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View Full Version : Zuiderdam July 17th-24th Review


Bubba_59
July 29th, 2004, 12:21 AM
Bear in mind throughout this short review that this was our very first cruise. My DW and I are both 45 and we traveled with another couple.

I’d like to start off by saying THANK YOU for all the help I received in planning this cruise and making it a most memorable one.

Our embarkation went pretty smooth after finally getting inside the air-conditioned area. The process lasted about 20 minutes after starting. I was pulled off to the side to investigate the bottles I had in my carry-on. But thanks to the info I received on this board I knew I was OK with the 4 bottles of wine I had. The security folks joked with me hoping I had brought them one!!

There was a problem the first day with the room keys. It seems about half of the ship’s keys didn’t work. The poor girls worked frantically to straighten it out and MOST of the guests were patient.

The food was very good. I’m not much of a food critic since I’m more of a “regular food” guy. I was not disappointed with anything I ate and the service was wonderful!! The steaks were tender and the seafood was nicely prepared and the Bread Pudding was fantastic!!

The ship was very clean and elegant looking. I was amazed at her beauty. I noticed VERY little vibration and absolutely no odors that I’ve read about in previous reviews. The stewards were very attentive, even getting me a fan for my room when I asked (my DW and I use it for white noise when we sleep). They made the room up twice a day and always had a smile.

The wife and I opted for the Renewal of Vows ceremony and were extremely disappointed. I could see where it would be a wonderful addition but there were about 12 couples renewing and it seemed that most of them brought additional guests (some of them several) without securing reservations. So the room used was way too small and stifling HOT. It was too crowded and we were elbow to elbow and could hardly move without bumping into other couples. One poor guy stepped on my wife’s toe (not his fault). The captain tried his best to make it romantic but it was difficult. I will not do this again.

Half Moon Cay was wonderful. We took the Glass Bottomed Boat Eco Tour, but it was too hot and took time away from the lovely beach, which is its best attraction. We loved Tortola and took an island tour along with beach time at Cane Garden Bay. We took another island tour at St. Thomas and then the women wanted to shop. We toured the tower on Nassau but it was too hot for much else. We found it to be rather dirty and didn’t enjoy it much. We ate at Senor Frogs. Cool place but way overpriced.Disembarkation was as smooth as could be. We were off the ship in no time and had no trouble location our baggage.

Overall we enjoyed the cruise and ship very much and would recommend it to anyone. Lastly, we very much enjoyed meeting the several CC members that made it to the CC get together. I hope to meet up with them again and invite their comments on this thread for their own spin and experiences.

KSCnCA
July 29th, 2004, 01:08 AM
Thanks for your review and comments. It's nice to hear another positive view of the Zuiderdam. Would love to hear more from the others you sailed with! Any comments about your cabin? Where and how was it? Thanks!:)

Ziggy7
July 29th, 2004, 02:34 AM
How was the bed ?? Did you have the new mattresses ?? and did you have robes ???
Sorry to hear about your renewel of vows not going so well, also remember its the thought that counts to your wife :)
Welcome home!

Orcrone
July 29th, 2004, 08:47 AM
Thanks for your review. Glad you enjoyed your first cruise and hope for more many more. Just booked the Zuiderdam last week with the same itinerary for March of next year.

Bubba_59
July 29th, 2004, 09:51 AM
We had Cabin 8064 which is an A stateroom in the middle of the ship about 2 doors down from the elevator. Our travel mates had 8066 and we had the balconies opened up. We could hear the elevator "dings" in the middle of the night on the first night but the fan we requested took care of that. We had enough room to store everything and room to spare. We felt sway from time to time but I faithfully took my Dramimine daily and had no problems.

I don't know if we had the "new" matteress or not but I found it very comfortable. Yes, we had robes in our rooms and they were very nice as well.

There were a number of children on board but the only ones that caused problems are a few teens. They went around in the middle of the night and were making HUGE messes for the staff to clean up (pouring sugar all over the floor, i.e.)

There was one family I heard about that was downgraded 4 floors from their guaranteed 8th floor suite because the staff needed their room for a quadraplegic. They were so upset that had their luggage taken off the ship at St. Thomas and they flew home. We saw them and their luggage in Constitution Park and heard about it later.

