My wife and I booked our own flights and arrived late on Thursday evening in San Diego. We also booked our own hotel and stayed at the Holiday Inn on the Bay. This Inn is very, very convenient (literally right across the street from the cruise terminal). They were very accommodating and have a wonderful "English style" pub and restaurant on site. On Friday we took a tour of San Diego on one of the "canned" trolley tours. We had a wonderful guide by the name of Hatch. Had a wonderful day which included a great Mexican style lunch at Old Town Cantina. On early Saturday PM we met our son (and family) from the Fresno area and boarded the Oosterdam. Our group totaled 7 and ranged in age from 19 months to 68 years. Boarding went smoothly and our cabins were large and comfortable. Our room steward was very very helpful through the entire cruise. We selected early seating dining in the Main dining room. This, we found our to our disappointment was a mistake. The food in the Main dining room was very average and not at all at the same quality or presentation levels of Princess and Celebrity. We ended up skipping this dining on (2) nights and found that the buffet actually served better prepared food which served immediately after it was freshly prepared to our order. However our dining complaint regarding the main Dining room was not with the serving temperature but with the overall food quality. For example a desert that attracted both my son and I that was on the Friday evening menu was a "molter chocolate cupcake with chocolate and vanilla sauces. It was dried out and we could not find any chocolate filling (molten or otherwise). The dining room staff were not the friendliest and were not good at seeing to our needs. Again, for example, we were never asked about coffee or tea on that last Friday night. Our grand daughter, who is 5 1/2 went to "Club Hal". They have a wonderful staff and she thoroughly enjoyed the time that she spent there. We took on shore excursions on all 3 ports of call. They were Cabo San Lucas and the Pirate Ship and whale watching were wonderful. We took a tour of the country, etc. around Mazatlan and this was average. Last we took a tour of the city at Puerto Vallarta which included helping to make our own Mexican lunch. This also was wonderful. All in all we had a wonderful time and the weather was great. However, this was our 1st experience with Holland America and it will probably be our last. They definitely are not in the same class as Celebrity and are below Princess.