Zuiderdam - answers to some of those pressing questions?

[Appygirl]

We just got off the Zuiderdam this morning - Alaska 7 day Inside Passage return trip Vancouver. This is the second time I've been on the Zuiderdam - did this same cruise June 2009.

 

I was in stateroom 7101 on the Rotterdam deck starboard. This is right behind the aft elevators. I did not hear any elevator noise except when I was in the hallway and then I heard it dinging.

 

The only noise I encountered on the cruise was the stateroom right above us. I have no idea what was going on. It was like they were rearranging the furniture constantly except that most of the furniture is bolted down and I would think be rather difficult to move especially since this was the same category cabin I was in VA. I even tried to move the couch in our stateroom and push some of the other furniture to figure out what was going on up there but I couldn't budge the stuff. Somehow the people above devoted half an hour or so each time - 3 or 4 times a day - to relocate the furniture. Bang, crash, scrape, thump, thump, thump. Whatever they were taking in and out of the balcony was very heavy and they kept dropping it and then a lot of screeching scraping noise out on the balcony as they rearranged whatever it was they had temporarily stored out there. At first I was thinking it was kinky sex and moving the furniture was part of the game or they were taking a mattress out to the balcony and therefore relocating all the balcony furniture into the cabin. Back and forth and bang bang bang. Just one of life's unexplained mysteries I guess.

 

Toilet! First thing I checked when I got to our cabin based on the other reviews. Ours flushed right away! Whew! And continued to work just fine throughout the entire cruise. I did stop at one public restroom on the Lido deck and that toilet was not flushing judging by what was inside it when I arrived. I pushed the button a couple of times and nothing so I quickly left before someone should think I was responsible. I did check with others at mealtime if anyone was having trouble. No one. Until last night. The woman sitting beside me said their toilet was making funny noises but working until one time she flushed and nothing. She tried a couple more times. Nothing. Then she got into bed and heard it flushing. Another woman at the table said she got back to her cabin that morning and the steward stopped her in the hall and said none of the toilets on that side - port - were working and recommended she go upstairs and find a public toilet as far forward and starboard as possible. They must have got them working eventually or she would have said something else I'm sure!

 

Sewer smell? Yup. Not all the time but I could smell it, mostly in the mornings.

 

Air conditioning? Nobody complains about the air conditioning not working on an Alaskan cruise! It was hot in Vancouver and the air conditioning was on in our cabin when we arrived on the lowest setting and it was working just fine. That night I switched the setting to between air conditioning and heat and then put the heat on the lowest setting on Sunday morning. On Glacier Bay day I jacked it up to the second highest setting. Heat works!

 

Swimming pools - both were full of kids so I didn't go in. The aft pool some irresponsible parent brought their small child in to "swim" aka rinse out his diapers on the first or second day I don't recall which and the pool had to be drained and refilled and was out of commission for a couple of days but its not like everyone was dying to swim in the outside pool on cold rainy Alaska days anyway.

 

Food was good in the main dining room. I liked the food on the Zuiderdam last time and the Lido restaurants were lacking. Breakfast service in the MDR very slow but lunch and dinner about average. All staff very warm and friendly and helpful. Just slow service.

 

Room steward very good, always had a smile on his face. I left him a nice tip and a couple of leftover cans of ginger ale. I requested the mini bar contents be removed and a bar staff person had to do it so it took a day or so. Then I got my ginger ale into the fridge. At check out I was charged mini bar for 2 cans of coke which I don't drink. And if I wanted to drink I would have brought some with me. I live near Vancouver, we drive to the port. Don't have to worry about overweight luggage charges so we bring our own pop and never Coke.

 

Ice cream was vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. A couple of other flavors mostly cookies and cream were rotated in. They did not have coconut, cinnamon, or walnut ice cream either in the Lido or the main dining room.

 

Entertainment - very disappointing. The Zuiderdam singers and dancers were doing the exact same routines and same songs they were doing in 2009! You'd think they could switch it up a bit. I think one female singer was on the last time I cruised and I definitely recognized one of the male dancers because he did the same routine in 2009 and was normally a back up dancer but he had this one moment where he danced with one of the female singers and he did it again. James Cielen was the magician in 2009 and guess what - he still is in 2012! Doing pretty much the same act. Dan Bennett comedy and variety. Anyone see a pattern here? Yup he was performing on the Zuiderdam in 2009 too. Derrick Cameron, comedian. Guess what! Never seen him before! He does a really clean act but I liked him anyway! If you were born after 1975 some of his material might go over your head. If you are under 10 you will be bored to death. Judging by the little boy about 6 years old who ran up and down the steps for the last half hour of his performance. The mother did take him outside at one point into the elevator lobby area where the kid proceeded to scream so she brought him back in so he could continue racing up and down the steps. I expected that kid to go flying and hurt himself. My point is the entertainment is tired and 3 years old (at least) and you'd think the person responsible could come out with some new song and dance numbers.

