Thread: Our Cruise on The Eurodam! (Detailed Report)

AHH the MS Eurodam! As stated before, my Wife and I took the 26th cruise for the Eurodam starting round trip from Ft. Lauderdale on January 3rd stopping in Grand Turk, San Juan, St Thomas, and Half Moon Cay and finishing up on January 10th.

Arrival in Ft Lauderdale

We arrived in FLL on the 1st of January and had made reservations with the La Quinta Inn airport location. The reason for this is because they have a shuttle that picks you up from the airport and also takes you to the ship on cruise day. The location of the hotel is centrally located around Barnes & Noble, Starbuck's, and several restaurants that were good and everything was in walking distance from the hotel.

Arriving at the Cruise Terminal

Upon arriving at the cruise terminal, there were 9 other ships that were to be heading out on the same day...so it was kind of a mad house there. We got into the terminal around 11:00a.m. and as soon as we got off the bus, the baggage handlers took our bags quickly and we headed inside. As soon as we got into the line, we were instructed to head up to the desk immediately without delay. Since this was not our first go at cruising, it took us only 5 minutes to get our room keys and headed onto the ship. As soon as we got onto the ship, I recognized an Asst. Cruise Director (Lee) that was on the Oosterdam when we went to Alaska last May. Right then and there, I had a big smile on my face because it's always good to see someone you recognized from another ship.

On The Ship

Since our staterooms were not ready, we went up to the Lido to have lunch. At around 1:30pm, our staterooms became ready. We had booked an inside cabin (5156) and it was set up a little differently than the normal long corridor with the closets and the bathroom door. As soon as you walk in the room, the bed is on the Left and the desk with the t.v. is straight ahead. Take 3 steps into the room and turn right, the closets and the restroom is all right there. there was 1 chair and a small table and thats it! I think it was only 190 sq. ft.. As we got everything unpacked, the Captain (Captain Van Donselaar) got on the horn and announced that with all of the ships,we would be delayed by 45 minutes...no big deal. It turned out to be about an hour and 15 minutes. We went to the farewell party on the aft of the Lido deck and stayed there for about 5 minutes. The lead singer of the HAL Cats was horrible and sounded like someone was doing karaoke instead of being a professional.

Eurodam's Decor

The Eurodam is a little different from the rest of the fleet. This ship is designed a little more contemporary and European than the normal traditional elegant look. It looks like they had a shopping spree at Ikea. The artwork on board is of high quality and some was interesting to look at.

Ships Layout

On the Eurodam, there are 11 decks, and there has been some changes to the location of the Explorers Lounge. It is now located behind the Crow's nest. The Queen's lounge has been combined with the Culinary Arts Center. The Northern Lights is twice as big as the ones on the Noordam and the Oosterdam. The atrium looks the same as the Vista Class ships...glass stairs, Pinnacle on 2, etc.
I think the biggest change that they made to the ship is the Lido Pool area...HORRIBLE! The pool seems to be a little smaller, the taco bar has been taken out, and these "wood railings" have been installed along the pool to where there is enough room for lounge chairs going along the pool, 1 row of pedestrian traffic and then either tables and chairs on one side of the pool area or the cabanas on the other. It's the same as trying to make your way around in the Lido restaurant at lunch time...its tight! I spoke with the Executive Chef about these wooden rails and he agrees that the pool area is no longer functional to do pool side buffets or BBQ's because how everything is so tight in there. However, the cabanas on 10 aft is an excellent concept. It's quiet and serene up there. However, the cabanas on the lido pool area was a bad idea since it causes a huge traffic jam.
The "mainstage" as they call it still has the smell of leather floating in the air. The Eurodam has it set up as a theater now instead of the lounge look with the tables and the benches that are in the other ships.
The casino, seemed to be smaller than the other ships as well. Surprisingly, the casino still had the smell of brand newness compared to standing in other casinos for 5 minutes while your clothes are being drenched in cigarette smoke.
The Dining room on the Eurodam is called The Rembrandt Dining Room instead of the Rotterdam Dining Room. It has the same set up as all of the others. However, there is no longer live music being played by a quartet or a piano player.
The Tamarind Restaurant was really good. The food was as expected for an upscale Asian restaurant. I would have to say that it is a notch or 2 higher than P.F. Changs. Worth the $15 per person. Service was on time and on top! all of the servers in the Tamarind were female which was new.
The Silk Den right next to The Tamarind on deck 10 was hardly ever used by anyone. However, it seemed to be a great place for tranquility and peace if you wanted silence. They had these "cabanas" that were in the den that you could lie on and curl up and read a book in...and the best thing about these is that they are free! Not like the others outside on the lido.

