When I read some reviews, I wonder if we have been on the same ship - however I can only report our own excellent experiences of our cruise. We arrived in Athens 2 days before embarkation and enjoyed our stay at the Parthenon Hotel; it was very centrally located but on a quiet side street. Ask for a front room on the 5th floor with a balcony. We travelled to Piraeus by taxi and joined MS Rotterdam at midday in time for lunch in the self-service Lido restaurant before being called down to our cabin at around 2pm. Our luggage arrived shortly afterwards and we met our cabin steward - a polite and helpful Indonesian. After settling in, it was lifeboat drill before going down to meet our new table companions at dinner. The meal was efficiently served by our two excellent Indonesian waiters and was most enjoyable. After dinner we went to see the first show by the resident cast and were very impressed with their enthusiasm and talent. They put on two further shows during our cruise and, although not Broadway standard, they were extremely enjoyable and well choreographed. The usual range of individual artistes appeared on the other nights putting on, in the main, entertaining performances. There were 12 ports of call during our 16 day cruise so we were kept fairly busy although we preferred not to join the organized excursions - too expensive and too early leaving each morning! My wife's fridge magnet clearly states, "I don't do mornings" - so we didn't! Leaving the ship after a leisurely breakfast in the Fontaine restaurant avoided the rush and still gave plenty of time to enjoy each port. The cabins on the Rotterdam are large and well equipped, especially those with a balcony which have flat screen TVs, DVD players and Jacuzzi baths. They have very comfortable beds, Egyptian cotton bed linen, fluffy towels and bath robes. Our steward, although kept very busy with 9 cabins to service, looked after us extremely well and was wonderfully understanding when my wife was unwell with a persistent cough which affected many other passengers. Although the food is generally not gourmet restaurant standard, it is well prepared with steak, chicken or salmon always available as an alternative to the main dinner menu if there is nothing to your taste. On formal nights, oysters, lobster, fillet steak and many other options were on the menu. The sea food was especially good. It was certainly far superior to any food we have ever had in hospital!!!!!! There were a few things which we were not especially happy with: the Exploration Café charging for coffees when the previously popular Java Bar was free, the increase in the surcharge in the Pinnacle Restaurant to $30 per head for menus that were previously offered in the main restaurant and the 15% service charge on all drinks. It is worth noting that that a 20 glass wine card can now be obtained for about $80 and the wine is very acceptable. Cabin room service offers a very wide choice of dishes, even to the point of having the main restaurant menu choices being brought to your cabin during normal meal service times. There is occasional a delay but I suppose that this is inevitable at busy times. In summary, we had a wonderful cruise visiting many interesting ports of call with good food and excellent company each evening at our dinner table. This was our 8th HAL cruise and it will not be our last. We accept that the fellow passengers are generally in the older age group but we are “young” 70 year olds and prefer this more gentile style of cruising to that now being offered on some of the newer large ships. Oh, and the disembarkation was handled smoothly and efficiently thanks to the usual efficient organization of the Filipino Office staff.