Zuiderdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The on-board activities were adequate, but we chose not to utilize them (the shows, gambling, etc).  Food was good, service in stateroom was outstanding.

We chose to use the on-board restaurant one evening.  The $35 per person extra fee seemed a bit excessive, but the food was truly outstanding, as was the service.  Highly recommend this restaurant!

After a hectic year, it was nice to once again travel on a "dam" ship.  The crew make it so that you don't even have to lift a finger.  The weather was perfect.  The ship, as always, was clean and the food was excellent.  I hesitate to recommend cabanas to you just because we don't want availability to run out for us!  Haha! 

I am definitely going to recommend this cruiseline and ship

The service is impeccable, food excellent, we didnt take excusions because we have already been to these places

The New Years Eve party was great

Very good entertainment

While an 18 day cruise might not be feasible for most, for those of us with the time available it was both enlightening and relaxing. The eastern Caribbean segment of the first week featured a variety of ports to include Puerto Rico, Grand Turk, and St Thomas in the U.S.V.I.  The cruise line's private island in the Bahamas, additionally, was a gem.  The latter eleven days featured a return stop in the Bahamas, Aruba, Curacao, Cartagena in Colombia, a partial transit of the Panama Canal, and a stop in Limon, Costa Rica.  The Panama Canal was the highlight, but all other destinations offered an enriching distinctiveness.  And Costa Rica never disappoints.  For us this mid-size ship with under 2,000 guests was the perfect size.  Holland America staff treated us ever so well and the food, entertainment, activities, and the independent shore excursions chosen provided the satisfaction one would anticipate.  This latter segment is probably best suited for adults.  Our rating, if possible, would be 4.5.  HA comes with our recommendation.  Don't expect Disney, but they don't purport to be.  HA does a great job of keeping you informed while on board with all the necessary and optional items on your radar. One negative, HA still permits smoking in limited areas but attempts to limit second hand smoke; they aren't always successful.  HA has no control of the weather, but our good fortune in this regard put this itinerary over the top!  If like us, you live in colder climates in winter, this cruise in late Dec and early Jan is just what your therapist would order.           

Our favorite parts were housekeeping service with everyday's clean cabin, towel-animals, information about the next day and the chocolates; food has great variety and almost anytime available; lots of classes/seminars/events/concerts (we loved the Christmas Choruses); the crews were very friendly and very helpful for our problems/questions. We definitely would recommend a cruise with Zuiderdam to other people. 

The Good: The crew was fantastic.  Truly 5 stars.  Can't say enough about the cabin staff, food staff, restaurant staff.  They were all to a person extremely polite.  They put on a Christmas Eve show comprised of all the crew from all over the world - Indonesia, Philippines, Asia, Africa, Europe - and it was really wonderful.  Apparently this is a 144-year tradition of Holland America.  All these people were so far away from their families around the world on Christmas Eve, and they were great.  The B.B. King Blues Band was AMAZING!  What an extremely talented band!  I have no idea what they're doing playing a cruise ship.  These folks should be in Memphis.  They were that good.  The violinist/pianist combination (Adagio) were great as well.

Our room was a Signature Suite, and it was very roomy, with a large balcony, which came in handy for storing our dive gear.  We had breakfast delivered to our room each day but one.  

The Mediocre: The food was nothing special, with the exception of the prime rib which was excellent.  The rest of the food was very ordinary.  I expected much more from their chef, and was left disappointed.  We even tried the Pinnacle Grill (you pay extra for this), and I had a rib-eye that was really 2 stars.  I personally make a better rib-eye at home.  Their Lido Dining Room food lines (pizza, etc.) were way too small for the amount of people that it served.  There were 2,199 people on board, and a lot of people would catch a quick something to eat here; the lines were way too long - the reason for this was they only offered a couple of things to eat here, so unless you wanted bread sticks or cold slices of pizza, you had to wait in quite a line to get it.  We normally had breakfast served in our room, but one night I forgot to hang the ticket on the door so we had to go up to the Lido Room (the main dining room was only open for breakfast ONE HOUR!  Needless to say, the Lido Room was a mad house trying to get breakfast.

The Bad: Sooooo disappointed in the watered-down drinks they served!  Truly an embarrassment.  They offered a "Pub Crawl" one night; $20 got you a drink in 4 bars on the ship.  Everyone was complaining about how what a rip-off the mixed drinks were.  You know you're going to pay extremely high prices for drinks on board a ship - but you should at least get a good drink.  These were terrible.  This appeared to be a systemic problem everywhere on board.  It was NOT limited to one or two bars.

For a 7-night cruise, there really wasn't a lot to do.  There was an indoor/outdoor pool (supposedly the top was on tracks that could roll open or closed, but it always seemed to be 3/4 closed) but it was like a steam room in that pool.  There was one other small "family" pool and that was it.  No water slides or anything interesting.

Don't plan on cruising with Holland America again.  Celebrity, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean blow these guys away.

