Cruise: GREAT...Zuiderdam: not so much

[cruz chic]

Careful, Lorene - I mentioned band aid fixes awhile ago on a Zuiderdam thread and got severely flamed for daring to suggest that HAL was not keeping up with maintenance. Apparently I was making it all up, LOL.:D

Of course. It's only a problem when the person has to deal with it. One thing I forgot to mention on my thread last week was that a panel fell out of the ceiling. I was getting my wine out of storage so I could take it to Canaletto that night. All of a sudden I heard a loud crash and a big chuck had fallen out of the ceiling. It looked really heavy. If someone had been standing under that it could have killed them or seriously injured them. How does stuff like that happen?

[kazu]

I think it's because they care about that ship and they know they can charge top dollar for it. I'm really losing faith in Hal lately. They need to fix issues instead of putting band aids on them.

 

That ship has lost some of it's own rules - but still has a few:D At the drydock, they installed more two tops as they know they are in demand (didn't listen to Seattle):D No HAL Cats:D Captain Gundersen and the others take her upkeep quite seriously. They know people sailing her have paid for the experience and IMO they try to make sure it lives up to expectations. With Captain Gundersen retired it is my hope that others live up to his tradition of care. Now, you can't make her brand new but she seems to be well cared for (at least when we have been on.)

 

Seriously, although she is an old lady I haven't yet had an issue with plumbing or A/C - of course I have only been on her for 51 days. ;)

Edited October 31, 2013 by kazu

[iancal]

We are very cruise line agnostic. We actually pay much more attention to the itinerary and ship than we do to the cruise line.

 

So, when we have decided on the itinerary, we start short listing ships. We look at the ship reviews and we scan the cruise line forums for details on the ship that is on our short list. Like most people we are intelligent enough to realize we have to sift through the comments to eliminate personal bias, preference, tastes, etc.

 

We tend to focus on cabin creature comfort first-HVAC and plumbing. For us, these can ruin a cruise. We recognize that issues with these items are often isolated to one or a few areas/cabins of the ship and to a specific voyage. Many people on the ship can have a great cabin, a small minority can have a miserable trip. We realize that any ship can have a problem so we look carefully over the reviews for a consistent pattern. If we find one, multiple similar complaints over a number of months/years, that ship is off our list. We do not want to book a gty verandah lets say, and end up in one of the 'problem area cabins'. And there are so many great ships and cruise lines out there. HAL is one of them.

 

What continues to surprise us is how some posters on a number of the boards are so emotional about 'defending' their cruise line and doing their utmost to always imply that a problem/issue is either overblown, is the fault of the poster, or imply that the criticism is false...notwithstanding the fact that they many not have, and probably were not, on that ship at that particular time. It is not a HAL forum issue, it occurs and a number of others that we frequent.

 

I suspect that there are many people like us who read the forums. We simply want factual first hand data from people who were on the ship had the experiences-both positive and negative. We are well able to discern what is down to personal taste, what may be exaggerated, and what we feel is probably a realistic report.

Edited October 31, 2013 by iancal

[Watson's aunt]

Hi

 

I wonder how many of these people who leave door open do the same thing at home?. Do they opn all windowa or doors? No because they know the hot air comes in and cool air goes out. I am on her Nov I hope thinks are ok on the ship

 

Mary

[startwin]

Hi

 

I wonder how many of these people who leave door open do the same thing at home?. Do they opn all windowa or doors? No because they know the hot air comes in and cool air goes out. I am on her Nov I hope thinks are ok on the ship

 

Mary

 

 

I'm sure such people don't all cruise on just one ship' date=' and yet we consistently hear problems about the a/c and plumbing on the Zuiderdam. You can't blame the passengers for everything. At the time our toilet didn't function properly for 22 days there were several posters who jumped to blame the passengers - meaning me and suggested I was putting things down the toilet that didn't belong:rolleyes: Let's face it, the Z has major problems that they can't seem to fix. But I still love that ship and will cruise on her one more time keeping my fingers crossed that things work in my cabin - and I'll have a good time anyway. :D[/size']

[Stevero2]

Are the ac problems only in veranda cabins? Would the same problems exist in an inside cabin?

[sapper1]

Are the ac problems only in veranda cabins? Would the same problems exist in an inside cabin?

