This was our first and most likely only HA cruise, only choosing this line as we wanted to sail out of San Diego. While we tend to sail Celebrity, we are open to trying new lines. What we found on HA was very friendly staff, a Lido buffet which is mindful of public health having servers give food to protect all our germs (yay) and no pushing of restaurants, beverage packages and photos which was a real treat and some great entertainment. However, we found the friendly staff didn't seem to go that extra mile, a dining room that had very boring meal options so we ended up eating in Tamarind once and Canaletto twice (both delish!, and activities, which to us focused way too much on learning computer skills and the Mexican culture and little of anything else. Speaking of food, all the breads were delicious but the desserts (other than gala night lemon meringue cheesecake) were not and would have been nice to have a build your own sandwich bar rather than taking pre packaged, overly buttered or too much mayo sandwiches. Not a big thing but struck us as a bit odd. They did go out of their way to assist my husband with GF options for each dinner and at lunch and breakfast. But all the ships are doing that now. Regarding the Eurodam itself. We found it a bit dated and dark and we missed having a grand centre area where people can hang out as in other ships we have been on. Seemed like very choppy hallways including a strange venue for a most entertaining Lincoln Centre classical group which were a treat. We did book a Retreat Cabana for the week which great except as mentioned earlier, the staff were nice but did not go that extra mile. You would think after 3 days of asking for ice, the cabana person would have figured out we like ICE!! Seems like two nice staff with little initiative and sometimes impossible to even find considering many of the cabanas had not been rented. A decent overall ship but not for us. Read Less

Really enjoyed this cruise - have travelled with HAL several times and am never disappointed. Inside cabin was small but adequate - Cabin 4165 Cabin steward kept the cabin clean and was very helpful if we needed anything. Ship is kept super clean - staff is very friendly and helpful. Activities vary and everyone can find something to do. Digital classes are good to either learn or learn something new on your computer. Test kitchen is fun and the receipes are some you can use at home. Lido Buffett is very good -I always enjoy that the food is hot and there is a great variety of food. I always enjoy the hard icecream for desert! Show are good - I'm not a big show person but did attend a couple. Casino - variety of games - some people win and some don't (I'm on of those that don't) but I enjoy playing. Great ship! Read Less

This was our 6th cruise with Holland, and we have only sailed with them. It was our first time on the Eurodam. This was a great cruise for us as it came at time when needed it most. For the most part Holland again came through with flying colours. Special thumbs up for the the dining room food quality, which was as good or better than any of our previous cruises. We are puzzled by some recent reviews that claim substandard food quality on the Eurodam. Service was top notch ( with a couple of exceptions hardly worth noting ) as always. ..but alas, there were a few niggly things that we feel worth noting: Internet service - it used to be that Holland had pay-as-go internet which was perfect for us because we only check our e-mails and send the odd one. Now that simple act costs $189 for 7 day trip. Decided to forgo internet and do it ashore for free...which leaves sea days as a dead zone. Reading lights - this admittedly a minor point, but the LED spot lights they installed in the cabins in place of the warm lamps they used to have, is an irritating step backward. Live music - on our first cruise back in 2008, there was a live band that played in various venues, including the Crownest, where there was a small dance floor. Holland has moved away from that...now they have the BB King Club and band, which while good, is in a dark venue that could be anywhere, and music gets repetitious after a few days. Used to be they also had a trio playing the Ocean Bar for dancing. Live music has definitely been on the downward trend over the years. Happy Hour - it used to be that most of the bars had happy hour from 4-5...including the Crownest. Back in 2008 when we started with Holland, you could go to the Crowsnest for 2for1 drinks, with a live band and watch sailaway! Now only the Ocean Bar has it from 4-5..it is crowded and noisy and we had to take our drinks elsewhere. That said, we will be sailing with Holland again without question! Read Less

