EMBARKATION—We arrived on an early flight and were in Group 3 to enter the ship. No lines at check-in but had to wait until after 11:30 to board the ship. Our cabin was ready and we went up to Deck 9 Lido for an uncrowded lunch. Was very surprised that the “no touch” rules were not in effect. On our last HAL cruise (2014) the servers handed us everything for the first 2 days to help prevent the spread of germs. There were hand sanitizer machines outside the Lido but many folks by-passed them. Our luggage was in our room when we returned from lunch. We explored the ship a little bit to see where the lounges were and I wanted to check out the spa area. Unfortunately it was a wet and rainy sail-away so there was no need to go out on deck. The mandatory lifeboat drill was an easy check-in with your room card indoors near your station.

SHIP—Our last HAL cruise was on the Statendam (2014) so it took a few days to get used to a new ship. The inside of the Zuiderdam is quite lovely and one can tell that most rugs had been replaced in the dry dock last spring (in a few places the seaming could be better). Gone are the "days of the week"rugs in the elevators—I really missed them! The outside of the ship still needs a bit of “touch-up” and there was constant work being done (painting, sanding, welding). During the time we were there I never heard any complaints about elevators not working, air conditioning problems or toilets overflowing. On the last day 2 people mentioned that their toilets occasionally wouldn’t flush but then several hours later would spontaneously flush. And then it happened to ours the very last night… fine by morning. The lounge areas within the ship seem more closed than I remember other HAL ships (we’ve been on Statendam, Veendam, Ryndam and Rotterdam.) At first I didn’t care for the closed in aspect but later in the cruise enjoyed those quiet areas!!

CABIN—# 4123 Balcony catagory VA Deck 4 Aft (but almost mid-ship) We had booked a VE guarantee balcony and were given a VA balcony. It is the last room before the lifeboats so the balcony has a wrap-around railing on one side, only cabins to the right. We were pleasantly surprised that the view was quite nice and open. It was never windy and we never smelled smoke from any of the cabins to our right or above. The cabin itself was typically average—queen bed, 2 end tables with small drawers, small couch (that could sleep one but I can’t imagine 3 people in the room) small desk with cabinet with hair dryer attached (that didn’t work but an unattached one was included) another shelf with glasses and a mini-bar fridge. Three closet sections with adjustable shelves and a safe. There were drawers under the bed with extra pillows and bedding that could have been removed but the drawers were so awkward to reach and open we didn’t use them. There were also 2 cabinets above the couch that a TALL person could use (not me)—one of the hinges was broken on ours. I found the storage space a bit on the tight side (we felt we had more room before) Since we pack our clothes and other items in packing cubes we left them in the cubes to reduce clutter and help keep things organized. Read more