Zuiderdam VF help

[Cruise Junky]

Hi there, we're looking at the Zuiderdam for next September for Greece. Jumping from a 12 Day Princess to a 24 Day HAL is a bit of a leap for us having never sailed HAL. Can you tell me the difference between the VF cabins? I can take 5053 or the upper veranda level closer to the Bow. On the ships diagrams, the upper veranda balcony's look a lot bigger..are they?

 

Tx

[Denn33]

The VFs on deck 4 do have a bigger balcony--it is 1.5 feet deeper. However, the VFs on deck 4 have a steel hull for the railing rather than plexiglass. This means that from your room and while sitting on the balcony, you would not be able to see the water--your view would be obstructed by the steel hull. You would have to stand out on the balcony to get a good view of anything other than sky. Thus, I would recommend with going with the VF on deck 5 (those generally seem more popular; when I was booking my upcoming europr cruise, I had to pay more and upgrade to a VD (which are next to the VFs on deck 4 but are a higher category because they have the larger balcony and a plexiglass rail), because all of the VFs on Deck 5 that didn't have the steel hull were already sold out (while there were still lots of VFs on Deck 4 available). So, I would suggest going with the VF on deck 5 over one on deck 4, unless the space on the balcony matters more than having a view.

 

Hope this helps!

[Swice]

We had the steel hull on our last cruise-- the result was a balcony that we really didn't use much other than to walk out for a minute or two. We never sat out on the balcony. It was basically a glorified oceanview room with huge windows.

[Cruise Junky]

Thanks - it helps very much.