We took back to back cruises on HAL's MS Westerdam, sailing from Ft. Lauderdale. We first took the Southern Caribbean route, followed by Eastern. I will give my honest opinions on what we encountered, but understand that we enjoy the HAL experience. I probably echo much from schplinky's in-depth review, but from the viewpoint of a long-term HAL fan. We have taken 12 cruises, 9 of them with HAL. We also years ago took an NCL Bahamas 3-dayer and more recently did a Costa cruise in the Mediterranean and a transatlantic crossing on the QM2. I've seen posts which say that the average HAL audience skews to the older passengers, that the public rooms are smaller than other lines, that there few activities for children, etc. We mostly agree with those characterizations, and are O.K. with that, because we are looking for the slower-paced, refined pampering of HAL. We might be the ones schplinky was thinking of when he wrote, "Someone who loves great food and a subdued and sedate environment would be well served by HAL and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to that sort of person." I agree, if you are young, constantly on the go and looking for a lot of activities and a party hearty atmosphere, you may want to take a different line. That said, this was our first experience with the new Vista class, and we understand that HAL is trying to diversify a bit into the family and younger cruiser markets. We did indeed find many more 20 and 30-somethings and children among the "more mature" set on both the cruises we took. It also was our first back-to-back cruise, and we were curious to see how that would work. Looking for info a couple of weeks before the cruise, I Googled "Westerdam," and discovered Cruise Critic. I admit to lurking on the site a bit, reading the reviews, and visiting the boards to see if someone had asked/answered a question I had, and decided to join after our cruise. I gained a lot of good info from Cruise Critic, and am very grateful for it, and I offer some details below for others who may be searching for similar info.

Back to Back, how it worked: We booked several months before the cruises, and I called HAL rather than reserve online because I wanted to make sure we had the same cabin for each cruise so we would not have to move. Those who did move, we found out, did have stewards to help them, but it was easier not having to pack anything. We did not have to do anything with our stateroom on the turn-around day, although our steward had to clean the vacated cabins before he could do ours, so it was a bit later than normal but no problem for us. A day or so before the end of the first cruise, the maitre d' in the restaurant asked our preferences for table seating for the second cruise, and we had a note delivered to our cabin the next day with our table assignment. We had asked for one nearer a window, and got the premium table, at the back, at the window, overlooking the wake! The menus for the second week were almost identical to the first week, but there were enough choices that appealed to us that we did not have to repeat if we didn't want to. After everyone else had left on turn-around day, the two dozen or so of us that were doing B2B met in the Queen's Lounge at 10 a.m. A member of the front office staff had our new cards for us - the digital photo was already on file from our previous cards, so we did not have to stand in line for another photo. A ship's officer then led us off to the terminal, where we were cleared by U.S. Immigration. We then waited while the ship got a "zero passengers left on board" report and was cleared by Immigration, at which point we reboarded the ship. There was a delay while HAL reps found and rousted a passenger who apparently thought "everyone must depart" did not apply to him, but even so the entire process was about 45 minutes. Back on board, I went to the front office to buy the unlimited laundry package again, and found several fellow B2B'ers - several who had moved cabins needed their new cards re-keyed for the new rooms, an apparent oversight by the person who created the new cards. It appeared that the front office staff were quickly solving the problem after the one person on duty realized it and called for extra staff to help process the new cards. It was great being the monarchs of the ship, wandering about and pretending it was all for us, for about an hour before the new passengers started boarding. We then went to the Lido to stay out of the way of our steward, and started our new cruise. All in all, it was a pretty painless and efficient process.

Embarkation process for first cruise: We had the luxury of time and, since we don't like to fly when we can avoid it, we drove from the D.C. area. We spent the last night in the Orlando/Daytona area, and drove to Ft. Lauderdale, arriving just after 11 a.m. HAL had told us that the port would not let us in until then. The port entrance was easy to find, at the end of I-595, just past the airport exit. We drove to the Westerdam at pier 29 (if I remember the number correctly), a short distance away from the port entrance; the port did have directional signs to all the ships, so it was easy to find. I dropped the bags at the entrance with the DW, who arranged with the porters to take our larger luggage. I parked the car in the mid-port garage across the street ($12 per day, payable with cash or credit card) and walked back to rejoin her to enter the check-in process. Like others noted before, we also had filled out immigration forms online and found ourselves in a line whereas those who had not done so had a very short line. However, the process was smooth and well-organized, and we only took about 10-15 minutes to complete check-in and receive our boarding cards. We were on board before noon and were able to get a nice lunch in the Lido. This is a vast improvement over the old way of waiting in a large holding area for your number to be called to board. We are very willing not to be able to get to our cabins until later if we can board right away. As it turned out, our cabins were ready by about 1:15. Our bags arrived about 4, before the lifeboat drill. Cabin: We had a VE-class verandah cabin on the fifth deck, just a few cabins aft of amidships. We chose that location, and forewent the option to upgrade, because there were only cabins above and below (no weights from the gym being dropped over our heads or the disco sounding off below us), no sounds from the engines, and a minimum of movement. Even though neither of us suffers from seasickness, we still prefer a cabin near the center of the ship. The cabin was well-appointed and met all our needs. It was about 9 feet wide and 20 feet long, with a deck that was an additional about 4.5 feet by 9. The first six feet of the cabin were comprised of the bath (with shower tub) on one side and three closets along the other. The bed area was about 9 by 9, and a small sitting area of 5 by 9 included a sleeper loveseat, adjustable-height coffee table and a small desk with a lot of the surface area taken with the TV. All in all, it was not expansive, but comfortable. There were floor-to-ceiling windows and a glass door leading to the verandah. The Vista-class ships have an inset in the center section, so our cabin was set back a bit. The verandah overlooked the tenders, but they did not block the view; the top of the tender was just below the level of the deck, so the view was blocked only directly down. Verandahs on higher decks, or on the fifth deck outside the tenders, were about 1.5 feet deeper and did not directly overlook the tenders, but we found that it really didn't affect our view or enjoyment. For cruisers of Statendam (S-class) ships, the VE is slightly shorter than an "A" or "B" class cabin, mainly in the sitting area, but the difference is not all that significant. The VE room also may be a couple of inches wider. Storage: The closets were quite large, and I think a little deeper than on S-class. I did not have a problem hanging a size 48 suit jacket without angling it. One closet had shelves that could be raised or lowered, allowing for hanging full-length formal gowns. There was also a self-programmable safe in one of the closets. In the bath, there was a small medicine cabinet and a shelf under the sink, which had some counter-top space nest to it as well. There are drawers at the end of the bed, and plenty of room under the bed to store suitcases. There also were cabinets over the sleeper loveseat that contained extra bedding. You might be able to ask your steward to take the bedding away for extra storage there, but we found we had ample for our two weeks without using those cabinets. Read more