Tim and Anne’s Holland America Norwegian Fjords Cruise (July 2023)
by Tim Larison, CLIA Certified Master Cruise Counselor
with comments by Anne Larison, Family Travel Gurus Travel Consultant
and by Josh Larison, our 29 year old son
On one of our past cruises, we were invited to a cocktail party with the Captain. The small group gave me the opportunity to talk to him. “Where is your favorite place to cruise?” I asked as this Captain had cruised all over the World in his many years of sailing. “The Norwegian Fjords,” he told me. “It’s like Alaska on steroids!”
Since that cocktail party many years ago cruising the Norwegian Fjords has been on my bucked list. Our Norwegian Fjords cruise on Holland America’s Rotterdam exceeded our lofty expectations! In this report in words and pictures we will tell the story of our cruise.
The Ship
Holland America has become one of our favorite cruise lines, and the Rotterdam is now our favorite Holland America ship! She is the newest and biggest ship in the Holland America fleet.
It was a pleasure to sail with our son Josh and his partner Oren on this cruise. The above picture was taken at Tamerind, one of the specialty restaurants on the ship. As you can see our view was spectacular!
Tamerind, and the Pinnacle Grill were the two specialty restaurants we dined at. The food and service were excellent.
Josh says:
“My favorite meal of the cruise was at Tamarind. They had a traditional Thai curry, and it was hard to choose between the appetizers because they all looked so good. I ended up getting 2 appetizers and they were both great. The cocktails I tried there were also better than elsewhere on the ship.”
Anne says:
I enjoyed both specialty restaurants. I am a fan of great steakhouse fare. Pinnacle grill hit all the highlights you would expect. A nice variety of appetizers leads to an amazing assortment of steaks, chops and seafood for the main course. I finished my meal off with the yummy Chocolate Soufflé.
The Main Dining Room
The food and service in the ship’s main dining room were good, too. The above picture was taken at breakfast. We also ate here for dinner several nights. There were a variety of menu options to choose from. My favorite was the lasagna.
Anne says:
We like the benefits of having a fixed dining time in the main dining room. We had a very nice waiter and assistant in our section. They made sure to use our names, make suggestions, answer questions; in addition to keeping us well fed and always a drink at hand.
The Buffet
We were pleased with the selections at the ship’s buffet – The Lido Market. The Fish and Chips I had here were so good I ordered a second helping! I also liked the Italian section and Chinese food section of the buffet.
We ate most breakfasts and lunches here. I had a made to order omelet each morning. The service at the buffet was excellent, also, with frequent drink refills and help in selecting our food.
Anne says:
When in Norway… I had the salmon whenever I saw it at the buffet. It was excellent. There are other food options for lunch or dinner in addition to the buffet and the dining room. Dive In (near the pool) offers hamburgers, hot dogs and fries! New York Pizza is the place to get a slice or order a pie for your family with your choice of toppings. Both places are included – no extra cost. Here’s a tip – in the morning, New York Pizza serves as a breakfast option. There are very few people using this option, so there are no lines, and you can eat your breakfast pool side or while taking in a view of the ocean.
Grand Dutch Cafe
The Grand Dutch Café was another popular dining venue. We are not coffee drinkers, but we would see many passengers having their coffee here each morning. Instead, we enjoyed drinks and light snacks here later in the day.
Room Service
While we did not order room service on this cruise, Josh did, and he says:
“The room service was great; the burgers were just as good as the Dive In restaurant but available at more hours. And they had quesadillas which was hard to find elsewhere on the ship.”
The Crow’s Nest
The Crow’s Nest in the forward part of the ship gave us great views while at sea. It was also a comfortable place to relax and read a book. A new addition on the Rotterdam – an expanded game room off the Crow’s Nest. We played board games here several nights.
On past Holland America cruises we generally sailed with an older crowd. On this cruise we saw many more families. The game room was popular with kids and parents – we arrived early to get a table.
Anne says:
The Crow’s Nest is also a lounge, and the bar staff has regular hours, afternoon and evening. It is a very popular place to have a drink and enjoy the view.
Another new addition compared to Holland America ships we have sailed on in the past: an expanded library! This was the biggest and best library I have seen on a cruise ship. Passengers were free to take books to read during the cruise and return them on the honor system. Two of my sisters are retired librarians. They both would love this area of the ship!
I started reading “James Patterson by James Patterson”, the life story of the famous author. I did not have time to finish the book so when we returned home, I checked out the book from our local library. You, too, may find a book in the ship’s library you would not have been aware of otherwise.
As one of Holland America’s Pinnacle Class ships, the main theatre was semicircular in shape with large video screens all around. We liked the EXC talks here. The History of Holland America is one I have seen in the past that I watched again on this cruise – well worth it in telling Holland America’s story from the beginning, from their role in transporting immigrants to America in the early 1900s, to their ships service during World War II, and more. There were also a couple of other educational EXC talks in the theater we attended (one on Norwegian Explorers). There were dance shows in the theater on several nights.
A special entertainment area of the ship is the Music Walk on deck 2. Our favorite is the Rolling Stone Rock Room (featured on Pinnacle Class ships like the Rotterdam). The musicians here really rocked!
