My wife and I are experience cruisers and it was my first experience with Holland America.The ship was new and looked very nice. The best feature of the ship was the music walk especially the BB Kings Blues Club. The band was excellent in that it played many classic songs from Motown and that era. On most other cruise lines you may have a disco with a few younger passengers attending but this was an 8 piece band that had many people of all ages dancing to it in the Queens Lounge and dance venue. In the future this will be an attraction for other cruise lines to copy. There is no substitute for a large dance band in getting passengers dancing. Also Lincoln Center was a good place to hear chamber music. Both these venues were on the "Music Walk". Great idea Holland America!

The food in the main dining room was very good, no complaints here.The negatives on this ship was the Lido Market Cafe. The choice of foods were below average and the set up was deplorable. Holland America decided that they would have the servers dish out the food to the passengers which caused long lines for the better offerings. Celebrity lets the passengers serve themselves which moved the people along faster. The cafe always seemed extremely crowded at all times with a long wait time. This needs to change.

Entertainment was substandard. Evidently because of the expense of having a great band at the BB Blues Club and Lincoln Center, Holland America cut back on the entertainment in the show room. They had a comedian in the large show room as the main entertainment. On other cruise lines they would have a broadway show in the main room and then have the comedians later that night in a smaller venue. However it was nice they had 3 different showtimes a night! Read more