What a cruise, what a ship, and what a cruise line Holland America is! This was our third cruise with HAL, but the first with our baby and aupair. About two weeks before departure we were offered to upgrade from our paid category S stateroom to the penthouse, which we did and do not regret in the least! What can I say about the penthouse? It provides a very different cruise experience (even from a category S), to have all that space. There's plenty of room for clothes, toiletries, luggage... Our baby loved running around the various rooms and the huge verandah. It was nice to have a separate bedroom, and the fold-down bed the aupair used was quite comfortable.

Room service and in-cabin high tea become quite enjoyable at that enormous dining room table! And while there was not an explicit degree of extra pampering, we did notice the ship's staff seeming to go out of their way to please us (even more than they do everyone, which is one of the things that makes HAL great). I was disappointed that the in-cabin stereo had only one (of five) speakers working, and they were unable to fix it during our cruise--they thanked me for pointing out the problem and said it would be taken care of at a future port stop. On the other hand, when our bathroom door started to squeak, they lubed it up without us even having to ask.

The Neptune Lounge is superb. I was leery, thinking the place would be overcrowded, but we rarely felt cramped when stopping in for snacks, drinks, or to do business with the concierge. The concierge was one of the best perks to being in a suite--it was nice to not have to wait in line at the front desk for anything at all. Read more