We cruised on the Zuiderdam on the 7 Day Inside Passage to Glacier Bay from July 4th 2009.  We were a party of fourteen, on a family reunion, with ages ranging from 6 to 76.  It was the first cruise for most of us, although my parents cruised with HAL last summer to Alaska and loved it.  The rest of us would probably not chose a cruise as our vacation getaway, but it seemed the best way for everyone's needs to be met.  We read many reviews before sailing and tried to approach the trip without preconceived ideas.  Overall, we enjoyed the trip, but we would probably not cruise again.  That's not a comment against HAL, just that we prefer to travel independently.Embarkation in Vancouver was easy and pain free.  We were on board and sitting comfortably on the lido deck very quickly, and our luggage was soon delivered to our staterooms.  Cabins - We stayed in the basic staterooms on Deck 1.  My husband and I had a "room with a view" and our daughters were in an inside stateroom.  Both were more spacious than we expected and very comfortable.  The beds were amazingly comfortable, and HAL have done a good job upgrading the bedding and pillows.  We slept very well.  I'd have preferred our porthole window not to have had a huge smear of dark blue paint across the top of it, but the views were still great.  The cabins were kept very clean and tidy, and the cabin attendants were very good about cleaning up after my messy teens.  The toilet smelled slightly, but we assumed that was part and parcel of cruising and it didn't bother us.  When my childen's toilet became blocked, it was fixed within minutes.  Beware, however, if you are in a room with connecting doors to the next stateroom.  The door in my children's cabin didn't lock properly, and the lady in the next cabin opened the door three times on the first afternoon, we're not sure why.  We asked main desk to fix the lock, and we assume it was done while we were out of the room, as the problem didn't re-occur. The Lido - We ate some breakfasts and lunches in the Lido, which was adequate.  There were lines for some items, but they moved quickly and we never had to wait long.  It was occasionally difficult to find a table, as we were a large party but we usually managed to find somewhere quite quickly.  The food in the Lido was fairly tasty, nothing spectacular, but nothing we hated.  My mother felt that although the quality was the same as on their previous cruise, HAL had cut back on the more expensive items that she saw before, like high end fruit, smoked salmon, etc.  It was a pity that there was only a very limited range of tea, coffee, water or lemonade available out of hours.  It would have been nice to have had a wider choice to include fruit juices, which were only available during meal service hours.  We loved the servers, especially Okie Dokey and Jerry, both of whom quickly became favorites with the younger members of our party.  The staff were all very warm and welcoming, always greeting guests with a smile.The Vista - We had a 7.45 pm seating for dinner each night in the Visa restaurant, which was a good choice for us.  Occasionally some members of our party were late for dinner if they were on an excursion, but they were still seated and fed, although they turned up well past the 8.00 pm deadline.  Sometimes we had to rush our meal if we wanted to go to an evening show.  On the whole, though, we preferred the leisurely pace and enjoyed having a meal together without being rushed.  The wait staff were terrific, very friendly and unobtrusive.  They noticed and remembered individual preferences, such as whether someone liked gravy on their meat or not.  Same for the wine service - our wine waiter was excellent, fun and worked his socks off to please us.  A small niggle - my daughter is a vegan, and we had been assured before we sailed that she would be given a vegan menu to choose from.  Unfortunately, they only had a vegetarian menu, and it was impossible for her to tell which items were truly vegan.  She ended up ordering steamed vegetables for most meals.  In the Lido, she usually had to eat fruit or salad as there was nothing else that was obviously vegan.  As she's a teen, she didn't much mind losing three pounds during the cruise, but I was disappointed that the promise of a special vegan menu wasn't really what she got.  We ate in the lower Visa restaurant a number of times for breakfast and lunch, and the service was impeccable.  We usually got seated on our own, but once were asked to share a table with two delightful ladies from Vancouver.  I usually prefer to be "en famille", but they were excellent company and we enjoyed meeting them.  We did go to one afternoon tea in the Vista.  The pastries were beautiful to look at (we were too full from lunch and just had tea), but we were all seated at large tables squeezed into a corner of the restaurant.  It was a bit overcrowded and nobody was very relaxed.  Didn't bother again.We had breakfast in our room a couple of times, and it arrived on time and as ordered, except for disembarkation day, when the staff were clearly overwhelmed and everything ran late.  It didn't matter to us, as we'd ordered our breakfast to be earlier than we needed it, so we had plenty of time.Overall, the food on board was probably better than we anticipated. Onboard activities - we didn't get involved with many of the organized activities, but those that we attended were fun and worthwhile.  