Westerdam Review
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It is always my desire to give honest reviews, without bias. A review should never be VINDICTIVE. No vacation will ever be perfect, so just because one waiter may have served me the wrong drink doesn't mean the entire staff was bad or that the whole cruise was a disaster because of it. Little inconveniences, accidents or errors in the customer service world will occur everywhere we go in this life, and that's just a fact of life. But when a long list of these inconveniences and errors occur, to the extent that it truly frustrates an entire voyage, then something must be said.
To be fair, there are in fact many good things to be said about the MS Westerdam. For instance, the ship itself is lovely inside. Intricate details are everywhere and truly pleasing to the eye. The glass elevators are wonderful, for those who have the nerve to ride them. The staterooms are attractive. For me, the bed was perfect. Stage performances were well presented. Dining room food is diverse and very tasty - I even tried some things I'd never eaten before, or was certain I'd dislike it, but was delightfully surprised.
But for all that, my overall experience aboard the Westerdam left me anxiously waiting for the cruise to end. We boarded the ship at 11am on Friday and headed for the ship's Lido Restaurant, which is the buffet area. Our troubles began immediately. Unlike the Princess Cruise Line that I had traveled previously, where all of the food is set out in the buffet and everyone serves themselves (thus allowing everyone to move around freely), nearly all of the food in the Westerdam buffet must be served to you by staff, creating very long and very slow lines. What makes it worse is that there is only between one to three staff members working at each buffet at any given time, and because food is often made to order, this completely holds up the line when a guest is overly picky. The server must put everyone else on hold while they cook the picky guest's food. Breakfast and lunch was like this every single day. This made it extremely frustrating because you also have to find an available table to eat at (seating is extremely limited)and you have to get your own drinks at yet another buffet. If you get your coffee first, it will be cold by the time you get your food and find a seat; and if you get your food first, it will be cold by the time you get your drinks.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom
Veranda Stateroom with balcony, suite 4177, was excellent, with the exception of the Air conditioning and mini-fridge problem mentioned previously.
Three floor-to-ceiling storage closets with plenty of room to hang clothes, also has a full length mirror inside the door. Roomy bathroom with detachable shower hose, ample supply of soaps, conditioners, and lotions, and large cozy bath towels, hand towels and wash clothes. There is plenty of shelf and rack space, as well as a wall to wall mirror and medicine cabinet. Beautiful wall holders contain drinking glasses and glass soap dishes.
The cabin contained either a king or queen bed, composed of two smaller beds (we could not feel the separation between the mattresses), and the bed was amazingly comfortable - not hard, but very supportive. Personal book reading lights are set in the mirrored headboard on both sides of the bed, and all light switches are right there in the head board, as well as inside the cabin door. The room included two bath robes, two-person couch, a small oval dining table and comfortable table's chair, mini-fridge supplied with liquor and water, a desk and stool, large mirrors, make-up magnifying mirror, TV, DVD player, a small food cabinet, hair dryer, two glasses and silver platter with ice bucket equipped with a water spigot which is refilled for you each day by staff. The balcony is exclusive and private with a glass balcony railing, equipped with two comfortable deck chairs and coffee table. There is enough room to include four people seated, five or six standing.
This cabin is perfectly situated half way up the ship at the right rear - literally the last cabin facing starboard.
My only real complaint is that there were only two wall outlets in the room (in other words, you can only plug in two things) and only one in the bathroom. When you need to charge your cell phones and portable devices, it can be frustrating (we had two cell phones, electric cigarette changer, portable DVD charger, and the portable fan they gave us to cool the room when the air conditioner failed.