Zaandam Review - Alaska 5/9-5/16

[mach4]

Background – This was our fourth HAL cruise and 7th cruise overall. Oosterdam in 2005, Ryndam in 2004, Noordam in 1996, and Princess in 2002, Royal Caribbean in 2003 and MSC in 2006.

 

Embarkation: We took a cab ($35) from the airport to the cruise terminal and cleared US customs there. Embarkation was orderly and relatively quick. One nice touch was the waiting area where we were assigned a number. Instead of winding our way through the typical Disneyland-like maze, we sat comfortably until our number was called. The Vancouver terminal is pleasant and clean but utilitarian at best. Arrival to on board time – about 30 minutes.

 

Bon Voyage: Immediately following the mandatory life boat drill, the Captain came on and let us know that the ship would be delayed in leaving due to a critical part related to a lifeboat. Apparently a cable snapped and the part to fix it was delayed in arriving – and it then had to be installed. For health and safety, I don’t mind being a bit late… Turned out to be three hours late in departure. Well this shouldn’t have meant a problem, however it did. Since we were late in departing, that put us at a “narrows” (sorry, I didn’t get the name) at a time when the tidal current was 15 knots against us – too much and we would have to wait a few hours to traverse the narrows. So our 3 hours quickly became 8 hours and meant, as we would find out the next morning, that the Tracy Arm segment was cancelled. Ouch!

 

The ship: The ship was very nice. It was reportedly full, but it never felt crowded. We booked an inside stateroom, but were upgraded to an outside on the Main Deck toward the front. The only hassle with the room was the fact that it was adjacent to the gangway. When the ship was in port we had to constantly “go around” to get anywhere. The ship always seemed to be cold. This was the first Alaska run of the season, so I don’t know if the thermostats were never reset from the previous Hawaii cruise, but it was never warm enough. Of course it didn’t help that the weather was cold and windy for most of the cruise, but it would have definitely been nice to have a little more heat. Moral: make sure you bring warm clothes to Alaska – you just never know. As close as we can construct the passenger profile there were about 500 Americans, 350 Canadians, 300 Aussies, 200 Brits and the rest from other places. Apparently HAL is doing quite a bit of advertising in Australia and it appears to be paying off. Our dinner partners were Aussie as were some of our trivia partners.

 

One of the things that I noticed immediately while walking up the gangway was the fact that the ship was not in nearly as good a state of cosmetic maintenance as the other ships we have been on. There was a lot of surface rust in many portions of the ship. This was most surprising considering the very recent dry dock time. Fortunately this condition did not apparently carry over the inside of the ship. The carpets were all clean, although a bit worn in some places (typical for a well traveled ship), and the furnishings were generally in good shape. The elevators were interesting. There always seemed to be one or two out of service and there were a couple of ones that kept announcing the wrong floor – took a bit getting used to. It never seemed to impede the normal flow of traffic, though.

 

We found the layout of the ship to be well thought out. The only real anomaly was on the Lower Promenade. If you are heading aft expecting to get to the Rotterdam Dining Room you will find that the floor does not go through. You need to go either up or down one floor then aft, then back to the floor. The library, Internet lounge, listening lounge are all conveniently located together. It is a wonderful quiet area to read, put together a puzzle, surf the Internet or just have a cup of coffee.

 

The atrium organ is kind of a joke. It’s nice, unique and distinctive, but when it plays it is very tinny and soft. There is a console, but nobody plays it. It’s one of those things that probably looked good on paper and was unique at first, but it now appears dated and puzzling on a modern cruise ship. It does fit with the other musical themed decorations however. Well sort of – signed rock guitars and a Baroque organ??

