Zuidy review - 7/30 Western Caribbean (long)

[Suskies]

We're also back from the 7/30 Zuiderdam and had a great time. This is our third HAL cruise--we like things pretty quiet, so we've found HAL a good fit for us.

 

PRE-CRUISE: I can't thank CCers enough for all the great advice that made our pre-cruise experience as smooth as silk. We booked our rooms (6003 for us, 1119 for our two teens) back in February using the online travel agent with the best price. Since we knew what we wanted, we didn't need much service and were very satisfied. We booked our air on our own, coming in a day early so we wouldn't stress about possible flight delays. We also bought trip cancellation insurance for peace of mind. Then, a month or two ago, I ordered two soda cards, reserved the Pinnacle Grill, and booked a Stingray City tour at Grand Cayman. Everything went smooth as silk.

 

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on 17th Street in Ft. Lauderdale. We've been very happy there and of course the breakfast is a great start to the vacation. There's a new Publix supermarket next door--great to pick up last-minute items. Good news: it's being renovated this fall. Bad news: it's no longer offering free transportation from the airport, although it still runs shuttles to the piers.

 

EMBARKATION...is SO much easier and pleasant! Before we had to sit an hour at the pier waiting for our number to be called. Now we arrived around 11:45 and, after maybe a 10-minute wait to check in, just walked right on board. Spreading out embarkation times meant the lines at the Lido were much shorter. We had to list one adult and one teen in each room when we booked, but after lunch we went to the front desk and my son and I got our room keys switched with no questions. The only problem was that I continued to be listed in the kids' room when I charged things for the rest of the cruise.

 

THE SHIP...is absolutely immaculate and in beautiful condition...as nice as any luxury hotel. I could not see any of the things that other CCers have complained about. The ONLY damage I saw was a piece of duct tape holding carpet edges together on Level 6. Period.

 

We were last on the Maasdam. The Zuidy is half again as big but you really don't feel the size--the public rooms don't seem significantly larger. The only time we felt the size was when we walked from one end of the ship to the other--it's a very long ship. The only complaint we had about the Vista design is that the promenade deck is really narrow in spots. If you're walking/jogging when other passengers are out, you'll run into some traffic jams.

 

While the ship is beautiful, my husband and I agreed the decor is a bit overdone to our taste. We've always liked HAL's classic/classy decor and we missed it on this ship. On the Zuidy the beautiful woods are virtually gone, except on the outside promenade deck, and replaced with nonstop bright, hectic colors--reds, oranges, fuschias, purples, turquoises. There was no room whose decor I'd call restful. Furthermore, the ship has been crammed so full of art work and decorative touches (embellished lamps, patterned draperies, etc.) that your eye is overwhelmed and you miss a lot of it. On this ship, for example, I barely noticed the flower arrangements--they were just one more thing in a hectic decor. The rooms had no focal point to attract the eye. But this is all a matter of taste.

 

OUR ROOM: This was our first verandah room and, as my husband said, "I'm not going back. I can't! I won't!" 6003 is as big as some SS rooms--a great value for the money. It was the first stateroom that I enjoyed relaxing in...I did as much reading there as anywhere else on ship. Part of what's great about having a verandah is having the floor-to-ceiling window. Even when it was too hot or windy to use the verandah we could still enjoy the sunshine and beautiful view. We didn't use the verandah a great deal--at sea it was too windy, and in port it was often too hot--but I'll never get a room without one again! We had room service breakfast one morning when our side was facing west, out of the sun, and it was heavenly.

 

PASSENGERS: The passengers really varied in age--from literally infants to people with walkers. I would guess that the average age was in the 40s (we're in our 50s, and most people seemed younger than us), but there's no "typical" HAL passenger. One thing about a bigger ship is you don't run into people you've met as easily as on a smaller ship. There were relatively few children. Our maitre d' told us that the June and early July cruises have lots of children but then the number drops off each week through the summer (many schools in the South start in early August). Our two teens still had a great time.

 

SERVICE: As great as ever! Putra, our assistant dining steward, was adorable. Kus, our room steward, was super-friendly and had the best English of any room steward we've had in 6 cruises. The activities staff were the most fun of any cruise I've been on in years. We gave our dining & staff stewards some extra cash on top of their standard tip...they deserved every penny!

 

FOOD: One of the things I love about HAL is the great variety of food. My family has 2 picky eaters and we all loved the food. There's plenty of tempting rich food but also always plenty of healthy choices. We really like that individual portions are small--you can try lots of different things without coming home looking like a barge (I gained 1 1/2 pounds, which I didn't think was too bad). Our favorites are the fresh OJ in the Lido and of course the bread pudding (HAL now thoughtfully provides a handout with the recipe!). I also pretty much gorged on smoked salmon. Our only complaint was that virtually every fruit appetizer and fruit salad was overwhelmingly melon--melon is my son's least favorite fruit and it got to be a joke by the end of the week.

 

Our dinner at the Pinnacle was great and worth the cover charge--my husband said his tenderloin was the best steak he'd ever had. The service was great but, frankly, no better than in the dining room (I don't see how it could be better). Unlike the main dining room, the portions are huge--I wish I could have taken a doggy bag home! We had a funny moment at the end...we sat around subconciously waiting for the check which, of course, never came and we finally realized we could just get up and leave!

