Synopsis of Rotterdam Grand World Cruise January 6th 2000 to April 11th 2000, Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles

The Rotterdam VI unlike the previous V is certainly not an attractive looking ship. From the pier it looks huge and ungainly, the dark blue hull does little to improve it.

The interior is rather different. The colors are muted and the artwork is quite varied depicting various cultures around the world.

There is a bar on the top deck called "The Crow’s Nest". It has fantastic views forward and to the sides. It is a large room that is divided into three sections with a bar in the center. There are three dance floors and a Filipino band. Hors d’oeuvres are served before dinner.

The Upper Promenade deck has five lounges all with some type of entertainment, bands and piano or Sports TV. There is also a fair sized casino with the usual gambling.

There are two swimming pools. One is on the Lido deck and has a sliding roof. The second pool is one deck down at the aft end and is not covered. There is a bar at both pools. The Lido restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch. It is buffet style. There would appear to be a refrigeration problem here as several times we got food that had spoiled. The selection is well varied. There is also a hot dog and hamburger bar and another bar that varies from Mexican to Chinese. One can eat in the dining area or out by the pool. One objection to this deck is that the ships loudspeaker is deafening and they cannot reduce the volume. The Captain gives his announcements and then the Cruise Director tells what is happening that day. It seems interminable. Many passengers seemed to find it annoying judging from the number who covered their ears.

Speaking of noise - the Rotterdam is a noisy ship. There is always something playing. Deck games with loud speakers. Loud bands on the Lido deck, bands in the dining room, player pianos. There are very few places where one can enjoy quiet except the library. The library is rather good. A nice selection of books, all types and they always bring aboard the local English language newspapers and news magazines that become available at each port.

The La Fontaine dining room is a two level and very beautiful room. The food is varied and several fish dishes are always available as well as a vegetarian entree. We did find the dishes to be overly "creative" and with too much spice for our taste. Of course many people like that. However they will cheerfully bring you any special orders you wish. Our friends Elmer and Lynn Cox from the Cruise News Group ordered Kosher chicken one night at the suggestion of their waiter. I laughed at this as I am Jewish and always thought Kosher foods terrible. It turned out to be the best dish of the trip., Light and moist. We ordered it several times.

A word of caution, if you get a dish that is undercooked don’t send it back. Order something else. If you send it back they will put the entire dish in the microwave and destroy it. The alternative dining room "The Odyssey" is good and provides a change of pace. It is larger than most alternative dining rooms. The passengers on the suite deck are served in their own dining room called the King’s room. Judging from the very good meal we had at the Captains dinner in the Queens Room for full cruise passengers it is a different kitchen. Interestingly the bread in the La Fontaine (main) dining room was poor. The bread in the Odyssey (alternative dining room) was quite good.

The Odyssey dining room was quite different than most ships in that they changed their menu styles every two weeks. On this long cruise, Italian, Dutch, Asian, Indian etc. The ship also had many theme nights with the food menu and the staffs dress reflecting the theme. For example the American theme had the staff dressed like Uncle Sam and of course roast turkey was on the menu.

For a relatively new ship there were quite a few things that went wrong. The most serious was a bearing in the propulsion system. This caused the ship to be late in arriving at two ports. Hong Kong unfortunately being one of them. Elevators were often out of service. The mens room on the Lido deck was closed for repairs for several weeks. Some cabins had problems with their air conditioning including one couple who room was soaked by condensation. They did however repair that one in 24 hours and gave them the use of another cabin in the interim. They also got a bottle of wine. There were others who had air conditioning problems that took much longer to resolve.

About the elevators there were three sets of four elevators spaced about one third of the way along the length of the ship. This gave very fast service.

Captain Dijik was very safety conscious. There were lifeboat drills every two weeks plus special drills for boarding passengers. He had numerous crew drills including a "Man overboard" drill complete with lowering lifeboats. This is very good as simulation is never like the real thing.

During the course of the trip we were showered with gifts such as books and trinkets. The best gift were two pairs of very fine binoculars. These were put to good use in the Antarctic region.

The amenities on the ship are very good. The cabins are adequate, as is the closet and drawer space. We found the verandah to be a wonderful plus. The beds are comfortable and the cabins are serviced twice a day. There seem to be enough crew people so that passengers were pampered by excellent service. Our cabin was a verandah cabin and had a refrigerator, TV and VCR. The ship ran both old and new movies as well as documentaries about the areas we were visiting. The refrigerator was stocked with items we did not want. I finally had them empty it out. The attendants who serviced the refrigerator would knock and immediately come in without waiting for an answer! We had twin beds that were put together to make a queen size. The beds and bedding were quite comfortable. We had a sofa, a chair and stool at the vanity table. The bathroom was quite nice with a tub/shower/whirlpool. It had a medicine cabinet which was very handy in some of the rough seas we encountered. Both 220 and 110 electricity with appropriate outlets was available. There was a vacuum cleaner type of hair dryer in the bathroom. The closet door had a full-length mirror. An item much appreciated by women and often neglected by ship designers.

