Every Holland America Line Ship Ranked Best to Worst (10/2026)

The Rotterdam is HAL's newest ship, and it shows up at the top here mostly because it doesn't break. Reviewers on both sites keep coming back to the same short list: the music venues all sitting together on Deck 2, staterooms with more drawers than anyone could fill, and a crew that's friendly without being pushy. Norway, Iceland and Baltic sailings drew the warmest reviews of the year.

The complaints are about Holland America more than about the ship. Cruise Critic reviewers griped about upcharges creeping in everywhere, including a slice of the Lido pool deck turned into a paid dining venue, and about production shows that run on recorded tracks. A few ran into ports she was too big to dock at, which turned tender days into skipped days.

Cruiseline.com reviewers loved her at 4.61, while Cruise Critic was a full star cooler at 3.71. Even so, she leads the fleet on both counts that matter here: plenty of reviews, and no real pattern of things going wrong onboard.

Koningsdam spent the summer doing seven-night Alaska runs out of Vancouver and the winter in the Caribbean and Hawaii, and she came out of an early 2026 refurbishment looking sharp. Tamarind gets name-checked constantly, the Music Walk venues get the credit for her nightlife, and first-time cruisers in particular came away happy.

The negatives are oddly specific. Noise is the big one: cabins over the Blues club stage and bar-hop nights that spill into every public space got called out more than once. A handful of one-star reviews describe guest services shrugging off real problems, and a Neptune Suite guest flatly said it wasn't worth the money.

She lands second because she pulled the second-highest review count and stayed consistent on both sites. If you book her, look at the deck plan and check what's directly underneath your cabin.

Nieuw Statendam had a two-part year. Summer was Europe, with Norway, the British Isles and a Greenland, Iceland and solar eclipse voyage that reviewers loved. Winter was Caribbean sailings out of Fort Lauderdale, and those are where things got bumpy.

A cluster of December 2025 reviews describe a cabin door that wouldn't let people back in, a two-hour tender wait for HAL's own private island, and main dining room service that missed badly. The other recurring theme is the nickel and dime feeling, plus a few younger cruisers calling the crowd a floating retirement home.

When she's good, reviewers rave about the food and call her one of the classiest ships in the fleet. She ends up essentially tied with the Volendam, and she's the safer bet in summer than at the holidays.

The Volendam is the old-school pick, an R-class ship from the late 1990s that spent the year on Canada and New England runs, a long Iceland and Greenland voyage, and Caribbean holiday sailings. Reviewers describe a quiet, clean, mostly senior ship that handles rough water well and docks right in Montreal, which the big ships can't do.

The grumbles are about HAL cutbacks, a shore excursion that fell apart, and the feeling that you have to figure out a lot on your own. One Cunard regular compared her to Queen Anne and found her wanting, which is a bit like comparing your neighbor's sedan to a Bentley.

Her third-place finish comes from a small sample, just 28 reviews, so treat it as encouraging rather than definitive. Still, she posted the best Cruise Critic score in the fleet at 3.73, and that's the tougher crowd.

The Eurodam drew more reviews than any other Holland America ship this year, mostly from Alaska sailings out of Seattle and Caribbean runs from Fort Lauderdale. Cruiseline.com reviewers were thrilled, many of them first-time Alaska cruisers who saw whales, glaciers and great service and went home happy.

Cruise Critic tells a rougher story. Reviewers there describe a ship that's showing her age: leaks, cabins where the air conditioning never caught up, rust on balconies, and one especially ugly sanitation complaint. The Country Music cruise also drew several reviews about drink package charges that didn't add up.

Almost everyone praises the crew, and that's carrying her. She's a fine Alaska ship if you're there for the scenery, but she's overdue for the kind of attention the Koningsdam got this year.

Noordam actually posted the best Cruiseline.com score in the fleet at 4.64, thanks to Alaska sailings, a 28-day Arctic Circle trip, the Great Bear Rainforest route and a winter in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. Reviewers loved the service, and wheelchair users singled her out as one of the most accommodating ships they've sailed.

