Zaandam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We thoroughly enjoyed our Alaskan cruise on HAL Zaandam. We had an inside stateroom on the main deck (level 2) for 3 adults; it was comfortable--more spacious than the rooms on other cruiselines we have sailed. Plenty of storage: 3 closets, bureau drawers, desk, underbed drawers, 2 nightstands. The inside staterooms do not have a refrigerator. The room was adequately soundproofed from other cabins and the hallway noises. However, we did hear rumbling vibrations a few times (wave action? engine noise?). But we slept well. Comfortable beds! Food was tasty, plentiful, and always available. Service in the main dining room, Rotterdam, was attentive. The buffet on the Lido deck had many of the same entree choices as the more formal Rotterdam, in addition to vegetarian, ethnic, and sushi options. The Dive-in Grill, by the forward pool on the Lido Deck, serves burgers, hotdogs, and chicken sandwiches. Delicious, but slow preparation. There's a taco buffet there too. Keep this in mind when the Lido Buffet closes down and dinner is not yet available.      The hands-on computer and photography seminars were so helpful.

Alaska is unendingly beautiful! Glacier Bay is awe-inspiring.

I couldn't decide between 2-3 stars for this one...This was the first cruise I have ever taken and everyone I know who has gone on a cruise tells me they can't wait to go again.  Unfortunately, I can't say the same.    I heard Holland America was one of the better cruise lines so I picked them.  Pros:  The scenery of the trip was phenomenal, good food selection (included), and friendly staff.  Cons: 1) We chose the 'oceanview' room deal that was advertised (they don't tell you that THAT price is for the 'obstructed' oceanview room, expect to pay more if you really want a 'view') - if you go, PICK your own room - not the 'guarantee' where they pick for you - we ended up with what no one else wanted!  2) Soda and alcohol are NOT included!  I purchased a $50 "soda card" for only $25 on the first day that reduces the price of sodas to $1.75 each instead of $3.50.  Plan on bringing your own soda and water bottles with you, then stocking up at each port! (Note: can't bring alcohol on the ship.)  3) the cruise price does NOT include the $11 PER PERSON PER DAY they charge for cleaning your cabin. This cost is tacked on to your on-board tab which you will get the morning you arrive for debarkation. (Note: ask for a copy of your bill the night before to review so you can get over the shock before you leave the next day!).  4) Any worthwhile shore excursions are expensive and could end up doubling the price of your trip should you decide to take them.  5) Wifi is NOT free and is NOT included!  They charge 55 cents PER MINUTE!  If you have a smart phone, wait until you are in port and find a free wifi hotspot.  6)  This was one of the smaller cruise ships and not what I expected (you know, like what you see on all of those glamorous cruise ship commercials! If that is what you are looking for, pick another one).  Overall, I am glad I finally got to do the 'inside passage' to Alaska, but I think next time, I'm going to skip the cruise and find a nice "ALL inclusive" resort where I can actually relax and enjoy the trip instead of worrying about what my final bill will look like.

We absolutely could not ask for more aboard ship.  Embarkation & debarkation were quick & easy, and the service aboard ship was truly fantastic - especially in the dining room.  Shore side linkages, however, were another story.  I understand the corporate desire to sell package deals where the traveler just has to line up and follow the rest of the crowd, but I found it very difficult to do anything on my own.  The situation was best described as "opaque," making planning from a distance a real challenge.  For example, once you've done this once, you know HAL lands at Seward.  What isn't clear from a distance is that Seward is a long way from Anchorage.  Some sort of transfer is required to get from Seward to Anchorage.  The train schedules appear to be set up for tours rather than point to point travel, so a motor coach is required.  The IHG & HAL folks on the phone don't really understand how that works, so they advised us to go to the reception center first, then take a shuttle to the airport, where we planned to pick up a rental car for exploring the interior on our own.  In fact, there are motor coaches that go directly from Seward to the airport, and the baggage truck from Seward goes to the airport FIRST, before it goes to the Anchorage reception center.  We wasted a lot of time at the reception center.  The other rough edge was ashore in Skagway.  Our WP & YR locomotive broke down short of the White Pass summit.  No big deal - stuff happens; that's just part of the adventure.  However, that 1.5 hour delay meant we had no time in Carcross, BC ("go directly from the train to the bus"), because our group had travelers from the Ruby Princess that were pressed to make their sailing time (4:30 PM).  Our sailing time was about 4 hours later, but we were stuck with the Ruby Princess crowd.  The excursion folks reimbursed us $50 apiece for the inconvenience, but I would much rather have spent the time in Carcross than have the money.  I don't expect to get back to Carcross again any time soon.  The excursion folks could have treated us Zaandam travelers much better, by providing return transportation from Carcross to Skagway that didn't rush us with the Ruby Princess crowd.

