Holland America Line - Westerdam Review

We took our first cruise on this ship and we really loved it.

The people on board were very friendly and did whatever they could to please you. Basically you feel pampered from beginning to end.

We took a cruise because a lot of collegues had indicated that they preferred taking a cruise above any other way of taking a vacation. They also told me that Holland America and Norwegian were to their opinion the best companies to sail with. One of them sails only with Holland America; he is taking this year three weeks of cruise and all on the Westerdam.

We had booked a room with ocean view and with the package we also received 6 bottles of wine, 50$ on board credit per person as well as sodacards.

My collegues had already warned me that booking the excursions on board would be very expensive and that you would get a better deal if you would make your own arrangements. So through internet we booked our excursions with local providers at the ports of call and that really made a huge difference. Our excursion to 'stingray city' with snorkeling at three reefs, swimming/cuddling stingrays was about one third of the onboard price! At Costa Maya we took a taxi to another beach for just a few dollars and had rounds of buckets of beer (6 coronas) with tequilas and nacho's with salsa and guacamole for 10$ a round!

The food on board was outstanding; especially in the restaurant. Huge selection of very well prepared dishes. Room service was also great; you could order snacks and drinks to be delivered to your room and the snacks were still warm!

The on-board entertainement: each night there was a different show. The shows were not always perfect, but there were highlights and they were brought with enough enthusiasm that 'out of key' could be lived with. Bingo was another thing that was arranged on a daily basis. For artlovers there were auctions and displays. One could also take part in free raffles. The on-board TV showed movies. One could dance, gamble etc.

The cruise we were on did not have a lot of children on board. I guess for teenagers this is not a ship to be on; these are better of on Carnival I heard. I must say that I was not bothered with that. We also noticed that the majority of the people on board were wearing stylish clothes and at dinner everyone followed the dresscode and I must say that that adds to the sphere. 

The fitness room was a bit small for the number of people that wanted to do some work-out at the times that I went, but all equipment was in working order and while working out one could enjoy the great view on the ocean.

The cabin steward was a master in creating towel annimals. Every evening we found a different animal sitting on the bed with of course some delicious choclats.

Most of the crew were from the former Dutch East Indies, now called Indonesia and with the ship registered in the Netherlands we were pleased that within the food options that were presented daily, one could get the dutch cheese and not just the standard Gouda, but also the more matured and even old cheese. One day we had Indonesian food as it supposed to be and the table waiter knew that we love Indonesian food had arranged for a bit of more Indonesian spice.

We gained quite some pounds on the cruise, we did not regret that. We felt sorry for ourselves that we had to get off after 7 days and decided that this was not going to be our last cruise.