I will start this with a little information about my family, my husband and I are each 47 and we were traveling with our 17 year old son. We are avid cruisers and have done so at least twice a year for the past 20 years. We have traveled on most of the major lines, always in suites and find that there is nothing as wonderful as enjoying a glass of fine wine on our veranda at sunset. In the past we have always avoided Holland America because we had the mistaken impression it was a line that catered more to senior citizens. We do not have anything against elderly people, I plan to be taking world cruises in my 90's myself, however after our trip on the Celebrity Summit in February where the median age was 70 we were looking for a bit more of a mix in population.

The Noordam fit the bill perfectly, yes there were several elderly people on board but they were as I hope to be, fun loving and active, there were families, (with the best behaved children I have ever seen on a ship- amazing manners!) singles, couples and even a bunch of political people (the national review was on board) I can't believe we waited so long to try HAL- we were cheating ourselves for years!

We are from Massachusetts and flew from Hartford Ct to Philly and then straight in to Rome. It is the same flight we took last year when we did the western med. and still was impossible to sleep even though we were in Envoy. I don't know if it is the excitement or what but on the way out I can never get comfortable. One interesting thing was we had to fill out forms while on the plane saying that we did not have swine flu or swine flu symptoms to get into Italy- on the way home to the US there were no forms. We landed in Rome at 8:30am the next morning and were met by our driver from Rome Cabs. (Romecabs@yahoo.com) I can't say enough about this company-this is our second year using them and we will be again next summer- if you would like details of our private tours email me for more information at ydreamvacation@gmail.com. Read more