My husband and I have cruised about 6 times with Princess, Celebrity, and Uniworld River Cruises. We've always heard how wonderful Holland America cruises are, so we were really excited to try one. It became apparent to us early in the journey that the entertainment on board was not very good. In fact, it was boring. The HAL singers and dancers were okay, but not that interesting to watch, and the content of the shows confirmed that they are targeting a much older audience than us (we are late 50's). They had a comedian one night, a piano player, who was good, and a few HAL dancer shows, one of which was a big production. The same groups played in the same lounges night after night...the piano player, the guitar player, the blues band (they were good)...there were no smaller venue shows, like a different comedian or something else to offer other than the one main show. Also, the "screen room" with the first run movies always filled up way ahead of showtime and it only seated about 30? people...very small, so I could never watch a movie. So, for a long transatlantic cruise, we simply ran out of things to do that interested us.

The food was okay, but not as good as on Princess and Celebrity, which really surprised us. We ate at Canaletto and thought it was overhyped. The steakhouse was very good, and our dinner service in the regular restaurant was fine, but the menu was always just okay...not "out of this world" like we were expecting. The food in the buffet restaurant was just okay also.

The ports of call were wonderful and the 2 excursions we booked--Top of the Rock in Gibralter, and the Alhambra in Motril--were very well done, but they should have been for the price. Read more