My review on the Zuirderdam-Thanksgiving week

[voyeurism26]

We just returned from our cruise on the Zuiderdam. We went during Thanksgiving week which was November 17-24th.

 

Several months back I posted my review regarding our 10-day cruise on the Volendam, which was not the best and I was a bit dissappointed with that cruise however, I must admit that we had a great time on the "Z".

 

This was our 3rd time on the "Z" and I know she had her problems but I guess the 3rd time is the charm. Checking in was a breeze and very easy and simple. Our Cabin was ready (cabin 5160) and it was clean and our cabin attendent greeted us and made us feel very welcome.

 

The ship pretty much looked the same as the last time, for me it was clean although some people remarked it was dirty, but I didn't see any of that. I mean if I was going to be on my hands and knees inspecting the ship, I'm sure I would have found something but I'm on vacation and just as long as the ship smells clean, my cabin is and was clean and the bathrooms were clean throughout the ship it was clean...is good enough for me.

 

The service was incredible, I felt I was back on HAL from years ago and that I'm use too, the staff was very friendly and very helpful throughout the ship. Our waiter in the dinning room was great. He was in control of the service and it seem that the service in the dinning room was faster and we got served on time without a long wait between courses. Again, throughout the ship the service was incredible!

 

We also ate dinner in the pinnacle and as always the service and the food were great.

 

What I'm dissppointed was that desserts on this ship was not the greatest and tasted frozen. However, the portions and the quality of the food was great. Unlike the other HAL ships I have been on the desserts are usually outstanding and the food and the portion of the food is not the greatest. I come to the conclusion that the food on each ship varies from ship to ship.

 

Every night the dinner was great and the selection of food was the best with the exception of Thanksgiving Dinner. I was dissappointed that they didn't do a better Thanksgiving Dinner. The turkey tasted like a pre-packaged "jeny-o" turkey that they warmed up in the oven and sliced, the stuffing tasted like pre-frozen packaged stuffing. No cranberry sauce. The pumpkin pie was the worse tasting pumpkin pie I have ever tasted. It was like they took the can of pumpkin puree and just placed it into a pie crust, froze the pie and then defrosted it and it was tasteless and the crust was soggy. The other dinners on the other nights were great with the exception of the Thanksgiving Dinner.

 

The ports were great...very nice...but my favorite is still half moon cay!!!

 

What I like most about this ship was the guests. This was the first time that we had a great ship full of some really nice people from all over the world. People were friendly to each other and although we had over 250 kids onboard, even the kids behaved themselves and parents made sure there kids didn't run wild and acted like animals. The staff was surely prepared for these kids and they had a lot of activities planned each day for the kids. Teenagers and younger childred all had fun and respectfull from other guests. Even the older people on the cruise had a great time and had fun....in the past especially what we had experienced on our 10-day cruise, the average guest was 75 years old and since we are in our 40's the older people onboard usually ignored us, but this time we met some great people from different ages and the energy onboard was great! We had a lot of fun!

 

Overall, it was a great cruise and we had lots of fun. The "Z" really became a great ship with a great crew! We can't wait to back again!

[kakalina]

Thanks for posting your review. I am glad that you had a good time. I was surpised to hear about the turkey dinner. Last year it was wonderful. Especially the stuffing which had apple and walnuts in it. Yum.

Welcome back.

[jbhcw]

We are doing a family cruise in February and still having some concerns about things for the kids to do. Also we are not picky about wear and tear on a ship so glad to hear the ship looked good:) Any pictures? Again thanks so much for your thoughts on the Zuiderdam:)

[KAYEF]

THANKS for your posting...............that's one of the HAL ships we've not yet been on.

As for the desserts, we were recently on Zaandam for 15 nights and we, too, were really disappointed in the desserts..........there was a dramatic change from previous cruises. The capaccino bombe still appeared (its one of our FAVORITES ;) ) most other things were quite disappointing. A tablemate who was diabetic said the no sugar added choices were quite good.

The other thing that was really lacking was the quality of the cookies on this ship...................we had only chocolate chip, period, until the last couple of days. They were FLAT, sort of underbaked, and quite flavorless. I watched a worker "pulling" them off the parchment paper one day and it was sort of like watching a band-aid coming off..........strange to say.

