Anyone on Zuiderdam This Spring

[mskaufman]

I've only seen one review from a Zuiderdam trip to Alaska this year. Has anyone out there taken this cruise and have feedback?

[kazu]

I've only seen one review from a Zuiderdam trip to Alaska this year. Has anyone out there taken this cruise and have feedback?

We were on her last year and it was glorious. she is a beautiful ship IMO. I lean towards the smaller ones but I have to say that she is very nice. good food, great staff, great service and great art. what else can I say? just ask and I will try to help. A very nice ship and I would gladly sail her again :)

hope this helps a bit;)

[GTVCRUISER]

I will be cruising on the Zuiderdam Sept. 28 , 2011 Panama Canal

[kansasdj]

We just got back from the Zuiderdam Inside Passage cruise 2 weeks ago. Be prepared to stand in long lines for embarkation at Canada Place...it was really disorganized when we were there. If you are a US citizen it is a bit easier, but anyone having to stand in the US Customs line for fingerprinting is in for quite a long queue. We departed at 7pm instead of 5pm because of the number of foreign nationalities on board.

We did not feel the food was as good as on our past Princess cruises but we both wondered if that was the case on all cruiselines due to the economic times. Only pack 1 sweatshirt...it was 78 F the day we were in Juneau (we returned to the ship to take off layers for our Whalewatching excursion). The only day we really layered was Glacier Bay...polo shirt, thermal vest and raincoat.

You will love the scenery, it is absolutely phenomenal. Juneau is crazy busy but our Land/Sea Photo Safari was OUTSTANDING. Skagway was a lovely little town...we rented a car from Avis and drove the Klondike/Yukon Hwy...it was a lovely drive with a sighting of bears. Ketchikan was our favorite town, the people are lovely and lots of places to just walk around and see the sites.

The demographic was about 80% over 70 years of age so we probably will not cruise HAL again (We are in our mid-50's). We did meet some lovely people utilizing AYWD but attention to details in the MDR was not up to cruise standards. Go to the Pinnacle Grill for dinner 1 evening...it was the only meal that really came up to the standard of meals that we were used to on prior cruises.

Hopefully, the Zuiderdam was just ironing out the new season issues and things will have improved by the time of your sailing.

The itinerary was fantastic and we would definitely entertain the thought of Alaska again.