We recently took a cruise from Vancouver up the inside passage and to Alaska with Holland America on the Nieuw Amsterdam. We had heard from several people that this was one of the best ship to do this cruise with as they cruise deep into glacier bay. The embarkation process in Vancouver took almost 2 hours but as this is mostly because of the USA security screening I cannot blame Holland America for this but nonetheless the trip did not get off to a good start. One of our suitcases did not arrive into our cabin until 9pm at night and when I went to the front office to query the delay I was greeted by a rather rude staff member! On one day we had no hot water for approx 4 hours and when I called guest services to find out what the problem was I was told I would be called back - I was never called back. Our toilet was blocked and that took 1/2 a day to get serviced! The battery on our safe died on our second last day of the cruise but it was never repaired. I cannot believe that they don't even have a facility where you can iron some clothes - everything must be cleaned & ironed through the ships laundry service and at a cost! The entertainment would have to be the worst I have ever seen on all the cruises I have done.

We had decided to book a nice suite which had a good size bathroom and cabin. I was quite surprised that you are not even given a complimentary bottle of water in your cabin but rather you have to pay $5 for this privilege.

I would not book a cruise with this cruise line in future.