Holland America Line Mediterranean Cruise Reviews

I chose this cruise to visit the ports (Cartagena, Malaga, Cadiz in Spain and Lisbon and Funchal in Portugal). Unfortunately due to weather and a pilot boat strike in Portugal the only port I visited was Malaga. We then went to the Canary Islands as a contingency plan for two ports (one was five hours long and the other was 12 hours). These ports were not interesting to me. The ship itself was ...

We just returned from a 26-day TA from Athens to Fort Lauderdale; actually a 12-day Mediterranean to Barcelona and a 14-day transatlantic crossing to FL. HAL sold it as a single 26-day cruise but the second 14-day leg was much cheaper so many got on in Barcelona for TA. Unfortunately the weather prompted the captain to cancel Cadiz and Portugal. We had also lost 2 ports on the 12day segment but, ...

Nieuw Statendam clearly wishes to appeal to the loving-loud-music-everywhere American. The ship will be successful in this. The ship itself is beautifully maintained. You will have to search to find a rust spot anywhere. First-class paintwork, varnish and cleaning. Faultless and much appreciated. An MSC ship moored alongside at some stage and that looked very different. All housekeeping and ...

I loved the staff, the service and honestly the maintenance of the ship is overall very good. I would give them 4.5 to 5 stars in most cases. The ship however is old from the perspective of activities and value. Activities are very limited compared to other vessels both in terms of physical offerings such as recreational opportunities but also in terms of creativity. Other ships have mini ...

My husband and I sailed on the Oosterdam Sept 14th, 2023 - October 8th, 2023. This was a 24 day trip starting in Barcelona and ending in Athens, Greece. When booking, everything that could have wrong did. I was given misinformation about having an assigned cabin and having premium economy flights. This was straightened out by a very helpful Resolution Specialist. We received an email from ...

I have cruised HA 15 times. Love the line. We took this cruise and extended another 14 days to travel to Egypt, Turkey, Greece etc. so we were on the ship a total of 25 days. HA has always attracted an older crowd and the ship is usually fairly full. We noticed the following during our 25 days: (1) Poor officer interaction with passengers (2) poorly trained Lido floor wait staff (3) lack of ...

We chose this cruise for the itinerary and the cruise line reputation, as this was our first cruise on Holland America. The servers were friendly and accommodating, often going out of their way to please cruise passengers. But we can’t help compare the Oosterdam to several previous cruises on Celebrity, which continues to be our favorite. We enjoy the universally prepared Mai Tai ...

The port is about 2 hours from Venice. The cruise port of Trieste is stressful in that the Luggage Check-in is a distance from where the guest goes up a winding flight of stairs to Embarkation check -in. To make matters worse the check-in time it took for luggage was 80 minutes in the broiling sun. The port is not equipped at this time to be very guest/passenger friendly. I made the mistake of ...

This was our first Holland America experience after sailing on Royal Caribbean and Carnival. We picked this cruise because it was one of the few lines that visit Istanbul. Athens, Mykonos, Istanbul, Crete, and Olympia we’re all great ports. Things that were a disappointment on the ship: entertainment was sparse, food/drink service was not available at all times and ended at 11:30pm, and ...

First the good: I am an avid cruiser, but I had never cruised Holland America before. I had some trepidation because I had heard that it skewed older. Not that I am a spring chicken, but I’m also not 70. At any rate, the cabins were of familiar size and the crew was excellent, although there was some inconsistencies in the bar, especially with the featured drinks, which you would think all ...