There were four sets of washing machines and dryers on the ship. Dolphin and Main deck had four washers and dryers. Lower Promenade and Verandah had three. They charged $2.00 for the wash and $1.00 for the dryer. The laundry and dry cleaning service was one of the worst we have ever encountered. They washed an expensive jacket my wife had sent in for dry cleaning and ruined it. I had to send tuxedo shirts back twice because they were ironed so badly.

The usual English company operated the beauty salon with apprentice stylists. Next to the Salon was the gymnasium. It is one of the best I have seen on any ship. It was completely equipped with very good and complete range of exercise machines, free weights and benches. The only thing missing were slant boards. There were ten or twelve treadmills, Stairmasters and stationary bicycles. The large aerobic area was separated from the exercise area. Many ships spread this through the whole gym. It had a juice bar, ladies room and a mens room. Towels are furnished and the floor is carpeted with mats available. The treadmills and bicycles face out to a nice sea view. They also have TV usually with CNN.

The service staff was a mixture of Filipino and Indonesian young people. I cannot give them enough praise. They are helpful, cheerful and willing. A word here about the HAL "Tipping not required" policy. This is not a problem with your cabin steward and waiters as they can be tipped at regular intervals on a long trip like this. The problem is with the bar staff. We solved this by taking a good supply of one and two-dollar bills and tipping for the service received. It would really be more convenient if one could simply add the tip to the bill like a restaurant does. I detest the policy on most ships of automatically adding the tip to the bill. There is however something to be said for tipping in cash from the staff’s point of view. This way it is not reported to their governments. Considering the venal governments of their countries it gives them the opportunity to evade taxes like their ruling class.

The entertainment was the usual cruise mixture of shows and lecturers some good some very good and some very poor. The Antarctic portion of the trip was of course the highlight. The lecturers on this leg were outstanding.

The shore excursions were about what you would expect with over 700 people. For the most part they were handled well and efficiently. Some were pretty bad and others very good. The shore excursion lectures were generally accurate but a little on the rosy and optimistic side

The biggest problem and annoyance was the disembarking at the various ports. At some ports because the ship was big it had to dock quite distance from the center. An example was Viet Nam. The ship docked at Vung Tau which is a two and one half hour taxi ride from Saigon. Even the town of Vung Tau was an hour and one half hour taxi ride from the pier and there were no taxis. We took a tour to Vung Tau and it was not worth the bumpy ride in buses with only 10 inches of legroom.

The disembarkation process at port stops was very slow sometimes taking several hours. The reason was they had only one gangplank for over 1000 calendar impaired passengers. Many of them were quite handicapped and it delayed the entire process. When we had to make a tender landing this was multiplied by the problem of boarding the bobbing shore boat. I have vowed that I will never again take a large ship. I can only imagine what these new monster ships will be like.(shudder)

The stop at Nagasaki was quite irritating because of the history pamphlet put out by the ship. I quote "To most of the world Nagasaki is known as the place where the most despicable event in human history occurred. The Atomic Bomb fell on an unsuspecting population in the ancient community just after 11:00 AM on the morning of August 9th 1945." This was written by an American! His name is Jeff Rappaport in San Francisco. I feel this was quite inappropriate for Holland America to publicize this outrageous remark. There were a number of history errors made by the company that furnished these brochures. At the museum in Nagasaki there is no mention of December 7th 1941. There is the slogan, ‘August 9th 1945 a day we will never forget."

The disembarkation on Los Angeles was a mass of confusion. All those passengers with tons of luggage all wanting to catch their flights home. The ship’s staff did pitch in but they were overwhelmed by the crowds.

Something to keep in mind. The ship reports to US Customs everything you buy on board and also the value of all gifts given you. US Customs did however delete the gifts from the total declared. Customs and Immigration officers came on board at Honolulu and pre-cleared everyone prior to disembarkation in Los Angeles. This was a great help as it alleviated up the difficulties with the large crowds and baggage.

Did we enjoy the trip? Yes very much. Would I do it again? No. Would I take the Rotterdam VI again? No.