January 6th cruise on the recently refurbished Eurodam. Third cruise on HAL. 23rd cruise overall. My wife and I are seniors but lead busy lives. We go on cruises to get away from it all, relax, veg out and be taken care of. In regards to these goals, Eurodam filled the bill with flying colors. The Eurodam was recently refurbishes and is a clean, pretty ship. We had a spa veranda stateroom. It was a nice room with adequate storage for two people. Bed was incredibly comfortable. Very nice large flat screen TV on the wall facing the bed. Balcony was small but adequate and pleasant. In case you were wandering, the difference between a spa veranda stateroom and a regular veranda stateroom is that you are closer to the spa and you have a rolled up yoga mat in your closet. It DOES NOT entitle you to any spa privileges or discounts. Food was very good in both the main dining room and the buffet. I had read prior reviews on cruise critic that complained the hot food was served cold. This was never our experience. My objection to the food on all the HAL ships that I have been on is that they bend over backwards to fancy it up and appeal (it seems) to gourmands. That is fine but how about some options for those of us who like plain good tasting, down home food. I am a very plain meat and potatoes guy. My stomach does not like very spicy dishes. On the menu one night was celery and cucumber goat quark as a starter. I am not into eating sub atomic particles that come from a goat. For those of us who do like plain food, there is New York Pizza (OK, not outstanding), the Dive-In (best hamburgers and hot dogs as well as very best fries at sea) with limited hours of 11:30 am - 6 pm (New York Pizza is open until 10 or 11 pm) and room service. The room service items that appealed to me the most were on the children's menu but for some inexplicable reason, the children's room service menu is only available from 5:30pm -9:30pm, which is while we are at dinner or right after. Apparently HAL does not want anyone ordering off the children's room service menu. Entertainment was very good. Comic magician and comedian were both excellent. Pianists/singers at Billboard and BB King were excellent. Production shows on main stage were very good. Lincoln Center musicians were superb. We did not do shore excursions or many ship activities because our goals were as listed at the beginning of this review. As a matter of fact, we did not even care about the ports at all. We did not take this cruise because of it's itinerary. We just wanted to be on the ship, wherever it went. Most mornings we missed breakfast as we slept in until 11 am or noon. One of the places we used to enjoy visiting was the library which was located in the explorations cafe/cow's nest on HAL ships. Unfortunately, with the refurbishment, they pretty much did away with the library. It is not even listed as existing though there are still a few books there. Pity. HAL used to have the best library of any cruise line at sea. Also, the explorations cafe seems to have less offerings than it used to. It is much prettier but I rather have the old library and cafe back. Service was excellent from all crew members. They all smiled and greeted guests pleasantly. The MDR staff, however, seemed very rushed and always moving. One got the impression that they had to do more with less. They tried to give each guest outstanding service and did so to the best of their ability, but long waits were the norm as they just seemed overwhelmed by the demands on limited staff and time. Special shout out to our room steward Adit. Of the 23 cruises we have been on, he was the best room steward I have had and I have always had excellent room stewards. Would I do this ship again? In a New York minute if the price was right. The positives so overshadowed the few negatives. Read Less

I'm glad to read that so many of the 'group' from Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle enjoyed HAL and are sold on cruising with them in the future. I have been on many HAL cruises and the Eurodam overall was excellent. I feel their service is exceptional, food very good with many choices. Tamarind was superb. MDR for breakfast and dinner, also very good. Went to Lido twice for a quick lunch and always satisfied with offerings. I did 'any time' dining and I was always asked if I wanted to be seated with a group. I never had to wait and enjoyed hearing from others why they appreciated being on such a wonderful ship vs. some of their other experiences. Went on a HAL shore excursion which was a lot of fun. Learned a lot about Puerto Vallarta and the guide and driver were first-rate. I used Trip Advisor for Cabo outing with Big Mikes Sea Adventures and would recommend also. Enjoyed the entertainment, especially the two comedians--who happened to be on our same floor with the musicians! Jazz and piano players were fabulous. Our cabin stewards were so gracious--always with a smile and a greeting each time we met. I have learned it works best for me to arrive for embarkation later as I went right onto the ship as well as disembarkation. All went smoothly with no delay. This was also true of the one port in Cabo where tenders were used--efficient and no delay. There were some young children as well as teenagers on this cruise, and all were well behaved. I didn't spend time at the pool so can't speak to that activity. I would definitely go on the Mexican Riviera cruise and Eurodam again. Read Less

