zuiderdam review 7/31

[oceanlov1]

this is my second time on zuiderdam. first time was about 2 years ago. i loved it then and i still love it.
we were on the eastern itinerary: half moon cay, tortola, st.thomas and nassau.
we were in a SS suite. was able to upgrade for a reasonable price from an AA. it was well worth it. the SS had plenty of room for 2 people. the balcony was good size, plenty of room. really nice. the tub and double sinks were convenient. so glad we took advantage of the upgrade. the location was excellent, also. and it was quiet.
our room steward ,bambang really added to our cruise. not only does he perform his tasks as a professional, he is a special person. it was a pleasure getting to know him.
the crew was very friendly and helpful. thanks to one of the crew, i was able to get my bag back which had 2 tshirts and a hat in it.i had just purchased them from the shop and put the bag down somewhere on the main deck. i realized that about 30 minutes later.i went rushing back to the main desk to see if someone had turned it in. yes, the lady told me, by a crew member. i was really happy to get them back because i didn't think i would see them again.
the folks in the casino were very nice. played both the slot tournament and the blackjack tournament. did'nt win either, but it was fun. played a little bingo. they do a good job running the games. the cruise director dane was ok.
the seas were mostly calm and it was mostly sunny. when we were in st thomas we heard things about a tropical depression on the way.i was a little nervous hearing that, but we never encountered rough seas. i was really happy about that. i heard that in nassau the excursions were cancelled due to the weather. we had not planned an excursion just a little shopping in town.
in st. thomas we did godfrey's tour. we had a good time. we snorkeled at coki beach. there were alot of pretty fish. that day, the current was pretty strong coming into the shore. the tour was a good value for $20.
in tortola, we went to the baths. that day in roadtown was carnaval, one of their holidays. to get to the ferry from the ship it is about a 10 minute walk. we were walking and saw a huge crowd near the ferry dock. thats when we found out about the holiday. we had checked on line beforehand and decided on smith's ferry.as opposed to speedys. once we got there the schedule was different due to the holiday. we decided on speedy's which i would recommend over smiths. speedys had a much nicer boat and it was less expensive. they even had a/c on the inside. the fee was $20 round trip including transfer to the baths. speedys made the trip really easy and convenient. i would highly recommend speedys.
half moon cay was beautiful. we went snorkeling and enjoyed the bbq.
we went to the pinnacle grill the first night. our servers were gabor and bernadette. they were a great team. we had excellent service. i asked if they were serving lobster. bernadette said no, but they did about 2 months ago. we ordered the lamb and porterhouse. the food was very good. overall, it was a nice experience.
i enjoyed some of the entertainment and some could use improvement. the elton john impersonator and the magician were excellent. the juggler was good. i think the zui singers and dancers need alot of work.
on sea days, the pools on the lido were very crowded, but if you went up to the observation deck it was quiet and there are a few shady spots.
overall, this cruise experience was wonderful. it was 7 days of fun, relaxation, and adventure in beautiful surroundings.
looking forward to the westerdam dec 19, 2004

[RevNeal]

Thank you for taking the time to give us some of your observations on your cruise! A few questions, if I may?

Which seating did you have in the main dining room, how was the service, and how was the food? Did you notice any bad vibrations? Thanks!

[KSCnCA]

Nice review! I also have a question: at what point did you upgrade to the SS?

Always good to read a positive review with specific advice. I've been reading up on Tortola today and just about decided on Virgin Gorda for our Dec Zuiderdam cruise. Thanks for the review!

[sail7seas]

Thanks for your review. I enjoyed reading it.

We just booked Zuiderdam for our fifth cruise on her and are very much looking forward to returning to that great ship.

Welcome back!!

[Lois R]

7:) hi...I love it when I see you are booking this ship for the 5th time!:D You must love it very much!!!

[cruisingangel]

Welcome back, could you tell me which SS cabin you had. I have pgraded ours to an SS and was just wondering if you would upgrade to this category again ?:)

[Golfgrl1911]

Thank you for the great review....We will be doing the same itinerary at the end of Sept!! One question ........ How long was the ferry from Tortola to the baths? Did you feel rushed at all? Thanks!!

