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This Rotterdam sailing was the first to leave from San Diego's new Broadway Pier and had a few operational problems...like the twelve cages of luggage that were left out in the pouring rain instead of being fork lifted inside of the new terminal building.
Likewise, hundreds of passengers also had to wait outside in the rain as the new terminal was poorly designed with the passenger check-in area just inside the front door. We will wait until late afternoon to board future cruises from this terminal to avoid standing in the rain, wind, or hot sun!!!
The ship and it's furnishing are all in excellent shape which is pretty typical for HAL ships...the food, service and entertainment all met our expectations with just a few minor exceptions.
Some cutbacks like the lack of flaming desserts in the main dining room are not critical as long as the Pinnacle Grill continues to offer top notch food and service with kudos to Sam the PG manager on this voyage.
Since this holiday cruise was an "R & R" vacation, I will not rate the ports as we have been there and done them many times on past cruises. We mostly just walked around and visited a few beaches to enjoy our Mexican visit.
Only real negative comment that I must make concerns light bulbs...my pet peeve is burned out light bulbs and there were hundreds of them burned out on the Rotterdam, including two in our cabin plus lots more everywhere I looked, more then I have ever seen on any ship...perhaps this is a new way to conserve fuel!!!
Overall, a good cruise experience and we never hesitate to recommend the ships of HAL to friends and family.
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