We sailed the Amsterdam on Dec. 1-17 from Rio de Janeiro to Valparaiso. One of the things that made the trip special was it's length, 17 days gives you many opportunities to make onboard friendships with other pax and the staff as well. Overall, I would give the Amsterdam an A for the entire trip! Despite the fact many received greatly reduced fares, I did not notice anything that would suggest that the staff was doing anything to cut costs on the trip. The ship had been booked for this cruise since the middle of the summer, and a group of us through Cruise Critic had been exchanging posts and information in anticipation for the cruise. We arrived the day of embarkation into Rio to find a pervasive warm rain falling. The views were obscured by the rain and generally foggy conditions it caused.

Embarkation was clearly the worst part of the entire trip. For this, HAL gets an F! We arrived at a dark reception building that contained only a few working fluorescent bulbs and were told that prior to embarkation we had to fill out immigration questionnaires for Argentina or Chile. We all tried to fill the forms out, but due to the non-existent lighting in the terminal and the color of the print on the paper it made it impossible! People were angry and upset, and I worried that the process might be indicative of our time to come.

This was a Honeymoon cruise for my husband and I and we were fortunate to be able to book a Suite. This was a first for us, and the extra room and perks were wonderful!!! Our room steward Pete was the best we have had too. He always had a smile and immediately introduced himself having already memorized our names upon embarkation. As soon as he met us he went down for our bags, and we were unpacked fully into our new Suite well before dinner. Read more