First let me say that we enjoyed our cruise from Vancouver to Ft. Lauderdale via the Panama Canal. The crew were very nice and the meals were fine. The Cruise Director Dan was exceptional. To bad future cruisers on Statendam will miss him as he is moving to the Nieuw Amsterdam in November. Our cabins were standard about the same as all the other ships we have been on. The public spaces and facilities are just fine.

The problems that we encountered with the Statendam have to do with Mechanical systems only. For the first 4 days our friends in cabin 321 couldn't flush their toilet an ours was intermittent. All phone call would bring some response, but the fixes was only temporary. On the third or forth night our toilet decided to flood, it was only by chance that we discovered it before there was a major problem. Many of the public washrooms were suffering from the same problems as I am sure many of the other cabins.

Air Conditioning was also a major problem throughout the ship. Some areas were always hot and others extremely cold. The AC in our cabin failed one night. Also there was a persistent smell of diesel fumes persistent in the area of our cabin on the Lower Promenade.The singers and dancers on this cruise were excellent, the only problem was that we didn't see enough of them. The Comedians and Magician were only fair. The funniest comedian did a routine about his lost luggage which was OK, but after that his jokes became very worn.