Worst cruise ever! I am a doctor from Switzerland and love to cruise. I've been on the Veendam, Maasdam and Ryndam of HAL. My sister, her friend and I took a 7 day cruise with the Westerdam to the western Caribbean and booked 2 suits. The rooms were spacious, had plenty of closet space and one of the only 2 balconies facing partly the front of the ship causing a lot of wind.

We booked the late dinner and requested a table of 4 as we prefer not to share our conversation with strangers. The first evening we were promptly seated at a table for six. The main dining room resembled a factory hall with low ceilings, cramped in tables giving rise to claustrophobia and the noise level so great, we had to shout at each other. After dinner we requested to change to a table for 4, which couldn't be handled by this particular person. We were promised he would ask the dining room manager and we would be informed by the next day. The next evening arrived and we haven't heard anything. Before dinner we again requested a table for 4 which after some deliberation was granted. The new table was fine, but the food however is another story. The combination of ingredients was often close to disgusting like minced ham on fillet wellington, foie gras on sprouts, cheddar cheese on crab meat. These were bad enough, but for the most part the food had no taste. The worst part was dessert. It was just sweet but otherwise tasteless. The midnight dessert extravaganza was held on the Lido pool deck which was enclosed thus filling the air with a strong whiff of chlorine. In my opinion there were not enough waiters and wine stewards to serve all the guests efficiently. For the most part they were completely stressed out trying to serve all the guests at the right time with the right food. The tension level was so high, it encompassed also the guests. If the food didn't turn your stomach, the tension level for sure did.

Breakfast in the Lido might have been hilarious for a by-stander watching the hoards of guests tripping over each others feet trying to get a table, fighting over who gets the one glass of orange juice (the machines were constantly empty) and waiting in line for a long time to get some food. Water - and I mean drinking water, not chlorine laden water was hard to come by. A kind waiter got me some bottles of San Pellegrino that I carried around the ship with me to breakfast, lunch, the gym etc. Read more