not share my opinion of that building as it may not be appreciated. I probably would have benefited from a tour of it so as to tolerate it. Let’s just say I was reminded of the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes.

We enjoyed sitting in a park across the street. We watched the gentlemen in the 60’s to 90’s playing bocce ball with their friends and then watched the babies learning how to get along with each other so that they could grow up to play bocce ball like their grandfathers. It was a great circle of life moment. We noticed an elderly couple strolling arm and arm around the park and imagined them doing it everyday day of their long lives. The ground is dusty, yet their clothing and shoes were clean and neat. We supposed that every day they cleaned them up for the next day's stroll. As soon as we stood up, they sat down on our bench. Oops! I guess we had delayed the sitting on ‘their’ bench part of the program.

We ate Paella and enjoyed tapas and sangria. We were so tired; we could not remember what time we needed to be back onboard. Fortunately we saw some fellow CCers and when we found out the time had to hurry up and finish the sangria, make a couple of purchases, find the receipts for the shuttle from the morning and catch the shuttle…just in time!

The ship does seem a little quiet late at night and we liked that just fine. We could grab something to drink and snack on in the Lido and wander around. I love to walk the Promenade when the sun is going down. The colors of the sky and ocean appear to be showing off and sharing with each other.

Our only sea day was great. Hubby went to a couple of the Technology classes. I did not want to sit in front a computer while on vacation, so I slept in, explored the shops and walked the promenade. The classes covered basic information but also how to use Microsoft products far more efficiently. We have been using Microsoft since it came out on a daily basis. But we usually just do the same types of things over and over without even knowing about what other options are available in the Microsoft products we already own. So in that sense, I think that the classes were valuable.

I had to laugh; we had missed dinner in the MDR the night before because we stayed so late in Barcelona and the dining room staff actually called us in our room the next morning to make sure we were happy with their service. Can you imagine? We loved being in the Rembrandt for dinner and always appreciated the hard work of the staff and the unobtrusive way they took such good care of us.

We had great food, took pictures of the ship, dressed up for formal night, danced, made the photographers work hard to make me look good, (hubby always looks good), went to shows and just plain had fun.

[Sea42]

Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise experience with us! I'm enjoying it so much.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review, can't wait for the rest.

[andeesue]

I loved how you made the most of your ports and really experienced so much, from sightseeing to people watching, to enjoying local specialties. What a wonderful anniversary cruise! Thanks for sharing.

[erewhon]

Am enjoying reading your reports of your cruise.

Thank you.

[Charlispain]

This sounds like it was getting off to a wonderful start. We will be on the Eurodam for a Baltic cruise the end of next month, so looking forward to more of your review. Thank you for sharing.

 

Cathy

Hello, travel on the Eurodam by the Baltic Sea at the end of the month of July.

Me guatari me comment on your return the prints of the ship and the travel, meals, excursions, environment...

That shift you have dinner?. We have the duty free or "As you wish" and we care about waiting and if you can book colas.Sabeis table to dinner two people in a single table? Is our honeymoon trip honey and we want to be as romantic as possible. thanks

[outoftowner]

For Tunis, we had booked an 8 hour ship shore excursion, the only ship excursion we booked for this trip. It was an excellent decision. So many made this decision that there were eight busses full of Eurodam passengers! Our tour guide, Hannin, was outstanding and informative; we saw things we would never have seen on our own. We did have to go through the rugs sale process. I made the mistake of asking the price of one rug and immediately became a hot prospect. I loved two of the rugs, but no, we did not buy any. We just left to explore some other stores by the shop we were already in. Apparently, everyone knew our tour guide Hannin. We do not understand Arabic, but we did hear what sounded like, “Hey! It’s Hannin! He has customers!” You do not want to go very far in the medina on your own. It is a labyrinth and easy to get lost. As we were entering a much harried older man came running up to the guide to ask how to get to the busses that take him back to the ship, he had gotten lost, poor man. Carthadge was fascinating, Sidi Bou Said is beautiful and is a great place to purchase souvenirs and the Bardo Museum was fantastic. Hannin made it easy to understand things like dating the mosaics and appreciating the artistry.

