REVIEW- 10-Day Panama Canal Cruise on the Zuiderdam

10-Day Panama Canal Cruise on the Zuiderdam

I referred to Cruise Critic A LOT when planning my cruise soI want to return the favor and post my review of our cruise on the Zuiderdam.To give some background- myself and my husband went on this cruise. I am 44 andhe is 42. This was our first HAL cruise and our 5th cruise total(other cruises were with RCI and Carnival).

The ship overall- This ship got a partial refurb last yearand I think it shows. It looks great overall! It doesn’t have that wide-eyedWOW factor that you first get/feel when stepping onto other bigger ships wehave been on but it is beautiful! It has a classy/refined look overall. Thereis a lot of art...pictures and sculptures throughout the ship. I loved this andwould encourage you to pay attention to all of the fabulous art. The colors ofthe ship are more neutral..not loud/bright. I preferred the neutral tones. Theship is not glaringly loud. There is music playing in different areas but itisn’t super loud...another thing I really liked. The ship seemed way less packedthan other ships...I didn’t feel claustrophobic in public areas! It definitelydid not have that spring break/party hard type of feel to it...another plus inmy book.

The room- We were in a Signature Suite, Room 8059. It wasAMAZING! We have always had balcony rooms but this one definitely topped themall. The extra room you got with the Suite and the biogger bathroom wasamazing! The balcony was plenty big and had two loungers with a side table anda bistro table with two chairs (we ate room service breakfast out here a lot).The bathroom was so roomy!! I definitely feel spoiled now!

Food-

Main Dining Room- On our past cruises we tended to eat inthe MDR as much as possible, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For this cruise,we found the MDR a bit less appealing. To help with this review I want to addthat my husband and I are typical, middle-class people who typically cook athome and go to moderately priced restaurants when we eat out. That said--- wefound the food in the MDR to be a bit “fancy” for our tastes. We did eat theremost every night and most nights there was something that sounded good (primerib, etc) but a lot of the menu just didn’t appeal to us. Things we reallyliked were the Prime Rib, French Onion Soup, any of the “Crisp” desserts(Cherry Crisp, Peach Crisp, etc).

Lido- I think the Lido buffet on this cruise is the bestLido buffet we have experienced. I love how there are different areas (Bistro,Italian, Salad Station, Asian, etc). and I love that they serve you instead ofthe typical buffet style. We tried the pasta station where you ‘create’ yourown pasta dish...and this was excellent! I loved the salad station and my hubbyloved the dessert section. The biggest drawback (that can be easily avoided) isthat if you try to go the the Lido at noon..it is PACKED! Like in anannoying/miserable kind of way. So...we just learned to go early (11:00) or togo later (1:00 or later). This solved the problem wonderfully!

Dive-In- The is the burger/hot dog spot. It is only openuntil 5pm (which is way too early, IMO). We tried a couple of the burgers, oneof the hot dogs, and the cheese fires. The burgers were delicious!!! The Cheesefries were fabulous!!! There will be a wait after you place your order...but itis worth the wait!!

Room Service- We used Room service for breakfast on a fewoccasions and for late nights “snacks”. We found the breakfast food to be veryvery good...and the other foods to be OK. It is definitely nice to have coffeedelivered to your room in the mornings..so take advantage of this service!

Pinnacle Grill- We chose to try the Pinnacle Grill for lunchone day. The cost is $10 per person. We did this on the last sea day of thecruise. It was AMAZING for only $10!! I think if we had tried it earlier on weprobably would have eaten there more than once! I can’t review the dinner(which is $35/pp), but it is definitely worth it for the lunch!

Entertainment-

We went to several of the evening shows and found most ofthem to be entertaining. We LOVED the comedian and the Steel Drums Band show!The illusionist and the song/dance shows were worth watching as well!

As far as daily entertainment..we loved the America’s Testkitchen shows. There were usually two per day on sea days (different topics ateach). We also enjoyed the BBC Eart showings and watch a great live game showthat the cruise director hosted. I will say that although we were neverbored...a bit more variety of options during the day on sea days would havebeen welcome. If you don’t like cooking, BBC Earth, Windows classes, or Bingoyou may not be happy with the daily selections. But again--- we were neverbored and wondering what to do! We also loved the option of in-room movies!!Take the time to really explore the offerings on hour TV..and check backthroughout the cruise because they add new movies after they are shown on themain stage.

Overall-

Overall, we had a great time and we will definitely considercruising with HAL again in the future! For cruises where we take our children,I think we will stick with RCI or Norwegian because this one did not really Caterto children But, as an adult who is ‘over’ the party scene...this was awonderful, relaxing cruise!!

Thank you for your review!

Thank you for your review.

Having sailed on the Zuiderdam, Island Magic, the steel drum group, are fantastic.

Glad you enjoyed your first HAL cruise.

Very nice review. Question for you: we have seen posts where people on deck 8 complained of noise from the Lido above them (chairs, carts, walking). What was your experience?

Thanks for the review. I'm glad they're taking good care of Zuiderdam. That was our first Vista.

Domer81, we were on deck 8 aft on Zuiderdam on our first cruise on her and had no noise issues.

Thanks for your review! We were already very excited about our upcoming first HAL cruise, also on the Zuiderdam, and posts like yours make us even more so.

So glad you enjoyed the ship!

Very nice review. Question for you: we have seen posts where people on deck 8 complained of noise from the Lido above them (chairs, carts, walking). What was your experience?

We could hear chairs bring moved around every once in a while during the day (never heard anything at night). It was infrequent and did not really bother me at all.

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Thank you for reviewing your cruise.

Very nice review. Question for you: we have seen posts where people on deck 8 complained of noise from the Lido above them (chairs, carts, walking). What was your experience?

We were on the Mach 20 Cruise cabin 8141. At 5:30 every morning a few chairs moved around and cleaning of deck began there was some water on balcony but dried fast. This was not a brother to us as I am and early riser. First time for an aft balcony. We will try and acquire one from now on. Great cruise in fact it is the best we have had in sometime. This was our first on Holland.

We were on the 3/11 cruise and loved every relaxing minute. I agree with the review, love the SS suites. We ate in the Lido every night except for one night in the Pinnacle, which was disappointing. Agree that the Lido is very crowded during the lunch times, we started going at 1pm. We never got off the ship, just enjoyed the veranda, casino, other areas around the ship. We are not night folks so we spent the evenings watching movies. Our son and daughter-in-law, loved the canal tour and glass bottom boat in Aruba. This is the 3rd time we have done this cruise and will probably go again.

Thank you for your review.

Thanks for your fine review.

Thanks for your balanced review, glad you enjoyed HAL.

Allan

Thank you for taking the time to post your review.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

Thanks for the info.

Thank for your review. The information really helps. We are taking the Zuiderdam on 14 day Northern Isles cruise on July 5, 2019 . We were on the Amsterdam 14 day Alaska cruise last year and loved it so we thought we would chance another HAL cruise.