Josh says:
“The rock room was great to spend some time in at night, I think I went to at least one performance each night that they were available. They played a couple of my favorite classic rock songs. They do repeat songs sometimes so if you go to every single show you can expect some repeats. The later shows tended to have a bit heavier songs.”
The Music Walk featured three music venues. When the Rock Room was finished with their set the music would transition to Billboard Onboard featuring two skilled pianists playing top 100 hits. A third music venue, BB King’s Blues Club, completes the trio.
Before the music started each night the Billboard Onboard venue featured nightly trivia. We enjoyed playing trivia with Josh and Oren here. Our team of four even won movie trivia one night!
When sailing through colder climates (like Norway) the Rotterdam’s main pool was equipped with a retractable roof.
Comfortable recliners were set up to watch a movie under the stars at night or to gaze out over the ocean during the day.
Our Staterooms
Anne and I had a basic inside stateroom which served our needs well. There was lots of storage and the bed was comfortable. Our deck 7 location, not too far from the elevators and staircase, was well situated for us to access other parts of the ship.
Josh and Oren had a category S5 Suite. Josh writes:
“The stateroom was nice, the balcony had amazing views during sail aways but there was also some noise from the other balconies. The room was spacious, and I enjoyed having the separate office area from the bedroom.”
Several organized activities were featured on board. We played a few games of Cornhole.
Anne says:
Each morning passengers are invited to a session of Tai Chi. Also, the sports court offers basketball and pickleball opportunities. We played a few games of ping pong as well. Because there were more families on this cruise, the pools were always hopping with activity. The spa offers a wonderful way to relax and they even offer classes in addition to the many treatment options.
As wonderful as all the onboard venues and activities were, the highlights of our onboard experience were all the amazing views we had as we sailed through scenic parts of Norway.
I liked to take morning walks on the top deck before breakfast to see what beautiful area of Norway we sailed into during the night.
Shore Excursions
Oslo
Our first port was Oslo. We visited three maritime museums here on our shore excursion. Pictured is the Fram – a ship in this museum since 1935! Fram’s claim to fame was Arctic exploration & the 1st ship to reach the South Pole around 1900.
Then we saw Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki raft – his book was required reading in my high school English class. Much bigger than I imagined! We also took a bus ride through the city. We saw where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, and learned that Alfred Nobel, in addition to funding his famous award, also invented dynamite (didn’t know that!)
Anne says:
At the Fram you can board the ship and see how the men and their dogs survived traveling to such remote locations.
Kristiansand, Norway
At our next port we took a small boat “cruising the archipelago” excursion with great views. We saw an old lighthouse, numerous small ships, and our Rotterdam ship (first photo under “The Ship” section above) as we sailed away.
Anne says:
To us the day was beautiful, but chilly. Not to the many people we saw along the way. Many families who vacation in this area were swimming in the cold clear water.
Eidfjord, Norway
Now this is the Norway I’ve read about! We sailed on a fjord with towering mountains on both sides to the town of Eidfjord. At breakfast we sailed under one of the longest suspension bridges in Europe.
After breakfast we took an excursion with amazing views of waterfalls, glaciers, and more. The many waterfalls reminded us of similar sights we had experienced on our Canadian Rockies trips.
Anne says:
We were fortunate to have lovely weather. The bus takes you to several different waterfalls. So many opportunities for pictures!
Flam, Norway
Our last shore excursion of the trip and the beauty of Norway really stood out. We started with a scenic train trip from Flam. Josh and Oren took the same train later than us and we gave them tips on where to sit. Josh later wrote:
“My favorite shore excursion was the Flam railway and hotel but I’m glad we had a good seat for the ride up or it would not have been as good.”
Tip: sit on the right side of the train car!
We took a longer excursion than Josh and Oren. Ours included lunch in Voss, Norway with extra time in the town. Then on the bus ride to return to the ship we saw more amazing waterfalls & fjords. Today we experienced the best of Norwegian scenery!
Disembarkation in Amsterdam
While we were sad to leave our Rotterdam ship, we had one of our smoothest disembarkation experiences ever. We chose to walk off our luggage rather than check the luggage with Holland America the night before. We took the elevator to deck 3 expecting to have to wait at a ship’s lounge until we got the call to exit the ship. Instead, when we approached the gangway we were greeted by crew members who said “have a good trip home!’ and we walked right off the ship! We were one of the first, if not the first, passengers to depart. A fleet of taxis were waiting. We took a taxi to the airport, going through security was easy (didn’t have to take my laptop out of my backpack), and we were on our flight home soon thereafter.
Anne says:
We were pleasantly surprised when we disembarked to find that because we had not left the European Union (Amsterdam round trip) we did not have to go through customs and immigration.
Summary
Our Norwegian Fjords cruise was truly the trip of a lifetime! We saw amazing scenery and we were very pleased with all that Holland America offered onboard. Sailing in July turned out to be a smart choice. Temperatures were comfortable in Norway (in the 60’s and 70’s) as we avoided the summer heat back home in Arizona. We also enjoyed sailing with Josh and Oren as it brought back memories of the many cruises we had taken with Josh when he was young.
Our Norway cruise did not disappoint. We like to relax, but also be entertained and educated. All of this was true during this cruise. The food, drinks, shore excursions and ship exceeded our expectations.
Would you like to sail with Holland America on the Norwegian Fjords or elsewhere? We can help! Contact us for a no obligation consultation.