 

Entertainment: Entertainment was pretty typical for a cruise of this type. There is an orchestra and singers and dancers which put on three “production shows” during the cruise. The show was decent, but appeared a bit rough around the edges. I don’t know if this was a new crew or what, because the individual performers are quite talented. The other acts included a banjo player who was quite talented (but The Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt on a banjo??), a juggler who was almost as funny as he was a decent juggler and the final entertainment contingent was a comedian who we found very funny. So not stellar, but definitely appropriate and acceptable. (If I took a cruise for the entertainment, I’d book a theme cruise)

 

Food: The food was quite good. It seems as though the portions have gotten smaller in the dining room, but this is probably due to the age of the passengers. It’s not a problem - if you want more, simply ask. We had two formal nights which were pretty typical. We’re partial to crab and lobster which both were quite good, but the other offerings were well received as well. There was almost no vibration in the dining room while underway, with one exception and that was when we were departing Skagway and the azipods were at 90 degrees, being used to move the ship away from the pier.

 

Staff: Staff on the ship were attentive yet unobtrusive – exactly the way we like it. They were overall friendly and helpful as well as personable. A couple of exceptions were the head table steward, who was kind of plastic and came across as nice – but insincere. And then there was the staff member who was assigned to meal time adjustments. We were assigned the later of the late seatings and desired an early seating. It was pretty obvious this guy was completely disinterested in helping out. He did take our name and went through the motions, but we got the distinct impression he could care less. I could be wrong, maybe there was nothing that could be done… the impression was that he saw us (everyone who wanted to change) as just stupid, whiney, unreasonable passengers.

 

In the Lido, there were some newly installed “sneeze barriers”, which were so low that it made it almost impossible to get to the salads and fruit at the back of the counter. The food was good and the staff helpful.

 

The recent Norovirus issues on cruise ships have resulted in staff being everywhere dispensing Purell. It is a good practice and benefits everyone, but man I hate that stuff. There were no known cases of sickness on the cruise, thank goodness. Just one of the realities of the current environment…

 

Internet: The ship has excellent coverage on Internet. I would recommend bringing a laptop as this makes on-board Internet use a lot more cost effective. The best strategy is to jump on and check email, check any other desired sites, then jump off. Compose email off-line, then jump back on and either reconnect, or cut and past into web-based email as appropriate. It is extremely wasteful to use the ships machines and be connected (at $.50 /minute) while composing email. We found wireless Internet access available in each port from the ship. In Juneau, the public library is right on the dock and has free wireless available during library hours. This connectivity is available on board from side of the ship adjacent to the dock (ssid JPL_CAP). In Skagway, Alaska Telephone and Power (ssid APTACCESS), has wireless available for $2.95 per hour or $6.95 per day which was accessible from the Crows Nest. In Ketchikan wireless Internet is reachable from the ship using Seaport (ssid Seaport) - $5.00 per hour.

 

Ports: All three ports of call were direct disembark – no tenders. We definitely appreciated this fact, particularly since in Ketchikan, both a Carnival and a Princess ship were anchored out and at times the tender line to return to the ships were extreme.

 

Skagway was completely deserted. We were the only ship in town and with the cold weather, only the hearty ventured to town.

 

Ketchikan – it was a four-ship town the day we were there and the town was comfortably packed. If you happen to need something that is not tourist related, there is a free shuttle to the WalMart in Ketchikan.

 

Juneau – we shared the town with one other ship.

 

Shore excursions: We didn’t do any shore excursions this trip, so I have nothing to report other that the usual train rides, seaplane and helicopter tours, duck trips and various whale watching cruises were well received as reported by shipmates.

 

Glaciers: The only real disappointment of the cruise was the fact that we missed Tracy Arm due to the late departure. In Glacier Bay we ended up with decent weather, although really chilly. Unfortunately the glaciers were “sleeping”. In the hour plus we were there, there were only a couple of minor calvings. I suspect it was early in the season and things haven’t gotten moving yet – but what do I know.

 

Dining room. Dinners were as usual, excellent. There was one new addition to the dining room experience this cruise. It was what I would call a “production dinner”. Diners were each given chefs hats and the first “two courses” were delivered by wait staff and entertainment cast in a unique production manner. It was fun for a change, but I’m not sure I would appreciate it as a regular fare on cruises. Desert was a no-choice white chocolate and chocolate mousse “signature dish”, but no mind – later that evening was the desert extravaganza on the Lido deck by the pool with a limitless assortment of goodies.

