Rotterdam VI transatlantic to Europe

A friend and I boarded the Rotterdam VI at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on April 25, '00, for a transatlantic cruise stopping in New York; Bermuda; Horta and Ponta Delgada in the Azores, and Lisbon, Portugal.

The Rotterdam had just returned from a world cruise and was making a stop in New York to disembark some passengers and pick up new passengers for the transatlantic part of the circuit. We paid $1,299 per person (including port charges) for our 11-day cruise.

The ship is beautiful, with lots of spectacular artwork.

The main restaurant is La Fontaine, aft of the ship, with windows on three sides for great viewing at sea or in port.

There is a special restaurant called the Odyssey which is nestled in the middle of the ship without windows, except to the corridor. The setting is very elegant and the food and service were very special. We dined there once and enjoyed the special attention very much.

Our cabin was very spacious with a large window plus bath and shower and lots of storage closets and drawers.

This particular cruise had a "big band" theme and the Tommy Dorsey orchestra was on board for special nights of entertainment and dancing. In that respect, there were six gentlemen hosts who entertained the ladies by dancing with them. From my observation, all were excellent dancers and the ladies were enjoying the dancing and attention

We left' Ft. Lauderdale and immediately Captain Peter Boss announced that there was some bad weather ahead and we should b prepared for the worst. We had one day at sea before reaching New York. The next day at sea was fine until afternoon, then a strong gale picked up and the sea became very rough.

During all of that turmoil, there was an emergency evacuation of one of the passengers off the coast of Virginia. A helicopter lowered a basket and lifted up, first, a woman and then a nurse from the ship. All was done safely and we learned later that the patient was doing fine. I believe she needed an appendectomy.

This all Was very exciting, but it delayed the ship even more and now we were running five hours late arriving in New York. They announced that there would be no passengers allowed ashore, only those disembarking. We had prepared ourselves for this scenario, even though we had expected to see a little bit of New York and had intended to have a friend on board to visit the ship.

Our arrival in New York Harbor was very exciting and colorful. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are amazing sights, then you go under the Verrazano Bridge and finally see the skyline of of the city with the spectacular World Trade Center towers. We arrived seven hours late, disembarked passengers and embarked new passengers in an amazing 21/2 hours -- a credit to the staff of the ship who had planned ahead and organized it well. Then we were off to Bermuda with a day at sea in between.

The days at sea are wonderful with so many different diversions for entertainment: ice sculptures, lectures, a daily quiz and various games, not to mention the Fitness at Sea program. There is a very nice gym on the ship with treadmills and exercise bicycles as well as the Walk-A-Mile program, Sit-and-Be-Fit and various levels of aerobics and yoga. There is also the casino.

Our first stop was at beautiful Bermuda with its pink buildings and pink-sand beaches. The town of Hamilton is very compact and easy to navigate. We bought some postcards and found the post office and sent them off. There are souvenir, duty-free and clothing shops and some nice restaurants. We felt safe and comfortable during our short visit.

This was followed by three days at sea again. It was just wonderful to not have to plan anything special and simply look at the daily program and see what took our fancy. We enjoyed the many different areas of the ship, sometimes seeking solitude and other times just enjoying the camaraderie that comes from meeting new people.

The nightly entertainment was run of the mill, for the most part, with a ventriloquist, a violin player and a singer/comedian. The exception was the show people they had on board. who performed three magnificent shows of various themes, mostly Broadway caliber and certainly noteworthy of a Las Vegas presentation with the wonderful costumes. These were some very talented performers.

Our next stop was the port of Horta in the Azores. We did not dock there but used the ship's tenders to get ashore. The captain mentioned that it can be a bit tricky there as the winds sometimes are very strong and unpredictable, but the day we arrived all was calm.

The town is very small and clean. We roamed around a while, and my friend even found an Internet cafe and was able to use that.

The next day we were off to Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel; there we were able to dock. This is a much larger town with some nice shops and restaurants.

Both ports were very pleasant stops and we spent the days enjoying these friendly, remote islands.

