I went on this cruise because some of our friends picked the cruise. This was one of the best cruises I have been on. Now it's Holland American so there's no hairy legs contests at the pool or goofy game shows like on some other brands. Quite frankly these are not missed. This ship features a two level indoor outdoor pool area so it was fairly easy to get a chair around the pool and I really like the closable roof so you can use the pool whatever the weather. This area also has the "outdoor" theatre and the staff sets up the chairs to see the screen when they are doing movies. They have moved the BBC Earth series to here. Thank goodness. BBC Earth is not something featured on the main stage. The main stage is a theatre in the round with 270 degrees of floor to ceiling LCD screens. It's unique. Although the entertainment was good it was not up the level of Norwegian and you could see that they did everything they could to skimp. For example the dance company which is normally 12 people is 6 on this ship. They did uniquely use the LCD Screens in the productions. One show they used the screens to show an elevator. The actors backed up "into the elevator" and they gave the illusion of going up the doors open and then this was another dance venue. Unique and entertaining. The ship features Music Row with Billboard Onboard the dueling pianos, the Rock BAnd Area and BB Kings Blues Club along with Lincoln Center stage. BB Kings and Lincoln center were great Billboard had a little feeling of a high school production. Not bad but this is not New York level entertainment. On the plus side they did try to play music to the older crowd which Holland caters to. They had several informative programs in the main stage which I attended and was interesting. One in particular was the history of Holland America lines which I enjoyed a lot. The service onboard was excellent in every area. There were a few problems but they didn't detract from the cruise. One of Holland's ship broke down and so they moved 100 passengers to our ship completely filling it and they had to delay departure for this. Due to a heavy storm the Key West stop was cancelled and we had an extra day at sea, but the ship stabilizers worked great and there was almost no swaying. Vince the cruise director was also outstanding. I'd highly recommend the ship and crew.