Balcony

Holland America Line

Family Cruises

Gay & Lesbian Cruises

Romantic Cruises

Singles Cruises

Senior Cruises

Gourmet Food Cruises

Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)

Vancouver

San Diego

San Francisco

Port Canaveral (Orlando)

Miami

Barcelona

U.S.A.

Bahamas

Caribbean - All

Caribbean - Eastern

Caribbean - Western

Mexico - All

Very Good

Zaandam

Eurodam

Nieuw Amsterdam

Monaco (Monte Carlo)

Smoking Policy.  The pre-cruise literature, website, and the Welcome booklet each proclaim (promise) “all … verandahs are non-smoking.”  Our friend’s verandah was totally unusable because of incessant cigar and cigarette smoking from another nearby verandah.  HA offered my friends another stateroom, but it was much smaller and had a verandah that had no privacy.  This was not acceptable.  Then they were offered a meal in a specialty restaurant but that also seemed to be only slight compensation. Finally they were offered a bottle of wine.  A bottle of wine = a verandah?  Hardly.  If this is an indication of HA’s honoring their promises, be forewarned. Is this false advertising?  My friends clearly should be compensated the difference between their stateroom and a comparable non-verandah stateroom, and this matter is still very much alive.

Gym.   Attendants when present were helpful.  The problem was that they were so often not around. The equipment is quite good, but HA has an older clientele, and on more than one occasion, I saw persons who could not figure out how configure a workout on the treadmills.  Once several of us were trying to make the dials work, and could not.  Finally, on the third machine that was apparently frozen I learned to go down below the machine and turnoff its master switch for 10 seconds, and the machine would then reset.  This should be unnecessary.  First the machines should work.  Second, there should be attendants on the scene or at least a “help phone.”

Food.  The food was excellent.  The choices were excellent and the preparation was excellent.  Five star all the way.

Stateroom.  Our stateroom was on  the aft of the ship and the design and layout of the stateroom itself and the bath were the best we have had on any ship.  The bath was actually roomy, and the stateroom and balcony were excellent.  The drawback was that sometimes the room was not cleaned very well, and we had to venture under the bed (see below)…only to discover that it had probably been last cleaned/vacuumed in 2014 or before.  Pins, toothpicks, dust, debris, etc.…..likewise behind the end tables.

Service.  The ship ran out of extension cords for the guests’ medical equipment (C-paps, oxygen, etc.)  This is inexcusable for HA, given the demographics of its clientele.  Luckily I had brought an extension cord, but then the problem was that the room had only two electrical outlets, both far away on the dresser.  (The one in the bathroom did not work, and we could not find another.)  Only after moving the furniture around did we arrive at a way to hook up the machine at night.  That’s how we discovered the dirty carpet under the bed.  HA, you should be ashamed!  We were told there were no more extension cords… but in the days that followed, I did see HA’s extension cords here and there.

Entertainment.  This is, like all the other elements of a review, simply a matter of preference and opinion, but compared to other cruises I have done (RC, Celebrity, Princess), the shows were nowhere near the shows on those other cruise lines.  Moreover, the shows were notches below the really great shows that HA used to have.  The exception is the violin/piano duo playing primarily classical music nightly in Adagio.  Olena Boiko and Anton Zynchyn are world class if you like that kind of music.  What a high class, professional team they are!

Conclusion.  Looking at HA along with comparable cruise lines (RC, Celebrity, Princess, NCL) HA seems to be increasingly showing the corporate mentality associated with Carnival.  HA seems to have become complacent in its decline.  You can see the decline in lots (LOTS!) of little ways.  The glass (windows, etc.) on the ship looked like it had not been cleaned in ages.  Mirrors, even wood-veneer doors, showed finger prints.  In the past, you could always get escargots or shrimp cocktail as an appetizer; no more.  I could go on.  My guess is that the decline one senses starts with corporate.  It seems that HA corporate is no longer insisting on excellence.  Yes, the cruise was very good, but my past cruises in recent years on RC, Princess, and Celebrity and NCL have been EXCELLENT in every way.  My last cruise on HA was about 10 years ago.  The decline since then has been subtle but unmistakable and pervasive.

Holland America seems to be in a subtle decline, judging from this cruise.

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