My wife and I have enjoyed cruising for many years, and have always enjoyed the experience -- until now. While the Holland America Statendam ship itself is viable for those wanting a smaller (1200 passenger) ship, the mis-management made the cruise far and away the worst we have taken. For the first time, I didn't feel like tipping the staff -- but I did, because I realized the problems all centered around management, hiring, and lack of training -- the staff TRIED, but were just "not up to speed".

I don't want to just gripe, but want to caution other potential clients of this line that promotes themselves as "A Signature of Excellence". I'll provide DETAILS of the some of the OVER 50 disappointments we encountered -- several major, others "nits".

To sum up my experience with the Philippine/Indonesian STAFF: I felt like I was on a help-line to Asia -- the staff were polite, spoke acceptable English, knew the answers to the "basic questions" (that they had been trained on), and were clueless when you asked them something they didn't expect. Read more