Awesome Alaska Cruise in July 2025 on Eurodam

Our cabin stewards, Adhy and Savoy were terrific. From bringing us a fan and extra pillows, to keeping our room spotlessly clean and leaving us the cutest towel animals on two different occasions, they were just generally great people. They always smiled and spoke. Danny Boy and Erick were our outstanding waiters in MDR. Danny remembered my husband's shellfish allergy and really looked out for him. We first met Erick in the MDR and then later in Lido. He was the nicest guy. We ate supper in the MDR most evenings because of their excellent service, and we looked forward to running into Erick in Lido occasionally, as well during breakfast and lunch. The ship library was excellent! The large choice of books, added to the honor system at checkout were a big plus. There were lots of current bestsellers and classics available. I only wish I had more spare time to curl up in the comfy chairs in front of the huge ocean facing windows and just read. We originally chose this cruise because of the David Jeremiah conference hosted by Inspiration Travel. We were very pleased with the programing. Two of the three excursions offered through Holland were great. Taku Lodge Feast and Five Glacier Seaplane Discovery and Wild Sitka: Alaska Raptor Center and Fortress of the Bear were awesome. The Spasski River Valley Wildlife & Bear Search was somewhat lacking. I know we were not guaranteed a bear sighting, but it was, overall, a so-so excursion that we would not repeat or recommend. Possibly the disappointment comes from the word " Bear" in the excursion title. We did see lots of eagles and native plantlife though. As far as food quality goes, Holland is WONDERFUL!. We enjoyed the MDR tremendously. Appetizers like French onion soup, Escargot, Caesar salad, and Shrimp cocktail were so good, I ordered two on several evenings. The entrees, like New York Strip steak were delicious, too. Desserts like blueberry cheesecake, molten lava cake, and chocolate tulip cake would melt in your mouth, especially when you requested, and received, big scoops of ice cream on the side. My only complaint about Lido was that there were just too many choices. It was overwhelming! The Cake Me Away event was a big winner as was the split pea soup handed out in Glacier Bay. The ship was really clean. We did not bring home any illnesses, which was nice. There were only a few tiny flies in the ointment on our 7 day trip. I was really sorry to miss the Victoria portion of the cruise due to what the Captain described as "A propulsion malfunction". The port time in Ketchikan was also shortened by an hour, possibly due to the same cause, although it was not addressed. I know things happen, but that, added to the broken Midship elevators, felt like the ship might need a little more routine maintenance, then it is currently getting. Also, Holland's Navigator app was clunky and the chat function was almost useless if you were trying to communicate real time with others onboard the ship. I know I'm getting up there in age, but the Navigator print was tiny, which made it hard to read pages containing menus and programming. Overall, though, this Alaska cruise was a bucket list item, and we had a blast.

My birthday cruise

First the first time cruise I didn't know what to expect but was amazed at the way everyone was so nice and the cleanliness of such a large ship, the food was always delicious and plenty of it wherever you ate the dinning room or the Lido deck, the cooks always seem to go beyond to make sure of your preference, the waiters and helpers always tending to the drinks and clearing for the next course of food, the steward always making sure your room was clean and anything you need was there for you, all in all it was quite the experience for the first time, and there were so many others that made the cruise so much more... thank you to all of the crew that made this cruise so memorable and I'm already thinking of doing another cruise in 2027 back to Alaska with a couple different stops along the way.