Diary of World Cruise Rotterdam: Jan. 6 to April 11, 2000

We were met by a HAL rep at arrival at Miami airport. He arranged for our baggage and transport to the Boca Raton Hotel. Very comfortable and old fashioned resort. The limo driver inadvertently took off with one of our bags. The HAL staff at the hotel tracked him down and the bag was returned within the hour.

.We found the staff all throughout the ship to be most pleasant and accommodating. They are a mix of Filipino and Indonesian young people. A word here about tipping. HAL has a "no tipping required" policy. For cabin stewards and waiters the usual end of cruise tips are easily handled. It does however, create a problem on how to take care of the bar staff and the beauty salon operators. We resolved this by carrying one and two dollar bills that we could give to the attendants at the time of service. It would be more convenient to add the tip to the bill. This reserves you the right to tip at what you deem appropriate. Most other cruise lines add an arbitrary tip to the bill, this is not satisfactory at all. The all cash tipping is however, not without merit. If we consider the venal governments of their respective countries this gives the staff the same opportunity to avoid taxes that their ruling class has.

The amenities on The Rotterdam VI are good. The beds comfortable, the towels thick, thirsty and in ample supply. The cabins are serviced twice a day with towel changes each time and bed linen changed each morning. There are sufficient numbers of service people that help with the cafeteria style Lido restaurant. The dining room is also well staffed. Our cabin #6142 was a mini suite on deck 6 with a verandah. There was a lot of closet and drawer space. However, with a 97 day cruise to dress for we had to bring in a wardrobe. The bathroom had a medicine chest and whirlpool bath with shower. There is a full length mirror on a closet door plus a full vanity table with mirror and overhead lighting. The electrical supply is both 210 and 120 volts with appropriate outlets. There was a TV and VCR plus piped in music. The colors are muted and the decoration nicely understated. There is a sofa bed that we wanted to get rid of but it is permanently installed. The bed was twin beds that could be put together as one queen size.

The following day we were at Georgetown, Grand Cayman. We took a glass bottom boat tour of reefs and two shipwrecks. The crew was entertaining and informative. This took about one hour. After that we looked over the usual shops with Caribbean "bargains". The museum was a very interesting visit. It showed the past and the present daily lives of the residents. They are about 50/50 African and British. The museum gift shop had a nice selection of handicrafts, CDs, screen savers, rum cake etc. The island is well kept, clean and orderly and has the best scuba and snorkeling of the Caribbean Sea. The drop off or "The Wall" plunges 23,750 feet or 4.5 miles straight down. It is quite like the Arizona Grand Canyon in length but four times deeper and underwater. Prices at the stores were in US dollars and of course the language was English.

One problem on this ship is the Indonesians are not as proficient in English as are the Filipinos. You have to be careful to speak slowly and avoid using future or past tenses .The language Bahasa Indonesia does not have tenses. They are all quite cheerful and do their best to please the customers. There were quite a few new servers who were quite obvious. They do try very hard and the slips are minor. One thing does need correcting the wait staff does cut across the dance floor to the inconvenience of the dancers. This has more to do with the faulty design of some lounges rather than inconsiderate behavior. The staff is quire friendly have an inexhaustible thirst for knowledge. One day one of them a very bright young man noticed that I was reading Shirer’s book, "The Rise and Fall Of The Third Reich" and he asked me if Hitler was a good man!

For dancers, there are 3 dance floors each with their own music. The band in the Ocean Bar, a Polish group was the best. The Filipino group in the Crows nest played interminably long sets, mostly rumbas. This bar however had three dance floors and was not as crowded as the Ocean Bar.. The activities aboard are plentiful and varied. The usual deck games, trivia contests, camel races etc. They had a number of lectures some very good and others a bore. All lectures and shows are broadcast and rebroadcast on the ship’s TV net. A great convenience. The Ice Navigator was most outstanding and kept us informed about what we were seeing in the Antarctic. The shore excursion office gives information about rest stops and other pertinent data regarding trips. They have an outstanding Port Information director, Frank Buckingham who is both knowledgeable and witty.

After the second night we decided the second sitting was better for us. The Maitre D’hôte was quite accommodating and we got a lovely table at the window. After some days Phyllis decided she really preferred a smoking table for two so we changed again! The Maitre "D" saw the humor in this. With all this praise there are some criticisms. The cruise director and the captain make numerous and lengthy announcements on the very loud speaker. It is so loud on the Lido deck that passengers cover their ears. This is of course a subjective thing. Most are annoyed by it and others are pleased to have them. "Chacun a son gout" We missed the first dance show but other passengers said it was quite a good revue with fine dancers and costumes. The following night they had a comedian who could have been skipped. We did see a revue later.

