Well, the Rotterdam is a dead ship as far as I am concerned since I will never step on board her again. If you are like my wife and I, one of your favorite things to do is sit on the promenade deck with a good book, feeling the clean sea air in your face while listening to the water rushing by the ship and looking at the wonderful colors of the sea. HAL ships were the best for this with the teak decks and the cushioned wood chairs; it gave us a sense of the past, of tradition. However, with the advent of the Lanai staterooms, 95% of the passengers are relegated to the stern area of the promenade deck were you get to sit behind a steel plate wall, listen to equipment noise, and smell the smoke from Lanai occupants. You see, each Lanai stateroom gets two lounge chairs reserved on the promenade deck looking out at the sea for their use. This leaves the 1200 or so other guess fighting over the 10-15 chairs that have views of the ocean not assigned to the Lanai staterooms. Apparently HAL is looking to pass these off as rooms with balconies. The promenade is a poor excuse for a balcony. For an additional $500 (quote from Lanai guest at the Meet your Captain and Hotel Manager which became nothing more than a bitch session) you get no privacy and are limited to one side of the ship.

Did I mention the smoke? The Lanai staterooms do not have any partitions separating them on the promenade, as such and as observed, occupants on both port and starboard sides were puffing away. Usually the port side is non smoking as evidenced by the lack of ashtrays. There is no way as a non smoker I would book a Lanai. I asked the Hotel Manager how I could ensure I could get a smoke free Lanai, he indicated that I could not, that was something that needed to be addressed with management. Also the Hotel Manager indicated that HAL ships do not designate the port side as non smoking as some more progressive lines do even though there are only ash trays on the starboard side of the ship. This surprised me since this is my sixth cruise with HAL and the first in which smoking was so prevalent on the port side. The only difference I see is the Lanai rooms. I guess with the advent of the Lanai rooms, HAL is not interested in having non smokers.

I was also surprised to see on numerous occasions people flicking their lit cigarette butts over the side of the ship, which is offensive to me. We cruise several times a year and I have not seen this behavior in years. But then there were no public announcements stating HAL policy and commitment to the sea. I guess this behavior is to be expected with smoking is allowed everywhere and ashtrays provided only on the starboard side of the ship. It was not like this on our last cruise with HAL - Zaandam Nov 08 SD to Hawaii. Read more