The Zuiderdam is a lovely ship with nice amenities, such as a 3 deck high theater, glass outside elevators, a nice view astern in the lower dining room, a large and diverse buffet, a pool area with a removable cover. The ship had evidently recently had renovations as the deck map available did not show the internet access area and library had been moved from the promenade deck, Deck 3, to the Crow's Nest on Deck 10. This made room for additional shop space and a small movie theater on Deck 3.

The dining arrangements are either fixed dinner in the upper dining room, or anytime dining in the lower dining room. Breakfast (usually 8:00 - 9:30) and lunch (12:00—1:00, except there is no table service in port) are anytime dining in one dining room or the other. There is no fixed seating for either of these meals. I found the breakfast, lunch, and dinner anytime dining room service is completely dysfunctional. It is impossible to obtain a complete meal as ordered in a timely manner. A couple examples, I ordered the breakfast special, two eggs with grits, with a side of ham at about 9:15. I received the dish, without the ham, after everyone at the table was finished at about 10:20 and waited 10 minutes more for the ham, or another time a person at our table was told they were out of oatmeal. Later in the cruise we found that by waiting until near 9:00 pm to enter the dining room for dinner, the service was better. This may have been due to the lack of a crowd, or the number of complaints resulting in an improved effort. The service in the dining room appears intended to drive one to the buffet, at least for breakfast and lunch. There are some nice touches in the buffet, namely fresh cooked stir fry and pasta dishes for lunch and made to order omelets and egg benedict for breakfast. Dinner selections available were usually similar to the dishes available in the dining room. When GI illness is present the ability to serve oneself is removed and the service in the buffet becomes iffy, meaning it is often difficult to communicate with the serving staff to obtain what is desired, and the lines are often long.

The cleaning personnel appeared to be lacking in training or experience. We were in deck chairs on the promenade deck one afternoon and were splashed by water hitting a nearby boat. Then a second splash occurred, and I got up as the third salvo hit. Looking up I saw a room steward cleaning a balcony two decks up. With the sickness on the ship it is easy to imagine the worse as to what he was cleaning and tossing off the balcony. Room cleanliness was hit or miss, an example is I wiped up a coffee stain on the bathroom floor after our room was made up for the day. Read more