Hi, Tampa port was pretty close so no airfare(yeah!!) Best western hotel did a shuttle from hotel and picked up on arrival back to our car safely waiting in the lot @ the hotel, hotel had great beds. The ship came back to port from previous cruise 2 hours late, but it wasn't too bad, met several people at the hotel going on the same cruise which was like and early meet and greet party. The rooms on the veendam are clean,well taken care of and the beds are to die for. Plenty of room for all your stuff plus whatever you buy to bring home. The crew were friendly and helpful. They had a great kids activity director, we didn't even know there were kids on board. Entertainment was lacking. Food presentation was good, but no access to food after certain hours unless you ordered room service, was a bit disappointing, same goes for the ice cream. we heard after a couple of days since quite a few people were surprised and disappointed about the same thing that the cruiseline was wasting alot of food since majority of cruisers on this ship were older, and don't eat too much food. They need to work out having at least the pizza/burger/ice cream bar open 24 hours. Pinnacle service was outstanding. The main dining room we only went to twice and the waiter was not very good. The best meal was the surf and turf(2nd formal night after costa maya), the rest of the food was just ok. The people on the ship that we met, made the trip well worth trying HAL again. Belize for snorkeling was great, started a little rough as the first thing we planned got canceled because there weren't enough people for it, but we were able to get on one from the ship and all though it was pricey, it was very nice and they had an open bar with VERY strong drinks, the private island was beautiful too. Stay in the fenced in area in belize, it didn't seem safe on the other side of the fence. Guatemala was beautiful, they had some really good deals in the building set up for that port, but they need to get more things to do in this port for less $ so people from the ship can actually do something in this port. Costa maya was great as usual, great shopping opportunities and snorkeling. Key west is your first port and is always enjoyable.