Although I had an exceptional vacation, and would recommend the Zaandam for it's excellent voyage itinerary, more intimate size, tasteful cuisine and nicely appointed rooms and public areas; the cruise was not without faults.  Although as individuals I believe the 'international' staff tried to be professional, pleasant and accommodating, the (more than one incidence) language barrier made for less than expected experiences.  Some of the 'classes' were very poorly presented, either because presenters were ill prepared or could not articulate (why put a staff member in that position?)  It was also quite noticeable that if a mere question was asked concerning an off ship detail that was not Holland related, the staff suddenly had no knowledge to share. Word of wisdom, be sure to check your statement for errors the last night on the ship - the line at the service counter was quite long and sometimes 'vocal'.

Lots to see weather permitting.  Fortunately we had great weather.

Food was good and all the crew were very friendly.  Common areas were crowded on those days at sea.

Don't bother with "Le Cirque" dining experience - it is not worth the money...

It was my most beautiful cruise from all the existing ones. The first thing that catches up my eyes was a beautiful bouquets of fresh live flowers (some never before seen by me) literally everywhere you looked. The second things were shows. All the time everywhere something was happening. There were so many and so good that we did not know which to leave in favor of which. Next positive side was the atmosphere. Everyone was so nice and smiling naturally that perhaps even the neighbors do not talk with such a pleasure. I have to finish because I could go on and on forever.

The best vacation we ever had!

Not expensive, elegant, interesting, good food, top quality enterteinment

Land excursions well planned,great selection of movies and books, nice cabin, polite service.

I recommend this trip to all my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Everybody was very friendly, staff and fellow passengers!

There were many activities organized  by the staff. Food was good and shows also good. We enjoyed also the side music as the piano and violin players.

Down sizes:

Our first stateroom was on the third level under the kitchen! It was permanently noisy .After complaining we got a better stateroom.

 Before booking verify what is above your place.

The shore excursions were very expensive for what they were offering. There were many offers outside the ship and  much more reasonable for the same service or better.

The places that we visited. in the Falkland Islands and. in Patagonia were ok but not spectacular. .For instance In Puerto Montt we traveedl each way 90 minutes to see a medium size waterfall.

I loved cruising on Holland America's Zaandam to Alaska.  The size of the ship is just right, not too many people so that it is crazy getting on and off in port.  The staff were all extremely friendly and helpful and the food was amazing.

the weather was bad and can't be helped.  With four days at sea it would have been nice to have more activities offered on those days.  Could use better entertainment and more shows offered. I had been on two other cruises with other cruise lines and was confident entertainment would be wonderful.  Wait staff was GREAT and made te trip more enjoyable.

Hi I have been on my 3rd cruise and this was good. I did not think the boat was that new overwhelming look that kids and I were looking for.I thought that it was a great trip the shore excursion s were great the scenic was great. However I was on 2 carnival ships and they we way more inpressive.  It would be a good idea to upgtae to new look.ü

We chose this cruise first because of the itinerary; second because it left from Vancouver, B.C. which we wanted to visit for a few days before the cruise; and third to experience Holland America cruiseline for the first time.

