Our 7 night experience on the Amsterdam was both good and bad. Physically, the ship is beautiful. Our room steward was outstanding. The itinerary was great. The spa was outstanding, and the special "thermal suite" was well worth the extra $149 for the two of us for the week. The piano bar guy, Tom Casey, was FABULOUS and made the whole cruise worthwhile for us. Problem #1 was that the schedule for each day included little more than "yellow emerald shopping" and "future cruise consulations" from 7 am until dinner. When I suggested to cruise director Rick that one free, fun morning activity could be having bloggers gather in the library to chat about what they blog about -- he frowned and said that the problem would be that the Holland America home office would have to give an okay to that, and they were unlikely to say yes to that sort of idea. (REALLY? You could have some super interesting, super famous bloggers on board and not even know it.) Problem #2 was that the nighttime broadway style dancers had terrible, offensive dance routines that included weird homo-erotic lumberjacks and the mocking of Canadian Mounted Police. Problem #3 was that other than our room steward, the service was indifferent and ALL THE FOOD ON THE SHIP WAS SERVED AT ROOM TEMPERATURE unless you got it straight from a line cook. There seemed not to be even the slightest effort to serve food hot.
Would I sail Holland America again? Yes . . . if the price were 70% off and if I could call ahead to make sure that piano bar pianist Tom Casey was going to be on board. : - ) I've sailed Royal Caribbean twice and Disney three times; I'd choose one of them hands down over Holland America any day if prices were comparable.
Great in every way. We tipped our room steward generously.