After checking in at around 11.30 am, they made me and a very large number of people wait, in an extremely hot warehouse before boarding. As a result of this treatment, a large number of people fainted in the heat and I believe it would have been unlawful to treat cattle this way, let alone humans. I eventually boarded the Roterdam at around 4.30pm only to find my cabin was not ready for occupation but was in fact in a filthy and dirty condition. My cabin in fact was not fit for occupation until about the fifteenth day of the cruise. However, throughout the cruise the cabins carpet had the odour of vomit. The Air Conditioning did not work in my room until the 15th day of the 19 days holiday, inspite of my multiple complaints to the front desk and indeed an email to Holland America, which continues to remain unanswered. I only received fresh towels and any toiletries on the third day. It was most unpleasant and uncomfortable to have to sleep in these elevated temperatures. The television remote control did not work and after 3 days of complaining I bought my own batteries for the remote control, which resolved the problem. My bag took eight hours to reach my cabin so I was unable to have dinner in the restaurant and had to eat in the Lido on the first night. I subsequently found the Lido to be insect infested and was not the most pleasant of dining experiences. At this point I discovered the ship had just come out of dry dock, after a failed and incomplete attempt at refurbishment. Unfortunately and throughout the voyage there were trades men working to fix the major faults, meaning that lesser problems such as air conditioning and TV removes were completely ignored. The ship also had a new crew. It was evident none of which had been trained. Also many of the new crew did not speak English. The passengers often ended up helping the crew because they did not have a clue what to do. The main restaurant was an absolute disaster. It was impossible to get your water glass refilled and ordering any type of drink or wine was ridiculous to say the least. I am still waiting for my drinks, as they never arrived! Actually dining was quite an interesting experience, as you could compare problems with other guests. I count myself lucky as to only have a room without air conditioning and the smell of vomit. Many other guests had far greater problems including raw sewage floating around in their cabins, as indeed there was in the deck 1 port side hallway aft to mid ships. Many passengers had multiple room changes due the foul leaks. I believe more lifts were out of order than in order, certainly mid ships, only 1 out of 4 worked.

In recognition of all the faults with the cruise, we were given a free bar for 1 hour. I was so disgusted at this inadequate offer; I did not have a free drink.

There were simply so many problems, and staff were finding it very difficult to cope. However, I believe it is completely wrong that the hotel manager could be found every evening in the crows nest bar getting inebriated. I believe he should have been training and or helping his staff to fix all of the problems before he drank himself into a stupor with the passengers. Incidentally, the bars continuously ran out of drink and 4 days before the end of the voyage, the entire ship had run out of light beer and Bookers. Read more