Took two HA cruises, Alaska 14 days and Hawaii 18 days and stayed in the standard balcony staterooms both times. My wife and I found them to be very nice and comfortable. We love cruising HA because of the older group of people on board. We find the crew to be very nice and helpful and very accommodating and the food is great. We are planning another Alaska land/sea cruise next year and can't wait.

The best part of the shower is the water pressure. Very strong and nice hot water. My shower time doubles when I’m in that shower.

we stayed in Neptune suites for our first two HA cruises (noordam and koningsdam) and will be staying in a standard stateroom on our upcoming sail in 2 weeks on Rotterdam. I was absolutely spoiled by the Neptune suites, but I know i’ll be comfortable in the standard…my husband is a big guy so things can get a little cramped in small spaces and clutter makes me crazy, so I spend a lot of time on cruises tidying, but the room looks really nice and i’m looking forward to it!😊

On the Konigsdam, the usb plugs are very slow charging. 🐌 Fortunately, we had our faster chargers that plugged into the standard US outlets. I was very happy about the standard plug on the wall next to the bed for my CPAP. (Are you listening, NCL?). I loved the nightstands. Very convenient.

Great review! Thanks. FYI - Holland America used to provide bar soap in all staterooms. When they resumed service the bar soap was only available on request. On the TV's you are quite right. It appears that in some ports the TV reception was garbled. Once out at sea TV reception was better...though depending on the weather not always. Something you did not mention was the complimentary movies that are available on the TV. We enjoyed many hours of movies over our cruise vacation which were quite good. Many cruise lines charge for the movies. Thanks

@jonnieinbangkok

Жыл бұрын

WTF...why would anyone spend time watching movies in their cabin on a cruise 🛳

@suesteffy7568

Жыл бұрын

We like the movies too. Our mobility is limited so we are in our cabin quite a bit. We’re just happy to be on the ship!

We were also on that cruise! It was memorable in a good way. I enjoyed your review, thanks for sharing.

@CruiseReport

Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

I like bar soap. I’m particular so I usually take my own.

Do enjoy your very thorough reports. Thanks. Erin

Good and fair review. I agree with everything you said

Bar soap because I also use bar soap as shaving cream and it's very hard to use liquid soap for that. Possibly if you ask your stateroom attendant they might provide bar soap.

Good news , we will be going on our second cruise this Feb in the Caribbean. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the review.

Great to hear the Rotterdam is so nice, will be on it in Feb/23 Thanks for the excellent review.

Great video, appreciate the detail. Sounds like we were on your ship end of October into first week of November, bonus night! Very nice cruise.

Love the Elemis products. On other cruise lines that offer bar soap, I bring my own, as theirs are drying. Took our first HAL cruise in Nov, ‘23 and taking another, same ship Rotterdam, next week, Jan ‘24. Such a beautiful ship with great crew and amenities!

Thanks for the review!

Thanks for a very thoughtful tour of the veranda stateroom on the Rotterdam. We’re cruising on this ship in 2024, never before cruising on HAL. This was very informative to us. The bathroom show looks wonderful!!! The info regarding the outlet placements on the desk was extremely helpful. Another KZread tour showed them but didn’t comment in the spacing. I was going to cruise without our short corded extension cord, but I’ll be sure to pack it now for our larger charging block. 🥰

Great review thanks - we are about to embark on Rotterdam for a 14 day Scandinavian trip on level 6 standard as you reviewed - looks terrific and also we hate plastic shower curtains - looking forward to our 30th cruise but never before on HAL - excited thanks again

Very good and concise evaluation. We’ll definitely try sailing on this ship for our next cruise 🚢. Thank you for your assessment 🙏

I've been in the basic Verandah stateroom on RD. If there was one annoying thing; it's that little rug in front of the door. Sounds like nothing, but if anyone has been in this room, you know what I mean. I would get one of these staterooms IF I were on a sailing in a warm place. I was in a balcony, although a different ship to Alaska in September and other than the first and last day, I was not able to use the stateroom other than photo ops because it was just too cold. In this case in the future, I would do an oceanview with a big window instead, but that's just my 2 cents. I love Rotterdam. I am sailing her again in a few weeks in an obstructed balcony.

