Overview
About
Passengers: 2,650 | Crew: 1,036
Passengers to crew: 2.56:1
Passengers to space: 37.6:1
Launched: 2016
Decks
- Deck 1
- Deck 2
- Deck 3
- Deck 4
- Deck 5
- Deck 6
Additional decks
Deck 1 layout
Cabins
Single Oceanview Stateroom (OO)
Large Oceanview Stateroom (C)
Family Oceanview Stateroom (FB)
Family Oceanview Stateroom (FA)
Standard Interior Stateroom (N)
Large Oceanview Stateroom (E)
Standard Interior Stateroom (J)
Large or Standard Interior Stateroom (I)
Large Oceanview Stateroom (F)
Cabins
Balcony
Cabin size: 228 - 420 sq. ft.
Connected rooms: 238
Accessible rooms: 14
Maximum passengers: 4
Number of cabins: 748
Activities & entertainment
Activities (28)
- America's Test Kitchen
- Afternoon Tea
- America's Test Kitchen Cooking Classes
- Art and Craft Classes*
- Art Gallery*
- Beer Tasting*
- Cigars Under the Stars*
- Digital Workshop*
- Digital Workshop Computer Classes
- Explorations Central Port Lectures
- Fitness Center
- Fitness Classes*
- Greenhouse Spa & Salon*
- Greenhouse Spa & Salon*
- Happy Hour Drink Special*
- Hot Tubs (5)
- Hydrotherapy Pool*
- Jogging Track
- Martini Tasting*
- Onboard Lectures
- Pools (2)
- Solo Traveler Get-Togethers
- Sport Court
- Team Trivia
- Wine Tasting*
- The Retreat*
- Club HAL
- Club HAL
Entertainment (12)
- Afternoon Musical Concerts
- BBC Earth Onboard Features
- Billboard Onboard
- Casino*
- Feature Movie Matinees
- Lincoln Center Stage
- Live Nightly Music
- Music Walk
- Queen's Lounge
- Queen's Lounge
- World Stage
- World Stage
Dining (21)
- The Dining Room - American
- The Dining Room - American
- Tamarind - Asian Fusion*
- Ocean Bar - Atrium Bar*
- Lido Market - Casual
- Explorer's Bar - Classic Bar*
- Explorations Café - Coffee Bar*
- Grand Dutch Café - Coffee Bar*
- Dive-In - Fast Food
- Crow's Nest - Forward Bar*
- Rudi's Sel de Mer - Gourmet*
- Canaletto - italian*
- Panorama Bar - Outdoor Bar*
- New York Pizza & Deli - Pizza
- Lido Bar - Pool Bar*
- Sea View Bar - Pool Bar*
- Pinnacle Grill - Steakhouse*
- Neptune Lounge - Suite Lounge
- Gelato - Sweets*
- Sun Bar - Top Deck Bar*
- Blend - Wine Bar*
* May require additional fees
Reviews
Traveler rating
- 71
- 34
- 13
- 18
- 24
Time of year
Language
Selected filters
- Filter
- English
+1
Booked this trip well in advance of travel, and spent much time researching and watching YouTube, which was helpful. I'll try to be succinct. Embarkation took about an hour. We showed up at around 10:00 to check our bags, and decided to see if we could board. We could, and I believe the early boarding was worth it, as I think we beat the crowds. There was a small issue with my DOB, which my husband entered incorrectly (lol), but it was easily and swiftly corrected by HAL. Once on board, it was a beautiful day in Vancouver, and got some wine and a spot on the sunny LIdo deck. Our room was ready by around 1:00 and our luggage arrived shortly after. The room was clean, nice and as represented in the videos we watched. Our stewards, Rudi and Bayu were very friendly and accommodating. We did the Tracy Arm excursion (highly recommend) and saw 6 bears on shore, which is not the norm, apparently. The only issue with this excursion is we made it back too late (4:00) to go to Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls. There were no more bus passes available (not the public bus). Unless you pay for the shuttle bus or a qualified cab/Uber, you will only get dropped off about 1.5 miles from the Visitor Center, and it is another mile to the glacier/falls. It also was a lousy weather day in Juneau. That was disappointing, but we did end up seeing quite a lot of glaciers. Glacier Bay is amazing - we saw many Sea Otters that day and the scenery is beautiful. We also did the White Pass Rail in Skagway, which I think is a must! It is incredible and very affordable. The views are amazing! We highly recommend Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind. The Dive In is also good (we had dogs and burgers and fries). Love the Dutch Cafe, particularly the raisin rolls and mint tea. NOT a fan of the buffet. The food is mediocre at best, and I'd liken the experience to navigating Costco on a Saturday afternoon near Christmas. I got a chicken noodle soup one day, which was a ladle of clear broth to which they added spaghetti noodles (so lame). The buffet is ok, if you are selective and just want to grab something quick, but adequate is the highest compliment I can give it. This is a great, smooth cruise with beautiful scenery and a laid-back vibe. I would recommend a balcony cabin, as I very much enjoyed watching the world go by on this trip. We chose HAL over the mega ships because of extensive reviewing, the ports, and the size (population) of the ship.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Helpful
