On board Holland America Line’s Volendam Jan 19-Feb 16 2015 directly after spending a week on Norwegian's Pride of America in Hawaii. The ship had stops in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Singapore. Great trip! Food was very good. Unlike the Pride of America, there was no loud obnoxious music during return boardings and sailaways -- very welcome change. The lounge entertainment was top notch and the shows were always delightful – although sometimes a little surprising in nature. Had a large, oceanview stateroom that was very comfortable with lots of storage and room for two to maneuver [request a cooler (read fridge) however as many rooms don't come with them]. The room location -- aft on the Main deck --was excellent in terms of accessing the dining room, buffet, and Lido deck pool/lounge area. The only concern here was that the room was a bit noisy as the ship was docking as it is directly above the area deployed for tying the ship up.

Drinks were better priced than on Norwegian and they often had 'happy hours' during sailaways where there was a “buy one get the second for a dollar” deal. (ln terms of alcohol, we didn’t feel we were being gouged quite as much on HAL as NCL. At times, the price of drinks seemed more than reasonable! )

A number of the ports required visas. However, they took are of this on the ship for reasonable cost – in some cases less than it would have been to do it ourselves. I would highly recommend just leaving this detail to them. Read more