This cruise was a birthday present to me from my brother and sister-in-law. (I'm a very lucky woman.) My younger daughter happens to live in the Netherlands and was driving to the port to pick me up to spend time together before the boat left Amsterdam, and was t-boned by a semi-truck. She was fine, with a minimum of injury, but spent about 3 hours in the emergency room before reaching the boat. There was no time to drive to her home and back for a visit, so we asked the staff if she and her husband could stay on the boat until we departed. The staff was superb -- understanding, kind, gracious, treating my daughter and son-in-law as if they were guests on the cruise, which means, in total, extraordinarily well. And that was just the beginning.

The size of the boat is, in my opinion, perfect. It isn't so large that you feel as if you are traveling on a floating city, but large enough to have interesting people to meet and share stories with.

The food was amazing -- delicious, nutritious, plentiful and beautifully presented with enough choices to please any palate. I enjoyed the fish or seafood every night because I never cook that at home. What a treat. Read more