Having recently read David Foster Wallace's excellent account of a cruise ship trip in his A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, I popped this promotional video into my VCR and, in some respects, was not disappointed. Where else would I encounter such tortured locutions as "just think what sights these windows will behold" or such painfully hokey advice as "stop and smell the ocean"? However, these were small pleasures, especially when you measure the ratio of "info" to "mercial" in this 21-minute long advertisement. Viewers will learn that the new Ms. Rotterdam, though roughly the size of a small Latin American country, has the "grace of a dolphin," and offers fine dining, dancing, stage entertainment, shopping, sports facilities, and so on and a wide variety of escalating-in-price staterooms and suites. Viewers will get a ship's tour through rose-colored glasses; they will not get much more (no pricing info, shipping schedules, comparisons with other cruises--in short, no useful consumer information) in this video brochure. Of course, the insulting part is that you have to pay for the tape. If Holland America Line was really smart, they'd just send a free copy to every library in the U.S., especially now, when interest in cruise ships is titanic. (See, I could be an infomercial writer). Consider if you're in the habit of paying for catalogs; otherwise, not recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)
Ms. Rotterdam: Portrait of a Lady
(1998) 21 min. $9.95. Holland America Line (dist. by Paragon Media). PPR. Color cover. Vol. 13, Issue 4
Ms. Rotterdam: Portrait of a Lady
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