PBandJ616 Cruise Review on Zuiderdam on Feb 15, 2017

Zuiderdam Cruise Review

PBandJ616

Contributor Level: Second Mate

96 Days Till Next Cruise

Reviews: 4

Helpful Votes: 84

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Sail date: February 15, 2017

Ship: Zuiderdam

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

We were on the 10 day Panama Canal Sunfarer Feb 15th sailing. We were lucky to find a great head waiter on day 3 and requested to be with him the rest of the cruise which they accommodated. Wayan our room steward was very good. We enjoyed the production shows and the comedian. Get there early if you want the early show. If you can stay up past 9:30, which much of the other passengers won't, the 10PM shows had plenty of available seats. We knew HAL would skew older but my goodness, the ship was empty after 9. We had terrible bar service. I've never seen so many confused and ill prepared bartenders. I've never had a bartender roll his eyes when we ordered a drink until this cruise. We were in 5186, an aft cabin. loved the large room and the large covered deck. The food in the MDR was hit and miss. Never had a good piece of beef in 10 days. Ate in the Pinnacle one night and probably wouldn't do that again. We ordered a filet medium rare and it came out dry and well. I ordered a ribeye medium and it came out rare. Not worth $70 IMO. Loved the ship. We found it to be very well taken care of. Once we found the observation deck on 11 forward that eliminated the constant hunt for chairs in the sun. We had a great time. We make our own fun and don't look for staff to provide our fun for us. The staff and service, bartenders notwithstanding, were exceptional. HAL does this right. Not sure I would do HAL for our next trip just because we're not quite in their target demographic yet but for the right value we most certainly would.

4 Comments

PBandJ616 7 years ago

Kathy, Enjoy your trip. I hope you have the same great weather we experienced.

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1Aruba 7 years ago

I've been on 9 HAL cruises and have never experienced bad bar service or had a bad mean at the Pinnacle. Sorry to hear that. HAL is "geared" to an older group of people, but always make your cruise just that, your cruise.

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Kathy115 7 years ago

We leave for the same cruise on Saturday thank you for the review. We are on deck 5 too in an aft corner and really look forward to just sitting on the balcony!

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willwork4cruz 7 years ago

"We make our own fun" Great motto! I always said, if you're bored with yourself, then what does that say about you?

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