VANCOUVER EMBARKATION: What a disaster! The Zuiderdam and the Princess ship were embarking at the same time, it was totally disorganized from the moment we entered the terminal. HAL personnel would send pax the wrong area to wait when they should have been waved thru to board the ship and then someone else would bark at you that you were in the wrong place. US Customs was long but for American citizens it did move smoothly, unfortunately this was not the case for a large majority of the PAX who had to move thru Immigration (we heard tales of many people averaging 3 hours in line and quite a few as long as 4.5 hours. The ship finally left port at 7pm that evening a full 2 hours late. Do not believe the HAL description of a special line for SC, SB, or SA PAX...it did not occur with any of the fellow deluxe suite pax.

Suite 5191: What a great location for an Alaskan cruise. We spend many hours there as the view of the wildlife and scenery was phenomenal. Our steward, Mohammed was very nice and extremely diligent. The hair dryer is marginal at best and indeed quit working the last 2 days on board. He told us that maintenance was aware of it, but that was the extent of it. Be sure to ask for more bath towels...only 2 are supplied and we ladies all need an extra one for our hair.

DINING: We utilized As You Wish Dining due to the late return to the ship on port days. The first evening our waiter was very pleasant and provided excellent service (we were seated with 2 ladies and 1 couple all over the age of 70, I mention this because service seems to be better when seated with the older demographic...we are in our 50s). The other occasion was on formal night when we were seated with couples our own age...service was not just bad...it was horrible!!! The water glasses were filled once and we had to ask to have them filled again. My husband's request for iced tea was never fulfilled! The menu was marginal at best, I always look forward to creme brulee' and souffle' when on a cruise...the evening creme brulee' was on the menu it was not available and souffle' was never offered. We did have some very good dishes: the Seafood Chowder is fantastic (I could have eaten a large bowl of it), the Escargot was good also as well as the steak dishes. Overall the menus were very disappointing and definitely not up to the standard we expect when on cruises. The service in the dining room overall was substandard and if we had been served in this manner at one of our local establishments we would have spoken with the manager and a tip, if any, would have been minor. Read more