Zaandam Review
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Zaandam-Circle Hawaii-Feb. 5-20, 2009
We live in the Palm Springs area so drove to San Diego in the morning. We parked at San Diego Airport Parking which was wonderful and inexpensive. They parked our car, dropped us directly at the cruise terminal, picked us up at the end of the trip...all for 105.00 for the entire 15 day cruise.
Day 1 Embarkation process was fairly easy. We boarded at about noon. Had a WangWang on the Lido by the pool and shared the table with a very nice couple. Our room was ready at about 1:45pm. Our beds were situated as two singles. Our room stewards, Sugiyanto and Rhido introduced themselves and situated the beds as one queen. We brought 2 cases of wine on board and our stewards brought up a wine cooler and ice which they kept full the entire cruise. We had muster which is always our worst part of the cruise, but it was done very quickly and efficiently. We returned to our cabin for a bottle of champagne and to begin our celebration of the great cruise. A trip around the ship found it to be in good condition. There were a few areas that were well used, such as the recliners in the Crow's Nest. Overall, we found it to be wonderful. This is a musically inspired cruise. Various instruments around the ships that are interesting. Our Verandah cabin 6121 was in good condition, very neat and clean. The bed is very comfortable. We had late dining and were assigned table 49. Our dining stewards were Hendra and Budi. They were great at suggesting what they considered the "best item". As the cruise progressed they got to know our particular tastes and would suggest what they thought we would enjoy. My husband loves hot and spicy. Hendra would make sure to have Sambal (not sure of spelling) but a really hot Indonesian spice, at our table. They were fantastic. Our wine steward was Romeo with some help from Benny. We were charged 15.00/bottle corkage, except when we ate at the Pinnacle where we were charged 18.00/bottle. Bon Voyage party in the Crow's Nest acquainted us with the crew. Michael Helda was our CD. He did a fabulous job keeping things going. He was fairly young, and I believe this was only his second HAL cruise. He did very well, and kept things lively and enjoyable...."Out and About" DJ Matt and Party Planner Jen were fun. We felt that things went well. I felt that they were fairly young and very energetic with tons of things to do.
Cabin Review
Very nice balcony with full lounge chair and additional chair and small table. Good location on the ship. Plenty of closet space. Bathroom with full bath tub. The bed was very comfortable with plenty of pillows. Flat screen TV and full couch with curtain that could seperate the couch area from the sleeping area. Also another curtain seperating the dressing area from the sleeping area. There was some smell of smoke on the verandah, that was the only thing that bothered us at all. We wish they would disallow smoking anywhere in staterooms including the verandah's. Some smells in the hallway were quite smokey. I believe they should require smoking in only a few areas on board that are well ventillated that are easy to avoid for those that cannot tolerate smoke.