Zuiderdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Loved Curacao and Aruba...less interesting was Panama and Costa Rica. This was our 2nsd time to the Panama Canal.this was our 40th anniversary cruise.

I have sailed with Holland America several times and it is now my favourite Cruise Company. I like the mature guests on the ship and the service. My first time travelling alone, Loved it. Wishing it would be less expensive, would do it more often.

Excellent food and service. Older ship but well maintained.

Hi just got off Zuiderdam 11 day Panama Canal trip. This would be cruise 45 for me second with HAL. The ship is old but kept up pretty well. The staff were very friendly and helpful. Both our Cabin Attendants and dining room waiters were great! However the food was the worst I have had ever. Last year was on Korningsdam food was excellent. Many meals were luke warm at best a very poor selection on dinner menu manly gourmet food and not very tasty. They have done away with Lobster Night now you can order ONE Entree one lobster tail if you want a second lobster tail or another Entree $10. For each course. The Lido food looked like repeat items every day during 11 days the Carvery served Roast Pork 5 times. Was disappointed I love cruising but I was not alone in food critic area many people felt same way. I will stay away from HAL for time being would however return to Korningsdam or their new Ship to see if there is a difference.

Overall the cruise was fantastic. The shore excursion ladies were horrible. Lammy was very condescending when discussing options. Did not seek to understand your needs. Every interaction with her was not pleasant. Her and her counterpart were also talking to other guests about other guests. Very unprofessional. They both should have a different career. Maybe something not customer facing.

This cruise is outstanding. Never doubt to take. It is full of activities and plenty of good food and you will make many new friendships to last forever.

Very fun Panama Canal 10 day itinerary for Marc 10-20th 2019. Excellent, prompt, friendly and thoughtful service from room stewards, Main Dining Room, concierge staff and Pinnacle Grill servers. Food was very good to excellent everywhere in dining rooms and pretty good in the lido buffet. Will definitely choose to cruise Holland America again as this was our first cruise with them.

This was our second cruise on the Zuiderdam and we really enjoyed ourselves, staff is wonderful.

Unfortunately there was a novirus outbreak on our cruise. We lost three days of our trip; my wife was quarantined for two days and I was quarantined for one. It was several days before we were feeling better. The outbreak affected a lot of people and the level of service suffered. The Lido buffet restaurants became full service. As they are set-up for self-service, many delays occurred, 10 minutes waiting for toast, and 20 minutes waiting at the pasta bar. On the last night, the Bistro ran out of there two featured entrees; shrimp torpedoes and beef wellington. Our cabin attendants were wonderful, Sigit and his partner ensured our cabin was cleaned and provided the little extras. Always a nice touch to end the day. Our past experience was on Holland America for the Alaska cruise and Denali National park trip. The experiences.were compete opposites. A 5 star rating for the Alaska cruise, this cruise was at the most 2, and again that rating is thanks to the extremely wonderful service of the cabin attendants. We were planning on additional cruises with Holland America; the Australian/Polynesian Island cruise and the South America/ Antarctic cruise. We are still in the planning stages, but based on this cruise, we will be spending our money on another cruise line.

Just returned from 11 day cruise aboard the Zuiderdam. The service, food, and our Stateroom, 8042, were outstanding. Sal and Eko, were our room stewards. Both were outstanding. Wayan and Yudi were our servers in the dining room. There were attentive, interested in us, and a pleasure every night. We would sail on this ship again. We highly recommend Holland America and their ships to all.

Had great fun. Beaches were wonderful. Panama Canal is amazing

Thank you for requesting a review. .

We enjoy HAL even though they are currently geared for an older demographic. The onboard crew is why we come back.

Overall, the cruise was wonderful! The ship was small, which meant less crowds and every place we stopped was beautiful. I loved it!

Very nice trip. Great time with family and friends. Typical HAL ship with good food, great friendly service, and quiet areas to relax and enjoy. Well worth the money. Will go again.

Great cruise but something I can cross off my bucket list.

