Zuiderdam ????

[sail7seas]

Anyone know what they have done about Zuiderdam and dealing with Rita? She can't be Western, can she? Can she be Eastern? Where is Zuiderdam?

[shirljean]

Right now she is eastern & will be going western this Sat. (the 24th) & then on Oct. 1st (MY CRUISE!!!!!) back to eastern. I am not scared, though. (~_~)

[Candy]

Right now she is eastern & will be going western this Sat. (the 24th) & then on Oct. 1st (MY CRUISE!!!!!) back to eastern. I am not scared, though. (~_~)

Hi, shirljean... I have some friends we met on our first Zuidy cruise who are on your sailing. They live in Houston and were scheduled to fly out on Friday, but changed their flight to tonight. On TV I see traffic in Houston backed up for miles and miles, and I think they may not make it to FLL. Rita is heading straight for Houston, and will certainly devastate the area.

 

I think the Zuiderdam is the best place to stay during a hurricane!

 

Candy <-- sends prayers to Frances and Grytch

[richcrow]

Right now she is eastern & will be going western this Sat. (the 24th) & then on Oct. 1st (MY CRUISE!!!!!) back to eastern. I am not scared, though. (~_~)

 

shirljean,

 

I see that you are sailing on Zuiderdam on Oct.1st. Just wanted to let you know about a Cruise Critic Get-Together that is going to take place onboard after departure. If you are interested, you can get all of the details on the HAL Roll Call board under the thread Zuiderdam 10/01/05. As of today there have been 16 couples that have indicated that they would like to attend. We would be glad to include you.

 

Richard & Judie

[shirljean]

Candy, we just got our room # - we booked a Catagory K guarantee, on the advice of our travel agent, with a possibility of an upgrade. Wasn't to happen - we are booked in cabin #6028 (Catagory K). Have you ever seen the inside of those cabins - are they really very small? DH says never again with the guarantee thing.

 

I used to have a site that I could go on a virtual tour of any room on any ship - I bought a new computer & lost all my favorites - one of them being that site. Does anyone know the address of that site?

 

Richard & Judie, we are going with 2 other couples and a couple of single ladies - don't think they would be interested in going to that get-together. But thanks for asking.

 

shirljean

[Candy]

Candy, we just got our room # - we booked a Catagory K guarantee, on the advice of our travel agent, with a possibility of an upgrade. Wasn't to happen - we are booked in cabin #6028 (Catagory K). Have you ever seen the inside of those cabins - are they really very small? DH says never again with the guarantee thing... snip ... shirljean

At 183-207 sq. ft., it looks like Cat Ks are larger than the large outside Cats C thru HH. I peeked inside one, and the door is on the middle instead of on the end, so it looks roomier. I think you'll be quite comfortable there. We had a guarantee once, and it was agonizing! We had to wait until check-in at the pier to get our cabin number. We always choose our cabins now. If I can't get the cabin/location I want, I'll take another ship or go a different week.

 

Candy <-- thought it was strange the TA that sold me the GTY disappeared immediately.

[shirljean]

At 183-207 sq. ft., it looks like Cat Ks are larger than the large outside Cats C thru HH. I peeked inside one, and the door is on the middle instead of on the end, so it looks roomier. I think you'll be quite comfortable there. We had a guarantee once, and it was agonizing! We had to wait until check-in at the pier to get our cabin number. We always choose our cabins now. If I can't get the cabin/location I want, I'll take another ship or go a different week.

 

Candy <-- thought it was strange the TA that sold me the GTY disappeared immediately.

Thanks Candy, for your response. I finally found that virtual tour site. I cannot see much drawer space, but then it didn't tour the bathroom/closet area, so here's hoping they have drawer space in there. My hubby would have gone ape, if he hadn't been given the cabin number before we got there.

[ricksandy]

Could you share the virtual tour site? I'd love to see it.

 

My DH, 12 year old daughter and I are booked on the Zuiderdam for Thanksgiving, Eastern Caribbean. This is our 2nd HAL cruise, last year we did the Zaandam for Thanksgiving, Western Caribbean. The days are dragging until Nov. 19th :)

 

Have a great trip, and please share when you get back!

[peaches from georgia]

Could you share the virtual tour site?

 

http://www.virtualtoursusa.com/galleryships.htm

[Candy]

Thanks Candy, for your response. I finally found that virtual tour site. I cannot see much drawer space, but then it didn't tour the bathroom/closet area, so here's hoping they have drawer space in there. My hubby would have gone ape, if he hadn't been given the cabin number before we got there.

While I dearly love sailing HAL, they are not famous for their drawer space. :mad: There are 2 small drawers (one locking) in each nightstand, about 3 medium in the desk/dresser, and 2 very large drawers under the bed (although some stewards store the spreads in them at night). The closets have fold-down shelves, so you can have 2 stacking and one hanging areas. There should be a shelf under the sink and maybe a medicine chest in the corner.

 

Have a great cruise on my favorite ship!

