We are Dan & Cheryl, a married couple of about 5 months when we went on the Zuiderdam from September 13-20, 2003. We drove from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale on the 12th, not even sure if we were going on a cruise or not—Hurricane Isabel seemed a sure bet to hit dead on where we wanted to be, so we were pretty nervous about whether or not we would get to go. We had called Holland America a couple of times, and both times they told us that if at all possible, the cruise would go—maybe on a different itinerary, maybe a day late, but it would go nonetheless. We arrived to find out that although the hurricane remained strong, our captain had chosen to stick with the planned Eastern Caribbean itinerary of Half Moon Cay, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Nassau. This was great news, as we had really been looking forward to going to St. Thomas together (Dan had been there on a Celebrity cruise with his family about 2 weeks before proposing to Cheryl, and really wanted her to see what he considered the most romantic spot on earth!)

This was Cheryl's 2nd cruise, and Dan's 4th. (He had two previous cruises with his family on Celebrity, and we had gone on Royal Caribbean for our honeymoon). We were cruising with Dan's parents and his 2 younger sisters. All of us had booked inside staterooms.

Our first impression of the Zuiderdam was that she was HUGE, and completely gorgeous with all of her banners flying (and with Isabel wreaking havoc somewhere out there, believe me, those banners were FLYING!) Our inside staterooms were more than adequate, and extremely well appointed and decorated. There was storage space everywhere, and plenty of it—we were extremely comfortable, even with Cheryl's tendency to overpack—WAY overpack. One of our favorite features were all of the different lightswitches—you could control all of the lights in the room from anywhere in the room, including the bed. This was wonderful for reading in bed with every light on, and turning them all out without even having to move. Read more