This was a fantastic 35 day cruise. Everything was not perfect but nothing in life ever is. We flew into San Diego a day early and stayed at the Wyndham Bayside hotel that is right across the street from the pier. The next morning we went right across the street to board the cruise. They were calling 4 and 5 star mariners first. Since we were 4 star we went right in. We had to wait around 30 minutes and then go on board. Service was excellent everywhere on the ship. From our room steward to the bar waiters. We had a lovely balcony stateroom which overlooked the life boats. We didn't have the have it all package. We hated having to sign for all our drinks. They just did this to ask for an additional tip on top of their included 15 percent tip. One thing I couldn't complain about was the food. It was excellent wherever I ate. The buffet, dive in and dining room, the food was all excellent. The service in the dining room at dinner was slow. Two nights we left before dessert as our waiter was no where to be found. We thought he must of forgot about us so we finally left. One thing Holland America has to do is upgrade their world stage entertainment. It was hit and miss and usually a miss. The step one dance group, Jeff Burghart the comedian, the Lionel Richie singer and the tahitian dancers were all good. Everything else was poor. Some nights there was no entertainment, they would just show a movie and call it entertainment. A movie is not a show or entertainment! I really enjoyed the piano and vocal duo in Billboard on board. I read 7 books on this cruise. There was very little to do during the day that was not a promotion to buy something. All the ports.were great. We had to miss fanning island due to a medical emergency. We could have made it but the ship would have to speed up the ship and that used more fuel. So we had an extra day at sea.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
Very nice and well-maintained ship, with ample space per passenger. Service was very good in dining room, Lido buffet, and exceptional in the Pinnacle Grill. Very good cabin attendant. Entertainment has deteriorated since our previous cruises on Holland America, as Lincoln Center is no longer offered, and the main stage entertainment was mediocre at best. Also, Holland has stopped letting you (or they) print your return airline boarding passes unless you have purchased their expensive Internet package, which is annoying, and needs to be fixed. Overall: a nice cruise, but be prepared for some disappointments (like waiting 1.5 hours in the rain and cold before getting into the cruise terminal on departure day.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Helpful
My wife and I have enjoyed ocean cruising and river cruising since the late 1980s. Over the decades we have chosen the Holland America Line subsidiary of Carnival Cruise Lines for a high percentage of our ocean cruises. We have just completed the Holland America 35-Day Legendary Hawaii, Tahiti & Marguesas Voyage. Unfortunately, this is the least satisfying cruise we have ever taken with Holland America or any other cruise line. Many of the issues we have are due to Holland America’s current business plan to increase profits at the expense of passenger appreciation. Holland America’s pricing for the two of us on this cruise was $12,660.00 ($180.86 per passenger per day) for the fare, $590.00 for government fees, and $1,190 ($17 per passenger per day) for crew appreciation, plus the price of excursions, beverages, spa, etc. On past Holland America cruises we found the total cost to be acceptable value given the “little things” Holland America provided in passenger appreciation. Holland America’s current business plan has deleted most if not all of the “little things” and created an environment of extra costs and no passenger respect or appreciation. Our list of the insulting Holland America effort to extract more money from passengers once the passenger is onboard is below. 1. On past cruises there was always a bowl of fruit in the cabin. Not on this cruise. 2. The drink-of-the-day has been discontinued. 3. On past cruises the meals in the dining room mirrored the menu on the Lido Deck buffet, but always had one or two additions not available on Lido. Those dining room additions are still on the dining room menu but at extra cost. 4. The dining room staff has been reduced with consequent reduction in service. a. Wait staff members do not come to tables with coffee pots in hand to refill cups. Now a pot of coffee is placed on the table for each passenger to refill their own coffee cups. b. The number of passengers each wait staff member serves has increased. c. The wine wait staff position has been eliminated such that the short-staffed wait staff has the additional duty of wine service without the training to explain and discuss the wines available. d. At breakfast, the wait staff no longer brings a tray of pastries to the table for passenger selection. Pastries are available if requested by the passenger; however, the pastries appear to be prepackaged frozen grocery store grade rather than bakery grade. The texture, flavor, and exciting appearance of pastries served on our previous cruises has been replaced with a lower cost vending machine pastry. e. While fruit juices are available for breakfast, passengers who enjoy non-alcoholic juice with dinner are now required to order the juice from the bar at additional cost. f. The customer appreciation shown by the MAÎTRE D'ship visiting each dinner time table to greet and inquire about customer satisfaction no longer occurs. g. Steaks are thin, not steak house quality in taste, texture, or appearance. h. Beef filets are often tough and chewy, more akin to a cut of eye of round rather than a tenderloin. i. The