Is the zuiderdam really that bad

[eddieg07410]

I know cruise reviews usually attract more negative reviews than positive. But the recent reviews I've read of the Zuiderdam are about 90 percent negative. We haven't done HA in about 4 years. Last one was great on the Eurodam. We are booked on the Zuiderdam for its Feb 24 Panama sailing and I am starting to wonder if I should switch to Princess before final payment is due. I'd like to find out if there are many on the recent Zuiderdam cruises that actually felt positive about the ship and their experience with HA. Hopefully, this might quell my fears.

[OlsSalt]

A few people were unhappy and posted as such here, but others found the cruises on this ship to be wonderful. Even one who had the exact same cabin on the very next cruise who had no problems at all. Hard one to call. :cool:

 

We sailed her several years ago and have nothing but praise and the best news is consistent reports claim she still has the best main dining room food in the whole HAL fleet. Another long-time poster will be reporting live so you can get some up to date news over the next few weeks.

[Jean1946]

We were on her for the Oct 28th sailing and had no problems whatsoever. But, we did run into several people who had problems with the a/c! Had a great cruise - but love the Eurodam the best.

[erewhon]

eddie07410,

 

Cruise Critic member irlJoanie will be boarding Zuiderdam this week.

She has a thread entitled "Panama Canal Semi live from Zuiderdam 29 November through 9 December", which you may wish to check.

[Himself]

I have not travelled on the Zuiderdam in four years so perhaps I should say nothing. However, I have travelled this ship on several occassions since she came on line in early 2003. Now she is not my favorite ship but she is a good ship. When she came on line

she was quite departure from what HAL passengers were used to on the S and R Class ships. On and off there has been criticism of this ship since she came on line. I would go on her and enjoy the cruise.

[madera1]

We were on the Zuiderdam for 10 days in September in an aft room. We had no AC problems and our toilet worked. There were a few times that there was a delay to the flush of a few minutes. I did note one day while it was raining, staff had a bucket near one of the bars and water was dripping from the ceiling. I walked by later and it must have been repaired as there was no sign of any problem. I did use some public bathrooms and they all were in operation. No one at our dinner table made any comments about problems in their own staterooms. I wrote a short review of our cruise and it is posted.

[innlady1]

Over the years, I have read all of the problems regarding the Z'dam...in addition to the decorating that is a little off. i.e., not as classic as the other ships. Enough so that she would not be my first choice.

I'd love to do the Panama Canal and have read that the Noordam is doing a repo cruise from FFL to Vancouver in '15. Now...that could be interesting!

[Tarpeian Rock]

We were on Zuiderdam last year, and the Grand Princess last month. We did not have a/c problems on Zuiderdam as we were in a midships cabin; we know others who did. Given a choice, we'd sail Princess again in a minute, for a number of reasons, not the least a far better main dining room experience, better overall service, and a much friendlier staff.

[newbie51]

We have chosen this ship for our first ever cruise - to Alaska. Can anyone identify the areas where the toilet problem seems to occur so that we can avoid the cabins in the area? Thanks.

[kjw869]

We were on B2B cruises on the Zuiderdam in May of this year and had no problems with A/C or the toilets. We have booked the same ship and cabin for Alaska for next May.

[fm6175]

No the Zuiderdam is not that bad . A very very small percentage of people on any cruise ship have problems . They are the vocal minority . I do not doubt their claims and feel for them , I would be upset if I had no AC or plumbing . Does the Zuiderdam have more problems than average ? I have no idea . We sailed the Z last Jan to the Panama Canal in an aft Neptune Suite . I was sooo worried after reading some negetive threads on CC after booking . Happy to say we had no problems and have since booked two more Carib cruise on HAL .

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[OlsSalt]

It is important to note that other reports claimed there was A/C flowing, but not as strong as they would have liked. Which is different than saying there is NO A/C.

 

Plus a ship agent tested the cabin temperature three times a day and kept finding it within the established acceptable limits. So reports might be very valid subjectively for one passengers but end up being very different when reported objectively.

 

Best to get more details than just blanket statements something like A/C is not working. And sometimes it is not and the ship recognizes this appropriately. Other times it is matter of individual sensitivities and sensibilities. If you are looking for a 100% guaranteed experience, I would recommend looking at another cruise line.

 

HAL ships are older. Their systems may not at any given time operate at 100% efficiency and meet 100% of any passengers expectations. Sorry, but this is true.

[Cindy]

When I'm researching cruises, I look for patterns and trends, and I usually discount those reports where everything was just awful as well as those where everything was absolutely perfect. I also tend to ignore posts from members who immediately jump to a ship or cruise line's defense and make excuses or dismiss the problems, preferring to read reports that seem to be more objective and balanced.

