Overall we very much enjoyed our recent cruise on the Zaandam. The food and service in general were extremely good, and we concluded that we received very fair value for our vacation dollar.

Embarkation in San Diego is easy. We stayed overnight at a small hotel in La Jolla and, on November 5, arrived at the pier just after noon. Check-in was efficient as we had used HAL's on-line process (keeping a hard copy of the form to show the agent, as is required). Our time with the agent was just long enough for her to snap our photos, and then we boarded.

Unfortunately, everyone was herded to the Lido buffet, and the lines were thus huge! We should have walked to the burger bar at the aft pool deck but instead went through the line and then shared a table with some folks--even though the room was crowded, the first meal was delicious! Off to a very good start. Read more