Once a year my wife and I plan a special trip to unwind, play and to re-kindle our relationship. This year, we booked our first Holland America cruise. We live in the Tampa Bay area and preferred to have an easy embarkation. 30 minutes to the dock, 1 minute to offload luggage, 5 minutes to park the car and a very easy, relaxed and thorough check-in. We did the HAL "express" check-in in advance, but, so did everyone else. We were discretely sent to the regular line for rapid clearance.

The Veendam is a relatively small ship carrying a little over 1000 pax. This, in itself, was a huge bonus. We never felt crowded and rarely had lines to worry about. The crew was outstanding. Always friendly and efficient. Our room steward, wine steward(ess)and shore excursion manager were all better than that. Our dining room waiter was less efficient. He consistently forgot things and, on one occasion, abruptly removed my half-finished meal when he discovered it to be the wrong entire. He meant well and was delightfully friendly...just less professional than his co-workers.

The ship was extremely clean and always possessed with the control of germs and viruses. Hand sanitizers were everywhere and the impact of a meticulous Dutch Captain was obvious. On that note, not enough credit is Read more