The gym is quite a good size and well equipped with machines and free weights. The aerobics section is separated so that it does not spill over to the exercise area as it does on many ships. There are about ten treadmills plus Stairmasters and bicycles. All of these face the windows which give a wonderful view of the forward and port sections of the sea.

An interesting stop was General San Martin, Peru. There we took a 3 hour boat tour of the Ballesta Islands. They are barren rocks teeming with Terns, Penguins, many types of sea birds and hundreds of seals. The boat enters grottos in the rocks. The colors rival Capri. Altogether a very worthwhile tour.

At Callao, Peru we took a tour of the Incaic museum which is very good and quite informative about the Incas. Then we had a marvelous horse show at a ranch along with a very nice lunch of Peruvian food. Quite good. We capped off the day at the Indian Market where all sorts of handicrafts were available. This stop was too short for the ladies.

At Conquimbo we took a ten dollar taxi ride to La Serena and shopped at the local mercado for more artisans.

The pricing of the ships’ tour was erratic. For example at the Manta, Ecuador stop, the tour to Monti Cristo the source of Panama hats, was priced at $59.00 each. We took an air conditioned taxi at the pier for $15.00 for the two of us plus a tip. Prior to the cruise we had checked out what seemed like a very high priced 3 day tour in Bangkok and discovered it would have cost more on our own. You have to check everything out. Speaking of checking things out Holland America seems to not employ proof readers as there are many mistakes in the brochures and also the daily bulletins. They seem to get mixed up on their dates quite bit. The stop in Arica featured a tour to Lake Chungara. It is the highest lake in the world. As I was concerned about the altitude my travel agent checked with HAL and was informed that it was 12,000 feet. That is also what their brochure stated. Reality was that it is almost 15,000 feet! As both Phyllis and I exercise regularly we had no problem. Several of the other passengers suffered severe altitude sickness and had a miserable time. IMHO the stop in Arica and the tour to the lake were a total waste. The area looks like the moon or the bottom of a bird cage, the lake is nothing and it is a very long and bumpy ride of four hours each way.

For those who have hearing impairments be advised that the Cabin TV does not support "closed caption". This is unusual because all new TV sets are supposed to support it. Perhaps this is only in the USA. The ship offers infra red enhancement which most hard of hearing people consider a fraud.

We arrived in Valparaiso on January 20th. Valparaiso is an interesting stop. Rather than book a tour to Santiago 2 hours on a bus each way with the help of Frank Buckingham, I obtained a guide and car. Her English was perfect. He husband had been the naval attaché in Washington for three years. We had a fine tour of Valparaiso, Vina Del Mar and north along the coast. We had wonderful lobster at a café on the beach with some very good Chilean wine. The tour was $120 for both of us which was less than the ship’s tour. BTW we heard a lot of complaints about the Santiago tour. Hot smoggy and boring.

Some passengers left the ship and a lot more got on at Valparaiso. As we neared the tip of Chile the sea kicked up with 20 foot waves and near gale wind. Under the circumstances the Rotterdam rode pretty well. The Rotterdam like most cruise ships has theme nights. It does it quite differently than others. The costume affair is held in "Crows Nest" bar at 10:15 so it is not a ship wide affair. We think it reduces the fun and passenger participation. As for the passengers 90% were senior citizens. almost all, well traveled and sophisticated. As is usually the case on this type of cruise there were a number who marched to their own drummer, some in fact were rather odd but harmless. Most passengers dressed quite appropriately. The overwhelming majority were quite senior. I was gratifying to see that many disabled people took part in most activities and shore excursions. The Rotterdam goes to great lengths to accommodate them.

The next port was Puerto Montt, Chile. It is beautiful port snuggled in a huge bay with the snow covered volcanoes looming above. We took the tour to Petrohue Falls. It is really more of a rapids than a waterfall, quite a spectacular and with awesome power. The area is farming and logging largely settled by Germans in the mid 18th century. The homes and farms reflect this. There are a number of quite enormous lakes all rimmed by forests, flowers and shrill green foliage. We had a salmon lunch at a hotel along with some nice Chilean Chardonnay. The weather was pleasant but a bit chilly. This is of course to be expected as we wend our way south in the South American summer.

