Holland America - Zuiderdam May 24 - 31
Cast: Peggy Sue - 50, David - 48
3 previous cruises - Disney Magic, Royal Majesty, Ocean breeze
Friday, 5/23
Flew down a day early. Delta Express - took off on time from
Boston, however Fort Lauderdale airport was closed due to thunderstorms.
Had to circle over the Everglades for a while, and then captain
advised we had to land in Miami due to low fuel. Couldn't leave
the plane, as captain announced our luggage could not be taken
off, because the plane would be going to FLL as soon as the airport
opened. Sat on the plane for an hour. Finally took off. The 22-mile
trip between Miami and Fort Lauderdale took another hour, as we
had to get in line with other planes that had been waiting. Back
over the Everglades again. Finally landed after 6 hours on board.
Good news was we arrived safe and sound and our vacation was about
to begin! We spent the night at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Marina,
right across from the cruise port. A very nice room with a beautiful
view of the inner coastal waterway. We had a nice dinner in their
dining room and retired early in anticipation of the day head.
Saturday, 5/23
Woke to overcast skies and humid conditions. Went to the dining
room to partake of their breakfast buffet, as it was included
with the room rate. Buffet was nice, but didn't eat much, too
excited!
Marriott provided a free shuttle to the cruise port. Very efficient
and comfortable. We arrived at the port by 11:30 AM -
A summary of our cruise highlights follows:
Embarkation:
Porters were standing ready and our luggage was whisked away
in a matter of minutes. Doors had just opened and line wasn't
very long. Upon entering the terminal we were handed a SARS questionnaire.
This was rather difficult to fill out as everyone was searching
for pens, writing surfaces etc. Quickly went through their security
check and onto cruise check in. We were in an S category Suite,
so we were shown to a separate check in line. We had filled in
our custom forms on-line before leaving home. Check in went very
quickly and we had our cabin key cards in less than 5 minutes.
Another quick stop to have our security picture taken and then
onto the cruise waiting area. We had a two hour wait ahead of
us, as boarding didn't begin until 1:30. The Wheelchair passengers
were escorted on first. HAL needs much improvement in their embarkation
procedures. There are two levels in the passenger terminal, with
boarding on the second level. There is a reserved area for wheel
chairs on the second level, however when boarding began many of
the wheel chair passengers were still on the first level. 45 minutes
later they had finally brought them all up via the elevators.
Not sure why these passengers weren't immediately escorted to
the second level when their arrived rather than having them wait
down stairs. By now a tired, bored, restless, agitated crowd was
waiting to board. Suite passengers were invited aboard next and
we were on our way. Again, the line stopped waiting for the photographer
to snap the welcome aboard picture. These pictures are taken BEFORE
entering the ship, so why aren't they taken during the entire
check in process to save the time and aggravation during boarding?
We were escorted to the elevator and to the 7th floor..From there,
we were left on our own to find our cabin. Just a short walk down
the hall. Non-suite passengers were assigned a boarding number,
and had to wait for their number to be called. Many did not get
on board until after 3 PM. Throughout the cruise we heard many
passengers state that they were very upset with the embarkation
procedures. I'm sure HAL must receive many complaints about this.
Hope they listen!
Our Suite - 7078:
Entering our suite was pure ambrosia! Think large hotel room!
King-size bed with two night stands, large desk area, sitting
area with a queen size sleeper sofa and two chairs - very comfortable
leather furniture. A dressing room and a huge bathroom...walk
in shower, full Jacuzzi tub with shower, dual sinks and two medicine
chests. Tons of closet / storage space. We could have brought
double the luggage and still have had room to spare. Plenty on
hangers in the closets. Saved the best for last...the deck....HUGE,
with round table and 4 chairs, 2 chairs with footstools and small
table in-between. HEAVEN! Our cabin steward OKA appeared within
minutes of our arrival to introduce himself and see we needed
anything. We didn't see much of Oka throughout the week, but he
took excellent care of us.
Lido Dining:
The Lido is set up with a variety of food stations. It's a fairly
large area with quite a bit of variety. Food was good, not memorable
by any stretch of the imagination, but for the volume they were
serving it was adequate. Seating was comfortable, however we found
this dining area to be rather warm throughout the entire cruise.
We didn't spend much time in this dining venue, we ate lunch hear
the first day, grabbed breakfast one morning and one lunch.
Room Service:
Menu was fairly typical. Sandwiches, burgers, etc. You could
also request the Vista dining room meal during dining room hours.
