New ship , everything works . Shiny and clean . Beautiful décor . Excellent service in the dining rooms and excellent food . Previously our favorite HAL ship has been Noordam and this crew was just as good . Our Vista suite A stewards did a great job . All the dining room meals we had were excellent . the only "bad " item I had was the HAL strawberry shortcake dessert which I had forgotten they put on an almost inedible roll like cake . All the other desserts however were excellent . Pinnacle grill was great , excellent Filet Mignon cooked perfectly pink . Tamarind lobster and Satay sampler appetizer were excellent . Beautiful room . frankly , some of the Tamarind items were just "average" the ribs and the spring rolls come to mind . All the fish dishes we had on the ship , Salmon , Perch and Sole were excellent . Entertainment was varied , some comedy , some musicians , some ship entertainer shows . Most were very good . The ships singer dancers unfortunately seem to be screaming into their mikes and sometimes make beautiful songs almost un recognizable. The cruise director was a nice fellow but we really didn't see much of him .

The promenade deck is narrow in spots with no deck chairs , but there are tons of them up on the sun deck , they just aren't wood anymore . Embarkation was fine , Disembarkation a long line of people rolling their own bags off . Looks like we all couldn't wait to get on ,and then , we couldn't wait to get off the ship . Lido breakfasts were good . dining room lunches were great . The "Dive In " took forever to make a burger . The "NY Pizza " guys have never seen NY pizza , it was just OK . The Dutch café is a nice addition and a good place to sit and relax . Contrary to previous reports , there is a growing library up at the Crow's Nest . I hope it continues to grow . We were a little put off for a $2 extra charge for ice cream ( Gelato ) . These things kind of take away from the cruise experience of inclusive . I don't mind the extra cost restaurants and the charges for drinks , those are understandable . Lots of the old HAL stuff missing : No yum yum man , no dedicated movie theatre , no crew show , no bringing the crew on stage . But there have been improvements . The new streamlined menus are a plus and ordering all items at once is efficient . The streamlined room service breakfast menu is OK , but kind of annoying to see extra cost food items found there way onto that too.

( steak and eggs $9.50 ). On the plus side , you can still write in the missing items . We wrote in stewed prunes and 2 coffee pots every day , no problem , and always delivered hot and on time . The casino was OK but they really are allowing in too many no chance to win slots , and bad odds blackjack games , like " BJ pays 6-5 " . Kind of a rip off . Read more