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Holland America Line

MS Zuiderdam

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Reviewed by: Rick Dusterhoft
# previous cruises: 8
Date of Trip: December 1, 2007
Itinerary: Caribbean - Eastern

Very good vacation. Not excellent, but very good. I sailed with my wife and sons (8 and 6). The other cruisers were generally older than us, but not antiques. The atmosphere was very quiet. Not a lot of activity for the kids.

The public areas were nice, open, well maintained, and well thought out. The decorating, on the other hand, looked like what I imagine Liberace's bedroom would look like. Yuck. The midships pool has a sliding roof but, even when open, this area feels like its indoors. The lido (aft) pool is much better. There are four hot tubs but they are all TINY. I can't believe someone thought they were good enough because they aren't. No one wants to be that close to strangers. There is only one place on the ship where you can stand outside and see where the ship is going without looking through glass. Thats just forward of the gym. They apparently keep it a secret because there was rarely anyone there.

The formal dining room was excellent. So good we never even tried the extra-charge Pinnacle Grill. The food in the buffet was equally good with a wide variety and several things made to order for each meal. The pizza was a big hit with the boys. Holland America over staffs the buffet. There are so many staff people standing around waiting to help someone they get in the way. I can push the button on the coffee machine by myself, thank you.

We shared a standard veranda cabin. Queen bed, a fold out couch and then a fold down bunk above the queen bed. Unfortunately, despite the fact that both boys could have shared the sofa bed easily, they liked the bunk so much they shared that instead. You need to remember its there when sleeping in the queen bed or you hit your head. Repeatedly. The veranda was very good sized. The bathroom was larger than what we've had in the past, with a full size tub.

Because of the kids, we couldn't really attend any evening shows. The cruise staff was virtually non-existent during the day around the pool. I never thought I'd say this, but I kinda missed the beer-chugging contests and belly flop competitions. The music was so quiet you couldn't hear it and boring.

The itinerary was Fort Lauderdale to Grand Turk, Tortola, St. Thomas, and the private island, Half-Moon Cay. Grand Turk was a beach, thats about it. We arrived late at Tortola because of mechanical difficulties. We went to Cane Garden Bay. Can't say enough about how great it was. Surf for the kids to play in, lizards for the kids to catch (or try), and shells for the kids to find. And cheap beer for me and the Mrs.

On St. Thomas, we tried Coki Beach. Great snorkeling, nice sand, but the beer was expensive and the bathrooms were the most disgusting I've ever seen. And that includes Mexican bathrooms, so thats saying something. Stick with Magens Bay.

Half-Moon Cay was nice, but the staff rushes you. The food was done by 12:30 pm, and you couldn't find a drink after 2:00 despite the last tender being at 3:30. I never figured out what the big rush was. It would be a nice place to spend a leisurely day, but that wasn't the case.

The Kids Club was very sparsely attended, so very few kids. Very few adults of child-bearing age, either. Mostly late 40's to mid 60's, with a good representation of 70's on up. This is not a party boat. On our last cruise (Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas) I was up at 4:00 am to watch our arrival back at Miami and the hot tubs and pool bar were full and rocking right up until the ship tied up. On this cruise I was up at 4:00 am to watch our arrival back at Fort Lauderdale. There was no one about. The early risers were up at 5:30 but mostly concerned with breakfast.