 

ONBOARD ACTIVITIES: This ship had a nice selection of activities (games & the like). The cooking demonstration is a great addition, but I missed the kitchen tour--I've always found that fascinating. My husband's a music buff and we won two music trivia contests (and 8 "dam" coffee mugs). He was thrilled about that. Our big disappointment in this area was the library. We've always had about an hour to kill between dinner and the show, and on past cruises we always went to the library and played board games with our teens. Now the library is not staffed after 5 p.m. and the games are locked away. You have to check them out earlier and pay a deposit. There wasn't much else to do between 7:30 and 8:30 (we had early seating) so we ended up going back to our rooms when we'd rather have started enjoying the evening. We were also a little disappointed in the movie times--they tended to play around 3:30, which meant we couldn't go to a movie and get changed in time for our 5:45 dinner. On past cruises movies were shown in the evening, which was a nice alternative to or addition to the show, but this time they weren't.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: We know that HAL isn't known for its entertainment, but we've always been pleasantly surprised on past cruises. We still talk about some of the magicians, comedians, etc., that we've seen, and dancing in the nightclubs has always been a great treat (we live in a town with no nightlife). The entertainment was our major disappointment on this cruise. The comedian (Jim Labriola) got just a few chuckles for the first half of his act (although it got good at the end). The magician (The Diamonds) did only 4 tricks and filled the rest of the time with lame jokes and audience participation. The singer (Tia Thompson) likewise sang very few songs (not always in tune, sadly) and again filled the rest of the time with lame jokes and audience participation. The "cast shows" had nice dancing but mediocre singing. Worst of all, the "show" one night was simply a movie (Madagasgar). We thought the best entertainment of the week was a sleight-of-hand show that Diamond did one afternoon in the Queen's Lounge, the Indonesian crew show, and the American-Idol-takeoff show, which was surprisingly fun and tasteful. It's a pretty sad state when two of the passengers are better singers than the paid entertainers!

 

Sadder yet was the small-lounge entertainment. We don't stay up really late, but we've always liked to have a drink and dance after the show. We could never find any dance music, however! On the second formal night, for example, we walked around the ship at 10:30 p.m. and there was NO music playing in the Crow's Nest, the Ocean Bar, or the Northern Lights nightclub. We ended up going to bed without ever dancing. On another night, we stayed in the Crow's Nest after the music trivia game, hoping to dance, but the fellow (someone with a guitar and what I call a thumpa-thumpa machine) was just awful--couldn't hold a tune if it had handles.

 

On past cruises we've always enjoyed the Explorer's Lounge--having a drink or cappuchino while listening to a harpist or strings. This time, every time we walked past the Explorer's Lounge in the evening it was dead--no lights, no music. That was a treat we really missed.

 

PORTS OF CALL: We were blessed with beautiful weather for our day at Half Moon Cay, and we continued our family tradition of being on the first tender, being the first in the beautiful water, then stretching out under some chairs and hammocks under the trees. Our day was terrific until about 3 hours later, when the clamshells in front of us were set up and occupied. Our view was blocked and the area suddenly became crowded and noisy. Because of their orientation, the clamshells didn't shield the occupants from the sun, so after a couple of hours they were largely abandoned but we still had the blocked view. While it was a lovely day, we came away thinking that HMC has now been overdeveloped by HAL and that the sense of peace and spaciousness that we've always loved is gone.

 

At Grand Cayman, we did the Stingray City tour and it is every bit as good and fun as everyone has said. I can't recommend this highly enough! Afterward my daughter and I did a little shopping.

 

I didn't have high hopes for Costa Maya--there were 3 ships there that day, so I knew it would be super-crowded...and it was! We'd originally planned to take a bus to Mahahual, just to check it out, but we ended up sleeping in and making a lazy morning of it instead. After lunch my husband and son decided to see the movie instead of going ashore, so my daughter and I just walked over to the port complex, where we bought a few T-shirts.

 

We also had a lazy day at Key West...room service breakfast on the Verandah, a lazy morning on board, then went ashore after lunch. We took the Conch Train tour on our own ($25 vs $28 if booked through HAL), which was a lot of fun, and did a little more shopping.

 

Altogether, it was a great cruise, except for the entertainment. I brought home a 2006 HAL brochure and have been poring through it nonstop! The saddest part was knowing that HAL isn't doing Caribbean cruises next summer...we can only cruise in the summer and love the Caribbean, so I don't know what we're going to do!

[vicocala]

Thanks for the review! :)

 

It is always great to see how each cruise is a little different and is seen with a little difference in viewpoint.

 

I was kinda disappointed to here about your description of the night clubs, my wife are not all night party people but are looking forward to some of the themes in the Northern Lights. Hopefully that will improve before we go.

 

I appreciate your time and efforts.

[Suskies]

Part of me wishes that no one could sign up for a cruise without getting on these boards and getting the real scoop about each cruise line...some people are disappointed just because the line they're on isn't a good match with what they want. In our case, we like things quiet (I read 3 books during my cruise), so HAL is a perfect fit.

 

About the entertainment--our DJ (Jazzy) left at the end of our week--the cruise director said his contract was up, but he told me he was moving to a ship in Alaska--whatever--maybe the new DJ will perk things up a bit. Definitely go to one of the music trivia games in the Crow's Nest--they're a lot of fun!

[vicocala]

Thanks for your response. As I said, we aren't party animals. I just hope if we do decide to go dance or something we aren't the only ones on the floor. I don't mind at all, but the Mrs. likes to melt into the crowd.

[cruznon]

Well, we loved the entertainment on board. I agree about the cast singers, but I yet to hear great voices in the cast shows, but I still thought the show were terrific. I felt Craig Diamond's two shows were very entertaining--one just plain fun and the other was amazing!

 

Yes, the "Zuiderdam Superstar" (their version of American Idol) was great fun.