I have been on several cruises with other cruise lines and have always had great experiences. I was told that Holland America was a 5 star ship (Statendam) and booked a Christmas Cruise for my family (4 adult children and myself) from December 20, 2008 to December 27, 2008. This cruise was a disaster from the time we got on the ship.

There was a lunch buffet while we waited for our staterooms. Myself and my children had the buffet and were surrounded by dirty trays and dishes. I started collecting all the dirty dishes and trays and handed them to a waiter who was walking by our table and asked him to please take the trays. He looked at me and took the trays and put them right back down on our table and walked away.

At around 3:00 p.m. we were allowed into our staterooms. I had booked 2 rooms - one for myself and my 2 daughters and 1 room for my 2 sons. I had requested the rooms to be close together. The rooms were not even on the same floor. My son immediately called my stateroom and said there were 2 problems. The first problem was they had one bed not 2. The 2nd problem was our zip lining/water caving excursion had been cancelled. Read more