[Kylie]

My husband & I were on the Zuiderdam last week too and took Godfrey's Tour with Oceanlov1. We also did the Baths on our own - went with Smith's Ferry instead. Took about 1/2 hour over. We were not rushed at all because we took the first ferry at 8:50 AM and didn't return until 3:00. It is fun to just sit up by the pool after being at the Baths. It was HOT that day but the water is beautiful.
We ate at the early upper seating (5:45) and had great service and good food. This was the smoothest ship we have ever sailed on.
We have nothing bad to say about the ship or the cruise. We had a great week!

[oceanlov1]

kscnca,
we upgraded to the ss about 6 weeks before the cruise.

cruisingangel,
we were in cabin 6109 and yes, i would upgrade again in a heartbeat. it is a great cabin in a great location!!

one other bit of info: room service will deliver lobster tails on formal night. we ate them on the balcony. they were excellent!!!

[Cruising since '81]

We were on the Zuiderdam with Oceanluv and Kylie. We took Godfrey tours also. The weather was wonderful, with a 15 minute rainstorm in St. Thomas while we were at Sapphire Beach, and it was overcast and sprinkling when we got to Nassau. The day was just overcast, no rain, by 12:30 p.m. and it did not sprinkle again until we left port. Our dining room menus were different that the ones I printed from (I think) Candy. No surf and turf, just two lobster tails on each plate. I will write an extensive review soon. We had two cabins, both SS, 8088 for our teen girls and 8086 for us. They had connecting inside doors (although it was shown as a connecting in the HAL brochure).It was a relaxing and enjoyable first HAL cruise, and we have cruised 11 times before this!:) ;) :) ;)

[morriganfae]

[QUOTE=Kylie]My husband & I were on the Zuiderdam last week too and took Godfrey's Tour with Oceanlov1. We also did the Baths on our own - went with Smith's Ferry instead. [QUOTE]

May I ask where you find independant excursions for the eastern stops on the Zui? I have taken a look online a few times to no avail. I consider myself a pretty darn good research nerd and find this frustrating ;)

So any leads....even links would be most apprecitated!

Morriganfae~

[Phil_W]

Here's my review of the same cruise:

Ship - Very nice. This was my first experience with such a large ship. There was no excessive rocking. There was quite a bit of vibrations but they really did not cause any problems. The ship was quite easy to navigate even though about 1/3 of the elevators are broken at any given time.

Room - 4063. Partially blocked view but could still see the water and liked the size of the windows. When we really wanted a nice view we went to the deck or the Lido. The bathroom was very useable (not huge but I have had smaller) and I found that the medicine cabinet was large enough to store our toiletries so they did not clutter the counter. Closet space was adequate. We liked our room.

Crew - The crew was absolutely amazing. Our room steward (Hidayat) was very friendly, efficient, and especially perceptive. My wife's parents and brother were on the same hall and Hidayat quite frequently told us where they were if he saw us knocking on one of the other doors. In the dining room our waiter (Mr. P) and wine steward (Walter) were always around the corner and open to any requests. Walter especially made our dining experiences special by performing magic tricks for my wife's 9 year old cousin and making napkin roses or other origami. He was very attentive to us even though we did not order many drinks (which pretty much determines his salary) so we tipped him very well at the end of the cruise. The entire crew seemed very determined to help even beyond their assigned duties.

Main Dining Room - The food was mostly excellent but the portion sizes were laughable. You never know when ordering whether you will get a portion sized for a mouse or an elephant. The servers never had a problem with bringing more but it provided entertainment for us to guess who was going to get the smallest portions. The quality of the food was usually great though. The Ossa Bucca (enormous portion) was falling off the bone tender. The Baked Alaska was so good I ate it all before Mr P came back with the cherries but that just gave me an excuse to ask for more.:) My biggest complaint for the Vista is that they did not always start seating on time (at least for 8:00 seating) and the line to get in routinely went half across the ship.

Lido - Yuuuck. Hit and miss at best. We started eating in the Vista for breakfast or Lunch whenever we had the extra time. The menu does not really change much in the Lido for the entire week. Almost everything shuts down between meals. At 5 or 6 pm (when we wanted to snack before 8pm dinner) the only options are pizza or spagetti. The drink station is very poorly designed which led to usually long lines. The juices were not consistantly available. My wife liked the lemonade but only found it two or three times. The omeletes were very good but the lines for those were usually long as well.

