We sailed with the Eurodam in April from Barcelona to Venice and enjoyed it very much, so much we considered to try and stay on board for another 12 days and do the return trip! We had a Neptune Suite (7063) which was wonderful. After arriving back home, we immediately started to peruse HAL cruise book for the next one which we booked for September to the Greek Islands and Turkey. This time a Neptune Suite (7137) at the aft of the ship with a "wrap-around" balcony, which was great! As we did have trouble with HAL transfer by bus last time, we decided to take a taxi from the airport to Venice cruise port which turned out to be cheaper than the HAL transfer bus. Embarkation went smooth, only 20 minutes or so and we were on board. The suite was clean but a little dated, we had 2 single beds (at booking we requested a double) but were not too bothered to have it changed as we were quite happy, especially with the balcony.

We were extremely disappointed with the food. Everything was extremely salty. We were told all crew was exchanged including the chefs. We certainly noticed the difference! Waiting staff were nowhere as efficient as on the previous cruise and the food was mediocre to say the least. We actually left it a few times and went to the Lido to have a sandwich! The Lido Market restaurant itself seemed to have the same food everyday. It is not a buffet (as described) where you help yourself, you have to tell the staff behind the counter what you would like. On this cruise staff who barely neither spoke nor understand English. We are small eaters but like to try a little of everything, which they did not understand. The queues were awful, we therefore just had a sandwich from a paper bag every day. We do not eat breakfast and if we were on board at lunch times just ate a sandwich and the awful meals in the dining room, it seemed that over £6000 for a cruise was a bit much!

As we are so called 'Mariners' for having cruised with HAL before, we were invited for a lunch with other 'Mariners' This lunch turned out to be a hard sell to book the next cruise. It was incessant. Several people shouting in the microphone during this lunch. I say lunch, the soup was water with an Oxo cube in. All the people on our table (8) who ordered soup had left it. Does Marco van B....... the hotel director eat the same food from the kitchen??? If he does he must have noticed the quality had taken a nose dive!. Read more