First, I have noticed some reviews for the Oosterdam dating back to the Spring of 2003 here on Cruise Critic. The Oosterdam's maiden voyage was in August/September 2003, so either these people sailed on another ship or they got their dates wrong.

Anyway, we were on one of the very first sailings of the Oosterdam (Rome, Monte Carlo, Marseilles, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Malta, Loutraki, Corfu, Dubrovnik, and Venice) on October 26, 2003, and we had a wonderful time. There is so little to complain about and so much to gush about. We are even sailing again on the Oosterdam in October 2004!

This was my third cruise and my husband's first. It had been a long time since my first 2 cruises (10+ years), so I guess we were really both new to cruising. We loved the HAL demographic--older--even though we are late 30s (me) and early 40s (husband). There were maybe 6 kids on the cruise and they were all younger than school age. Read more