My family and I sailed on the March 3rd sailing from San Diego to the Mexican Riviera. For my wife and I this was our 8th cruise on Holland America. For our two sons this was their 6th cruise on Holland America.

Given the time of year, we decided to fly out to San Diego a day earlier, just in case old man winter tried to ruin our vacation plans. We also purchased comprehensive travel insurance for the first time for the same reason. We left Newark Liberty Airport on time, which was a surprise, since the Northeast got hit with a tough storm that day. We even arrived in San Diego an hour earlier. Because there was four of us with luggage instead of just grabbing taxis, we took one of the convenient shuttles to our hotel. We decided to stay at the Marriott GasLamp district. The hotel is very nice and is right next to Petco park. Our room on the 18th floor overlooked the stadium. If the Padres were playing, you could see the entire game from our room without having to buy a ticket. Because of the late time of arrival at the hotel; we checked in and decided to eat in the restaurant adjoining the hotel. We made arrangements with the concierge to have a van take us to the ship. Normally, we like to bring a few fine bottles of wine to open at dinner on selected nights. Because of the new TSA regulations on liquids we decided against chancing it(packing them in our suitcase and hoping everything would not be purple when we unpacked). We found a great liquor store close to the hotel, the Wine Bank, and we purchased some great wine and spirits. Please note that HAL has gotten very strict on bringing beverages aboard. The wine and champagne are fine but any hard liquor is a no-no. So the great bottle on single malt scotch was impounded until the last day of the cruise. We arrived at the Pier at approximately 1:15PM, embarkation was a breeze with the dedicated line for Penthouse and Deluxe Suites, this is one of the Holland American perks for a SA suite. We were aboard and in the Neptune lounge within 15 minutes. At first, we were surprised by how many of the cruise wanted to give you a fast splash of Purell, but given what has happened with Norvo it makes a lot of sense.

Our Deluxe Suite 7052 was similar to the other suites we have had on the other vista class ships. Plenty of room and nice amenities. My one issue on the design of the suite is about the bathroom. While there is a full size jacuzzi tub with shower and a separate shower, the size of the alone shower is too small for a person over 6ft., it is a waste of valuable space. Everything is the suite was top notched from the bed linens to the SPA supplies. Our cabin steward, Rudi was terrific; all week his service was great. Any thing we needed, Rudi saw that we had it in short order. The cruise staff is one of the main reasons I continue to sail with Holland America. Read more