In this review, my family and I cruised on the Holland America Zuiderdam for the Panama Canal/Souther Caribbean 10 day cruise. The cruise visited Half Moon Cay (private island in the Bahamas), Curacao, Bonaire, Panama Canal/Colon, Panama, and Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. This was my second time on Holland America and my first time going to the Southern Caribbean as well as the Panama Canal. My last time on Holland was the Veendam for an Alaskan cruise. From my previous experience, I enjoyed the excellent service and fine cuisine. However, this time, I had some concerns with the Holland America service as well as the cleanliness of the ship. Otherwise, I had a great time with the Zuiderdam.

Check-in

Check-in was good but there was one thing that bugged me. For some reason, when you enter the terminal in Fort Lauderdale, there is someone to check what kind of cabin you are in as well as the Mariner status. This created congestion. The person in front of me was not only a 4 Star Mariner but staying in a suite. Therefore, she was handed a special badge to let her use the priority check-in as well as board whenever she wanted. I think that they should have just given her the badge at the priority check-in counter. Otherwise, the check-in process was pretty smooth. Read more