On board Zaandam!

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

OK, pet peeve #1. Over the cruise we have heard the occasional burst of " We Wish You a Merry Christmas"! What heck, it's September! What do they think they are, Costco? Took us several days to track it down...the timers on a couple of their warmer ovens in the Lido have the song as an alarm! We started giving the cooks a bad time about this, and they had great fun playing the alarm over and over again...

 

Hey, it's after Labor Day, let the Christmas shopping begin!!!

 

Thanks for doing the live-from. I've enjoyed cruising virtually.

[CruiserBruce]

At our airport hotel...the Marriott. If you need to stay at or near the airport,  the Marriott doesn't get any closer. The bus dropped us almost at the hotel door, and we did a test walk from our room, add in check out time...15 minutes to Air Canada check in.

 

Montreal is very pretty. We did the 3 hour tour, drop at airport option. The adventures continue...the tour included an extended stop at  St Joseph's Oratory,  a tribute to Canada's only male Saint. Very neat place. There were two buses from the ship, there were 41 people on ours. Except after the stop, there were 43! The other bus left two behind, but left with their luggage! Needless to say there was some panic, and some hasty phone calls. The other bus waited at the airport,  and we saw the affected couple with their luggage.

 

The marathon was no affect I saw. The marathon passed by the port about 4 blocks in land, and there was at least one street into the area where the marathon crossed over on an over pass. Didn't affect us at all.

 

The ship was cleared at 7:15, but little or no luggage was brought off before then, so things dragged a little. Nothing major...our tour left exactly on time. The bigger issue was the very very small work area for taking stuff off and reloading the ship, plus a fuel line, which runs right throughthe main work area. Very tight work space. That may be why the ship is not scheduled to leave until 6pm. 

[dshroyer]

We boarded today with no problems. Arrived at 11 and we're in our room within 20 minutes. The traffic through town was not bad at that time.

[SUESEABE]

@dshroyer Bon Voyage! 🛳

[CruiserBruce]

OK, got home yesterday, pretty easy trip home. Time to wrap up and answer any questions...

 

We booked this cruise to hopefully see some fall colors (we caught some hints...saw more flying home than in the area of the cruise, but we were 2-3 weeks early, per the locals) and to see some parts of the world we have seen very little of. We find our cruises now trend towards new places and routes, not the standard 7 day more common cruises. A selling point for HAL and it's more original itineraries. This was our 26th cruise, 16th on HAL. Two more booked on HAL.

 

Overall impressions....the ship is in very good shape. I really expected to see some signs it is 24 years old, but other than a pretty small amount of rust, it looks great. Yes, the design and lay out is 24 years old, but its in good shape and functions very well. I thought, given the hurricane and rough seas, that creaking and other age related annoyances would pop up. None. The first couple of days humidity was much higher with temps well into the 70s, so the demand on the A/C was higher, and we did notice the A/C straining in a couple of rooms. People were forced inside more due to the occasional, but at times frequent and heavy showers. But that eased with time. Oddly, when the humidity dropped the last 3-4 days, and the sun was out more, no A/C issues. Depending on where you sit in the MDR, the lighting can be a bit dim. Many of our days were cloudy at dinner time...it was a little hard to read menus at times.

 

The crew is the typical wonderful, hardworking, smiling and happy crew. We experienced zero issues with any crew member. Yes, I mentioned the Ocean Bar Band were tired, as their departure from the ship coincided with ours, after 5-6 months on board. To be expected...yes, I think they were stretching a little to get it over with. 

 

Zaandam is a smaller ship, no getting around that. As DW is lining up a second knee replacement in a month, she really appreciated the shorter distances. I do enjoy the Pinnacle class ships for their increased activities and amenities, but I am definitely not complaining about Zaandam, particularly as we sail on her again in 6 months. She is just fine.

 

Montreal is an interesting town...small port operation...requires a fair amount of adaptation to handle a ship embarking and disembarking. The marathon didn't affect us really. Haven't heard if the next cruise sailed on time, without a hitch. But I can imagine the potential was there for complications.

 

Major kudos to whomever redesigned the route to avoid Hurricane Lee. Well done, given short notice. We experienced less than 48 hours of notable seas and winds, but made every port of the revised schedule, on time, and with no real impact. Net, no loss of number of ports, no additional sea days, just changed a couple of ports. Yes, the weather pattern in the area was wet before Lee arrived, and stayed wet for a day or two after Lee...for about 6 or 7 of our 11 days with at least some rain. Nothing anyone can do about that.

 

People seem to need to hear about cutbacks. Well, as everyone knows, they don't serve lobster on the final dressy night. Old news. In the big picture, having sailed 4 times since the resumption, I have to say the cutbacks are generally starting to return. As to something like serving size in the restaurants, I would say they are mostly back to pre-Covid size, with the occasional item smaller. As to things like pillow chocolates or two a day room services, or towel animals...inconsistent. It is possible some of things are returning to suites, but not to standard cabins. We requested and received two a day services. We got towel animals and pillow chocolates 40-50% of the nights...maybe 2/3s on pillow chocolates. We didn't request or hint about getting animals or pillow chocolates, they just arrived.

