Avoid Zuiderdam/Holland America

Zuiderdam Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 43

Overall rating:

1 out of 5
Zuiderdam

22 Night Adriatic & Mediterranean Dream (Rome Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 14, 2015

Ship: Zuiderdam

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 9 years ago

Review summary

The ship sailed still undergoing refurbishing (not completed at repair facility). Still undergoing after 22 days sailing. Hollands America not responding to guests complaints.

High volume noises. Debris falling on balcony. No access to top deck.

Any-time-dining restaurant running out of food items. RUNNING OUT OF WATER!!!. Insufficient table service crew. Very limited food service hours.

Very poor quality entertainment/activities.

Non-disclosed balcony's partial view obstruction.

Total caos at disembarking time!!  Made some guests miss trains/flights.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Ship tip

AVOID!!! CHOOSE OTHER CRUISE LINE!!!

Ports of call

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

3 out of 5

Cruise Strait Of Messina

3 out of 5

Messina, Sicily

3 out of 5

Valletta, Malta

5 out of 5

Argostoli, Kefalonia, Greece

3 out of 5

Corfu, Greece

3 out of 5

Dubrovnik, Croatia

5 out of 5

Kotor, Montenegro

3 out of 5

Korcula Island, Croatia

3 out of 5

Split, Croatia

3 out of 5

Venice, Italy

5 out of 5

Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

1 out of 5

Nafplion (Nauplion), Greece

3 out of 5

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

3 out of 5

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

3 out of 5

Mykonos, Greece

5 out of 5

Rhodes, Greece

5 out of 5

Santorini, Greece

3 out of 5

Naples, Italy

3 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 19

11 Comments

askoleern    9 years ago

Op1 is Carnival person

kawsd2b    9 years ago

Oh and "wesmoms" don't talk about my "Momma" but for your info she taught me to speak my mind. If your "momma" told you "if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything" then you obviously didn't listen to her and don't respect her opinion. Let's keep mothers out of this, that's childish.

kawsd2b    9 years ago

You all can complain all you want that's perfectly fine... But when someone like OP1 takes issue with absolutely every aspect of the cruise that dilutes his/her review, I've traveled on this ship I've traveled on a lot of Holland ships, I strongly doubt the trip was that bad, or we would have heard about it on the news!!

Bubba54    9 years ago

Thanks for the review, but your complaints are valid. Things falling on balconies, can you say possible lawsuit. Hopefully your next cruise will be better.

CrusinTim    9 years ago

@kawsd2b...ALL of the complaints sound legit as with most cruises following refurb, there is always some sort of final fine tuning going on. BUT, 22 days? Debris falling onto balconies during sailing? Top deck closed? Loud noises (probably from the construction continuing)? And all this after paying top dollar for a 22 day cruise? Sounds complaint worthy to me!!!

wesmoms    9 years ago

Kawsd2b, how rude can you get? So their opinion doesn't gel with yours, no need to be snarky. Guess your momma never taught you "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Have you been on the Z-dam lately? My review would be the above review, verbatim. Get over yourself!

kawsd2b    9 years ago

Gee you sound like you hate everything! Glad you won't be sailing with me on my next HAL cruise, Bon voyage!

glomarrone    9 years ago

I was so sorry to read about your bad experience on a HALship.  HAL is my favorite cruise line so it really disappoints me that this happened to you.   I understand your feelings about not sailing on HAL again.  I had a bad experience with embarkation on a Princess ship and have not sailed again on this line again.  I may sometime in the future but not right now.  Hope that your next cruise goes smoother.. 

JusMe    9 years ago

Every cruise line has a bad ship.  I had a bad cruise on NCL Star but I gave a second chance and had a great trip on the NCL Pearl.  I then tried the Star again and again a bad cruise. The Star is just a bad ship.  

I check a couple of review sites before picking a ship,   I also check my cabin location so I'm not under the pool deck, Bar, show room or Casino. 

Sorry that the ship was still being refurbished and that areas were closed off.   I would think that HAL would give a cabin credit or money off on your next cruise as you did not get all of what you had paid for.   I hope you sent a letter to HAL and voiced your displeasure.

noname111    9 years ago

Wow, very sorry to hear about your experience. Years back, we had a rather unsatisfactory experience with HAL and never went back again.  This reaffirms our decision, mostly due to HAL's lack of response to customer concerns.  

OP1    9 years ago

Great review.

We had a terrible experience with Holland America.

Tip:  Avoid!