Had a very nice time on ZUIDERDAM. She is a nice ship but everyone I spoke to who compared her to the S-class, did so in a negative way. She is not going to be my favorite ship and I doubt many other people's. That said her public areas are beautiful... Except the GHASTLY "stain-hiding" carpeting. After a whole week of looking at the stuff (it is, literally, EVERYWHERE) I still could not get used to it.

Cabin was big, badly laid-out, with TERRIBLE sound insulation (fine cabin-to-cabin, but NONEXISTENT when it comes to the corridors), cheap-looking furniture, and decor with all the style and charm of a Holiday Inn. I peeked in lots of different cabins/suites this morning. There are as many shapes/sizes of inside cabins as there are of all the other types combined. Big ones, small ones, all different layouts, it's almost like the old ships were, except these cabins are not so well-planned! My upper berth was in such an odd place I will only be able to describe it by showing a picture...

Interestingly enough, the decor is very cheap-looking in the standard inside/outside cabins but balcony cabins and suites (67% of the ship) look very nice. It looks like they ran out of money to decorate the "cheap seats"!

Food was very good... Service was pleasant enough but crew members seemed to "distance themselves" from passengers... No "small talk" etc., not that that is a bad thing! Captain Jack van Coeuverden (hope I spelled that right) was the crankiest looking guy on the ship - he was all over, frowning the whole time. In the "standing next to the captain" photos he looked like the background - in hundreds lined up in the photo gallery, he was the same exact position, expression, etc. in every one . Now, I would not want to have to shake 2,000 passengers' hands every week and so on, but he certainly came off as a very sombre fellow. On the plus side he got us there .

The entertainment - it was typical cruise ship entertainment. I could hardly tell the good from the bad. The production shows were typical, with liberal use of the various showroom gadgets, loud music, fancy costumes, and no plot whatsoever. The "guest entertainers" were very good though, and much more enjoyable than the production shows which I could do without. More on them later. They seem to be HAL regulars (one has an exclusive contract) and are very, very good. Speaking of the showlounge, the layout thereof defies logic. It is virtually impossible to find a seat that does not have at least one pillar obstructing its view. Other cruise lines have come up with mostly, if not totally, pillarless showlounges, why not HAL? Big thumbs down on the design of this room... And the Queens Lounge - that's the replacement for the cinema - which is a flat floor, with awful sightlines, uncomfortable seats, and generally ugly decor to boot. Whoever designed this room, was not thinking when they did it.

We ate last night at Odyssey. It was very good... Better than the dining room. The "gourmet" types should be pleased enough. I'm glad we tried it but I wouldn't spend the $20 on it again. Frankly we were well-fed enough, though in turn you would spend a lot more than $20 for the equivalent meal on land. The menu is very limited... Basically, it is a steakhouse, with typical appetizers and side dishes, but very little in the way of salads, or desserts. Best part, actually, was a spoonful of salmon tartare presented along with goat cheese and sushi at the beginning of the meal, "compliments of the chef". I liked it, but my favorite meal on the ship was actually one in the dining room. I have to say, they did a great job with the food, everywhere on the ship.

The Lido is confusing to navigate the first day - it is more a food court with "stations" than a buffet - but the variety is astounding and all of the food is good. FAR better than anything seen on Princess, RCI, etc.

The daily programs are awful... They hardly even exist. One page printed on both sides. Seems very "cheap", along with the elimination of the self-service laundries. We wouldn't use those on a seven-day cruise, but, for two weeks or so, it becomes rather ridiculous to go bringing along 28 pairs of underwear per person, no? I know they have laundry service, but I still don't see what was wrong with the laundries which were certainly well-frequented! (Oh, I know, they did not produce revenue!) Other things I didn't like... Continuous "elevator music" in the public areas. Announcements for Bingo - not premium! Other little odds and ends too. So there is the expected "pedantic rundown". All in all there is very little to fault about HAL's product. I liked the ship but felt it let them down a little - everything else was too perfect for a notably imperfect, if enjoyable and interesting ship!

Miscellaneous positives - as I said, the food, the service... Lovely outer decks with great teak deck chairs... The outside glass elevators are interesting... Public areas are beautiful! Barring the infamous carpet, they may look gaudy in photos, but are gorgeous in person, and certainly not at all glitzy or gaudy.. The layout of the ship is very sensible and easy to navigate. Excellent art collection (still discovering new things as we left this morning). Stephen Card's paintings of course (though no doubt he will be unhappy to hear that one is mislabeled). Other things I can't remember.

Half Moon Cay - a really first-rate private island, much nicer than I expected. If I have to be in the Caribbean, this had ought to be one of the stops . Unfortunately, despite factor 45 sunblock cream, I have acquired a nasty sunburn (and I was in the shade). Of course, not HAL's fault. It is a beautiful island!

The ship has a definite noise/vibration problem... Our table (lower level of the dining room, two-thirds aft) vibrated incessantly, accompanied by the loud sound of something or other rotating about once per second. Certainly, something is not right. Interestingly a very unhappy-looking guy in a red ABB jumpsuit was milling around this morning. Hmm...

