We had not been on Holland America in over 10 years and we will definitely never sail with them again. I knew even before we sailed that this cruise was going to be a solid week of being nickel-and-dimed. Rather than sending cruise documents, the passengers must now print their own documents as well as their own luggage tags. This took me a very long time since I was doing it for 5 people. That would have been okay, except for the fact that at the VERY end of this process the passenger is informed that Holland America was putting a $480 PER PERSON hold on our credit card until our bill was paid at the end of the cruise. Did Holland America think that we would try to get off the ship without paying our bill? They had the credit card number! Why insult the passengers by insinuating that we couldn't pay our bill? So, I was annoyed before we even stepped on the ship. We had booked 2 connecting suites for ourselves, 1 adult son and 2 10 year old grandsons. The suites were adequate, nothing special. Storage and closet space was sufficient for a 7 day cruise, but definitely not for a longer trip. The cabin basically just looked tired, in need of a good sprucing up. The bathroom was also adequate, but I would have preferred a glass door on the shower, rather than an old shower curtain that had probably not been cleaned or replaced in years. There were virtually no bathroom amenities either. There were no cotton balls or Q-tips, only 1 small bar of hand soap between the two sinks and rather than bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, etc, there were gallon size products attached to the shower wall, like you would find in a gym. There was no bath soap at all, which I would have preferred to the gel. I am making an issue of this, because it is indicative to me of how everything on Holland America is done "on the cheap."

We had signed up for "open seating" at dinner, which according to the website allowed us to come to the dining room anytime between 5:30-9pm. However, when we boarded the ship we were told that open seating would end at 7 pm and that we had to be seated by then. Apparently, this was because there was a very large group of about 800 people on board who were all doing late seating and had reserved the lower level of the dining room for their group. Shortly after boarding the ship I tried to make dinner reservations for 6:45 every night and was told that no reservations were available, it could only be done 2 days ahead of time and we would have to "take our chances." I believe that this group should not have been able to have the run of the dining room; but, at the very least, our travel agent should have been informed about the limitations to "open dining" on this cruise. The first night on the ship we were finishing our dinner at about 8:20 and the maitre d' came over to our table and told us that we would have to leave because the table was needed for the next group. People at a table near ours were told the same thing and they had not yet even ordered dessert!

The service in the dining room was mediocre and actually improper. Plates were grabbed from the table as soon as a guest put down his fork, often leaving one person still eating while everyone else had nothing in front of them. After 3 days of this I was really furious and spoke to the Maitre d" who, of course, was apologetic, and said that his staff was not trained to do that and that there was no intention of rushing us through our meal. He also asked if there was anything else he could do for us and I said that I would like 6:30 dinner reservations at a specific table for the rest of the cruise. He did agree to that, but only because I had complained and made my expectations very clear. It certainly wasn't out of any real desire to please the guests. Read more