 

The air conditioning gremlins believe in equal opportunity. :D

[seaside sally]

Can anyone tell me who the current cruise director is, on The Zuiderdam?

 

We did the 22-day Panama Canal cruise in April 2012, and JT Watters was the CD then, but heard he was on The Eurodam a while back

 

We are doing this same cruise again, April 2014 -- just curious

 

Thanks :)

[djhsolara]

Can anyone tell me who the current cruise director is, on The Zuiderdam?

 

We did the 22-day Panama Canal cruise in April 2012, and JT Watters was the CD then, but heard he was on The Eurodam a while back

 

We are doing this same cruise again, April 2014 -- just curious

 

Thanks :)

 

It is someone new to Zuiderdam just this past Monday. Ross was the CD, but he was getting off the ship in Ft Lauderdale when we did last Monday.

 

 

Sent from my iPad

[seaside sally]

Thank you for the info :)

[lilith1155]

Sorry you had issues. We just sailed 37 days on the Zuiderdam getting off October 28, and we had a terrific time. We noticed some decline in food quality in the Lido, but nothing to stop us from returning to her. I do know on other times we have sailed on her others have not had an enjoyable time while we were extremely happy with our time on her. Luck of the draw I guess. I would still recommend her.

[djhsolara]

So I wouldn't be doing HAL justice if I didn't return and say that in the end and throughout even though we had issues we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise. As I said before, we feel that we have no reason to return to Zuiderdam (we'll stick with Westerdam, Eurodam or NA when we have the chance...and perhaps that "Newdam" when it is built) but this experience hasn't changed how much we like HAL.

 

We're going on Carnival in January (such a great deal we couldn't pass it up) and I'll be anxious to see if we do our normal of saying "we can't wait to get back to HAL".

 

 

Sent from my iPad

[djhsolara]

Sorry you had issues. We just sailed 37 days on the Zuiderdam getting off October 28, and we had a terrific time. We noticed some decline in food quality in the Lido, but nothing to stop us from returning to her. I do know on other times we have sailed on her others have not had an enjoyable time while we were extremely happy with our time on her. Luck of the draw I guess. I would still recommend her.

 

So we were on the last leg of your cruise with you.

 

 

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[TexasCruiser90]

This post made me really nervous. My husband and I booked this for our honeymoon in December.. I think another cruise I could suck it up and make the best of it but for my honeymoon I'm a little nervous. :(

[startwin]

This post made me really nervous. My husband and I booked this for our honeymoon in December.. I think another cruise I could suck it up and make the best of it but for my honeymoon I'm a little nervous. :(

 

Go with positive thoughts! You'll have a great time. I managed to, in spite of issues with plumbing - great cruise.:D

[djhsolara]

Go with positive thoughts! You'll have a great time. I managed to, in spite of issues with plumbing - great cruise.:D

 

Even though sometimes our glass was half empty, we always looked at it as half full. You make the best of any situation and you'll have a great time.

 

 

Douglas...Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SailNC]

We just returned on November 8th from a Panama Canal cruise on MS Zuiderdam. We were in Suite 7065, right across from the Neptune Lounge and had minimal air conditioning the entire cruise. What should've been an awesome cruise was diminished quite a bit by the discomfort we experienced. The concierge ladies were quite sympathetic but said that the engineers had told them that there was nothing that could be done, that the a/c was operating at full capacity. Since there was barely a whisper of air coming out of either of the vents, we found that awfully hard to believe. Tests were performed three times daily that indicated that our room was two degrees less than the "Acceptable Range". The solution was to give us an oscillating fan which effectively did nothing except keep the air moving. When we showered, the cabin was almost unbearably warm and we started perspiring as soon as we got out of the shower. And this was showering with cool water!!

We were interested to learn that many others were experiencing a/c problems; DH saw the concierge's list and it seemed as though there were at least 10 suites having problems and were being checked several times each day. Since this was not a new problem to the ship, why has it not been taken care of?? How can HAL allow this sort of situation to continue, especially in light of what we and others paid to go on this cruise?

Additionally, we too were underwhelmed by the Pinnacle Grill service. The food was delicious but the service was incredibly slow. Near the end of our meal (with friends), all of us had nearly empty water glasses. When we asked for more water, the server filled one of the four glasses and walked away! We had to call him back to specifically ask him to fill the rest of the glasses! What is that about? And when we went to leave, not one staff member spoke to us; in fact, there wasn't really anyone around that seemed to care whether we enjoyed our meal or wished us an enjoyable evening. Not at all what we've come to expect from Holland America.

