After many years of meeting other HAL cruisers and reading their reviews on Cruise Critic, we had consistently heard that the Prinsendam was their all-time favorite ship. The reviews were almost unanimous. What is it that makes the Prinsendam so desirable? We decided to take the plunge and book a cruise on the Prinsendam to find out for ourselves.

Now we get it. The ship is much smaller than the other HAL ships. It is more intimate, easier to get around, and overall, we found the ship itself friendlier. Also, since there are less than 800 passengers and over 400 crew members, the passenger-to-crew ratio is much less than the other ships. The design of the Prinsendam is slightly different from other ships but mostly the same - it has the same excellent Crow's Nest, wraparound teak deck, warm and friendly library, and many other features. Good ship! Now for the review of our cruise:

We arrived in Amsterdam three days early to do some sightseeing. All went well and we had good fun exploring this unique city. On the day of our cruise, we arrived at the dock at 11:30 AM. We sat in the waiting area and waited for our group number to be called. Surprisingly, it took 1 hour, 15 minutes to be called. Once called, we sailed through the check-in promptly and were on board in about 20 minutes - at 1:05 PM (13:05 for our European friends). We dropped off our hand-carry luggage to our room, headed to the Lido and had an excellent lunch, then toured the ship. Our luggage did not arrive until 3:30 PM (15:30 hours), so this was later than we are used to. Read more