My mother and I were on the Westerdam 10-17 January. Overall, we had a wonderful time. The food and service was top notch, and we both continuously remarked at how cheerful and happy the staff was all the time, no matter what they were doing. The smaller size of the ship (a little over 1800 passengers) was great for us as we could get anywhere in the ship in less than 10 minutes. Some more detailed thoughts:

Embarkation / Debarkation –

Embarkation was a breeze. We got to the terminal at about 11:15 and were checked in and waiting to board by 11:25. After a very short amount of waiting, we were able to get on the ship and drop our carryon bags in our state room. The rest of our luggage was in the room by about 1 pm. Debarkation took a bit longer as the customs line was at least 30-45 minutes. We used express debarkation and carried our own bags, which was fine. They announced that we could leave the ship at about 7:15 which surprised us as we thought it wouldn’t start any earlier than 7:30. We were at the Fort Lauderdale airport by 9 am and could easily have made a 10 am flight. To be on the safe side though, our flights were for 11:30. Read more