Zuiderdam - 12-19 June Western C.

[halpinsg]

Thank you to everyone for all the information I gleaned from this board before I went. In return, I thought I would make my own contribution!

 

Disclaimer: This was my first cruise. I have absolutely no idea how things are "supposed" to be, but if it would get much better than this, I don't know if I can handel it!

 

RM 1064 (main deck) Table G 6:15 seating

 

 

We did have a great time on the cruise and I really didn’t want it to end. We had a party of 16 (nine adults, 2 teens and 4 children) celebrating my in-laws 50th anniversary. There was enough to do for everyone’s diverse taste and interests.

 

 

Highlight:

 

Key West: we took the Reef Chief to go snorkeling and I got to swim with a school of Tarpons and came about 10 feet from a couple of Dolphins! Great stuff.

 

 

Day at sea: I mainly swam with the kids and worked out at the weigh room. I also napped, strolled and then napped again! With the kids at Club Hal, it was a lovely day! I was set to do the galley tour, but slept through it!

 

 

Cozumel: we just took the kids into town to show them a bit of “real” Mexico. We had decided that we didn’t want to wear out the little ones too soon into the trip. Others in our group went snorkeling and said that it was good, but Key West was much better. We found Cozumel to be fairly expensive.

 

 

Grand Cayman: My In-Laws had a family member who lives near Hell, so she arranged to pick us all up and take us around the island. It was interesting to hear about the island from an insider’s point of view. We didn’t swim with the sting rays, but I heard it was a great time. 7 Mile beach was nice, but nothing compared to ½ moon cay. It had a quick drop off which made it not too hospitable for the small ones Prices for souvenirs and jewelry were great though.

 

 

Day at sea: We entered the “build a ship” contest and won!!! Spent most of the day doing trivia contests, poking around the ship and spent some time at the casino (broke even!!!)

 

 

½ Moon Cay: WOW!!! My sis in-law and I went on the second tender out to get a good spot. Our rewards were a near empty beach and amazingly clear water. Although the snorkeling wasn’t the best, everything else was. The BBQ lunch was fair, but this place isn’t about the food. It’s about the beach, nature and soft, soft sand.

 

 

notes:

(cons first, I like to end with positives)

Cons:

 

Our cabin was above the disco and I could hear it at night. I was so tired from the days activities though that it didn’t keep me awake though.

 

 

The “chocolate buffet” was more of a pastry and cake buffet. Although good looking, I wouldn’t count them as great (not really a “con”)

 

 

Would like a bit more port time. We took our time getting to Cozumel, but were only allowed 6 hours there. Personally, I could have left out Either Key West or Cozumnel and spent more shore time at the other places.

 

 

The Indonesian show was set for 11:30 PM! I would have loved it if my kids could have seen it (or myself). I would like it if they could move it up a bit.

 

 

I did find that the dining room place settings were a bit crowded. It was a great etiquette lesson for the kids though!

 

 

The Port Everglades facility. It looked like a sparsely decorated warehouse (which it was). Considering this is a permanent HAL facility, they could do more with it.

 

 

Pros:

 

Club Hal, My kids cried on their last day

 

 

Fresh water pools. I had been warned by co-workers that they had salt water in the pools on their cruises. (later found they went on Carnival)

 

 

Overall food was excellent (I’m a BIG foodie) Portions were big enough that I didn’t need to order any extras. Yeah, there were a few misses, but you can get that at almost any good retaurant catering to such diverse tastes.

 

 

Nice stateroom, Great staff. All were very friendly and I witnessed many of the officers going out of their way to help people.

 

 

I agree with the comments that they could just go to Half Moon Cay and park the boat there for a few days. It was a WONDERFUL place.

 

 

The dining staff was excellent with our kids.

 

 

The Pinnacle Grill was worth every cent of the extra charge. I don’t know what people are complaining about when mentioning small portions. My porterhouse was 21 ounces!

 

I found the Indonesian dishes offered in the dining room to be of very good quality.

 

 

The cheese plate for desert, good quality cheeses.