ABC Cabo Rojo cruise on the Eurodam

I was the Eurodam Dec 8-18 2024 sailing to Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Cabo Rojo & Half Moon Cay. First time on the Eurodam, but have sailed on her sister ship the NA a few times. Thought the ship was in very good condition for her age. Saw a few areas of things that needed repair but that is to be expected. Still love the wide promenade on this class of ship. Makes for a nice way to use up "some" of the extra calories that have found their way into the body while cruising! The food was very good, most of the time. Except I found the deserts rather lacking in taste for me personally. Every chocolate desert looked excellent (presentation) on the plate, but mostly was lacking in any chocolate taste. Not sure why.... We did not do any specialty dining this time around. Ate in DR and Lido. Room service on the balcony is always such a wonderful thing! I always enjoy that relaxed breakfast overlooking the sea! Great seas on this cruise! Nice and smooth. We were in a Signature Suite that we enjoyed. Enjoyed as much as the SS on the Pinnacle Class ships. Except for the mattress in our SS on the Eurodam. Found it to be way too firm with very little pressure relief for the tired older joints. In addition, they need to get some new pillows, they were on the lumpy side. Our cabin was nicely appointed and well maintained. Entertainment is a bit lacking, but that is fairly typical for HAL. Not their high point. I think they excel at service. Crew members always greet you with a smile and are very helpful. We thought the ventriloquist was enjoyable. We laughed, so that is a good thing! Did not see the comedian, I believe he had 2 different shows but we missed them both. There was a Steel Drum Band that was not your usually one. The first show they did was steel drum music but was Classical music. Thought it was a very interesting twist on the steel drum band music. It was done well and the 4 musicians were really giving it their all in order to entertain the crowd. They did a different show later in the voyage that was going to be more traditional steel drum music, but we did not see it so I cannot comment. Also, there was a "City on the Sea" talk / show which we found very interesting. Always so interesting to see the inner workings of the ship and the amazing things that they do and how they do it all. HAL does need to up its game on sea days as far as entertainment. "Coloring for Adults"..... I think they could find other things than that to entertain the passengers. There was a Jazz Trio in the Ocean Bar "Park West"?? and they were really good. Nice mellow jazz music to enjoy your drink by. They usually did 2 or 3 sets a night and we saw a few of their sets. We enjoyed. Rolling Stone Lounge was rocking with loud music which lots of people did enjoy. Billboard Onboard with the Pianos is not my thing, so I cannot comment on it. I do not find them to be good, but everyone else seems to love them! First time for us to see Aruba, Bonaire or Curaçao and we enjoyed the islands. Took the ship's shore excursion Trolly Tour in Curacao and that was good. The tour guide was really excellent. A lot to see downtown and as we had not been there before we thought it would be a good way to get a nice over view of the city. And it was. In Bonaire, we took the ship's shore excursion again which was another Trolly Tour. But this time it was a Big mistake! There is not much to see in Bonaire's town that we were in. The sights that we were shown were streets that were on the poorer side, and really not much of anything to see. The tour guide (bless his heart) was trying hard to entertain with jokes, etc. As there was not much for him to really point out. So I would not recommend that Trolly Tour at all in Bonaire. Do something else. We did the ship's shore excursion "Walking Tour & Taste of Aruba" which was good. Two hour walking tour around the historic downtown area with a very good tour guide. She was very informed about the history of the city. Nice way to see the historical sites downtown. We stopped at one place for a typical Dutch breakfast cheese tasting and another time someone brought in some type of Aruba bread, I think. Those were the two "tastes" of Aruba that we had on our tour. Lots of walking, so if you are not up to it I would not recommend. It is super hot there! Half Moon Cay was lovely as always! BBQ lunch served with better than usual this time around. Always a pleasant beach day at Half Moon Cay. Luckily the Eurodam docked early in the morning - before the Rotterdam - so we headed out early before it got more crowded. HAL really needs to have only ONE ship there at a time. More than one ship can cause more crowding. Do wish they would just have one ship a day at HMC. Cabo Rojo. OK, I know there is not much out there on this port. And we were not sure at all about this port going into this cruise. BUT - my DH and I really did enjoy Cabo Rojo. We initially had absolutely NO plans to get off of the ship due to the extremely volatile situation in Haiti. Before porting in Cabo Rojo we spoke with one of the Directors on the ship and she had nothing by praise for the port. She said be prepared to be amazed. We were pleasantly surprised by what we found at the "manufactured" port. Only cruise passengers are allowed on Cabo Rojo, so we did not feel unsafe at any time. We enjoyed the lazy river, large pools, a lot of shaded places to lay out, hammocks in the water, palapas over tables in the water to enjoy your lunch or drinks, a snorkel area at the back of the port, a few shops to take a look around and friendly smiling faces from the people who worked at CR. We ordered lunch at one of the places to eat by the pool and had a nice lunch there. Did not go to the "Baby Beach" as did not want to pay $50 pp when everything was free where we were. We did not pay for anything other than our lunch we ordered. Actually, they were passing out free local Perdernales made beer to anyone who wanted it. I do not drink beer, so I cannot comment on the quality. But it was free and there were a lot of takers! As the Eurodam was only the 5th cruise ship to port at Cabo Rojo, they are still trying to get the hang of things at this port. It was not crowded at all at the lazy river or pools, etc as it was just our ship there. I have to say that if - when - there are more than one ship there it will not be the same experience as we had. I do think that only one ship at a time should be there as I do not see how it will not be overcrowded with more than one ship in the port. But maybe they will just keep it only one for the future. I really do only have good things to say about this port. Found it to be an enjoyable way to spend the day in the water and in the sun. It was impeccably clean and people were friendly. I enjoyed it much more than visits to Amber Cove. Amber Cove is a similar port - ones manufactured for the cruise line. But I find Amber Cove to have very loud music blaring which is not what I am looking for. At Cabo Rojo, I did not find that to be the case. And there was so much more shade available at Cabo Rojo. I think it will be interesting to see what happens with CR in the future. It is being developed with I believe 10 hotels right now, so it will surly be a different animal in the future. But for right now, I think it is nice. I will attached some photos of Cabo Rojo as there is really not much out there on the Internet about this port. Hope this information on Cabo Rojo helps some people out. Not much out there at all on this place.