Review of Zuiderdam 11 day Panama Canal November 15-26

Well finally the laundry is all done! I wished I had discovered they still had Stuff a Bag earlier! It was lovely to meet several very interesting people on board. Thanks again to Helen for organizing the meet and Greet and to Saul Orr, Cruise director for attending.

The fresh out of dry dock Zuiderdam looked very good overall. All the flooring other than the MDR was replaced and there is a lot of new furniture in the cabins and Lido and reupholstered chairs etc. We noticed several places where there were convex and concave areas in the flooring. Very disconcerting and one in the raised area of Lido nearly sent me and my lunch flying.

She did receive the EXC Crows Nest makeover, and the Billboard and BBKings. Casino appeared to be non smoking. In the EXC There are some books but most are non fiction or literary fiction about the Caribbean. I don't know if this will change with the itinerary. The selection palls in comparison to the Noordam. But the space is very nice. It is busy in the day time, but late afternoon for sunset cocktails it was nearly empty. Too bad as it is such a nice place. Most all the Happy hours trivia etc seemed to be held in the interior Gallery Bar with no windows and it was very overcrowded when we visited. I also don't understand the timing of 4 and 11 PM Happy Hours. Doesn't work so well for Late Dining. Also the Ocean Bar and lounge was nearly always deserted, all the action was downstairs. I think they need to have a little more activity in this main area of the ship.

The promenade is still lovely but many of the chairs are broken and the lounge pads are very dirty. The last two sea days no cushions or towels were even put out. Very disappointing for a Caribbean cruise. I was surprised this was not addressed in dry dock and hope it will be soon. We did see a few leaks and buckets here and there. Also a number of the glass balls on the glass doors are missing. There were also some cracked mirrors and windows in the Crowsnest, that apparently happened after dry dock.

First we were very pleased with our stateroom. We had the extra deep covered Aft balcony that was great in the Heat of the Panama region. We had footstools for the deck chairs but no pads any longer. The new large interactive tvs are great and loaded with a number of movies and shows. Found the choice of news channels typical. Wished they could have a Canadian one. There was a new love seat in the cabin and the room was very spacious. We were last on a signature suite on the Noordam and this one compared very favourably. I do wish there was a drawer in the desk area and a little more storage beside it would be good. There were still several screw anchor marks in the wall beside it. The bathroom is still original but was very clean and in good shape. Though a little more shelving would have been appreciated.

We were very upset that although we had preordered some distilled water a week ahead of time, it was not onboard in FLL and even after three phone calls we didn't receive it until we met up with the Oosterdam in Half Moon Cay. I cannot understand this one. I also was concerned that it took three attempts to get some glass properly cleaned up near the elevators. I shuddered when I saw a barefoot woman nearly miss some shards, but I cannot really understand why one would roam the hallways barefoot.

We found the food generally good. We finally tried Canaletto and loved it, So many thanks to those who recommended it. We ate both dinner and lunch at the Pinnacle Grill. Although it was good, we didn't find it outstanding in comparison to Canaletto. It also was very strange to find your lunch window view in the Pinnacle turn into a brick wall on the Panama Canal.

We were very fortunate to have a ships officer to join our table for the Thanksgiving meal and we thoroughly enjoyed chatting all about the ship and dry dock. We were also very blessed that we were invited for a bridge tour that we thoroughly enjoyed. What a lovely representative for HAL.

We found the passengers to be older but on the whole a very interesting group. I met a lovely archaeologist, and many fascinating travellers from a variety of walks of life. We found that our Thanksgiving Cruise on Princess two years ago had more walkers and scooters on board than this cruise. For some reason there were only around 1500 on board so we had no problems going any where or doing anything.

We had no problem getting off the ship promptly and there were at least 7 ships in Port. But we have Nexus so breezed through in less than 10 minutes. Remind me not to fly on the Sunday after the US thanksgiving. We easily got a taxi to the airport.

Overall it was a great cruise, and with a few adjustments would be outstanding.

So glad you had a positive experience. Doesn't sound like it was very crowded. Happy Hour in the Crows Nest would of been much nicer as you have a view.

Allan

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for the feedback on the Zuiderdam.

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Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Don't understand your comment about a brick wall in the Pinnacle at lunch.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Don't understand your comment about a brick wall in the Pinnacle at lunch.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

KK, they were in the Panama canal at lunchtime.

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Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Don't understand your comment about a brick wall in the Pinnacle at lunch.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

Sorry should have said cement wall. As the shipped dropped in the locks our view changed to the sides of the locks. It was strange.

We eat at the Pinnacle during the Canal passage and it is interesting to see the rise and fall of the ship. It is less of an 'issue' on a full passage as you would be in Gatun Lake. Still a nice leisurely lunch.

Jim

Enjoyed your review.

Keith

Thank you for taking the time to post your comments.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

Thank you for taking the time to do a review.

Just off the same cruise and we were very pleased with the "new look" of the Zuiderdam. The decor in the Lido was clean and bright. The carpets throughout the common areas were very modern and pleasing to the eye.

The deck chairs on the Promenade deck were an eyesore...not inviting at all. Yes, in our daily walk noticed many broken chairs, and for the cushions...well I wouldn't sit on one of them.

We found disembarkation to be a chaos. We always go "Expedited" and usually it's not very congested. This time thought the entire ship was trying to get off at the same time. Even saw folks who had tags for a different time, but decided at the last minute to get off early. Had concern about the number of ships in port on Sunday, and the end of the Thanksgiving holiday, but the airport went quite quickly. Seemed they had a lot of staff, which was good.

All in all a good cruise.