At the risk of sounding like a HAL Cheerleader - The Westerdam favorably lived up to our expectations for our latest cruise. The ship is lovely in the HAL tradition. The public areas were clean and in good repair as was our cabin. There may have been some textiles that were beginning to show their wear – but nothing distracting. The ship never felt overcrowded and lines were almost nonexistent except for the grilled sandwich line in the Lido :-) On day 2 or 3 we got a call from hotel staff asking if everything was acceptable and there was a printed card in the materials on the desk when we first arrived requesting we contact the front desk if there were any problems on the cruise so had there been problems we’d have felt encouraged to report it.

The boarding was painless – we arrived at the port (due to our shuttle from the Holiday Inn Express) about 10:45 and were in our room by 11:45. It rained for some of the later arrivals but it didn’t affect us. We’d had our TA request wheelchair assistance for DH for boarding. He was on the list when we arrived and that went well. We had a leisurely Mariner’s Lunch in the MDR sharing a table with other Mariners. In fact, one of the highlights of the cruise for us was choosing to sit with other folks at all of our breakfasts and lunches. Lots of interesting conversation! We met dozens of other passengers and the overall reaction of virtually all of them was positive.

Our VC stateroom 5162 was quiet and in good condition – our toilet and AC worked perfectly the entire trip. Our Cabin Steward was good and fulfilled our sailing day request for ice each time he made up the room for the entire cruise. Read more