Zuiderdam Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,028 reviews

The Good, the Bad, and the Med

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Zuiderdam
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kdowneymd
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Jul 2008
Cabin: Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom

Please enter your review.We recently returned from a 12 night round-trip cruise from Venice through the Eastern Med. My husband and I, mid 50's travelled with my husband's brother and his long-time partner. We did a similar cruise last summer on RCCL Legend of the Seas and so loved it that we wanted to do another this summer. I chose HAL this time because it offered an overnight in Venice, one of my favorite cities and one that our travelling companions (brother-in-law) hadn't visited as well as an overnight in Istanbul which I was dying to see after visiting Ephesus last summer. Several of the ports were the same, Athens, Mykonos, Kusadasi but we didn't at all mind because we felt there was still so much to be seen in these ports. Prior to this sailing, we have only sailed on RCCL (3 med cruises, 2 Caribbean). This was also our first time not travelling with any of our four children.

WE arrived in Venice on Sunday morning at Marco Polo. I had previously arranged on-line for a water taxi to pick the 4 of us up at the airport, and we were met just outside of customs and taken by van to the water taxi and had a magnificent ride into Venice, getting the driver to go down the Grand Canal to the hotel. Well worth the cost to the four of us. Taking the Alilaguna is very easy but does involve toting your own bags. Spent the night at the Westin Regina and Europa on Starwood points. Spent Sunday exploring, took a nap and went out for dinner wandering and ate a lovely meal at the Antica Bissetta. Monday morning we again walked for several hours returned to the hotel and made the drastic mistake of deciding to eat at the beautiful outdoor restaurant at the hotel so my brother-in-laws could experience a meal on the Grand Canal. The service lovely, the view priceless, the vastly overpriced meal (375 Euros for 4) set us on edge. The previous evening the hotel concierge asked us how we were getting to the ship and I told him we had it covered, thinking we would take the Alilaguna. With the transportation strike the next day, we all agreed that his suggestion of a water taxi would make our lives easier and indeed right after lunch our taxi was waiting and took us directly to the terminal. Check-in was quite easy, I decided to wheel on my suitcase while the three others left theirs (we each had one carry-on plus my husband and I had a wheel garment bag).

We each had a VC room on deck five, starboard side several doors from each other. The room is narrower than RCCL rooms but was quite adequate for two. Three or four would be a crowd to me, but there is a sofa bed. There was quite adequate storage with the under bed drawers and the closets are nicely organized. The bathroom was small but usable. We had no problems with our tub shower, good pressure and drainage but by brother-in laws cabin had poor tub drainage throughout the trip even after several maintenance calls. We did have difficulty with the flushing of the toilet (it wouldn't) several different days. Their cabin had no difficulties

Cabin Review

Deluxe Ocean-View Verandah Stateroom

Cabin VC
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