After receiving 56 inches of snow in February in the Philadelphia area, this Panama Sunfarer Cruise had the prefect cruise itinerary and we were really psyched. We got to the Zuiderdam and had to wait to embark because of an outbreak of the Noro Virus on the previous cruise. I thought Holland America handle the situation well. They had seats set up in the departure lounge and kept us informed, We were finally able to board at 3 p.m. For the first 4 days they had to serve you in the Lido Restaurant and things like no salt and pepper shakers were not available and the hot tubs were closed but I am glad they were so proactive and were able to effectively end the outbreak of the virus. I did make sure I used a lot of the hand sanitizer.

We thought the food above average and the dinner experience very enjoyable. We had nice table mates. The nightly entertainment was just so so. The singers and dancers were an enthusiastic hard working bunch but the shows were kind of low budget.

On all of the four sea days I took the Tai Chi classes and the water aerobic classes which was very good with a wonderful young man named Will. I also took the stretch class and abds, buns, and thighs and those classes were just OK. My complaint with those classes was that you have a young, very fit instructor that knows the routine but came across as not really being interested in teaching the classes and paying attention to the participants form. My husband and I did enjoy an excellent series of enrichment lectures that were very educational and interesting such as talks about The Panama Canal, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hemingway, The History of Rum. Read more