great 7 day cruise, San Diego - Mexico We had room 8155 Balcony great room excellent room stewards Category VF aft and starboard. dinning in MDR & Pinnacle Grill. Good food lots of choices and excellent service. Dive in burger was yummy, Pizza ok not enough red sauce for our liking but thin crust which we prefer. Liddo Buffet was fine for our lunches had a great salad bar, a great variety of food stations Breakfast in room and on Lido only once in MDR. We were disappointed with the breakfast in MDR eggs not cooked to order and hash brown patties yuk! Would be nice if they served real potato hash browns. The onboard nightly shows were very good the Hal performers were the best we have seen! Overall we really enjoyed it it was a R&R for us so no shore excursions We are going to book with Holland again for Europe in the near future. Great cruise and great workers Read Less

My best friend and I chose this cruise because of the low price for a verandah cabin in January compared to later months. Also, it left from San Diego which is near my friend's home. It was her first cruise and my second - and first with HAL. My previous cruise was on the Norwegian Jewel 2 years ago - a much longer Miami to LA cruise via the Panama Canal. This short cruise on the Eurodam took me to a place I had been to once - Cabo - and two Mexican ports neither of us had visited: Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. The food in the Lido was better than the equivalent on the Jewel and my friend was very impressed. The optional dinners at the Asian themed Tamarind and steak house Pinnacle Grill were excellent - and the service at Tamarind rivaled that of best restaurants I've ever experienced. We also used the Tamarind to provide us with appetizers and sushi to watch the NFL playoff games in our cabin on Saturday - outstanding! The music from BB King's band was great and the dance floor was filled with people on almost every song - much better entertainment than available on the Jewel. I missed the extra deck space on the Jewel for walking on the top decks and the ship seemed smaller overall. It also seemed less crowded and we did not have to wait very long for food or other service anywhere on the ship - maybe January is better for that as well. On the Jewel my mom and I went on Norwegian hosted excursions but for this trip my friend and I just used taxis and local tour guides to take us around. Highly recommend Alberto Cruz Cota in PV for a great local tour guide - alcruztours@hotmail.com or cell (322) 2277 675 or home (322) 224 58 34. HAL recommended restaurant in Mazatlan Pancho's was excellent - best shrimp we've ever tasted. Overall cruise highly recommended - just fix the standard beds to equal those on the Jewel. Read Less

