Although we had sailed on Holland America (Zaandam) previously, we were a little hesitant because of all we had read about bad experiences. I am happy to say that we found none of the negative experiences on our cruise.
The verandah stateroom was roomy and had lots of storage space. The bed was extremely comfortable, and our steward was efficient and friendly. We ate on the Lido (buffet) only twice, but found the food vastly improved over our Zaandam trip. The waiters, however, were not the best. In the dining room, where we ate most of the time, it was totally different: the food was wonderful and our servers were competent and quick--even remembering our names and that my wife liked iced tea and I liked decaf cappuccino! We had some interesting conversations with our section head about his Indonesian homeland.
The ports were fun. We went on our own at Nassau with "Dan the man," who gave us a very complete tour in a stretch Cadillac for $28 each, and that included the Atlantis Digs, the Queen's Stairway, etc. St. Maarten left something to be desired. We shopped in the morning and went to Orient Beach in the afternoon. I think nudity is better left to the extremely young! Tortola was beautiful. We took the ship-sponsored tour around the island and spent about an hour and a half at Cane Garden Bay, a superb beach. Of course, Half-Moon Cay was even better than we had remembered! We rented a "clamshell" and spent about 5 hours on the beach.