Zaandam Mar. 12, 2005

[pboedeker]

28 cruises under my belt, considering Spring Break on Zaandam. Have two college age kids. Can someone give me any information about this ship and the expected passenger ages at this time of year? Dont' want to bore my kids with a bunch of 40+ passengers..but want to experience HAL?

[RuthC]

Is it a 7-day cruise? If so there will be a younger crowd on a 7-day at Spring break than at other times, but there will still be a lot of the over-40 crowd.
College-age kids might be happier on RCCL.

I notice you say you "take" friends and family on a lot of cruises. Do you want to be my friend? ;)

[dakrewser]

28 cruises under my belt, considering Spring Break on Zaandam. Have two college age kids. Can someone give me any information about this ship and the expected passenger ages at this time of year? Dont' want to bore my kids with a bunch of 40+ passengers..but want to experience HAL?

If the kids use age as their sole gauge of boredom potential, perhaps they'd be more comfortable on a different cruise line - like Disney.

[pboedeker]

No, my kids don't use age as a guideline for who's having fun...but I'd rather them be able to meet up with "like-aged" college kids and enjoy their week. We've cruised just about every major cruise line, except HAL. We've been on Celebrity when the majority of the passengers were 60+ and they didn't have as many "friends" to hook up with and party with.

Also, if anyone has experience with orlando airport to Port Canaveral tranfer options..I could use some input. Also, hotel recommendations for the pre-cruise night in Orlando or near the port area?

PB

[swclark]

We have stayed at the Radisson at the port and have found it nice. Have a lot of cruise pax staying there - and run shuttles to the port. Sign up for the shuttle the night before when you check in as the earlier ones fill up fast.

We have rented cars and taken Happy limo from MCO to the hotel at the port. Both have worked well. Happy limo is great - especially if you are a small group and the hotel shuttle will work for you.

If you rent a car, you will need to take it back the morning of the cruise - but then you can drop off the others travelling wiht you at the port, take the car back and then take the car rental shuttle back to port. Just depends on if you think you will need the car that evening when you get in. Easier to do happy limo/shuttle if you wont' need the car and don't have a late evening checkin (As you will then get a late shuttle time). We have had to rent cars because there were a bunch of us and taking the shuttle would be time consuming - so we kept the car and shuttled the people to the port ourselves (as it took a few trips) and then returned the car and took car rental shuttle.

[Arubalisa]

We also stayed at the Radisson and were very pleased.

As to age on the Zaandam? Although it was a wonderful cruise for our family, and being in my early 40's myself, even on a holiday cruise, a majority of passengers were well older than myself, never mind MY parents...


Great cruise, beautiful ship, but for two college age kids, would definitely look elsewhere! When I was in college I first started cruising and that was on the Canivale!

[Dave311]

I am going on the Zaandam for Spring break with at least 3 others whose ages are all 21 and 22, i don't think we will be the only ones since HAL seems like such a good cruise line for the incomparable rates they are offering

[TinaLee]

We're actually booked on this cruise for spring break. Sailing with 2 college-aged girls. With 23+ cruises under our belts, this will be our first try at HAL, and we're excited to try the Zaandam so soon after her SOE improvements. Since both girls are classical music majors, they're looking forward to the 'music theme' and all the various music offerings on the ship.

Can't tell you how it will be, since we're HAL newbies as well, but COME ON and book - join us!

TinaLee :)

[pboedeker]

How strange? I'll have 2 daughters, ages 21 and 19, along with their friends (same ages). Did I mention one of my daughters is a music major also! WOW!
First HAL cruise...hoping we all have a great trip!