This was our first experience with Holland America. My best friend who has traveled quite a bit recommended HAL. She said we would enjoy it. We chose to book over the internet and specifically the Tampa port because my husband has relatives in the area and we wanted to go early for a visit with them.
We stayed at a Comfort Inn near the stadium and we were very pleased both with the motel and with Sam Selzer's steakhouse nearby. We had a very good meal there and went back for cocktails the next evening also.
We did a trial run to find the port the day before our sailing, which is normally what we do when we travel. We found the port fine, but unfortunately when we left the port we could not find proper signage and got delayed in our return to the motel. We wondered then how difficult it would be when we left after our trip to return home.