We embarked the Zuiderdam in Vancouver after a full day exploring the city. We were told we were very lucky as it was their first full sun day all summer. We loved our hotel in Vancouver (Landis Suites) it worked perfectly as there were 6 of us. We took the Vancouver trolley which was not bad at 9 in the morning and went to Grouse mountain (word of warning: do not expect to see anything from the Grouse Mountain tram, you will be crowded in). The kids loved the lumberjack show.
Embarcation was easy, the only problem we had was finding out where to go with our luggage. We were on the ship by 11:45. Our room was nice, we had 4 beds and the fourth pulled down over the couch. We had connecting rooms with my parents which worked well. This was our second Holland America cruise, our 9 and 7 year-old's first, and my prents had previously cruised on Princess. We chose Holland America in part because of the connecting rooms.
Overall the ship seemed fine. It could use a dry dock but it did not effect our enjoyment of the cruise.