The service was so good that we provided extra gratuities for select staff including our stateroom attendants and some of the servers in the buffet type dinning area. The entertainment was good overall with a few that were excellent. Ship was very clean, open and comfortable. The pool deck on the stern was a little over crowded at times and the bar staff was not sufficient to handle it, but that was a small annoyance. The food was very good most meals and really never bad in any way. The breakfast buffet was very good every day.

We sailed from Amsterdam to Rome with a lot of stops in southern Spain plus Lisbon and Gibraltar. There were many Australian and Canadian passengers which made for interesting conversations while dinning in the formal dinning room each night. The ship was less than a year old when we took the cruise which was evident in the decor, cleanliness, etc. Holland American cruise ships are smaller that many of the other US lines with fewer passengers and cater to the retired crowd it seems. Maybe why I like their line.