I am writing to express my total dissatisfaction with the above cruise.

Friday, February 8th marked a week since my husband and I returned from this cruise which we booked to celebrate our 30th anniversary. It was not only the most expensive10-day cruise we've been on but without a doubt the worst cruise experience we've ever encountered even though we did have a few enjoyable experiences. This was our first cruise on Holland America and we were looking forward to the great service and food previous Holland America cruisers had told us about. We had previously considered a Baltic cruise on Holland America but decided to try this one before booking a European cruise with you.

We flew down to Ft. Lauderdale a day early to begin our celebration with a Marriott rewards night at the Hollywood Marriott Spa Hotel. We almost paid for a cab ride to the ship even though we had an airport transfer since our travel agent was told by someone in your corporate office that Holland America did not do transfers to the ship from this hotel anymore even though your 2008 brochure indicated otherwise . On the day of the cruise, January 22nd, we were checking out and my husband was arranging a cab to the ship when he noticed a HA representative named Sylvia displaying a Volendam sign on a desk in the lobby. We explained our situation to her and we were able to secure a transfer to board the ship. She told us that since we had already paid for this transfer we should check with the office once on board to get credit. We did receive a credit; however, we should not have had to do this on our vacation since we tried to resolve it before we left. Read more