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Questions about Zuiderdam

MDL1771

By MDL1771,
in Holland America Line

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MDL1771

MDL1771

Posted
Posted

Couple of questions about what is supplied on the Zuiderdam.

 

I have heard conflicting reports about beach towels. Are they supplied, or should I bring a couple along?

 

Also read about people bringing clocks for the cabins. Is this necessdary, or are there clocks you can see in the middle of the night?

 

Thanks for the help!:)

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SHayesShip

SHayesShip

Posted
Posted

The ship provided beach towels when I went on the Z in April.

There are NO clocks in the cabins so bring your own

 

Steve Hayes

 

Couple of questions about what is supplied on the Zuiderdam.

 

I have heard conflicting reports about beach towels. Are they supplied, or should I bring a couple along?

 

Also read about people bringing clocks for the cabins. Is this necessdary, or are there clocks you can see in the middle of the night?

 

Thanks for the help!:)

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doone

doone

Posted
Posted

I agree with the above poster. On all my HAL cruises, beach towels have always been provided. When you are leaving the ship, they are located by the door, one bin of towels for you to take off the ship and another bin for you to throw them in as you return.

 

There are no clocks in any of the cabins I have stayed in, so if you wish to know what time it is, bring your own.

 

Also, you may want a power strip as well as there is only one outlet in the cabin.

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npeters

npeters

Posted
Posted

Just back from the 8/21 Zui Western (thankfully we were between hurricanes!).

 

Beach towels are provided at every port. The night before, the room steward leaves "towel tickets" for you to fill in stateroom number. When you disembark, you trade in the tickets for towels. There is a steward handing them out by the exit door. If you forget the tickets, you give the steward your room number and he writes it down (the tickets are faster). Upon return, you give the towels to the steward and he records that you returned them.

 

There were no clocks in our SS cabin. We actually had 2 outlets in the room, one by the mirrored vanity and one by the window desk. However, I found my power strip to be handy. I also brought my own hair dryer as the one provided is very weak.

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dakrewser

dakrewser

Posted
Posted
Beach towels are provided at every port. The night before, the room steward leaves "towel tickets" for you to fill in stateroom number. When you disembark, you trade in the tickets for towels. There is a steward handing them out by the exit door. If you forget the tickets, you give the steward your room number and he writes it down (the tickets are faster). Upon return, you give the towels to the steward and he records that you returned them.

How tacky! But it would appear to be a reaction to cruisers who think the beach towel is a "free" souvenir (or who simply leave them on the beach!). Just part of the "Carnivalization" of HAL - not in the front office, but in the ppassenger cabins! :rolleyes:

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Ziggy7

Ziggy7

Posted
Posted

wow how different things are from ship to ship or week to week! On the Zuiderdam week of 8/7/04 we just took a towel from the bin and left the ship(no one recorded it), the second week 8/14/04 when we got a towel a steward recorded it and when we brought it back they crossed it off, we were never given anything such as towel tickets either. In the ships defense, we did notice that alot of pax left their towels on the snorkle catamaran and on the beach in cozumel the first week, we brought some back but many were just left behind. So we figured the ships new actions were because many pax were just not returning the towels, which is just plain rude IMHO.

There were always towels at both pools (unless late at night) and there was never anyone checking them in and out, so I dont think the problem was pax taking them as souvieners, but you never know.

 

We were also shocked to see how many towels were left on the beach and HMC for the crew to pick up, I'm sorry but its pax like that, that gives us new rules like recording who took them and charging those who left them behind!

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jazzsea

jazzsea

Posted
Posted

I don't believe that what HAL is doing about towels is "tacky".

 

The ship has storage for so many towels. They need this many towels for guests at almost every port. It costs money to replace the towels and HAL has to be sure the towels are returned so that the next cruise has towels.

 

If you don't want any Carnival influence, why not spend more and go on Radisson.

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gizmo

gizmo

Posted
Posted

I don't call this tacky either. I think the problem is people taking towels off the ship and leaving them on beaches. Some people are inconsiderate and don't want to carry sandy wet towels back to the ship with them. I wonder how many towels are not returned to the ship each cruise?

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Ziggy7

Ziggy7

Posted
Posted

All I can say is we saw alot left behind everywhere, to me that was tacky! I am glad HAL provided us with beach towels, if I had to bring my own I would have had to bring a clean one for the both of us for each day! In the humidy things dont dry as easily in the sun or hot weather.

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peaches from georgia

peaches from georgia

Posted
Posted

If you don't want any Carnival influence, why not spend more and go on Radisson.

Why should you have to go on Radisson? You should be able to be on a HAL ship without cruising under a Carnival influence. The only people who should be cruising in the Carnival style are those that book Carnival. :(

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darnapar

darnapar

Posted
Posted

Well maybe if people didn't keep the towels they would not have to keep track of them this way. The intersesting thing about the 8/21 cruise was that for the first port no one kept track, it was not until the second stop that they started to ask for the cabin number and number of towels taken. And really HAL is not like Carnival. Maybe it is more Carnival like people are cruising HAL!

 

Bring a travel alarm clock as there are done in the room. They will do wake up calls if you wish though.

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dakrewser

dakrewser

Posted
Posted
I don't call this tacky either. I think the problem is people taking towels off the ship and leaving them on beaches. Some people are inconsiderate and don't want to carry sandy wet towels back to the ship with them. I wonder how many towels are not returned to the ship each cruise?
What's tacky, and Carnival-like, is the actions of the inconsiderate passengers. It's all of a piece with the non-involved parents, chair-hogs and other rude and inconsiderate actions that are creeping in.

 

Personally, I think it all started when they stopped enforcing the dress code :rolleyes:

 

-dave

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted
This must be something new. We have never had to give our cabin number for towels on any HAL ship that we have been on.

 

 

I agree with KK.

 

I have never heard of this towel ticket business. Been on ALOT of HAL cruises and have always been able to collect towels at the gangway and we made sure to RETURN them there.....

 

I hope the person who posted about this towel ticket business is mistaken. Four cruises on Zuiderdam and we did not experience that.

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Nasmas

Nasmas

Posted
Posted
What's tacky, and Carnival-like, is the actions of the inconsiderate passengers. It's all of a piece with the non-involved parents, chair-hogs and other rude and inconsiderate actions that are creeping in.

 

Personally, I think it all started when they stopped enforcing the dress code :rolleyes:

 

-dave

 

BRAVO

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spcl4cs_gal

spcl4cs_gal

Posted
Posted

Regarding the towel tickets, yes they do exist on the Zuiderdam and yes they take your cabin number when you leave and cross it off when you return. If you don't return the towel, they will charge you for it too.

 

Regarding dress code, I saw four people at different times being refused admission to the diningroom because of what they wore...and this was a lunch, not dinner.

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the2ofus

the2ofus

Posted
Posted

It seems pretty obvious that after the first port stop they came up short on beach towels, so on all following port trips they used the ticket system to make sure people got the message that they were responsible to bring them back.

 

A couple of years ago on a snorkle excursion in Dominica I was one of the last to leave the snorkle boat. I brought back 4 extra towels that others had just left lying on the floor of the boat. Those four represented a significant chunk of change in my book. Think of the increased cost passed on to all of us when pax are that careless.

 

I hate to suggest it but the only problem with the ticket thing is that if someone loses theirs and your towel is left unattended you may end up missing your towel and paying for someone else's carelessness.

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