Our next stop was Punto Arenas. From the tours ashore brochure we pre-booked the tour of the penguin colony. According to the brochure it was a ¾ mile walk over broken ground. Then we heard the tour lecturer say it was two miles each way and no facilities, we canceled . So much for pre-booking. There was little of particular interest at this stop quite a contrast to Ushuaia, the end of the world. This is a pleasant town on the southern tip of South America. We took the Beagle channel tour which is right at Ushuaia. The catamaran ride was most interesting. Wonderful seamanship was the maneuvering that ship in the wind tunnel of the Beagle Channel. He took the boat right up to the rocks so close you could see the birds nests and the baby chicks of cormorants, albatross, seals geese and other species. The approach to Ushuaia was spectacular, glaciers and many towering mountains soaring out of the sea. The seas were calm inside the passages such as the Straits Of Magellan and the Beagle Channel. Once in the open sea where the Pacific and Atlantic meet the Southern Sea is quite another tale. We have been fortunate in the weather, mostly overcast but little rain. The temperature has been winding down and is now 50 degrees Fahrenheit which is the sea temperature. With the constant wind one is grateful for warm clothing.

January 28, 2000 is a date we shall not forget. With the days first light we sighted the Antarctic Peninsula. A rare stroke of good fortune brought us there with a bright sunny and cloudless sky. Words cannot express the magnificence of the scenic sights that paraded by. Soaring mountains, bays and inlets all covered with hundreds, nay thousands of feet of ice. Icebergs the size of ships and houses floating in a stately parade about their bases. We sighted penguins roosting on the glaciers, seals and whales feeding in the sea. Truly it is the Ice Continent a land of dazzling white broken by the grey brown rocks thrusting out of the craggy hillsides. The huge Rotterdam threaded its way through tortuous passages and narrow straits that were strewn with ice floes and bergs. It certainly was a worthy accomplishment. The first ship of its size to visit here. Several hours after our turn to the North the fog and mist returned much like a curtain lowered to close a play. On a world cruise one gets many presents from the ship. The best ones were two pair of fine Bushnell binoculars that were ideal for the scenic feast in which we indulged.

The following day found us at Elephant Island the site of Shackelton's 1914/16 ordeals. The bay was filled with gigantic ice bergs weighing millions of tons in shapes that resembled ships, crashed planes and giant chairs! Once again we had marvelous weather brilliant sunshine and calm seas. We then set sail for Buenos Aires. I gather from the Ice navigator that weather like this might be encountered perhaps once in a 100 visits.

A word here about the cuisine and amenities on the MS Rotterdam.. For the most part the food is good, well prepared and presented. The chefs do indulge in what could be described as outbursts of over creativity that borders the absurd. For example vichyssoise was offered with guava, another soup with fruit and Bailey’s Irish Cream. Potatoes added to Caesar Salad.. I suppose some will like this. We found most of the dishes to be overly spiced. Again this is a subjective matter. Simple dishes were available and of course any special request was cheerfully complied with. If you are served a dish that is underdone it is best to request something else. If you send it back they just stick it in the microwave, vegetables and all destroying the dish. We found varied quality of the beef dishes. The alternative dining room, the Odyssey, offered very good Italian cuisine the first section of the cruise. They changed the cuisine to South American which was also quite good. Dutch cuisine is next which looks quite heavy and not appealing. The next was African and again very good. Unlike other ships the alternate dining room is not fully booked. Of course it is a good size room and this may account for it. The wine list is fair and has modest selections. A mixture of French and California with some Australian and IMHO an excellent Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. They have many wines available by the glass. This gives one the opportunity to sample. During the cruise they offered some Chilean and South African wines. On the whole I would rate the cuisine far below Crystal Cruise Lines and Silver Sea, though the selection on Crystal was rather limited. As I have often stated the food on cruise ships is best classified as "banquet food" as any mass serving must be.

The luncheon menu in the dining room is very limited. They encourage use of the Lido for lunch which is self service. The selection was varied and usually good. A drawback to all buffet style meals is that food is kept too long and gets overcooked and dry. Sometimes the refrigeration is not what it should be and food gets spoiled. The roast chicken is sometimes dried out. They have a well patronized dessert and ice cream bar and mixed fresh fruit is always available. There is also a large do it yourself salad bar with various cold dishes. A hamburger and frankfurter bar is supplemented by another that serves on different days, Indonesian satay, Chinese, Italian, Mexican and others. Iced tea, coffee and water are available free. Soft drinks and limited wines by the glass are available for purchase. The Lido restaurant is quite large and extends out to tables in the pool area. The main pool has a sliding dome that can be opened to any degree dictated by the weather. This pool has two Jacuzzis and is fresh water heated to 84 degrees F. The aft pool is heated to 87 degrees F .

