Overall, the ship is in okay condition, it definitely is an older ship, but it had new carpet in most of the common areas and fresh paint on many of the decks. The cabin, which was a lanai deck was fine, a standard Holland America Line room, The dining room was slightly below what I have come to expect on a Holland America Line cruise, but the service, minus one day, was always good and quick. There is always plenty of different activities and shows on the ship, which we attended many. Being a Caribbean cruise, this ship had lots of folks attending all the various activities so it never was strange to have a show room with only 10 folks which I have seen on other cruises. The cabin stewards were always friendly and helpful, and we enjoyed the nightly folded towels.
The ports on this cruise were quite excellent, going to the East and South Caribbean, with a total of 10 ports; definitely liked that part. We did have 5 back-to-back port days, which was quite busy and I would prefer to have few back-to-back ports, but I don't get to actually decided that. :)
The embarkation and disembarkation process with Holland American Line was very smooth and we were on the ship within 10 minutes and off the ship with luggage and through passport port control within 30 minutes. Definitely cannot beat sailing out of Port Everglades as long as you are not there too early. Overall, I would definitely say the Veendam is a good ship, but just don't have expectations of a brand new vessel.
This room is directly under the galley (kitchen) so unless you are a heavy sleeper, I would recommend that you avoid this room. We were constantly woken up as early as 5AM with sounds from the galley along with them working late into the evening, ~11:30pm. I would definitely recommend a lanai stateroom, but just pick one that isn't in this position of the ship.