Candy

[mrskmirolla]

If you want to know where any cruise ship is just log onto cruisecal.com and you can find almost any ship, what port they are in and look at the web cam it is really cool. They also give up to the minute reports on what is happening with ship delays and change of schedules. The Zuiderdam is in the EC.

 

Kathy

[sghetrick]

Great site - thanks!

[shirljean]

Thanks Candy, for all the info & I will sure try real, real hard to have a great time. :)

 

And now I am off to that new cruisecal.com site. Sounds like a good one.

[Esme]

Just had an e-mail from the Zuiderdam.

 

"We had 2 rough days before finally making it to Tortola where a dark rain cloud blanketed the island all day. Wednesday evening it was announced that they would cancel our port of call Nassau, and instead replace it with HMC which we had to cancel at the beginning of the cruise, due to high waves. This bit of news was received by our passengers with contempt. They went on to surround our HM yelling and screaming. The front desk girls also were the target of angry guests. So, yesterday morning, an announcement assured all that the call on Nassau was reinstated."

 

I can't believe that anyone would prefer to stop in Nassau rather than HMC. Must be something wrong with those complaining. :rolleyes:

[sail7seas]

Each to their own......

 

What one loves, another may not. Different strokes and all that.

 

 

[MISSYLOU]

Well I just hope those passengers love Nassau. :( They say be careful of what you ask for. They have no idea what they will miss at HmC. Go figure.

[Golfgrl1911]

Trust me you all, we were there! All of our group of CC'ers (except 1 or 2 couples) were terribly excited to hear we were going to HMC! Clearly the ones who were making a stink had not been to Nassau! One group of 4 were screaming at the poor concierge in the Neptune Lounge just before we got off the ship at St. Thomas....I could not resist saying to the woman screaming loudest "you've never been to Nassau before have you?" She looked at me glaringly and retorted that it had been a long time. I just looked back at her and grinned. Having been there (Nassau) twice in the last 2 years, I knew it was nothing special like a visit to HMC would have been! Unfortunately there was no way the Captain was going to please all of us in this situation! Some of us thought the Captain could have dropped those of us that wanted off at HMC and proceed to Nassau, dropping those folks off, come back to HMC and pick us up then finish by picking the Nassau people up. Clearly then we would have seen who the happier group would have been!:D Oh well, guess I'm going to have to book another HAL vacation to see HMC! Nancy:)

[imsulin2]

I was in the FLL airport yesterday morning, waiting to fly back to Atlanta after my Princess cruise. I talked to a number of Zuiderdam passengers who pretty much said the same thing...there was a "contingent" on the Zui who demanded loud and long to go to Nassau instead of HMC. Apparently, they were pretty vocal. I just cannot imagine anyone wanting to go to Nassau instead of HMC!! These pax also told me that this particular "vocal" group had never been on a cruise before. Guess I'm just happy to say that on every HAL Caribbean cruise I've ever taken, we always got to HMC!!

[pbjberg]

I was also on the Zuiderdam on the 9/17/05 cruise with members of my family. At first we were disappointed that we would not be stopping at HMC, but understood the reason why. Really didn't want to compete with a hurricane.

 

We were extremely happy when it was announced that we were going to go to HMC instead of Nassau. Based on what we had read, HMC had it over Nassau "hands down." Our happiness was short-lived, however, when we knew were going to be back on the original sailing schedule.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that not all first time cruisers preferred going to Nassau over HMC. I agree with Nancy and will have to plan another HAL cruise so I can eventually get there.

 

Had a blast on our first cruise. I had always wanted to go on a cruise and was not disappointed.

 

Pat

[pklopp]

Hello all, and to Nancy & Pat, it was great to meet you on the Zui last week - what a great group of Cruise Critics!! I am in agreement with them also about HMC - on Wed. a.m. right before we departed the ship for St. John's, we had received new excursion tics for a clamshell and parasailing - we were thrilled at the thought at being able to go to HMC. On the way back from St. John's on the ferry, a couple we were talking to informed us that it was changed shortly after we left the ship to Nassau again. We were less than pleased and put that on our survey sheet - not really sure if those get read or not, but also expressed that perhaps somehow a poll of the 1,800 passengers would have been the diplomatic way to do it, instead of just being pressured by a bunch of people going ballistic!!! As we were getting off the ship in Nassau, one of the crew members jokingly said what do you think would happen if we were to pull up the gangway and head to HMC - I told him there would be a lot of happy passengers!! Worst part of this cruise was this big mistake HAL - hope you don't do it again.

Peggy

[vicocala]

Hopefully HAL will get the message.

 

I would of figured that HAL would have preferred the HMC stop since it would save port fees and kept all the gambling money folks would of burned at Atlantis in their own casino. :rolleyes:

 

Perhaps it wasn't the passengers, but a report that wave action was still to rough at HMC. I would hope that is the real reason.

 

I have a lot of things planned at HMC, Clamshell, walking tour, waverunner tour etc. with only one excursion planned in Nassau. So if there was a choice I would certainly pick HMC.

 

But then, living in Florida I could easily take a 3-4 day trip to Nassau just about any weekend if I really wanted to be there.