 

There were a couple of HAL touches that I particularly appreciated. While in Glacier Bay, they served hot pea soup on the rear deck. Since it was so cold and damp there, it really hit the spot. The Skagway high school students had the opportunity to have their Prom in the Crows Nest. I couldn’t figure out what was going on when we heard RAP music and saw a bunch of teen-agers in the Crows Nest. I can assure you that RAP is not my first choice (or any choice for that matter) in music, but I was very pleased to see HAL being a really good neighbor and making the Prom this year, something really special for the local kids. Hats off to HAL!

 

Photos- the photographs were definitely of lower quality than on previous cruises. In fact one set of dining room photos never made it to the boards. A lot of the pictures were very dark and some were completely blown out. I noted that the ship is still using a traditional film-based process. All the cruise lines prepare their prints using traditional photographic processes, but most have gone digital on the camera end. I have to believe that this conversion will be completed before too long. Needless to say, sales appeared to be more than a little sluggish.

 

Passengers- First the overall age of the cruisers was definitely toward the higher end of the age spectrum. There were almost no children on board. There were the usual compliment of wheel chairs, scooters and walkers and there was even a blind passenger with a lead dog. Of course this is what you would expect for a cruise that is before school lets out. This will probably not be the case in a few weeks. We played trivia with a woman who does four HAL cruises a year. She had done a two-week Hawaii cruise followed back to back with the Alaska cruise, and she will do back-to-back Alaska cruises again this fall. (A wonderful trivia partner – she knows all the answers) We met up with Cruise Critic regulars BillS and bellebaby. We also saw and heard the tales about a woman who lives aboard – kind of an eccentric old lady that wheels around the ship with a walker and a basket filled with stuffed animals. Interesting stories to say the least.

 

Other shipboard activities: We are not gamblers, art buyers, bingo enthusiasts, spa groupies or cooks, so I cannot comment with any degree of experience on these activities – I also didn’t hear anything negative, so I can only assume that these are pretty standard fare for a mid sized cruise ship.

 

Disembarkation: Overall, very smooth. I especially like the fact that you can stay in your stateroom or in a public area until departure, your choice. The only recommendation I would make is if you are on your own and planning on taking a taxi, get off early as the taxi line builds pretty quickly. We took our time and even so it was only about 30 minutes, but in the time we were in line the line almost doubled.

 

All in all it was a wonderful cruise, exactly what we needed and wanted. It confirmed our perception of HAL as a quality product, with well trained and attentive staff, generally well maintained and reliable equipment (surface rust being the notable exception) and a team committed to a quality passenger experience.

 

Now, one last thing… I never could figure out what three chaise lounges were doing on the wing of the bridge. I choose to believe that they were for the off-duty pilots, family members, company execs or other dignitaries and not for some other reason…

[RustaRoo]

Thank you for posting your thorough and thoughtful review. As you can see I'm counting down to Alaska and found your report interesting.

[Bill S]

Paul: I enjoyed reading your review of our cruise! I will post a short review as well tomorrow. It was a lot of fun meeting you and Karen and winning all those valuable prizes at team trivia! Hope we can cruise with you again!

[Sundagger]

Thanks for the thorough review - it matches my experience in Alaska being chilly but uncrowded early or late in the season (I was on the Veendam for the last cruise of the season a couple of years ago and it was overcast and showery the whole trip - but pleasantly uncrowded). The organ on the Zaandam is definitely bizarre.

 

I was surprised at the internet access when docked. I had never thought of that possibility, but it is a real public service.

 

Glad to hear that the ship's quality is being maintained.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome home. Glad you had a great cruise. Sorry you missed Tracy Arm. Review was great.

 

Those 3 lounge chairs probably belong to the spa area. Saw the same thing on the Volendam and they were for the spa area.

