We hadn't cruised with Holland America for several years with the last one a 14 day Alaska cruise on the old Statendam. Leaving from the port of Vancouver was a plus for us as it was a short flight before embarking the ship. Things have certainly changed over the years and not all of them for the worse. Embarkation was acceptable and we were able to get to our cabin in the early afternoon and our luggage arrived shortly thereafter. We opted for a balcony stateroom and thought it was plenty big and spacious for our needs. The bathroom was nice with a bathtub and shower combo. We also like the large flat screen TV on the wall. We tried to use the fitness centre as much as possible and unfortunately it doesn't have a rowing machine, but there are plenty of treadmills and elipticals. The food on board was quite nice and we especially enjoyed the salad bar on the lido. We had open dining time and our dinners in the MDR were quite good, albeit service was a bit slow and so one had to be patient. We didn't make it to the MDR for breakfast as we tend to eat light for breakfast - fresh fruit and yogurt - so the lido was sufficient for us. We tried all three of the specialty restaurants with the Tamarind being my favorite. The tiramisu dessert at the the Canaletto was delicious. At the Pinnicle Grill we ordered the halibut and sadly it was overlooked; however, we told our waiter and the maitre d' hurried over and they were intent on correcting this by ordering us another one. Unfortunately we ended up waiting awhile for our dinner but second time around the fish was cooked lovely. We did enjoy the lovely coffee and espressos in the Pinnicle Grill. The coffee in the Explorations Cafe was not brewed strong enough for us. We did enjoy happy hour in the Crow's nest bar most days from 4 to 5 pm, although the appetizers they served were largely deep fried so a pass for us. The Lincoln Centre Stage performances were wonderful, albeit you had to get there early for a decent seat. My husband rarely missed a performance. The shows in the main stage theatre were mostly very good. We spent a few sea days lounging around the pool on the Lido deck and didn't have too much trouble getting a couple of loungers. But the ship seems to lack in open spaces and walking through the lido deck was tight as you tried to manoeuvre around the tables and chairs and posts. One thing we did notice was how quiet the ship was (unlike Carnival ships!!!), which we enjoyed. But there weren't many activities to partake in onboard the ship during the daytime. We only did one shore excursion in Costa Rica - zip lining through a rain forest. The excursion was for 3 hours and we finished up after about 2 hours, but they had a sit around for 1/2 an hour before we were able to get back on the bus and return to the ship - I don't think they wanted us to get back early for some reason!!!

We opted to carry off our luggage early in the morning when we disembarked in Fort Lauderdale and we quite liked this option as we were quickly off the ship and able to get a taxi to the airport without any waiting.