I liked this itinerary and that's why I chose this cruise. The crew was excellent, as usual, but the HAL ships are falling behind the marketplace. Last year I took six cruise lines in 12 months to check out the state of the art in the industry. Lines cruised were HAL, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Disney, and Carnival. I have also recently cruised on Celebrity. Holland America appeals to the older, Anglo, traveler, personally I would like more age and ethnic diversity. The Zaandam was very similar in this manner with the older Anglo folks.

I took one excursion on the ship which departed nearly an hour and a half after the scheduled departure time, thus I lost time to wander in the port area. Entertainment was very mixed in quality on the Zaandam with only 2 being outstanding. The Wifi arrangement is an embarrassment as it's a system that lacks speed, efficiency, and an affordable price. HAL needs to look at Carnival as a model of having a wifi system that is in the 21st century with fast access to social media and even streaming.

Quality has noticeably dropped on HAL (I'm a four star) over the years as the lecturers were weak and basically read their power point presentations to us. Where are the dynamic speakers? The dinner meal options were lacking and seem to be going to lesser cuts of meat and seafood. Breakfast meals were good and seem to be about the same as in the past. Being a four star, I probably would sail on the Zaandam again if the itinerary were of interest.