Caribbean on the Veendam

In this world of political correctness and a hyphenated society I guess I should call this critique the Caribbean on the Carnival/Holland America Veendam. The passengers may have had a few more motorized wheel chairs and a few less children but for the most part, the passengers were what I would have expected on a Holland America cruise. There were a lot of gray hairs, elegant dresses, tuxedos, good shows and sumptuous dining. However, you could see the Carnival atmosphere creeping in every so often. T-shirts and blue jeans were seen frequently in the dining room in the evening.

However, let me start at the beginning. Since we live in Tampa, we arrived at the cruise terminal at 1:00 pm so that our cabin would be ready by the time we embarked and it was. The embarkation process took about ten minutes and we went straight to our cabin to deposit our hand luggage before heading to the Lido deck for our first meal. The timing could not have been better because when they announced that the cabins were ready, the passengers waiting for their cabins disappeared and there were plenty of good tables available in the Lido dining room. Read more