risa00
June 7th, 2006, 02:02 AM
I just came back from the Zuiderdam and had an amazing time!!! I post all about the ports on the Alaska forum but also wanted to write about the ship on this one. This was my first HAL cruise and I will definitely be sailing again. I've been on Carnival and RCI before so this ship was more mature than what I've been on before. The embarkation process was extremely smooth and quick. What I didn't understand though was I got my picture taken and then when I got on the ship, my picture was of me at a side, so I had to go to the main desk to retake my picture. Why couldn't the lady who took it and noticed it when she did it? The person in front of me in the line at the main desk had the same issue that I did. It only took a minute to fix it so it wasn't a problem, but I didn't understand that.
We were in 5110 and enjoyed the room. I loved the fresh fruit everyday. I never did understand why there wasn't clocks in the room so you would know what time it was. One complaint I did have was that our rooms would be cleaned very late in the day. It would be 3 pm and they still wouldn't have been cleaned. Or he would wait until I was in the shower or bathroom when he decided to come in.
When we first got on the ship, we went to the Lido for lunch. My dad had on a UT shirt and of course the one and only Hunky Dorie saw him and started singing the 'Eyes of Texas'. So Hunky then learned all 6 of our names, how we were related, and where we were from. He is quite the character. Every day that we saw him he would also yell across the room 'Hi firstname'. What was nice is he would tell us when and where he saw the rest of my family so I might be able to catch up with them at lunch. :) I was told that he memorizes about 700-800 names each week. As the week went on though it took him about 3 seconds to recall what ours names were since he had alot more stored in his brain then. He said he's on the Zuiderdam until December and then will take a break until April. If you want to meet him, go to the Lido during lunch on the starboard side at the bistro bar (by the salad bar).
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos1950/9/39/67/73/85/0/85736739908_0_ALB.jpg
Dinner was good. The 8:15 pm seating was actually the best time. Sunset doesn't go down until really late in Alaska so you could still see everything at dinner. I was not impressed at all with the Baked Alaskan. When I was on RCI, I remember ordering 2 of it because it was sooo good. Here, I only had like 2 bites and that was it. The volcano cake on the last day was to die for though. We did go to the Pinnacle Grill on Thursday (Baked Alaskan Parade day :() and wish we hadn't. The food wasn't all that and the service was HORRIBLE! We sat there forever trying to order our wine. We were done with dinner and almost just got up and left because we literally sat for 15-20 minutes before we ever saw our waitress again. I gave very low scores on the review pamplet for them. Wouldn't recommend them. I did like that there was food everyday at midnight. :) We ordered room service for breakfast a couple of times. The belgian waffles in the Lido with pecans and syrup was amazing! The ice cream was another good dessert at lunch. There's always food so you won't go hungry!
The HAL dancers were quite boring. We would skip out of the nightly shows if they were the only performers. The vintriloquist (sp) was hysterical!!! The other comedian and the magician were great too.
Kerry, let's play Bingo! Ok, so we played twice a day almost every day. My sister won twice and I never did but we had so much fun. Kerry was the funniest crew member on the ship and he always made fun of Ronin. Kerry and Ronin were both getting off of the ship when we did and were taking a break before going on another assignment so I'm sorry to say none of you will be able to enjoy their entertainment. They really made the entire cruise entertaining. They had an American Idol singing contest which sounded horrible when I walked by. I caught part of the recap on the tv and was cracking up. I heard Kerry had to drink alcohol before being the judge of it because the singing was so bad. So on tv there he was taking off his shirt flexing his muscles. I had to call my sister to get her to tune in because he was just being so funny.
I went to the Disco Dance room every night or should I say I walked through it every night. There was never anyone in there... not until the last night. They had karaoke and the room was quite packed. We had fun singing and afterwards it was dancing. I ended up getting everyone on the dance floor. Once the older crowd left, DJ Tyrone played modern hip hop music and that was the time that I discovered that there were 5 other people on the ship my age (27-32). They said they were in there every night around 11 pm until close, but I never saw them. Even Steve Gayda (Cruise Director) was in there dancing. That cracked me up because even though Steve is my age, he acts very proper for the mature crowd and didn't seem like he would by the type to have fun and get down. :)
My mom did the slot machine tournament and ended up winning $500 from it. She also put in $40 and got out $400 later in the week so definitely try out the slot machines. My husband and I did the face up blackjack and we do not recommend it. If we stayed we lost and if we hit we lost. $40 went by in less than 5 minutes.
