Rotterdam Review
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We chose this cruise because the itinerary included 8 countries. We were able to tour the Hermitage and the fjords, places on our bucket list. Also, we thought since the Rotterdam was a smaller ship, it would be easier to get around the meet people. We were shocked to see the condition of the ship and our stateroom. We cruised on another HOL ship some years ago and loved it. But this experience was substandard. We heard worse stories from other passengers about their problems on board, so we knew it was endemic. We asked guest services to be moved to another room, but they said that wasn't possible. Of the 10 shore excursions we took, 8 were very good. But the "Historic Walk through Kristiansand" was led by a very boring guide who walked too fast. Many of the group left to tour on their own. The tour in Oslo, "Vegeland Sculpture Park and Viking Ship Museum" was terrible. Their were 50 people on this tour and we had no head phones to hear the guide who would start talking about items as soon as she was off the bus. We asked the guide, Maria Atlanta, to wait until all of us could hear her, but she just ignored the request. She spent too much time at the ski jump, then hurried us through the Viegland Park. She was rude to some of the guests. It was very disappointing.
Cabin Review
Large Ocean-View Stateroom
Our stateroom colors were dull & drab. The bathroom was in terrible condition with chipped paint along the door frame, chipped tiles and bathtub, rust along the fixtures. The porthole was also rusty and gross. The windows were so dirty we could barely see through them. They were never cleaned in the 3 weeks we were on the cruise. The one electrical outlet in the main room didn't work at first but was fixed pretty quickly. We had to wait 10 days to get a key to the drawer with a lock. We brought all of these to the attention of guest services but they refused to change our room. Other guests had water under floor tiles and water leaking into their closets. The hallways had buckets to catch ceiling drips. The promenade was always wet and drippy from above.