I must admit that I was very disappointed in this cruise ship. It is just like the other cruise ships now and has very little of what I sail Holland America for. It was nice and had the new car smell but did not have any soul. The staff were under a lot of pressure and appeared to be stressed out. I don't know If that was because they were coming into a major inspection in Fort Lauderdale. The friendliness just wasn't there. The service in the dining room was very weak and very slow. There did not seem to be any rhyme or reason to what they were doing. Tables of 10 where you could not even talk to people. The lights were very bright until about 3 days into the cruise when they finally turned them down. There seemed to be a lot of people at the stations and not many on the floor. Dirty dishes were left. People were not waited on and actually left and the time to get your food was long. The dutch cafe and the lido also frequently had left dishes. There was one time when we went to the dutch cafe when we had to wait for someone to clear a table and there were only a few people there. The new culinary center only had cameras on one food preparation spot and so was difficult to see at times and the food was ok only. A five course meal where one course, not the dessert, was lollipops. And mariners beware your discount may not be what you thought it would be at this restaurant. Of course the tamarind was fabulous and the staff were great. The canaletto was good and I enjoyed it. The service was great there too. The new deli and pizza restaurant was good. The have a paid gelato bar which I heard was good but did not try. No library which I wish I had known and would have brought more books. They keep saying that this will be fixed but we were told the fix would be IPADs. There was very little shaded seating areas and the walking deck was very small and no room to sit. You had to dodge boats. The spaces aren't big enough for the amount of people. The theater is nice but not enough seats even though there are 3 shows. The LED screens were great but could have been used better for the non HAL staff shows. The decor was bland. I am ok with modern but this was cold and boring instead of warm and exciting. The music venues were ok. I was not impressed with billboard on board and the only dance floor is in the Blues club. HAL seems to be going for branding now. Lincoln Center, Billboard on Board, The Blues Club and even BBC earth. HAL is trying to attract a younger crowd and I can understand that but ..... Our room was great but I heard a lot of complaints about other rooms. The room sizes vary greatly and there were some verandas where the view toward the water was taken over by the tenders. The showers were great, lots of plugs although I could have used another European plug, the beds were hard which is good for me so I loved it and the TV was huge with on demand movies. I literally went from this ship to another HAL ship. I walked into breakfast the next morning and was greeted by an entourage of dining stewards welcoming me to their home. What a difference. I love Holland America and really hope that a majority of the attitude problems on this ship had to do with the tension of an upcoming inspection and is not a sign of what is to come.