My wife and I and another couple sailed on the Zuiderdam on March 6 to the Eastern Caribbean. This was our 28th cruise and 3rd time on Holland America (last one being on the Zaandam New Year's 2003). As many of the reviews had mentioned previously this ship is a definite departure from the past Holland America ships. It is bright, cheerful and easy to get around. As with past ships there is plenty of passenger room around the ship and is never really crowded in any one place. Although visually different, it still keeps many of the things that are loved by the repeat customers.

Embarkation We flew into Orlando to meet friends on Friday and then we all drove to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. We arrived at the port around 12:00. Embarkation was a breeze and within 20 minutes we were on the ship. Although we could not go to our room at this point, they checked in our carry on bags and went off to the Lido for lunch. By 1:00 they had made the announcement that the rooms were ready. When we went to our rooms, our carry on luggage was already there. Our regular luggage arrived by 3:00. Rooms We had booked Category A balcony rooms next to one another (8031 & 8033). Our plan was to open up the door to the balcony between the two rooms. Since the wall on 8031 was on an angle, we were not able to do this. If you are planning on doing this make sure you have two rooms against a straight wall.

The rooms were pretty standard, however smaller than we had on previous HAL ships. At the end of the bed there was only about 2 feet to the wall. The other thing that was lacking was drawers. You had the two in each nightstand and that was it. There is plenty of closet space and the ability to convert closets into shelves was very useful. The bathroom was standard with a tub and shower. There was also a sitting area with a love seat and desk area. The balcony was your standard size balcony with 2 chairs, an ottoman and small table. The chairs were not your typical plastic chairs and were very comfortable with the cushions provided. Passengers I know HAL has a reputation of having older passengers but I thought they were trying to go after the younger market with this ship since it will be in the Caribbean all year. In addition with this being spring break thought there would be younger people - well we were mistaken on that one. The average age had to be 70 to 75. We had breakfast with one couple who just celebrated her 90th birthday. We are in our mid 50's so we are not looking for an all night party scene but were looking for more than "walker races". Oh well we still had a great time on the ship. Read more