First, I'll have to tell you that I only made it out onto the Lido deck for just a few minutes and only got to see the pool. However, I am quite certain that you'll find all the necessities that any worthy Lido deck must offer, but on a less ostentatious scale. Holland America or as they like to call themselves HAL, is a much more refined and sophisticated cruise line. You won't see any ziplines or rock climbing walls on board because that's simply not who they are. What you will see is luxury at it's finest. Imagine being Kate Winslet in The Titanic and that is what you will get on HAL... minus the big iceberg.
Even while we waited for the ship to clear, we didn't do so in some dirty room full of people waiting to board the ship for the sailing that was leaving that afternoon. We were taken to a quiet clean waiting area where the local BDM explained the process of clearing the ship and told us about what we could expect to see and do once we were on board. As soon as someone gave us the all clear signal, Barbara and the other BDM's who joined her, quickly passed out lists of cabins that we were invited to visit so that we could see the different types of cabins HAL had to offer. I was particularly excited about this since I have clients booked on this ship in August for an Alaskan cruise.
Before I go any further, I should say that the two previous ships that I inspected while in Ft. Lauderdale carried significantly more passengers that the Zuiderdam and I think that really effects the ship inspection experience. So, while I sing the praises of this ship, keep in mind that in the case of Oasis, RCI was turning around roughly 5,000 passengers and on Royal Princess they were turning around 3,000 passengers. This ship only had to disembark 1,800 guests prior to our arrival. They only had to clean up after 1,800 people and they only had another 1,800 set to board and with a 2:1 guest to crew ratio, they were ahead of the game. Generally with such a low guest to crew ratio, you are getting into true luxury cruising territory with prices that match. But I can tell you that HAL is very well priced especially when you consider the product. So without further ado, let's tour the ship, shall we?
Since we had a list of cabins to visit and guests would be boarding by the time we completed our lunch we all rushed to the cabins to get a look around before they were closed to us. The first few cabins that we visited were suites and they had all the amenities that you would expect a suite to have including bathtubs rather than postage stamp sized showers and nice large balconies that you could move around on. I was particularly interested in this ships balconies since she spends part of her year in Alaska and Holland America is the authority on Alaskan cruising. I will say that their balconies do not disappoint. They were in good repair and well furnished, I am happy to say. Nothing bothers me more than to go to my room on a cruise ship and find that the furniture on my balcony is old plastic outdoor furniture that is coming apart and is rusting in the parts that are metal. When you see that you just wonder how well the rest of the ship was taken care of.The room pictured here is a small suite with a very nice
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| Suite balcony |
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| Another suite balcony... and it is sweet! You knew I had to say it, right? |
The room that we got to see was a few floors above the one where my guests are booked, but should be identical otherwise. It, like all cruise ship cabins, was short on space but is adequate for a couple of people who get along well. And getting along well with your travel partner is always key when cruising. After all, who wants to be stuck in a 150 square foot space for a week or so with someone you can barely tolerate? On an Alaskan cruise this becomes even more important since it might be too cold at times to just go up on deck to get away.
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| Bathtub in balcony room |
This cabin, like the suites had a bathtub which was a very nice surprise to me. I've heard tales of cruise ship cabins with bathtubs but I must say that until now I thought they were nothing but myths since I had never seen one myself except in high priced suites. A girl could actually shave her legs in this bathroom with no need to head down to the medical facilities afterward for stitches!
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| The small but very adequate Veranda cabin on board Zuiderdam. |
Our next stop on the cabin tour was a very pleasant surprise for me. We were given access to a wheel chair accessible cabin and I was thrilled to be able to get several photos of the amenities provided. The first thing you'll notice is the awkward picture below of the big door. But I had a reason for posting this photo. It shows how big the bathroom door is on this cabin which enables a wheel chair to roll into the bathroom. Also, there is no step up into the bathroom on this cabin like other cruise ship cabins have. Again, this allows wheel chair accessibility. But the best thing is the rails in the bathroom and the roll in shower with a seat. Since this is the only ship in which I have seen an accessible room, I can't tell you if it is typical of all cruise ships. But I was very impressed with this.
