I’ve Done 11 Holland America Cruises. Here’s What No-One Else Warns About

I’ve been on 11 Holland America cruises to date, my most recent being a 31-night around South America. So why do I keep returning when there are so many choices? And also, in spite of the fact that, as you’ll hear, there are somethings they do NOT get right.

I’m going to reveal what I’ve discovered about one of the oldest cruise lines in the world, competing in what the industry calls the “Premium” category, alongside Princess, Cunard, Celebrity, and Virgin Voyages.

I’ll start with what they do better than others in the category, and often better than all other lines too.

Holland America Tips: Ship Size

First, they have what I consider to be a “perfect” ship size for a mainstream line, and I love that they’re resisting the shift into ever bigger ships unlike other lines.

They have four ship classes in the fleet from small R-class ships with 1,400 guests up to their largest Pinnacle-class ships with around 2,200 guests.

Meanwhile, their competition is moving into big mega ships.

For example, Celebrity’s latest ships carry 3,200 passengers, over 1,000 more passengers, and Princess newest ships carry 4,300 passengers, almost double.

But Holland America have stuck with smaller more mid-sized ones with a classic cruise ship design, retaining traditional features like a full 360-degree Promenade deck for walking and scenic viewing.

I find their ships manageable and never crowded. There are plenty of quiet spaces for sea viewing, relaxing, and it’s less chaotic at the pool and bars. But there’s still a good range of bars, lounges, entertainment venues, and range of features like a library and casino.

However, there are a couple of downsides to the ships.

At the time of making this, they have no new builds planned, unlike some of their competition who have new and potentially different new concepts planned.

And they have a two-tier fleet experience.

If you go on the newer Pinnacle-class ships (Rotterdam, Nieuw Statendam, and Koningsdam) they are more contemporary, with modern bathrooms, and have a wider choice of venues and dining.

But if you go on the older ships like the Vista-class ships (Oosterdam, Westerdam, Noordam, and Zuiderdam), the Signature-class ships (Eurodam, and Nieuw Amsterdam), or the R-class ships (Volendam and the Zaandam), they are getting dated in decor despite some updates, and the cabins are not contemporary with dated a bathroom and decor.

However, they have acknowledged this and have a major “Evolution” refresh program starting in 2027 for Vista and Signature Class ships, starting with the Oosterdam.

They will have a major refresh of venues, cabins and have popular Pinnacle-class features like the Grand Dutch Cafe and Tamarind Asian restaurant added. They will also be adding 76 cabins including solo balcony ones.

However, that’s going to take a time to work though, so the different experience by ship class will remain for some years.

Holland America Tips: Classic Cruising Plus

I think another Holland America strength is they lean into delivering a traditional classic cruising experience well, though I admit that brings some pros and cons.

Let’s start with the upsides as I think some standout both versus their direct competition and often across all cruising.

Enrichment

One the most significant is their enrichment program.

As well as having a Cruise Director, they also have a senior and widely travelled Travel Guide on the crew. This is a massive plus and adds enormously to every cruise, as port immersion is not reliant on variable quality guest speakers and is consistent across a cruise.

They do deep immersive port by port talks, covering history, things to do and see, watch outs, and practical tips on how to do it. They are not linked to the Shore Excursions team and do not try and sell tours.

Then when sailing through scenic areas, as I did in my last cruise through the Panama Canal, Glacier Alley in the Chilean Fjords, around Cape Horn, and out of major ports with noteworthy sights, they do commentary with history and background on what is being sailed past.

In terms of other enrichment, there’s six major activities.

An arts and crafts program offering frequent classes with colouring for adults, Watercolour painting, origami, and doodle design.

Tech talks, which I found go beyond other cruise lines and are very practical. On my recent cruises it included how to take great photos and video with your phone, avoiding scams online, best travel apps, and using eSims.

Like many lines do, they have guest speakers, talking about a wide range of topics, on my latest cruises it included experts on geology, astronomy, and geopolitics of the region.

They also run on sea days a “Coffee with the Cruise Director” where they interview Senior crew from different departments proving insights and information how things work behind-the-scenes.

Then there is also a well-stocked library of fiction and non-fiction books.

Not sure if this falls into enrichment, but they do have priests on board on most sailings to run the religious ceremonies.

Music

The second area they lean into is live music.

They have what is known as the Music Walk concept, a series of themed venues close to each other. These do though differ between the newer Pinnacle-class ships, which have more venues, and the other ships.

But if you like live music as I do, Holland America offers a great experience.

The Vista and Signature Class ships, like the Oosterdam and the Zuiderdam I was on most recently, have 4 main venues.

There was Billboard Onboard, a pianist which plays various themed sets across the evening. There used to be two dueling pianists, which I think made it stronger, but it is still a great and popular venue.

Then there was Rolling Stone Lounge with a four-piece band and a singer performing various themed sets each night, ranging from rock to blues and soul.

Then there was the Explorer Lounge with Classical sets most evenings. Unfortunately, not as an extensive program as when they had the Lincoln Centre Stage partnership, but they have brought classical music back after it disappeared for a while.

