Zaandam Activities on Port Days

[MUD]

Thinking about a 21 day cruise in Feb 2024 on Zaandam. It is very port intensive. In one ten day stretch there are ten ports. We would not want to to take excursions in most. Does Zaandam have many onboard activities on port days?

[The-Inside-Cabin]

1 hour ago, MUD said:

Thinking about a 21 day cruise in Feb 2024 on Zaandam. It is very port intensive. In one ten day stretch there are ten ports. We would not want to to take excursions in most. Does Zaandam have many onboard activities on port days?

"many" is very subjective - here is a port day program from a cruise on the Zuiderdam earlier - yours would be similar.  You can decide for yourself if this is "many"    I would probably call it "some" 😀

28-Feb-WW004.pdf

[3rdGenCunarder]

That's a lot of infomercials for the spa and shops and not much that interests me. 

 

I'm looking at that same cruise, mostly for some variety in itinerary. I don't need a lot of entertainment if I stay on board on a port day, but there's a limit to how much time I can devote to knitting or reading. I wish Zaandam had a proper spa pool instead of just a hot tub. That would clinch the decision for me.

[MUD]

Love this size of ships. Probably have about 100 days on this size with HAL. More bells an whistles elsewhere on HAL but we have always felt comfortable on these ships.  But we are still undecided and leaning against this cruise. Onboard activities are always minimal on port days and 10 days in ports in a row would be exhausting. One person on another blog suggested taking an excursion every third day. Maybe that strategy would work. There is always shuffle board and now pickel ball. The daily rate for an outside cabin is very good compared to other HAL ships. 

[Takes Notes]

The amount of activities is greatly reduced on port days. This is true across the fleet.