offering of mints, figs, and ginger exiting diners at the end of all dinners has been reduced to being offered for formal dining nights only. j. The dining room staff is very attenuative to violations of casual dress codes while having a blind eye to attire worn for formal dinners. k. Holland America’s effort to encourage passenger to pay the additional (pricy) fees for the specialty restaurants has focused on differentiating the dining room from the specialty restaurants by reducing service, variety, food variety, food quality, and general conditions in the dining room. 5. On past cruises, a deck of cards could be obtained from the service desk at no cost. There is now a fee. 6. The toilet in the cabin bath is at an angel to allow room for a passenger’s legs to avoid the shower stall wall; yet, the open space between the toilet and shower stall does not permit a five-foot two-inch passenger to set on the toilet in a normal manner. The passenger must sit sideways on the toilet to use it. 7. The cruise director’s review of each port focused on the local attractions that can be seen on a Holland America excursion; lacking, any mention of the many interesting physical and social aspects of each port that are not on the Holland America excursion. To appreciate and enjoy the varied points of interest and events, a passenger must research each port on their own to avoid missing aspects of the local culture not promoted by the Holland America cruise director. 8. The FREE cooking classes were no longer offered. 9. The FREE computer classes were no longer offered. 10. The FREE four-page newspaper that had been printed in multiple languages was no longer offered. Passengers could access their personal news subscriptions by purchasing Holland America’s overpriced WiFi service. 11. The stage shows were less than 45 minutes in length. On past Holland America cruises, the length of shows resulted in passengers leaving the first show while passengers were in line for the second show. Holland America will most likely use communicable disease sanitizing needs to justify the shorter shows; whereas, the time between shows could have been increased to permit sanitizing between shows of an hour duration. 12. Theatre show times and food venue schedules did not accommodate a relaxing environment. Passengers needed to schedule their daily activities rather than roam around and drop in at a time of impulse. 13. While a few theatre performances were of the professionalism and class of stage entertainment of theatre performances in major cities the majority of the performances were akin to that experienced at a US city’s corner bar, not theatre level professionalism. 14. No longer did every sea day have stage performances. On some sea days the evening theatre entertainment was an old movie. 15. Most of the truly professional theatre performances used prerecorded backup music rather than a house band. Further insulting was the sound from the speakers. The volume gain control was turned too high causing speaker distortion; perhaps due to poorly recording of the background music or an inadequately sized speaker system. 16. The professionalism and class of some of the ship’s bar performers do not reach the level of many of the street performances of Europe or the US. 17. The hours of food availability at the Ledo buffet have been reduced. Passengers cannot enjoy a non-scheduled life on the ship. Passengers must be coordinate their chosen ship activities/events with the availability of food selections available for medical and health prescribed diets. 18. The common areas of the ship were inadequate for the number of passengers. To attend a venue, a passenger had to plan to get a seat thirty to sixty minutes before the event. Whether it was a nightclub type performance, a theatre performance, trivia, a seat in the crow’s nest, or a seat on the fantail, enjoyment/use required preplanning due to the number of passengers seeking to find a seat. This need to schedule a day’s activities was complicated by the limited hours of dining availability, especially at the Lido Deck Buffet. 19. Seating in the Crow’s Nest was uncomfortable and none reclined. 20. The Crow’s Nest was not a relaxing, serene environment. Many activities occurred in the Crow’s Nest while rooms on deck 1 were available. 21. The food display cases at the Ledo buffet did not prevent passengers who do not accept social responsibility for hygiene from reaching into the food displays to take food and expose the other foods in the display to communicable diseases on their hands and arms, the mist of coughs, and the mists of breathing. The effort to inhibit the spread of communicable diseases was inadequate prior to the norovirus outbreak where more than one hundred cases were reported to the US CDC. As a passenger, our observational data gathering found attendance at venues drop appreciably either due to passenger caution or illness. There was a marked increase in passengers carrying food to their cabin and openly explaining their traveling companion was ill. Also, a marked increase in room service meal trays and passenger carried plates outside cabins. At least half the passengers traversing common areas were coughing. While the number of passengers and crew who reported to medical and were diagnosed with norovirus was officially one hundred ten or so, the actual number of sick passengers was probably in the range of five hundred. 