Yes, another Zuiderdam review

I normally don't write reviews but as there have been a couple of negative Zuiderdam topics recently, I decided to bore you all with a reciew of this little Belgian...please excuse my mistakes, English is not my native language.

My wife and I are regular cruisers, we take on average two cruises a year, mostly on Celebrity, which I will therefore use as a comparison.

This was our first sailing with HAL, but thanks to a couple of cruises on other Carnival Group lines, we were credited with a "one star" Mariner level 😀

So here we go...

Ms. Zuiderdam June 2015 Civitaveccia- Barcelona

Embarkation:

We like to arrive early and thus got on as one of the first. During our waiting time, cookies and lemonade was supplied and appreciated.

We loved that we were able to get into our cabin ( a VC verandah) immediately. Our room stewards introduced themselves and luggage arrived around 14.00.

Cabin:

As mentioned above, we had a VC, Verandah on deck 7.

In general, the cabin was roomy, clean and adequate to our needs. We had an issue with our toilet refusing to flush the first morning, but this was promptly rectified.

The "bathtub" is useless and should be replaced by a roomy shower in our opinion. The bathroom is practical but much more basic ( think US Motel style)

Compared to Celebrity vessels.

The bed was great, actually a bit too soft for my taste!

Yes, the TV is small, but not a problem for us, we are not addicted to the image-box, and the DVD player, although a nice concept did not work. After mentioning this to the reception, this too was solved in a prompt manner.

Cabin cleaning was fine, and my wife just loved her towel animals!

First day, they did forget to supply us with soap and lotion though...obviously an omission due to time constraints by the crew.

Food:

As we are Belgian, we are "foodies" and have extensive experience in finer dining. That being said, the food onboard was fine.

In the MDR, the selections were acceptable, nothing more, and certainly not as good as the MDR food on Celebrity, let alone in their Blu or Luminae venues.

Way too often, schrimp cocktail was a choice, which is something you only still see being served in retirement homes...

Execution of the food was very good though for Banquet meals, but presentation lacking compared to Celebrity.

What surprised us was that the Gala night selections were in fact the worst.

The Buffet on the other hand was a winner! No waiting, never an issue finding seats, and a selection that is superior to Celebrity.

We much prefered HAL's concept to plate hot dishes themselves. It is more hygienic, shows more class. Breakfasts were wonderfull, with great selection of Egg benedicts. The choice of free juices was far better than on X.

Also fruit selection is better than on the competition.

For lunch, we opted mostly for the Asian station which never disappointed. Again, the sushi selection was better than anything served onboard Celebrity. ( no it is not super sushi, but it was perfectly acceptable)

Desserts were simply wonderful.

We particulary enjoyed the 2 themed evenings on deck, first one in Monaco where they put out a Mediterranean buffet at the aft pool with a large selection, including a simply amazing spread of exotic fruits. Very well presented.

The second themed evening was in Barcelona and concisted of Spanish Tapa stations.

Service:

Wonderful.

We recieved great and mostly speedy service.

One person worth mentioning is Jennifer, who works the Pool bars during the evening and Vista Show Lounge during the evening. Rarely have we met a person radiating such positive energy.

One Dutch Assitant Head Waiter was very fake friendly though, we did not like his attitude at all.

Ship condition.

Most of the public rooms were recently refurbished and it shows. Gone are the garish colours, and muted tones of blues, grey and brown are now dominant. The Atrium is a thing of beauty, as is the Ocean and explorers lounge.

The Piano bar was not refurbished but looked fresh and though gaudy, it fit the venue.

The pools were clean in general and the teak decking in very good condition.

Yes, some carpeting still reminds of her earlier days, but if that is an issue to you, I suggest investing in some Professional help instead of cruising...

Not to those complainers about the ship's condition: if you would spend time professionally at sea, you would realize how difficult it is to maintain vessels up to the standard of Zuiderdam. These complaints are simply ridiculous.

Entertainment:

The cast was average at best, with especialy the lead male singer being very mediocre. They did try their utmost though.