Entertainment - Very good. The Zuiderdam cast were very good performers. The magician was very good. About half of his tricks are variations of palming tricks (which he then tries to sell later on in the week) but his floating woman trick is done VERY well. I missed the Elton John impersonator but heard his performance was very good. The juggler was exciting and funny although he relied on planted "random" audience members to get the responses he wanted. For instance he juggles two ping pong balls by spitting them out of his mouth into the air (very cool!) and then takes one out and plays Mary Had A Little Lamb on a xylophone by spitting the ping pong ball at it. He then asks a couple audience members what song he should play until the plant says Flight of The Bumblebee. Then he can look smart by reciting the composer and origin of the song. It is quite amazing though how he can play this song by spitting a ping pong ball (really fast!) at a xylophone.:D He also had a planted lawyer to call on stage for another stunt which led to some funny lawyer jokes. The only bad act is the comedian. Do not waste your time unless you have absolutely nothing better to do. Even the ever cheesy cruise director Dane Butcher has funnier lines.

Half Moon Cay - Very beautiful beach. Definately sign up for a clamshell which provides needed shade and also acts as a nice home base. The BBQ was really good. The snorkeling was OK by the rocks near the tenders. I also saw a stingray down the beach some near the rocks. The shopping is a complete waste of time.

Tortola - For $20 each, we hired a cab to take us on a tour of the entire island, some hiking at the mountain, and a ride back. Downtown was almost completely closed (and filthy!) due to a holiday. Our noses led us to Pusser's Landing for a very tasty lunch. The Spice Market that is so hyped has nothing you can't get at a Whole Foods store. We did not have enough time left to really go to Virgin Gorda so we went to a nice beach in the afternoon. If I had to do it again I would have skipped the hiking (it was pretty but not as much rainforest as we had expected) and come back earlier to be able to go to the Baths. You should still hire a cab for the tour of Tortola.

St. Thomas - Went to Meagan's Bay in the morning for a bit. It is truly one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We only stayed for less than an hour (mostly just wanted to see it) and then headed downtown for shopping. I did not find the deals that everyone talks about. I priced out my watch (a Skagen) for exactly what I paid for it. We priced out our crystal for about what it sells for here. Very nice shopping is available but just dont expect everything to cost half of what you pay here. In the afternoon I went to Coki Beach which wasnt as pretty as Meagan's Bay but had excellent snorkeling right off the beach.

Nassau - I went on the two-tank dive excursion (very excellent!) so I did not get to see any of Nassau. My wife told me that the whole city stank and she did not really enjoy the shopping and wished she had signed up for an excursion instead.

Enjoyed the cruise. Would recommend to others.

[Phil_W]

May I ask where you find independant excursions for the eastern stops on the Zui? I have taken a look online a few times to no avail. I consider myself a pretty darn good research nerd and find this frustrating ;)


The taxi drivers can all do the same tours for less cost. For Virgin Gorda or St. John's I would just take the ferry and not worry about prebooking. I chose the ship excursion for the diving because I wanted the security them handling any scheduling delays or changes.

What type of excursion were you interested in?

[Phil_W]

No surf and turf, just two lobster tails on each plate.
I asked them to just put a lobster tail on my beef wellington. They ended up bringing me two entrees. It was probably easier for them to just grab two trays.

YUMMY :D

[Orcrone]

Phil W,

How was the diving in Nassau. Also, have you ever dove at any of these locations before. I'll be doing the same itinerary in March and wanted to get some feedback.

thanks,
Orcrone

[pennilane]

1st of all; HELLO to Kylie & Cruisin since 81, this is WEW612's sister, it was great meeting you.

Phil- FYI- Jay (the lawyer) was not a plant, he & his wife sat in the front row every show & those are usually the people picked for "audience participation" (he & his wife were also in not so newlywed game & won it)
for the 2nd show that Adam (the Juggler) did that night, he called a man from the audience that was an accountant.
Also, James the Illusionist did not use a plant for his trick, I know this because for our show, the person called up stage for the "egg" trick was my brother.

For anyone who has the opportunity to see Joel Mason (the Elton John impersonator) he is a really sweet guy & is a dynamite entertainer.

