We have spent dozens of days cruising from Carnival to Regent. This was our first and last Holland America cruise. We chose this cruise as we wanted to tour northern Europe. We booked a so called suite which was about two thirds the size of our previous suites on Regent and Princess. The layout was awful despite the smaller size. Crowded to walk into, the TV was across from the bed so if you wanted to watch the news one had to lay on the bed. Food service was okiay if your idea of a quiet meal is the Minnesota State Fair or Disney World at Christmas. Busboys running back and forth in the cafeteria or in the main dining room! Food was okay when you finally got out of the way of the crowd.If you wanted to have a quiet meal you needed to pay for the specialty restaurants. One even had a menu where you paid $30-$40 per meal as if you were in NYC! How disgusting.

The library was a joke--a corner on Deck 11 with a few guide books and the warning that these were NOT to be removed. Bridge was popular on the ship but there was no space for those who wanted to play and the room was reserved for only two hours of play. A series of duplicate boards takes at least 3.5 hours to play.

Our view is that this was our first and last HA cruise. We feel our $20 grand went up in smoke. The new ship is designed to wring the maximum cash out of the customer. It was nickel diming to the max. Lets hope this is not the future of cruising. By the way this feeling was shared by the majority of the passengers we talked to as well as the HA crew who couldn't be quoted by name but agreed with our concerns. To add insult to injury this ship allows smoking on the balconies which is a fire hazard and was particularly obnoxious as our next door cabin mates were chain smokers, making our balcony virtually unusable.