Zuiderdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Wonderful staterooms, great hospitality, incredible service

Clean, tastefully decorated, attentive crew

The ship was nice. I personally prefer a "for all ages" cruise line (such as Royal Caribbean) because of all the "extra" stuff to do on board. When you are at sea, those cruise lines constantly have something going on for those of all ages. This cruise with Holland America had just a few things, such as art auctions or culinary demonstrations, primarily geared toward an older crowd. This cruise definitely met all the "cruise essentials" you need to have a nice cruise. In fact, this cruise gave us no choice but to truly just relax on our days at sea! We just heard consistently from those who were late 20's to 40's that had been on other cruises to compare to this cruise, they prefer the others as well, Royal Caribbean being a consistent top pick.

Our embarkation experience was great..we practically walked right onto the ship( compared to previous experiences). I liked the overall decor but when we opened our cabin door , we were disappointed. We booked a room for 3 adults and found out that the 3 rd person had to open a small couch which when opened took all of the floor space...no one could go to the bathroom while the couch was open unless they walked across that bed!!! Our 3rd person slept all week on a 48" + /- wide couch curled up. We tried to upgrade but we were told there were no more rooms available. The food in both the Lido restaurant and the dining room was very good but our waiter was very slow and we waited a long time between courses. We were the first table seated in the dining room at dinner and the last table finished. We liked the entertainment and the main shows were amongst the best we've seen in our 13+ cruises to date.

It was great and very friendly and clean; with good food

Very spacious, with an air of cosiness, and plenty of public rooms that were decorated above standard. Including restaurants, Lido buffet. Which I found they were always clean and tidy.

This ship was great! We would recommend this cruiseline and the ship to all.

Great vacation. Everything was first class from the food to the room. Everything was clean. Everyone was friendly and helpful. The ports were great. Had no negative except for maybe the ship being a little rocky sometimes. Overall, everything was perfect.

This was the best vacation we have ever had. The staff was the greatest! I cant wait to save enough money to go again.

Dining times were poor. If you did not want to eat in the main dining room, you only had a window of 11/2 hrs to make it to the buffet. Food at buffet was average. This ship was not made for rough seas! Lots of sea sick people on our cruise. walls and ceiling of our suite creaked with every wave.

The ship was immaculate and sanitary. It was manned by a professional and caring staff. It would have been nice to have more advance notice about the next day's activities and ports. The information usually arrived the day before while we were at dinner. We were unsure what facilities to find at the port and what we needed to take with us. The emphasis was on SHOPPING! Our excursion at St Thomas (to St John) took an hour longer than was listed so we were unable to visit the city of St Thomas. There was very minimal shopping at the pier in Charlotte Amalie.

The ship was beautiful, well maintained, spotless.

This ship is just awesome. Beautitfully decorated in a classy way. Sit down dinners very polished. Buffet dinner a plethora of choices. All that I partook were just wonderfully tasty. Cabins were comfortable and the service in them was very effecient. Stewards knew me by name and make me feel at home. I especially loved the art seminars and learned alot about "how to do art". It was very informative both my husband and I loved them. I also enjoyed the shopping tips from Jen. As I had never cruised before this was a big help in planning my in port time.

Working staff was the best, friendly and hard working. The ship was kept in prime condition. Everything was clean, and constantly being cleaned. The food was average too slightly above.

This was my third Holland America cruise and was by far a disappointment. I have always praised this cruise line as having the best service and entertainment I've experienced. I can no longer make that recommendation. I have now expeienced long lines to enter the dining room every evening, a waiter that was either totally overwhelmed or in need of further training, crew productions that were the same as when I was on this ship 18 monyths ago, and light fixtures in the dining room with burned out light bulbs the entire cruise, the food was average at best, just to list a few of the disappointments. There appeared to be a number of staff that were new either to the cruise industry or this ship. On a positive note, our balcony suite stateroom on the Navigation deck was wonderful and the room steward exceptional. The casino staff were all extremely competent , professional and very friendly. Also the wine steward was very knowlegdeable and provided excellent service and there were some crew members with longevity that did provide the quality of service I expected from prior experience on Holland America. I can honestly say I will have to think very hard about a Holland America cruise in the future and that saddens me.

The ship was beauful. The staff was extremely helpful. The rooms were larger than I expected and the veranda was very spacious.

entire staff freindly and courteousfood and service rirst class

The ship had a refined elegance. The personnel on the ship were couteous and anticipated our needs before we knew our needs. The comedian was great and so fun. Had a blast learning to play Black/Jack in the casino, The dealers were patient. The on board shopping was sufficient. The internet cafe was staffed by the friendliest person you would ever want to meet. She was helpful- not intrusive. The food fabulous-loved our gala night and our night in the Pinnacle Grill. Had a blast a wonderful vacation despite the inclement weather!

This was our third trip on Zuiderdam and we believe the Carnival corporate identity is slowly taking over. We were no longer met with a complimetary juice or champagne, no crewman escorted us to our stateroom, the alternative dining is now $30 per person, up from $20, and many of the signature dining room items (escargot, filet mignon,etc) were missimg from the menues. On the plus side, the rooms are great (we had a suite), the mattresses and linen are second to none, and the staff is still warm and friendly. Our cruise was a 7 day Eastern Caribbean, starting out in Grand Turk, where Carnival has built a very nice terminal with shops and a great beach, but there is NOTHING else on the island. It's an out of the way stop, however, as it took us until 2:30 the following afternoon to reach Tortola, leaving not enough time for the many great shore excursions. We still recomment Holland, but do not recommend the routes that include Grand Turk.

The ship was nearly-new and kept immaculate by the crew. When we were on shore looking back at the ship, we felt a sense of pride that it was "our" ship. All staff went out of their way to accomodate our every wish.