ms Westerdam review by Elwin

Reviewer Profile

Age: 65+
# of Cruises Taken: 30
Destination: Europe
Sailing Month: Aug 2007
Stateroom Type: BALCONY
Cruising with Children: No

DINING:

STATEROOM:

ENTERTAINMENT:

SPA/FITNESS:

N/A

CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES:

N/A

PUBLIC AREAS:

OVERALL EXPERIENCE:

Comments By Elwin
The ms Westerdam is a gorgeous ship, beautifully furnished and decorated. The public rooms are spacious and many, the dining room and Lido are 'tops' in production of and serving of food. The waiters, and other gentlemen who work behind the counter (in the Lido) are most accommodating, friendly, always smiling, always willing to help people carrt their trays of food to tables, even fetching coffee, water, or hot chocolate to those of us who are seated at tables eating breakfast of lunch. The members of the dining staff KNOW how to serve the plates of food and to clear the tables of dishes without interfering with guests engaged in conversation. The waiters know one's preference for coffee, tea, milk, or cappuccino at meal time (after having met us only one time). I certainly perfer the assigned table and time of dining; I do not think that I would enjoy open seating about which I hear other cruise lines are offering. Our stateroom was spacioue, always cleaned well by the cabin steward; we ALWAYS enjoyed the towel creations of animals, birds which were left on our beds in the evenings! The balcony certainly added a new dimension to our cruising experience. What luxury!! The balcony provided lots of opportunity to observe the goings-on shoreside throughout the time in port in addition to our docking and port-leaving procedures WITHOUT our having to go to a public lounge (e.g. the Crow's Nest) where one often has to stand, rather than sit, to observe scenery because of the crowds of guests assembled there. The tranquility provided by the balcony made reading, snoozing, or just sitting quietly visiting with each other most enjoyable and pleasurable. The entertainment by the dancers and singers of the ms Westerdam was outstandingly good as were the guest artists who appeared throughout the whole voyage. Of course, the staging of the song and dance shows was facilitate by the design of the stage floor which could be raised, lowered, rotated in sections to display the acts. The lower floor of the show lounge (Vista Lounge) is sloped so sight lines of the stage are excellent from almost any chair on that floor. A hotel stay, pre- or post-, was not necessary as our plance connections to and from Civitivecchia were well timed. The ports of call were most interesting. We were always fortunate to have tour guides who spoke excellent English and knew their history of the port of call (especially the Eastern Mediterranean); I cannot say that those guides of the Western Mediterranean ports of call were of a similar calibre to those of the Eastern Mediterranean. With the exception of one tour bus (Palma Mallorca) the sound system of the tour buses was satisfactory and most of the buses were recent models. Again, the Eastern Mediterranean out-did the Western Mediterranean ports of call insofar as the newness of buses and excellence of sound systems are concerned. As I am not necessarily a person who enjoys sunning or swimming, I did not take advantage of sunbathing around the pool nor did I use the hot tubs provided there. However, I saw many people who seemed to enjoy such facilities. I have no negative comment regarding the ship, itinerary, personnel to make regarding the cruise.

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