I booked three balcony rooms together on this cruise for a special family vacation. When I booked the rooms I noticed they were under the Lido Market buffet and I was concerned about noise from the buffet. I was told by the Holland America booking agent that the Lido Market is carpeted and the rooms below do not experience a lot noise from above. Unfortunately that was not true. There are tables and chairs on bare flooring right above rooms on deck 8. The market is open from 6:30 am to 9:00 pm and some days it was open past midnight. The noise from above was awful - especially the scrapping chairs on the bare floor. If there was actually carpet under the tables and chairs the scrapping noise would be minimized but for some reason they do not have carpet in the area right above the staterooms. Every time a guest sat down or stood up we would hear the scrape of the chair right below - the agony! I complained immediately but the cruise was sold out and we could not be moved together, or even on the same deck. Unfortuately, this undesirable situation impacted the enjoyment of our entire week on the ship.

Aside from the noise in the cabin, the cruise was not bad. The staff were generally friendly but not especially gracious. The service in the main dining was terrible so we ended up using the open dining option which was okay but not our first choice. The food was better than I expected based on past reviews I read online but it was not outstanding. The entertainment was good, especially the mini-concerts in the Lincoln Center lounge and the two pianists in the Billboard Onboard lounge. This cruise caters to an older crowd; so if you are under 70 years old you may feel either very young (lol) or a bit out of place. We were traveling with our twenty-something year old kids and they found the activities onboard rather unexciting expect for a bar-crawl offered one night.

This cruise left out of San Diego which is the only reason we chose Holland America. I was excited to give it a try but we will not be back. There are too many other choices in the same price range that offer a better experience.