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Holland America Line

MS Statendam

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:Faith Schallert
# previous cruises: 7
Date of Trip: November 13, 2000
Itinerary: Hawaii

Very smooth embarkation out of San Diego. Excellent value. Total of 9 days at sea is wonderful. Plenty of on board activities so you always have something to do. Friendly and warm crew. Every effort made to make you feel like a guest.

Our favorite lounge was the Ocean Bar. Nice to be there for cocktails before dinner. Also, the Explorers Lounge for after dinner cordials and coffee and the Rosario strings. Plus the very famous Dutch chocolate truffles.

Main dining room is the Rotterdam which is two-tiered and once of the most beautiful on any ship. The Lido buffet is open for breakfast,& lunch an used as alternative dinner dining. We prefer to be seated and waited upon so we used the main dining room and were pampered, pampered, pampered!

We had a mini-suite which has a veranda. We utilized it a great deal coming in and out of the Hawaiian ports. There was a full bath with whirlpool and I used it twice each day! Plenty of closets and drawers and your suitcases fit under the bed. It was very quiet and our steward was perfect.

Better than some of the other shows on other lines. The Copacabana show was excellent as well as were the crew shows. These were performed by the Filipino and Indonesian crew members. We did not attend any of the individual performers shows such as comedians, magicians and jugglers.

I visited the Ocean Spa for a massage and facial. We were in both pools and the spa on the Lido deck. We visited the casino, all the shops on board and visited Hilo, Honolulu, Maui, Kona, Kauai and San Diego. We rented a car at each port and went sightseeing on our own. We find the ship shore excursions too restrictive and spend all your time getting on and off buses!

A varied group for HAL cruise. There were 84 year old sisters and 2 year olds! I think there may have been a total of about 10 children, most below school age. We never heard anyone complaining about ANYTHING so I think the passengers would be the sort to invite to dinner.