OlsSalt

Bergen and Oslo are both big draws. The smaller cities and the fjords are all very nice, but it is also good to get the feel for their larger cities as well. I too would go with the longer one. Just because!

Took our first HAL cruise in 2009 on the Maasdam and went through the same doubts once I read on cruise critic the ship should have been sent years prior to Pakistan and dismantled for scrap years. Seriously, I do not exaggerate at the level of posted criticism against that ship. Yet, we got hooked on Hal and on the Maasdam after our first cruise on her and followed her on many other cruises until she finally departed from HAL after her really grand "In-Depth" voyages a few years ago. Hard to know what your expectations are, what you demand and what you think is still value for the price in order to respond to your question.

Switzerland is no longer even recommending the covid injections, unless patient and doctor confirm there is a sufficient special risk. The past few years have certainly been one for the record books - cruise industry wise.

You can watch Starlink launches live from this SpaceX link. https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl3-4/ -Falcon 9 rockets We can watch them from our back deck in Central California, when they become a fireball shooting up into the heavens.. I'll be now looking for the one with HAL's name on it.🤩

Wonderful video - very nice mix of still and action. Proving yet again, a "drive-by" only of Antarctic is pretty darn good, plus one still gets plenty of up front and personal penguin experiences at the other HAL port stops on these cruises that many of the expedition cruises do not include - when they begin and end in Ushuaia. Thanks for sharing this - yes, it brings tears to anyone who also had very similar cruise way down under. Thanks for the memories.

Grand Africa will be pretty entertaining on its own. On specialty theme cruises like this, they usually up their enrichment offerings so you can become very knowledge about where you are going. Food on HAL ships is varied, and always very pleasant. Not sure how to compare it, but it exceeds expectations if one goes in realistically expecting nice hotel banquet level food. HAL will not disappoint ,and one always leave feeling they got very good value ....for the price. One prior poster assumed since "grand" was in the cruise title, everything was going to be super deluxe. But grand I assume refers to the incredible sweep of the itinerary - and Grand Africa certainly ranks among one of the better, more off the beaten path offerings from any major cruise line. Hope you have a wonderful time. Africa challenges the senses.

Where are you going - you may enjoy the very nice 360 decks on the Zaandam which still has loungers for public use. If there is lots to see from the outside decks you may enjoy having them so close by - only one deck up. Plus there are very nice aft decks on the lower decks of these ships for public use, also with loungers. Most don't even know they are there so they are almost the secret back deck for the lower deck cabins. You will hear the roar of the ocean back there, but we spent many an hour there when we did a lower deck cabin on her sister ship, the former Rotterdam. That was a 51 day cruise and we loved every minute on these smaller, more accessible ships. She will feel pretty much like home in very short order, as you find your daily routine that works best for you. No hikes to get anywhere. Nothing ever felt crowded. We also spent many days on the Zaandam herself - she was our last big cruise to Antarctica before everything shut down. ,She now is now our favorite HAL ship, since two of her sisters have left the fleet. Lovely public rooms - still more traditional in layout and design. A very comfortable ship.

Is it true you would measure the cold by how long it took to freeze a can of beer if left outside? As told on a solar eclipse tour ,by astro-physicist researcher George Smoot about his wintering stay down under. McMurdo Station

Scrolling through eBay looking for Holland America Line vases, found only a few and not the flower ones you are looking for. I looked in the gift shops on the Konigsdam and they were out of stock - so hope they do have them on your next cruise. However, I did find an offer for "rare" Holland America slippers - shaped like a fuzzy blue hulled HAL ship, with the smoke stack fashioned as sock tube - and it can be yours for only $75 dollars! That is right up there with those big fuzzy orange "wooden shoes" others have threatened to wear on Orange Night.

Every time we have passed by BBK, it is loud (very loud) and not ballroom dance music, but it generates a lot of more free-form dance energy. People seem to enjoy it a lot. If they also do slow blues, it would only be an occasional breather. I have still occasionally seen some ball room dancing, but in the afternoon - more tea dance? Something you can ask the cruise director to perhaps arrange specially, if venue and sound system is available. Used to be more formal ballroom dancing and even had male HAL dance hosts, but that too is now in the past.

