I miss the old Holland-America Line
Zuiderdam Cruise Review to Caribbean
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 38
Review summary
The cruise itself was nice and relaxing and a nice getaway from the cold. This was my fifth cruise with HAL and I was a little disappointed with them. I had ranked them a slight step above Norwegian and RCCL, but after this cruise I will probably be cruising with the other lines before coming back to HAL.Embarkation
This they got right. We arrived at about 11:30am and were on the ship eating lunch by noon.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food was just okay. The temperature of some dishes were lukewarm at best, while others were fine. One big change I really didn't like was that sugar or sweetener were not on the table. They would bring sugar if you ordered tea or coffee, but you would have to ask for the sweetener. They would ask blue, pink, or yellow and then only bring you a packet of the one you asked for. The same went for jelly during breakfast in the Main Dining Room. Nothing on the tables and then they would only give you one packet of jelly. Are that many cruisers stealing sweetener and jelly that they have to ration it out.
We had two dinners in the Pinnacle Grill during the cruise. The first one was embarkation night and the meal was not the best. Several dishes were not hot and had to complain. The second time was later in the cruise and everything was very good. The food was hot and tasted very good.
Onboard Activities
I did find there was a lack of activities to do during the day. The first trivia contest of the day was usually 4pm, so no morning or early afternoon trivia. There were two or three more evening trivia which clashed with the musical entertainment on board. There is no more America Test Kitchen on board. There usually were lectures giving on sea days by the Cruise Director on the sea days, but on port days not much on board.
Entertainment
Now let me state, Holland-America is not known for their entertainment compared to Royal Caribbean or Norwegian. In the past in the main theater they would do production shows with there own singers and dancers with the ship band a few times during a seven day cruise. Not anymore, they still have the dancers but no singers or band. While the dancers are extremely good and deserve a lot of praise, the music is pre-recorded and the sound quality varied.
The other musical entertainment throughout the ship was good we did visit most of the venues.
Service and Staff
the service on board varied at best. Our room Stewards were excellent and very friendly. They did a very good job at keeping our room clean. The wait staff in the restaurants were very slow at times. I got the feel that they were trying to cover too many tables to give effective service.
Ship Quality
The ship was on the whole well maintained. It is an older ship but was fresh out of a dry dock a month prior to the cruise. Most of the carpeting looked good through out the ship. The one thing I do have to complain about is the WiFi and the Navigator app. Both were terrible, the WiFi was slow even for ship WiFi, and it kept losing connection. The app didn't work half the time, you had to keep logging out and logging in to the app to get it to work.
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin was very nice with lots of storage space. I do love that HAL has bathtubs even in the balcony rooms. We did have an aft cabin so our balcony was a little deeper than the regular balconies on board, which we loved by the way.
Ports of call
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
Didn't really do much in Fort Lauderdale this time around.
Thumbs Up
0
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)
Had an emergency back home that required several phone calls, so I did not get off the ship.
We did the calypso tram on Grand Turk and had a good time. It gave a nice overview of the island for a decent price.
Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic
We did the the mountain and city sights while in this port. I really enjoyed this tour a lot, the guides were very knowledgeable and made sure everyone had a good time. The view from the mountain was spectacular and the gardens were nice and well maintained. It was also cooler up on top which was a nice break form the humidity on the island. The city portion included a stop at Parque Central and a visit to the Cathedral with shopping then a drive thru the city of Puerto Plata.
We did not do an organized tour in Key West. We just walked off the ship and made our way to the Hemingway House. This was my second visit to the house so while friends did the guided tour I played with the cats. After we walked over to Blue Heaven for a slice of Key Lime pie. Then we walked back to Mallory Square and the ship.
Disembarkation
It was quick and easy. We were at the airport in less than 20 minutes of walking off the ship.