 

I have to say, with HIA amenities and things like OBC, we struggle to spend all the money allotted. Yes, we had an excursion canceled, some small port fees refunded, a Pinnacle dinner paid for and refunded (5 star Mariner complementary) and some HIA cash refunded for an excursion that generated a number of complaints from a number of people...25% refunded. We ended up with over $200 going back on our credit card, and losing a couple of dollars of HIA OBC. And that was after spending over $500 on board, including DW making a never before trip to the Spa!! I needed the calculator on my phone and an accounting degree to keep it straight.

 

Yes, I wish they wouldn't require signatures for drinks covered by drink packages. Seems to really increase the workload on the employees, , and defeats the purpose of cutting paper use. Yes, I wish I didn't have to chase down the refund on our 5 star Mariner complementary dinner. There was some weird accounting on that..even the Neptune Lounge concierge (Susette...great job!!) was left scratching her head. But it was taken care of quickly.

 

So, no real complaints here...it was a very good cruise. In fact, it was our most "complaint free" cruise since Covid. I would give it a 95/100, on things HAL can actually control or manage. Is everything perfect? Of course not, but what is? Is it the HAL of the 1990s or early 2000s? No. Do things change? Of course they do...its not always for the better, sometimes change is forced on us or HAL by conditions no one can control. Not everyone handles change the same way, or well.

 

No problem sailing with HAL again.

 

 

[BetsyS.]

CruiserBruce - Thanks for your very detailed comments. I'm glad you and your wife enjoyed the cruise.  On the Zuiderdam this summer, I also went to my first ever spa visit. I enjoyed it and would do it again. Your Eclipse cruise in the spring will be great!

[FlaMariner]

Awesome review and it was great following along..........actual and factual!  Thank You!

 

Enjoy the journey......

[CruiserBruce]

We got surveys today and filled them out.

[WriterOnDeck]

Thanks for the thread, CruiserBruce! I boarded the Zaandam as you got off, and so far agree with all your reviews. I'm looking forward to the next 86 days on board. I'll be blogging as usual at www.WriterOnDeck.com.

Edited September 27, 2023 by WriterOnDeck

[VMax1700]

Thanks for your review.  We are still wary of cruising on the smaller ships.  We love the Pinnacle class even if we do not use all the facilities.  It is nice to have them available.  Even on Vista/Signature class the reduction of facilities is noticeable, also the general ambience and brightness of the ship.  We only sailed a smaller ship once and that was Rotterdam vi to North Cape which was amazing, but in hindsight, they still had BBKing up in the Crow's Nest at night.  That was a real club experience.

 

[VMax1700]

Your comment on portion size is interesting.  We continue to have problems with the staff serving us portions that are larger than we require.  They do not seem to understand the words "small" or "just a little".  It embarrasses and annoys us to leave so much food on plates that need not be there.  However, we have heard complaints that are the polar opposites of us.  Indeed we overheard a guy at one table complaining about the plates being too small!

[BetsyS.]

VMax1700 - On the Zuiderdam this summer, I sometimes asked for "half portion" and it was no problem. I agree that some portions were too big for me.

       Thanks for all your reports!! 😊

[mcrcruiser]

17 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

We got surveys today and filled them out.

We never git surveys after all pit HAL cruises . Perhaps  HAL only gives them to 4 ot 5 star Mariners .We are just 3 star ,trying to get to 4 star .

Thanks got your review .We will be trying Zaandam  April 2025 

[Mary229]

Suggestion - when you have left over OBC how about adding to crew tip rather than HAL coffers 

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Suggestion - when you have left over OBC how about adding to crew tip rather than HAL coffers 

 

Yes, good idea. I think you have to plan ahead and not leave that to the last day. I recall somebody posting that they tried to do this and was told that it was too late, tip accounting had closed. 

 

Another thing is to use it to donate to On Deck for a Cause. You can give more than the $25--and you don't have to do the walk if you don't want to. 

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Yes, good idea. I think you have to plan ahead and not leave that to the last day. I recall somebody posting that they tried to do this and was told that it was too late, tip accounting had closed. 

 

Another thing is to use it to donate to On Deck for a Cause. You can give more than the $25--and you don't have to do the walk if you don't want to. 

I actually came back to say some OBC may not be used for gratuities so check to be sure.  Yes and charity is always a good option too

[WriterOnDeck]

On 9/27/2023 at 3:16 PM, mcrcruiser said:

We never git surveys after all pit HAL cruises . Perhaps  HAL only gives them to 4 ot 5 star Mariners .We are just 3 star ,trying to get to 4 star .

Thanks got your review .We will be trying Zaandam  April 2025 

Surveys go to all -- by email a day or two after the cruise. If you get a lot of HAL marketing emails, you need to make sure you don't miss it in the mix. The email will have a link to take the survey.

[mcrcruiser]

20 minutes ago, WriterOnDeck said:

Surveys go to all -- by email a day or two after the cruise. If you get a lot of HAL marketing emails, you need to make sure you don't miss it in the mix. The email will have a link to take the survey.

We always look carefully . Still we fo not get those cruise surveys . The last ones we ever completed was when they left a paper one in the staterooms .since they all went tech we have not dulled one in 

[kazu]

Welcome home, Bruce. 🙂 

 

Very much enjoyed your live thread - thank you 🙂. 

 

And thanks for the in depth review. 🙂 

[BetsyS.]

My stepfather and I did not get our surveys because HAL had an email address that I had not used for 8 years. It was connected to my Mariner account. Our travel agent gave HAL my current email address, and then they sent the surveys.