Holland America Ship Tour
For February school vacation this year, we took a 7-night Caribbean cruise on board the ms Eurodam by Holland America. So let’s get ready for a Holland America ship tour. You can view my earlier post here to read more about the ship and her history as well as my review as this post will focus more on a tour of the ship.
Where should we begin on our Holland America ship tour? The common areas are modern, new, and clearly cared for by the crew. Everything was always clean and shiny and the ship looked new even though she debuted in 2008 and has sailed countless numbers of guests since then. In this picture we are looking down toward the front office and shore excursion desk near the atrium on the main deck. We often spotted people in this area who found this a quiet and relaxing place to sit and get away from everyone.
Looking up in the atrium area you can see an amazing backlit fiber-optic sculpture that changes color throughout the day and hangs over the green glass staircase. You can walk from the main deck up through to the promenade deck, a total of three decks all the way up to the Ocean Bar.
Walking from one deck to another, you can identify where on the ship you are by the color of the walls and carpeting. You are also able to view the artwork on board the ship, which honors the traditional Dutch art and artifacts integral to the Holland America brand. Guests can view the entire collection using a self-guided, narrated iPod virtual tour. iPods are available on the ship to use for the tour at no charge. If you would like to listen to the tour, you can download the ms Eurodam art tour and art tours from the other ships from the Holland America web site.
This is the elevator area by the stairs near the Rembrandt Dining Room on the Lower Promenade deck. Guest with dinner reservations queue up on the right side, near the top of this picture, and guests without reservations turn left just before the potted plant and to form another line. During busy seating times, this area can get congested not only for guests going into the dining room, but for those leaving as well.
Speaking of the dining room, here is the Rembrandt Dining Room when we first boarded the ship in Fort Lauderdale. Some guests choose to have all of their meals here in addition to the afternoon teas that they offer at 3 pm every day. Tables are available in different sizes from the ones you see here that sit eight people to larger tables and smaller tables for two.
Near the dining room on the Promenade Deck is the Digital Workshop, powered by Windows®. From the Holland America web site: “Guests will be able to ‘show and tell’ their vacation memories, learning how to share all their digital memories through email, blogging and social networking — so friends and family can see where they’ve been cruising even before they return home. Free workshops taught by Microsoft-trained “techsperts” make it easy and fun, even for novices.”
Next up on our Holland America ship tour we visit bars and lounges. With a variety of bars and lounges on board, there is always a place to stop and have a drink. The Explorer’s Lounge is rich, dark, and manly. We did the beer tasting here the first day at sea and I have to laugh when I think about it. The beers we tried? Beck’s, Heineken, Asahi, and Budweiser. Yes — Budweiser. It took a while to notice that nearly everyone attending the beer tasting was a man, but for me and two other women so I think the men were less concerned about a true beer tasting and more interested in the 4 beers for $10 offering.
The Pinnacle Bar, which sits opposite the Pinnacle Grill in the Atrium area, is a quiet wine bar with a modern feel. Comparing my pictures to the Holland America website, it looks as though they decided to add a little color to an otherwise industrial looking bar by adding in some bright red and blues. Why not stop by the Sport Bar with its fun chairs shaped like baseball gloves, large flatscreen TV’s, and microbrews? I knew where to look for my husband when I couldn’t find him and it was usually here with a few other husbands sneaking away to find out the latest sports scores.
The Piano Bar is only a few steps away from the Sports Bar and yet is so completely different. Every evening people would gather in the Piano Bar around the pianist and you could hear them belting out tunes. Living in Boston, I specifically recall them singing “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond on the top of their lungs. With drinks in hand, those people were having a great time! Because of the age of the typical guest who cruises on Holland America, the Piano Bar definitely saw more action than the Northern Lights disco and bar, a cool and modern nightclub.
That concludes part one of our tour. Next time we will visit the fitness center, the Spa, and a few other fun areas on Holland America‘s Eurodam including part 2 of our Holland America ship tour.