The stop in Buenos Aires was very nice. We had rain the first day but the following one was sunny and warm. Many shop keepers gave quite substantial discounts for purchase made with US currency. Even taxi drivers gladly accepted the almighty dollar. The reason is that they do not trust their own money and can evade taxes using cash. So far this has been the norm in every country we have visited. After a pleasant two days in beautiful and hospitable Buenos Aires we set sail for Cape Town South Africa a journey of 8 days through four time zones. We had a lecturer on board named David Abbot who gave a most interesting series on the beauty, history and dangers of South Africa. The passengers were kept occupied by the usual ship board games. I must add the ship does have a large and well stocked library. At each port they would bring aboard for the library whatever English language newspapers and periodicals that were available. The weather continued nice with small seas or rollers. Quite comfortable.

Captain Djik of the Rotterdam has full cruise passengers to dinner in a special room. They have 30 at a time every night the ship is at sea. It was quite a show, sort of corny IMHO but fun. They had a string quartet playing and a corps of waiters. A five course meal and two wines with the chef explaining each dish as it was served. The food was far and away the best we had on board

The area of ship service that has been a particular problem is the laundry and dry cleaning. On three occasions our cabin steward has had to locate and sort out our laundry. Plus Phyllis sent a fine Ellen Tracy $400 outfit in to be dry cleaned and they laundered it, totally destroying it. It had been sent with a separate dry cleaning package and list. The label also clearly stated "dry clean only". Other passengers reported similar problems. The Rotterdam is not unique in this respect. I had the sizing completely removed from an expensive sport coat on another line.

While on the subject of complaints the food is rather uneven in quality. As previously mentioned we had some rather tough steaks. Later on we had some very good ones. Some times the "crab" salad was the reconstituted Pollock sold in markets with the sickly pink artificial color. On the other hand the selections are varied enough for everyone. They even have a vegetarian dish every night which I found quite tasty. The selection of fresh fruit was marvelous at every meal in every restaurant on the ship. We of course got tired of eating at the same restaurant every night. The fish was not always fresh and had been in the freezer too long. They did serve good lobster tails frequently.

Many women thought the on board shops had little selection and were over priced. The sundries shop however, was well stocked with necessities such as aspirin, gum etc. This was a contrast to Crystal where sundries were not available at all. Like everything some plus and some minus. They also complained that the tour director scheduled the formal nights badly. He had some on days the ship was in port. Women like to have their hair done prior to a formal. Perhaps they need female tour directors.

The 8 days at sea passed rather quickly as there was much to do. We had calm seas and fair weather.

Our next port was Cape Town a fair and lovely city at the tip of Africa. So much to see and do. Our stay was Feb 11th at 8:00 AM until the next day at 2:00 PM. The city is clean and safe but we were warned by everyone about pick pockets. Prices are rather low for the quality of the merchandise and wine offered. English is the language and American dollars were accepted everywhere. Credit cards could be used easily. One could spend weeks exploring this fair land. Everyone said not to go to Johannesburg as it was considered dangerous because of rampant crime. This country has great potential but has a long way to go to climb into first world status. They are experiencing a brain drain. Their talented young people are all leaving. Their educational system is not turning out enough replacements as yet. We had guests on board who live in South Africa and it was no problem to take them to dinner aboard. The ship charges $30.00 each for guests’ dinner.

After a day at sea we arrived in Durban SA. Another large modern city with spectacular beaches and modern many-hued high rise buildings. The effect is a pleasing contrast with the sea of black glass in so many American cities. Again the Almighty Dollar was king. The US dollar and culture seems to have conquered the world.. When you think about it, it is absurd. We print paper and everyone accepts it as real money!

After 2 days at sea we arrived at Madagascar. Well not really, it was a small resort island off the coast of Madagascar, Nosey Bay. We were given a great deal of information about what we would not see. As it turned out we did not even get ashore. HAL had not done their homework and scouted the stop. It was a tender landing and then to get ashore they announced that a steep and rocky hill had to be negotiated. With 1000 elderly passengers it took over two hours to get them ashore. As the stop was only 4 ½ hours nobody saw very much. Very bad planning to say the least. It appears that this stop was added to lend some glamour to their cruise brochure. As it was hot, humid and drizzling we elected not to bother. Reports that we got were that we missed nothing. From the ship it looked like one of the South Pacific islands. In any case it was very bad planning

The next stop Tanganyika, was a re-run of the poor planning at Nosy Bey. The tender pier turned out not to be practical and the alternate pier could not be used until noon because of the tide. We went ashore and it was a very poverty stricken island. The next two stops in the Seychelles do not look promising but at least Victoria is a docking stop. The following two are tender stops. This ship carries too many passengers to be efficiently handled by the one landing stage. It is made worse by the wild bobbing on the tenders and the difficulty of getting so many elderly and crippled passengers on and off.

