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Excellent

Zuiderdam

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Oosterdam

Rome (Civitavecchia)

This was our first cruise with Holland America and our first Transatlantic cruise.  The itinerary was like none we had seen and we were excited to be going to 16Ports!  We were impressed with how quickly and smoothly the embarkation and disembarkation went. The Oosterdam was in dry dock prior to our departure from Fort Lauderdale.   The two week refit in the Bahamas included:

New bottom paint

Bow thruster overhaul

Asipod maintenance and paint

New stage for the Main stage area

Stairs removed from the Atrium area

New guest services area

New carpet in these areas

Floors 4,5, and 1 were redone- prior drydock 6,7,8

New mattresses throughout

New carpet in a lot of the landing areas, more to come

All safety boats repainted

Maintenance work on the chillers

Emergency diesel work

New countertops in Lido

Lido aft teak deck replaced with composite material

Deck 10 crows nest completely redone, now Exploration Central

New logo on the ship funnels

Maintenance on engines

Est cost $12-13 million

The overall ship condition was very good.  There were some areas where the carpet still needs to be replaced.  The new areas are very nice!  Some areas in the Main Dining room Deck 2 could use some updating, but overall the area was very nice.  

The entertainment on board could be improved, the piano players were average at best, the comedian we went to see was not good and we left early.  The BB King area had some good entertainment!!  Overall the cruise director did not have much going on.  This was fine for us, since there were so many excursions and port stops we were not around during the day and the evenings we did not stay up late. There were Microsoft computer classes, which were always full and very informative and some guest speakers with interesting topics, a movie and random other events.  The spa and gym offered their usual "come in so I can up-sell you" seminars.  Like learn how to look younger in 10 minutes, and it was "Restlyne fillers"  for a high cost. The gym was nice, small but efficient.  They never had music playing, which would have been nice.

We dined everywhere except specialty restaurants.  The breakfast at the Lido was also good and a wide variety, including made to order omelets and waffles!  We usually ate lunch there too.  The Dive Bar was great for burgers and fries!  The dining room experience was one we looked forward to every evening!  Our servers Nur and Ally were amazing and our food was excellent!  We opted for anytime dining, which was great since we didn't know when we would want to dine, however we always requested our servers section and the staff was very accommodating.  We enjoyed drinks at all the bars, and the happy hours from 4-5 in the Billboard Onboard and later the Lido pool.  Late nights 10-11 Happy hour in the Gallery Bar for a great martini, buy one and next one for $2.00!  The game area was next to this bar, so we would play a game of chess too!  This is located next to the casino so it is a fun people watching area too!

The ports we visited on this cruise were amazing!  They were all great, and some we will definitely be going back to! Some ports were not close to the town areas and the ship charged a $14 pp fee for a shuttle.  I think this should have been included.  We only did 2 excursions with the ship, and others independently. The cruise excursions were long, and had too many guests and prices were not as good.  We enjoyed the private and semi private tours we booked on our own.  We met some really great people on the cruise, many who have been on several transatlantic cruises. It was interesting hearing about all their travels. We will be going on another cruise, and were very pleased with Holland America!

Awesome Cruise!  Looking forward to the next one!

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