Let me start by saying that we really enjoy cruising, having sailed on HAL, Celebrity and NCL. My partner and I are both active people who appreciate good food, good service and a beautiful ship; which is what HAL provides again and again. I am 40 and he is 46 and we were traveling with my parents who are in their 60's. My quibbles are all minor but I thought they were worth mentioning. The Good: We've previously sailed on the Zuiderdam and the Maasdam and really enjoyed them both. The Eurodam is VERY similar to the Zuiderdam, both in size and in layout and amenities. HAL continues to design innovative ships that focus on friendly and attentive service, stellar food and understated elegance. The mostly Filipino and Indonesian crew are warm and seem to generally care about their guests. The Lido buffet is one of the nicest spaces on the ship and the food was top notch with lots of varieties for breakfast (there's even an Eggs Benedict station with multiple types), lunch and dinner. Tamarind and The Silk Den are beautiful spaces with the food in Tamarind well worth the $15pp fee. The Silk Den is stunning with wonderful views to enjoy prior to your dinner. We poked our head in the Pinnacle grill and it was a beautiful space and other guests we spoke with stated that the food was very good. We found the food in the dining room to be the usual top quality and variety that HAL is known for. The Crows Nest is, as usual, a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the views. Our cabin steward was super friendly, attentive and kept our room in excellent shape. We only saw one act in the theater and it was pretty good. Embarkation and disembarkation were a breeze. My father has some mobility issues and staff were always present to lend a helping hand. They were all genuine and caring people. Once again this is an area where HAL exceeds. The food was delicious and my parents said it was on par with Crystal. I had a memorable veal chop at the Mariner's brunch and other items like the lobster, Beef Wellington and prime rib were standard but delicious. The food in the Lido buffet was very good, as good as in the dining room in most cases. Public rooms are for the most part, beautiful and provide HAL's signature intimate areas and you don't feel as though you are on a ship with 2,000+ other people. There is plenty of room on deck 11 to lay out in peace and quiet, just don't expect any bar service up there. Most of this seemed like wasted space that could have been used for other things. The Bad: It seems that the cruise industry is leaning more toward "spa" amenities and the Eurodam is no exception. Personally I feel that spending $159 for a 50 minute massage is not worth the money. Apparently I am in the minority as a LARGE portion of the Lido deck is dedicated to the spa. You can enjoy the thasolerapy (sp?) pool...for a whopping $40/day or $240/week. The added cabanas by the main pool ($50.00/day) went empty for the majority of the cruise and seem only to take away from the views for the rest of the guests. The gym is a color palette that is hard to describe...sort of like the green scales on a tropical fish. Pretty bad in my opinion. There is a complimentary men's and women's sauna hidden by the ping pong table. They can hold about 2.5 people max (no kidding) so if you want to enjoy some heat post workout or to do a simple detox, you will need to pay for use of the thesolerapy pool. Decks 9,10 and 11 are chopped up and all the elevators don't go to each area. One of the things I love are the elevators on the port and starboard side of the ship with views of the ocean. What I hate is that people get tired of waiting for the inner bank of elevators so they run and push the buttons on the other elevators. What this means is that it can be a long wait and often I just ended up taking the stairs. I wish the "As you wish" dining would go away. We were excited to try it but by the end of the cruise wished for the old days of a formal dining experience. Service was often slow, food was sometimes cold and the wait staff looked overwhelmed. We met some people who had chosen the standard dining times and they experienced the same problems. Having worked in the restaurant industry for a long time I know firsthand what happens when a restaurant goes from empty to full in a short period of time and it puts everyone from the host to the kitchen "in the weeds." This is the case with the Eurodam due to, in my opinion, the restaurant can't handle such a large influx of guests all at once during rush dinner time, they then spend the rest of the evening playing catch-up. Maybe if HAL went the NCL route and had several smaller restuarant's it would help overcome this problem. I am not a big kid fan so I was excited about the adults only pool aft ship. While the view was nice, the band was really loud so it was kind of hard to relax. The main pool area has been shrunk down to make room for the pay areas and it only hurts the rest of the passenger's experience. I hope this trend doesn't continue because I feel like as a paying guest I should be able to enjoy the pool, sauna, gym and other "wet" areas without having to shell out a bunch of extra money. I own a home staging and interior decorating business so maybe I am a bit particular and overly critical, but I found some of the rooms to be stunning (The Silk Den and Northern Lights for example) and others hideous (The Casino/Sports bar). Many other people have had mixed emotions on the color palette for the hallways for the cabins. Hmmmm...not sure...I like the black and white photos but the blue carpet makes the wood panels a purple color. It's nice, just not my favorite. The Pinnacle grill bar looks great but is very uncomfortable. The Ugly: More of a metaphor than anything else, I am adding this to highlight a couple of points. Holland America is (was) known for the amazing fresh floral arrangements. While there are still a few to be found, the powers at be saw it necessary to add these HUGE tacky silk floral arrangements and plants. They are cheap and definitely look it. Better to have left them off altogether in my opinion. The other point is how people conduct themselves. I heard a woman use a horrible derogatory term to one of the staff and another use the "f" word to a bartender who told her she couldn't smoke in the bar or elevator waiting area. I also saw people snapping their fingers at staff or said things like "Go get this for me" or make fun of the Asian culture, while dining in the Asian restaurant. Go figure. I would hope that if people have enough money for this type of vacation that they would have enough "class" to treat other people with respect. Guess I was wrong. (Again) To sum it all up, the Eurodam is a beautiful ship, that is slightly different than the Signature class ships. My biggest beef is that so much of the common areas have been taken away for a few guests willing to pay a premium to enjoy what was once enjoyed by everyone. While she is not perfect I can safely say you will enjoy the wonderful HAL experience and that the positives far outweigh any negatives. If you are looking for a low key but high-end feeling experience then you will enjoy sailing on the Eurodam.