We Loved the Zuiderdam 6/25-7/2

Despite any of the negative reviews we read, us first time HAL cruisers just may be hooked! Everything about our week on the Zuiderdam was wonderful, except that we had to get off yesterday.

This was our fourth cruise, and we only have NCL to compare, but the ship, the service and the ports we visited were the best.

For those of us who haven't had the opportunity to meet Hunky Dory in the LIdo, seems like Donnie Walker may be filling his shoes well while he is gone. He was a lot of fun and knew all of our names by day 2.

Pinacle Grill was a great meal, but a little "stuffy" for us. We had much more fun in the Vista Dining Room, with wonderful tablemates and a great waiter, Darvin.

All in all, we loved the Zuiderdam and are looking at Alaska for next summer!

Thank you for the nice review. Do you mind detailing your ACTUAL port times for tortola and St. John; meaning when passengers were literally allowed off and when your were required back? did the ship stick witht the scheduled times or did they change? Thanks for the info!

NanBob,

Guess I am assuming last week was Eastern Caribbean...never mind if it wasn't!

I was also on the June 25 Zuiderdam

Actual Port times: Tortola (Tuesday, 6/28)

We arrived early and were docked at 6:57 am -- all aboard was at 4:30, pilot was on board at 4:40 pm, let go the lines at 5:14 pm (from the Cruise Log)

St. Thomas Wed - June 29, (the ship did not stop at St. John), we were docked at 7:20 am and then, of course, everyone had to go and clear US immigration before we could get off the ship -- that took about an hour/hour and a half -- let go the lines at 6:02 pm (all aboard was at 5:30)