Posted by Diane from All-Travel.com
I recently returned from a cruise on the Rotterdam. Our non-stop flight actually arrived in Venice 20 minutes early; unfortunately it took 45 minutes for our luggage to make an appearance. I had arranged for a private transfer from the airport to the hotel through IC Bellagio and it was worth every euro. Their service was outstanding, and for three seniors with luggage for a cruise it was a godsend. We spent a night at Locanda Vivaldi. It's a lovely, small hotel, on the grand canal, close enough to be convenient but a block or two away from St Marks Square so it's not so congested and noisy. They have a very complete buffet breakfast that's included in the rate. We arranged a private transfer through the hotel to the cruise ship the next day and that worked out very well also.
Once on board, I was impressed with the use of space, both in the cabin and the bathroom. Even with three of us, there was plenty of drawer and closet space. That's the good news. Our toilet wasn't working and it took four hours to get someone to come and fix it. I soon found out there were others a lot worse off than us, going several days without any bathroom facilities. Apparently there was an entire section of the ship that had problems.
The itinerary was one of the main reasons this sailing appealed to me; port intensive and interesting ports. We went from Venice to Dubrovnik (loved it; worth a return trip), to Valletta to Messina to Rome (overcrowded everywhere we went) to Monaco, then on to Barcelona, Valencia and ending in Lisbon. We took Holland America Line shore excursions in several places and found them to be a mixed bag. Rome and Valencia were particularly bad; Monaco and Barcelona were both excellent. In Lisbon we arranged a car and driver through the hotel concierge and he was marvelous. We spent a night at the Le Meridien Park Atlantic Lisboa; beautiful, very modern hotel. It was well located, and is right next door to the Ritz Four Seasons.
Food was excellent on board, including the buffet on Lido deck. The one weak spot was the morning we had breakfast in the dining room.
Overall my experience with Holland America was very good, with a few concerns for this particular sailing and ship. The level of customer service from the front desk was very uneven. One young girl looked terrified every time someone came up to her. Granted, there were numerous physical problems, mostly concerning bathroom problems that lasted for several days in some areas of the ship, and that's a lot for the front desk to handle. My general impression, standing in line and listening, was that people didn't feel like anyone was really trying to help them, and that's not good. You could tell people were very frustrated. Too often the response was that the ship had to contact Seattle and there were communications problems there because of bad weather. Once our plumbing problem was resolved there were no problems with our cabin. That being said, I would have loved to stay on board and continue on to South America!
For more information on Holland America Line sailings to the Mediterranean visit www.all-travel.com/hollandamericaline or call Diane at 800-300-4567.