Needless to say, we'll be contacting the home office about this. In the meantime, we hope that those of you cruising now and in the future on MS Zuiderdam have a more positive experience than we did.

[RJ2002]

We just returned on November 8th from a Panama Canal cruise on MS Zuiderdam. We were in Suite 7065, right across from the Neptune Lounge and had minimal air conditioning the entire cruise. What should've been an awesome cruise was diminished quite a bit by the discomfort we experienced. The concierge ladies were quite sympathetic but said that the engineers had told them that there was nothing that could be done, that the a/c was operating at full capacity. Since there was barely a whisper of air coming out of either of the vents, we found that awfully hard to believe. Tests were performed three times daily that indicated that our room was two degrees less than the "Acceptable Range". The solution was to give us an oscillating fan which effectively did nothing except keep the air moving. When we showered, the cabin was almost unbearably warm and we started perspiring as soon as we got out of the shower. And this was showering with cool water!!

We were interested to learn that many others were experiencing a/c problems; DH saw the concierge's list and it seemed as though there were at least 10 suites having problems and were being checked several times each day. Since this was not a new problem to the ship, why has it not been taken care of?? How can HAL allow this sort of situation to continue, especially in light of what we and others paid to go on this cruise?

Additionally, we too were underwhelmed by the Pinnacle Grill service. The food was delicious but the service was incredibly slow. Near the end of our meal (with friends), all of us had nearly empty water glasses. When we asked for more water, the server filled one of the four glasses and walked away! We had to call him back to specifically ask him to fill the rest of the glasses! What is that about? And when we went to leave, not one staff member spoke to us; in fact, there wasn't really anyone around that seemed to care whether we enjoyed our meal or wished us an enjoyable evening. Not at all what we've come to expect from Holland America.

Needless to say, we'll be contacting the home office about this. In the meantime, we hope that those of you cruising now and in the future on MS Zuiderdam have a more positive experience than we did.

 

Thanks for your report. I am sorry to hear that the A/C troubles are continuing. I thought I read earlier that it was speculated the initial troubles were related to re-calibrating the systems from the Alaska cruises. However, you'd think that would have been completed by now.

 

We were looking forward to enjoying the Pinnacle Grill a couple of times during our upcoming Zuiderdam PC cruise, but I am reconsidering after reading multiple reports about service lapses. Perhaps we will try it once. Given all the comments, I don't think I'd hesitate to get up and speak with the PG manager at the first sign of a service issue. Don't want to be the squeaky wheel, but if that is what's needed, so be it.

[Jean1946]

We were on the same cruise. We did not have an a/c problem, but many people we met did. Our bathroom light went out and when we reported it, it was corrected immediately.

 

I did have to have a "come to Jesus" meeting with the steward about a "bucket" of ice rather than the tsp one that have in the rooms. I also found out where the ice machine was and helped myself when I could not run anyone down. the only other problem we had that one night, although we had the bed turn down service, they left all the dirty towels, etc., on the floor. had to get up the next morning and round up towels and wash cloths.

 

The food was OK, not wonderful like we've had on the Eurodam. The room (8131) was a bit smaller than what we generally have.

 

The greatest part was seeing the Panama Canal. We met a 91 old man, who had sailed the Canal in 1947 as a member of the Chinese army who was being trained by the US military. He was delightful. Almost everyone we met were great to talk to and spend time with.

 

Olga, at the Piano Bar was great. We loved Hammish, the CD and playing trivia, etc.

[djhsolara]

We just returned on November 8th from a Panama Canal cruise on MS Zuiderdam. We were in Suite 7065, right across from the Neptune Lounge and had minimal air conditioning the entire cruise. What should've been an awesome cruise was diminished quite a bit by the discomfort we experienced. The concierge ladies were quite sympathetic but said that the engineers had told them that there was nothing that could be done, that the a/c was operating at full capacity. Since there was barely a whisper of air coming out of either of the vents, we found that awfully hard to believe. Tests were performed three times daily that indicated that our room was two degrees less than the "Acceptable Range". The solution was to give us an oscillating fan which effectively did nothing except keep the air moving. When we showered, the cabin was almost unbearably warm and we started perspiring as soon as we got out of the shower. And this was showering with cool water!!

