Our first time on Holland America. We have cruised mainly with Carnival and Royal Carribean. I was anxious to see how the Statendam was, as I had read several "not-so-good" reviews. Here is the good and the bad:
Embarkation was great. Very short lines. We went right to our room. We had an interior room on the verandah deck. It was very nice and quiet. Great beds, loved the big bath towels and the shampoo and body gel in the shower. We had no problems with our air conditioning. It worked fine.
The ship is older and smaller than others I have been on. I thought they did a wonderful job of keeping it clean. There were always crew members cleaning everywhere I went. The carpet needs to be replaced. It was stained on almost every floor near the elevators. I thought the ship was very elegant. I liked the smaller ship. It was so easy to get around. We rarely had to wait in line for the buffet and usually got seats easily in the Lido and in the theatre for the shows every night.