Cruising Southern Caribbean

This was the first time we had sailed on a Holland America ship.  Our experience was just a little below or average for this ship.  Boarding the ship was easy and very quick which was great.  When we went to our stateroom, it was so hot that we could have used a fan.  We tried turning the A/C but it was not working.  Needless to say, we suffered through the night and the next day we asked our cabin steward to have it checked.  A couple of days passed and still no action.  I spoke to the cabin supervisor this time and they sent someone to look at it and check it out.  They couldn't find anything wrong with it, but said it was very hot in the room.  Another attempt, I called the front desk and told them my same story.  They had it checked out and still no resolution.On the last evening at 4:30pm, they came to our room to fix the problem.  Needless to say, they did get it fixed, but it was much too late. Another problem we had was our commode  stopped up not once, but twice.  They were slow at coming to fix the problem and we had to use the public restrooms for several hours.....Ugh!

The stops that we made to the islands, were great.  They were beautiful and so clean.  Half Moon Cay was one of the most beautiful. They didn't stay long enough at some of the islands.  Just a few hours.

The workers on the ship were great!  They were very accommodating and always trying to please, very professional and hard working. The majority of them were Chinese and Indonesians.

The food on the ship was not outstanding, but very good.  They had the best breakfasts on the ship that I had ever had on any other one.  Their lunch buffets were pretty good also, but the night buffets were for slim pickings.  Their servings were too small and when you ask for seconds, they would give you just a little more.  I was always taught that a single serving was a 1/2 cup, not 1/4c. 

We went to the dining room 3 times, but they were always too slow.  It would take us 1.75 hr. to have our dinner. We did go to the Pinnacle Grill, and that was terrific. 

The service and food was excellent. I would highly recommend it.

The ship was always spotless, but it really needed to be dry docked and overhauled.  The beds were broken down and the couches were also.  That is probably why things didn't work very good.

Over all, It was a nice cruise, being that it was very quiet and clean, great places to visit for the itinerary   I'm not so sure that I would go back on it anytime soon though!