[OldCodger73]

mach, thanks for your well written, informative report. We leave on our Alaska trip next Friday on the Amsterdam, so I've been avidly reading all the just-back reports.

 

I was also interested in reading about the Zaandam as we'll be on it for a 5-day coastal in late September.

[bellebaby]

Paul

 

Thanks for writing the review of our cruise. We really enjoyed sharing lunch in the dining room with you, Karen, Bill and Virginia. Quite enjoyable.

 

To summarize my thoughts regarding our first cruise on the Zaandam, I found the ship in need of day to day maintenance compared to other HAL ships on which we have sailed.

 

FYI, if you buy internet time from Seaport, the time loaded on the card is good in Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, and Ketchican. One hour of time for $5.00 can be used at any of their locations. We used our left over time from last year this year!

 

Alaska, as usual, was breathtaking and relaxing. Just what we needed too.

 

Thanks again for the review.

 

Regards

 

B

[plantlady095]

Many thanks for the review! We are ecstatic with excitement and can hardly wait to close the suitcases and fly north. It is very, very helpful to get a feel for the ship in advance!

[SDHALFAN]

That was a very well thought out review, Paul, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

 

Quite frankly the Zaandam is not high on my list of HAL ships. Last year I had a fairly good cabin steward but the dining room steward and his assistant were not the best I have had, that's for sure. I hated that Master Chef's Dinner and hope that they won't be having it on the Amsterdam in late July.

 

In just about 9 weeks I'll be headed north to Alaska:D .

 

Valerie:)

[kakalina]

Thanks for an interesting review. We were recently on the Zaandam and agree with your observations. That was great what they did for the prom kids!

BTW that would be Mama Lou you ran into. I've sailed with her many times and she is really cool.

[NancyIL]

Thank you for a wonderful review. My first cruise was on the Zaandam in 2004, and I agree with you about the organ! Our cruise had engine troubles, and we arrived very late in our first (Caribbean) port. I'm sorry you missed Tracy Arm. The two glacier sailing days is one of the highlights of the Zaandam's itinerary - and it's a shame you missed it.

 

In spite of warmer than normal temps elsewhere in the country - it seems Alaska is chillier this year than it was last May at the same time.

[bellebaby]

That was a very well thought out review, Paul, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

 

Quite frankly the Zaandam is not high on my list of HAL ships. Last year I had a fairly good cabin steward but the dining room steward and his assistant were not the best I have had, that's for sure. I hated that Master Chef's Dinner and hope that they won't be having it on the Amsterdam in late July.

 

In just about 9 weeks I'll be headed north to Alaska:D .

 

Valerie:)

 

Hi, Valerie

 

We were on the same sailing as Paul and shared many of his observations. However, I do agree with you regarding our dining room steward and his assistant. They were not up to the standard we have enjoyed on other HAL ships. Our cabin steward was fine, but not outstanding.

 

We chose to dine in the Pinnacle on the evening of the Master Chef's Dinner. We attended on the Volendam last year and once is more than enough. On the bright side, the Pinnacle was great.

 

If we have other options, we will not choose the Zaandam again. Never say never, but it will not be our preference in the future.

 

I look forward to your Amsterdam report in a few weeks.

 

B

[RedmondCruiser]

Good Review

 

For the life of me I cannot believe that anyone would take an excursion to visit a Wal Mart.

[NancyIL]

Good Review

 

For the life of me I cannot believe that anyone would take an excursion to visit a Wal Mart.

 

 

I've read the shuttle to Wal-Mart is mainly for the crew members.

[Juanita462]

So they still haven't fixed the elevators! They were a constant problem all 17 days of our Hawaii cruise. One couple was stuck on one for a time. Sometimes the doors would just open and close but the elevator wouldn't move - we often had to walk up or down a floor to get a different elevator.

