Zuiderdam Review

First HAL cruise, and possibly last

Review for the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise on Zuiderdam
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CaribbeanBluSea
2-5 Cruises • Age 30s

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Sail Date: Dec 2012
Cabin: Signature Superior Verandah Suite

My husband and I booked this 11-day Panamanian cruise for our honeymoon. We booked the cruise almost a year in advance, and were counting down the days til embarkation! We had just gotten married and both graduated from graduate school... so the cruise was a much awaited time to relax and enjoy each other (stress free!!).

My parents (and several other dedicated HAL sailors) have nothing but rave reviews for their HAL experiences, which is one of the reasons why we booked this HAL cruise. Unfortunately, our experience on the Zuiderdam for this cruise did not fit the bill...

The Zuiderdam spent 10 days in dry dock before our cruise. I read several other posts about members' pre-dry dock experiences on the Zuiderdam and many people indicted a dire need for ship maintenance and cleaning. The ship returned to Ft. Lauderdale late from dry dock, which made the boarding and embarkation process a complete nightmare. The boarding process was completely disorganized. The ship was supposed to embark at 5:00pm, and being that the ship was late and the ship staff was cleaning, cooking, making up our staterooms, etc, the ship didn't embark until 6:30-7pm. I don't know what (if any) maintenance was done during dry dock, because the ship was very dirty when we boarded. There was sawdust all over the observation deck and stairs, and also on our verandah balcony. My husband also found 3-5 razor blades just laying on a bench on the observation deck (very dangerous). We originally signed up for open seating, however the lines to get in the Vista Dining Room (VDR) were unbelievably long so we ordered room service. The room service was decent. During the whole cruise, we ordered room service about 4 times, and the orders were never entirely correct.

Cabin Review

Signature Superior Verandah Suite

Whirlpool bathrub in stateroom 8086 did not work. Lights in stateroom went out almost every day.

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