The comedian was great, and the dancing troupe were fun.  We ended up joining in with the afternoon trivia quiz a few times as our family tended to congregate in the Crow's Nest at the same time as the trivia was held.  The Crow's Nest was our favorite place on board.  The gym was good, and on the two occasions I used it, it wasn't crowded.  The gym staff were helpful.  The ship never seemed overcrowded (except for the last morning, when it was a bunfight to get off, but more of that later ...), and we could always find space for the whole family to congregate, whether on the Lido deck, the crow's nest, or one of the promenade decks.  Even during the glacier watching, there was room on deck for a good view.  And no shortage of blankets, contrary to rumor!  My husband and I walked the lower promenade deck a couple of times a day, and it was often empty, despite the amazing views.Excursions - at Skagway we took the train excursion but were extremely disappointed and felt that the brochure was misleading.  Boarding was chaos - there was nobody to direct people, and we ended up in a carriage that was so overcrowded that children had to sit on adult laps.  We couldn't move to another carriage, as each carriage was chained off and you couldn't walk between them.  HAL told us afterwards that there were 100 spare seats, but we didn't find one. It wasn't clear in the brochure that the train took you up the mountain and turned back without letting you off for a break - a very long 3 and a half hours.  We took the younger children, and it was just too long for 6 year olds - we had anticipated stretching our legs at the top and having a bit of a break from sitting in a crowded carriage.  None of the windows opened, which is understandable in colder weather, but unfortunately during the heatwave we experienced, it made the journey oppressive.  On the return journey everyone in the whole carriage was in a stupor, slumped in their seats and no longer looking out at the view - just praying for the trip to end.  We were given some warm bottled water and warned not to take more than 2 bottles each, and were told afterwards that this was not included in the cost of the excursion and was a complimentary gesture.  Not appreciated, I am afraid.  It felt like we were in a cattle truck, being transported to market.  All the other reviews I've read for this excursion raved about it, so maybe we just got a bad day. Other members of our party did a fly fishing excursion which they loved, but their second trip was a disaster.  They spent most of the six hours travelling to the place where they were supposed to go on a hike and go canoeing.  They had to take five modes of transport to get there, and felt that the very short activities at the end of the long journey didn't justify the trip.  They did complain to HAL, and were told that nobody else had complained.  They'd have been happier if HAL had acknowledged their complaint instead of arguing with them.  HAL did refund the ticket price for the two smaller children on the train excursion.  Overall, we felt that the excursions were way overpriced.  Ports of Call - I didn't go ashore in Juneau, but my family was disappointed and felt it was too touristy and not particularly attractive.  Unfortunately, we felt the same about Skagway and Ketchikan.  The shops all sold the same overpriced tat and the towns were shabby.  Living in Alaska is tough, and it showed.  We'd have been better off staying on board and enjoying the ship's facilities with fewer people around.Disembarkation - we stayed in our cabin until it was time to disembark.  It was clear that the ship was fairly chaotic at this time, with staff already bustling around trying to get ready for the next group of passengers to board.  A staff member rushed into our cabin while we were still getting dressed, to check our mini bar.  It might have been better to have waited until we left, as it was rather obtrusive.  The same staff member woke my sister's child by going in to check their mini bar.  As one might expect, many people didn't listen to the disembarkation instructions, and some didn't disembark at the time they should have, resulting in long lines blocking every hallway.  It took some time to get off the ship, but that was not HAL's fault.  We found our luggage immediately, and were out of the area quickly.  Luckily we could walk to our hotel, as the lines for buses and taxis were very long.Children and Teen activities - The two younger children in our party went to a lot of activities in the kid's club, which they loved.  The staff were excellent and both children enjoyed Club HAL a lot.  Our teenagers were probably too old for the teen activities, and they were happier just spending time with their cousins anyway, as we were on a family reunion.Overall, the cruise was a pleasant week, and an interesting introduction to Alaska.  The staff on board worked like trojans to make us happy and we appreciated all their efforts and their constant smiles.  It was nice to have them remember our names and make us feel valued and welcomed.  The constant upselling - photos, jewelry, excursions, spa treatments, etc - was a bit irritating, but we ignored it.   It felt like a very expensive vacation, but as we are not regular cruisers, I have nothing to compare.