Live From The Zuiderdam!

[spcl4cs_gal]

Back onboard this fabulous ship for our western caribbean cruise!! Today's stop is in Key West, complete with 90+ degree heat. Guess that's what you get with summer cruising. The ship is overbooked for this week and people are close to bribing the ship's staff for early dinner seating times but with no luck. Hey, I can sell them mine for a few dollars...what do you think? :D

[sail7seas]

Good to hear from you, Alison. Hope you are having a great time. We love the Zuiderdam. Enjoy. Thanks for posting.

[FlorenceItaly]

Ohhhhhhhhh, I love Key West. If you want some spirits, stop into Irish Kevins. It's ALOT of fun.

 

Looking forward to your live updates.

 

Marie

[Candy]

Have you met Shy yet? He's the one who hands you your tray in the Lido. He has replaced Imam (Hunky Dory), and if you tell him your name he will remember you everywhere you see him, all week. He used to sing "I like Candy" whenever he saw me. It's really nice there is this level of personalization... really made us feel special.

[dst]

Great to hear from you, are you on the Western itinerary? Please keep posting, we are on the "Z" July 24th and would love to hear all about your cruise......

 

Happy Cruising

[drdaddy]

Glad you are having a good time. When you cruise the Caribbean this time of year, it do get wearm.

 

A poster just recently mentioned that the ship was very hot, like in no A/C. Any problems that you have noticed?

 

Thanks for spending the time on your vacation to get back to us. Greatly appreciated.

[Ellya]

Having just returned from that cruise, I can report that the air conditioning problems seem to have been resolved. We were in one of the cabins affected, and there was no problem at all. In fact, the only problem we had was that we felt the public areas were overly air conditioned, forcing us to wear sweaters every night!

[spcl4cs_gal]

Haven't met up with Shy as of yet but did get the chance to sample that delicious hazelnut brie last night at the Captain's Gala. Wow was that stuff good!! And the beef tenderloin..l think you could have cut it with a fork it was that tender. The diningroom staff seems run off their feet but I guess that's what happens when they cut the staff. The food is still great and I just finished my first (but certainly not last) dish of bread pudding today at lunch. Yummy!!

 

We just docked in Cozumel, two hours earlier than expected. It is roasting here but seems to be clouding over so we might be in for some showers. Hopefully no more humidity though! The air conditioning appears to be working especially in the cabins where it is almost too cold at night.

 

I shall return with more news later....it's off to do some shopping right now though. ;)

[drdaddy]

That's great news! Glad it is such a nice cruise. It is really hot in Florida now, too and NO rain. Enjoy.

[FlorenceItaly]

Paradise Beach in Cozumel is suppose to be wonderful. Were you there today, by chance????? Glad you are having a great time. It's great hearing from you.

 

Marie

[Ziggy7]

Thanks for sharing your cruise! We will watch for your review and posts,we hope you have a great time!

[Joedog]

Hey,

 

I thought there was supposed to be a "sea day" between Key West and Cozumel. What happened? What else is changing?

 

I was planning on booking an excursion in Cozumel but not through the ship. That would be hard if we show up on a different day than in my intinerary.

 

Dang! I am so confused.

[npeters]

Haven't met up with Shy as of yet but did get the chance to sample that delicious hazelnut brie last night at the Captain's Gala. Wow was that stuff good!! And the beef tenderloin..l think you could have cut it with a fork it was that tender. The diningroom staff seems run off their feet but I guess that's what happens when they cut the staff. The food is still great and I just finished my first (but certainly not last) dish of bread pudding today at lunch. Yummy!!

 

We just docked in Cozumel, two hours earlier than expected. It is roasting here but seems to be clouding over so we might be in for some showers. Hopefully no more humidity though! The air conditioning appears to be working especially in the cabins where it is almost too cold at night.

 

I shall return with more news later....it's off to do some shopping right now though. ;)

Hi,

 

I'm waffling on reserving a cabana or a "clamshell" on HMC for my Aug cruise. Did you plan any excursions for HMC? Can you let me know how hot it is on the beach? If all there is to do on HMC is relax on the beach, if it's too hot, I'll go for the cabana.

 

Thanks!

[dst]

Ruth: I have called HAL and asked if our itinerary was changing and they said no. I will call again and make sure and will post on the roll call thread.

 

Have a great day

[spcl4cs_gal]

Hi everybody!