MandyGirl
July 29th, 2004, 11:17 AM
There was one family I heard about that was downgraded 4 floors from their guaranteed 8th floor suite because the staff needed their room for a quadraplegic. They were so upset that had their luggage taken off the ship at St. Thomas and they flew home.
Wow. I've seen people get ticked off on an airplane when having to change seats to accomodate a wheelchair passenger who could not walk down the aisle, but never thought of people getting ticked off by changing cabins on a cruiseship to help accommodate someone with special needs. I thank God every day for good health, sight, life, etc. and couldn't imagine doing anything but helping a passenger out. To me that would just be common courtesy - yes, an inconvenience and disappointment of losing the suite you expected, but heck, you can walk! What kind of price can you place on that? Surely HAL was compensating them in other ways for giving up their suite?? (future cruise booking, onboard credits, etc) Were they giving up a 'handicap suite'? I'm reluctant to ever book handicap rooms/cabins anywhere because I had been told before that should the need arise, you could be changed. (Just my personal opinion, but every time I see a person with special needs, it makes me all the more thankful for my own good health.)

Too bad the parents were not enforcing proper behavior of their children, but maybe my definition of 'proper behavior' is different from others - and I teach about 150 kids a day. But I'm glad you had a terrific cruise! What a wonderful "first cruise" to take! We now have less than four months to wait for our Zuiderdam eastern Caribbean cruise...

Bubba_59
July 29th, 2004, 02:35 PM
I agree Mandygirl. From what I understand HAL DID offer to compensate them for their inconvenience.

The other I think was just plain bored teenagers. However, that does NOT excuse their terrible behaviour.

maggymae
July 29th, 2004, 09:51 PM
We were also on the Zuiderdam the week of the 17th-24th. We really enjoyed our cruise. It was our 2nd cruise but our 1st HAL cruise. We had a verandah suite on deck 5. We liked the room, it was much bigger than on our previous cruise so we really enjoyed that. We loved sitting out on the verandah at night and enjoying the fresh air.

We had seen so many negative reviews that we were a little concerned too. We did not feel any vibration during dinner. We were with the early seating at table 22 by the window and it was like being in a restuarant overlooking water. We did not notice any type of odor either. I am not sure if we had new mattresses but the one we had slept good. We enjoyed the fruit in our rooms everyday and really loved the bathrobes. It was nice to have a bathroom that you could move around in too.

We liked the entertainment every night. We especially enjoyed the Elton John impersonator. We liked Tom Drake too.

The food was very good. The desserts were good but I was hoping there would have been more cheesecake (my favorite) but that was okay because there was so much of everthing else.

We missed the cc meeting. We lost track of time in the casino, which was not a good thing....

The embarkation and disembarkation went very smoothly. The line was a little long when we got there on the 17th, but it was still okay. When you have that many people all going to the same place you are going to have delay, but I think it moved very fast and only took about 30 minutes to board the ship. Disembarkation was great. On the other cruise we all had to pile into any spot we could find until our cabin # was called, at least on HAL you could wait in your room.

We LOVED Half Moon Cay!!!!! We enjoyed the Virgin Gorda and the Baths and Meagans Bay too. Nassau was okay, too crowded and too hot but that is okay, the scenery was pretty for the most part. It gave us more time to spend in the pool on the ship.

Overall we had a fantastic cruise and can not wait until we can go again.

Maggymae

Bubba_59
July 30th, 2004, 12:47 AM
What happened to you MaggyMae? I looked for you at the CC get together but didn't see you. There was a fella there that lives close to you and was hoping to meet you as well. It was nice meeting you in the dinner line...

Mrs B
July 30th, 2004, 01:11 PM
Hi all,

We enjoyed meeting everyone at the CC meeting. Thanks for setting it up Bubba!

The cruise was fabulous - I'm wishing that we had booked HAL for New Years rather than Caribbean Princess. Oh well...there are no bad cruises! We are booking the Oosterdam for Alaska next summer!

maggymae
August 2nd, 2004, 09:17 PM
Hi Bubba,

Sorry we did not make the meeting. We were in the Casino and lost track of time. Unfortunately we did not do so well and left with less than we went into the Casino with. But then that's what it is all about...Having fun. Where was the person from that wanted to meet us? We met a couple from Alpharetta, which is north of Atlanta and we are in the southern burbs of Atlanta. Sorry we missed everyone.

Maggymae

tonyrobin
August 3rd, 2004, 12:39 PM
We renewed our vows with Bubba. You are right, it was kind of disappointing the way it was done. But I think the Captain was very nice and handled it the best he could. Bubba, where were you standing? We were the people the Captain was talking about with the military. My husband was the real big one in the tuxedo. I'm sorry we missed the meeting but got tired up doing something.