Simple rules we promote for Tunis: We discovered that if you acted deaf and blind, the sellers of everything would leave us alone. Do not make eye contact and be rude and if necessary, loud even, so as to be left in relative peace. Of course, this does not always work. There was one very persistent guy trying to place a white cloth with a band around my husband’s head. My husband was too polite, I told him NO! very loudly and he stopped. Another guy kept trying to stick his ware in my face. I finally did my loud NO! thing and he finally backed off. Again, I do not speak Arabic, but I think I heard some unkind references to my origins muttered under his breath. When you do want to make a purchase, bargain ruthlessly. Do not engage them if you do not want it. They will accept euros. Before you run out of money, tip your tour guide in the middle of the trip, if he is any good and thank the bus driver too.

Palermo Sicily was nice. We were by this time, exhausted. I wanted to see Monreale and hubby wanted to see the catacombs. So we hired one of the taxi drivers that hang out by the terminal entrance to take us were we wanted to go and went. It was great. Not overly impressed with the driver’s ability to share knowledge of the sights, we had to ask every time we saw a building or something. He spent most of the time trying to talk us into a longer drive to other sites, “only 20 more euro”. His English left a lot to be desired. But we really just needed transportation. In Monreale we admired the dedication and apparent understanding of the Bible that the mosaic makers had. I did not care for the catacombs, but it was interesting I guess. I had the feeling I was going to catch whatever illness had killed all of those people. In fact, the day we got home we all came down with colds, which are now referred to as “The mummy flu”. We had the taxi driver drop us at the Copa market for a look see and we walked back to the ship. We arrived back early to so we enjoyed the pool deck for lunch. A real hamburger on a Gluten free bun that was delicious! It was worth the wait. Apparently everyone thought that the Terrace Grill was the place for lunch that day. The bar services was excellent. There is no way anyone would have been dying of thirst. We tried to get reservations at the Canaletto but it was already booked up. I guess we will have to try the Eurodam or Niew Amsterdam in the future in order to try it. What a pity. :)

The next morning we opted to depart early with our bags with us. We purchased the return train tickets to Rome from a very rude Italian and returned to Rome only to discover that the metro was on strike. Funny thing about the Metro strike is that they open for a couple of hours, 5p.m.-8p.m., but then go back on strike. Our plan to visit the Vatican Museum required transportation and since the metro strike was on, the roads were jammed so we decided to explore the area. We stayed at another B&B, Hotel Bed in Rome, by the Termini Roma and walked to the Coliseum and Forum. We stayed most of the day listening to Rick Steve’s tours and enjoyed the day in the sun. We left the next morning for the Fiumicino airport by using the Terravision bus and arrived in plenty of time for our flight to London where we met our adult son the next day for a few more days of vacation in London and a day in Paris. Finding gluten free food was a little more difficult in London and Paris restaurants, but that is another story. All in all, it was one the best trips we ever enjoyed and we calculated that we walked more in those 17 days that we walked in the last 17 months! I actually lost 8 pounds! What makes the end of a trip bearable is knowing that we will soon be planning the next.

[outoftowner]

Hello, travel on the Eurodam by the Baltic Sea at the end of the month of July.

Me guatari me comment on your return the prints of the ship and the travel, meals, excursions, environment...

That shift you have dinner?. We have the duty free or "As you wish" and we care about waiting and if you can book colas.Sabeis table to dinner two people in a single table? Is our honeymoon trip honey and we want to be as romantic as possible. thanks

 

Not real sure what you are asking about. But, the Eurodam is a lovely ship and if you make reservations ahead of time, you can usually get a table for 2. Sometimes it is a table for 4 but they set it just for the two of you. You may have to be flexible regarding the time you eat. Let them know it is your honeymoon, you may get a song and a cake!

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[Typhoon1]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time.

[Moose Tracks]

25th anni....Glad to hear you enjoyed the Eurodam. We'll be sailing her June 24th. You mentioned there were drawers under the bed. Is the entire space under the bed drawers? Will there still be an open space to storage our luggage underneath?

Lynn