My husband and I are in our mid-20s and recently took our third cruise upon the Veendam. Previously did a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Inspiration in 2003 and an 11 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Celebrity Horizon in 2004.

Embarkation: We drove the day before from Atlanta and stayed with friends in Tampa. We were dropped off around noon the day of the cruise. We sailed out of Tampa for our previous cruises so while I can't personally compare the embarkation in Tampa to other ports, I have always found it to be very quick and easy at Tampa. This cruise was no exception. We were onboard by about 12:30 and went to the Lido deck for lunch. Rooms were accessible at approximately 1:30pm and our luggage came by 3:00pm.

Room: We stayed in an outside cabin in the middle of the lower promenade deck after booking an outside guarantee. While people can walk right in front of your cabin, it's impossible to see into the cabins during the day because of the privacy shield. At night, you do have to draw the curtains so others can't see in. The other outside cabins we've stayed in have always had dirty windows probably because they're just hard to get to clean. Because the windows on the lower promenade are easily accessible, they get a good daily cleaning which is nice. The bed was by far the best we've had on any cruise, and the flat screen TV with the DVD player was very nice as well. The bathroom was bigger than any we've had on other ships. Two bathrobes were available for our use. Room steward was excellent and very friendly. Read more