Hello HAL cruisers,
We are considering an after Christmas cruise on Holland America. This would be our first time on the line and the ship we are looking at is the Zuiderdam. Our family is myself and my wife, in our 40s, two teens 18 and 17 and our 12 year old daughter. My mother that is 82 would also be with us. We have cruised with Royal Carribean and MSC previously and enjoyed parts of both cruise lines. So far, in my research, it appears that HAL has very good food offerings and lots of musical programming. We are curious about a few other aspects. Namely, daily and evening activities.
- We typically enjoy an evening show of some type. I did not really see this offered in some of few "Where and When" documents posted online. Is there something I am missing?
- Our kids are very different in their dining tastes. Will there be options at the buffet or kids menus with basic American fast food as a last resort? (Ex. chicken fingers, burgers, fries, pizza etc.) We all love MSC pizza especially.
- What are the free drink choices? We don't drink alcohol so we don't get a drink package usually.
- Our kids do not usually do the kids clubs. They enjoy water activities and so nerdy things like science demonstrations, geographical or historical museums, and some arts and crafts type stuff. Not so much arcade games or meeting other kids. They do enjoy movies, but it looks like HAL tends to show older films (e.g. It's A Wonderful Life) that even my wife and I would avoid. Any suggestions for them?
Thanks in advance for any help in deciding. We like to experience other styles of cruising but we are a bit concerned that HAL is more geared towards a more mature demographic and we want to make an informed choice weighing the pros and cons.