 

 

The theater band played a blues set up in the Crows nest late one night. You could tell they were really having fun and they were very very good.

 

 

The Crows Nest seemed to fit my groups taste because we always seemed to congregate there (the adults!) Great view in a very comfortable setting.

 

 

Loved the outside elevators!

 

 

Special mention to

 

Neil, our wine steward

 

Iman our waiter (dining room steward)

 

Roccos,(sp?) the person who made sure we had everything we needed in the dining room.

 

Banbang,(sp?) our room steward. I will miss him. ( I had to work on getting the kids not to call him our “house elf”, for those who have read Harry Potter)

 

The staff at Club Hal. Not only did my 5yob and 7yog have a great time (they would beg for us to take them back, when we took them for meals), but our 14yog and her 12 yog cousin also had a great time with all of the activities.

 

 

I would encourage you to go out of your way to speak with your room stewards on a personal level. I found them to be very interesting and nice. They don’t have an easy job and many are away from their families for extremely long periods.

 

 

[PoohUnderstands]

We were on the "Z" on the 5/29 sailing and were in SS 6103 and had "Bambang" as our steward also. Boy, does he get moved around!!!! Yes, he was fantastic. Very caring without being overbearing! Glad you had a good time.

[heartofamerica]

If your waiter was Imam (everybody called him "hunky dory" on our Z cruise), then you had the best that the ship had to offer.

[jstducky]

thanks so much for the review! i am sailing on the zuiderdam w. caribbean in 15 days! i can't wait!

[randysmolly]

We were also on this cruise and we absolutely loved it. The only thing I didn't like was how crowded the dining room seemed to be and I felt like I was in a cafeteria. The service was good and the food was good also.

 

I have to agree with you though on the ports. Half moon cay was great! I would have quickly given up cozemel to spend more time here or the Caymans.

 

I would highly recommend this ship and the cruise line.

[jstducky]

out of curiosity, what time did you guys arrive at the cayman islands?

 

how was the tendering process? did it take a long time? what time did you get on land?

 

thanks!

[dst]

Thanks for the reveiw we are on the "Z" next month and can hardly wait. Glad to hear you enjoyed your first cruise (I am sure not your last) How was the tendering over to HMC, was there a lot of wait for the others???? Also did you see the cabanas, are they worth all the effort (and expense)?

 

Thanks Again, glad to hear you had a great time and gives us something to look forward to :)

[halpinsg]

For Grand Caymen, we were scheduled to get there around 8am. We actully arrived a bit early and Tenders started flowing on time. We set out at 9 and didn't have a wait to get on one.

 

On the way back, we had about a 30 minute wait to get a tender, but we arrived just after an excursion group. There were people after us just walking on.

 

BTW, my Brother in-law knows his gems and jewelry and told us that the stuff there cost about 50% of what you would get in the mid west. Prices on the boat were great as well.

[halpinsg]

About HMC,

 

The tendering wasn't too bad going, but coming back was a long wait in line. If you have a large group or you have lots of cash you may want to get a cabana, but overall, I wouldn't worry about getting one. There was plenty of space.

 

Good luck on getting through your wedding!

Sean

[dst]

thanks Sean, We went ahead and got a Cabana figured for the honeymoon we could explore a bit. Hopefully it will be well worht it.

 

What type of rooms were you guys in, did you enjoy them. We are in a suite #7070 and are very excited (first suite)

 

Thanks again for your responses it really helps :)

[Mary Ann 2]

about tendering:

If you cut it close to the end times, it will be much worse than if you head back early. Several people at our table waited at HMC and Cayman until the last minute and the lines were very long. We went back several hours ahead and walked right on the tender.

 

Someone on this board warned us about the lines in Cayman - the VERY long line stretching blocks back is for Carnival. Be sure you are waiting in the correct line first!

 

We were on an excursion for Grand Cayman, so don't know about leaving the ship there, but we walked into the room to get tender tickets and went directly down and got on the tender at HMC. Can't remember the timing exactly, but I think it was 1-1.5 hours after they started tendering.