BACKGROUND: My wife and I have taken 6 cruises, all on HAL. This is only our third HAL ship, so comparisons are a bit limited. This was a 26-day "combination" cruise of 16 days Transatlantic, plus 10 days Mediterranean.

STATEROOM: This was our first disappointment. Ever since our first cruise, when we booked an outside room on the Veendam, we have always booked the "inside standard". HAL has usually upgraded us at some point, and this was no exception. We were upgraded from MM to J, supposedly a "Large Inside" stateroom. It was the smallest stateroom we have had on HAL, regardless of class. The Front Office confirmed that it was one of the smallest on the ship, regardless of its "higher" class. There was just enough room to walk on either side of the bed. There was no "dresser" or "bureau" as we had become used to in other ships (including the "old" Noordam). It was made to feel even a little smaller by the round table that sat at the end of the bed and generally was in the way. If you like to sit in your stateroom and write (or work on a laptop), good luck! The "desk" space is almost nil once you take into account the obligatory bowl for fruit, the ice bucket, and a few magazines and books.

The bathroom was your basic prefabricated bath/shower unit. There was barely enough room in the cabinet for the toiletry items we brought. Lighting was good. The toilet worked fine. Water escaped from the shower every time we used it. Read more