The large photo below shows the space in the cabin itself which allows for a wheel chair to move around. These beds are separated simply because that is what the guest who has reserved this room requested. But this room could just as easily have had 1 large bed, as well.
Following the wheel chair accessible room, we made our way to the final category of cabin we were scheduled to see which was an inside cabin. Once again, I was impressed. How could I possibly be impressed by an inside cabin, you might ask. Well, my reaction was based on the size of the cabin. Now granted this was a quad, but still, it had more room in it than the balconies. All in all, I was very impressed with the cabins on this ship. Perhaps the suites weren't as opulent as suites I've seen on Royal Caribbean, but the balconies, oceanview and inside cabins were much more well appointed than what I am accustomed to seeing on a cruise ship and in reality, those are the ones most people are going to experience anyway. So, in my opinion, they are the most important ones.
You can see above the bed in the photo of the inside quad cabin a big metal box. That is actually a sleeping berth that the cabin steward would lower each evening when he turns down the beds. Additionally, the seating area in this cabin nicely accommodates four so that people don't have to sit on the bed when in the cabin. Of course there is no bathtub in the bathroom, but you can't have everything, right?
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| Wheel Chair accessible cabin |
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| Inside Quad Cabin |
Following the tour of cabins, we went to the dining room where we were scheduled to have lunch. The dining room was nice because it wasn't just a big open room, but there were walls and large columns that allowed the room to be sectioned off so that it felt like a lot of smaller dining rooms. I liked that. The ceilings had the huge brass flowers on them that looked like some sort of sunflower. It was all kind of quirky and I liked it. On the other ships that we visited during the week, we were sort of left on our own while we ate. So, we all talked about what we had seen so far, but there was no one available to really answer our questions. HAL, however, had a representative sitting at each table during our lunch. I was fortunate enough to sit at a table with Barbara Farenwald, the BDM who had greeted us before our ship inspection began earlier in the day. Barbara was gracious, knowledgeable and as helpful as she could be in answering all of our questions and ensuring that we had a fabulous dining experience. |
| The ceiling in the dining room |
For my appetizer, I chose scallops. I am a sucker for lamb and since they had rack of lamb there was never any question as to what I would have for my entree. Finally, for dessert, they served a crunchy fruit Napolean. The crunch part was the hard white chocolate that topped it along with the dark chocolate spear that laid over top of it. Someone on my Facebook page commented that the portions looked kind of skimpy to which I will say that it was lunch, so the portion sizes were kind of perfect for the time of day in my opinion. Also, if you want more, it is a cruise ship, so all you ever have to do is say so and they will bring you another complete meal if you want it. 
I once sat across from a table on a ship where a very large man was seated each evening. I don't mean he was overweight, he was just a large man. He looked like a former offensive lineman or something. Each night at dinner, he looked through his menu and then ordered two complete meals. Two appetizers, two entrees and two desserts. One night during the cruise, he enjoyed his selection so much that he actually had them bring out even more of it. The waiter never blinked an eye. He just kept bringing food to the man. You've gotta love that about a cruise ship.
If you've been following my blog all week, you have seen some great looking meals pictured but I guarantee that you haven't seen a finer looking table service. The china was beautiful and the silver wear was actually SILVER wear and not just stainless steel. Barbara pointed out to us that if you order room service, you will get the same china and silver wear sent to your room. At Holland America, they apparently don't skimp.
This is their internet room. As you can see, they have a lot of computers on board so that the wait time for a desktop is minimal. I've been on ships that carried over 3,000 people and not seen this many computers in their internet room.
I'm so happy that I was able to end my ship inspections with the Zuiderdam. It was just a lovely ship and I feel like a cruise with Holland America would be an amazing experience.
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