Questions about Zuiderdam

[MDL1771]

Couple of questions about what is supplied on the Zuiderdam.

I have heard conflicting reports about beach towels. Are they supplied, or should I bring a couple along?

Also read about people bringing clocks for the cabins. Is this necessdary, or are there clocks you can see in the middle of the night?

Thanks for the help!:)

[SHayesShip]

The ship provided beach towels when I went on the Z in April.
There are NO clocks in the cabins so bring your own

Steve Hayes

Couple of questions about what is supplied on the Zuiderdam.

I have heard conflicting reports about beach towels. Are they supplied, or should I bring a couple along?

Also read about people bringing clocks for the cabins. Is this necessdary, or are there clocks you can see in the middle of the night?

Thanks for the help!:)

[doone]

I agree with the above poster. On all my HAL cruises, beach towels have always been provided. When you are leaving the ship, they are located by the door, one bin of towels for you to take off the ship and another bin for you to throw them in as you return.

There are no clocks in any of the cabins I have stayed in, so if you wish to know what time it is, bring your own.

Also, you may want a power strip as well as there is only one outlet in the cabin.

[npeters]

Just back from the 8/21 Zui Western (thankfully we were between hurricanes!).

Beach towels are provided at every port. The night before, the room steward leaves "towel tickets" for you to fill in stateroom number. When you disembark, you trade in the tickets for towels. There is a steward handing them out by the exit door. If you forget the tickets, you give the steward your room number and he writes it down (the tickets are faster). Upon return, you give the towels to the steward and he records that you returned them.

There were no clocks in our SS cabin. We actually had 2 outlets in the room, one by the mirrored vanity and one by the window desk. However, I found my power strip to be handy. I also brought my own hair dryer as the one provided is very weak.

[dakrewser]

Beach towels are provided at every port. The night before, the room steward leaves "towel tickets" for you to fill in stateroom number. When you disembark, you trade in the tickets for towels. There is a steward handing them out by the exit door. If you forget the tickets, you give the steward your room number and he writes it down (the tickets are faster). Upon return, you give the towels to the steward and he records that you returned them.
How tacky! But it would appear to be a reaction to cruisers who think the beach towel is a "free" souvenir (or who simply leave them on the beach!). Just part of the "Carnivalization" of HAL - not in the front office, but in the ppassenger cabins! :rolleyes:

[dexter]

There was a wallclock in our suite on Zuiderdam. No alarm clock, but a nice little round wall clock. Yes, they'll hand out towels when you leave the ship and when you go to the pool.

[doone]

WOW, we didn't have to give our cabin numbers this past March on the Rotterdam to get a beach towel. Is this something new to all HAL ships or strictly the Zuiderdam???

[Ziggy7]

wow how different things are from ship to ship or week to week! On the Zuiderdam week of 8/7/04 we just took a towel from the bin and left the ship(no one recorded it), the second week 8/14/04 when we got a towel a steward recorded it and when we brought it back they crossed it off, we were never given anything such as towel tickets either. In the ships defense, we did notice that alot of pax left their towels on the snorkle catamaran and on the beach in cozumel the first week, we brought some back but many were just left behind. So we figured the ships new actions were because many pax were just not returning the towels, which is just plain rude IMHO.
There were always towels at both pools (unless late at night) and there was never anyone checking them in and out, so I dont think the problem was pax taking them as souvieners, but you never know.

We were also shocked to see how many towels were left on the beach and HMC for the crew to pick up, I'm sorry but its pax like that, that gives us new rules like recording who took them and charging those who left them behind!

[jazzsea]

I don't believe that what HAL is doing about towels is "tacky".

The ship has storage for so many towels. They need this many towels for guests at almost every port. It costs money to replace the towels and HAL has to be sure the towels are returned so that the next cruise has towels.

If you don't want any Carnival influence, why not spend more and go on Radisson.

[Krazy Kruizers]

This must be something new. We have never had to give our cabin number for towels on any HAL ship that we have been on.

[gizmo]

I don't call this tacky either. I think the problem is people taking towels off the ship and leaving them on beaches. Some people are inconsiderate and don't want to carry sandy wet towels back to the ship with them. I wonder how many towels are not returned to the ship each cruise?

[Ziggy7]

All I can say is we saw alot left behind everywhere, to me that was tacky! I am glad HAL provided us with beach towels, if I had to bring my own I would have had to bring a clean one for the both of us for each day! In the humidy things dont dry as easily in the sun or hot weather.

[peaches from georgia]

If you don't want any Carnival influence, why not spend more and go on Radisson.
Why should you have to go on Radisson? You should be able to be on a HAL ship without cruising under a Carnival influence. The only people who should be cruising in the Carnival style are those that book Carnival. :(

[darnapar]

Well maybe if people didn't keep the towels they would not have to keep track of them this way. The intersesting thing about the 8/21 cruise was that for the first port no one kept track, it was not until the second stop that they started to ask for the cabin number and number of towels taken. And really HAL is not like Carnival. Maybe it is more Carnival like people are cruising HAL!

Bring a travel alarm clock as there are done in the room. They will do wake up calls if you wish though.

