We booked this cruise as it would be at the end of a seven month project I was finishing in Trinidad and knew we wanted to re-connect. How better than an Superior Verandah on Holland America? This was our third HAL cruise and our 12th overall. We started cruising with a HAL cruise 10 years ago, went to Princess for a long time and returned to HAL last year for an Alaska cruise to mark my 60th birthday and being in the last of the 50 states for me. We always fly in a day ahead of the cruise now and lately we have taken to staying the night at a hotel to simply relax, not rush around that final day and arrive home wondering if we did cruise! For some reason I booked our air from DFW into Miami instead of Fort Lauderdale, we won't make that mistake again, it's an &80 taxi ride from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. We spent the night at the SpringHill Suites hotel using Marriott Reward points and we were not disappointed. A very clean hotel that has recently been renovated, the staff were all friendly and accommodating. We used their free shuttle to the Port and arrived at about 12:30 for embarkation. While embarkation was generally smooth, the shore side staff for HAL could be a little bit more informative to many of the folks that were cruising for the first time or the first time in Port Everglades. Even though we had checked-in on-line with the 'signature' check-in, we were herded cattle style like everyone else. Checking in on-line with HAL is a tremendous time saver and once you get to an agent, is very smooth. As we went upstairs to reach the boarding level, the two ladies there were completely out of sync with each other, but not that big of a deal. It took us about 15 minutes total from the time we handed off our luggage until we were boarding the ship. We were surprised that there was very little staff greeting people coming aboard, and the greeting basically consisted of someone ushering you to an elevator and simply saying, Lido deck, Lido deck. We thought the Hotel Manager could perhaps spend a bit more training time on customer relations in this area. The Zuiderdam is a beautiful Vista class ship and was very clean from the time we boarded until the time we disembarked 10 days later. When we got to the Lido deck for lunch, there were the usual waits at certain stations, but that's to be expected when you try to accommodate 1900 passengers all arriving within an hour of each other. I was VERY pleasantly surprised as I went to the beginning of the buffet line and was handed a tray by Hunkey Dorey who asked me where Miss Shawn (my wife) was! Hunkey was on our Alaska cruise in May of 2008 and remembered our names and many of our preferences! We are continually amazed by the working staff of HAL, their memories are tremendous and there service is always wonderful and done with a smile. We wandered down to our stateroom on the sixth deck about 1:30 and found everything we had ordered prior to arrival in our room. Our stateroom attendants, Agus and Lou, searched us out to introduce theirselves and explained what their normal duties were and then asked if there was anything extra they could do to make our cruise better. What service. I asked for extra ice during the cruise as Shawn had broken a bone in her foot a week before the cruise and would need to ice it regularly. This was done within 10 minutes and extra ice was always in our room. The superior verandah suites are heavenly aboard this class of HAL ship, about 400 sq. feet and very well laid out for maximum room to move about. We love the double sink and the whirlpool bath/shower combo with the extra shower in the head, very nice compared to most bathrooms! Our cabin was in excellent shape, we had no maintenance issues during our time aboard and it was always clean. We have used anytime dining for several years now and really enjoy it. We completely skipped formal nights this trip and ate at the Lido two of the three nights. We thought this would be as good as the dining room, but we were slightly disappointed in the availability of the full menu there. The first formal night we had reservations at the Pinnacle Grill and the host insisted I needed a jacket for dinner. I didn't pack one so he found one in the back for me to wear to the table. We really feel this whole formal thing needs to be addressed on all cruise lines. In order to fit the bill, I wore an ill-fitting jacket to my table, which I removed as I sat down. Across from me was a lady dressed in tennis shoes, capri's and a cotton t-shirt! Why can't the cruise lines do away with obligatory formal nights and simply announce the nights they will take formal portraits for those wishing to dress? Why not send the formal school to one of the two dining rooms if people are offended by me not wearing a jacket?  