We chose this cruise at the last minute just to get away from our unseasonably cold weather. We couldn't believe how Holland America had changed since last fall. There were hardly any books in the library, and the ones that were there were mostly Fantasy and SCI_FI - not our "cup of tea". They have no attendant and the books are placed "haphazardly" on the shelves. They had changed the WIFI and one now has to purchase unlimited for the whole cruise - I think it was $179, or close to that for 17 days. As we just wanted to check our email, that sounded pretty steep! We did inquire if as 5 star we would get $55 off,(it still lists under 5 star benefits that each 5 star gets half price of $55 for 100 mins) but were told that we would have to purchase 2 packages (his & her's) to get that off - and why would you do that when one gives you unlimited minutes-DAH??

The band is even smaller and there are no wind instruments, any longer, and definitely no dance band-(though that has been gone for 2 years) and as a result we only had 5 nights out of 17 to dance as the band was required for the show the other nights. There were also no dance hosts.

The on board (free) activities were cut way back - no dance lessons, the lecturers subject were boring and the lecturers , though pleasant people, were not good lecturers. We had 11 sea days and in the past that number of sea days would have brought a couple of first rate lecturers and interesting subjects - 4 lectures on the laws of space and another 3 on laws of the Poles did not keep an audience. There was no boat building contest, no welcome aboard lunch or reception for long serving Mariners, on departing, and we could go on and on. Read more