We were interested to learn that many others were experiencing a/c problems; DH saw the concierge's list and it seemed as though there were at least 10 suites having problems and were being checked several times each day. Since this was not a new problem to the ship, why has it not been taken care of?? How can HAL allow this sort of situation to continue, especially in light of what we and others paid to go on this cruise?

Additionally, we too were underwhelmed by the Pinnacle Grill service. The food was delicious but the service was incredibly slow. Near the end of our meal (with friends), all of us had nearly empty water glasses. When we asked for more water, the server filled one of the four glasses and walked away! We had to call him back to specifically ask him to fill the rest of the glasses! What is that about? And when we went to leave, not one staff member spoke to us; in fact, there wasn't really anyone around that seemed to care whether we enjoyed our meal or wished us an enjoyable evening. Not at all what we've come to expect from Holland America.

Needless to say, we'll be contacting the home office about this. In the meantime, we hope that those of you cruising now and in the future on MS Zuiderdam have a more positive experience than we did.

 

I am the OP and I'm sorry to hear that there were still AC issues on your cruise. We were told by the COM that there were technicians getting onboard on November 1 to fix the issue.

 

 

Sent from my iPad

[foodsvcmgr]

We also just disembarked ZUIDERDAM on November 8th.

The cruise director was Hamish to answer the inquiry.

We were in SS #8099 and had functioning A/C, but certainly on the warm side. To me, most of the ship temps were OK, but the Vista Lounge was way too warm.

We had functioning plumbing, but periodic odor issues in the corridor, especially when docked.

We did get our typical 2 top, fixed late dining, and the service was outstanding as always. food was generally quite good. The always available steak was frequently better quality and size than the variable daily menu IMO. Not sure why Mariner's embarkation lunch menu remains unchanged year after year though?

Did not try Pinnacle this time due to a poor experience in Feb. on WESTERDAM, but went to Canaletto. As of last week, they are still serving the old menu, we had hoped to try the new one. Service was great, food OK, not bad.

DW did not like the hard sell in the salon nor the quality of the stylist's work, sorry she spent the money there.

Overall found the condition of furnishings, carpets, and fixtures to be better than our prior sailings (2007 and 2011) on this ship.

Much quicker Ocean Bar service than recent HAL trips, canapés cheerfully offered before dinner, happy hour 4-5 daily there and Crow's Nest.

Saw a couple shows, typical HAL, the best was Island Magic steel drum group.

Overall, we got the R&R we were looking for and did not find the HAL experience we expect to be diminished, an outstanding cruise.:)

[Crew News]

I ate dinner in the PG on the Zuiderdam our first of two weeks in May 2013. The meal took nearly two hours with my water glass being filled only once. I expressed my dissatisfaction to the Manager and how the service did not meet my PG standards. When I told him that I would be returning the next week and expected to be fed in less than one hour, he vowed to meet my standard. Having a rookie server was the issue. He insisted that I would not be charged for the meal.

 

On the second of two embarkation days, I was seated at the table of my choice and assured that a different server would do a much better job. For the meal, I had two servers who met my one hour limit. I thanked the Manager and he thanked me for giving him another chance to show how good his PG could be.

 

Stimulating the competition for PG reputations seemed to work. Try it.

[djhsolara]

I ate dinner in the PG on the Zuiderdam our first of two weeks in May 2013. The meal took nearly two hours with my water glass being filled only once. I expressed my dissatisfaction to the Manager and how the service did not meet my PG standards. When I told him that I would be returning the next week and expected to be fed in less than one hour, he vowed to meet my standard. Having a rookie server was the issue. He insisted that I would not be charged for the meal.

 

On the second of two embarkation days, I was seated at the table of my choice and assured that a different server would do a much better job. For the meal, I had two servers who met my one hour limit. I thanked the Manager and he thanked me for giving him another chance to show how good his PG could be.

 

Stimulating the competition for PG reputations seemed to work. Try it.

 

I agree with what you say, but we, as the paying customer, should not have to stimulate the competition for their reputation. There is too much "come back and let me fix it" going on in the PG on Z. Let's start getting it right the first time.

 

 

Sent from my iPad