Veendam Review
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I booked my CME (Continuing Medical Education) with Continuing Education, Inc. on Holland America's Veendam. As a physician I could complete my needed yearly credits and take my spouse along, as well.
The itinerary was great: We left Tampa, had a day in Key West, then spent a day at sea, then had a day each at Belize City, Belize, Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala, and Costa Maya, Mexico, before another day at sea before disembarking in Tampa.
The sea days were the days in class, and there was a pulmonologist who spoke about pulmonary medicine. I learned more than I thought I would, with this also being a vacation. I felt that Continuing Education, Inc. did a wonderful job. We had two cocktail receptions as well as evening networking. We also booked two of the tours they set up exclusively for us, so the groups were small. The first was Belize Ruins of Altun Ha & Belize City. Our guide, Elvis Usher, was informative, fun, and gave us first-class service. Elvis is starting his own company, Belize Cave Tubing Experience, which I highly recommend. If you want to set up a really great tour, he can be reached at elvisusher31@hotmail.com. As he says, "You have to experience it to Belize it." He also does tours of Alton Ha, Lamanai and the Belize zoo. The second tour was Costa Maya, the Mayan Ruins of Chachobben with Manuel, which was also very good.
Cabin Review
Large Interior Stateroom
Since this was only a 7-night cruise, we elected to try an inside cabin. I couldn't believe how much room it had. There was ample storage with manu drawers and three giant closets that you could easily configure into shelves or hanging closets. There were plenty of wooden hangers and more if we needed it. Every room has a DVD so you can bring movies or borrow from the library. We used ours to look at the magician videos we purchased. The suitcases easily fit under the bed (2 twins pushed together into a king), and there were two night stands and even drawers under the bed. There are lights on the headboard so you can turn off/on every light in the room. The bathroom was plenty big with quality Elemis products. The shower was larger than on other cruise ships. The large counter with sink and corner medicine cabinet held all our stuff out of the way. We didn't miss the balcony at all for this duration of cruise. Our next Hawaiin cruise is 15-nights so we booked a balcony suite.