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Holland America Line

MS Zuiderdam

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Reviewed by: Chris Kail
# previous cruises: 10+
Date of Trip: December 21, 2002
Itinerary: Caribbean - Eastern

While the Zuiderdam is certainly a beautiful ship inside and out, I was terribly disappointed in HAL's service, something I had heard raves about over the years. This much looked-forward-to cruise was my first with them, but based on my experience, I'll not repeat the mistake. I was travelling with friends for the holidays, one of whom is 73 and has sailed with HAL twice before. She felt service had declined. Her son and his partner (ages 46 and 28) had sailed with them once, and they were not necessarily impressed then, but put it down to 'just one of those cruises'. Now they have two service-less experiences with HAL, and they won't be back. I might add that 'service' was one of those conversations heard all over the ship that week, and from plenty of people wearing blue and gold Mariner pins, bemoaning what had happened to Holland America Line. And please, let's have no talk of 'well, it's a brand new ship'. HAL has been doing this for 130 years, so I should think that just because a new ship comes on-line, service shouldn't be an issue. A technical fault I can understand. Totally indifferent service I don't. I've been on equally-as-new ships with Carnival and RCI, and never a ripple was felt in the service area.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, the ship is beautiful. There is not one public room that failed to delight the eye. All are furnished with leather in bright colors, and lots of wood throughout. Artwork is used liberally. A couple of rooms that stand out are the Internet Lounge, and the Crow's Nest, a lovely place to read with a late afternoon drink. It spans the forward end of deck 10 with windows all around. The Vista dining room is gorgeous, decorated in warm red. Unfortunately, that room gets a lot of vibration from the, I assume, Azipod propulsion system. Our first night out, we were treated to the pervasive clang of china and glass jiggling non-stop as these modern marine marvels were apparently being put through their paces. At one point the noise and vibration were so great that the waiters stopped to look around and then at each other, as if to say 'what, or why, was that?' The ship does seem to vibrate quite a bit, and I especially felt sorry for those with stern cabins. The Ocean Bar is a pretty, but small space that looks out onto the promenade deck. Nice place to TRY and get a pre-dinner drink. But fear not. The less than delighted staff can usually deliver it in time for you to carry said aperitif into dinner with you.

The food was delicious. Lots of variety and imagination, even in the Lido restaurant. Service in the main dining room, while pleasant enough, was very dis-jointed. Not unusual to wait 20 minutes for the first course, then the 2nd would land right on top of that. Then, another leisurely 20 or 30 minute wait for the main.

That was nothing compared to our Christmas Eve dinner in the Odyssey restaurant, a beautiful, quiet room on deck 2 just off the atrium. You should see it. That way, you won't have a bad experience. Look at it, and keep moving. For $15 each, you have the pleasure of being served just like you would in the main restaurant. The wine list was a little limited, and in our case, almost non-existent. Of the 8 bottles of white and 8 bottles of red listed, our wine steward cheerfully informed us that there were six, that's right, six offerings left. One from the white column and five from the red. "Could you send the manager over?" He rolled up about 5 minutes later, and couldn't understand why I would ask "What's with the wine list? This is silly. You're 4 nights out and you're out of wine?". We finally got a bottle of Chardonnay and 2 glasses of red out of him, through the wine steward. The manager disappeared for the rest of the evening, but sent over his assistant, a very nice lady named "Girlie" (truly), to schmooze us. And she did quite well, as she was genuinely delightful and was concerned about our evening. The meal was delicious, but nothing would set the service apart. And it might have been nice to have the manager at least wish us a merry Christmas on the way out, but then, he couldn't, or wouldn't, be bothered. (I was comparing notes with a lady on the ship who referred to him as 'useless'). They could learn a lot from Celebrity about so-called 'specialty' restaurants.

At this point, let me weigh in on HAL's 'no tipping policy'. Ridiculous. We paid no attention to it, and got nice results. The people that make cruises so enjoyable for us, i.e bartenders, waiters, stewards, etc., work awfully hard, and a little cash goes a long way in expressing your appreciation for their hard work.

Was a little frustrated with dining hours. The main dining room is open for exactly one hour for lunch, and they close up the Lido at 2pm. Late night it closes at 1am. I realize this is geared toward people that often take naps at 2pm, and are rarely up til 1am.

Excellent cabin. The nicest I've ever had, and here, HAL went above and beyond. We originally booked deluxe verandah outsides (category B), at 214 square feet. A few days before sailing, HAL upgraded all 3 cabins to superior verandah suites (cat. SS, 384 sq ft.)! Delightful. The cabins are bright with tasteful and whimsical dutch artwork on the walls, and attractive leather sofas and chairs. Even the bed pillows were wonderful. And not only did you have plenty of light with the door and floor-to-ceilings windows leading to the verandah, but there was a smaller window over the desk. We were even able to open the partition between 2 cabins that allowed for an ever bigger balcony. Plenty of closets, and a huge bathroom with double sinks and vanities, plus a tub and shower. I would also point out my cabin steward, who was just terrific. He even helped me plan a little Christmas surprise for my fellow travelers. Thanks, Eddie. He's the type of employee HAL could use a lot more of.

Caught the show the next to last night out. Cheese-rific, as those things are. I would like to touch on the 'Northern Lights' disco, perhaps the worst designed room in the ship, although still pretty. A firewall separates the bar from the dance floor, which means you can't see much of what's going on. You just have 2 small rooms with loud music. I understand firewalls and why you need them, but design around it maybe? Allegedly HAL wants to skew 'younger'. Fine. Plan for it. I would point out the excellent service of the bartender there, Derek, who was not only wonderful but took a lot of grief from drunks.

My main reason for bringing this up is the little 'drama' that played out over the last 2 nights. Next to last night, a woman brought her underage daughter in to the club. The DJ had addressed this earlier in the week with others without incident. He asked them to please leave. They refused. The ship's chief officer was in the club with his family (of proper age), as well as another bridge officer with his. They both became involved in this after the cruise director (he was there too) asked them to say something to them. THEY backed down from the mother and brat. Unbelievable. So what was the solution? Shut the afore mentioned fire doors and close the fairly busy dance section of the club. Again, unbelievable. If you choose not to back up the ship's company, then at least call security and have them removed. Other lines won't, and don't put up with that.

The last night the gruesome twosome returned with the rest of the charming brood to fight with Sean, the cruise director, who was entertaining his fiance and brother in the club. He told one woman to 'beat it! Get out of here!', and got into a screaming match with one of her larger, fatter male relatives. Eventually, Sean carried the day, and frankly, I'm sure he was sick of these people. We all were. But handled properly? It was mis-handled on 2 nights. On other lines, namely Carnival, RCI, Celebrity, there is a noticeable security presence to deal with the drunk and disorderly. It's necessary, and will certainly be so for HAL as their core market gets too old to travel, and their new market contains a few of the type just mentioned. We put forth these ideas to the DJ, who immediately took them to the cruise director, but I fear it fell on deaf ears.

I'll use this space to say that the ship never felt crowded, as it seems to be so well designed internally. Decks never crowded either. Always a nice thing when travelling with 1800 strangers.

Very senior. Average age is 100. A few kids with their families, not to mention the last few remaining members of the Capone family that showed up to wreak havoc in the disco. At 43 I was definitely on the youngish side.