U.S. Cruise Reviews

We were taking this 4 day cruise as our first cruise experience and it was a favorable experience. We were very impressed and thuoght the service was excellent. The food was good, but didn't live up to our expectations. Maybe our expectations were too high. The room service food was warm to cool. Sopmeone should have explained the SMOKING or NON SMOKING side of the vessel when we signed up for the cruise. Someone on the ship stated that the port side was for smoking. We did not know that and didn't find any explanation of the smoking policy. In the adjacent stateroom were smoking people and drove us inside frequently. Thie disembarkation procedure was not in accordance with the rest of the ship's customs. Someone should come up with a better plan for the walk offs than trying to gather all in the theatre. That was a mess and could have cause injuries, in our estimation.

easy to figure out where things were on the ship for the most part. nice dining room.

The ship had a pretty good flow in terms of moving from front to back of the ship. The Lido deck was good in the sense that the food was sectionalized (fruits, vegetables, hot food etc..) this way a person does not have to stand behind someone who is taking salad before arriving at the hot food station. Our stateroom was always maintained clean, but toiletries were not replenished automatically. Due to the function room being occupied by people who are in some sort of workshop/meeting, we did not get to see any movies. Kids facilities were always closed for my young son & they took him in if there was not a lot of older kids in camp. Gift shops were lacking in merchandise selection. Cruise lines should always carry enough merchandise as people are there to buy, running out because of end of season should not be a reason. Sizes of clothing were also difficult to find.

We returned to cruising after an absence of 10 years; a short repositioning cruise sailing out of Vancouver, BC to San Francisco. The reservation agent with Alaska Airlines Cruises was very well informed and helpful; if she didn't have an answer for me she found someone that did. From the moment we entered the cruise port everything was so very well organized and efficient making the embarkation very smooth. The express check-out was an excellent idea. The Lotus Spa was fabulous, from the treatments I received to the overall ambience. The Personal Choice Dining suited us, as it didn't tie us down to a specific dining time, and, we met some interesting passengers where we shared stories of past cruises.

We took a 4 day cruise from Vancouver to LA, stopping in San Francisco on Sept 24th. We have gone on a RCL 7 day cruise about 7 years ago on the "Mexican Riviera". We are in our late 40's and most of our winter vacations are in Mexico staying in 4 star-ish properties. We have never taken a repo cruise since it seemed like sailing down the coast would be boring, cold and likely rough water. This was a nice surprise since the weather was great and even when the wind was blowing the boat is designed so you can be out of the wind on the deck most of the time. The outside restaurant on the back of the ship is really nice and peaceful most of the time. Overall, the cruise was incredible value and exceeded our expectaitons. The ship seemed very smooth, even when the waves got fairly big one afternoon. The ship is very new, so everything is in new condtion. We booked a balcony, but got upgraded to a mini-suite on deck 11. The room was well designed and lots of space for 2 of us. If you had small kids it would also work very well. Meals - we ate most dinners in Indigo and they were quite good (other than the steak). Our best meal was at the French restaurant Le Bistro. I had the duck which was excellent. Lunch was best from the buffet - if it is too busy take it back to your room (you can also take it to the La Cucina next door since it is not open for lunch or dinner, so acts as extra seating...most people did not know that so much quieter). as mentioned we really enjoyed sitting out on the back deck to eat lunch/breakfast. The have the ususal things like art auctions, pictures, casino, bingo etc etc that we avoided. They don't push it so easy to ignore. The pool area was well designed and works really well if you are travelling with kids. We would go on this ship again....it would work very well in the Carribean in my opinion.

I was invited to participate in my son's wedding aboard the Diamond Princess. The wedding and reception was wonderful. The wedding coordinators did a great job. The only problem the guests had was communicatting with the servers. Kudos to the Wedding co ordinators. I have sailed on Princess line many times and had very good and very bad times. This time was good with the exception of the food which I found was not up to their usual high standards. In all the service ship wide was just below average but I know that this was just a one time thing on a short cruise. This would not stop me from sailing again with Princess.

Everything was fine, just seemed a little crowded

We truly enjoyed this cruise and I would definitely recommend this cruise. The ship was everything we expected it to be and more. Fabulous entertainment, helpful crew, cabins emaculate, lots of things to do, very relaxing at poolside, board games, electronic games, puzzles, a complete Fitness Center and Spa, and a library to select a good book, etc. What more could you ask for? A great selection of Fine Dining Restaurants, free style dining if you choose, something for everyone. Go ahead and treat yourself, you deserve it. Enjoy!

This was our first cruise and the experience left us wanting more. However we went 3 days in the same clothes due to the airlines loosing our luggage. Cruise line may want to consider how their sub-contractors treat their customers as well. The experience could leave a bad taste and reflect negatively on the cruise line.

We had a wonderful time on board the Zuiderdam ship. The ship was well kept and clean. Our rooms were made up and turned down in a fairly timely fashion, and the only place on the ship that ever smelled like smoke was the casino or if you walked by guests who were smoking on the lido deck. The Holland America Staff were excellent. They were very helpful, polite, and some even took the time to learn our names. While there wasn't a lot of activities for the young adult crowd, the ship still had lots to offer-worth every penny!

Ship was beautiful. Make sure you make a early reservation if you want to go to the specialty restaurants. There was hand sanitation machines through out the ship, very clean! We played Wii at the crystal atrium, kids loved. The chocoholic buffett taste was my least favoriate. Stateroom decor was very nice.

The Diamond Princess is a very large ship with 3000 passengers. The amenities and public areas are spread through out the ship so as not to cause you the feeling of over crowdedness

Overall a good time at good value. Crew was typical of most cruises. Very friendly and accomodating. Dinning room meals were O.K. Not great.The two restautrants, Portifino and Chops were execellent. Only real complaint was the inconsistancies in bar charges. I drink Manhattans. I paid from $5 to $8.50 depending on which bar made the drink. And you don't know until you get the receipt to sign. Apparently different bars use varying qualities of Bourban, and charge accordingly. but they don't tell you first. Also "house wine" red or white is usually available at all bars on most cruise ships. Not on this cruise. Some had both. Some had only "house" red but premium white etc. Have previously been on 2 Celebrity cruises and this was NOT the case. Additionally, we found Celebrity to be a 'cut above" R.C. in most areas.

OVERALL, VERY GOOD. WE HAD VERY GOOD FOOD SERVERS AND COMPUTER LAB PERSONS WERE GREAT. SOME OF THE LADIES IN BUFFET FOOD SERVING WERE TALKING TOO MUCH INSTEAD OF PAYING ATTENTION TO BUSINESS.

We had a wonderful time. The Food was excellent and our Waiter and Assistant waiter were superb. Everything we ate from the dinning room to the buffet was good. We did note that we were with an older group. The bars were quit after 10:30. I did feel that they took extra steps to insure that you did not get sick, which I really appreciated. The ship itself could have been better designed. We had a difficult time getting to the service desk as we could not get there by going straight through most levels. Also, you could not walk all the way around the outside of the ship on the promenade deck. There was nowhere to walk outside except on Deck 11 and 12.

We were pleased with every aspect, the decor, the service, the layout, our room, the food.

We had an excellent cabin on deck 6. Whilst we could not get our own balcony, the view from the stateroom window was excellent. Whilst 1200 people were on board , no where seemed crowded at all. It was a very pleasant experience.

The ship was lovely--not too big or small

The ship was clean and the staff was accommodating and freindly. Great job!!!

The Ship was beautiful, the food wonderful, the help very accomodating. If you want a relaxing week-end, this is it. We enjoyed the wonderful food.