My partner and I sailed on the Westerdam from Athens for a Mediterranean cruise. This was our second Holland America cruise, the first being on the Ryndam.

Overall, the ship is beautiful and well worth sailing. The staff on the Westerdam was eager to please, as was the case on the Ryndam, and the food was a marked improvement over the Ryndam. The Westerdam had four dinner seatings which was part of their Signature of Excellence service HAL is implementing. We had the latest seating which was 8:30. The only recommendation I would make to Holland in the main dining room is to teach their servers to be a little more flexible in service according to each guests' need. I was with a party of four and we preferred to have each course brought out then order the next course. This kind of confused our server and at time on of the officers had to explain to our server how we wanted things.

The Pinnacle Grille on board was excellent and we dined there five nights of the cruise. The staff was attentive with being overly so, and the food was excellent. One recommendation I would make to HAL regarding the Pinnacle Grille is to vary the menu somewhat or perhaps on certain nights add an item or two to the menu, i.e., lobster or shellfish. Otherwise, it was perfection. Read more