We wanted to visit some different destinations so decided to try Holland America out of Port Everglades. We stayed the night before at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina - expensive at $250, but OK for one night except hot breakfast was cold! With 9 ships in port, and road works around the port entrance it was all a bit chaotic, and not helped when Immigration failed to clear the ship in the morning. This led to massive queues in the sunshine to get into the terminal, and then a long wait of an hour to check in.

Our cabin was 7004 on Rotterdam deck. The air conditioning was very noisy and blasted us with icy air all night. We had it adjusted, down to just noisy but much less effective. Found a number of items under the bed and in the seat box that tells me the cabins were not cleared/cleaned thoroughly - not surprising as 2 stewards appeared to look after the whole forward port side of the deck. The Balcony door flew open in high winds, and had to be kept locked. I suspect our forward location almost underneath the bridge created more wind as well. Wallpaper peeling in places. Beds, as with most other cruise lines these days, were a little firm for us (orthopaedic).

The food quality in the main restaurant was not as good as we expected for a 5 star cruise. Fish often undercooked, small portions, too many repeats from previous nights - this may be because many of the cruisers liked their steaks! The Lido buffet food was much better quality, but very similar menus each night. Breakfast was a challenge in the Lido as they don't use trays, and the layout is odd. I had to visit 5 serving stations to get a full English Breakfast, with frequent trips back to the table through the crowds with toast, coffee, juice etc. We didn't like the way they vacuumed and cleaned around you - we thought they should close areas to clean them. Read more