And then in the Ocean Bar, they also had sets early evening, which was a mix of live music guest artists, on my cruise a South American duo, and the in-house Dam Band, a four-piece band that mostly performs for the production shows.

On the newer Pinnacle-class ships, there are more venues. So instead of the Rolling Stone Lounge with one band, there are two venues with dedicated bands each, the incredible BB King’s Blues Club and the Rolling Stone Rock Room.

Also, as the ships of all classes go through updates and refits, they’re putting a band stand area in the Crow’s Nest to add another live music spot.

There are few downsides for some cruisers though.

For example, for party lovers, these are few and far between. They do run an Orange Party Night once on the cruise, where guests and crew don something orange and there are party events, but other party nights and deck parties are not frequent.

But something I’ll talk more about later is they are chasing younger cruisers and more families, but they’re not really adapting the program for that.

Even the fitness program still addresses their traditional older profile with more gentle classes, Tai Chi, walking events, and pickleball.

Holland America Tips: Where They Go

I also feel a big strength of Holland America is itineraries.

The most obvious one of all is Alaska, where they’ve been sailing longer than any line, around 80 years. They have multiple options, including land and sea ones as they own McKinley Chalet Resort in Denali and have trains and busses to get to and from it, and they are one of a handful of lines allowed into Glacier Bay.

But they do excel at other itineraries around the world, making them for me strong option when looking at affordable cruising beyond the Caribbean, Alaska and Mediterranean.

They base ships in and know places like Japan, Australia and New Zealand, South America, the Pacific Islands, and Hawaii.

They also do many longer voyages, Grand Voyages to dive deeper into a region like Africa, and World Cruises too.

Holland America Tips: Dining

I also feel that dining on balance is a strength, though as you will hear they are more mixed here than the other topics I’ve spoken about.

Like all lines, they have a range of included dining options including the Lido Market Buffet, Main Dining Room, and casual dining like Dive-in, with some of the best burgers at sea, and then on Pinnacle ships are even more casual options like pizza too. They then have some specialty dining. More on that shortly.

The included food I find generally good and varied, particularly for the category, which they achieve by working with a range of celebrity and renowned mostly US-based chefs they call Culinary Ambassadors who create dishes across the venues.

But for me one strength versus their competition is the food in the buffet is served by the crew, making it I feel more hygienic.

Like others, they have themed stations in the buffet but one of their big plusses is their daily featured lunch corner concept. They go to town on these and on recent cruises it included seafood, one for each of different countries we called on, International cheeses, and they even had one called Cake Me Away with over 19 cakes.

Although they could make more of it, I also like the “Plate-to-Plate” feature. They source and serve fresh ingredients, mostly fish, locally when sailing to around 60 ports across the globe.

One downside is there are added charges for items like lobster and steak in the Main Dining Room now.

When it comes to specialty, while they do a few things well, they don’t have as much choice as the other lines with those bigger ships.

They have the Pinnacle Grill, which is their steakhouse which I find strong, Canaletto, which is Italian and not a great venue because it’s within the Lido which I am less keen on but most love, and on their bigger ships, although they’re introducing them onto the other ships, is Tamarind, which is a fantastic Asian restaurant.

They also have Morimoto By Sea and Sel de Mar on some ships, and if they don’t they run ad hoc pop-up dining like a Morimoto Asian pop up and a seafood boil.

Holland America Tips: Nickel and Diming

For me, another strength of Holland America is I don’t feel there’s a lot of nickel and diming, and in your face push to upsell.

Possibly, the Have-It-All package helped with that as they upsell before the cruise the big-ticket items through that.

Have-It-All is where they bundle a Signature drinks package, Surf Wi-fi, up to three specialty dining, and some shore excursion credit. And they offer it at about 50% versus buying them individually.

Of course, they do run many promotions and added spend activities and have a Port Shopping advisor, photographers everywhere all the time, and art auctions. But I don’t feel it is a pushy as other lines.

If that’s what I think Holland America do well, what are the problems or things that they do less well?

Holland America Tips: Too Quiet

Holland America can, without a shadow of a doubt, feel way too quiet for some. It does tend to be an older crowd and is fairly laid back. If you’re looking for lots of energy, nightlife, pool games, spectacle, you’re not going to find it. Evenings do tend to wind down earlier.

Also, for those used to or seeking high production value, big and expensive looking production shows, you’re not going to find that on Holland America. Their production shows have, for a long time, been dance focused and not like other lines have with a lineup of singers and dancers with big production values, sets, and so on. These are much more straightforward dance themed shows.

So, while the Music Walk is great, the main stage shows can feel a bit lackluster.

I think the other issue is they are increasingly pushing to get families on board, with free and discounted Kids’ Fares, but they aren’t really that family focused. So, while adding and adapting some cabins to cater for families with more sofa beds, they haven’t really adapted the program. I saw that firsthand on a Koningsdam Christmas cruise, with almost 400 kids with not enough for them to do, they resorted to swamping things like the towel folding demos just to have something to do and caused havoc at the pools, even invading the supposedly adult only one.

And there are some things that I will never do when I’m booking and on a Holland America cruise, to find out what they are read my article Things I Never Do When Cruising Holland America.

 

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