Cruise Critic was far less impressed. The complaints are about age: cracked windows, a flooded room, a corroded balcony lock, creaky cabin panels. Self-described foodies were unhappy with the dining, and longtime HAL loyalists said she's where they gave up on the line.

So it depends on who you ask. If you want a mid-size ship on a great itinerary and you don't mind some wear around the edges, she's a good choice. If you want polish, look higher on this list.

Oosterdam had arguably the most interesting year in the fleet: Mediterranean and Greek Isles in summer, a 31-day run to Buenos Aires, Antarctica over the holidays and a transatlantic in spring. Reviewers consistently credit the itineraries, not the ship, for their good experiences.

About the ship itself, people were blunt. Words like tired, worn and in need of TLC show up over and over, especially about suite bathrooms and cabin fixtures. Buffet service drew complaints, and a couple of reviewers said the officers were noticeably less friendly than the crew.

She's a ship you book for where she's going. Several reviewers said she'd be at the top of their list after a refresh, and right now she's sitting right in the middle.

Westerdam split her year between Alaska, often paired with a Denali land tour, and Asia, including Japan circle cruises and Indonesia over the holidays. The Denali trips and Japan itineraries drew the happiest reviews, and several people said the routes were the whole reason they booked.

Reviewers who weren't happy were very specific. They called her tired and dated, with grim hallways and a Lido buffet with zero ambiance. On the Asia sailings, guides who couldn't be heard on tours were a recurring gripe. A landslide that wiped out the Denali train portion for one group wasn't the ship's fault, but it didn't help her scores.

Cruiseline.com only turned up 15 reviews for her, so Cruise Critic carries most of the weight here. That's why she lands lower than her Cruiseline.com average alone would suggest.

Nieuw Amsterdam spent summer in Alaska between Vancouver and Whittier and winter on Mexico, Baja and Hawaii trips out of San Diego. Cruiseline.com reviewers were mostly pleased, and the Neptune Suite earned a few glowing write-ups.

Cruise Critic was a different story, with the fleet's third-lowest score there. Reviewers complained about a musty smell, food that missed, a balcony view blocked by structure nobody warned them about, and guest services lines. A handful of longtime HAL fans said this was their last sailing with the line.

The Alaska itineraries are excellent, and most reviewers say so even when they're unhappy with the ship. But she's slipped toward the bottom of the pack, and the gap between the two sites is one of the widest in the fleet.

Zuiderdam had a busy year: Canada and New England out of Boston and Quebec, a Fourth of July 250th anniversary voyage, a Gaither Homecoming charter, an eclipse sailing and Baja and Caribbean trips in the winter. Fall foliage trips and suite guests produced some genuinely happy reviews.

The bad ones were really bad. Multiple reviewers described a sewage smell in their cabin, a room with no working air conditioning, mold, and a middle-of-the-night fire alarm in crew quarters. Her Cruise Critic score of 3.15 is the lowest in the fleet.

Some reviewers mention new carpet, new tubs and a great mattress, so it's not all bad news. But she's the ship where the gap between a good cabin and a bad one seems widest, and you can't tell which you'll get until you open the door.

Zaandam lands last, and much of it comes down to one bad stretch. In June 2026 she lost propulsion on an Alaska sailing and only made it to Juneau. Around the same time, a reviewer documented an unsafe cabin and corporate customer service that wouldn't help. Then in September, a couple of reviewers called the main dining room food practically inedible.

Outside of that, reviewers describe a charming, classic small ship. Her Mexico and Hawaii sailings were relaxing and quiet, and one Alaska guest said she'd aged better than the reviews suggested. Understaffing at the buffet came up more than once, though.

Like the Volendam, she only had 28 reviews in the window, so one bad month moves the needle a lot. She's not a bad ship, but she had a bad year.