 

Weather - the nicest days weatherwise were in or near Vancouver.

 

The Zuiderdam no longer cruises into Tracy Arm but transfers passengers off to a catamaran who have bought an excursion about $200. The odd thing is the last time I was on the Zuiderdam we cruised Tracy Arm and arrived in Juneau at 1pm. This time we didn't cruise Tracy Arm and still arrived in Juneau at 1pm. Slowed down the engines a bit? It was raining but it stopped before we arrived in Juneau. Streets were saturated and I had to wear my rain booties. Zuiderdam still docks at the AJ dock the furthest from town. Shuttle costs $3 and you can ride it back and forth as many times as you want.

 

Skagway was raining when we arrived. It stopped for a couple of hours. I headed off the ship to the fudge shop I was hoping was still at the end of town - it was - and bought some fudge for my father. Got back to the ship just in time - it started raining again and kept it up all afternoon.

 

Glacier Bay. Raining, foggy, misty. Still beautiful. Margery Glacier incredible. For some reason the Zuiderdam did not stop at the John Hopkins inlet for a photo op this time. Maybe due to the mist? Really foggy cruising to Ketchikan. The Zuiderdam has to blow its horn every minute or so due to the very thick fog for about an hour.

 

Ketchikan - as beautiful as I remember. Did the duck tour again. Our only day where we didn't get rained on.

 

Formal nights are Sunday and Wednesday. I didn't go to either. The only time I've ever been seasick on a cruise was on the Zuiderdam and it was after I ate dinner in the formal MDR and cruising between Glacier Bay and Ketchikan. Not wanting to tempt fate into a repeat performance I had a light dinner of a green apple and can of ginger ale.

 

The dessert extravaganza mostly features chocolate and is no longer held on the Wednesday formal night. It is now on Thursday. It looked wonderful. I had a couple of big strawberries dipped in chocolate. By 10:30pm I'm just not all that hungry anymore but I took plenty of photos.

 

The last time I was on the Zuiderdam on the first sea day they had a salmon back on the aft pool deck. No more. They did have a salmon bake on Friday for lunch up there.

 

It was still a good cruise and I had a good time - managed to read 2 books on my iPad. Always nice to get away and have someone else do the cooking and cleaning.

[Valley Girl of VA]

Thank you for your review. It's too bad that they are still experiencing toilet/sewer problems.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review of your Zuiderdam cruise. Sounds like you had a good time.

[kazu]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share with us.

 

Sorry to hear that there are still some issues:(

 

Glad you were able to make the best of it. Welcome Home:)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome Home

 

Sorry to hear that the Zuiderdam is still having some problems.

 

Glad you had a wonderful cruise.

[hefty64]

Isn't the Zuiderdam scheduled for refurbishing later this year? We are booked for an Inside Passage trip next July. Don't know that the refurbishing will address the sewer issues, but I am hopeful. Thanks so much for your thorough review. It is very helpful.

 

Mrs. Hefty

[thecook]

Thank you for sharing your cruise review. I am glad you enjoyed your vacation. DH and I were on the Zuiderdam in June. Although we had a wonderful cruise, our biggest disappointment was the amount of time that was spent scenic cruising. We did a Vancouver to Seward cruise in 2008 and found the Zuiderdams itinerary sadly lacking in comparison. Lesson learned ask lots of questions of my PCC!

[Appygirl]

Thanks everyone.

 

The sewer smell was only when I was inside our cabin. And not continuously and not overpoweringly. I've got a good sniffer I guess!

 

thecook - yes the Zuiderdam is mainly scenic cruising. There are 3 port days so that would be over half the cruise scenic cruising. The scenery is beautiful though! Living where I am near the coast with the coastal mountain range we take a lot of this scenery for granted. Seeing it from the water is amazing.

 

I thought of a couple of other things, some would be helpful to people travelling with a passenger with special needs.

 

I was traveling with my 81 year old father who cruises about 4 or 5 times a year. Has been on pretty much all cruise lines over the past 15 years or so and his preference is Princess, usually 2 or 3 of those yearly cruises will be Princess, the other cruises are a good deal booked closer to sailing date. As was this Zuiderdam cruise. We booked 19 days out on a good deal on a VF guarantee that included $75pp onboard credit and was about $700 off the regular rate. I think the VF cabins are on decks 4 and 5. 12 days out my father gets a phone call asking if he'd like to pay more money for an upgrade. He's been down this road a few times and said no. 2 days later I get my cabin assignment and we are now in a VA on Deck 7. Best part is close to the elevator because a month ago we got a wheelchair for my father mostly for traveling and distance. He walks with a cane - slowly.