Background- We ended up on this cruise because we waited too long to book for our planned Caribbean cruise and this was what was available with a good selection of cabins at the last minute. We are an extended family of 12 from 16 to 82 and we booked 5 cabins. Some of us are from Southern CA and that made this a convenient cruise as it was out of San Diego. We parked at the Wyndham across from the cruise terminal. This is incredibly convenient and was only $11 per day. We dropped luggage and people off and then went and parked the car. The walk is only about 5 minutes. We parked around 11:30 and were on board by 12:30. The embarkation process was smooth, lines were not too bad and staff was as quick as possible and friendly. The cabins were ready and we dropped everything off and we were in the buffet before 1. Internet- My SIL bought middle tier on embarkation Sunday it was $99.99 for the entire cruise. I bought the middle tier just after midnight at about 1 AM Monday and it was $89.99 for the duration of cruise. For the most part the internet worked well all over the ship and my cabin but at times it would be spotty or stop working for a bit. Checking in water- We checked in 3 flats of water, no problem. They were delivered to our cabins. One flat was still intact at the end of the cruise and my brother checked it as luggage for debarkation. The water was delivered in tact with our luggage on arrival and at baggage claim on debarkation. Entertainment- BB King- Great band, very talented musicians, especially the trumpet player. The female was ill and only sang the last night. Billboard- Fun piano bar duo, the male had just got on board when we did. Lincoln Center- Again great musicians Stage Shows- Enjoyed 1000 Steps, not so crazy about One World. 4 in our group left One World after about 3 minutes. Comedian excellent. Really enjoyed the BBC Earth with live orchestra. I did not see the magician or the show the final night that was the comedian and magician with new material. Activities- Really enjoyed the Mexican ambassadors. Great entertainment with the folkloric shows. They also had dance classes, language lessons and art classes. Not much of interest to our group in the AM on sea days though. No morning trivia like all other lines I have been on. It seemed that all of the activities we would enjoy were lumped at the same time in the afternoon. This is one area this ship could be improved. Food- Loved that at the buffet the staff serves the majority of the food. I dislike using the same serving utensils as hundreds as other people so this was a biggie to us. We all agreed that the food was great in both the Lido and the MDR. Great fries at Dive In. Tried a piece of pizza and it was OK. Compared to Carnival, Celebrity and RCL, we all agreed this was the best food we have had. Liked that there was a legitimate late night buffet each night from 10:30 to 11:30. Staff- Incredibly friendly and accommodating. Top end of what we have experienced on other lines. I have no complaints about the staff, they were really amazing. Other guests- I was expecting an older crowd but it was actually skewed more to middle age, with some younger and some older. There were about 1/3 the number of kids on the ship per our waiter vs. the holiday weeks prior to ours. Kids running around at the pool was a bit dangerous and no one said anything. Ship- nice small size and in very good shape. No smoking indoors!!!! Cabins- I was in an obstructed OV. The view was mostly of one of the shorter life boats so we could see light and some things over the life boat. The cabin seemed smaller than other ships but the bathroom was much better with a tub, room to actually move around some. Lots of cabinets and storage, we did not even need it all. Two cabins in our group with balcony and they said they seemed small, they looked average to me. TV- I did not watch much but there was a very good selection of live TV, movies, America's Test Kitchen, etc. plus the dinner menu. I was on one ship with so little TV it became a joke that I kept watching the same episode of Big Bank Theory over and over in various languages! Ports- Cabo- Two of us booked a private excursion to bird watch, there were a couple of issues but it turned out nicely in the end. The others in our group booked with HAL a dolphin interaction (their original choice was cancelled and they did not know until they showed up in the AM, HAL had delivered a letter but they did not read it!) They loved it but the pictures they sell were outrageous, something like $160. 2 booked scuba, 2 a boat tour to El Arco and 3 snorkeling trip to Chileno Bay all with HAL, they said all the trips were great. After tours some shopped and hit bars/restaurants. 1 did not get off the ship. Tendering was smooth, we needed off early to meet our private tour and we got number 2. Show up earlier than posted to get your tender number if you want off early. Mazatlan- 5 of us did the Birding and Estuaries. It was wonderful, I really enjoyed this trip. It ended with lunch and a short amount of beach time. I am a birder, as is my Mom, the other 3 from our group are not birders. This is not a hard core trip for birders, there were some other birders on our trip but most just were there for the nature experience. Others booked a private ATV trip and said it was lots of fun. The rest booked Nautical Heritage by Land and Sea. They really enjoyed the trip that included a boat tour, watching the cliff divers and a bus tour of Mazatlan. After my birding and estuaries tour 3 of us hired an open air taxi to take us to the cliff divers, the church and a general drive around. Very nice, highly recommend as well. PV- 4 of us did the Dolphins, Whales and Marietas Islands trip. It is at least 1 hour by boat to the islands. Once there we snorkeled, kayaked and paddle boarded. After we had lunch and drinks on the ship. Then we looked at the blue footed boobies found there and then whale watching. There were tons of colorful fish. During the whale watching we saw 25 to 30 whales, many at very close range. It was awesome. This was booked with HAL but ran by Vallarta Adventures. 4 others did a trip that was a speed boat, snorkeling, horseback riding, lunch, waterfall, etc. They said it was great. The other 4 did a private tour zip that they loved. We were in port until 11 PM so Rhythms of the Night was offered as a ship excursion meeting at 5:20 PM and back about 11. Although a bit pricey, it was fantastic. There was about a 45 minute boat ride to a candle lit/tiki torch lit location with a fantastic dinner buffet. After dinner was a Mexican themed Cirque du Soleil type show that we loved. The benches were incredibly uncomfortable though. The speed boat and night show were also run by Vallarta Adventures. Bonus- I love that they had 2 staff on board dedicated to helping you organize port visits on your own without booking an excursion. Read Less

