Rough Seas on the Zuiderdam

[AAAAmerican]

Yes as well us too. The Victory was really not so well.

 

The Miracle we were stunned in the best Room Stewards and food which shocked us well..in the good way.. we usually dine for most meals in the formal dining rooms.

 

We did find on most front desk there they are very curt and I too as a paying guest hate wasting my time... with rudeness.

 

HAL is completely different .

 

In food service it surpasses most lines and in quality too.

 

But one day I sure hope someone learns to make Cheese Cake with real Cream Cheese and NO ADDED FLOUR...:mad:

 

Thats one of r=the easiest desserts to muster up and hard to ruin..but adding flour changes the whole chemical process.

 

 

 

 

MortgageChick,

 

I agree with you about the Carnival Victory. We sailed on her several years ago. The service was friendly, but the food was so awful that my husband, a gourmand, lost 3 pounds on a 3 day trip from Boston to Nova Scotia and back. The only good food they had was the pizza and the French fries, which were excellent.

 

We were pleasantly surprised on the Carnival Miracle. The food was excellent, except very limited in the Lido restaurant. However, front desk staff was surly, and if your needs did not fit in with their schedule (in every department) you were out of luck.

 

I contrast that to my two experiences on HAL, both on the Westerdam, where the service was the best I have ever had on a cruise ship (and that also includes Celebrity and Princess). The food was good, too.

 

Roberta

[barriesdad]

Sorry to hear you didn't have a pleasant trip on the Zuiderdam. We were on the week before on the ship's last trip to Alaska, and our experience was nothing but positive.

 

We were on the Z 9/9 to 9/16 and we had a superb time. Our wait staff were super and very accommodating. No sooner were our water glasses half empty that they were refilled. Somedays service was slower than others but they have a lot of people to serve and we were quite happy taking in the atmosphere and talking - something we don't have time for at home.

 

We were approached a couple of times by the wine waiter but as we don't drink wine a polite "no" was accepted and we weren't bothered for the rest of the cruise. We did find that if we sat down in a bar especially if my DW just wanted a quick cigarette we were approached for a drinks order. Again a polite "no thanks" and we weren't bothered again.

 

Is the reason for the poor service due to staff changing after a season? Being our 1st cruise I'm not sure when they change the staff.

[Copper10-8]

Is the reason for the poor service due to staff changing after a season? Being our 1st cruise I'm not sure when they change the staff.

 

Staff is changed throughout the year and not just "at the end of a particular season" i.e. after Alaska and/or after the Carib. It all depends on when their (usually) one year contracts expire.

[Coolcruise02]

WOW..........I don't know what to say. We had a fantastic time on the Zuiderdam and thought the crew and food were great! :)

[Ziggy7]

My partner and I have almost 400 days on HAL.

Just wanted to say, if you've had 400 days with great service, your doing great!!!! You shouldnt let a few days of non great service bother you :)

 

I have sailed several cruiselines and they all vary from day to day, ship to ship. I'm very sorry to say, your memories of what was once in a cruise, is long gone on most cruiselines, they have changed with the times too.

 

Unless you pay a small fortune on the smaller cruise lines.

[kryos]

I personally think the level of service can sometimes be affected by the specific sailing.

 

I didn't get an escort to my cabin either on the Vista ship. I would imagine there are just too many cabins to provide this "personal touch." Ditto could be the case in the dining room ... service could be just a tad off as a result of the shear numbers of people onboard.

 

If you've sailed Rotterdam first, and then do a sailing on a Vista ship like the Zuiderdam, you are most likely gonna be disappointed with your Zuiderdam experience. It will more than likely in no way compare with the Rotterdam ... one of the flagship vessels in the fleet, holding about half the number of passengers as the Vistas.

 

At least these were my experiences. I sailed the Rotterdam in March 2004, and the Zuiderdam in August 2004. While that Zuiderdam cruise was wonderful, it was in no way comparable with my Rotterdam experience of a relatively few short months before.

 

Stick with the "S" or "R" class HAL vessels, and I think you'll have an overall better experience.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Davey Interweb]

I beg to differ. We did the repo cruise on Mercury from Mexico to Alaska and it was wonderful. The food, the service, everything was great. We had a wonderful time. I don't what changing itineraries possibly has to do with staff attitude. Either the staff is good or it's not. I wouldn't hesitate to do another.

 

To be fair, a 3-or-4-night repo is different from an 11-night one. We were on the same Merc cruise as you, and I'd agree that the food and service were great. My only complaints were the tired condition of the ship itself, and the surly attitude of some of the ship's officers. Well, this and embarkation. That was pretty bad too, but probably not entirely X's fault.

