My wife and I took the “Voyage of the Vikings” aboard the Veendam in July and August 2014, the full 35-day Boston-Amsterdam-Boston run. This is a once-a-year itinerary and we were unable to find reviews of the previous year’s cruise on Cruise Critic, so we resolved to post our impressions here. And those impressions are mostly favorable.

THE SHIP: From reading some reviews, you would think the Veendam was run down. We didn’t see it. I suppose if you look for imperfections you will find them, but the ship seemed well kept to us. The Veendam has all the familiar public spaces of the Holland America brand, including the Explorations Café (or the library, as everyone called it), which became a favorite spot. The Crow’s Nest was also a nice hangout, although the reclining lounge chairs along the windows that we enjoyed on other ships were not here. There are hot tubs (in lieu of an outdoor pool) on the aft deck.

One thing we did not like was that the Showroom at Sea was too small for the passenger capacity. If there was a lecture or presentation on ports or shore excursions, you had to get there 20 minutes early or you would not get a seat. (Fortunately these talks were taped and shown on the room TVs.) It was also a problem for the few evening shows that were one performance only, but not a problem when there were two performances. Read more