It was a great experience to enter the lock system at the Panama canal.  The cruise on the whole was wonderful.  However, as a long-time cruiser with Holland America, I noticed a change in quality, especially in the dining room.  I think it was grossly understaffed - in the kitchen and the wait staff.  One night dinner took 2 1/2 hours because of delays between courses.  The shows were great, I enjoyed them all.  The tours were well-worth the money, except for the Folklorica tour in Cauracao.

We loved the destinations. The crew on the ship were absolutely fantastic! The ship itself was OK, The food offerings in the dining room were good, but the food offerings in the buffet were very limited and not very tasty.

the food and service were great as well as the itinerary. Curacau and Costa Rica were our highlights. Also every musician was phenomenal and a variety. Dont get off the ship in Panama unless you have a tour. Bon voyage.

The cruise was simply wonderful, not one complaint The Holland America cruise

staff do deliver a great package and at reasonable price point. From the Capt. to

the room stuart,just wonderful

We had a great time.  We enjoyed the canal and the islands.  We felt the food was not as good as times before.  The choices we limited and not cooked as well. The entertainment was limited to a few acts.  We probably won't travel on Holland America in the future due to a large number of elderly with scooters and walkers. I feel since I booked it through Delta the flight should have been a part of the package.

The itinerary of this cruise is just great, all of the ports were very interesting especially the Panama Canal stop.  The entire crew was helpful, courteous and polite to not just me but to other passengers as well.  Food was among the best I ever had on a cruise, tied Celebrity for #1 in taste and quality.  Cabin steward and his assistant were excellent. 

i WANT TO GIVE SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR CABIN ATTENDANTS

(CABIN 8020).  THEY ARE BOTH GREAT AMBASSADORS

FOR HOLLAND AMERICA.   I SPECIFICALLY WROTE DOWN THEIR NAMES BUT

UNFORTUNATELY THEY GOT LOST SOMEWHERE ON MY RETURN

HOME.  ALSO THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THE DAILY WINE TASTING

AND DINNER APPETIZERS .... THAT STAFF DID A GREAT JOB!

PLEASE KEEP ME POSTED ON FUTURE HOLLAND AMERICA CRUISES

BUT PREFERABLY OUT OF TAMPA.  OUR HOME IS CLOSER TO TAMPA

AND WE LIKE THAT ADDED CONVENIENCE OF NOT HAVING A LONG

DRIVE TO FORT LAUDERDALE.

No noise overall the time with a beautiful classic music, good foods, excellent  services everywhere on board and even though , we' ve received some refund credit! So we are very satisfied  this cruise. This is our second time to join HAL, both time we fill good. We will recommend HAL to friends and we will focus to HAL for next tour!  Thanks to HAL!

The expectation of seeing the Panama Canal was not nearly as interesting as the information about the history and facts about the canal.  The Island Magic Steel Band was great and totally unexpected.

Our cruise was filled with excellent dining experiences, delicious food, and superb service as we have come to expect from Holland America Lines.  

The Signature Suites are fantastic spacious rooms with lovely amenities.  A great value compared to the Neptune Suites, which are slightly larger, come with privileges of the Neptune Lounge, yet are significantly more expensive.  For a luxurious room at a lower price point, the Signature Suites are worth consideration. 

The Zuiderdam, however, is aging and looking a bit tired.  We understand it is scheduled for room renovations in the fall of 2017.  The private verandahs are showing rust and discoloration, and this is a bit of a disappointment.  See photos that I have attached which were taken of our verandah. 

It was ok, not the best.  I had issues with the food, everything had seeds, nuts or mushrooms, onions, coconut. Esp the rolls they either had poppy, sesame, rye or something else on them, when asked for plain said have no more although the lido had plenty not the dining room. .  also lots of lamb and we don't eat lamb but the pool hambuger and hot dog & chicken place was very good. the pasta bar was ok too.

The ship is old and should go into drydock instead they bother passengers to come into cabin and maintain a/c and were on balcony scraping grinding and varnishing the railing.  Every day they had an area on ship closed off for maintenance. 

The shows were good and I liked the digital computer lab.

We definitely like royal Caribbean a whole lot better.  Probably won't sail on any of them anymore as my husband smokes and after Jan 4 no ship will have smoking on balcony except Costa and we don't care for them. He doesn't want to get dressed in the morning and go up to the pool bar to smoking area so we are done with cruising.

As a 1st time cruise it was great. We were looking to see if we could even go on a cruise w/out being seasick. We were also trying to get an impression of places for retirement possibilities, or places we might like to return to for longer visits.  We chose Holland mostly because of the smoking policy and the timeframe of the cruise worked for us. We didn't do any excursions other than where our feet could take us from the ports. I would do some things differently next time. There are plenty of other islands to check out and this still seems like the best value to see many places in 1 trip.

eating was one of the best things to do and the food was just out of this world.  I would recommend to others the same cruise. getting off and back on to the ship was a breeze. coming back on board with a cold drink and wet cloth was very nice and refreshing. was raining in Cartagena, we did not got off the ship, all tours were cancelled.

Very good time.  Great staff.   Excellent entertainment.  Creative and tasty food.  Really enjoyed the upgraded restaurant.  Wine packages were too expensive.