Holland America Line Southern Caribbean Cruise Reviews

We had a very nice 9 day Southern Caribbean cruise that visited Aruba and Curaçao. We missed our stop on Half Moon Cay due to the weather. We booked Club Orange and a Retreat Cabana in advance, both enhanced our experience greatly as the ship sailed full. We tried to dine in all of the specialty restaurants except the Pinnacle Grill which we’ve dined in many times on other ships. We really ...

Easiest embarking ever. We were on board by 11:30 am sitting at the Lido having lunch. Disembark was super quick and easy thanks to the face scanning technology at the Ft Lauderdale cruise port. This was our 7th cruise on an HAL ship, out of 57 total cruises ( other lines mostly Celebrity, RCL, Oceania). Food varied from being poor to fair in the Lido, Deck 9, to very good in the Main ...

The ship was clean and beautiful, everything seemed to be working, and the service was absolutely fabulous. The Eurodam is a little older now, but still very nice. On service, standouts were our cabin steward who helped our disabled mother very much in her suite, the management in the Tamarind, who went above and beyond, and the disembarkation help we received because we were traveling with a ...

We took this cruise as a "back-to-back" cruise with a 15 Day Panama Canal cruise on the same ship. We changed cabins from aft port hole to aft interior. This was to try out these types of cabins, and see what the experience is like without a balcony of our own - and honestly, to see if these far less expensive cabins would serve us as well as the balcony / suite cabins. We found that the two ...

I am an avid cruiser. I cruised Holland in 2007. After this sailing, I felt that it was for an older crowd and I wanted to go on cruises that were for families. Since then, I sailed with Norwegian, Princess Royal and Carnival. The crew on the Rotterdam were very friendly and accommodating. The food was very good.(we enjoyed the lido, dive in and the New York deli) The music clubs were ...

We have done 61 cruises including this back to back on the Rotterdam. We have sailed on various cruise lines, it has been 10 years since we sailed on HAL. The Rotterdam is larger than what we like but booked a suite to enjoy the small Club Orange dining room. And the extras. Our good experiences: Embarkment total chaos but we were on board at 11:30a.m. The Lido was fine for lunch on ...

The Eurodam and the Jewel of the seas are almost identical in size. The Jewel has a more customer friendly central area that can be used to host music and dance events, too. It has a larger outdoor pool with far more sunbeds than the Eurodam. The Eurodam has a more enclosed, covered pool area as if it was designed for overcast, chilly North Sea sailings. The Jewel also has a solarium type warm ...

I swear that cruise lines encourage (or at least allow) employees to slack off, or more likely, weaponize incompetence on the first and last days of the cruise. After a smooth embarkation we were aghast that not only was the maître d’ not available to fix the incorrect dining assignment we had been given, but we were told to stand in two long lines that were both the wrong line. It turns out ...

This was a completely full ship and had a large Church group onboard. It never felt too crowded and HAL did a good job of setting up the Church group's activities so they did not interfere with other passengers. I had one minority annoying experience with a group member being invasively friendly and proselytizing. I eventually deflected them by telling the I was "not on their team" and am Wiccan ...

First, let me tell you, had been on Eurodam in March 2023 on partial transit through the Panama Canal and was disappointed in entertainment or lack of, food, and missing fresh flowers. On the December 27th 11 days in the Eastern Caribbean everything was as it should be. Fresh flowers were seen around the ship, the food was delectable, and the entertainment was good especially the comedian. The ...