 

Our 3-nighter from Van on Zaandam (the OP's sailing left Canada Place just after ours) was just...okay. Servicewise, it felt as though the crew was regrouping after the previous Alaska cruise and preparing for the upcoming Mexican itinerary; everything just felt rushed. I'll mirror the OP's comment that embarkation was nothing short of a complete mess. In the end, I didn't feel relaxed in the slightest by the time we disembarked in San Diego. I can't see a short repo like this one anytime in my future; I think I'll stick with the 9-night+ cruises.

[tim agg]

Here's an example of just the different experiences different peple can have on the same cruise, as we too were on the Zuiderdam's Sept 30 sailing from Vancouver to San Francisco. We left home at 11:15 am and were aboard by noon - the "dragon lady" made us sit so that we did not have to stand in line for check-in and, even with some confusion, our party of four was aboard in no time. No greeters at noon, but we did see them later....We were with a wine society group of 100, and we brought spirited conversations to the upper dining room and we were the last to leave - our food was very good, and the crew responded heroically to us .... our two receptions were well-handled by the ship, as was the wine tasting event in the Pinnacle on the sea day ... We went ashore at Astoria and followed the riverfront walkway into town; we spent the afternoon on a tour that featured a seafood cooking school and wine tasting - excellent value and lots of fun. Astoria is an intersting town, worth the visit. Crossing the Columbia Bar was fun even in relatively calm seas...On the sea day we spotted several humpback whales and a pod of orcas, in addition to dolphins...On the final morning we woke just in time to step onto our balcony as, in the dark, the Z'dam passed under the Golden Gate bridge (yes, those flashes on the port side were from my camera). Disembarkation and hotel transfer in SF was fast and efficient...The crew were clearly more intersted in those traveling to Fort Lauderdale (and I wish I was among them), but were attentive to us in all the lounges. .. The only time someone tried to promote a drinks deal on me, I later realized that it would have been much less costly to have accepted! ... This was our 18th HAL cruise, and the first short one - far too short for our taste, but we had 5 nights in San Francisco to console ourselves (!)...It was our second cruise on the Z'dam and, although we still prefer the S-class ships, the Z-dam has grown on us...Finally, after years of booking outside cabins, we opted for a balcony and, while we really enjoyed it on the sea day, it wouldn't make sense for us to book one on shore intensive cruises or, as in Alaska, crusies when we spend a great deal of time on the outer decks... If our wine society does this again, I'll sign up - though in addition to, not instead of, longer cruises. We are now booked on the Ryndam for the Sea of Cortez in February and our favourite ship, the Veendam, for the Baltic in July.

[Davey Interweb]

Heh, it may be an example of just how inept the check-in process was that day. We arrived at just a hair after 11:00am, sailed through security and immigration, and were made to sit down in chairs by rows. The problem was that we were supposed to be led to the check-in area in turn, but the woman monitoring this wasn't paying attention. Rows of people who had arrived five or ten minutes ago were being called before rows that had been sitting for a half hour or longer. When a fellow who had been sitting next to us took this woman to task about her oversight, she huffed that "she couldn't keep track of everything". Er, isn't that precisely your job this morning? So, a number of people weren't forced to wait too long simply because someone couldn't do their job properly People who arrived later in the day had it much worse, apparently.

[kirkc]

Tim Agg...

I'm glad you enjoyed. I wish we had. Your's was one of two large groups that were using this reposition as a mini convention. No problem with that. But, as haas been mentioned, I think that it served to pull some services and attention from other guests. Not just my opinion, but something that I heard other mention as well. Sorry, but when I pay for a suite ( where we always book) I expect that service. Not the floating Holiday Inn / Art Auction at the Mall that we were exposed to on the way to San Francisco.

[YYC F/A]

 

Stick with the "S" or "R" class HAL vessels, and I think you'll have an overall better experience.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

I have to say that the 'R' class was no better for me on the repo. I did the Sep 30th Zaandam and can only echo many of the same comments and issues identified on the Zuiderdam by the OP.

 

Dining room service was poor, there was no effort from anyone at anypoint (other than the Casino staff) to make any form of introduction or personal service. Our cabin steward was unavailable on the first day so we were unable to change out the dirty glasses that had not been cleaned from the previous voyage and after 3 calls to the operator we finally gave up and went and got some from the lido bar. I couldn't tell you the names of our dining room or housekeeping team as neither took the time to introduce themself or build any kind of rapport.

