This post is a bit out of chronological order, but I wanted a couple of days to review my first impressions, verify them with Ted, and tweak a few notes.

Our first cruise with Holland America was a short 7 day Alaskan itinerary back in August, not really long enough to truly decide whether HAL delivers what we want in a cruise. Alaska cruise final thoughts This time we had 24 days on board, which I think is enough on which to base our opinions.

(And they are OUR opinions. I know many of our fellow cruisers will have different ones!)

Favourite breakfast: made-to-order crepes in the Lido

Favourite lunch spot: New York York Pizza & Deli for Ted; Dive-In Burger Bar for me. A big plus to both those venues is that they are not buffets.

Favourite bar: Panorama on deck 10 by the New York Deli (their margaritas & Bloody Marys were the best on the ship).

Most disappointing bar feature: lack of enough of the right kinds of glasses. Daiquiris served in highball glasses and martinis in port wine glasses just feel wrong. Second would be the inability of (most) bar staff to correctly pour a glass of beer that is not 60% foam.

Favourite coffee spot: Crow’s Nest on 12. Too bad it closes at 8 p.m.

Favourite specialty restaurant: Tamarind. No contest.

Least favourite eatery: Lido buffet. Insufficient seating, too few servers to keep tables cleared, too many things folks can potentially (which means some do) pick up with their hands. Plus, (it’s just my opinion based on our other cruise experiences) less than attractive food presentation at all but the Rise and Breadboard stations, and most especially during late evening self-serve dessert hours when the unstaffed “Sweet Spot” station can be downright messy.

Favourite music venue: Billboard Onboard, with its dual pianist/vocalists Bryan and Katie. They were consistently upbeat and fun, and always delivered a good show. I might have preferred the blues and soul music in BBKings (I love a good trumpet player) but found the volume way too amped up.

Most surprising amenity: quality of the basic wifi, which allowed everything I needed to do to upload photos, blog, and use both Facebook and Messenger (even video calls). Since I don’t use my device to stream video, I didn’t need to upgrade beyond the included package.

Best feature: the cabins! HAL’s basic balcony cabin design wins over Viking’s DV class due to larger closets, more storage drawers, and 2 strong hooks on the wall ready for coats (no need to bring your own magnetic hooks). The bathroom design, while no larger than Viking’s, feels roomier because of the angled toilet which frees up floor space for drying off or using the sink.

Most disappointing feature: smoking in the casino, especially since it is midship directly in the path between the theatre and the dining room. I really wish they’d restrict smoking to the 2 or 3 designated outdoor deck areas that are already set aside.

Least favourite thing: the ubiquitous ship’s photographers wanting to take photos and then selling them at wildly inflated prices.

Excursions: sadly, this is where HAL really doesn’t shine – or at least didn’t on this particular cruise. The (lack of) organization in separating tour groups and getting them going efficiently was particularly bad in our Hawaiian ports, where confusion reigned supreme. The Excursion Manager was often curt with passengers looking for help, and concerns/complaints were addressed with less than graciousness. (I found that to be the case with our Cruise Director as well – compliments graciously received, but my only complaint/suggestion barely acknowledged and neither addressed nor redirected). Excursion descriptions were also a problem, in our opinion: the final product just didn’t live up to the glowing description in many cases (Episode 472 being the most obvious example). Excursion descriptions all include “3 top reasons to book this excursion”, and yet in our experience those top features were not regularly evident in the tours delivered.

Service: Our cabin stewards were wonderful. Bartenders were really inconsistent between venues, and that would apply to baristas, servers and wait staff too – sometimes outstanding , and sometimes borderline lackadaisical. An observation, which is not necessarily a criticism, is that the staff in all venues routinely communicate with each other in their own languages when not interacting directly with passengers, and that seems to be reflected in their English language proficiency (as compared to our observations of Viking crew, for example). I guess it also lets staff talk “confidentially” about passengers! I also found the lack of proper drink glasses and drink garnishes really disconcerting (a martini served in a port glass – with pickle-stuffed olives (!), liqueurs served in tumblers, margaritas in highball glasses, just to name a few), but perhaps that doesn’t bother everyone.

BOTTOM LINE: Holland America hasn’t lured us away from Viking, but we definitely wouldn’t rule out sailing with them again, depending on itinerary. The experience to price ratio works. We came in at $340CAD/per person/per day “all in” with the cruise itself, excursions, drinks, specialty restaurant dining, laundry, and all gratuities including extra voluntary tips to our cabin stewards. It would have been higher if we’d paid for our flights, but we had credit card points to cover both those and our pre-cruise hotel stay.