Service was efficient, and with just a couple of exceptions, what
we ordered was delivered. We enjoyed breakfast on our deck most
mornings. We also ordered burgers a couple of times when returning
from ports late in the afternoon, as we had missed all lunch times
in the lido and vista dining room. The food was good. One of the
best things was the yummy chocolate cake!
Vista Dining Room:
We ate here 6 out of our 7 nights. All of our dining room staff
was very efficient, gracious and friendly. We really enjoyed chatting
with our wine steward. Menu's had quite a bit of variety and we
enjoyed fish, lamb, beef, lobster, crab, and shrimp. Coming from
New England we were very surprised to find the lobster tails offered
on the second formal night to be excellent..They were very tender
and cooked to perfection. Judging by the way fellow passengers
were ordering 2nd and 3rd servings I suspect everyone else on
board enjoyed them too! Most folks we spoke with liked the food
in the dining room. One area that we believe needs some improvement
is the salads. They had some variety, but the portions were quite
tiny. I swear a spinach salad David ordered only had 10 small
spinach leaves in it. Heard others in the dining room were ordering
2 or 3 salads and combining them to make one decent size salad.
We tried a couple of the cold soups and they were excellent! The
appetizers were very good too, with a nice variety. The desserts
were EXCELLENT. A chocolate lovers paradise!
We had a very nice table for two on the second level of the
dining room. All of our dining table requests had been honored.
We had an excellent view of the pianist and violinist, who provided
wonderful music during dinner. Our table was located near the
front of the second level dining room. Air temp was very comfortable,
and we didn't feel crowded at all.
We attended a formal tea one afternoon..We were seated on the
first level, aft. The vibrations back here rattled the table setting
and it felt like we were sitting in vibrating chairs. We were
seated with other passengers, but it was impossible to talk with
them due to the vibration noise. It was also rather stuffy back
there. We felt very fortunate we didn't have an evening dining
table in this area of the dining room.
We went to breakfast one morning. Good variety on their menu.
Food was good. Loved the Yum Yum man...the cart full of yummy
croissants, pastries, muffins etc.
Alternative Dining - Odyssey:
We dined here one evening. Cover charge was $20. Per person.
Menu was limited, with focus on beef. We both ordered filet mignon.
Steak was excellent, the remainder of the meal adequate. We also
found the service here to be very disappointing. We sat for 20
minutes before a waiter acknowledged us. This was in a half empty
dining room. We were getting ready to leave when someone finally
showed up. Very disappointing. We really enjoyed Palo's on the
Disney Magic and had hoped this would have been another wonderful
gourmet experience. To add insult to injury, Disney was only a
$5. Cover per person! On a positive note, the Odyssey is an absolutely
beautiful dining room, beautiful crystal and china.
As suite passengers we were invited to also have breakfast or
lunch in the Odyssey. We tired one breakfast and one lunch here.
Service was much improved and it was a nice relaxing atmosphere.
Food was the menu from the vista Dining room.
The "Suite" life:
As a suite passenger, we were treated like royalty. From the
moment of priority embarkation to the last moments in the Neptune
conceriege lounge waiting for our priority debarkation, all of
our needs were taken care of. Just living in the suite would have
been enough for us, but we were treated to 2 invitations to cocktail
parties with the captain and the hotel manager, a suite luncheon,
priority tender passes, a conceriege staff who took care of all
of our needs, it was great to take all the forms we had to fill
out to their capable hands. We never saw the purser or front desk..Not
even sure where they were on the ship! The Neptune lounge was
wonderful, with great coffee and snacks throughout the day. The
lounge was just a few cabin doors down the hall, and very convenient.
Every morning we received personal copies of the vista dining
room menus, with the two formal night menus printed on parchment
paper. It seemed almost every day we had some kind of invitation
waiting for us in our mailbox. Another wonderful perk was free
laundry, pressing and dry cleaning. We used this service every
day. Just fill out the forms, leave the bag on the bed and by
the next afternoon all was returned clean, folded, pressed etc.
When we arrived in our suite, a bottle of champagne and beautiful
flowers were waiting for us. Again, the very best part of this
experience was our cabin and that wonderful deck. Because we had
such a wonderful deck, we didn't spend much time on the lido/pool
deck. We met some wonderful fellow passengers at the suite events.
Formal nights:2 formal nights. We had late seating, and I'd
say at least 50%, maybe more, of the men were wearing tuxedos.
(David wore one) Women were in long gowns and very fancy cocktail
dresses. Everyone looked fantastic and the majority of the passengers
stayed dressed for the entire evening. Lots of opportunities for
formal portraits. Not pushy, if you wanted a picture, just join
the line. Pictures were quite expensive at $21. for each 8x10.