Victoria on Mahe turned out to be an interesting stop. Not much to see or do except scenery and the Botanical garden. The Seychelles people are a mix of African, European and Asian. The result of this mix is a very handsome and pleasant people. Shopping was interesting and prices were very good value. It seems to be a vacation resort for Europeans. Very good scuba and snorkeling. Maldives, another island group, was quite like India. It is not very high above the sea level and the rising sea threatens its existence.

Cochin in India on February 29th was a typical teeming Indian city with usual beggars, pickpockets and aggressive peddlers in great swarms.. We visited the ancient and beautiful synagogue that was founded by a Jewish colony that arrived in the 5th century BCE. They are mostly gone now but the Jewish names and some facial characteristics are still there.

The weather continued to be perfect as we sailed from the Indian Ocean to the Sea of Bengal and the port of Madras, India. This was a most frustrating experience but rather typical of other experiences we have had in India. We had booked a tour to Mallapuram the site of some ancient cave and rock carvings. The Rotterdam had some mechanical problems and arrived late. As a result our tour was canceled. It was hot sticky, smoggy and dirty port. The ship had stated that taxis were available on the dock. We found that they were trishaws. Having had previous experiences with this type of Indian transportation we came back aboard but not before my pocket was picked by a young Indian woman beggar. She was quite deft, she pinched my tail with one hand and when I reacted to that, she dipped into my pocket with the other. All she got was one dollar. Of course that was no doubt a fortune to her. I doubt we shall ever revisit India. Certainly we would not go by cruise ship again.

A major objection to the Rotterdam and I suppose every large cruise ship is the disembarkation process. At dockside landings the crowd was held up by the need to insert their ID cards into a reader. The large number of infirm and wheelchair passengers slowed the process even more. Tender landings increase the time to get off to over two hours. Since most port calls are quite brief this is a significant impairment. The re-boarding is easier as people drift back slowly.

At the stop in Phuket, Thailand we took an overland tour to Bangkok rejoining the ship in Singapore. The tour was operated by SEA or Southeast Asia Tours. IMHO one of the best tour operators I have encountered. The flights on Thai Air and Cathay Pacific in coach were better than US airlines first class, including leg room, food and service.

The next stop is to be Vung Tau, Vietnam. The Rotterdam is too big to go up the river which is a pity because it is very interesting and teeming with local traffic. We were here four years ago on the Royal Viking Sun and it docked within ten minutes ride to Saigon. The transit up the river was most interesting and not to be missed. The ship docked one hours drive from Vung Tau and 2 and one half hours from Saigon. There were no taxis available. We took the tour to Vung Tau, which was miserable 10 inch space between the seats! The town was a scruffy miserable poverty stricken place with nothing to see except street vendors.

This sort of thing has made me vow never to take a large ship like the Rotterdam again. The ship also announced that we would be late into Shanghai because of tidal conditions and the size of the Rotterdam. This resulted in a change of our tour to Suzchou to the following day. As we had made other plans for that day I canceled this tour and was slapped with a ten percent penalty. The tour people on board have to clear everything with Seattle. They do not seem to have any discretion in these matters.

The passengers who took the Saigon tour seemed pleased. They had better buses which made the five hour bus ride more comfortable, The Rotterdam should be ashamed to keep the money for the Vung Tau tour. HAL made this itinerary up to sound exotic. In reality the stops at The Maldives, Madagascar and Zanzibar, were a waste of time and money. In a masterpiece of bad timing the Rotterdam scheduled arrival was 2:00 PM Saturday afternoon. Because of more engine troubles arrival was not until 6:00PM. This meant that the day of Sunday was the only full day in Hong Kong, departure being 2:00PM Monday.

For a relatively new ship the Rotterdam had a lot of mechanical problems. Elevators not operating, air conditioning problems in cabins, lavatories out of service. Speaking of lavatories, the men’s room on the forward part of the Lido deck is poorly designed and very dark. On another occasion I got some cold cuts from the "midnight" buffet and the meat was spoiled. This would indicate refrigeration problems in the kitchen.

The stop at Xingang gave the opportunity for an overland tour of Beijing and the Great Wall, a most interesting journey but a very hard trip with long hours on the bus. The last stop in China was Dalien formerly called Darien. Not a very Chinese looking city with no great interest. The ship does do a very nice thing. For most tours they hand out a survival packet of bottled water, cookies, candy and towelettes.