This Inside Passage cruise visited Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan Alaska and also spent a full day cruising the Tracy Arm Fjord. As far as a seven day itinerary to Alaska is concerned, you could not do much better. In Skagway we took a full day tour over to the Yukon Territory booked online through Frontier Excursions. Many interesting stops and great photo opportunities and the sighting of a bear in the wild along with a great guide made this the best day of the cruise. Cruising Tracy Arm Fjord with icebergs floating by and getting up close to Sawyer Glacier was next best, with Juneau and Ketchikan still very enjoyable. 

The Zaandam itself is an older ship with only two levels of balconies. We had a balcony room and for this type of cruise where the scenery is a major attraction, we highly recommend it as the crowds up on deck jockeying for rail space can be avoided.

 While older, the ship is very well maintained and clean. There are many comfortable public seating areas to relax in. As with all cruises there was a wide variety of daily activities from which to choose.

The quality and variety of the food we found to be generally excellent. It was the food service that was greatly lacking...actually poor. Whether in the cafeteria or the main dining room there never seemed to be enough servers and those that were  there did not seem to be very organized or be working as a team. To make matters worse, they were not very friendly and rarely smiled. Our experience in the Pinnacle Grill specialty restaurant was deplorable. When I requested the server to bring my soup before my salad, the  Maitre,d came to our table and basically chastised me saying that that was not the way it is done. In comparison, the service in the Italian specialty restaurant was excellent..the best on the ship.

The cabins are conservatively appointed but clean and with excellent mattresses.

As indicated above this was our 38th cruise and the seventh cruise line we have sailed on. We found the itinerary to be most enjoyable but Holland America employees could go a long way toward making their guests feel more appreciated in comparison to other cruise lines. Whether or not we sail with Holland America again remains to be seen

The Zaandam, its cruise, food, crew and accomodations were great.  Our stateroom was very comfortable, clean and reasonably appointed and they gave us the selection of 3 types of firmness for our pillows which was a nice touch.  Our cabin stewart was very attentive and we could count on our stateroom being made up after we returned from breakfast.  We ate breakfast in the Lido, mainly because we either had an excursion or slept in :-).  They had just about anything you could want for breakfast including cook to order eggs or omelets and the service was fast. We loved visiting Billy in the Ocean Bar for a couple of cocktails before dinner - a great bartender.  Dinner in the dining room was excellent.  The menu was quite varied but they also included some basics for the less adventurous pallet.  Service was good and the presentation on each course was wonderful.  What we didn't like was out of the 13 day cruise there were a total of 8 "sea days" and only 5 ports after you leave Buenos Aires.  Unfortunately we had heavy seas and winds so we couldn't go on the outer decks while we cruised the various channels, glaciers and the Cape Horn so we missed a lot of it and photo opportunities through ship windows just aren't great.  It was frequently foggy as well and cold at about 40-50 degrees (March 4-17).  We had looked upon cruising the Cape, glaciers and channels as we would an excursion - that was not the experience.  Additionally we had such rough seas the Captain couldn't take us in the Chilean Fjords so we missed that totally.  Of course the weather there is usually cool and rainy.  In Ushuaia the guide on our excursion told us that out of 365 days in a year they have only 44 full sunny days.  Guess we should have researched more.  We also felt that with that many "sea days" the Zaandam should have had more varied entertainment.  After a couple of days, tango lessons, bingo, art and jewelery shows get old.  The evening entertainment was great - wonderful shows in the lounge, but when you can't go out on the outside decks during the day it gets a bit boring.  Many people were reading in the lounge areas, my though was I can read at home.  The fitness center is great, used it several times but when the seas were rough I was reluctant to get on the equipment.  The best time to be had was with Buddy the piano man in the Mix Lounge.  He was a great entertainer but as of May 2 he is going to the Holland cruise in the orient.  If you take that cruise with Holland be sure to stop by and say hello to Buddy!