[dakrewser]

I don't call this tacky either. I think the problem is people taking towels off the ship and leaving them on beaches. Some people are inconsiderate and don't want to carry sandy wet towels back to the ship with them. I wonder how many towels are not returned to the ship each cruise?What's tacky, and Carnival-like, is the actions of the inconsiderate passengers. It's all of a piece with the non-involved parents, chair-hogs and other rude and inconsiderate actions that are creeping in.

Personally, I think it all started when they stopped enforcing the dress code :rolleyes:

-dave

[sail7seas]

This must be something new. We have never had to give our cabin number for towels on any HAL ship that we have been on.



I agree with KK.

I have never heard of this towel ticket business. Been on ALOT of HAL cruises and have always been able to collect towels at the gangway and we made sure to RETURN them there.....

I hope the person who posted about this towel ticket business is mistaken. Four cruises on Zuiderdam and we did not experience that.

[peaches from georgia]

Personally, I think it all started when they stopped enforcing the dress code :rolleyes:
-dave
I think it all started when people who need to have someone monitor and enforce their dress started cruising on HAL. :eek:

[sail7seas]

I have seen some folks who needed to be denied admittance to the dining room per their inappropriate dress, but have not seen "towel tickets". Hope we don't encounter this next month on Zuiderdam.

[Nasmas]

What's tacky, and Carnival-like, is the actions of the inconsiderate passengers. It's all of a piece with the non-involved parents, chair-hogs and other rude and inconsiderate actions that are creeping in.

Personally, I think it all started when they stopped enforcing the dress code :rolleyes:

-dave

BRAVO

[spcl4cs_gal]

Regarding the towel tickets, yes they do exist on the Zuiderdam and yes they take your cabin number when you leave and cross it off when you return. If you don't return the towel, they will charge you for it too.

Regarding dress code, I saw four people at different times being refused admission to the diningroom because of what they wore...and this was a lunch, not dinner.

[doone]

Regarding dress code, I saw four people at different times being refused admission to the diningroom because of what they wore...and this was a lunch, not dinner.[/QUOTE]


Its about time!!!!!

[dakrewser]

Regarding dress code, I saw four people at different times being refused admission to the diningroom because of what they wore...and this was a lunch, not dinner.
Bathing suites? Shorts? Tank tops? Inquiring minds want to know! :)

-dave

[the2ofus]

It seems pretty obvious that after the first port stop they came up short on beach towels, so on all following port trips they used the ticket system to make sure people got the message that they were responsible to bring them back.

A couple of years ago on a snorkle excursion in Dominica I was one of the last to leave the snorkle boat. I brought back 4 extra towels that others had just left lying on the floor of the boat. Those four represented a significant chunk of change in my book. Think of the increased cost passed on to all of us when pax are that careless.

I hate to suggest it but the only problem with the ticket thing is that if someone loses theirs and your towel is left unattended you may end up missing your towel and paying for someone else's carelessness.

[spcl4cs_gal]

Bathing suites? Shorts? Tank tops? Inquiring minds want to know! :)

-dave

They were men...hairy men...with tank tops. I don't think shorts were that much of an issue at lunch.

[dakrewser]

[QUOTE=spcl4cs_gal]They were men...hairy men...with tank tops. QUOTE]

Ah, then there's still some decency in the cruising world! :rolleyes:

-dave

[npeters]

I agree with KK.

I have never heard of this towel ticket business. Been on ALOT of HAL cruises and have always been able to collect towels at the gangway and we made sure to RETURN them there.....

I hope the person who posted about this towel ticket business is mistaken. Four cruises on Zuiderdam and we did not experience that.

Maybe this was a testing program....

The "towel ticket" was a very polite slip of paper left in the cabin every night (I seem to remember it even on the 1st shore stop) with the next day's dailies. On it was written something like, "If you require a towel when you go ashore, please fill in your cabin number (blank line) and bring with you....." It wasn't a large slip of paper, and many pax forgot them (steward recorded cabins), but many did. I heard no complaints. It really wasn't inconvenient or "tacky" at all. I'm glad they do this because I know this is a way to control costs in order to maintain affordable cruising.

[kryos]

Couple of questions about what is supplied on the Zuiderdam.

I have heard conflicting reports about beach towels. Are they supplied, or should I bring a couple along?

Also read about people bringing clocks for the cabins. Is this necessdary, or are there clocks you can see in the middle of the night?

Thanks for the help!:)
Beach towels are provided both at the pools and when you leave the ship for a shore excursion. When leaving the ship, though, you have to provide your cabin number. When you return to the ship, the deck officer checks his list and credits you for returning the towel. Presumably, if you lost it or whatever, you would be billed.

Clocks are not provided and I have no idea why since any landside hotel provides a clock in the room. I always bring a little travel alarm clock with a button you can push to illuminate the face if you want to see the time in the middle of the night.

Blue skies ...

--rita

[darnapar]

S7S yes they did take down your stateroom number and the number of towels you took. This is not a rumor I was there. What is HAL suppose to do eat a few thousand dollars a cruise in misplaced towels? If there is a better solution I am sure HAL would love to hear it, I'm sure they are not happy having to use staff for towel counts either.

[Ziggy7]

We had to provide our cabin number both weeks we were on the Zuiderdam, and I dont think its a test trial either.

[Ziggy7]

Also, we did see one man being denied entrance to the Pinnicle Grill, he was in shorts and he had to leave and come back wearing smart casual on the first night. He took it well, went and changed and came back and enjoyed his meal.