We cruised in Zuiderdam SY 6094 during Thanksgiving 11/18/06 - 11/25-06. We got a fantastic deal on the cabin, so all of our impressions are tempered by the fact that for what we would pay for a lower end balcony on Celebrity, we got a small suite on Holland America. We've previously cruised Celebrity nine times and Royal Caribbean once to the Caribbean, Mexico, Alaska, and the British Isles/Norway. This was our first Holland America cruise, and we have a 10-day Western Mediterranean cruise booked on Westerdam next summer. My partner and I are in our mid-forties and generally do not drink. Cruising is all about preferences and finding the rights brand and ships that fit your personality. This review will focus on what we find important to us in a cruise.

The Zuiderdaam Overall We found the ship to not fit our tastes. It seems to be a cross between retro 70's glam (lots of brown smoked mirrors), Deco, and Asian design influences. The predominant colors are orange-red and red, although I overheard one passenger say, It's like someone swallowed 50 gallons of paint and vomited them all up. The rest of the colors are very dark including the ceilings, making them seem very low.

We loved having a real promenade deck. Read more