I had ought to mention at this point that HAL's embarkation procedure is ridiculous... Or so it would seem. Princess or RCI (our most recent cruises), you wait on a line, check in, get your "card", and (if you arrived when boarding is underway), get on the ship. Not HAL... First, you are given a little blue card with a number. We got there at around 1:30 PM. Boarding was supposed to start at 3:00 PM. We got a number "33". Number "14" was being boarded when we got to the terminal. After getting the number (no explanation as to what to do with it - lots of confused people milling around), we got several forms to fill out not included in the tickets. After a detour to fill out said forms, we got on line to check-in, were given "cards" (ID/charge card/cabin key). Then to another line for "security photo"... This is scanned into your card. A long procedure - with the others, this is done as you first step on the ship - you just look into a little mirror-like lens, card is scanned, and voila, you're finished. Here, there is a line. After the line, you mill around until they call your "number". By now, they were on "16". They finally called "33" around 3:30 PM... In the meantime, we sat down in a waiting lounge and, well, waited, while HAl tried to sell us stuff from a "snack bar". Every few minutes, a number is called, and another couple of dozen people are permitted on board. There is a BIG gap between the time you get into the terminal and the time you get on the ship... As I said, for us, about two hours, which is MUCH longer than we have previously seen... All due to these "numbers".

I would be interested if any HAL regulars could enlighten me as to what the point of this lengthy process is. Other cruise lines (with even larger ships) seem to do fine without it.

Anyhow, luckily the rest of the cruise was much better... As I have said it is hard to fault HAL for much anything... Will we cruise on them again? Definite YES... Do not be surprised if we wind up on HAL for our next cruise . Most of the things that bothered us on Princess and RCI, did not exist on HAL. Would I cruise on ZUIDERDAM again? Yes, if she's going where we want, when we want... But I'd aim for another ship instead, for variety's sake and because I think she may well be a step down from other HAL ships (my grandparents were very unimpressed with her and preferred the S-class ships, an opinion shared with many people we spoke to).

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Originally posted by sympatico:
Still laughing about your description of Captain Jack. That's the norm for him - he is a great Captain, though.

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Originally posted by gizmo:
Sounds like you had a good time.

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You guessed correctly .

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Did you get any pictures of that GASTLY carpet?

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I didn't take any specifically of it, but in my various photos of her interiors, you can see it.

Thanks for your thoughts on ZUIDERDAM. Between your comments and others, this ship is certainly not on my "must-do" list any longer.

I was wondering what you thought of the cabin furniture in person... I agree in pictures it looks very cheap and Holiday Inn-like. In fact, I thought my cabin on CARNIVAL PRIDE looked like better quality with a nicer finish.

I look forward to the full length review and pictures.

I'm going against my own advise and booked a 7-day cruise on the new CARNIVAL CONQUEST for July 20 (I have stated to stick with the Spirit Class when cruising Carnival). I'm sailing with several friends and of course one of the main draws was cruising out of New Orleans as we will spend a few days there beforehand in party mode. I have noticed the CONQUEST has taken on many of the Spirit Class traits, like cabin decor and layout, as well as the Supper Club. It will be interesting for me to finally see this class of ship in person.

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Originally posted by cruiseny:
.... Captain Jack van Coeuverden (hope I spelled that right) was the crankiest looking guy on the ship - ...!

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We've sailed with Captain Jack van Coeuverden several times - I christened him 'old sober sides' - you must not judge a book by it's cover!

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Originally posted by eroller:
Thanks for your thoughts on ZUIDERDAM. Between your comments and others, this ship is certainly not on my "must-do" list any longer.

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If you're ever running out of interesting new ships to try, you might return to her... She's interesting enough to be worth a look... But she wouldn't be on my list either.

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I was wondering what you thought of the cabin furniture in person...

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Terrible! OK, not as bad as SEAWARD (er, NORWEGIAN SEA), the champion of such things but still terrible . The nightstand drawers (you had to hold on to them with both hands and then run backwards as fast as possible to get them open) were a running joke throughout the ship.

Speaking of storage, a lot of it was taken up by life jackets... Now, usually some is, but these were by far the largest I've ever seen, and what's more, the most complicated to put on! I'm quite confident that "in the unlikely event of an emergency", I could not remember how to don one of these contraptions, nor could most other passengers. I've seen plenty of relatively simple, foolproof designs, and this was not one of them. Hopefully this is not a big deal , but I was quite perplexed as I became buried in a tangle of straps. What's more, these huge things, together with the in-cabin safe, took up the whole of one of the three wardrobes in my cabin (there were four life vests, in a maximum four-person cabin).

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I'm going against my own advise and booked a 7-day cruise on the new CARNIVAL CONQUEST for July 20 (I have stated to stick with the Spirit Class when cruising Carnival).

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That should be interesting! To be honest I've always rather liked the DESTINY-class, I guess because she was the object of such fascination when new, being so much larger than anything else out there. The first time I saw her (this was pre-GRAND PRINCESS, or anything else), it was a very awesome sight.

CONQUEST does seem to have the advantage of nicer cabins and some other SPIRIT-class attributes.

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Originally posted by empressport:
Brings up an interesting piece of port trivia. Vancouver gets its name from the ancestor of the Zuiderdam's captain!

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Surely his is not the only family with such a name ?

I'm sure he has inevitably done some Alaskan cruises ... That would be funny!

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
Cruiseny, how close is your review being done.

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