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We were on the 30 day TransAtlantic and Baltic Sea Cruise on the MS Prinsendam in May and June 2012 (15 ports).
What we liked:
small and intimate ship which was easy to get around in and promoted familiarity with crew and other passengers, beautiful artwork on board, cozy and spacious stateroom, great quality food (good selection, well-prepared and not overly salted), improved internet speed as compared to last year, good entertainment ( for example, we loved the space lectures from Frank Buzzard, laughed our heads off with comedian/mime Yacov Noy, and were fascinated by the magic/dance show by Ballroom Rush).
The fact that this ship appears to be favoured by a more intellectual, older set of passengers meant freedom from rowdy behaviour and screaming kids. The strongest feature was the crew who always had a ready smile and positive attitude (all of them). We especially appreciated our cabin stewards Andreas and Arif, very kind and personable people who memorized our names immediately, made up the room seemingly magically at just the right times, found a lost sock, produced towel animals that never failed to make us laugh, and displayed good humour, attentiveness, and gentleness throughout the cruise.
What we did not like:
the chair fabric in the dining room was stained and dirty, the menu covers smelled bad (similar to old US dollars), we had been given assigned seating for dinner (instead of the requested open seating, which has happened to us both times we have cruised on the Prinsendam), the air in the forward stairwell smelled of cigarette smoke, the information sessions prior to each port were essentially read to us (rather than spoken freely from personal knowledge/experience, as on our last cruise), the bottled water and alcoholic drinks were over-priced, the internet speed had improved compared to our last cruise but was still very pricey, the HAL excursions were over-priced (for example, the HAL cost of an excursion to the aquarium/submarine in Cherbourg would have been $89 US whereas the aquarium was actually located on the pier right where the ship was docked so no guide was needed and the entrance fee was only $23 US), some more active excursions were cancelled because of insufficient numbers (I, in my 50's, was travelling with my 19 year old daughter but the other passengers were primarily elderly) --although I have to give credit to HAL because I found out that one excursion (rooftop Stockholm tour) would have been cancelled because we were short three persons except for the fact that HAL had paid the difference
Please note that this review site did not allow for comments on all the ports that we visited.
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