YES, BAR SOAP!!!

Thank you... I will have sailed on Celebrity and Cunard, but you have convinced me that holland America is really good, so will hopefully do an Alaska inside passage with them

Yes. I like mild bar soap for showering.

Yes on the bar soap. Will bring our own

Konningsdam very similar if not exactly the same been a couple of years to remember all the details. Best detail has to be the electrical & USB outlets beside the bed as hubby has a CPap. Could not fault its stateroom so Im sure the Rotterdam will be the same for our upcoming Norway cruise in Sept. Thank you for a great review as usual.

Good round up of the stateroom. I may have missed this, there’s extra storage at the foot of the bed. Two very deep drawers under the bed. A nice perk, 4 & 5 star Mariners receive 50% off minibar.

Great video. Like the thorough review. I am looking to go on HAL in May to Alaska.

@CruiseReport

Жыл бұрын

They do a great job in Alaska.

You just had to ask for bars of soap, as we were on the same cruise as you were in Nov on Rotterdam.We found the door ways to narrow for scooters and you had to close the walker when entering and exiting. There was no towel animal or chocolate on the pillows at night./ The room service was great.....did a great job cleaning the room.. the noise was good but there was a kid sick all through our cruise next to us........coughing every day

Thanks for a great in depth balcony review. Currently booked in an Ocean View on Rotterdam, for 11 day Caribbean on February 25th. Hoping their might be an Balcony upgrade available at a reasonable cost. Will be my first time on HAL......

I prefer bar soap at home, but shower gel/cream when I travel.

I agree I like bar soap too.

I’m picky and bring my own bar soap.

Very informative

I had the balcony (5th floor) on Koningsdam and we liked the room. We didn’t hear and noise from next cabins. However, there were constant knocking noise coming from the hall. I don’t know if it is the engine noise or the air conditioning noise. We were located on the right side of the ship on our 35-40 yard line in football field. It was much louder in the hall.

Yes! Bar soap

We are looking at a HA cruise in October in the eastern med. Never been on this line before. It is on New Statendam. Looking at a Vista cabin. We usually cruise on Oceania or Viking. Do you think we would like that cabin?

Also, bar soap for me. I usually carry my own....

Just found you THANK YOU

I used to like bar soap, but it's no longer available in the brand I like; therefore I have gotten use to bodywash. I prefer to bring my own.

@CruiseReport

Жыл бұрын

I may start doing that as well.

Wondering if they had bar soap for the asking? Thank you for the review!

@CruiseReport

Жыл бұрын

Very possibly.

@richsack

Жыл бұрын

Room stewards DO have bar soap for the asking!

Making one comment about your love bar soap. Just imagine there’s 3500 leftover bars of soap from just one cruise. What does the cruise line do that leftover soap? I think it is more environmentally. Friendly to have liquid soap in the showers. It is just a waste to have 3500 leftover bars of soap for each cruise. Now I know there is a company that does recycle the leftover bars of soap but because it is a cruise, you would have to take all those bars of soap, package them up somehow, and then ship them out to this company. I believe this company is in Europe.

The sofa or couch looks very small. Was there enough room for two people? Or is the bed the only place to watch TV?

@CruiseReport

Жыл бұрын

Just enough room for two "friendly" people.

Oh, and not a bar soap fan. Just weighing in.

C-pap machines again...what's the minimum age for taking a HAL cruise again...60 or 70 🤭

@kikky811

4 ай бұрын

I have 2 coworkers both in their early 40s using these. Are they traditionally for older people?

@jonnieinbangkok

4 ай бұрын

@@kikky811 Yes...usually the next step after C-pap is the grave 🤣🤣🤣