This was our 7th cruise, 4th on HAL, and 3rd on the Oosterdam. Our first cruise was on Carnival in 1987, and that experience was so bad it took me 23 years to convince my wife to try another cruise. When we started cursing again it was on the Oosterdam, and my wife liked it so much we took annual trips. All were great until this trip. The Oosterdam and Holland American have cheapened their product. Cost cutting can be seen everywhere.

The room stewards, who were excellent, were very over worked. On earlier trips they had about 20 rooms to service, on this trip they had over 30 rooms. HAL always used to brag about their beds, which were always very comfortable, now the are hard as a brick, and when we asked about an egg crate pad, our stewards didn't know what we were talking about.

The food had always been excellent on our cruises, and the quantities ample. The menu in the Vista dining room was very large with 5 or 6 items that were offered daily, and good selection of daily specials. The new menu was only 2 pages, with only 3 items offered daily, and only 4 specials. Very few seafood items, and the amount of food on the plate would leave a bird hungry. The special one night was surf and turf, and my wife really likes lobster so she was looking forward to dinner. When it arrived, the steak on each plate was the size of a hockey puck, but only 1/3 in thick, and the lobster on my wife's plate was only a shell. The waiter kept trying to get something out of the shell, until he finally had to admit the there wasn't anything there. They did go back to the kitchen and came back with a small lobster tail with meat in the shell. Read more