Eurodam Review

Wonderful holiday experience with family!

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Eurodam
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ElleZ
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Dec 2014
Cabin: Neptune Deluxe Veranda Suite
Traveled with children

Cruised Western Caribbean on HAL Eurodam over Christmas/Hanukkah week December 2014. Third HAL cruise, first time Caribbean. First Eurodam experience. Previously traveled on Zuiderdam and Oosterdam. Traveled with hubby, 15-year-old son. Sister-in-law and her family of four (hubby, two adult children, ages 21 and 24) also took this cruise.

Pre-cruise -- we flew from LAX to MIA on Saturday for a Sunday departure out of Ft. Lauderdale. Did not want to risk connecting flights flying across the country during the holiday season. Arranged for HAL transfer to Ft. Lauderdale and then ended up renting a car in Miami for the 20 minute drive to Ft. Lauderdale. HAL would not refund the transfer fee of $30 pp even with advance notice. Once you book that it is non-refundable. Learned a lesson there. Stayed at Marriott Spring Hill Suites, took their free shuttle to cruise terminal on Sunday morning. Learned that we needed to book shuttle immediately upon check in as they, too, sell out space (even though they are free)! Hotel was sold out and everyone staying there was cruising, too, not only on HAL but on many other ships that dock at Ft. Lauderdale.

Cabins -- we originally booked a Superior Verandah Suite on deck 6, midship as we have had great experience with the extra room there for teen son who is 5'11". One month before embarkation we received an email from HAL asking if we'd like to upgrade to Neptune Suite for additional (discounted) cost. We did this and moved to Suite 5186 with is a Neptune Suite aft corner balcony room on deck 5. Will try to attach photos as I could not find specific reviews for this room. Will detail that below.

Cabin Review

Neptune Deluxe Veranda Suite

Cabin SB

We upgraded to this cabin after originally booking a Superior Verandah Suite cabin. HAL offered it to us at a lower price 30 days prior to departure. So glad we did it! The Neptune Suite amenities are amazing.Larger than usual balcony that wraps around the port side of the ship. Balcony drove this particular choice for us. These cabin balconies are the only ones with chaise lounges on the ship. Included with the two chaises were two wicker arm chairs and footrests with a cocktail table on the port side area and an eating round table for four with four small arm chairs in the aft area of the balcony. This is where we mostly sat as the wind on the port side was pretty strong. The aft cabin location is really far, obviously, from the front of the ship, but the proximity to the Lido deck food and the main dining room is great! Available decks at the time of booking were 5, 6 and 8 -- deck 7 is Neptune suite and is most desirable because you can bring stuff from there back to your room without going up/down stairs. Deck 8 rumored to be noisy, deck 6 connecting room (less closet space). Our deck 5 room accommodated only 3 people, however (the sofa bed only sleeps one here), which was fine for us. No noise from rudder at all -- we liked being down closer to water. We did find that we visited Neptune lounge a lot for their coffees (they have an amazing espresso machine.) and fresh juices and chilled water. It would have been dreamy to be closer to that.Bathroom in cabin is same size as superior verandah suite. Two sinks, shower/tub and stall shower. We mostly used the shower/tub as it's hard to position the hand held device in the stall shower to avoid getting water on the floor. No plugs in the bathroom -- hair dryers and a plug for flat irons, razors, etc. are in the vanity area. There is no night light in the bathroom either. This would be really nice for night as we had to leave the full light on in the bathroom at night. No complaints about the dark sleeping area but it's hard to adjust your eyes at 3 am after leaving a fully lit bathroom! How to bring your own with no plugs in the bathroom? Find a way, if you can!Cabin has extra little dressing/vanity area right outside the bathroom which was perfect for me changing with our son in the room. That area also has three mirrored single door closets (probably 12-18 inches wide each) which held all my clothes and the complimentary robes for the cruise. Dressing area has its own lighting, though not very good, as well as a close-up mirror and sitting stool.Umbrella closet with umbrella right off cabin door. Never used this. Granite wet bar with cupboards for glassware and a mini-fridge as well. Great for champagne and hors d'oeuvres (Neptune Suite has tea sandwiches, cookies and desserts throughout the day that you can bring to your suite). We had fresh fruit in our suite daily. Also, the suite came with free laundry and pressing which reduced our packing -- hence saved us at least one checked bag on the airlines.Sofa area had large sofa which converted to extra-long bed for 5'11" son to sleep on. Really comfy bed it was, he said! Two arm chairs plus a chair at the computer/TV desk make this area a nice lounge for cocktails before dinner. That, of course, plus the deck. The area was large enough to have room to walk between the table and the bed at night which made trips to the bathroom easy.We had our bed put into the king size configuration. This "king" size bed is bigger than any other king/California king size bed I've been on! It has the width of a traditional king with the length of the CalKing. It was huge. No joke. Super comfy and came with 8 pillows, excluding the decorative ones. We had a bit of a challenge sleeping the first night due to wall/motor vibrations but this was not due to cabin location as our friends on the 8th floor forward cabin felt the same thing. Things settled down the next night and we slept better than ever. Note, there are no sheets on this bed. They wrap the comforter in a giant sheet that opens at your feet and that's it. I was really hot the first night but changed my sleepwear to shorts and a t shirt after that. Even with full AC, the giant windows in the cabin take in a lot of afternoon sun and the room stayed warm because of it.There are three double door closets in the main cabin by the bed, one of which includes a safe. The closets have options of full hang or pull down shelves, plus a tie holder is on one door. There is also a locked bed table drawer for additional security if you bring lots of bling. There are way too many wooden hangers included in this luxe fest as well. Complimentary shoe shines for all cabin categories.This was an amazing cabin. I don't think we'll choose it again but we had a great time here! For us, we think, we'll stick to the Superior Verandah cabin as our choice. That being said, if an opportunity to upgrade for a discount cost comes our way, we'd choose it again but would go with a room on deck 7 as we really did like the proximity to the Neptune Suite. Also, for whatever reason, it seemed our cabin steward was more overwhelmed than usual. Perhaps because he had more rooms on deck 5 to deal with. Being midship is really ideal for us.

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