I usually cruise luxury lines, however all but one have been disappointing me since Covid. I was thus absolutely delighted to have a wonderful 10-day Caribbean experience on HAL's new Rotterdam, with an old friend. I booked everything online, without a TA, and never had to speak with anyone at HAL pre-cruise. We stayed in the 1200 square feet beautiful Pinnacle suite on the 7th deck (Schubert) with concierge service. That certainly had a lot to do with my general satisfaction, though my original motivation was just to have a large, pleasant space away from crowds to spend much of our time (I was trying to limit Covid exposure to my vulnerable, never Covid infected friend). Overall I was happier than I was on a recent "luxury" small ship cruise with Seabourn (SB) on the Quest, which I rated 3/5 (and my husband rated only 2/5). I rate my overall HAL experience 4.4 out of 5 (rounded down to 4 on the official 1-5 scale), but the amazing suite was a 5+.

Ports visited on this "Souther Caribbean Seafarer" included Half Moon Cay, Grand Turks and Caycos, Amber Cove, Williamstad Curasco, Oranjestad Aruba, and Ocho Rios, none of which we had ever been to.

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