Done the VoV cruise before - did it again but won't do it a third time. ROTTERDAM needs work - plus I feel HAL has been "Carnivalized". Food in main dining room was so/so - ate in Lido for dinner which we don't care to do but DR menu was uninviting. Orchestra was great but only one on board. So no music for ballroom dancing on show nights - they used recorded music instead. Entertainment in showroom had a few good acts - most mediocre - they even showed movies a couple of times as the "entertainment". Really HALL ! Limited cruise director staff so no dance instructors, no games (everything was "self-hosted").

Not a fan of BB King (and this group was bad) on any ship. Piano bar was Barry from Boston (there are many better out there). We are 4 star and I would say there is a noticeable decline ijn shipboard activities and services. Lots of extra charge things like wine tastings, beer tastings, martini mixing, etc. This was a 38 day R/T to/from Boston and HAL gave us a mediocre time on board - should have been "over the top" for this once-a-year voyage but wasn't. It is clear that the Carnival bean counters are winning. We kept hearing about the "new product" but it wasn't on Rotterdam. Too bad because we were loyal HAL cruisers. Came back and cancelled our next planned HAL cruise in January, we were that disappointed.