People were also complaining about the dryness of the bread pudding; now, that's against the dining "religion" of anyone who loves HAL;) . A lady told me this was the first time she'd HAD to put the sauce on it.

The Lido food was FANTASTIC........those Asian stir fries at lunchtime and the choices of steamed / stir fried veggies would excuse the lack of good desserts for me.

Some days I just had the fantastic spinach and another veggie and some fruit. LOVE that they are doing the Asian stir fry entrees.:)

We need to try this ship............thanks again.

[winemistress45]

We were also on the thanksgiving cruise -- you must have been down the hall from us --- we were in 5122.

 

We had pretty great weather -- the seas a little rough a couple of nights, but at least we made it to all 4 ports of call.

 

Half Moon Cay is gorgeous -- the sun is intense though -- we saw quite a few sunburns at dinner that night.

 

I agree completely about the pumpkin pie -- I'm not sure what it was, but it wasn't pumpkin pie. We opted to order rocky road ice cream after the first bite and it was great.

 

There were so many people on this cruise and in reality there were 400 kids under 18 on board and also some large groups/families. Definitely a younger crowd.

 

Glad you had a nice time. :)

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Welcome Home voyeurism26:) I am glad to hear third time was a charm.;) Sounds like it was a good week. The number of familes and children for a Vista Class is not suprise the nirror the numbers from what we heard last year.

 

Thanks for posting your review. I am glad that you had a good time. I was surpised to hear about the turkey dinner. Last year it was wonderful. Especially the stuffing which had apple and walnuts in it. Yum.

Welcome back.

 

I too am surprised to hear that the Thanksgiving meal was not great. I was on the same cruise with kakalina last year and it was excellent and Trish you are right that dressing was wonderful. Now I do remember that I thought it was strange that they did not offer Pumpkin Pie on Thanksgiving Day instead there was some sort of Berry and Pumpkin cheesecake I think. I do remember them finally offering it a few days later and it was typical good Pumpkin Pie:)

[hammybee]

How exactly does one prepare turkey and all the trimmings for 2000 guests? Yikes !

 

Anyway, glad you had a great time and I think you nailed the food topic well. Not only does it vary, ship to ship, it's subjective passenger to passenger.

 

It also sounds like the Zuiderdam was more fortunate with its kids than RCL, whereby the annual "put the nasty families from hell-o, off the ship" holiday tradition persists.

 

Happy that the third time was the charm for you. :)

[mikelan6]

Thanks for the review! Can't wait to see the pictures!

[zackiedawg]

Glad to hear those on the cruise after ours had a good time too! Though we didn't get the T-giving experience...I agree that the desserts aren't the strongest asset on the Z.

 

When we were departing the Zuiderdam on the 17th, one of the staff wishing us 'adios' mentioned that the next cruise was going to have as many as 400 children on board, and she wasn't saying it in an excited way...I'd have to say I definately preferred the dozen or so children on our cruise in comparison!

[voyeurism26]

Thank you everyone for there response...surprisingly enough, the crew treated all the kids great! I didn't know there were 400 kids onboard...to be honest all the kids behaved themselves so well and they had a lot of activities for the kids it really didn't effect my cruise vacation. Although the ship had a lot of large groups and families, we all had fun and the staff and crew treated everyone with respect.

 

What I'm amazed was that many of the staff members remembered our names even though they served us a drink perhaps once our twice and with so many people on the ship, they had the time to remember my name. Not only did we have a lot of people, it didn't feel overwhelming with people. Again there were a lot of times I sat in the sun away from the crowd and had piece and quite.

 

I also want to point out that since this was our 3rd time on the "Z", we did have some great times in the past. We sailed on the "Z" the first year it was luanched into service and the crew was very new and learning, and the ship still had some issues but all in all it was fun, the second time we went during a hurricane and it wasn't the ships fault and can't blame HAL nor the ship. But the Hurricane cruise on the "Z" was an experience that I will never forget. This time, no hurricanes, no inexperience cruise...just a good ole time and although I'm back, I miss being on the ship!

 

I like to hear others that were on this cruise and to please share there experiences.