22. While the self-service in the food venues was appropriately curtained during the height of illness, self-service was restored after about ten days. My wife and I became ill after self-service was restored. The curtained self-service should have existed for the entire cruise. 23. Medical care is another issue. I went to medical due to significantly inflamed eustachian tubes and an apparently infected left ear, accompanied by tinnitus so loud I could not hear spoken words. I emphasized to Doctor Yadav that my ears and hearing was the reason for the medical visit. My irritated or inflamed nasal membranes and sinus cavities were resulting in mucus draining, some brain fog, watering eyes, and a headache but my ears and hearing were a grave concern to me. He prescribed a nasal spray, three days of antibiotics, an ear drop antibiotic, and cough syrup Two days later, my wife went to medical with the same symptoms but her ear issues were not severe. A different doctor saw her and prescribed seven days of antibiotics, eye drops, cough syrup, and an antihistamine in tablet form. On the fourth day after seeing Doctor Yadav my ear and hearing problem was measurably worse. I returned to medical and asked to see a doctor other than Doctor Yadav. My request was denied and Doctor Yadav saw me again. He found the tympanic membrane of my left ear had ruptured. He prescribed seven days of antibiotic and another bottle of cough syrup. I asked for something to relieve the pressure in my eustachian tubes; the antihistamine tablet that had been given to my wife. Doctor Yadav refused my request, stating the medical facility did not have a tablet antihistamine; use the nasal spray he had previously given me. 24. The sanitizing effort of common areas was almost impressive. Railings, hand holds, and hard surfaces were constantly being disinfected. Yet, the cloth services of seating and floor carpeting contained the mist of coughs, sneezing, and the deposits of passengers who cover their mouth or nose then wiped their hand on the cloth seat or dropped their tissue on the floor. Equally alarming was the failure of many sanitizing crew members to wipe the underside of hand rails. 25. This cruise had a substantial number of passengers ill from communicable disease but failed to make announcements with sufficiently strong wording to alarm passengers with health risks to be alert to identify passengers who reject social responsibility of their conduct during communicable disease outbreaks. 26. The Lido has limited hours of operation and the Dive-In limited hours preclude it from being an alternative food source for passengers to avoid the self-serve health risks or to schedule meals around the undersized venues. 27. Holland America increased the number of specialty restaurants to increase profit while further reducing common areas sufficiently large to accommodate the many persons who could not find seating at entertainment venues. 28. The shipboard electronic network for the TV style displays in each cabin and for the Holland America Navigator app is woefully inadequate. It is slow, does not respond well to passenger surfing the available selections. And in many recurring instances the cabin TV displays an error message regarding no network access. When the error message occurs, service desk personnel have been told to say the ship has lost satellite contact. That was proven to be a lie because only some cabin could not connect to the ship network. If the issue was lost satellite connection, the entire network would be compromised. The network is not sufficiently robust for passengers to have problem free access and speedy interactions. 29. Non-emergency captain and cruise director announcements can be heard only in common areas. The shipboard electronic network permits passengers to select the bow camera to hear these announcements in the cabin. However, the network is so slow, the announce has ended before the bow camera screen can be accessed. Thus, many important announcements are not heard by many passengers. 30. Holland America failed to provide the cruise director staff with pin badges for this South Pacific French Polynesia cruise. They gave out badges for Alaska cruises and Caribbean cruises. 31. The toilet paper was a harsh single ply rather than a soft two ply. 32. The carpet in the cabin was nearly worn out, displayed very evident wear patterns. 33. Apparently, Holland America has determined it is financially advantageous to permit smoking in the casino. Holland America has failed to incur the cost of air handling and/or smoke eaters to keep the tobacco smoke out of the adjacent shops and elevator lobby in respect of passengers with respirator health issues. 