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Different perspective on the Rotterdam (and it ain’t good)


BayWatching
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What a bunch of utter nonsense.  Really, who on this board would be happy with sewage leaking into their cabin or the smell of sewage.  Get real folks, no one should have to put up with this real example of ship happens.   Hold your nose and enjoy the cruise?   I doubt whether the most ardent HAL cheerleader would do this.

 

I suspect, as always, it would be different if this happened to you.   What on earth does it matter or impact this if a past cruiser happened to have a wonderful cruise on this ship last month.  Or if the Captain was the Captain of the year.  All that matters is that this unfortunate customer paid top dollar to end up in a foul smelling berth.  Would you offer to switch cabins with these people.  I don’t think so. Just place yourself in their shoes for a day...or for the entire cruise.

Edited by iancal
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9 minutes ago, AncientWanderer said:

Good heavens, people, I was being facetious, not literal, about holding my nose.  Obviously I would assume that not all cabins would be impacted by leaking sewage and might take a chance if the cruise was easy for us.  But never mind....never mind.

 

Sorry, but if it happens to you, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be facetious. 😉 

Of course all cabins aren’t impacted but if it is YOURS, it’s a whole different ball game, believe me.

 

It’s one of the reasons I don’t sail NCL now.  they did nothing (until I went on deck) and offered no compensation for 5 days out of 20 of H3LL.  I think I’ve been on here long enough to know I can go with the flow - but I don’t count sewage as part of the flow 😉 
 

And in the OP’s case, if all they got was a bottle of wine, I would have been tempted to pour it on the front desk.  Sorry, but that is NOT compensation.

 

 

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4 hours ago, AlexCherie said:


I'm not the most senior person in terms of sea days - but I'm well above 100. 

The cruise I booked on the Veendam was, far and away, the best cruise I've ever been on (and you would find multiple posts of mine suggesting this). In the days just preceding our trip, there were terrible problems on board - to hear about it from posters on this website. After 25 years of sailing I thought for sure I was going to finally have my bad experience. 

Not to say you whether or not you were given a stay of execution by your TA. Who knows. Truly life is a crapshoot. 

***

What surprises me is that HAL/CCL doesn't employ someone to spend an hour a day reading websites like these and addressing the complaints directly - and even more particular to the OP's comments, why they hadn't been pre-emptive especially to someone spending so much to stay with them. They were a frequent cruiser, and not at all like me ... some rummy that takes the last interior cabin for a song. 

Compare what the OP might have expected if he had stayed at the Four Seasons, The Ritz, or Peninsula Hotels. If someone is spending $16,000 to rest their heads on your pillows ... well, I dunno. This isn't to say that Holland America is any different than Royal Caribbean or Celebrity or Oceania or Seabourn. You'll hear the complaints on every board on this website.

It just strikes me that cruising fails to reach the level of Tier 1 hotels. And hotels frequently don't have a full week or even 15 days to make a good impression. 

Cheers. And regrets to the OP. As we all know, the problem with cruising is that something gets under your skin and then all you have is many days in a row to stew over it. Gets to be like your own pearl. 
 

I didn’t originate this post thread to elicit any particular reaction(s), but yours ought to be etched somewhere for posterity. (Guess that’s called a “bookmark” these days?)

 

You PERFECTLY capture how this all felt (and still feels). For the life of us, we cannot understand how HAL doesn’t have systems in place to address these issues preemptively. 

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13 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

Sorry, but if it happens to you, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be facetious. 😉 

Of course all cabins aren’t impacted but if it is YOURS, it’s a whole different ball game, believe me.

 

It’s one of the reasons I don’t sail NCL now.  they did nothing (until I went on deck) and offered no compensation for 5 days out of 20 of H3LL.  I think I’ve been on here long enough to know I can go with the flow - but I don’t count sewage as part of the flow 😉 
 

And in the OP’s case, if all they got was a bottle of wine, I would have been tempted to pour it on the front desk.  Sorry, but that is NOT compensation.

 

 

 

Well, I'm sure you would join me in wishing smooth sailing to those who do have upcoming journeys on Rotterdam.  Hopefully all will go well and maybe this thread will nudge them along to be a bit more assertive if problems do arise.  

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7 minutes ago, AncientWanderer said:

 

Well, I'm sure you would join me in wishing smooth sailing to those who do have upcoming journeys on Rotterdam.  Hopefully all will go well and maybe this thread will nudge them along to be a bit more assertive if problems do arise.  

 

Oh absolutely I join you 🙂 

 

I loved the Rotterdam.  I sailed her when she was young and two years ago.  Fantastic crew.  Good food.  I hope all future people sailing on her experience what we did.

 

I would sail on the ship again in a heartbeat but sadly she is doing the same itineraries as before (been there done that) or trying to imitate the Prinsendam (been there and can’t imitate what that Ship could do) so for now, as much as I have enjoyed our cruises on her, we have to go on to other itineraries and ships.
 

I love the art and statues on the Rotterdam 😄 

 

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