The Food

Believe it or not, the food on the Eurodam was really good! There were a few problems with my Wife's steak that was ordered medium well when it came out medium rare. I got a lobster tail that was undercooked and could have been cooked another 5 minutes. But, since it was my 7th lobster tail, I really didn't care. The escargot was wonderful...had 5 of them. They no longer use sparklers for the baked alaska...they use glo-lights...disappointing. when we were on the Oosterdam, they had chefs night where they gave everyone a chefs hat and had a big parade in the dining room...not on the Eurodam. The chocolate extravaganza is no longer.... It now consists of small square pastries on some stands, one fondue station and thats it! On that night (Wednesday) Glenn, the D.J. set the mood off right on the lido pool area....he got people to do line dances and sing and have a great time...and then came ol girl with the HAL Cats, and the party broke up and ended. The band is great, but the girl kept repeating the same verse on the song YMCA and on other songs, she left out words or phrases and would pick up later on in the song.

The Entertainers

Craig Diamond, the magician/comedian was good...made some funny comments, got a few volunteers to come up....overall, he did a good job.

Dr. Justin Miller, the guitarist is UNBELIEVABLE! He is so talented and knows how to pick! He brought 3 different guitars with him, a classical guitar (said he could buy a condo in Boca with it if he traded it in), a mandolin (one of a kind), and a Les Paul electric guitar....and he knew how to use them! Check out his website: Justin Miller, guitar and mandolin - Tunes & Tales from Guitarist Dr. Justin Miller - HOME

The actors and dancers were great. The lighting and the effects were new to Holland America as well as the HAL Cats and the Adagio Strings Quartet intertwined with the performers. It made it more original instead of prefabricated music.

Jimmy in the Piano Bar was great with his fingers on the ivory, but singing along was definitely not his forte' so to speak.

The Staff

The staff on the Eurodam were wonderful! The D.J., Glenn did a great job spinning the tunes and also taught my Wife and I how to do the meringue! The Assistant Cruise Directors, Lee and Leslie made the cruise go smooth with making the activities well planned out. And of course, the waitstaff got to know your name and knew what you liked. Our dining room steward, Alex and his assistant, Ivan did a great job!

Grand Turk

When we arrived at Grand Turk, it was a beautiful day. We got off of the ship and we got to park next to the Statendam, the first ship I ever went on! Talk about being able to look at the ships side by side and looking at old school and new school. As soon as you get off of the pier, you go straight into a shop (just like you do in Cozumel). After walking out of the shop, you go right into a plaza that has shops after shops. There was Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville with a pool and a swim up bar. They also featured a pseudo surfing/boarding activity that was around $30.00 for an hours worth of time. After leaving Margaritaville, we took a path to the beach and there wasn't a lounge chair one that was available. So, we just went on the other side of the pier where they have massages on shore and there were plenty of chairs there. It is unfortunate though that all of the rest of the island is still in very rough shape. If you look in some of the pictures, you can still see blue tarps that are still covering the roofs of houses. If you take binoculars, look at the airport. there is a hangar that is partially fallen and a Piper Cherokee that has a collapsed nose gear and is in the dirt. Whoever sunk all of this money in this so called "paradise" for the cruise ships, should have tried to invest that money into the rest of the island. Since I look outside of the box and open my eyes, I got to notice these things. But, for the person that concentrates on whats just ahead of them, they will never know that the hurricane basically demolished this island.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

If you want to do a shore excursion at San Juan, we ran into a guy there at the pier right past the gates named Hector Westerband. Hector is an owner/operator that has a 20 pax bus and a van. Hector has the capacity to take large groups to where ever you would like to go. He is very knowledgeable about the island and about the culture. I highly recommend using him and his services for an excursion. Hector took us on the eco hike tour and was the same price as Holland America's price of $45pp. He can be reached at 787-378-2602 or e-mail him at hectorwestrband@yahoo.com He also has a website: Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers Hector took us to the El Yunque Rain Forest and we stopped at the Visitors Center there and proceeded to go to La Coca Falls in the rain forest. After the waterfall, we went to an observation point where you go up 96 steps to get a breath taking view of the coast line and the foliage of the rain forest. When we left the observation point, we went to the area where we went to hike in the rain forest. I woulsd strongly advise that you have a good pair of tennis shoes and are athletcally ready to go up and down some hills in the forest. the trail is only maybe 2 1/2 feet wide and it is hard for 2 people to pass each other on the path. The hiking path round trip is approximately 3 3/4 miles. but, in the middle, if you bring a towel and your suit, you can jump into a small pond that is fed by a natural waterfall....very refreshing! After having a nice workout in the rain forest, Hector took us to a small changaro (small eatery) to be able to sample some of the native cuisine there. It was good and cheap! After we loaded back on the bus, Hector took us back to San Juan and drove us by both forts and dropped people off at the square that wanted to go shopping. For the rest of us, he dropped us right back at the ship. Thanks Hector!

