Embarkation: We had a challenge on getting flights down to Florida but did get a flight into Ft Lauderdale and drove the 3 hours to Port Canaveral. Orlando would have been the logical place to fly into but since we booked on such short notice this was the best we could do. The car rental agency, Budget, that we dropped our car off at got us to the boat quickly. They parked right at the luggage drop off where the dock workers unloaded our luggage to be loaded on the Zaandam. It was a couple of hundred feet to the embarkation center, through security, up a flight of stairs on an escalator and we were completing our boarding paperwork (5-10 minutes).
Then it was onto the ship. This was our first cruise on Holland America so we really didn't know what to expect. The HAL Kids Club representatives who gave us an itinerary for the week of the kids programs greeted us at the gangway. We went up the gangway and were on board at 3PM. We walked around exploring the ship with our 2 children ages 7 and 10. There was the required pre cruise lifeboat drill. We were back at our cabin by 4:30 and our luggage had already arrived! The fastest I have ever seen my luggage arrive in the 3 cruises I've been on. I had a good feeling about this cruise. I wasn't disappointed.
The Zaandam: What a boat!! Everything about this ship was impressive. The artwork throughout the ship, the reading areas, the library/internet room, the formal dining area, the lounges, the Pinnacle Grill, were all very well decorated, elaborate and "classy". We loved the size of our cabins (the room seemed a little bigger than the super liner rooms we had been in previously). Much of the lido deck area was a casual atmosphere with the casual buffet area, "outdoor grill", 2 bars, 2 swimming pools and 2 hot tubs. A real positive was the retractable roof over the swimming pool area. Early in the cruise it was extremely windy and at times overcast. The crew within seconds could close or open this enormous roof to adapt to the changing weather conditions. We did not use the spa located on the lido deck.