 

We arrived early enough at Canada Place and the line ups were small but boy when the staff spotted me pushing my elderly father in a wheelchair we got bumped ahead everywhere - customs and check in. I pushed him up the gangplank and just before I boarded the ship a HAL employee spotted me and pushed him the rest of the way to our stateroom. My father weighs about 135 lbs and the wheelchair about 25 lbs so its easily manageable for me. Likewise whenever we came to the MDR a staff member would push the chair to our table. Also at the ports my father got out at, someone would push him up and down the gangplank, sometimes taking over for me at about the halfway point. Very nice. My father likes getting a new driver!

 

The wheelchair can not fit through the doorway of 7101 so I'm assuming same story with other VA cabins. However the wheelchair folds up and I push it in like that no problem. I store it folded either between the beds or over in the sitting area. Our cabin steward noticed and gave me a door stop. Very handy. I'd open the door, put the stop in place, and that gave my father an unobstructed route in and out of the room. The bathtub has 3 safety grips in there. I'd requested a shower chair for my father and it was waiting in the bathroom when we arrived. So this cabin is suitable for someone in a similar situation - a person with limited mobility.

 

The last night one of the couples at our table said they couldn't sleep at all on the cruise. They were in an outside cabin and the lifeboat outside their window was not sitting in the cradle properly and banged the entire time. The man is a mechanic and he checked it out and saw it was about 3 inches too high. They complained constantly to the front desk and maintenance. He caught a staff member nearby once and showed it to her and she said it wasn't her department but she'd inform someone else who eventually showed up and said there was nothing wrong with the lifeboat placement. They requested a change of cabins but were told there was nothing available. The noise was horrendous, assuming the lifeboat rocks back and forth as the sea pitches so when its a couple of inches out of whack clang clang clang all night long so they couldn't get any sleep. Then on Friday morning - last sea day - they are moved to a new cabin. How did a cabin suddenly open up? Its not like someone just jumped off the ship overnight leaving a room available. They took it anyway hoping to get one night of sleep. The problem seemed to be the category they booked, I think they said HH. I believe there were cabins available in other categories. Front desk staff was unwilling/unable to move them to a different category even though they offered to pay more just to get away from the clanging lifeboat.

 

Again just one of those unexplained Zuiderdam mysteries I guess!

[mim100]

Appygirl, thanks so much for your very detailed review! The timing is great because we're going on the 7 day Inside Passage in September :)

 

Now I know for sure when the formal nights are and most importantly Thursday is the dessert extravaganza! We were so full from dinner on our last cruise that we could not eat anything at the chocolate extravaganza so I've learned my lesson....I will be eating dinner VERY early that day. :D

 

Can you tell me more about the fudge shop - it must be unique if you made a special trip back there.

 

Also, can you explain the duck tour in Ketchikan...was this a reference to the rainy weather?

[kickboxrca]

We were on the same trip as appygirl - sorry we never met up!

 

We didn't have the sewer smell in our cabin, but our next door neighbours travelling with us sure did.

 

Yes, the Zuiderdam is going to refurbishing (10 days, they said) after this season. They were saying that they are going to be redoing a bunch of carpeting in the public areas. Appygirl - I don't know what your cabin was like, but ours could have really used a makeover - the furniture was quite chipped and damaged - the fridge never did get anything cold, and the corrosion on the balcony and in the bathroom were awful.

 

We had a horrible time boarding in Vancouver. We were in line for over an hour just getting through customs - I'm not sure what the holdup was as there were tons of agents, and they didn't even say hello to us, let alone ask us any questions.

 

We enjoyed our ports - we did a whale watching/Mendenhall glacier tour in Juneau, Skagway train, and the Bering Sea crab fisherman tour. We had lunch at the Skagway brewery (yummy!), bought fudge as well, and bought a ton of stuff in Ketchikan (using our coupon booklets that we picked up as we boarded the ship). The only real disappointment to us was the weather - it was far too cold to sit out on our balcony except for when we were close to Vancouver, and it was raining every day in Alaska.

 

The food was great - we ate in the MDR and at the Lido - every cruise I take on HAL, it seems that the food is getting better in the Lido. I agree with Appygirl about the pools - brrrrr!

 

The scenery was incredibly beautiful, and I took a ton of pictures - definitely a trip worth doing!

