Shabby Ship - Shabby Experience
This was my first experience with Holland America and I expected 5-star surroundings and a 5-star cruise. I've sailed on Carnival, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess and Cunard, and this was the absolute worst cruise I've taken.
First - the ship. Very poorly designed with low ceilings, potholes in the floor, ripped wallpaper everywhere, and small, ugly public places. The Hotel Manager confirmed that when the ship was built, they forgot to include any public toilets. As a result, the bathrooms are barebones to say the least, and the ventilation system is non-existent (smelly). You have to walk through the buffet line to get to the pool which causes a bottleneck at all times of the day. The buffet line never took less than 15 minutes because of the poor circulation flow. Some other details - room towels were so frayed and old that I threw them away. Toilet flushing mechanism broke on day 2. Crew has to use public elevators because the crew elevators are too small. Luggage did not arrive until 6:30pm (sailed at 5pm). 23 broken glass doors around the ship. Second - the entertainment. On all other ships I've been on, there are at least 2 choices for big entertainment at the same time. Not here. Only one choice at a time, so you went from one venue to the next, and there were never any seats left. Poor organization of all entertainment and lack of thought as to where it should be held to allow enough seating. There were 400 children on board, yet the "adults only" pool rule was not enforced, so unsupervised children everywhere. Rather than having daytime adult entertainment at the adults pool, they had the steel drum band and adult pool games staged at the children's pool. Makes no sense. For the Caribbean Pool Party on the 4th night, I expected a very festive atmosphere with great decorations, fun music and activities and just a great party. None of this happened. Overall, I'd give the entertainment quality and selection a 3 on a scale of 1-10.