St. Thomas

When we arrived in St. Thomas, we slept in a little and had a nice breakfast in the Lido. Then we proceeded down to our shore excursion called The St. John Eco Hike. As we were walking down to the boat to take us to the boat to go to St. Johns, we noticed a lady feeding iguanas potato chips and banana on the side of the walkway. I couldn't believe all of the iguanas that were on the rocks sunning and roaming free! As soon as we boarded the boat, we headed out for St. Johns. On the way, the tour guide showed us some celebrities houses like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Alan Alden, and Magic Johnson. the one pictured is Magic's. when we arrived the Island, we got into a group and started on a trail that had some interesting plant life and creatures on it. We saw millipede's, tarantula holes, and hermit crabs. Our tour guide took us to an observation point that was just breath taking! We then proceeded to head to the beach and boy was that gorgeous! I got my snorkeling gear on and started out on the water. I saw sea urchins, some tunas, angel fishes, and even a sand shark that swam and then buried himself into the sand except his eyes. after 45 minutes of snorkeling, we headed up to Caneel Bay Resort to catch a cab back to the boat. while we were there, the tour guide showed us the remnants of the sugar plantation that was once there on the resorts property. Heading back to St Thomas, one of the passengers from our ship told me about the rum punch that the boat sells....Good stuff! for $5 you get a dixie cup full of island punch with Cruzan rum mixed in with it. I recommend it.

Half Moon Cay

When we arrived at HMC, we were met with the Zuiderdam. We slept in and boarded the tender quite late since we didn't have any shore excursions planned. Once on the cay, we hit the beach and it was packed! So my Wife and I walked the whole beach and back. (another 1 1/2 miles) While we were out, we saw the horses in the water, drew our last name in the sand, and took pictures of footprints in the sand. As we were walking back, My Wife wanted to get something to drink. There I saw Matt (Asst. Cruise Director on the Oosterdam at the time) and I hadn't seen him since last May in Alaska. So we sat down and had pina coladas with Matt, Lee, and the Cruise Director, John, of the Zuiderdam. We then grabbed a bite to eat there on the island and then went to go play tug of war on the beach for some dam dollars. We then headed back to the tender to go back to the Eurodam.

Back in FLL

Since we were just going to take our bags off by ourselves, we got expedited and went first. We were off of the ship by 7:30am and were headed to the airport. We didn't have to go to the bottom where the bags were or no Coast Guard suprises...thank goodness. We got back into Dallas around 2:00pm cst.

Pictures

I decided to take all kinds of pictures of the Eurodam so that you could kind of get a grasp of what I was talking about on here as far as the lido pool and other parts of the ship. I also have pictures of our excursions and pictures of the islands. Hope you had fun reading and maybe learned something from all of this information. thank you!

Thank you for taking the time to give us a detailed review!

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise.

I am moving this to the Trip Reports section where it will be seen by more folks.

Okay...Sounds great! I have many pictures to post on here...how should I do this?

Originally Posted by statendamfan

Okay...Sounds great! I have many pictures to post on here...how should I do this?

Absolutely! Post your pictures

You can upload them from your computer, or use a web based site like web shots or photobucket. Be sure you resize them so they don't expand the window size here.

Thanks for the Eurodam review.

Well, Ive tried to put these pictures on here...I've re sized them to specs and since I have so many, I run out of time and I have to log back in and I loose everything I just worked on. This has happened TWICE! SO, I am just going to send you the hyperlink to where the pictures are. They are labeled and some of them even have notes on the bottom. this is all I can do and it looks great. Let me know what you think.


Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

USERNAME: bnzowner

PASSWORD: boeing

Thanks for the opportunity to view your Eurodam pics. I got a close up view of the exterior of the ship when we were on the inaugural US sailing of the Carnival Splendor on Nov. 15th at Port Everglades, FL.

Were the cabanas warm? With the curtains blocking the breeze it looks as though the temp might be a little warm.



Nice picture of you and your wife.

The cabanas were the same temp as the rest of the lido pool area. Just a bigger place to hang out by the pool. I found them to be a nuisance because they were taking up so much space! What a waste.