My son and I were on the 10/23 sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale to the Eastern Caribbean. This was my second cruise with Holland America, so everything felt very familiar (although the other cruise was on the Zuiderdam). We were in a "Deluxe" Verandah cabin on Deck 4 (cabin 4035). Much to our dismay, the balcony railing was solid steel, not Plexiglas as pictured on the website photos. As a result, when seated on the balcony one can only see a sliver of water above the railing. It's necessary to stand up in order to see a panoramic view. When I booked through the cruise line, I was not told that many of the cabins on Deck 4 have these steel railings; balconies on the higher decks have Plexiglas. In the brochure for future cruises, it does state that these are solid railings, so the agent should have known that and made me aware when I asked if this was a "good" room. My advice is, if you are assigned a cabin on Deck 4, ask specifically about the railings.

The food in the main dining room was quite good--we only went there for dinner, though. We chose open seating, which meant that we sometimes had a wait because we preferred a table for two, and those are scarce. That's another problem I saw--the need for reservations in the MDR, and they were hard to get. On Tuesday I tried to get a reservation for Friday, and was told that I could only reserve on the 3rd calendar day before the day I wanted, so I was too early. When I called back on Wednesday morning at 8:30, I was told there were no reservations available; they were fully booked. I wondered how that could happen. Eventually, at dinner that night, I was able to get a reservation by speaking to the maitre d'. One night we ate at the Canaletto Italian restaurant, which is complimentary, but you also have to make reservations ahead of time.

We enjoyed the nighttime entertainment (although somewhat "corny", it was fun). I also enjoyed the casino. Read more