On the last day we did the miniature golf game in the danceroom. You got 1 DAM dollar for participating. One thing to know is you can collect these DAM dollars for the sporting events and trade them in the last day. We didn't have a clue. So we showed up later that evening with our $2 and the lady let us trade it in for a $5 mousepad. She didn't care, she was just trying to get rid of her stuff. So go participate to get free stuff.
I feel for all of the pictures.. I must have spent over $100 in just pictures but they were all so good.
A hint regarding the spa. At the first art auction, they will do a bid for a facial. Whatever the highest bid is ($75 at ours) they will offer it to everyone who wants to purchase it at $75. It normally is $120 so it was a great deal! Also, as the week goes on, the prices go down. You'll get a neck and back massage for only $30 on the last day or so. And if you get a spa package you'll get a free 30 minute facial, so don't book anything until you get it. I want to say we got the free facial in our mailbox on Wednesday. I had already booked a facial so I never used it.
On the first day, get there early and go to the shows because they were giving away so many prizes. We had gotten there around 3 pm on the ship so we missed it all but I saw it on tv. They were giving away free spa packages, art, pictures, etc.
On the Glacier Bay day, they were giving out split pea soup and hot chocolate. On the Tracy Arm day, they were giving out raisin buns and hot chocolate on the observation deck (4). I thought the Crow's Nest everyone knew about but my family didn't discover it until the last day. It was always crowded in there anyways, so we never go a good leather black seat.
Trivia occurs in the library every day. There are 20 questions to answer on different topics and they post the winner at 3 pm. My dad won one day and my husband another. You don't win much besides a key chain or a luggage band, but it's fun playing.
Disembarkation was the best I'ver ever seen. You can actually stay in your stateroom until it's time to leave. I've never seen that before. We actually woke up 3 minutes before they called our number. Just walked off the ship and that was it. Super easy but sad to leave. That's all I can think of for now. If you have questions, let me know.
Forgot to mention that it seems like the Zuiderdam has priority docking at the ports because we had the best spot out of all of the other ships in port. I was impressed!
We were in 5110 and enjoyed the room. I loved the fresh fruit everyday. I never did understand why there wasn't clocks in the room so you would know what time it was. One complaint I did have was that our rooms would be cleaned very late in the day. It would be 3 pm and they still wouldn't have been cleaned. Or he would wait until I was in the shower or bathroom when he decided to come in.
When we first got on the ship, we went to the Lido for lunch. My dad had on a UT shirt and of course the one and only Hunky Dorie saw him and started singing the 'Eyes of Texas'. So Hunky then learned all 6 of our names, how we were related, and where we were from. He is quite the character. Every day that we saw him he would also yell across the room 'Hi firstname'. What was nice is he would tell us when and where he saw the rest of my family so I might be able to catch up with them at lunch. :) I was told that he memorizes about 700-800 names each week. As the week went on though it took him about 3 seconds to recall what ours names were since he had alot more stored in his brain then. He said he's on the Zuiderdam until December and then will take a break until April. If you want to meet him, go to the Lido during lunch on the starboard side at the bistro bar (by the salad bar).
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos1950/9/39/67/73/85/0/85736739908_0_ALB.jpg
Dinner was good. The 8:15 pm seating was actually the best time. Sunset doesn't go down until really late in Alaska so you could still see everything at dinner. I was not impressed at all with the Baked Alaskan. When I was on RCI, I remember ordering 2 of it because it was sooo good. Here, I only had like 2 bites and that was it. The volcano cake on the last day was to die for though. We did go to the Pinnacle Grill on Thursday (Baked Alaskan Parade day :() and wish we hadn't. The food wasn't all that and the service was HORRIBLE! We sat there forever trying to order our wine. We were done with dinner and almost just got up and left because we literally sat for 15-20 minutes before we ever saw our waitress again. I gave very low scores on the review pamplet for them. Wouldn't recommend them. I did like that there was food everyday at midnight. :) We ordered room service for breakfast a couple of times. The belgian waffles in the Lido with pecans and syrup was amazing! The ice cream was another good dessert at lunch. There's always food so you won't go hungry!
