This was our ninth cruise, but the first with Holland America.  We had originally booked with Royal Caribbean, but later changed to Holland when we discovered that we could also visit Rio and the Falklands.  Holland gave us the cruise of a lifetime.

We were unable to get decent tickets to Rio a couple of days early, so arrived in Rio at 6 am the day of departure.  Because of that, we'd made arrangements with therealrio.com after researching on Cruise Critic, and were met at the airport by Clode.  He spent the next eight hours giving us a grand tour of Rio and everything we wanted to see.  We were dropped off at the port by 3 pm and were onboard by 3:30.

Our travel agent had arranged a Lower Promenade outside cabin, as we love to walk each morning, and our stateroom was well laid-out and easily accessible to the promenade deck on either side of the ship.  Throughout the cruise, Holland America staff seemed to be happier and more helpful than some other cruise lines.  There was more complaining from fellow cruisers than we've ever heard before, but we found the Amsterdam staff more than helpful with the room problem we had.  The Amsterdam had more lounges and private areas to hang out than any other ship we've been on, and throughout our 16 night cruise, we tried them all.  They offered a Happy Hour in two of the lounges prior to dinnertime, which we've never seen on a ship before.  With the Happy Hour, the wine card for dinners, and the wine we brought onboard for our cabin, we were quite content.   We spent most of our days in the Crow's Nest on the top deck enjoying the view and were rewarded one morning by passing through the largest school of dolphins we've ever seen.  The hundreds of them literally turned and started racing the ship as we passed through. Read more