 

When we highlighted a particulary unsatisfactory dining experience to the head steward in the dining room, there was no follow up. He openly admitted that the ship was short crewed for the repo journey.

 

Bartenders told us that the ship was fully booked for a 'crazy busy' Blues Cruise immediately after the repo, and that extra crew were joining in SAN for this, but that they were also short crewed for the repo sailing.

 

I was also appalled at the 'cheap trick' to lure people into hard sell art auctions. Items billed as entertainment on the ships daily news turned out to be nothing more than a hardcore sell for Park West. This just left me with a bad taste in my mouth - this type of 'bait and switch' is something I might expect from a timeshare convention but not a 'premium' cruise line.

 

Overall, while I made sure I had a good time, I would certainly not rate the Holland America service based on this experience.

 

I'm travelling on the Noordam in November and can only hope that this experience will be more representative of the HAL product and service - otherwise it's back to X.

[cruisnfool]

Each employee has a contract that ends when the contract is up....6 or 9 months usually. (my son worked for Princess for 3 yrs)

Every turnaround day people are coming and going. It has nothing to do with repos.

I have sailed 2 repos and did not find the level of service differant.

 

This is not an excuse but whe these people are nearing the end of their contracts they are pretty tired of their jobs and ready to see family and friends and like us there are days we do not like our jobs and it probably shows in our work.

 

I remember on evening on the Horizon (Celebrity) the four of us were chatting aftet dinner and it no particular hurry to leave the dining room and our friend stood up and grabbed the coffe pot to refill our cups because we were very close to the coffe stand and the waiter had just taken a load of dishes away.

The head waiter saw my our friend, came over and apologized and we had 2 asst waiters the rest of the week. We flet bad because we were just helping ourselved but couldn't convince him. We probably got him in trouble.

[clogaltocruise]

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience. We were on the same cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, we booked a Nov 2007 New Zealand / Australia cruise while we were on board.

Kathy

[kryos]

I was under the impression that you won't have greeters if you get onboard before the cabins are ready. Then, when the announcement is made that cabins are ready, I thought that you had to go to the floor where people embark and there would be people to escort you there. But, most people just say "heck with that" and head to their cabins. They fine them perfectly well on their own.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Copper10-8]

Each employee has a contract that ends when the contract is up....6 or 9 months usually. (my son worked for Princess for 3 yrs)

 

Good post, thanks! FYI, most contracts for HAL's workerbees like your cabin steward, diningroom and bar staff, etc. are one year long.

[peaches from georgia]

Our wine steward on our last cruise was leaving HAL and going to another cruiseline because of HAL's one year contract. She wanted a committment for a shorter time; one full year was too long.

[cruisnfool]

Wow...1yr that is a long contract.......my son said you could always tell who was getting close to end of their contract because they had less patience.

 

I can see why people would not want to stay 1 yr...just think of all the parents not seeing their children for 1 yr.

[kirkc]

Sorry...I have been out of town. Received a response (if you can call it that) to a rather detailed letter and phone call to HAL Customer Service about the problems on our cruise-ette. I was sorry to say that their answer was to use pe-cast standard response to each area of concern that we raised. No specifics were addressed and their (laughable) response was the offer of a 30 minute aroma therapy massage to make up for any lapse of service. Sorry, but not quite on the mark. They may as well paint their ships red white and blue and call them all "Carnival".

 

I have today cancelled our 5 reservations to next year to New Zealand. It is $40K that they can replace, but in the long run they have lost five devoted fans because no one could be bothered to craft a personal reply.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

 

I have today cancelled our 5 reservations to next year to New Zealand. It is $40K that they can replace, but in the long run they have lost five devoted fans because no one could be bothered to craft a personal reply.

 

Kirk:

 

If you can push back your plans a little, you might want to check out the Oceania Cruises website. They are offering some itineraries "down under" in early 2008. I understand that these itineraries have been eagerly anticipated by Oceania's patrons. It might be a good choice for you and your group.:)

 

Karin

[Candy]

I was under the impression that you won't have greeters if you get onboard before the cabins are ready. Then, when the announcement is made that cabins are ready, I thought that you had to go to the floor where people embark and there would be people to escort you there. But, most people just say "heck with that" and head to their cabins. They fine them perfectly well on their own. Blue skies ... --rita

We are usually among the first to board, and we have been escorted to either the Neptune Lounge or the Lido.

 

Candy the ZuiderPrincess