Holland America Line is one of my favorite cruise lines.  Their ships have an understated elegance that appeals to my personal taste.  I find their ships to be arty and colorful, yet subtly restrained.  The beautiful decor on each of their vessels has an individual theme yet a lovely consistency is maintained throughout Holland’s entire fleet.

I like Holland so much in fact that I booked my own family on a group cruise in December of 2009.  My in-laws were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and they truly loved the idea of taking our entire family on a group cruise.  We sailed on the ms Eurodam and it was an amazing experience.  The kids had a blast roaming the ship during the day.  We enjoyed the peacefulness of hanging out at our cabana on the retreat deck and we even used the cabana as our family meeting place.  The highlight of our trip was the anniversary dinner celebrated at the Pinnacle Grill on New Year’s Eve.  It was fabulous and my in-laws were so pleased with the food, the service and every attention to detail.  It was a great way for our family to vacation together yet have the flexibility to do different things each day and come together every night to share our experiences with one another.

Holland has now implemented a program that I think I will really like!  They have instituted a new check-in service called “Stateroom Direct Service” that simplifies the boarding process by giving guests immediate access to their staterooms upon embarkation.  Under the new program, staterooms will be ready as early as 11:30am and arriving guests will receive their baggage earlier as well.  Guests will also have the opportunity to have a buffet lunch on board.  This Stateroom Direct Service initiative is in place on all of the line’s 15 ships and is part of Holland America’s Signature of Excellence program.