My wife and I chose this cruise to share with my brother and his wife. They had only been on one cruise before and not on Holland America. My brother and I are very avid music lovers and my ,brother’s wife is as well. My wife also enjoys music but is not as much.
We all agreed that the ship was beautiful, the cabins first rate, everything was clean, and the crew extremely friendly and ...
Hadn’t been on HAL since 2004 but had six prior cruises under my belt starting in 1995- all of which I had really enjoyed. This cruise was easy driving distance from home and Costco travel had a great deal for a balcony with HIA included, which is how we chose it. In the last six years, have cruised on Celebrity and Cunard- and based on the price point and the market positioning, expected ...
I was looking for a CA based cruise to Mexico during the holidays. I chose this one, because it was 12 days with 8 ports, compared to 3 ports on a 7 day cruise. Also, this one was not so child friendly, there were less than 150 people under 18 on board, and most were teens. We got a really good deal on an oceanview room on lower promendade. I was pretty happy with it. Food not so good. But ...
We wanted to do a Holiday Cruise and since we are avid cruisers and really enjoy Holland America ships this cruise fit the bill. We have enjoyed all our previous Holland cruises very much. Holland has been our primary cruise line for almost 30 years. Past service and food quality has always been impeccable. We have enjoyed the ships and always look forward to cruising with Holland. We have ...
After 5 days at sea to reach Hawaii we were disappointed to hear that bad weather forced a cancellation of our visit to Maui. The remaining shore excursions were good but our Maui excursion was the one we'd looked forward too the most.
Then of course there's the additional 5 days at sea for our return journey. We love shipboard life but this was too much in one stretch. The majority of the time ...
Hawaii was on our bucket list and we had the time for 16 days. HAL made it seem longer! This was cruise 17 for us. Third on HAL. No rookies here! On all the best lines e.g. Viking. HAL has cut back too far. Loss of Lincoln Center is a good example. $4 extra charge for orange juice is another. Cruise featured chaos at embarkcation and 3 1/2 hour delay in leaving SAN. During cruise ship had ...
We chose this cruise because we've enjoyed Holland America cruises in the past, and because the itinerary was what we were looking for.
Sadly, Holland America has declined sharply in recent years. This cruise was like staying in a second-rate Las Vegas hotel:
*smokey casino, with smoke drifting into other areas of the ship
*deafening music in all the music venues
*no classical music ...
The good... the food and the wonderful staff at the restaurants and Lido. The room is nice and the room stewards are amazing. The boat was generally pretty clean for as many sneezing, coughing, and dirty people there were. The hot tubs were clean. Laundry service is well worth the cost. The bartenders and wait staff around the outdoor pool area are the hardest working people I've seen on the boat. ...
Back to Back this and Dec. 22. Historical Mexican itinerary. Unfortunately had to miss Rosalina due to winds. A great deal of tendering ports which for many, would be the draw back. As usual great food, and staff exceptional. The combo mix bar for trivia and football days does not work well together. Trivia very well attended. Ship definitely showing its age in many places, but still is ...
We were on this ship, same itinerary last year for 7 day cruise. This year 11 day cruise, per day price was double, like all else in our world now. Ship has been kept up very nicely, very clean, all worked well. We had mid-ship veranda. Very nice comfortable room, bed very good. Bathroom small but worked well for us. Nice slate floor and large shower. Bigger people would have trouble with toilet ...