This formal custom is becoming archaic and I think all the lines need to review it. Beyond that, the food was very well prepared aboard the Zuiderdam and we never had a disappointing meal. We did notice that there was perhaps somewhat less of a variety of choices, but that's to be expected in these economic times. We ate in our room, at the Lido Grill, at the Pinnacle and in the dining room and across the board, the food was well prepared, delicious and always to our order. We completely enjoyed the ports of call on this cruise, even though we skipped Half Moon Cay due to Shawn's foot issue. Aruba was a complete surprise. We rented a jeep independently and drove to the California Lighthouse, taking in all the condos, apartments, hotels, Ruths Chris' (!) and all. Driving around the west end was a real pleasure. We then headed over to the east coast and enjoyed driving around the national park. It is well worth getting around, herding the wild goats, and stopping in little out of the way neighborhood bars for a cold Balashi beer. We made some great friends at the little place we found up in the hills. Three guys and the bartender were comparing notes on the music when we walked in. As is one of my favorite things to do, we bought a round for the house. Within 10 minutes we were all comparing the guitar playing of Santana and Gun's and Roses! These guys were my age (60s)! They bought a round and we traded pictures and promised to look each other up soon!  We were in Curacao on Easter Sunday and about half of the stores eventually opened, but that made little difference. Willemstad is a very pretty town and has many enjoyable areas to walk around. Stopped at the Wilheimina Plein Cafe and ordered up appetizers that are Dutch in nature and cold beer (of course). Very good food and very reasonable. We visited a Rum House I had spotted while strolling and spent a bit too much time sampling the wares... The floating market was filled with fresh fruit and vegetables from Venezuela. We walked along eating bananas and oranges, GREAT food. The Panama Canal still amazes both of us and the Zuiderdam did a tremendous job of narrating what was happening and many facts of the Canal, what a marvel of engineering it is. We didn't take an excursion as we enjoy watching the lock transition up to Gatun and then back. As usual, we simply checked out the market at the Cristobal pier when we docked to gather all of the returning tour folks. We both seemed to notice that there were less vendors than our last trip through here about four years ago, but the Indian baskets are still some of the best we've ever purchased. We took our one and only ship tour in Costa Rica to the Veraqua Rainforest Research Center. What a fantastic place and if you are ever in Costa Rica we highly recommend visiting this site. It's only been open since July of 08, but really has it together. Having taken the ship's tour, I'd arrange it on my own the next time, but I'm used to driving on less than stellar roads and wouldn't have an issue. Many of the roads in Costa Rica are still waiting for improvement. The entertainment aboard the Zuiderdam was not the best we have seen, other than Nathan in the piano bar! We ended up spending most evenings there as he is not only a great singer, but a tremendous personality that draws folks into participation. One minor issue we noted was that minors were seen in all the lounges all evening and late into the evenings at that. The policy is that they should be accompanied by an adult, but we prefer to disagree with even that. Lounges and bars are not the place for teens and pre-teens to be hanging out in late at night. HAL should make their spaces a bit more available to them later. Of course, parents and GRAND parents should take some responsibility in the decision as to let children into a bar after a few rounds have been consumed and inhibitions have loosened a bit. An example was the singing impressionist on the Zuiderdam for this cruise. Not only was he rather loose, the women vying for his attention in the nightclub were well on their way also. One lady took her blouse off and was trying to dance with him and we noticed a couple of young teenagers there watching the entire farce. We were also disappointed with the Rabbi hired by the entertainment group to perform the Seder and Sabbath services. He spent a good portion of his time trying to sell his book up on deck and we did not even realize he was in effect, working for HAL. We also were expecting a bit more Caribbean music from the ships house band, not oldies. Disembarkation was a bit of a mess since we hit adverse seas our last night after having to have to make a medical evac at Grand Cayman. We arrived a bit late and between passengers that felt they had the given right to disembark when they felt like it, and the crew trying their best to accommodate that, it got a little messy down there. We had friends that had booked 10:30 flights (hope they learned) and the Zuiderdam crew went out of their way to assist all of those in the same predicament. As I said, we stayed the night so we weren't concerned about the time we left the ship. In their haste to disembark I think the Zuiderdam crew went a bit overboard in calling for 4 or 5 groups to leave at the same time, burdening the one security guard checking guests off to the 5 ICE officers clearing customs. We believe that the Zuiderdam crew should have stuck to their plan and let it work. Oh well, not that big of a deal. So all in all, as we told the Hotel Manager and the Cruise Director at the q&a I was invited to attend the last day, it was an excellent cruise, not at the level of our previous cruises, but we truly believe a lot of the issues were simply learning opportunities. Would we sail HAL again? YOU BET! We've already booked a 10 day cruise in December to the Lesser Antilles.