Recently returned from a 21 day Panama Canal cruise on the Veendam with Holland America. For those of you who have not sailed through the Panama Canal, I heartily encourage you to do so. I read David McCullough's book on the canal before I cruised, along with a couple of other books about the canal, so I knew the remarkable history of the canal beforehand, and I encourage you to do that, also. It will definitely increase your enjoyment on the day you pass through the canal if you can appreciate the challenge, for example, that was presented by the Culebra Cut, by doing some advance work.

Let me begin my review by stating what I've said in previous reviews: true wine and food devotees simply don't feed these passions by cruising. Why not? Because cruise ships have to prepare massive amounts of food for hundreds (sometimes thousands) of passengers multiple times during the day. Do you really believe that the chef is waiting for your order to come to him before he starts to prepare your lamb chop? I think not. If you really want to have food specially prepared for you as you order it on HAL cruises, you will need to eat nightly at the Pinnacle Grill or the Canneletto--and that will cost you $25 pp or $10 pp extra respectively. SO: I accept that eating in the Rotterdam Dining Room means that I will be getting food that is prepared in advance based on historical expectations of how many of each entree will probably be ordered. Having said that, I must say I found the food to be very good and only occasionally (when ordering a vegetarian option) found an entree I didn't like, but only because I like spicier food, and not because the food was overcooked or underdone. Indeed, I found some truly delightful meals, particularly their pasta dishes, like the one with figs and bacon--delicious! So, dinner for me was very enjoyable. Because I enjoy a good meal, though, I also splurged and had dinner at the Canneletto (twice), Pinnacle Grill (once) and LeCirque (1). Canneletto was delicious, so was Pinnacle, despite the fact that they no longer flambe the Steak Diane tableside. I had chateaubriand at LeCirque which was delicious, but I don't think I will splurge for the extra $39pp for this option any longer. I just don't think LeCirque is that much better than the regular dining room fare.

I used room service many times for breakfast as I enjoyed eating in a quiet location without having to chase down my meal, then my coffee, then my juice. I found my room service meals hot and delicious, every time, and served at precisely the time I requested them. SO: Meals on the Veendam? A big success for me. I might add I love to cook and think I'm a pretty good cook, too. Read more