The MDR managers seem to know if you have a competing speciality reservation at the same time and will not be using your fixed dining table. (Linked reservation online?) Then do make some of the upper fixed dining tables available to the "as you wish diners" -the two tops, or other larger tables that may end up being empty anyway. After a respectable waiting time to make sure you are not showing up. The late fixed dining thins out after the first few nights, as people do find other venues if the late fixed does to suit them as a permanent arrangement. It is nice to hear you care about any fixed dining vacancies you might leave, particularly if you have tablemates. We always tell our waiter if we will not be there the following night. But sometime, we just don't show up anyway - too full from port, or whatever.

Fred Olson certainly took the best of old HAL, and then ran with it. Bravo, Fred.

Fixed dining is always the best option for us. Not sure what the advantage is over as you wish dining, when it appears it is never as you wish. Two fixed dining times - take them or leave them, but a least you know your table will be staffed properly, with no waits. Two hours fixed dining time are part of old HAL mythology from years past. Easily in and out in an hour and yes, it does not include making a desert selection up front. Think of the increased efficiencies of this. You want to dine at 7pm, but if you need to wait an hour anyway (half hour in line and half hour on the pager), what is the net gain of exactly what over 8pm fixed dining. There must be stats now to see if there is any overall advantage between fixed and "as you will wait anyway" dining. The ldea was immensely popular when introduced, but the execution and effective passenger participation in this "freedom" may well be lacking after its lengthy trial run (As reported above - when too many make AYW reservations and then ignore them?) Complaints about fixed dining vs complaints about As You Wish Dining. What is corporate ever to do when you can't win and you always lose. Zut alors!

Lessening "covid" demands may also open up ship staffing numbers.

We did a B2B - both Christmas and New Years on the Konnigsdasm out of San Diego. Christmas was a mob scene, large families, often moving around the ship as large groups. It had very little traditional HAL feel to this segment. Not unlike any other higher intensity Christmas cruise we have experienced. I always swear I will never take again, but somehow we keep doing them. The timing always fits our schedule at the end of the year. When else do whole families show up in the Show Lounge waiting for Santa to arrive ....all in matching bedtime pajamas. New Years was a more typical HAL crowd, older, mainly couples, but a very festive group when New Years called for it - definitely the time to put the glitter on. But enough kids to prove the retreat cabanas are not "adults only" as marketed.

Yes, you can run into cranky plumbing, balky A/C, and occasional drip buckets in the Lido when allegedly high humidity condensation starts coming down from the retractable glass roof. Yes, that too comes with the territory - had them all happened, but always felt these were part of the bargain being on board any ship. Since we mainly sail the older ones. They do works as best they can to correct things and yes sometimes this does ask for an accommodation on our part temporarily.. Passengers continue to stuff things down toilets thet do not belong. Outside high temperatures, particularly in the tropics, do stress more modern room chill demands. If this will ruin your trip, then by all means stay away from these ships. They never ruined ours. Thanks for the reminder of what must be our higher tolerance level, when ship happens. Our biggest concern has always been the itinerary, so we just let that other stuff go.

That is only a semantic difference, to give double Mariner points as "suites" - and nothing else. The verandah cabins on these ships, no matter what their names, are fine. The ships are simply too small, to have the various varieties of "verandah" offerings of the other larger ships.

When the Vista ships were introduced I swore I would never mail on the Zuiderdam due to the pictures of its ugly decor - much as you described - dark and too much red and purple. Yet we ended up taking her to Alaska and I came back actually thinking the decor was comfortable and soothing. Almost "rich and elegant" (Hard to believer huh?) I still cringe when i see some photos of her, but a later cruise did not generate any further negatives, and some of the earlier excesses had been toned down. But the early basics, they are stuck with - pillars and posts. Early new HAL ships like the Vista class did suffer from a little too much Las Vegas kitsch, I agree. Though nothing was worse (IMHO) than the red and purple Amsterdam show lounge, with their massive naked silver ladies in full pike position circling the room. Bordello was all I could think; not the grande dame HAL world cruise flagship. Unless the grande dame was Sally Stanford.