Damian, the resident Pianist was great, as was the BB King band.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first HAL cruise and are very much looking forward to our next one, 31/10/15 on Westerdam!

Ciao,

Despegue

Glad you enjoyed your first HAL cruise. Here's to many more!

Thank you for your review! The English was very good. :)

Thanks for taking the time to present a balanced review - with both good and bad things. Glad you liked it enough to try HAL again.

Thank you for your review.

Glad you enjoyed your first HAL cruise so much that in November you will be sailing on the Westerdam.

Thank you for your review.

Thanks for the review..

Thanks for the review.......very honest.

ENJOYED your review...thank you.

Great Review and please, no apologies for a second language.

I wish we could all speak your language as well :)

I totally agree with the comments on the juices between the two ships.

So glad you enjoyed your cruise and thank you so much for taking the time to share with us :) and, of course, welcome home :)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Thank you for your review.

I have to agree with you particularly about the food on the Gala night. Definitely the worst night for food.

We also enjoyed the Sushi at lunch time.

nice review and thank you..Puts my mind at ease as I am contemplating a sailing which is on the Zuiderdam.

Carol

Thank you for this great review of your Zuiderdam cruise.

Thanks for your review.

Enjoyed your review and your English is excellent.

We are also recently off the Zuiderdam and overall the food was very good. We

ate in the Pinnacle Grill the first Gala Night but were in the MDR for the second one. You are right the food that night was very disappointing.

We recently took our first HAL Cruise, and had a great time as well. Thanks for your review. I love trying out all the lines and learning the pros and cons of each.

Great English, BTW. :) Cheers.

Some points that I forgot to mention:

FLOWERS! Everywhere you would find gorgeous bouquets of fresh flowers, even on each table of the lido ( Orchids). This gives such a warm atmosphere. Well done HAL. On Celebrity, it is a Flower Desert.

Happy Hours:

Crows Nest: second drink for 1$ from 16.00-17.00

Ocean Bar: " ". ". from 17.00-18.00

Atrium Bar: from 18.00-19.00

Also, a drink of the day for 5.95$ if I am not mistaken. They were mostly excellent.

In the Ocean Bar, waiters came round with "amuse bouche" appetizers. A classy thing.

Basically, price-quality, HAL did an extraordinary job.

Belgian too and I agree with your review (we were on the zuiderdam two weeks ago). I ordered the shrimp cocktail once and I didn't like it, we also found the choices for the gala night not very good, but all the other evenings we loved the food! Some members here describe the Lido foo as cafetarian food, I don't know what those people eat at home, because we were really impressed. Entertainment was mediocre.

Thanks for the recap. It was interesting to read your observations about the gala dinners. I just got off the Veendam and thought that the formal night meals were the least satisfying. Not in quality; everything tasted good. But the selections were both very limited and very tame. Perhaps they're experimenting with a smaller menu in anticipation of larger crowds, but if that's the case then they got it wrong on my cruise. It was on the gala nights that the dining room was least full - at least in fixed-seating. It wasn't that long ago (like, seriously I'm talking March of this year on the Westerdam) that the formal night menus were the best of the lot. Let's hope this is just a test and not a trend.

Also, on Gala Nights, menus were just a copied piece of cheap paper, and dessert had to be ordered when the waiter took the initial orders. It was anti-gala really...:confused:

Onboard Zuidy currently (actually in Santorini today) and agree that Jennifer is indeed a delight! We also have wonderful MDR waiters in Heru and Eko - great service!!

Great review of one of my favorite ships. I hope you are now a Holland America devotee and will try the rest of the Vista ships - I'm sure you will love them all. I love hearing people talk about their first cruise on HAL in such a positive manner. Especially comparing with other lines. I too have sailed Celebrity and I agree with all your comments. Food is better presented, more variety, and more specialty venues on X, so I'm glad that even being a self-proclaimed foodie you were satisfied with HAL for so many other reasons. Thanks for your review! And.. as others have pointed out...your English is excellent!

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. Because your review was well organized, it was easy to read.