We had been cruising three to four time annually for many years but have started cutting back. This due to our unhappiness at what cruise experience has become. Less staff, more extra charging, and less service. Recent cruises on RCL Grandeur, Carnival Pride, and Royal Princess have left us bewildered by changes that were obvious cutbacks. So we decided to try Holland America again figuring that they will be the last hold out. We found that so far they are in many areas though they too apparently are being cut back as well. Several regulars, we had only sailed HA twice before and years ago, were complaining about extra charges and lesser services. A couple told us they were considering trying RCL etc. We assured them that if they were concerned about current level of HA they would really be unhappy on other lines.

So we combined a road trip NY to Florida stopping in Savannah GA for a couple day stay over on the way. We also spent a couple days in The Villages seeing friends in area and checking that area out for a second home. Previously we thought we would be spending more and more time at sea instead of needing a second home. We arrived in Tampa in good shape and stayed at the Embassy Suites Convention Center on a Stay and Cruise deal that couldn't be beat. For $192 suite for night, transport to and from pier, and 7 days parking for our car. They also have 2 hour complimentary cocktails in evening and complimentary made to order breakfast in the morning. During our land portion we came to find that Hilton product rooms and breakfast and good restaurant dinners were far better than what ships have been offering. This is something we did want to re-experice through the land portion.

Embarkation Tampa was excellent. Instead of the RCL and now Princess hi tech devices they simply had many, I would guess near 20, manned check in stations. Was comfortable terminal and we arrived about 11:30 or so. They had not yet started boarding the ship but they had plenty of seating and we were issued number. Honestly we are used to having priority boarding on other lines because of the times we have sailed but found that this was handled so well priority wasn't an issue. They started boarding ship after 12 and it went very fast. a nice feature was that no waiting to enter your rooms, they were al ready. So dropped our carry ons and went to lunch. Read more