[Appygirl]

Appygirl, thanks so much for your very detailed review! The timing is great because we're going on the 7 day Inside Passage in September :)

 

Now I know for sure when the formal nights are and most importantly Thursday is the dessert extravaganza! We were so full from dinner on our last cruise that we could not eat anything at the chocolate extravaganza so I've learned my lesson....I will be eating dinner VERY early that day. :D

 

Can you tell me more about the fudge shop - it must be unique if you made a special trip back there.

 

Also, can you explain the duck tour in Ketchikan...was this a reference to the rainy weather?

 

Hi mim100. The fudge shop is not really a big deal but it is tasty. You can get better fudge at Phat Phoeges Fudge Factory in Victoria. Like everything else in Alaska its on the higher priced side at $9/pound I think. A slab of fudge would be approximately one pound. I asked for half a slab of chocolate mint which I think they called Miner's Mint and half a slab of chocolate toffee which I don't remember the Alaskan themed name they called it. Cost me just under $10. They had a lot of flavors. I was really debating whether or not to get the chocolate peanut butter fudge. The shop is located at the far end of Skagway. There is about 4 or 5 blocks of shopping in Skagway. Head to the end and the fudge shop is on the right hand side as if you're heading out of town, near the end of the shopping district.

 

The Ketchikan Duck Tour is an amphibious bus like vehicle. You get a tour around Ketchikan and then it heads to the harbor and drives in and becomes a boat. The tour is a little over and hour - about half spent on land and in water - and costs $40 so its one of the more reasonably priced tours in Alaska. The narrator tells corny jokes and uses a duck whistle to quack. You have to walk up about 7 steps to get on the Duck, kind of like a ladder. I've taken the tour twice now. The first time we were on the Zuiderdam we docked near the duck tour office. Last week 3 other cruise ships were in town and we were docked the furthest away. The duck parks in a large parking lot where other excursion buses would park. There is a visitor centre and a gift shop on the edge of the parking lot. On the other side of the gift shop is the Duck's office where you can go in and buy a ticket. Don't take too long. I booked one o'clock and they told me we were the last tour of the day but they ended up going one more tour after us. You can also book with HAL for the duck tour but they add a buck to the price.

 

Enjoy your cruise! We're heading for warmer waters in September. Zaandam is doing a circle tour to Hawaii that returns to Vancouver.

[Appygirl]

 

Yes, the Zuiderdam is going to refurbishing (10 days, they said) after this season. They were saying that they are going to be redoing a bunch of carpeting in the public areas. Appygirl - I don't know what your cabin was like, but ours could have really used a makeover - the furniture was quite chipped and damaged - the fridge never did get anything cold, and the corrosion on the balcony and in the bathroom were awful.

 

We had a horrible time boarding in Vancouver. We were in line for over an hour just getting through customs - I'm not sure what the holdup was as there were tons of agents, and they didn't even say hello to us, let alone ask us any questions.

 

The scenery was incredibly beautiful, and I took a ton of pictures - definitely a trip worth doing!

 

Hi Kickboxrca. I wouldn't say our room was shabby. The table was scratched. Bathroom was fine. Our fridge kept our ginger ale cold. The balcony had a little corrosion and had some rust stains on the floor at the bottom of the posts where it had leaked down. 2 maintenance men came through balcony to balcony one day whitewashing the ceiling so if there was any corrosion they painted over it and I don't remember. I'd love to see the condition of the furniture in the cabin above me the way those passengers devoted time every day to dragging it in and out of the balcony! I wouldn't want to be staying in that cabin for the next cruise because that furniture was probably really battered and chipped!

 

The last time we took the Zuiderdam we arrived just before noon and there were only 2 or 3 customs agents for Canadians and Americans. It took us about 10 minutes or so to get through. This last time there were more agents and more people in line but not too busy, again just after noon, but due to the wheelchair we got bounced ahead to a handicapped line where only one person was ahead of us at the agent. The only question we got asked was if we were planning to stay on the cruise ship and return to Canada or if we were getting off somewhere in the states and finding our way home.

[Northshorecruisers]

I was surprised to hear about the corrosion on the balconies. When Zuiderdam docked in Vancouver on Aug 4th we were waiting with friends in our cabin to leave the ship. They came along and opened the doors between all the balconies and a guy was going along touching up all the corroded areas with paint. Maybe they only do 1 deck or side at a time. We were Navigation deck, starboard.

[Himself]

Thanks for the report. I must say that right now no ship is getting near the John Hopkins glacier as there are a lot of seals in there nursing their pups and until they clear out no ship can go that way.

[sail7seas]

Thanks for sharing your comments with us. Great reading.

Sounds like you and your Dad enjoyed yourselves.

Very happy to hear how helpful the crew was when they saw you pushing the wheelchair. I always admire how they rush over to help guests who need/would appreciate the assistance. :)