You are going to start reading this and think this is a complaint, but you need to read it all the way through! It's a little better than a full on set of complaints, in that Holland America tried...Panama Canal Cruisse 1/6/19 to 1/16/19, Zuiderdam (ship): I did upgrade to an ocean view cabin, but we ended up with a cabin under the BB King lounge ( nightclub on the ship). We could hear thump thump thump late into the night. Guest services offered us earplugs. Earplugs do not keep vibrations at bay. Finally, on Monday, 1/14, they moved us to another cabin that was still on the main deck but not under the BB King lounge! • I am glad we moved from the original cabin on the 10th deck because the cruise was very windy. We could barely walk around the promenade deck outside some days. • We signed up for that program where Holland America checks our bags all the way through to our home airport. Once we moved cabins, we asked if Guest Services were sure the paperwork and tags for that service would go to the new cabin. Did not happen. My husband walked to the old cabin and sure enough, there was the paperwork and luggage tags in the mailbox outside the old stateroom. • I ordered the Romantic Voyage Package. I got a letter that listed everything we were supposed to get as part of that package: 1. Flowers and a bottle of sparkling wine when we came onboard. Flowers were not in the room; had to ask for those (the florist is very busy…). They showed up later the first night. Sparkling wine was there, but no wine glasses and the wine was not chilled. Cabin steward could not figure out how to help us chill the wine. We finally put it in the fridge for later. 2. Chocolate covered strawberries for the last night of the cruise…no, I asked for them and got them within the promised 24 hours. 3. 25 minute massages—the Spa knew about us having the package and scheduled the massages. Yea! But then they added a tip and made me sign the bill??????? 4. A dinner in the Pinnacle Grill Holland America’s onboard upscale restaurant)—They also accepted and knew about us, and scheduled the dinner no problem, but only because I had a card from Guest Services saying I should get it. 5. One sheet of photos—nope, the photographers would not accept my letter (even though Guest Services said they should have). I had to go to back to Guest Services. Guest Services printed a card and left it at my cabin the next day. Then I had to go back to the photographer and get my pictures. 6. $25 in chips and private lessons in the Casino. We went to the casino when it was not open yet. We were told they did not know anything about the Romantic Voyage Package and could not give us chips. They gave us cash and told us to come back when the casino was open. We went back. Oh, now the casino is open. We can only give you a quick lesson in 21 but not anything else….the tables are going to be busy since we are open......hmmmmmmmmmm. I told Guest Services (they became our best friends…) 7. I got really frustrated that I had to keep going back and asking for stuff that I was entitled to due to the Romantic Voyage Package. Holland America needs to provide information to all departments when guests have a package and not give people a hard time. Did not feel very romantic. 8. Guest Services gave us a free dinner in the Canneleto Restaurant (a sort of uscale additional charge restaurant). • Wine…I ordered 6 bottles of wine prior to sailing—2 red for my husband and 4 white for us to share (I cannot drink red wine). The second day at lunch on the Lido deck (the big cafeteria/food court on the ship), I asked for a glass of my wine. Oh my God! It will take 45 minutes. I have to go get it….she finally did. Then I go to dinner in the dining room that night. Anna, our sommelier, tells me I have to let her know where we are eating lunch and dinner every day so my wine can be there! Since when exactly is that my problem? I went back to Guest Services. They apologized. The next day we saw Anna our sommelier again and she still insisted I had to make my plans ahead of time…I ended up eating lunch in the dining room as much as possible. The sommelier in the Pinnacle Grill got our wine before we ever showed up. After we switched cabins, the dining room could not find my husband’s wine at lunch. They brought him a free glass of red wine. Oh, and Anna did not “get” why I wanted to open one bottle of red for my husband and one of white for me at the same time. Who cares? Did I ask you to do it…Not happy. Feeling less like I am on vacation…. • Cabin staff for 1st cabin (1064)—wonderful. Oh my. One night I walked in when Alex (our cabin steward) was making my towel animal. When I guessed what it was, he made me a different one!!!! For our anniversary, they did 2 swans and rose petals on the bed! I thanked him profusely. Cabin staff for new cabin (1093)--Made the