This was the twenty first Cruise for my wife and I, but our first on Holland America . We chose this cruise to sail again with three friends we met on a French Polynesia Cruise back in 2008 and were also joined by another couple to make a group of seven. I am in my late 50's and my DW is in her early 50's and we expected the HAL demographic to be older, but were surprised by the mix of ages on this Cruise especially with it being a Ten Day.

We had a very active Cruise Critic Roll Call running for quite a while before this Cruise started and we even met several fellow CC Members a month or so before the cruise for cocktails and drinks locally. The group on board the ship had two Sail Away Gatherings early on, one from Ft. Lauderdale and one from Half Moon Cay on our first day at sea. We also had a nice Meet and Greet mid-Cruise which included the Captain, Hotel Manager, and the Cruise Director who all spoke briefly. There were 30+ CC Members on the Roll Call and over 80 people in the group as a whole.

We flew to FLL two days early and stayed at the Hilton Marina Hotel which is very nice and right near the pier. We could actually see the port from our Balcony including the back of the new Allure which had sailed in that first Morning for outfitting. We could also see other ships doing turnarounds on Thursday and Friday as well as our ship the Noordam and the Oasis and many others there on Saturday morning. Read more