This was our first time on Holland America's Zuiderdam and the jury is still out on whether to do a Holland America cruise again. We choose this cruise because we got a great price(under 2000.00) and because of the itinerary. This was also our first time to the Panama Canal as well as Curacao, Costa Rica,Panama, Cartagena Columbia.

Embarkation was a disorganized mess. HAL really needs to up the bar here. Many of the HAL workers were busy talking to themselves and little direction was given. Plus there were Princess cruise line signs up all over the place and you were not sure where to go. This also is the first cruise lines that will dictate to you if you choose to pay cash as a deposit on room charges. They estimate 60.00 per day per person and you will need to pay that upfront if you expect to go on the ship. I have never had to do this on Carnival, Disney, Royal Caribbean or Princess cruise lines. I always set a limit on cash to budget our money. You will not be able to do this on Holland.

Once we were in line to get on the ship we got on the ship around 1:00 pm and our room was actually ready at that time. We had an inside room on the main deck number 1060. The room itself was really quite large and even has a wrap around couch in the corner which was great. Plenty of room to put away 11 days worth of clothes. Our room steward Indra and his assistant Sugi were excellent and did a great job. They always called us by our names and did a great job taking care of us throughout the entire cruise. Read more