The following stop was Cheju, South Korea. This is a little resort island off the south coast of Korea. There was a very strong wind blowing and the temperature was 50 degrees. Another nothing stop, scheduled just to add romance to the brochure. The wind was so strong that The Rotterdam had to delay sailing by three hours. According to the local people this wind blows all the time. A very uncomfortable and uninteresting stop.

For Nagasaki the ships history says ""To most of the world, Nagasaki is known as a place where the most despicable event in human history occurred. The atomic bomb fell on an unsuspecting population in the ancient community just after 11:00 AM on the morning of August 9th 1945 ." This was written by an American a Mr. Jeff Rapport, San Francisco CA. In addition he got his factual history wrong wherein he states that the "battleship Mushasi, the world’s largest battleship. …..…was sunk on its maiden voyage to Midway" The facts are that the Mushasi was laid down as a battleship but was changed to an aircraft carrier and was sunk by an American submarine as it exited the harbor for its first trial runs. There was no possibility in 1945 of the Japanese Navy carrying out any kind of attack much less all the way to Midway. The ships history also stated that the atomic bomb was dropped by a "B52"! (The B52 came into service in the 1960’s.) The weather was foul and the prices high. The so called "Peace Museum" was strong on American guilt with no mention of Pearl Harbor, Nanking or the massacres in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Kagoshima, this was again a very windy and cold stop. The ship’s shuttle only took you to a supermarket. Cabs cost $50 to $60 to take you anywhere. There is little to see as it is another big modern city. IMHO the entire Japan schedule should have been eliminated as Japan is not a good place to visit in the winter and is extraordinarily expensive. An interesting side light is that the market had a very good selection of Italian, French and German wines but very few American wines. Those that they did have were not good wines. The prices were about the same as home for good wines.

This morning the water was turned off all over the ship for according to the desk "routine maintenance". No announcement was made about this. You had to call the front office to find out about. The Rotterdam does have its problems. It was not routine, a pipe had burst.

Our last stop in Japan was Tokyo. We took a "Highlights of Tokyo tour. It was 8 hours five of which was sitting in the bus in traffic that makes Manhattan look good. The "Highlights were the outside of the Palace, A Shinto Shrine that was a shopping stop for very high priced junk. The Mejii Shrine which had a very good albeit pricy shop with nice items. The highlight for us was the lunch at the magnificent New Otani Hotel. It was a Tepan Yaki meal. One of the best we ever had. Beautifully presented and served. The best and freshest fish. The local guide was a knowledgeable well spoken lady. Truly a jewel. The way the staff at the hotel managed to serve 200 people with individual service and flair was amazing. A bit of irony, at they stop in Japan where we took a tour the ship had a shuttle service right into the Ginza the heart of Tokyo. It was cold and raining.

Returning to the ship we had to collect our passports and present ourselves to the Japanese immigration. The ship had one person handing out the passports while the Japanese had six inspectors all waiting while the long line straggled in. The next couple of days the sea was very rough. The sea was so rough that a rogue wave smashed a huge dent in the starboard prow of the ship.

The next stop is Midway Island. From the lectures so far Midway is an animal refuge. Almost no mention of the seminal battle fought there that changed the course of the war. They ran the old movie "Midway" Henry Fonda, etc.

The ships history states "sorties were dispatched and coordinated with precision"! It was a completely uncoordinated attack. We were fortunate to have those brave men

Also "Many historians agree the skirmish (sic), was the last major naval battle in the in the Pacific"! What about Guadalcanal, Solomons, Leyte Gulf Saipan????????

The rough seas forced the cancellation of the stop at Midway. The ship unloaded by tug two hospital cases. One a heart attack and the other kidney failure. They were flown to Honolulu by the Coast Guard. So far there have been two deaths and three medical evacuations.

There seems to be a gradual erosion of the food quality and an increase of indigestion cases among the passengers. So much so that it has become commonplace. The solution seems to be to stick to the simplest fare and avoid any mayonnaise dish in the Lido.

The seas continued very rough delaying our arrival in Honolulu until noon. One rogue wave made a huge dent in the starboard prow of the ship. By the time the ship was cleared it was 2:00 PM. They stayed in Honolulu over night as the sea would have been too rough for the tender landing in Lahaina on Maui. The following evening we sailed for The Big Island, Hawaii. There we were in the lee of the island and it was a pleasant stop. The tenders took us right into the center of Kona

. The trip from Hawaii to Los Angeles was smooth. The disembarking as might be expected was bedlam. All those people and with tons of luggage. The ships staff did try very hard to help but they were just overwhelmed by the crush. The fact that US Customs and immigration had boarded in Hawaii and pre-cleared the passengers saved a great deal of time.

Horace Turell