We booked this cruise in March, right after cancelling a European cruise on Osterdam that was to leave June 1st. We were anxious about rising covid numbers and different protocols for the countries on the itinerary, not to mention flying Toronto to Barcelona and spending 2 days there before the cruise plus 2 days in Venice post cruise. There were just too many "what ifs". We had been to Alaska once before on the Osterdam sailing from Seattle and enjoyed that trip so we figured let's do the inside passage from Vancouver this time and fly from our local airport vs. Toronto and all that chaos. Good choice!

We arrived in Vancouver late at night the day before the cruise after some delays in flights due to weather and staffing issues in Calgary and Vancouver (not the fault of Westjet). Our scheduled boarding time at the pier was 12:30 pm however we arrived about 11:30 and went straight to the ship, no delays. Zuiderdam is in great shape for an old lady, very clean and well maintained. We had a signature suite, 6099 which was lovely, very roomy. Met our chief steward, Ono who was absolutely wonderful, as was his assistant Ida. We went directly to deck 2 to talk to the main dining room people about booking the same table in the lower dining room for every night bar 2nd night that we had booked the Pinnacle. No problem - gave us our preferred 2 top and we had the same waitstaff the entire time which we prefer. Honestly I would not waste my money going to the Pinnacle Grill again - really not the special place it used to be. My husband had the strip loin (chewy) and I had the halibut (just ok). We both had the shrimp cocktail, very artfully presented but only 3 shrimp. We ordered 3 sides to share and they were not even enough for one person - about a half cup of mushrooms, 3 baby beets cut small etc. Definitely not worth the $46 US each. In contrast the main dining room delivered beautifully the other 6 nights - small portions but outstanding.

We had room service breakfast twice, delivered promptly, hot items hot and cold items cold. Other breakfasts and all lunches were in the lido, again darn good food and eager to please staff. Read more