For those of you wondering about the condition and joy of the Zaandam, I can report that my wife and I found everything exceptional. We did not look for little frays in carpet or light bulbs out, or windows not washed so we can say we had a fantastic time once again on a Holland ship. This was the first time for us on any HAL ship other than Vista Class so we wondered how much we would enjoy it-absolutely great!

We enjoyed every night in the MDR Upper at 8PM with what I have to believe was the best as to servers and quality of food. There was always something that suited our taste. I brought my own wine and we enjoyed a bottle per night. One night the Cellar Master brought us each a glass of Proseco because I happened to mention to him that I really enjoyed that Italian wine. We were celebrating our 40th Anniversary and he knew that.

We did have two dinners away-one was Deluxe Seating at Paradise Cove in Honolulu that I arranged independent of the Zaandam and that is where they also go. It was fantastic! and a beautiful setting. The other dinner was the Sommelier Dinner in the Pinnacle Grill that Rod, Cellar Master, put together and we had a great time. He served expensive champagne to start off and expensive wines continued to flow with each course of a 5 course gourmet dinner. It was a wonderful evening and I highly recommend it. Cost was $69 each and we were quite "happy" come the end of the experience. Rod has a great personality and does and excellent job in presenting and explaining each wine. We had already done the wine tasting for Standard and then Premiun wines on two days. Read more