Review of Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard MS Veendam 10th November 2001.

We live in England. We cruised in 2000 aboard the Maasdam on a Western Caribbean cruise and were so impressed with the service and comfort aboard Maasdam that this year we booked aboard sister ship Veendam for a 7day Eastern Caribbean cruise. We have previously cruised twice aboard QE2 and once on the MS Funchal. Holland America impressed us enormously the previous year, despite a trip that had nothing but monsoon rains for the whole time at sea! We were anxious to see whether it was just Maasdam or whether other ships in the HAL fleet were as good. We need not have worried. Veendam was every bit as good and better in some ways. HAL do not advertise in the UK and it was not the easiest to book. There are always difficulties in getting hold of an up to date brochure, a shame really, because the HAL product is ideally suited to the discerning UK market.

Having plenty of frequent flyer miles, we had booked a cruise only and flew in a few days earlier with British Airways. We hired a car from Miami and drove up to Ft Lauderdale. We had a superb (upgraded) room at the Sheraton Yankee Clipper which is situated right on the beach at Ft Lauderdale. We passed a very comfortable few days there enjoying hotel, beach and shopping. Read more