I think the ports of call are great, and Holland America has a strength in being port heavy for travellers who like to maximize time exploring countries like me. There was good onboarding and off boarding during ports of call, organized and efficient.

However guest relations response to my concerns were severely lacking. Within the first week, a cleaner had accidentally thrown out my dad's diabetic needle which was very expensive. He went for days without this needle which was detrimental to his health. In addition I was staying with my parents and had a pull out sofa bed in the same cabin, at 5 feet 2 inches my feet were exactly at the end of the bed right before the drawer and the steel rods were poking out of the bed into my back giving me a back ache. During the night, my parents in the dark had to cross over my bed to get to the bathroom, risking the probability of accidentally stepping on my legs. I complained to the front desk after the needle issue and was given a partial credit to cover costs but we still had to pay the balance out of pocket. As a solution to the bed issue, they offered to put another mattress on the pullout, this was after 6 days of discomfort. It wasn't ideal and I felt bad that the cleaner would have to take out the mattress and put it back everyday, and it would also become dirty from being dragged on the hallway, so I just said he could leave it even though it took up a lot of space. There were other rooms available which could have solved the problem but the front desk rep told me I'd have to pay at least $1000 more to move in there. If they had given me a decent bed in the first place I wouldn't need to move!

Throughout the cruise I noted that many of the staff other than the cleaners or servers never smiled or said "hi", and just wanted to sell you whatever they had to. On the mandatory drill the first day, the staff member at my session made a snarky comment to me and just gave me a bad look every time I saw him subsequently. I voiced these concerns via guest survey and was given an upgrade from low ocean view to high ocean view and a dinner on the Pinnacle Grill for my next cruise. Read more