Zaandam Review

Zaandam - Hawaii

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Zaandam
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nomorehal
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Feb 2009

Feb. 5 departure for Hawaii on Ms Zaandam. There is no doubt that the 'technical difficulty' that delayed our departure from San Diego was related to the lack of hydraulics for the stabilizers (prevent side to side roll of ship). I understand that pitch (front to back movement is unavoidable), but the constant side to side roll as evidenced by one's feet and the motion of the water in the pools proved that we weathered gale force winds and forty foot waves WITHOUT stabilizers. The stabilizers remained dysfunctional throughout the cruise. The ship should not have been permitted to leave San Diego without stabilizers especially considering the average age of the HAL cruiser. I saw many older folk fall onto the floor, into chairs, into tables and many injuries were incurred. One also wonders if the incoming storm which hastened our departure from Maui by seven hours was not related to the lack of the stabilizers. The second problem with the cruise which was also avoidable was the presence of Norovirus on the ship which restricted activities, ease of meals in the Lido Dining room and other inconveniences. A simple finger-stick for a drop of blood sample placed on a slide, easy two step staining procedure and an experienced microscopist specializing in hematology would easily have detected the presence of a viral infection in a boarding passenger. There was abundant time to perform this test as we wound our way through the dockside check-in. (I can do the entire process within ten minutes.) I AM a former specialist in reading blood smears and determining from the white blood cells present and the percentage of circulating lymphocytes to tell the officials which passenger(s) has/have a viral infection. The self-declaration form we filled out is useless. Who is going to answer yes to a question which will cancel their long-awaited cruise? As an aside: As I was trying to get to the bridge portion of the ship, I took some wrong turns after encountering a Fire Exit sign on the door which would have led me to my destination. Apparently the Dutch have no idea that Americans do not breach Fire Doors. I entered many other doors which had NO warning signs of any sort and accidentally found myself walking up the steps to the pilot house. Good thing I was not a hijacker or terrorist, eh. One more thing: Do you all realize what HAL pays their 'non-professional' staff members? The Eastern Europeans in the casino get TEN DOLLARS PER DAY. You can extrapolate downward to get a sense of what HAL must pay the Indonesian cabin staff which do the yeoman's portion of the work aboard the ship. I call that slave labor and I will be notifying my congressional representatives about it. I will not sail HAL again.

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