We were excited to be boarding the Holland America Zaandam for our recent Alaska cruise Our assigned stateroom was a category H partially obstructed view cabin close to the outdoors on the lower promenade deck… the next best thing to having a veranda stateroom.

However a few days prior to boarding we were upgraded to a full ocean view stateroom with portholes, And there is the catch.

We found ourselves descending into the bowel of the ship. Traces of stale air lingered as we passed the coughs and sniffles of the unfortunates in the infirmary. Our fears were confirmed when we opened the door of our cabin to discover the smallest, darkest oddly shaped cabin we had yet seen on a Holland America ship. We could get a view out of the deeply set portholes only by crawling across the bed, and that only after requesting the other person in the cabin to step aside. The ceilings were lower than in other cabins. There was less storage space and no refrigerator. A sign posted in the cabin advised us not to be alarmed about the noise and vibration caused by the bow thrusters. Read more