This was both a Panama Canal and a repositioning cruise. We were expecting an older demographic, given that it was HAL and a longer Panama Canal cruise...but we had severely underestimated. With over 2,000 passengers, there were just three children on board. A 71 year old woman came up to me (I'm in my mid-40s) and said "you're one of the young ones! I feel really young with this crowd!!" It was a really, really old group of passengers -- even the crew were surprised by it, and many jokes were made (comedian: "I'm 57 years old, and I tell ya: there are a LOT of good looking women on this ship. If only I were 20 years older....").

The itinerary was Fort Lauderdale to either San Diego (13 day), Vancouver (16 day), Seattle (17 day), stopping in Cartagena, Colombia; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Corinto, Nicaragua; Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Around 900 passengers disembarked in San Diego, and a similar number embarked for a short repositioning cruise (3 or 4 days; there was also a 1 day Vancouver-Seattle option). I have to hand it to HAL for choosing to dock in Nicaragua. It's an undeveloped location without much tourism infrastructure, and we weren't expecting much. However, we docked, walked a few minutes, and were in the midst of a local market where there were beautiful crafts (and not so beautiful - dead frogs holding a wee tequila bottle!), local live music, and $1 Nicaraguan beers in a cafe with a great ceiling fan. So much character, lovely people, and you directly saw the impact of your money. Tip: bring your ship chocolates to hand to the little kids and see their faces light up!

The Westerdam felt pretty tired overall (ripped wallpaper, tons of burned out lightbulbs, cracked & dirty upholstery,etc), but ironically we were repeatedly disturbed by maintenance at sea. I guess they were taking advantage of the final 'warm' time before heading to Alaska, but since the ship had just come out of a two week drydock, all of the work being done on the ship felt excessive. We had an 'obscured view' cabin, with floor to ceiling windows and a lifeboat/tender on the other side...which was repeatedly accessed by staff -- every day we had workers RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR WINDOWS -- which is pretty different than the notion of just having your view obscured! Several times we tried relaxing on deck 10 in the afternoon and were interrupted by workers setting up to paint, or wheeling things slowly across the deck that they'd cut off the ship. One morning we were up earlier for a walk and counted at least a dozen workers on deck, painting, varnishing, sanding, replacing ship pieces. Pretty much every day there was string up along railings, with 'wet varnish' signs...or wet paint signs. In the Culinary Arts Center/Queen's Lounge, they removed seating in chunks and seemed to be reupholstering them, replacing, and moving on to the next chunk. We understand the need for ship's maintenance, but it was CONSTANT, and interfered with activities and general enjoyment. This was our vacation -- not fix up time at home! I've been on cruises in the past, including repositioning cruises, and I've never experienced this level of visible work on the ship. Read more