We have been on a total of five cruises together on four different cruise lines. This was our first sailing with Holland America. There some very memorable highlights to this cruising experience and some situations that could have used some tweaking to make cruise more memorable.

Holland America does seem like a good company to cruise with. We did not have any major complaints with either the ship or the cruise line. All the staff was very courteous, but not overly friendly. The ship was new which probably contributed to the positive experience.

The food on the ship was just "OK". We had much better food on our own on shore. I found the food to be generally bland, unimaginative and under-seasoned. Having said that, all the food is perfectly edible, but don't take this cruise if you are interested in rapturous gastronomic experience - you will not find it, even in the specialty restaurants. The traditional dining seatings are at 5:45 and 8:30. We found the earlier seating to be much too early and it would conflict with a late return on a shore excursion. The late seating was much too late for our taste. Most days we went to the Lido buffet or we went to open seating in the dining room. We did go to Canalis - the Italian specialty restaurant - one evening. Again, the food was average and the service was good, but not exceptional. I did find it quite odd that the cruise originated in Italy and sailed through Greece, but most of the wine was over-priced California or Washington wines. I had hoped for a local wine list. Read more