Just Back From The Zuiderdam

[gunnywife]

Just got back from our first HAL cruise. Overall we had a good time.

The checking in process is much better than most other cruise lines. Since we're from Florida we took advantage of the Cruise Connection bus service and we were happy with that also.

The crew on the Zuiderdam is wonderful. I can't say enough about how we were treated by the crew. They try, and are pretty successful, remembering your name and always greet you with a smile.

The food was very good. We mostly ate in the main dining room and never had a bad meal. I'm not much for buffet foods so we rarely ate on the Lido deck. The one time we did eat up there was for the bar-b-que and that was very good. Room service was prompt. We had never availed ourselves of the room service before but on this trip we had coffee in our cabin every morning.

We had a balcony cabin on the Navigation Deck near the elevators. So we were near food at all times. One floor up to the Lido and 5 floors straight down into the main dining room.

And what a surprise we had in the dining room. Hunky Dory was our waiter. We were at table 21 on the second floor for dining. I don't know if he's always at the same table, but he was our our cruise. His helper Sare-at was great also and he is following in Hunky Dory's footsteps in remembering names.

I told him how popular he is on this board and he had heard about it. So I told him I would tell all of you he is now in the dining room as well as being on the Lido deck at breakfast and lunch.

I agree with others, that it's kind of hard to find your way around on this ship. On every other cruise we've been on I usually am pretty good about getting around by the second day. But on this ship people were always getting lost and confused.

The shop area isn't as nice as most ships we've been on. Especially the fine jewelry. It's spread around and not displayed very well. I didn't buy one piece of jewelry on this trip and that's kind of unusual for me.

We had one bad experience on this ship. It had to do with management, not the crew. And we heard of others that had some bad experiences, but again with management. Everyone was very complimentary about the crew. I will be writing to HAL corporate offices, but from what I understand it probably won't do much good. If not it will be our last cruise on HAL even though we had a good time. Sometimes one thing - good or bad - makes the difference.

[liv2cruise4ever]

Out of curiousity, what exactly was the problem that you had with the management? Inquiring minds want to know!

[shipcafe]

I will be writing to HAL corporate offices, but from what I understand it probably won't do much good. If not it will be our last cruise on HAL even though we had a good time. Sometimes one thing - good or bad - makes the difference.

 

Many times, it is not sent in through proper channels. Be sure you e-mail it to :

 

Guest_Relations@HollandAmerica.com