The ship:
Very elegant. Although the color pallet throughout the ship
was rather vivid, it all seemed to work very well. The artwork
throughout the ship is beautiful. The fresh flowers displays were
terrific. Plenty of lounges and a variety of bars and music to
satisfy all tastes. Two pools on the lido deck. The main pool
was usually crowded with teens, but they were well behaved. The
aft pool was small, with lots of chairs around it. Again, because
of our deck, we really didn't spend any time at the pools.
A full ship, with 1800 passengers on board, but we never felt
crowded. Lines were next to non-existent, except when waiting
for the dining room to open etc. Age..more than 50% of the passengers
were 60+. HAL is trying to attract more families with this new
class ship. There were a fair number of families on board, but
the majority of passengers were couples. I'm sure as the summer
progresses more families will be on-board. HAL devotees were not
that impressed with this new ship. We spoke with many and all
said they preferred the smaller HAL ships. Many said service wasn't
the same and some of the amenities they enjoyed on prior cruises
were missing. We've never sailed HAL before, and compared to the
other lines we have sailed, HAL was far superior. We really enjoyed
this ship and the entire cruise experience.
Comparing HAL to Disney:
Our last cruise was on the Disney Magic. Just a short 3-day
cruise. It's difficult to compare the ships, because they appeal
to such different markets. The Magic was a beautiful ship, nice
cabin (inside) with good service. Food was good, and we really
enjoyed their alternative dining room Palo's. Disney also has
a kids theme, with all the Disney characters. A good clean wholesome
environment. The Zuiderdam seemed to fit our lifestyle better.
We enjoyed the fact the majority of the passengers were adults,
with entertainment geared towards adults. Food selection and service
was far superior on the Zuiderdam.
Ports of Call:
We did not go on any cruise excursions arranged by the cruise
line.
Half Moon Cay - Their private island. This was the only day
we had overcast skies, and periods of rain. We still tendered
to shore and had a great time. The island is a lot like Disney's
castaway cay. I suspect this place would have been awesome on
a beautiful, sunny day! We still enjoyed swimming and the barbeque
- which for burgers and ribs was surprisingly good.
St Marten - Spent the day at Dawn Beach. Very beautiful with
fun waves. Spent a bit too much time in the water and burned our
shoulders despite wearing 30. Guess we should have reapplied after
one hour!
St Thomas - OK, because of the sunburn we didn't go to the beach.
What else do you do in St. Thomas? Shopping! Beautiful jewelry
stores. OK, I'll admit I came home with a new bauble.
Nassau - Not sure why we got off the ship. Don't care for Nassau.
Went down town for a couple of hours, but find it a rather seedy
environment. We didn't go over to Paradise Island, as we had been
to the Atlantis Hotel before. We returned to the ship and enjoyed
our deck!
2 Sea Days - our favorite part of the cruise!
Entertainment:
Every evening there was a show in the Vista Lounge. The Lounge
is multi-level with very comfortable seating. Sight lines can
be difficult if you get behind one of the many poles, but we found
getting there 15 minutes before show time usually resulted in
finding an excellent seat. Barnaby - a comedian/juggler act was
hysterical. Paul Pappas - pianist, was good, but a bit to "Vegas"
for our taste. There was very talented comedian on-board the first
evening. HAL presented two stage/variety shows with their cast
of dancers/singers. They were good, but to be honest I expected
a more polished Broadway level show. Disney did a better job with
these types of shows.
Casino - we didn't spend much time here, but when we did, we
agreed with the cruise director who named the place "the
donation center". I will admit to winning two $50. Jackpots
while playing the dime slots. Don't be fooled, it's 90 cents to
play all lines, and of course the best payoff was 2 time 9....
But, I did end the cruise actually up about $20. Played black
jack a couple of times, but there were more poker tables here
than black jack, and only one $5. table. We get bored with gambling
quickly, plus the smoke in this place was HORRID. Smoking was
allowed in lounges, lido deck etc. Most of the time it was limited
to one side of the ship and we could avoid it..but that was difficult
in the Casino. I know this is also a common complaint of folks
entering/exiting the vista show lounge, as most folks have to
pass through the casino to get to other lounges, their rooms etc.
Someone hit a slot machine for $60,000. during our cruise.......
Bingo - Don't play, but it was available every day. On the last
evening, some lucky person won a $5500. jackpot.
Conclusion:
We had a wonderful week. Very relaxing. Wouldn't hesitate to
sail on HAL again. Our thanks to Tim Larison, our travel agent,
and the excellent moderator of this board!
Thanks for reading.
Peggy Sue
