We recently booked a cruise aboard the Oosterdam traveling from Vancouver to San Diego - a 4 day re-positioning cruise. It was our first cruise celebrating our anniversary. From the moment we boarded the Oosterdam to the time we departed in San Diego we met with the friendliest, hospitable, dynamic and outgoing staff who gave 100% to making sure we were comfortable and well looked after. It was hard to believe that they were dealing with close to 2000 passengers, we rarely had to wait for service and given the mix of passengers they dealt with everyone with the same attentiveness and courtesy.

The only issue we had was with some of the self-centered, self-important passengers -â€" yet the staff was non-plussed and went out of their way to please. The stateroom was impeccably made up, our luggage on our bed when we arrived, chocolates and towel animals nightly. The balcony unit where we stayed gave us a wonderful view of the sunsets at sea (make sure you book on the starboard side heading south). The food in the Vista was extraordinary - they had three chefs and the menu changed each night -â€" with gourmet 5 course meals.

The service equally remarkable given the numbers, they were extremely well staffed. The entertainment was as good as any Vegas show we've seen, comedian, a dance troupe who did a retrospect of music from the 40's to contemporary with dance styles in keeping with each era and a magic show we missed. They had music in different clubs to address everyone's taste but in doing so they seem to water down repertoire (quazi jazz group -â€" more like pop trio, a string quartet playing standard repertoire and some trite classical standards, the pop group was quite good however as was Mark the pianist. I don't know how he played so well, the piano he was using was deplorable piece of equipment for a grand piano with a broken string -â€" he must have keyed all his pieces to avoid the note because I didn't hear it during his act. Read more