This is our eighth cruise on a HAL ship and our first on the Koningsdam which we specifically wanted to try being a new state of the art vessel. The cruise took us from Fort Lauderdale down to the islands of the Netherlands Antilles and back again. I am happy to say that as much as I have enjoyed the other HAL vessels this one is leap forward in both technological and comfort terms. Being a slightly larger ship there are more shopping options on board. Additionally, though HAL has a reputation for attracting older cruisers, the crowd on this cruise had many middle aged people along with some younger families.

We were located in cabin 8107 on the ‘Navigation Deck’, midship. This cabin is a vista suite with a slightly different configuration than many cruise cabins, in that the bed was closer to the balcony, and faced a big screen tv on the wall. There was a good deal of storage space, and more electrical and USB outlines than we’ve seen elsewhere. Balcony was a bit smaller than I would like. We experienced no problems with the cabin and the stewards were quick and efficient at looking after the room. At times, noise from the Lido deck above did keep us awake, as staff seemed to be moving equipment at night. I don't know if it was due to calm seas or midship location but at times boat motion was inperceptible.

Food options on the Koningsdam were more varied than any other HAL ship. For more formal dining, and In addition to the dining room and Pinnacle Grill, there was Sel de Mer, a sea food restaurant (which we liked) and Tamarind, featuring Asian cuisine (which we didn’t try on this cruise). There’s also Canaletto and the Culinary Arts Dining room, where we had a six course cellar masters dinner. Food was uniformly good through all the locations we tried, although sometimes there was a bit too much! I noticed that even on gala nights, HAL did not stop more casually dressed guests from enjoying the dining room, and my guess is that dressing up to eat is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Read more