I just returned from a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on Eurodam. Bottom line: this was one of my favorite cruises ever. Service was excellent across the board, HAL's ships give me all the amenities I care about, and my fellow passengers were very friendly. Weather was outstanding.

First me: I'm a 50-year-old single guy, a “confirmed bachelor” if you will. I work for a municipality, so I'm not the richest guy in the world, but I get crazy amounts of paid leave. I used to sail primarily with NCL; more recently I've been sailing a mixture of HAL, P&O and Princess.

I booked 15 months in advance, and I paid a pretty substantial single supplement. I booked in an MM interior and sailed in a beautiful VE verandah stateroom on Deck 8 due to price drops. I loved my cabin; the only drawback was the occasional movement of furniture up on the Lido at odd hours that woke me up from time to time. Frankly, a verandah is wasted on me as I never use the actual verandah. My sweet spot is definitely an ocean-view stateroom. But everything worked (no plumbing issues), the on-demand TV system was perfect, and there were more electrical/USB outlets than anyone could possibly use. Read more