 

I asked one of the crew about the schedule change on this particular cruise and he said that they do it every now and again but not every week. I guess it is a hit and miss kind of thing. As for booking an excursion on Cozumel, we are here today until 3pm when we sail to Grand Cayman so I would say that anything you pick needs to be within those hours. We arrived here around 1pm yesterday so maybe something later in the afternoon would be good too. Check your schedule before booking anything!

 

I have the blue cabana all booked for my day at HMC and something tells me that the a/c will be a blessing in disguise. This whole area down here is surrounded in a heavy humid heat and even with the very brief shower we had yesterday afternoon, there wasn't a puff of air available on shore late last night. I did manage to see a "family" of four stingrays drift by on the other side of the pier. :) But in the end I would definitely suggest booking a cabana through HAL a.s.a.p. They were all sold out except two when I booked and that was a good month prior to this cruise.

 

I didn't get to Paradise Beach...but I did go to Diamonds International instead. ;) A nice trade-off huh?

 

Time for some bread pudding!! :D

[dst]

Alison: how kind of you to keep checking in. We are so excited for our trip July 24th. Last we called no change in our Cozumel stop....I'll check again.

 

Good call on the diamond stop, hopefully you got something special (and shiny)

 

We have rented a cabana aslo, we reserved the yellow one with a butler. So we'll wait to hear how special it is from you!

 

Enjoy your day and thanks again.......

[Paticakes]

Alison...I look forward to you daily posts. I can't wait till I go on Aug 7.

[spcl4cs_gal]

We're on our way to Grand Cayman now but not without missing a heavy thunder and lightning storm that swept across Cozumel around 2:30 this afternoon. I was sitting out by the Lido aft pool when it hit and everyone ran for cover real fast. It was too bad that they had already set up for our sail-away at that point...everything was soaked!

 

Tonight is the Elton John impersonator show and I am quite glad that I will get to see this guy, considering I have heard a lot of positive things about his show. Will report more on this tomorrow though.

 

All of you who are awaiting your cruise on the big Z, you will have plenty to look forward to I am sure. :)

[scluvsrain]

We're leaving this weekend so will be on the cruise right after you! I've also booked the blue cabana so take good care of it!!!! Any other tips we should know about for next week? Let us know how the Elton impersonator is.

[srpilo]

Spcl4cs_gal..

 

Wow, thanks for taking the time to post.. Its really a nice thing to do , for all us "land-locked" cruisers .. LOL!! :D

 

 

Scluvsrain.. Good luck next week !! :)

Btw.. Has HAL notifed you of any "official" Itinerary changes yet, for next week ?? Just curious..

 

Srpilo

[sheephugs]

Candy, we met Shy on our Zuiderdam cruise in June and my 12 year old daughter was quite taken with him. She would always get in his line during breakfast. He was going home for three months later this year and didn't know which ship he would be assigned to when he came back.

[Kay D]

If you are riding in the central glass elevators, can you see into the 1st & 2nd balconies next to elevator say on Verandah or Upper V decks?? Please let me know as I may have to take one of those on a fall cruise.

[peaches from georgia]

You can see directly onto the 1st balcony adjacent to the glass elevators on all the decks. Not so much onto the 2nd balcony, but I would not book the verandah rooms directly next to the glass elevators on any deck. :eek:

[airam1]

It seems I am the only one who truly did not care for this ship. The service was poor at best as was the quality of the food. Dining room staff is short and non-attentive.

The first night in the dining room our bottle of wine finally arrived at the end of our entree, this also happened the following evening. Did I mention water? Water glasses were filled after appetizers dishes were cleared. Food quality was poor and this was the majority of the chatter on the ship.

Our 6/24/04 cruise was cramped with the most children ever booked on a HAL cruise and the activities certainly mirrored that. The majority of daily activities were for the "little ones". After a trip to Grand Cayman we ran up to the pool for a quick hot dog before returning to our cabin and staff was instructed not to allow adults to have hot dogs it was "kids afternoon", funny , I thought we were the ones that paid!!!!

Dining in room was interesting, we decided to take advantage of our lovely balcony and get away from a poorly run dining room, what did we receive? 6 desserts, no water, 1 cold soup and salad from the menu the night before. What did we order? 2 salads, 1 dessert & 2 entrees!

**** Do NOT snuba in Grand Cayman, they are doing major construction on the pier and there aren't any fish and the water is very merky. We did report this to the excursion staff and they said they were "aware" sorry we had a bad time.

Just SOME of the reason we will not be returning to this cruise line .

Don't waste your money in the spa!

[dst]

Alison: glad to hear you are enjoying your cruise. Too bad about the storm, although sometimes they can be beautiful :)