Our perspective is skewed to a moderate lifestyle so if you enjoy late night activities and bars, we aren't very informative. Retired since early 2002, we are both 58 and our idea of a good time is to go to the gym, attend an occasional show and be asleep by 10:00PM. Boring, as our kids would say.

By way of comparison, 47 of our tribe were on the Norwegian Dawn in June. Last December we sailed the Celebrity Millennium. Just prior to that we were on the Emerald Princess. We can state unequivocally that the Oosterdam has the best food. The Celebrity is close and Princess is a little behind and of course, NCL is dead last or you wouldn't be reading a Holland America review anyway. But if you want to take a bunch of your kids and grandkids, NCL is the right cruise line. Wouldn't consider inflicting my grandkids on the Celebrity or Holland America crowd, we'd be a wreck trying to control them where as they fit in nicely with NCL. This may also be true for Carnival but I'll pass on finding that out. In my attempt to be truthful, I am sounding snobbish--sorry about that.

This was our 5th trip down the Mexican Rivera and 4th on Holland America. They are top notch and cater to an older crowd. Their crew is well trained and a delight to interact with. We rate their food as the best we have experienced. The Italian specialty restaurant was very good but has a limited menu. Definitely try it. We chose to dine at Le Cirque the one night that it was available. They substitute their menu one night at the Pinnacle Grill and it was extremely good. The menu wasn't large, but a great experience. Read more