We've cruised before on Holland America and were a little bit afraid of traveling on what we'd heard was just a "party barge". We were very pleasantly surprised at how lovely the ship was and the wonderful service we received through the entire cruise. My husband and I traveled with our best friends who had only been on a cruise once and had had a bad experience. We were all hoping for a great time.

Embarkation was simple - we arrived at the port and was onboard and in our room in about 30 minutes. The room was quite adequate and bigger than I expected. We wandered around the ship and went on a tour of the spa. After the tour we booked spa treatments for the next day (all four of us booked for various treatments).

Ensenada - the town is just dreadful. We went got off the ship and quickly ran back. The weather was nice so we spent the rest of the day by the pool and at the spa. Read more