My reivew of Zuiderdam 11/15 - 11/26

Being 4-star Mariners, our embarkation was smooth and swift, after arriving on the pier about 12:45 p.m. Cabin 4111 was our assigned stateroom with an outside guarantee fare

The TV did not work; I called the front desk and informed them of the problem. We waited in our cabin for the drill to begin, but noticed that there were no working speakers in our cabin; we had to have the cabin door open in order to hear the announcements in the passageway. During the drill, we stood at Lifeboat 11, the outside speakers were faulty and neither my wife nor I could understand much of anything that was said.

I don't know why the font is doing what it is doing. I apologize.

After our evening meal, I approached the front desk and informed them of the speaker problem, and the response was a shrug of the shoulders. I then mentioned the circumstance of the TV not working and that comment resulted in an immediate phone call to a technician. The tech who came to our cabin had to remove the TV from the wall and plug the cable feed into the proper receptacle. My concern was, why didn’t the cabin steward deal with that situation prior to our arrival!

Elevator 14 was not working properly about half through the voyage. The buttons on the starboard side did not work at all and the message above the door never changed. I approached the front desk and inquired if they were aware of the problems and the woman said that they knew about the situation. I should have submitted a comment card as the situation was never resolved during our time on the ship.

As You Wish Dining was our choice as we rarely feel the need to dine at a fixed time every day. Often, after sitting in the Pinnacle Bar, we would arrive on deck 2 much later than most passengers. In theory, with fewer guests to serve, the service would seem to be better; however, that was not our experience. Three times, the waiter came to the table to apologize for slow service due to issues in the kitchen. One night, the waiter reported that my pasta dish was the problem. I have worked in professional kitchens. If pasta is on the menu, then there is always a pot of water simmering. There is no good excuse that a main dish of pasta should be delayed due to kitchen issues. Never.

Temperature variances on the ship made for several unpleasant experiences. For instance: there was very little air flow in the Pinnacle Bar and it seemed stuffy and warm during the entire voyage; whereas in the aft portion of the Lincoln Center Stage it was breezy and extremely cool.

Pinnacle Bar is where my wife and I spent a minimum of 90 minutes prior to our evening meal. The bartender, Mark and the bar attendant John are among the best teams that you have working with your cruise line. Whenever John got busy with ‘special’ guests in the venue, Mark came from behind the bar and took orders and then served the drinks. I have never seen that happen before. John always made time for those passengers under four years old with a smile and maybe a card trick for the older guests

Thanksgiving Day on Zuiderdam. I was in my cabin in the afternoon, I wanted to watch college basketball (several tournaments were being played). What I discovered on ESPN was the NBC feed of a professional football game. It was the same game that was being shown on the “special events” channel, the NBC feed of the professional football game. I called the front desk to complain and ask for an explanation. The woman returned my call several minutes later to inform me that someone (she would not give a name) from ‘marketing’ made the decision to show the same game on two channels.

We had been to all ports previously. This cruise was not to get off the ship and do things. It was to relax. I went ashore to buy a t-shirt in Colon and spent 60 minutes wandering Limon. That was all I did off the ship.

It was a good cruise, but I wish care had been taken with many housekeeping chores (from dry dock) that did not get addressed.

Glad you still had a good cruise despite certain issues you encountered. Thanks for the feedback!

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Sorry that you had so many issues but glad that you did enjoy your cruise.

Thank you for your posts.

Sorry you had those issues.

Keith

We too had a trick elevator. On deck 5 aft one elevator’s Numbers were upside down, and if the up arrow was lit it went down, and when no number was lit it went up?

i am really sorry you had those problems. i was on the rotterdam on nov. 4 cruise and there were many problems on that ship. my concern is that the rotterdam and the zuiderdam were in dry dock at the same place and at the same time. i am getting worried that there may be a tread in the problems that are happening

Interesting reading your post of the trip. We enjoyed spending some of those "90 minutes each day" in the Pinnacle Bar with you and Karen...good times..lots of laughs.

Enjoy your upcoming Veendam cruise and look forward to your report.