We had one more day at sea before disembarking in Lisbon on Saturday, May 6, and we enjoyed that to the fullest also.

Then came the time to pack our bags and have them out for unloading and disembarkation the next day. I already felt nostalgic for what had been our home for 11 days, having to say goodbye to our dining room and cabin stewards who were just wonderful to us, always there and always eager to please with a smile.

Disembarkation procedures can be tiresome and tedious. Since we had made our own arrangements in Lisbon, we were flexible. We didn't have a flight to catch, so we were one of the last groups to be called to disembark.

Once off the ship and with our bags claimed, we headed for the taxis that were lined up at the exit of the terminal. It seemed that the flat rate was $25 no matter where anyone was going in Lisbon -- highway robbery, as the ride to our hotel was not more than 15 minutes.

We stayed at the Radisson SAS Hotel Lisboa (Av. Maraechal Craveiro Lopes 390, Lisbon 1700, PORTUGAL; phone 351-21-7599639. Reservations were made from the USA by calling 800/333-3333). We had a suite of rooms for 22,500 escudos (about US$107).

The hotel was conveniently about five minutes from the airport and 10 minutes from downtown by the subway. The subway, which was clean and efficient, was about two blocks from the hotel and very easy to use; it cost 100 escudos (50 cents) each way.

We took a half-day city tour which was excellent and included the Monument to the Discoveries, Belem Tower, the Royal Palace and the Alfama, the ancient Moorish part of the city. This is an area of very narrow, interesting streets with unique buildings. There are also some good local restaurants in this area.

Another interesting venture was our trip to the Colombo Shopping Centre in Lisbon. It is by far one of the largest shopping, malls that I have ever seen in my life. it consisted of many different levels and had everything from soup to nuts, literally. There was a variety of restaurants there serving local fare. We had a very nice lunch at one of them and later browsed through some of the mall.

We flew from Lisbon to Madrid on Iberia. We had heard such derogatory things about Iberia's service, but we were pleasantly surprised. For this short flight of a little over an hour we were served a breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomato sauce as well as sausage, potatoes and a sweet roll.

We were offered champagne, wine and an assortment of juices and soft drinks. I asked for some tea and the stewardess said she would be right back with it. To my surprise she came with a cup of tea served on a small tray with cream, sugar and some small cookies. I have never seen such service by a U.S. carrier on a short flight like that.

In Madrid we stayed at the Castellana Inter-Continental (Paseo de la Castellana 49, Madrid, SPAIN; phone 349-1-310-0200. Again, we made reservations through 800/327-0200). The rate here was 26,400 pesetas (about $151). It's an old hotel, the rooms rather on the small side but quite nice with a large bathroom.

The service was impecable. The hotel was a block from the subway, so everything in Madrid could be reached quite easily in that manner. Again, we found the subway quite clean and easy to use.

I had caught a cold in Lisbon and here in Madrid I began to have chills and a fever, so we called Guest Relations at the hotel and a doctor was in our room within a half hour.

The doctor was very young and quite efficient. He said that I had an infection. He gave me a shot and prescribed three different medications for me. His charge was about US$100 but well worth it. He left the prescriptions with the concierge and in about one hour the medications were brought to our room and charged to the room. They cost about $25, cheap at that. I started the regimen of drugs and by evening was feeling much better and ready for our flight to Frankfurt the next day.

Kudos to Guest Relations at the Inter-Continental and particularly Suzanna. During the day they called and sent some tea to the room as well as water later on in the afternoon, both complimentary.

Our flight to Frankfurt was again on Iberia with the same good service. We spent only one night in Frankfurt, at the Airport Sheraton. We took the S-Bahn into Frankfurt city and found it to be not as clean as either Lisbon or Madrid. It was crowded and I also felt it was not that impressive.

Our flight the next day to Chicago O'Hare in business class on United Airlines was wonderful. The service and food were excellent. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful cruise and an enjoyable few days in Europe."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Martin Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group