When I looked in the member reviews for the Zuiderdam, it appears that the reports from the ship during the summer when she was in Alaska were quite positive, but since she repositioned to the Caribbean/Panama Canal there have been a lot of negative reports.

My advice is to read through everything you can - not just reviews, but comments on this main HAL board, and then make your decision without putting too much faith in a single report or poster's experience.

[hypercafe]

We took the trip you are speaking of last year. There was AC in parts of the public rooms, none in some. The cabin had it off and on. The plumbing worked off and on. I felt the ship looked rundown. I was turned off because I was told there was no problem yet the front desk had a endless supply of fans to give out, that a toilet that took 1+ hours to flush was ok. I would never go on this ship again, however that's just me.

[cruisemom42]

When I'm researching cruises, I look for patterns and trends, and I usually discount those reports where everything was just awful as well as those where everything was absolutely perfect. I also tend to ignore posts from members who immediately jump to a ship or cruise line's defense and make excuses or dismiss the problems, preferring to read reports that seem to be more objective and balanced.

 

When I looked in the member reviews for the Zuiderdam, it appears that the reports from the ship during the summer when she was in Alaska were quite positive, but since she repositioned to the Caribbean/Panama Canal there have been a lot of negative reports.

 

My advice is to read through everything you can - not just reviews, but comments on this main HAL board, and then make your decision without putting too much faith in a single report or poster's experience.

 

A very sensible suggestion and it's what I tend to do also.

 

A quick look at Zuiderdam reviews suggests to me that the ship's A/C is probably underpowered -- it seems to do okay when cruising to destinations that are cooler (Alaska) and not so well in warmer climates.

 

Also, while some will have you think that only posters with negative opinions post reviews, I would say that on average the Zuiderdam reviews are less positive than for many other ships, no matter how you compare them (e.g., similar size ships, similar itineraries, within same cruise line).

 

I've been on Zuiderdam a long time ago and while I didn't experience any cabin problems, I wasn't fond of the ship and probably wouldn't choose to sail on her again.

[zackiedawg]

It's been a year since I've been on her, and I was on one of the last cruises before a refurb scheduled last year, for a Panama Canal partial. I admit I'm a lot less picky than some with regards to some issues - I personally don't find wear and tear to be that big of an issue, but broken down things I would care about. Big Z wasn't any problem for me...my review from that cruise last year:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=36165275&postcount=1

 

If a person is the type who demands everything be 100% perfect as it came out of the drydocks, and who looks at every hidden corner with a magnifying glass to find any sign of imperfection, then my review will be pointless to read - if a person is the type looking for a decent and fun cruise, OK with some wear and tear as long as it doesn't impact the ship's functioning and everything that's supposed to work does work, then my experience was a good one. The only imperfection was the occasional smells, which I've heard of on Zuiderdam for many many years now - there was one spot which always seems to have a bit of a sewage plumbing issue, and as I mentioned in the review a few spots where it smelled a bit musty and in need of cleaning - fortunately most were places that you simply passed by, rather than a place you would have to sit and endure it. I'd say Noordam and Westerdam both seemed to be in slightly better shape overall and experiencing less of those minor smell issues...and Eurodam was in excellent shape - so out of those 4 ships, I'd put Zuiderdam in 4th place overall in condition. But it was my third time on Zuiderdam and I've never found any issues to be very concerning or causing me to have a bad cruise or experience.

Edited November 26, 2013 by zackiedawg

[whogo]

From Cruise Critic reviews:

Coral Princess: "86% of cruisers loved it"

Island Princess: "85% of cruisers loved it"

Zuiderdam: "77% of cruisers loved it"

 

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review_test_b.cfm?utm_expid=68063032-28.L_5y9X6-R_WtE_N_8JYZEA.1&ShipID=278&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cruisecritic.com%2Freviews%2F%3Fsrc%3Dnav

http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review_test_b.cfm?utm_expid=68063032-28.L_5y9X6-R_WtE_N_8JYZEA.1&ShipID=279&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cruisecritic.com%2Freviews%2F%3Fsrc%3Dnav

http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review_test_b.cfm?utm_expid=68063032-28.L_5y9X6-R_WtE_N_8JYZEA.1&ShipID=266&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cruisecritic.com%2Freviews%2F%3Fsrc%3Dnav

[eddieg07410]

I read these reviews which is kind of what got me thinking. The problem now is, while I can get a great price on the princess full canal cruise, it is still about 800 dollars more than a similar class cabin on the Zuiderdam. I suspect the cheaper price on the Zuiderdam has a lot to do with the complaints. Interestingly enough the Zuiderdam roll calls are very quiet. What I read into this is that Cruise Review readers aint booking it.

[peaches from georgia]

............

