My husband and I just returned from out first cruise on Holland America on the Zuiderdam. Because of reviews that I read and how helpful they were to me in making my decision on whether or not to book this ship, I thought it important to add my comments. I must mention that this was our first experience cruising with HAL. There was some trepidation on my part that the other guests would be much older. While there were a lot of older guests, it was a well-mixed crowd. We had a balcony cabin on the Verandah Deck.

The reviews on the Zuiderdam that I read were very mixed - from the worst to the best. While I assumed that many of the differences in opinion had to due to the fact that the ship was taken out of service to correct some of the problems, it was not until I experienced them for myself that I could understand the vastly different opinions given. Here is my summary of the experience. Here are the top five reasons to book this cruise: 1.Significant last minute discounts, especially on balcony cabins (check prices at www.cruisedeals.com). 2.Spacious and clean rooms. 3.Good food (including room service) 4.Efficient Staff 5.Easy on and off.

Here are the top five reasons you may not want to book this cruise. 1.Excessive Noise and Vibrations in many areas, especially Restaurant, Rooms (Excessive Noise in Room from A/C and unable to turn fan/down off at night). 2.Few activities, poorly scheduled activities, and shows that are just "okay" 3.Poor dEcor & sauna and Jacuzzi equipment that was often not working well despite being fairly new. 4.Poor ship layout of lounges and walkways that took us almost the whole cruise to figure out. 5.Slight smell of sewage in certain areas of ship at times and outside on upper decks. Read more