34. The billing statement for every paying Holland America passenger shows a daily “crew appreciation” charge. The current charge is $17 per passenger per day. This cruise had about 2500 paying passengers. That is about one and a quarter million dollars per month collected for “crew appreciation”. The issue is that Holland America is very closed mouth about these monies. Filtering through the many answers to our inquiries has not yielded clear understanding of what Holland America does with these monies. What is clear is that the crew does not receive any pay other than what is available from the “crew appreciation” account. Furthermore, not all crew members participate in the disbursement of the “crew appreciation” monies. The bar serving staff, the spa staff, and others who hand a passenger a receipt to sign receive some of the eighteen percent tip that automatically appears on the receipt the passenger signs. Holland America deducts room and board from the eighteen percent tip and pays the contract employee the remaining balance, if any. Additionally, these contract employees are rated on their results to upsell to the passenger and are given less opportunity to serve customers if they fall behind their peers in upsell dollar amount. Direct employees eligible for the distributed “crew appreciation” monies appear to include dock side personnel, certain home office personnel, and the ship captain and his senior staff. Apparently, Holland America deducts administrative costs and payroll processing costs/fees from the “crew appreciation” monies. It is unequivocally unacceptable for Holland America to collect these funds from passengers without a clear and concise explanation of the use and distribution of passenger monies. 35. Holland America touts their Marnier Club talking about benefits such as discount in the onboard shops. The catch is that the discount applies only to select items; typically overpriced. The selection on this cruise was small and very overpriced. 36. While we were on this cruise, Holland America publicly advertised the 2025 occurrence of this 35-day cruise at a price of $89 per day per person, half the $180.86 per day per person we paid. If a profit can be made with a fair at half the cost of the fare charge to us for the same cruise, it is difficult to feel appreciation from this Carnival Cruise Line subsidiary. $89 per day is obviously for an inside cabin and the price increases as the cabin status increases. The three lowest category cabins are inside, outside with porthole, and outside with veranda and restricted view. We had a restricted view, not a cabin that warrants tripling the lowest price. While the above appears to nitpick many aspects of Holland America’s current business plan, there are many additional issues passengers wanted me to include. It is also important to note that not everyone has concern or takes issue with the above delineation of concerns; however, the point is that the overall package being sold by Holland America has been altered to pursue profit without regard for the “little things” customer’s have come to appreciate from Holland America. We understand Holland America has multiple levels of cruises and our current cruise was a Legendary cruise, not a Grand cruise; however, those designations are not relevant to the customer appreciation each passenger is due for choosing Holland America for month long cruises or cruises with infrequent ports of call.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
2 Helpful votes
Helpful
I would definitely not recommend the Koningsdam for a Hawaii cruise. The boat was incredibly unstable, it was like the stabilizers didn't work. They allowed two fake service dogs, which obviously had no training, for these two ladies who smoked by the pool and half the time didn't even have their dogs with them! The dogs pooped on carpet in 2 areas that I saw and the lady just rubbed it into the carpet with a napkin. I had to tell the service desk about it and then waited to see if they cleaned it but half an hour later the poop stain was still there. I paid a lot of money for this cruise and a lot of money to leave my two dogs with a sitter at home and do not appreciate HAL letting dogs poop all over the ship without saying anything to the owners. Do NOT book any excursions through HAL, they are extremely disorganized and drastically overpriced. We waited 40 minutes in line to get our sticker to get off the boat just to go downstairs and be put in groups to wait again. We ended up leaving an hour late on one excursion and then they had to cut it short to take us back. You can get any of these excursions on your own for far less hassle and cost... Google, TripAdvisor, Viator. The worst though: They will let you think you have a shore excursions credit through the have it "all package" but then they charge your credit card. It's by far the worst experience I've ever had on a cruise ship. Never will go with them again. They had one customer on the ship that's been on 15 cruises with them and HAL shafted her by $100 so she was so upset she'll never use them again either. The staff are all amazing and wonderful except for that lady at the shore excursions desk, who will lie to your face day after day.…
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Helpful
Upcoming itineraries
Itinerary
7 Night Cruise to Alaska
Departure date
Saturday, 04/26/25
Itinerary
Prices are cruise only, per person, double occupancy, and are provided by our partners. Taxes, fees and port expenses are not included. Fuel supplements may apply. Availability of prices is subject to the supplier’s pricing availability.
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