The itinerary was good from the tip of Argentina. The first leg along the coast of Chile was somewhat boring. The unexpected stop at the Falklands was a huge bonus. Going around the Horn was terrific.

The ship, service and cabin were fine , but the food was average and often not hot enough.

The internet service was too expensive as was the wine bought on-board.

Trips bought on the vessel were overpriced and a lot of folks are now making their own arrangements.

We really enjoyed the entire cruise experience - stateroom was comfortable with good storage, food was good, service was good, some of the entertainment was really good.  We met lots of really nice fellow passengers - especially in the dining room with Open Seating dining.  We LOVED  Open Seating Dining - it allowed us to meet different people and we never felt rushed to be in the dining room at a specific time.

The staff did a great job handling luggage at embarkation and debarkation.

We were surprised that room service was available on debarkation morning - we ordered full breakfasts; poached eggs, an omelet, fresh fruit etc. and actually received it at the time we specified.  We have never seen a cruise line offer that on the last morning.  Nice touch.

When we booked our trip we were thinking 18 nights might be too long for a cruise, but by the end we didn't want to get off the ship.  We were spoiled.

I paid extra to insure I got a cabin with a large window as I've had on my previous 2 Alaska cruises. What I got was a cabin with 2 small porthole type windows. Boarding the ship 4 hours before sailing, we went to customer service and asked for the correct room that I paid for, even if I had to pay extra for the cabin(again). I was told there was none available. Also the room was very small with the bed in the middle of the room making it very difficult to walk around our room. Starting Monday of the cruise, our toilet would plug up every morning from around 7am to 10 am. Except for Thursday, when it was plugged morning and afternoon. After Thursday afternoon, no more problems with the plumbing. The crew and staff were excellent(except for the customer service desk) This being my second Holland America Alaskan cruise I was told I've probably be given a free upgrade. didn't turn out that way. Lastly; when the ship docked in Seward, we were told if your taking the train into Anchorage, we had to be off the ship by 6:15 am.

Great trip from the beginning planning with our Travelocity rep Leanne who is fantastic. Great weather on the land part. Not many meals included on the land tour. Great tundrawilderness tour...weather fantastic & saw lots of wildlife. All guildes were knowledgeable & very personable and accommodating...comfortable coaches especially on Denali tundra tour. Cruise was delightful. As always Holland America was tops in accommodations, food, & port stops. Ship staff was very helpful & accommodating. Some rain but it did not damper the trip. I would cruise Holland American again in a minute. And I would definitely do it through Vacation Outlet.

We filled out a Questionaire on Board also but have not heard any response back This seems to be typical of what we found on board . They seemed to be understaffed for some reason. Many Tables with dirty dishes so no place to sit. In the Formal dining on second nite a Long Hair on the Entree was pointed out in a quiet manor on my Wifes plate to dining staff. The dining coordinater came over and quietly said he would be taking care of us personally after apology. Nothing Happened. Another nite Refused Dinner in Dining Area Because Did not Have Tie on though was Dress Very Appropriately and Classy Did not eat in Dining thereafter. Still Made best of the Time on Board and Had Fun

We had a great time on our adventure. The food was fantastic. Our steward for our rooms we so friendly and helpful. We did enjoy the Dancing with the Stars experience.

I didn't enjoy this ship very much due to a variety of reasons. Primarily it was extremely boring, being that you are at sea most of the time you need proper and engaging entertainment on board. The average age is 74 so if you are retired and in this age group this cruise line is the one for you! However if you are looking for music, parties and dancing definitely NOT. The food in the the lido deck which is available most of the day was extremely average and it was repetitive same food every day, to the point where you didn't know what to eat by day 4.The food was usually cold and the plates scolding burn your hands hot, so that sucked. However, the food in the dinning room for the seated dinner was very good, great variety, tasty meals and nice setting. The staff aboard the Zandam was fantastic I don't have any complains from room Stuart's, dinning attendants or any other member that served or picked up after me. They always had a smile and were extremely helpful.