"Covid" requirements are now based upon each country's requirements; no longer a HAL requirement. And some of these countries do monitor the on-board number of cases, before allowing passengers to disembark - I believe there was a recent question on the Japan cruise. Zuiderdam is a good ship since she was chosen to do many of the long grand world cruises after HAL lost her previous world cruise ship, the Amsterdam. You can find photos of Zuiderdam public areas and passenger reviews of cabins on HalFacts. I believe they are even putting her library back into the former movie theater room. Check the dates of the photos though, as she has gone through more recent decor improvements of late. Checking threads of "Around the world with XYZ" or similar titles can open up the live blogs from current Zuiderdam passengers. We have taken her on several cruises, and have always been satisfied. Though our favorite HAL ships are the even smaller still, Zaandam and Volendam. Vista ships, like the Zuiderdam, are the next size up. Still "small enough" to provide the more intimate HAL experience, and easy to navigate around the ship. Plus she has the wonderful Signature Suite cabins, which are our very favorites cabins for the price. Particularly if you are on a longer voyage.

Thanks for your excellent and detailed explanations. Assume you mean 0300-0600 would be the fastest times for passenger internet access- when these might also be the slowest times for ship use activity? Do the daily working hours at corporate headquarters also matter - Seattle or Florida?

On the other hand, we never heard elevator dings and found the bathroom and closest provide good sound buffering to any hallway noise. So "probably" hearing noises vs actual noise experiences does offer a large a range of expectations. Nor has any Lido activity caused any undue noise, some occasional late afternoon chair scraping when they clean up the outdoor pool decks and fasten them down for the night. One report of a Neptune Suite located under the ping pong table does give one pause. That might be a good area to avoid for daytime noise.

How much of bridge navigation also requires "good internet"? (wifi - whatever - low tech here) One captain also bemoaned his service was not better than what the passengers were also complaining about. I assumed the ship's navigation was at least "wired" electronically for ...... everything. Safety, weather, at sea communications with other vessels, corporate headquarters. How do they arrange for any onboard or at sea emergencies, when they too are struggling with dropped service or fuzzy connections? What other instant back up communication systems does the bridge have? Or do they just rely on stringing out those lovely colored flags, like the good old days.

Voldendam and Mexico would be my choice: Sea of Cortez is special - low key stops - and the Loreto excursion up to the second historic Mission at San Javier is magical. Hopefully the smaller Volendam attracts fewer passengers with children, which can overwhelm the larger ships over the holidays.

Older ships have many layers of paint and can show signs of rust, in the relentless war after years sailing in the salt air. I always wonder if that is what people claim is so offensive about these beloved older HAL ships - or what they claim are 'signs of wear". Be prepared to see it - it comes with the terrirtory. We would pick either ship, Zaandam or Volendam, over any other ship HAL has in its now highly varied fleet. We have never noticed any other signs of wear - maybe some worn carpet edges on stairways right before they are due to go into dry dock. HAL takes good care of their ships, but these were designed many years ago for the traditional cruise travelers who took things in their stride more than today, it appears. I personally do not get apoplectic over "dated" pink tile bathrooms or these ships less than au courant trendy decor. They are "old shoe comfortable" for us, and that is now meant to be a putdown in any way. Plus having cruised on HAL ships for over a decade, they are all beauty queens compared to what they were before corporate stopped using fire sale, mismatched carpet closeouts and having no over all coordinated decor theme. Yet they won our hearts anyway. Whatever happened to those Blue Boy benches on the Oosterdam anyway?

Rule of thumb when choosing a cabin--what is above it, then what is below it. That helps predict if there will be any noise, or what type. Then think about the hours of activity on any deck above or below -it might have some noise, but maybe not during hours that matter. HalFacts website offers passenger-submitted cabin reviews - often similar for the same cabin number in other ships in the same class od ships, if not specific to your own ship. Additionally just a plain internet search for this cabin number and ship may turn up other independent cabin reviews.