My husband and I have just returned from our Sydney-New Zealand cruise. Holland American Line were very professional and provided excellent service. The Oosterdam is a beautiful ship that offered dining in the Vista (either open dining or fixed seating), an italian restaurant and the Pinnacle. All offered excellent meals and a great choice of meals. We really looked forward to the Christmas meal however it was a bit disappointing. However they excelled on News Years Eve. I would recommend prepurchasing the drinks package. We found the Navigator Package with 7 bottles of wine lasted the 14 nights. Staff will store your wine for the next night if you don't drink it all.

We knew the Holland American Line would have an older demographic, however we were surprised how many elderly people were on board. All with their walkers etc, which did slow things down at times. For the family Christmas cruise there were 152 children on board - I think I saw a total of 8 children - they were occupied in the HAL children's club.

Entertainment was excellent and there were so many activities on ship that we couldn't do them all. Would strongly recommend purchasing the verdandah rooms on the Port side to enjoy entering each Port when going from Sydney - New Zealand. Think about which direction your ship sails so that you can enjoy the land views as you enter each harbour. Read more