Special occasion cruise for us. Handpicked our suite. We have sailed with HAL before to Alaska and the Panama Canal. Anticipated same stellar experience. Off to a great start when boarding process went smoothly. Absolutely wonderful staff ! Extremely clean suite. Unmatched Attention to detail by cabin steward Rozzy. We booked the Mexican Riviera and Hawaiian Islands cruises back-to-back, 25 days!

The Westerdam is due for an overhaul very soon and it showed in our cabin's burst ceiling pipe ! We had to swiftly move mid-cruise to a nearby suite of equal amenities but not location. But, OK. HAL had our wet clothing cleaned and pressed, gratis, of course. A little flower arrangement and some chocolate covered strawberries as a consolation from Macy in Guest Services. Thank you very much.

Resuming our memorable cruise, we enjoyed the Crow's Nest activities, the wonderful ship's cuisine, meeting new people, a bit of casino action, some sunshine on the vacant 10th Deck...even fog and a couple rough sea days did not deter us from our enjoyment. Captain Smit made the cruise more exciting by maneuvering the Westerdam close-by nighttime lava flows on the islands. His efforts were much appreciated, especially by us, as we returned to our cabin as the ship turned around and watched again from our balcony! We anticipated spending quiet time on our balcony reading and enjoying a pre-dinner cocktail...but the dang pingpong tables above us spoiled it. A few days of that, we had to ask guest services to intervene. It was as if a gymnast was performing above us! :\ they moved one pingpong table. Still the noisy one remained above us. Read more