We are experienced cruisers with this being my 22nd cruise, but first with HAL. This was a 7 day Alaska cruise, with ports of call in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchican and Glacier Bay. We are "go with the flow" kinda folks, so we would have had a good time no matter what.
We had heard a lot of nice things about Holland America, and for the most part, they were accurate. But I'm thinking that the Volendam is not their flagship. It was nicely decorated in a very plain way, clean and well staffed. The staff themselves were friendly and outgoing. Our cabin was clean and except for a toilet problem, (which I will comment on later), the accomidations were good.
But I was not impressed with their food - and dare I say the best food on the ship was the buffet.....it was pretty good. I'm used to a variety of many options on the menus, but not on this ship. They had one meat, one chicken and one fish - one salad option and one soup. They included a pasta option, but that was about it. I wish they would have offered more options. The food was ok, but bland at best. We found that the buffet options had more variety and elected to eat there 3 of the four remaining nights. The last night we ate at the Pinnacle steakhouse - which I too found disappointing. The wait staff was not attentive, and again, not many options (no lobster) and the food bland.