Most items associated with our cruise were wonderful. Our state room (verandah) was very nice and our room steward was great. The views were incredible and overall experience was good. There were however several concerning items. Our servers in the main dining were not at all interactive. I ordered iced tea to go with my dinner and it arrived shortly after my dessert (about 45 minutes after ordering) and it was comical to see. It appeared to be about 1 teaspoon of tea diluted in an entire glass of water. Our server never spoke one word to us other than to ask for our order. That was the first night. We went back for the Gala Night (coat and tie & nice dress for my wife) expecting a nice evening. Only slightly better than the previous night. Once again our server did not speak a single word other than to ask what we wanted. Very disappointing. We skipped the dining the rest of the cruise and just ate at the buffet. No point in getting dressed up after one bad night and one mediocre night. The buffet was mostly good but we experienced one very bad part. One night they were carving and serving cooked meat (roast pork) on the same board they were cutting raw beef to be place on the grill behind the preparer. I have a picture but can't find where I can post it here. I took the picture to customer relations and they said it was not a problem to prepare that way. WOW! I took the picture to the main chef on duty that night and he said that clearly was not allowed. However 30 minutes later the beef had been taken off but they were still carving the pork on the same board and serving it.
The entertainment was good especially the chamber music. We attended an art auction (first time for us) and bought a couple pieces. We attended the final auction as well where a door prize was promised ($500 voucher to be used on art). Very little was bought at the last auction so they did not give away the door prize. Very deceitful.
The only other cruise we have taken is a Disney Cruise and the Holland America staff could definitely take some lessons from the Disney Cruise. There is no comparison regarding the level of service.