Eurodam Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,200 reviews

Good First Cruise to Europe for Newbies

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Eurodam
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drTNcruiser
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Apr 2015
Cabin: Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom

My wife and I finally decided to plan a life-long, dream trip to Europe as a way of celebrating our upcoming wedding anniversary. This particular trip took several months to plan starting in the summer of 2014. In my research, I used several travel resources including DK Eyewitness Cruise Guide to Europe & The Mediterranean, Pocket Rouge Guide – London by Rob Humphreys, and Lonely Planet Mediterranean Europe.

Yet, the cornerstone of my Europe strategy was assembled using Rick Steve’s 2015 Best of Europe Travel. Rick is a dynamic writer who makes you feel like you are part of his planning teams on these excursions to Europe. Rick has a practical approach filled with lots of humor. I kept using this book several months before the trip. Rick provides tourist information including the latest on attractions, booking tickets and tours, lodging, and planning. With this approach, I became more familiar with the cities. Unlike typical vacations, a trip to Europe was more complicated and expensive than other vacations. We selected the Holland America Eurodam Western Mediterranean Cruise.

To celebrate our 26th Anniversary, my wife and I took an incredible trip to Europe followed by a 7-Day Mediterranean Glamour Cruise from Barcelona, Spain on the Holland America’s Eurodam. The trip was planned over the summer of 2014. We obtained several complimentary items including a cruise credit of $50, a bottle of wine, two signature beverage packages (worth $106 days a day), and a free professional photo. Additionally, we received an upgrade from Deluxe Verandah Oceanview (VF) which was a partial view to Deluxe Verandah Oceanview (VC), an outstanding view. Our cruise representatives maintained frequent communications and were always available to address any of our questions.

Cabin Review

Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom

Cabin VC

Holland America’s Eurodam is a very classy vessel. In fact, this ship is one of the largest ships in Holland America’s fleet. We received an upgrade from Deluxe Verandah Oceanview (VF) which was a partial view to Deluxe Verandah Oceanview (VC), an outstanding view. Our stateroom (Room 6123) was modern with a large queen bed, flat screen TV, and ample storage space for the two of us. In addition, we had a very attractive balcony to see the sun set and rise.

Port Reviews

Rome (Civitavecchia)

The next port was the city of Civitavecchia, which is about 1.5 hours from Rome. We had already decided that we were not going to take any tours from Civitavecchia, which were very expensive and rushed (some more than 11 hours). Rome represents a trip of a lifetime. We had the luxury of going to Rome after our cruise for several days. Once we made the port, we leisurely left the ship later (about 9:30am) to the cruise terminal. Most passengers headed to Rome had already left.

Civitavecchia is very walkable; the railway station from the port is about 10 minutes away.

Once we exited the terminal, we were bombarded with vendors trying to take us to Rome. We were hoping for 1-2 hour tour around the City of Civitavecchia. However, these vendors had already built large profit margins for carrying cruise passengers to Rome. The one major note about the City of Civitavecchia is that in my humble opinion is not really set up to handle tourists. It is more a place to travel from then a city of destination. Thus, you are on your own in touring. We opted just to walk around the city on a self-guided tour. One local store provided us with a map of key attractions. One of the best seen was Fort Michelangelo near the port. Please note that we interacted with several locals; none spoke English very well (of course, our Italian wasn’t great either). We walked around the fort. We could not enter. There were no markers or signs for us to read about the monument. We ended walking on the beach and visiting the local food markets (which had closed). We had a nice lunch and people watched in Civitavecchia. We hoped to take the local public transportation. However, we could never figure out where to pay for a pass (bus driver doesn’t accept cash). We talked to several locals but the language barrier was too great to overcome.

Portofino

The next port was Santa Margherita, Italy. One of the features about the region was to see the Italian Riviera in its beauty. This area was noted to very walkable; some of our cruise mates walked about at least an hour on foot. There was a ferry available from Santa Margherita at half past the hour, starting at 9:15am with the last boat at 5:15pm (in the summer). The return trip leaves Portofino every hour starting at noon, and last boat leaves at 7pm. The cost was 9.5€ roundtrip.

Once we exited the terminal, there was much tourist information readily available. We opted to do a self-tour on this port either by taxi or public transportation. The objective of our visit was to travel to the famous city of Portofino, which was about 15-20 minutes or less by bus.

In fact, it appeared anti-tourist because we had a difficult time finding information about taxis or public transportation. We stumbled on a visitor’s booth. They pointed us to the taxi station. A taxi driver informed us that it would cost us at least a 100€ for getting to Portofino. We felt it was overpriced. Near the port, we found a long line of cruise mates waiting in front of a bus stop. We were informed we could ride on the public bus for less than 2.0€ per person. It was a no brainer. We purchased our ticket. Here’s a note. You have to be somewhat aggressive on getting on the bus. There was a lot of pushing and shoving. We were able to get on the bus (many were not able to get on this particular bus). The ride to Portofino was beautiful, ascending on mountain terrain. However, we did not appreciate this first time since the bus was so crowded. One critical note is that most restaurants and shops close between 3pm and 7pm. We had a difficult time getting food during that timeframe. The best option is to find food in tourists traps; the food will be more expensive and is of a lesser quality in general. However, you will be fed.

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