This was a 48 day RT from Fort Lauderdale that included a few Caribbean isles, Brazil coastal ports including Rio at Carnaval and finally the Amazon to Manaus and back. The Amazon was always on our "someday" list, Rio and Carnaval were not, but this cruise came up at a good price and so we grabbed it on fairly short notice (almost too short given that the Brazil visas arrived only a few days prior to departure).

The Veendam is an older ship but it is kept in good condition and we had very minimal issues (temperature control in the room, a slow drain) which were promptly addressed by the staff. The staff, as we've always found on HAL, were friendly and service oriented. We had most meals in the Lido - where the soups and bread were my favorite supper with a larger meal at lunchtime. DH had multi course meals and often sampled two different meats/fish. By the end of the cruise we were tired of the options, but admit that compared to what we make at home the variety was impressive. The Asian and Pasta stations were always good. The specialty restaurants were excellent, and in 7 weeks we went at least 10 times.

We were in a Verandah stateroom on deck 10 near the aft elevators and we used the balcony a lot; enjoyed the pillow options of soft to firm; found the room adequately quiet and comfortable; and we were glad that we brought along a small tabletop fan (as we always do) as being in the tropics for 7 weeks with heat and humidity made it difficult to keep our room at the cool temperature we prefer. Many other areas of the ship were quite cool though - on lower decks the public spaces were several degrees cooler than our room or the Lido (which has constant traffic from the open deck where temperatures in the 80 with high humidity prevailed. Read more