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Holland America Line

MS Veendam

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Reviewed by:Neal Berkowitz
# previous cruises: 1
Date of Trip: November 28, 2002
Itinerary: Caribbean - Eastern

We took our first cruise last year on the Holland America Veendam. Our overall impression? We want to do it again. From the moment we arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale airport until we took back off to Texas, we had the time of our life. The trip was not without a few bumps but overall, all was magnificent.

The best descriptions of the public areas on the Veendam would be "intimate" or "luxurious" depending upon the room. Most of the lounges were quiet and restful, tastefully decorated with great entertainment. The Rotterdam dining room was spectacular as was the two story Ruben's lounge.

My favorite area was the Lido pool. With the sliding glass roof it was pleasant in both sunny and bad weather. On sunny days it provided a bit of shade, on the windy days it still provided a place for a relaxing interlude.

One of the best things about the cruise was the food. The Lido buffet was open for breakfast, lunch, and supper, as well as for the midnight buffets. There was a theme for most of the meals, so there was quite a bit of variety. Quality of the food was decidedly better than most buffets. In addition to the hot lines, there was a large salad bar, dessert tray, and ice cream area. My favorite dessert was by far the bread pudding. On the days when the ship was really pitching and I was not that hungry, I could always be persuaded to go after the bread pudding.

The crown of dining was the Rotterdam dining room. Atmosphere and then some! I was a bit worried that the two formal nights would have the passengers significantly overdressed for the room but that was far from the case. The setting was magnificent, the service was spectacular (although our busboy was actually better than our server at meeting our needs), and the food was both beautifully presented and delicious. One night my wife could not decide between the duck and the lobster- so she had both. One major complaint. Holland America charges for soft drinks which primarily came in cans. If you asked, you could get bottled soda for a premium but the selection was quite limited. Most of the drinks were Coca Cola products and there was no Dr. Pepper. We ended up going ashore twice to find Dr. Pepper and Pepsi.

WE had the smallest of the outside cabins. It was still quite comfortable with enough room to store all of our stuff. No problems with the shower size- it was actually a full size tub.

The ship was Holland America, there was no noise from the other passengers. We did hear the side thrusters when we were docking but it was not really bad. More vibration than noise..

Shipboard entertainment in the main lounge was quite good. The revues by the ship's cast rivaled that of the better theme parks. Not quite main room Vegas but still entertaining. The "name" entertainment was not really well known although the comic has appeared on the Tonight show and the juggler was award winning. Both were well worth seeing and were not so well known that they were too "big" to associate with the passengers.

The best entertainment was from the Rosario String quartet. They performed during dinner and in the smaller lounges. Nothing was better than sitting in the lounges while they serenaded us with sounds of Le Mis.

I can dedicate a whole web site to this subject! I actually have at my web site www.HollandAmericaVeendam.com.

The crowd on the ship was generally an older set but there were some kids (we saw about a dozen kids being herded around by the club HAL crew members. They seemed to be having a good time). It seemed that a significant percentage of the passengers were post-retirement but there were enough younger people that we did not feel out of place. The net result was that the crowds were not unduly rowdy although they were fun. Generally the social life on the ship concluded around 11 PM although people did party in the Crowas Nest lounge until well after midnight. We only made it to one of the midnight buffets and the crowds were relatively light.