The HAL dancers were quite boring. We would skip out of the nightly shows if they were the only performers. The vintriloquist (sp) was hysterical!!! The other comedian and the magician were great too.
Kerry, let's play Bingo! Ok, so we played twice a day almost every day. My sister won twice and I never did but we had so much fun. Kerry was the funniest crew member on the ship and he always made fun of Ronin. Kerry and Ronin were both getting off of the ship when we did and were taking a break before going on another assignment so I'm sorry to say none of you will be able to enjoy their entertainment. They really made the entire cruise entertaining. They had an American Idol singing contest which sounded horrible when I walked by. I caught part of the recap on the tv and was cracking up. I heard Kerry had to drink alcohol before being the judge of it because the singing was so bad. So on tv there he was taking off his shirt flexing his muscles. I had to call my sister to get her to tune in because he was just being so funny.
I went to the Disco Dance room every night or should I say I walked through it every night. There was never anyone in there... not until the last night. They had karaoke and the room was quite packed. We had fun singing and afterwards it was dancing. I ended up getting everyone on the dance floor. Once the older crowd left, DJ Tyrone played modern hip hop music and that was the time that I discovered that there were 5 other people on the ship my age (27-32). They said they were in there every night around 11 pm until close, but I never saw them. Even Steve Gayda (Cruise Director) was in there dancing. That cracked me up because even though Steve is my age, he acts very proper for the mature crowd and didn't seem like he would by the type to have fun and get down. :)
My mom did the slot machine tournament and ended up winning $500 from it. She also put in $40 and got out $400 later in the week so definitely try out the slot machines. My husband and I did the face up blackjack and we do not recommend it. If we stayed we lost and if we hit we lost. $40 went by in less than 5 minutes.
On the last day we did the miniature golf game in the danceroom. You got 1 DAM dollar for participating. One thing to know is you can collect these DAM dollars for the sporting events and trade them in the last day. We didn't have a clue. So we showed up later that evening with our $2 and the lady let us trade it in for a $5 mousepad. She didn't care, she was just trying to get rid of her stuff. So go participate to get free stuff.
I feel for all of the pictures.. I must have spent over $100 in just pictures but they were all so good.
A hint regarding the spa. At the first art auction, they will do a bid for a facial. Whatever the highest bid is ($75 at ours) they will offer it to everyone who wants to purchase it at $75. It normally is $120 so it was a great deal! Also, as the week goes on, the prices go down. You'll get a neck and back massage for only $30 on the last day or so. And if you get a spa package you'll get a free 30 minute facial, so don't book anything until you get it. I want to say we got the free facial in our mailbox on Wednesday. I had already booked a facial so I never used it.
On the first day, get there early and go to the shows because they were giving away so many prizes. We had gotten there around 3 pm on the ship so we missed it all but I saw it on tv. They were giving away free spa packages, art, pictures, etc.
On the Glacier Bay day, they were giving out split pea soup and hot chocolate. On the Tracy Arm day, they were giving out raisin buns and hot chocolate on the observation deck (4). I thought the Crow's Nest everyone knew about but my family didn't discover it until the last day. It was always crowded in there anyways, so we never go a good leather black seat.
Trivia occurs in the library every day. There are 20 questions to answer on different topics and they post the winner at 3 pm. My dad won one day and my husband another. You don't win much besides a key chain or a luggage band, but it's fun playing.
Disembarkation was the best I'ver ever seen. You can actually stay in your stateroom until it's time to leave. I've never seen that before. We actually woke up 3 minutes before they called our number. Just walked off the ship and that was it. Super easy but sad to leave. That's all I can think of for now. If you have questions, let me know.
Forgot to mention that it seems like the Zuiderdam has priority docking at the ports because we had the best spot out of all of the other ships in port. I was impressed!