My wife and I cruised for 21 days from Civitavecchia, to Amsterdam, then the Fjords in Norway and back to Amsterdam in Cabin #5017, what attracted us was the Itinerary. We were excited by the prospect of cruising on a "state of the art ship", and really enjoyed the ports that we visited, our cabin was spacious and kept clean. For us that is where it ended, were really disappointed with the sound proofing, we could clearly hear the couple next door on their phone to reception and the TV's from both sides. We completed the obligatory forms on line, before tickets could be issued, clearly this was not passed on to the ship, bedding was not as requested and my wife's allergy to spicy food was not noted. I have to acknowledge the Dining Manager's efforts to provide suitable menus even to the point of tracking us down in the buffet to entice is back to the dining room. Even after all of that, she was served soup with pepper that blistered her tongue.

Little class entertainment of a night, no library and disembarkation at ports was painfully slow to the point of losing time on prepaid trip, because only one gangway was used. I was then intrigued when the ship attempted to raise the daily gratuity after 14 days, because they said we were booked on "back to Back Cruises. First and last experience with Holland America, all they wanted was "sell, sell, sell."