SS Rotterdam opens for business!

After a long and sometimes painful journey, the Rotterdam finally opened for business on Monday. Well done to all concerned

http://www.opderotterdam.nl/Engels/index.aspx

 

Daughter is going over with members of the OLS next week

Reports awaited

 

Has to be worth a look Frank. A nice weekend of Maritime photting around the port sounds just the ticket

 

Well

The wekend went well - but the ship management apparently needs to be better thought through

There are four operating companies doing different things, so a marked degree of lack of co-ordination, inability to access former public rooms, lack of quality dining or drinking space, or quality service for the same reason.

The good news is that the companies appear to be listening and it is early days yet - so lets hope for better crits as the year progresses

 

Thanks for that input Frank. The 'operating companies' have never really got things right on the Queen Mary in Long Beach either. Lets hope the Rotterdam does not tread the same path - lessons learned etc. I'll be over there this summer for sure

 

Sadly I was unable to get any rooms for May when I am across for the Dordrecht Stoom Festival.

Next time . .

 

Maybe if you'd asked for a cabin ? *ducks*

Seriously though -what was bad news for you has to be good news for the ship. I expect 'hotel guests' have access to more area's than the day visitor - similar to the QM.

 

Well, the summer visit I promised myself has occured. First impressions were OK! Its a tad expensive for the casual visitor and of course, the more you pay, the more you get to see. I chose the 19 Euro top package which gave me access to most of the ship (some of the public rooms are guarded by staff to check you have the right type of ticket). You can actually gain access to the former Lido deck (and adjacent eating space) for FREE, so if you only want to set foot on her deck to say you have - no problem.

Highlight for me was the presence of several ex-crew members, now employed to chat with visitors. Top marks to the jovial guy in the engine room who sailed on her maiden voyage as an Engineer apprentice, a facinating and funny man !

The ship does not seem unduly affected by over the top health and safety issues. There are plenty of trip and headroom hazards in original and unsigned form!

The six deck climb on steep narrow stairs from the engine room to the lido deck is a bit hard on older weightier bodies - so be warned about that one! I did notice there was a defibrillator on the bulkhead half way up the climb !

She seems to being doing ok. They knocked most of the cabins around in the conversion, turning two into one. This gives her more spacious 'hotel rooms' in keeping with market demand (something the Queen Mary conversion didn't do) so she is not authentic in that respect.

There is optimism about her future, she cost 240 million Euro's to convert (after purchase) and most if not all of the money appears to be from the private sector. I asked several people if the Port Of Rotterdam had donated the cost of her berthing, but no-one on the ship (or at the Maritime Museum) knew, or if they did they were not telling!

The free part (Lido deck) was busy, but I have to say I didnt see many others walking the 'paid' tour route and of those who did, very few seemed to be families with kids - expensive in that respect.

I hope she does well and that funds to maintain her are identified and put aside. I took lots of pics and will put a gallery up on my site in due course.