A Quick Review of Our Holland America Line Cruise Vacation

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Catherine and I swimming at Half Moon Cay, Holland America's private island in the Bahamas.
That's our ship in the background.

We were super excited to be able to cruise on the ms Noordam just before Christmas.  Our group, spanning three generations, consisted of myself, my husband, Catherine (age 4), Dominic (9 months), Grandmom, and Grandpop.  We started in Fort Lauderdale and visited the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.  There is simply no way I can fully cover everything that happened on our cruise, but here's a quick review!

This was my first time on a Holland America ship, and it was Catherine and Dominic's first cruise.  The ship itself was beautiful and classy.  I wouldn't call it understated, but it was not ostentatious.  There are a variety museum worthy masterpieces sprinkled throughout the ship.  I was also very happy that they decorated beautifully for Christmas.  Catherine thought the "golden room" was quite fancy.

Catherine especially loved the gingerbread village in the main atrium, aka the "golden room".

Our room was quite lovely.  We were pretty excited that we were able to have a Verandah stateroom at an affordable price.  It had a queen-sized bed, a little couch that converted to a bed for Catherine, and floor-to-ceiling windows. (There was also a drop down bed, but Dominic wasn't quite ready for it.)  The signature Mariner's Dream™ beds were actually quite comfy.  Our room stewards Hary and Yasa kept our room beautifully shipshape.  Catherine wasn't the only one that enjoyed the legendary animals that they made for us, I made sure to take a picture of every single one.

We attended a towel folding demonstration where they showed us how to make a variety of animals,
 including a swan and an elephant.

There was always something fun to do!  Catherine loved the Club HAL, which is Holland America's youth program.  (She loved it so much that I have dedicated an entire blog post to Club HAL.)  I enjoyed the cooking demonstrations; I especially enjoyed the Creme Brulee demonstration and tasting!  Since the ship had two pools, there was always room for us to splash about.  The midship pool even had a movable roof, which was great when we were in Mexico because it was a very drippy day.

Catherine and I enjoyed the pool.
Isn't the dolphin sculpture behind us neat?

The nighttime entertainment was about average in my opinion.  On all of the other cruises that I've been on there were two viewings of the nightly big show.  This time there was only one.  Dominic, Grandpop, and I attended most of the magician's show.  While he didn't have any completely knock-your-socks-off tricks he did have a well put together routine, and it was quite humorous.  My husband, Grandpop, and I also enjoyed the comedian.  The big song and dance show was entertaining.  (Although I couldn't quite decide if the accompanying light show was cool or distracting.)  We didn't really participate in any of the other nightlife festivities.  Two activities that I never got the chance to attend (because I was busy doing other fun things!) were the Sit and Stitch and Afternoon Tea.

This was the best fourless chocolate cake ever.  Seriously.

The food was amazing.  This was my fifth cruise and I think it was the best cruise food yet.  The service was impeccable.  I wasn't sure if I would like having a set dinnertime, but I have been completely won over.  Not only would I say that I didn't end up minding it, I might even say that I prefer it!  The wait staff got to know our preferences after our first day!  Our server, Doni S., went above and beyond.  He made Catherine one happy little girl by making her a new origami animal every day.  The maitre d', Robbien F., was always helpful.  Doni and Robbien both made sure to have yogurt and milk for my extremely picky eater.  Our second waiter, Febi, was also fantastic.  We considered ourselves to have the best table in the dinning room.  We were at the very back by the windows.  Every night afforded us a gorgeous view.  (The food was so good that I decided to give it a blog post of its own!)

My cuties posing outside of the buffet.

Can you cruise with kids?  Absolutely!  Dominic and Catherine loved the cruise.  The staff absolutely doted on them.  I couldn't believe how many of them were able to call my children by name!  (I think Dominic was the most popular person on the entire ship!)  While cruising as a family was a very different experience from cruising as a couple, it worked out very well.  All of the restaurants had high chairs.  They made sure to deliver a child size and infant size life jacket to our room.  Club HAL gave Catherine a safe place to have "normal" playtime.  Kid friendly foods were readily available.  Even my extremely picky eater never went hungry.  (Be sure to check out my post on what to bring on a cruise if you have small children.)

Here's a quick run down of our itinerary and activities:

Monday	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Board, explore the ship
Tuesday	Half Moon Cay, Bahamas	Beach day
Wednesday	At Sea
Thursday	Ocho Rios, Jamaica	The Blue Hole
Friday	Georgetown, Cayman Islands	Scuba & Shipwreck & Fish Feeding Tour
Saturday	Cozumel, Mexico	Grandmom & Grandpop: ruins
Sunday	At Sea
Monday	Fort Lauderdale, Florida

In a nutshell, we had a great time and I highly recommend Holland America.

For more of our cruise related fun check out the following:

{Shipwreck & Fish Feeding Tour}{Cruise Cuisine}
{Scuba Adventure} {Club HAL}

Disclaimer: I received a few amenities while on board in exchange for my honest opinions.