This was my 23rd cruise, and I like to offer my insights. I like to start with positives so here we go: Staff is amazingly helpful. Ship is immaculate. Storage is amazing on this ship. Closets, cabinets, shelving, compartments. Everything was terrific. Elevators are really fast and never crowded. Cabins have a great amount of USB ports so you don’t have to lug charging bricks with you. Loved the makeup mirror they give you in the cabinet. The LED reading lights are terrific. The free movie selection in the room was unparalleled! Truly the best ever offered on a ship. For once, the pictures were lovely. No hard sell, very good value and the best, they had REASONABLY priced photo gifts that the produced right on the ship. BB Kings location and music was terrific! It’s enclosed and the acoustics are lovely. Much better than the Konigsdam which was wide open and had no ambiance of a club. Now for the real issues: This was our 3rd New Years cruise on HAL and the first time there was NOT ONE table to put your drink on while you were enjoying the New Years party near the pool. I looked at pictures from the Konigsdam and saw all of the high top tables around the deck. We had the 8pm seating for dinner and were NOT offered ANY New Years party favors. The ship has horrible plumbing issues. We had standing water in shower and backed up toilets constantly. Other people had brown water in bathroom sink and was told at first that it was ok to use to brush your teeth. Then Later, was not to use it. This ship doesn’t have a “sports bar” per-se but there are so many TV’s around and they just didn’t have enough viewing locations for all the college bowl games and NFL playoffs Some smaller issues: no laundry bags in room. If you make the mistake and take the bag marked “laundry” bag, you will be charged $15. The daily activities were pretty much non-existent. If I had not been on three other HAL cruises, I would have just chased it up to the “target” demographic but I must tell you, I think this is a direct reflection of the “middle aged” cruise director who just doesn’t necessarily care about making the shop have varied activities. On deck 11, there’s an area where they do all the cultural talks. I don’t know why they don’t utilize the same seating area and show movies so people don’t have to stay coupes up in their rooms if they want to watch a movie. There should be scheduled movie times crwatingvan atmosphere of socialization! It wasn’t until the last day at sea that I saw coloring pencils in the Fugi craft area. Why the ship didn’t let people know there was an adult “coloring ” time is beyond me. The food was ok. Nothing special and certainly nothing like other Holland ships. When they say “rack of lamb” but serve two pancake thin lamb chops, this is NOT rack of lamb. The food in Lido was mediocre to say the least. The bakery selection for breakfast was terrible and the eggs (scrambled) were just inedible. I don’t understand why the “daily menu” selections were not printed in the menu every day considering the menu was not very good. Ships should move over to paper straws rather than discontinue straws (on request only) Port of San Dirgobwas very easy for both embarkation and disembarkation. There were over 280 kids this week but the ship didn’t change anything on the daily program. Read Less

Chose this ship because we had a great experience 8 years ago on their cruise to Alaska. This was frankly very disappointing. Unlike the previous cruise most everything besides meals is extra. I mean like diet cokes , even WATER! They try to up sell you on everything you do. Even Bingo.. They charged $2.50 for a pen! Outrageous. Then, in the gym, 3 out of 5 bikes worked. Stuff was not working. Also, more maddening than anything.. The wifi was useless. It barely worked and they charged 128 for premium! It was dial up speeds if any. Will never do this again with them. Excursions were ok.. Standard stuff. Room lighting was abysmal.. Couldn't read very well and again wifi non existant. 5 TV channels.. Wow. Pool and deck are fine, food lines very slow. No self service anymore probably due to health risks.. Dining room is again an upsell.. Lobsters 20 extra with no meat on them. Would rather eat dinner in Lido deck. The whole thing was very nickel and dime.. Not what I was thinking. Read Less