- Introduction – My “Free” Holland America Cruise on the Eurodam
- Embarkation Day on Holland America Eurodam and The Amazing HAL App
- Do You Have to Dress Up on Holland America Cruises And do Men Have to Wear a Suit
- What are Main Dining Meals like on Holland America Cruises – It is True What You Hear About HAL
- Do You Have to Share a Dining Table on Holland America Cruises? What about Set Dining Times or Flexible Dining?
- Are Specialty Restaurants Worth the Cost on Holland America Cruises
- Cabin Review Holland America Aft Cabin 6168 on the Eurodam
- Review of “The Retreat” on the Holland America Eurodam
- Final Thoughts my Holland America “Free” Casino Match Cruise on the Eurodam
Just to bring folks up to speed who just found this post from a Google search for a review of Eurodam, this cruise was a “free-ish” cruise that I booked from a Caesars status match. I was offered an interior room free but paid only a nominal amount to upgrade to an aft cabin (I am a huge fan of aft cabins btw).
The Eurodam is an older ship but we were rather pleasantly surprised at first glance with this aft cabin. Large bed (two smaller pushed together to form a large king). A small sofa bed that could be converted into another bed and was reasonably comfortable when used as a sofa.
Large flat screen TV is always nice compared to the tiny ones you often see in so many cabins.
This may seem like a small detail but I am a fan of the side “snake” lights for reading in bed. They are so much softer than a side lamp and when you leave the room you can leave on and not walk into a darkened cave. Also there were two large drawers in the night stands and plenty of – and flexible – storage was a feature of this cabin (more soon).
There are so many tiny little neat bits in the design of this cabin. The table for example. There is a piston in the center to raise or lower the table – how neat is that right? So nice for laptop work vs. say eating or whatever.
Once we had a chance to put away all the welcome notices and advertising (as well as hide the upcharge drinks we did not use in the mini bar) we had ample space for all our getting ready stuff as well as power cords and more.
More storage but one of them housed the hair dryer but we moved the glasses out of the way and compacted them with the rest on the service tray above.
Everything in the mini-bar was an upcharge so other than using it for storage of the drinks shown before we closed it and never opened it till the last day to replace what we moved day one. The only tiny frustration with this fridge was there was no accessible way to turn it off and it made heat we did not want (more on that issue later as well). Now on to the really clever closets.
The closets were large and had an ingenious feature that you could fold down shelves and either use them for full size garments or convert them all to shelf storage depending on your needs. Just love this!
Again as you can see the storage was plentiful and even for an 11 day cruise my wife (for a change) did not even once complain about needed space or hangers or anything! A solid well done HAL for not just ample space but the tech behind the design. A standard mini safe is included as well. Next the bathroom.
This was one of the only weak points of this aft cabin. These older “tall” tubs are hard to get into and it drained slowly resulting in less than pleasant showers when the seas were up. The space for the lav was tight and awkward. Let’s call this functional but less than ideal and needs a refresh and modernization. Now the balcony.
If you have never sailed on an aft balcony you are missing out. Sail away is always a treat and sometimes ships back in and give you a great view of the port city.
Once again I was just “wow’ed” by this choice of deck chairs. Not only do they have an upright position but a semi reclined AND they have a pull out foot stool that seats neatly under the chair. Why does not every cruise line on earth buy these amazing seats? So perfect.
Since someone always seems to ask for this I am also posting the view from above and below our balcony room.
While this was a mostly comped cabin I would have been pleased having paid for a cruise with this nice aft balcony. Also of note HAL still uses two room stewards to care for your room (at least they did for our aft cabin). Both of our stewards were ridiculously good and we could not pop out for more than a minute to return to something cleaned, refreshed or taken care of. Just mega impressive.
But there were a few issues that are worth mentioning. Our rooms HVAC was poor. So poor our room, unless we always left the curtains fully closed the cabin was very warm. We complained to our room stewards and there was little that could be done regarding the old HVAC system but they did provide a small fan that we ran 24/7 and made sleeping comfortable and by angling the fan up at the ceiling mounted HVAC unit it did cool the room nicely each night and mostly kept up during the day. Had I paid full price I would have requested some compensation as this was frustrating.
Overall this cabin was a winner for us and I am pleased we paid for the upgrade. A great balcony and chairs, nice TV, outstanding storage and amazing service – I am starting to fall in love with Holland America! – René
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Tsk, tsk – placing your hard shell suitcases in the closet sets a bad example for your readers. Hard shell suitcases belong open and slid under the bed to create “sliding drawers” for more storage. Do appreciate the pictures of the aft veranda cabin – many folks actually seek out cabins with bathtubs, although we are in the minority these days.
@AlohaDaveKennedy – There was no more room. Keep in mind we take some special items on every cruise 😉
Tsk, tsk – placing your hard shell suitcases in the closet sets a bad example for your readers. Hard shell suitcases belong open and slid under the bed to create “sliding drawers” for more storage. Do appreciate the pictures of the aft veranda cabin – many folks actually seek out cabins with bathtubs, although we are in the minority these days.
@AlohaDaveKennedy – There was no more room. Keep in mind we take some special items on every cruise 😉
We to had an aft cabin, but I do not remember the cabin number. We also had problems with the room being warm. Maybe it was just the direction of the sun. In past cruises we have had a room on the side of the ship. No more aft rooms for us. And to get the bathtub/shower to drain properly i would take out the drain plug. we always place our suitcases under the bed. But it does create an adventure to retrieve them when it is time to pack on the last night.
We to had an aft cabin, but I do not remember the cabin number. We also had problems with the room being warm. Maybe it was just the direction of the sun. In past cruises we have had a room on the side of the ship. No more aft rooms for us. And to get the bathtub/shower to drain properly i would take out the drain plug. we always place our suitcases under the bed. But it does create an adventure to retrieve them when it is time to pack on the last night.