Plus a ship agent tested the cabin temperature three times a day and kept finding it within the established acceptable limits. So reports might be very valid subjectively for one passengers but end up being very different when reported objectively. ................

 

But what are HAL's "established acceptable limits"? Do you know? HAL can make these limits anything they want to. If the HAL upper temp range for AC is higher than what would be acceptable to most US pax, let's say 80 degrees in the cabins, are the "established acceptable limits" realistic? :confused:

[iancal]

We don't even bother guessing or hoping that we will get a 'good cabin', ie one without the reported issues.

 

We realize the chance of getting a cabin with no A/C is small but this would have a very large negative impact on our enjoyment of the cruise.

 

When we see many posts over an extended period relating to a problem on a ship that we are considering we simply select another ship/cruise line.

 

There are so many good ships out there, why bother with one that looks like it could be a 'lemon'.

 

Why take an unnecessary risk with our vacation time and our vacation money?

 

The OBC or the future cruise credit is not appealing to us and is poor recompense for an experience like this.

Edited November 26, 2013 by iancal

[OlsSalt]

But what are HAL's "established acceptable limits"? Do you know? HAL can make these limits anything they want to. If the HAL upper temp range for AC is higher than what would be acceptable to most US pax, let's say 80 degrees in the cabins, are the "established acceptable limits" realistic? :confused:

 

The member review regarding the testing procedure was posted on CC for Zuiderdam just recently. You can get more direct details there, but there was no mention what those numbers actually were; just that the testing was conducted and findings were in an acceptable range HAL had set for cabin comfort.

 

I believe those cabin comfort range numbers were reported a few months ago on other cabin temperature discussions, but can't tell you myself what they were now. It would be good for those who want to confirm this range with HAL directly ahead of time to see if this is workable or not for them.

 

Another interesting topic to see what other industry standards are for other cruise lines. Still find it hard to believe HAL intentionally does not care about passenger or cabin comfort by either ignoring their standards or maintaining nomad cabin temperatures that exceed the norm for the industry. It is too bad we don't have more facts and actual numbers when this issue come up.

[OlsSalt]

We don't even bother guessing or hoping that we will get a 'good cabin', ie one without the reported issues.

 

We realize the chance of getting a cabin with no A/C is small but this would have a very large negative impact on our enjoyment of the cruise.

 

When we see many posts over an extended period relating to a problem on a ship that we are considering we simply select another ship/cruise line.

 

There are so many good ships out there, why bother with one that looks like it could be a 'lemon'.

 

Why take an unnecessary risk with our vacation time and our vacation money?

 

The OBC or the future cruise credit is not appealing to us and is poor recompense for an experience like this.

 

Simply, and well put.

[MermaidWatcher]

I know cruise reviews usually attract more negative reviews than positive. But the recent reviews I've read of the Zuiderdam are about 90 percent negative. We haven't done HA in about 4 years. Last one was great on the Eurodam. We are booked on the Zuiderdam for its Feb 24 Panama sailing and I am starting to wonder if I should switch to Princess before final payment is due. I'd like to find out if there are many on the recent Zuiderdam cruises that actually felt positive about the ship and their experience with HA. Hopefully, this might quell my fears.

 

Both of our sailings on her have resulted in excellent personal experiences, but as you probably read, there is a fair bit of disappointment about the recent treatment of passengers on the AC issues. We were not in the affected cabins (which seem to be the aft facing rooms on decks 6,7,8) , but the facts seem to indicate that HAL knowingly placed people in these rooms without working AC, and this leaves a pretty poor opinion of their customer service for me.

On our actual experience, I would definitely give it an "excellent". The ship is aesthetically in good shape and clean, food was easily above what we have experienced on other lines, and the quieter atmosphere was more enjoyable to us. I also liked that the service, both stateroom and public areas, is readily available, but not overly intrusive. The ac problems seem to be limited rooms, so if you avoid them, I suspect you will be ok.

Edited November 26, 2013 by MermaidWatcher

[iancal]

It is much easier for us to avoid the entire ship.

 

I do not believe in rewarding companies with my business when they fail to provide an as advertised product...even if I am not personally impacted. I have a great deal of empathy for the minority of cruisers that are forced to experience this.

[Watson's aunt]

Hi

 

I was on the Zuiderdam on November 11/18. Why I did not like the layout of the ship. I had a wonderful time. Food in the MDR was outstanding. Service was also outstanding. I was mid ship cabin 6069 I never had any problems. I had a balcony and it was cleaned daily as were the windows. Its is a nice ship but I have been spoiled by the Amsterdam. I do know some people had a/c problems I saw them at desk. But that was one or two. You will love this cruise. Just remember it crowed going thru the canal first time empty on the return.Where is your cabin?

 

 

Mary