10-night Mediterranean Enchantment Cruise (Roundtrip Rome)

We just returned from our annual winter escape to the Caribbean.  Holland America pampered us again!  The Noordam is showing signs of wear, especially the carpets, but as usual the friendly crew keep it impeccably clean.  We missed the trays for food service at the Lido buffet at breakfast and lunch.  We adapted after a couple of days and got used to not having them, but it was still an inconvenience.  The biggest problem is that without trays, the guests were making 2-3 trips from the buffet lines to their table instead of one.  One trip for basic food choice, another for coffee, and another for juice, etc.  This causes much more congestion in the Lido cafe and leads to near chaos at peak times.  I will say that by the third day the Lido crew had begun to offer to fetch beverages for us after we found a table which helped immensely.  Ever time I think HAL is dropping the ball a little bit their crewmen do whatever is necessary to make it all good.  Overall the food was good.  In the Vista Dining Room we had some of the best dinners we have ever been served aboard ships; we also had some that weren't so good.  But some of that is just due to personal preference.  Our stateroom was very nice, Verandah, and our room stewards were delightful and very efficient.  Loved the Ocean Bar.  Cesar and Joe at the Ocean Bar provide the best "show" on the high seas.  Great drinks, personal service, lots of smiles and humor.  They knew our names and favorite drink by the second night.  Actually, Cesar remembered us, and we him, from last year's trip on the Noordam.  I can not say enough good about the crews on HAL ships.  They are just great.  Always helpful, friendly, and happy.  They work so hard but always seem to love their work.

We did the Catamaran/Beach excursion in Grand Turk and it was probably the best shorex we have ever done.  However, the whale watching shorex at Samana, D.R. was a bust.  Very poor.  The boat was too small for chasing whales, we could not stand as there was nothing to hold onto in the rough seas, thus we could not see very well, and we could not hear one word the guide said over the engine noise.  We did see whales - a glimpse at a time.  AVOID this tour.  And then in Aruba we did the Catamaran/snorkel/beach shorex (again) and it was good (though a little long).  We were disappointed that by the time we returned from the tour, everything in Aruba was closed as it was Sunday and the shops closed at 1 PM.  It would have been nice if HAL had warned us ahead of time that Aruba rolls up the sidewalks on Sunday.  We were also disappointed that we had to skip the stop at HAL's private island, Halfmoon Cay, due to high winds.  That has happened to us now two years in a row.  The day at Halfmoon Cay is usually the highlight of our trip, but it was not meant to be again this year.  But, that's not HAL's fault as none of us can control the weather.  

The nightly shows on this trip were average.  Not great, not bad.  We were a little disappointed because the song and dance production shows on this voyage were the exact same ones we saw on the Noordam in 2009.  Same lead singers, same sets, same routines.  I guess we learned not to the repeat the same ship in consecutive years.

However, overall we had a great time, met some very nice people, and enjoyed ourselves.  It's a very good value for the money spent, except the shore excursions.  They are rarely worth the money, but we find if we don't take some of them we end up doing nothing in port but shopping. 

We are thinking Maasdam for 2011.  We enjoyed that ship once before and on our cruise this year I overheard several guests remarking about their fondness for the Maasdam.