Oosterdam Review
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Having sailed before on Admiral, Carnival, Princess, Costa, RCCL, NCL (3) we had some expectations. Most were met and exceeded. Here's the low-down. Let me start by saying that I really think that not every cruise line is suited to every individual. We are neither low key or overly rambunctious folks in our late 40's - early 50's. We enjoy meeting people, cocktails, playing cards in the casino, going to some shows, laying by the pool and participating in few shipboard activities. We don't attend religious services, port talks, shopping talks, bingo. We have, in the past paid for dining outside the main dining rooms. With that said.......
We loved the Oosterdam. We arrived late due to a late flight and an offsite parking lot that made us wait for a ride. We opted not to buy the transfers as we were meeting family. Nearly the last to board at approx. 3:30 or 4:00 - there were virtually no lines. I (the seasoned cruiser) forgot to PRINT my embarkation documents after filling them out online. So we had to stand there and fill it all out again, by hand, on two separate documents. Upon boarding there were the usual photo ops but no one to greet us at the door and welcome us on board or direct us to the cabin. No big deal. We can read signs and we finally got someone to point us in the right direction. (How hard could it be... our cabin was AFT ... as in totally in the back with a balcony facing the wake of the boat!)
Our cabin was FABULOUS. I shouldn't let out the secret. GET AN AFT CABIN if you can. It was great. The balcony is larger and the walls dividing the cabins on the aft balcony shielded nearly all wind and even though the weather wasn't as warm as we liked it - we could lay out and feel the warmth of the sun. Especially going northbound. Take note. On level 4 we could lay out in the buff without being noticed from above. We could tell that if you were on 5 or up you probably couldn't do that. Also the corner mini suites had less privacy from above. We spent more time on our balcony this time than previously. You could eat out there, sun bathe, read the mornings news with breakfast served in the cabin.