We were very fortunate to sail on the m.s. Koningsdam's Christening Cruise. She's the largest ship Holland America Line currently has (sister ship, Nieuw Statendam, is being built.) Décor is delightful, as she is "brightened" with much lighter colors than existing and past HAL ships. Service was in a class by itself....the HAL class. We return to this line mostly because of the outstanding service level. The Koningsdam is a "music ship." That means music venues are everywhere. While we enjoyed every venue, there is one common complaint we feel we need to make. For goodness sake...turn the volume down!!!

For example, in the BBKing lounge (a 2-story, smallish lounge), the volume was loud on deck 2, but up on deck 3, it was intolerable! On Deck 3, passengers have to walk by the lounge to travel from forward to aft of the ship...it is the only inside walkway. People were walking by the BBKing lounge holding their hands against their ears! Many people started to go outside to walk the outer deck rather than pass by the BBKing at that volume! HAL...get a clue! The open concept of the ship makes it feel spacious...which it is. What they did not engineer correctly was the noise flow-through from one place to another. You could not hold a conversation in the shop on the 3rd level when the group was playing (and they were very good!) because of the noise. Sure hope HAL puts some better engineering on this topic of noise into the Nieuw Statendam.