This is only my second cruise with HAL my first was five years ago on the Zaandam spending two weeks in Hawaii. We did say that due to the very high percentage of senior citizens on board we would probably not cruise with HAL again. Although it is great that HAL accommodates quite infirm guests with drips oxygen tanks etc there was such a high percentage on board that the evening entertainment, (we had late dining) bars etc were lacking in atmosphere,however the itinerary of the Rotterdam cruise was the reason we decided to give HAL another go.

Things did not get off to a good start, embarkation was a disaster. Our early flight from Gatwick to Dubai ment we arrived at the port early along with plenty of others.I did think that perhaps we would have to wait around a while although MSC were embarking their guest at the same terminal as us straight away and with entertainment. We kept being informed embarkation would start in another 30 minutes, this farce went on for a couple of hours then they brought staff to the front desk and started training them up in front of us, including teaching them how to process our credit cards. After no more then 15 minutes of training they let them loose on us and our credit cards! We weren't feeling too confident, however despite needing help to process the card we were given our stateroom card and hurriedly rushed away to find our room.

We were pleasantly surprised to find the room ready and did not have to wait to long for our cases. Read more