For the first time during 34 Holland America Line (HAL) cruises, we were disappointed. If our next HAL cruise is this bad, we'll adjust how we use our retired travel budget accordingly. Main Dining Room dinner menu selections included cheap never-heard-of beef steaks. Pork Belly was on the menu twice! The NY Strip was tasteless, and the prime rib full of gristle. If we have to eat in the extra-cost Pinnacle for decent meat, we'll find another line! Gala Night Lobster, and fish selections, were generally good. Breakfast and lunch were fine.
Became a (highest) 5-Star Mariner during the cruise. The only recognition was a lapel pin we almost missed our last night found in our stateroom mailbox. Stateroom TV broke, finally reset by a tech 3 hours later after we missed the evening news. Closet door was broke and never fixed. Our balcony remained filthy with ingrained floor grime, dirty plastic under the railing, and nasty chairs.
However the Indonesian dining and stateroom stewards were exceptional as they always have been since we started HAL in 2002. The hardest working crew on the boat!
Stateroom stewards did a superb job keeping our inside neat, clean, and tidy. That's all they have time to do. TV, closet door, and our verandah's (balcony's) dirty conditions, including the rattling balcony walls on both sides, were another matter.