 

We felt that the dining room service was very poor - usually taking almost 2 hours to get through dinner - then they would run up to our table and hurry us on our way - no lingering over your coffee. I know they have to set up for the next sitting, but if they got our food to us more quickly we would be out of there sooner. We have sat through the "Chef's dinner" more times than enough. Next time we would go to the Lido - which I hear was packed.

 

The cleanliness was not as good in the public areas - two of the women's washrooms were downright smelly. I reported this to the lady cleaner but it didn't seem to help. We observed a crew member doing something very unsanitary on the Lido and reported it but all they did was move him behind the counter to handle the toast. We ate on the other side of the Lido after that.

 

I agree that the Zaandam will not be our preference in the future.

To the original poster - they used to have a lot of sports activities and competition games during the cruise - the games are gone and the sports almost non-existent. It was a great disappointment to us - especially since we had 10 sea days. We too aren't into Bingo, art sales, wine tasting etc. so relied heavily on the sports for things to do.

 

You were very fortunate in your embarkation - we waited for 2 hours in 2 lines because the computers were out - my DH is disabled and didn't even have a chair to sit on while waiting.

 

Re: the trivia - we never won one game because there were people who had cruised recently and knew all the answers. They need to have new quizzes each season and then not just repeat them over and over.

So - what company uses the most sugar and vanilla in the whole world?

[selltile]

I agree with you almost entirely. This ship needs a revamp. It's clean , etc but tired. I don't do stage things but my husband , who is very forgiving, came back to the acbin to bed-----and the casinos were very cold to me--Still a good cruise and everyone should go to Alaksa now

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Well, I must go through life pretty oblivious about a lot of things. The Zaandam was our first HAL ship last August to Alaska, and I thought she was so beautiful and well-maintained. Zaandam is one of the R-class ships, and I liked her so much that I booked a cruise on another R-class vessel, the Amsterdam. I'm also booked on the Volendam next year. Can you tell I really like the HAL R-class?

 

We had the best dining room staff and cabin steward. I guess because it was my first cruise I was looking at the Zaandam with stars in my eyes. But I really, truly thought she was a lovely ship, and I was on her only nine months ago! She's only seven years old! So I'm a little confused by all the statements saying that she is deteriorating?:confused:

 

Mach4, thanks very much for your review. I agree with you; I think that HAL making the Crow's Nest available for the local high school kids in Skagway to have their prom was a very neighborly gesture indeed.

 

Karin

[mach4]

Thanks for the kind words on the review. It is interesting to compare the experiences. So much depends on your frame of reference and the particular staff you have assigned.

 

We were particularly thrilled to be back on an "American-style" cruise. For an interesting comparason, you might want to read my review of the MSC cruise we took last summer - review here

 

 

Maybe the MSC cruise experience made us less critical of the kinds of things that happen. HAL is great.

 

By the way, I wasn't suggesting WalMart as an excursion, only that if you found yourself in Ketchikan and needed something not available in the tourist area, there is an option to get it.

[Tinknock50]

Thanks for the kind words on the review. It is interesting to compare the experiences. So much depends on your frame of reference and the particular staff you have assigned.

 

We were particularly thrilled to be back on an "American-style" cruise. For an interesting comparason, you might want to read my review of the MSC cruise we took last summer - review here

 

 

Maybe the MSC cruise experience made us less critical of the kinds of things that happen. HAL is great.

 

By the way, I wasn't suggesting WalMart as an excursion, only that if you found yourself in Ketchikan and needed something not available in the tourist area, there is an option to get it.

 

Hi....great review!

 

I need some personal care stuff for my Mom and the Walmart brand works wonderfully for her. If I can get to Walmart in Ketchican it will save lots of space in my luggage. Where did you catch the shuttle?

[rebeljohn]

Nice review.........The Zaandam was our first HAL cruise.

 

We also saw and heard the tales about a woman who lives aboard – kind of an eccentric old lady that wheels around the ship with a walker and a basket filled with stuffed animals. Interesting stories to say the least.

 

Probably Mama Lou, as another poster pointed out..............nice lady. We ran into her several times on our cruise...............Everybody knew her........