smallest towel animals possible… • Wait staff in the dining room—Telhed (our waiter) made animals out of paper and cups and cans—oh so cute. One night we ate in the Pinnacle Grill, and he saw us walking around the promenade deck later and brought the figure he’d made out to me on the promenade deck. The dining room staff were both AMAZING! The assistant manager remembered us from an Alaska cruise nearly 10 years ago! We had a couple next to us at dinner that both live with visual impairments. I heard Telhed telling the wife each night where foods were located on her plate. They were so respectful to them. The husband and wife were fascinating people. They had their service dog with them, and the husband and I started discussing rules and regulations for taking service animals into foreign countries. They have a Facebook page: Servicedog Joska! Features a lot of pictures of Holland America voyages! • We really enjoyed the spa. We always sign up for the heated ceramic chairs and the wave pool. But one night they had a ladies night, and it was so noisy we left. No way to relax…. • Selfishly, everyone made a big deal out of our 43rd wedding anniversary, and we appreciated it. But no one ever mentioned my PhD….which was ½ the point of the trip….and I told my Holland AAmerica agent thatw as why I was booking the cruise. He spent 4.5 years clalling me every 6 months to see if I finished the Ph.D. and was ready to book my cruise… • We did the excursion where you go see the other 3 locks on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. I get all the waiting….but when one has 6 busses with most people over the age of 50, the bus either needs to have a bathroom or there needs to be a restroom available, and people should be able to get out of the bus and walk around. There was no restroom on the bus. We sat on the bus at the dock where the tenders took us from the Zuiderdam to the dock for an hour, spent a few hours in a bus (with a stop for restrooms and food at a place way too small to accommodate us), and then when we got to where we were supposed to get on the ferry, we had to wait over an hour for the ferry pilot…the Canal pilot to show up. No bathrooms. Not allowed to leave the bus. The head driver said there was a firehouse and if it was an emergency, a few of us (from all the busses) could go use the toilet…really? • Lastly, I felt as if I worked very hard to get wine, romance package stuff, etc. It just did not feel very relaxing. And I think because of the cabin change, we never got our pictures of the ship or the Mariner pins we were supposed to get…. So, after waiting over 5 years to go on a cruise, it was stressful and not very relaxing. Lack of communication seemed to me to be the biggest issue…that and why in the world are there cabins under a nightclub? I sent the above to my agent at Holland America, and this was his response: Hello and welcome home from the Zuiderdam. Thanks for your email recap about your cruise. We appreciate all compliments and critiques so we can know what serves guests well and what needs improvement. I’ll forward your email to my colleagues of our post-cruise department, Guest Relations, for their handling and response. They also communicate back to the ship and the departments involved. I’m sorry to hear about the first stateroom’s vibration issue, the mail/communications mix ups that resulted from changing staterooms, the sommelier & wine problems, and the difficulties with the Romantic Voyage Package. I hope that the positive parts of your trip outweighed the problem issues! We appreciate your valued business and Mariner loyalty. Hopefully as we learn from your feedback, we can serve you better in the future if we can have the opportunity. Thanks again, and, enjoy being home and returning to your routine.

The crew did not seem very interested in the guests.

Exceptional service, food, music & excursions. Eka, Swampu & Ronald provided that exceptional service in the dining room.

Tired ship, tired crew. Lots of little things that went wrong. Ice bucket and coffee pods not replenished for days. Shampoo dispenser also completely empty for half of the cruise. Blanket had black paint stains on it. Shower was not draining properly. No pool towels provided for Grand Turk - had to call and wait for over an hour for them to be delivered. And we were in a neptune suite which is supposed to get better service. Bar service was not good, either - a margarita was poured into a dirty glass with a chocolate chip stuck to the bottom. Meat was completely overcooked in Lido. Lido itself seemed to be always closed, so we had to rely on room service a lot who brought us hot water but no tea bags one day and completely forgot to bring the drinks the next day. Casino was always empty as slots were way too tight. Overall, a huge disappointment given the premium price we paid.