Eurodam Review
Excellent first time experience on the Eurodam
Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Eurodam
photocruiser777
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s
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Additional details
Sail Date: Sep 2016
Cabin: Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom
We chose the Holland America Mediterranean Tapestries cruise mainly for the itinerary and moderate size of the ship. This was our first cruise. We stayed for two days on our own in Barcelona prior to embarkation and found it to be a very dynamic city. One could easily spend a week there.
Embarkation was very smooth. The bags went straight off the taxi to a conveyor; security and printing of our stateroom cards took about 15 minutes, and then we were on.
What stood out the most on the cruise was the extreme friendliness of the crew, who are mostly Indonesian or Filipino. We felt like family immediately.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom
Cabin VB
Reasonably spacious with a good deal of storage, including some very useful drawers under the bed. Clean. Both 120 and 220V power available at the desk, but note that if you have an appliance you need next to the bed, such as a CPAP machine, you will want to bring an extension cord, or else the cord will be suspended in midair across the room at night to reach the desk. The verandah has ample room to stretch out in the reclining deck chair and foot stool. The divider between our verandah and the next was not locked when we embarked and was flapping in the wind at night. We had the steward lock it after that, but it still rattled a bit when the wind was strong. We wished there was a way to open the verandah door or a vent at night for fresh air, but a sign requests passengers to keep the door closed. The air conditioning was generally too cold and appeared optimized for the hot Mediterranean summer, and we had the thermostat turned up to the hot side just to keep it from being an icebox in September. The room was very quiet at night; we only heard neighbours occasionally in the hallway or adjacent verandah, never directly through the walls.
Port Reviews
Barcelona
A dynamic city of old and modern. A hop on/hop off bus tour is a way to quickly get orientated, but you need a lot of time to really see anything in depth. We took a day trip to Girona and Figueres via Gray Line which was good, but a little too rushed in Girona.
Monaco (Monte Carlo)
Not much to see from the hop on hop off bus. We enjoyed the excellent aquarium though, which we could have just walked to from where the ship's tender docked.
Toulon
We arranged a private tour with three other couples in a 9-seat van. Our driver took us to Aix-en-Provence and Cassis with a drive to the top of Cap Canaille. We had enough time to take a boat ride to see the Calanques (fjords) near Cassis as well. We skipped Marseilles to be able to have enough time for that, and it was worth it.
Florence (Livorno)
We shared a taxi van with 3 other couples, which worked out to 80 euro per couple for return transport to Florence. We skipped Pisa. Beautiful city, but watch out for all the cars and scooters on the narrow streets!
Rome (Civitavecchia)
We took the train in and out. Inexpensive. About 2 euro for a bus from the port to the train station and about 5 euro for the train each way. If you are going to the Vatican, the station near San Pietro is the first stop in Rome and takes considerably less time than riding the train all the way to the Termini station. What can one say about Rome? You need more time to see it. Allowing for time to get there and back on the train/bus, you don't have long in the city.
Taormina (Messina)
We just got off the ship and walked to the beach in the harbour area and enjoyed a nice beach day at one of the beach clubs in Naxos port. A lounge chair and umbrella were just a few euro and good lunch items and gelato could be had beachside.
Dubrovnik
A beautiful city, but unexpectedly expensive! Taxi from the port to the old city 13 euro each way. You need kuna, not euro, for stores if paying in cash and official Game of Thrones T shirts, if that's your thing, are the equivalent of about $30 US. After a walk around part of the old city, we walked to the nearest beach club. A couple of lounge chairs and umbrella were nearly $30 US! At the same club we let the waitress suggest a seafood lunch with scampi and a whole fish and although it was good, it came to 900 kuna, about $140 US!
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