Neptune Suites are enormously valuable to travelers...

Zuiderdam Cruise Review to Caribbean

CruiserAZ13

Contributor Level: Deck Hand

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 62

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

Verified Review

11 Night Panama Canal Sunfarer (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 14, 2018

Ship: Zuiderdam

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 7093

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Panama canal (partial transit) great views and opportunity to relax and unwind. Neptune Suite is a MUST. HAL remains thoughtful in their approach even if execution is a tad problematic sometimes. Would recommend to folks who want a very low key relaxing trip.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Received email the day before that embarkation was going to be delayed. Great communication from Holland.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Neptune lounge snacks and food was lovely if not a tad unique. Neptune lounge breakfast is wonderfully available for various hours if you are up early or late. Snacks change throughout the day and are provided by Pinnacle. Specialty restaurants are available. Pinnacle for breakfast is for suites only. It is really lovely with good food. By night Pinnacle was designed to be a high end steak house format for guests. Staff is lovely. Food is mostly average. Steamed crab legs are excellent. Try the one night Rudi's if you have funds to do so. Caneletto is the Italian specialty option. The staff do not know what Italian is supposed to be and the food is really odd. The staff should have a chance to try the food (made correctly) before working with passengers. Staff have poor English and often do not understand what a passenger is asking or requesting. Staff are also rather snotty. It's a shame because staff wants to please. FYI seafood sauce is sherbert orange in color. Great concept that falls short on execution.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Overall staff and crew are helpful and respectful. We had a negative encounter with a crew room steward one evening. He was loud and yelling down the hall from the crew ice and mechanical room for some time. My wife went to the hall and asked to stop being loud and he became surly to my wife. He also continued being very loud. I had to speak with him a second time in the hall where he was insubordinate again. My wife ended up calling the front desk due to his aggressiveness. Front desk was thoughtful and thanked us for the information which was to be turned over to the floor manager. We never heard anything about this again. No follow-up that we have seen on other mid-range to high end cruise lines. It was uncomfortable when this crew member was in the passenger halls when we were after the unfortunate incident. Steiner Spa - Manager is lovely. Most of the staff had good English. Had four massages between my spouse and I. Unfortunately my wife encountered significantly more 'up-sale' on her pre-booked appointments. Was rather frustrating. Lydia was great. Dianna was pushing for upgrades and rather rude.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Public ladies rooms were hard to keep tidy. Commodes often had some flushing issues. Either that or folks did not flush because they did not want to have to touch the toilet lid to flush. They did try.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5