Review of Zuiderdam Alaska 10-17 August

[rover16]

     We tend to rate cruises by the "good, bad and ugly" of the cruise. But, on this cruise there was nothnig "ugly" about it.

Embarkation in Vancouver was pretty good except for the line at US Customs & Immigration, beyond HAL's control.

    Food - Varied from good to bad. Mostly it was good, but for us, it was very under-seasoned, The one meal at PG was great, and 1 of the six  in the MDR was great.      We do like that portion sizes have gotten smaller. We hate wasting food, but some of the portion sizes used to be way too much.

    Related, the drink service in the MDR was rated bad mostly because there are too few wine stewards. The waiter was always prompt in taking our wine order, but getting it  to the table was a different story. Sometimes the food came before the wine.

    We had open seating and had reservations for four of the nights. But, even without a reservation the wait was never very long.

    Sort of bad were the music venues. One night there was a guy playing a piano just outside the Ocean Bar, but he only payed 1 set, never announced what he was playing and the piped-in music in the bar pretty much drowned him out. The Billboard on Board was a waste, used more for games than music.

    As usual, the crew was great. Everyone greated us with a simile .  Great cabin steward and great staff in the bars. 

    We had a great day in Glacier Bar. The Captain got us real close to the glaciers, Despite a cloudy, overcast day we had great views.

    The ports of Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway were good, Only Juneau felt crowded with five ships in port, For the first time on a cruise that started or ended in Vancouver, we didn't go to Victoria. Been there so often, can't say we missed it,

    Next, the Zaandam in October from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale.

[sunviking90]

Thank you for the review. We’re on the Zuiderdam this Wednesday for the 3rd time and really looking forward to it. Glad to hear things are still good. 
Enjoy the Zaandam Montreal to FLL. That was our last cruise before Covid and we loved it!

[T8NCruise]

The line at US Customs & Immigration is always bad when we've cruised from there. One time the officers turned up almost an hour late.

[T8NCruise]

1 minute ago, T8NCruise said:

The line at US Customs & Immigration is always bad when we've cruised from there. One time the officers turned up almost an hour late.

Oops hit submit too quick!  Just to add the Zuiderdam was always my favourite ship.

[KiwiGal117]

Were you in a balcony cabin?  If so, did you have electric sockets on both sides of the bed?  Hubby and I both have CPAP machines.  I've ordered an extension cord through HAL, but they say it is first come first served, so we might want to bring our own.  

[rover16]

KiwiGal117 -

We were in 5191, after Neptune and DW and I  both recall outlets on both sides of the bed. Hope this helps.

[KiwiGal117]

4 minutes ago, rover16 said:

KiwiGal117 -

We were in 5191, after Neptune and DW and I  both recall outlets on both sides of the bed. Hope this helps.

It does!  We are in 5186 on the 21 September sailing.  Thanks for replying.

[Ladybug_Vic]

Hi, we're traveling on Zuiderdam in a couple weeks, can you tell me which days are the gala nights?  I'm wondering if I'll be able to use the ships pressing service or if the first formal night will be the second day as it is a sea day.