[Phil_W]

Phil W,

How was the diving in Nassau. Also, have you ever dove at any of these locations before. I'll be doing the same itinerary in March and wanted to get some feedback.

thanks,
Orcrone

Diving was great! I had never done the locations before. See the Stuart's Cove Website http://www.dive-bahamas.com/map/southwest-wall.html# for pics. We did the DC3 and Ray of Hope sites. The wrecks are as cool as the pics show (especially DC3) and the walls were good too.

[Phil_W]

Phil- FYI- Jay (the lawyer) was not a plant, he & his wife sat in the front row every show & those are usually the people picked for "audience participation" (he & his wife were also in not so newlywed game & won it)
for the 2nd show that Adam (the Juggler) did that night, he called a man from the audience that was an accountant.
Also, James the Illusionist did not use a plant for his trick, I know this because for our show, the person called up stage for the "egg" trick was my brother.

For anyone who has the opportunity to see Joel Mason (the Elton John impersonator) he is a really sweet guy & is a dynamite entertainer.

I based my information on a conversation my brother-in-law had with the juggler later at a bar. Noone knows anything for sure except the people involved.

The newlywed game was GREAT. I was so sorry to have to leave after the first round to get to 8:00 dinner. They should have started it earlier. We asked my wife's grandfather the question about the clothing size (sorry.. everyone who has no clue what I'm talking about has to go see the show) and his response was 38 Long! :D They have been married longer than the old couple in the show. I wish they had been there.

James was great. I caught a few of his palming tricks (not hard when you know what to look for) but some of his tricks were just amazing (including the egg trick).

[Orcrone]

Diving was great! I had never done the locations before. See the Stuart's Cove Website http://www.dive-bahamas.com/map/southwest-wall.html# for pics. We did the DC3 and Ray of Hope sites. The wrecks are as cool as the pics show (especially DC3) and the walls were good too.Thanks for the info and the great website. DC3 looks great, but I'm not wreck certified so I'll have to pass on that one. I know that visibility can vary, but it looked great in those pics.

[teencruiser18]

I was on the cruise too, but after all these reviews, I don't think that I'm going to bother posting my own.
Kerry

[Orcrone]

Teencruiser - are you not posting because you'll just be rehashing what others had to say? Or are you not posting because you have a different opinion and don't want to ruffle feathers?

If it's the first then just say so. But if you have a different opinion of the cruise, then we'd love to hear it. There are some who get very defensive about their cruiseline, but most of us want to hear everyone's opinion, including yours, whether it be the good, the bad or the ugly.:)

No one will dismiss your opinion because you're a teenager. In fact, I for one would love to hear about the cruise from your perspective. I'll be on the Zuiderdam with my two teenage daughters next year.

Orcrone

[teencruiser18]

Okay, my own review's up now! It's not very different from the others in that I had a wonderful time.
Kerry

[Orcrone]

Okay, my own review's up now! It's not very different from the others in that I had a wonderful time.
KerryGlad to hear you had a wonderful time!!:)

[bookworm0911]

Thank you for the review! I am reading everything I can on the Zuiderdam as we are looking at booking a cruise on it this fall. Trying to see what prices we can get on SS and S.

[Kylie]

I've been wondering if you won the snowball bingo??

Also, who won the Zuiderdam Superstar? We still had to pack so never got to any of those events the last night. Of course, I'm sure you noticed I didn't win the free cruise drawing either :-(

Good to meet you and your family. Tell wew 'hi' and good luck this school year.

[Phil_W]

Thanks for the info and the great website. DC3 looks great, but I'm not wreck certified so I'll have to pass on that one. I know that visibility can vary, but it looked great in those pics.

I'm not wreck certified either but felt very safe since the divemaster led us through there.

Visibility was great that day. Still need to get the pics developed.

[divinggirl]

I'm not wreck certified either but felt very safe since the divemaster led us through there.

Visibility was great that day. Still need to get the pics developed.

Orcrone,
You only have to be wreck certified to penetrate the wreck, and sometimes not even ...I've dove several wrecks, and swam through one that was pretty open...there is tons to see on the outside of the ship and peeking in any holes,etc. Fish love to feed on the decks, rails, etc. Just be sure to pick a more shallow wreck. Sorry if you already knew this but just wanted to make sure you didn't unnecessarily miss out on some great diving!

Nikki