This was on my husband's bucket list. We had done Alaska with Holland America on the Westerdam 2 years ago and the Caribbean 2 yrs before that. We had never done a 20 day cruise before but the itenary was great and a full transit seemed what we would want. Prior to leaving, I had booked the excursions that we wanted with Holland America, liking the security and peace of mind, knowing that if ...
We have just returned from a 7 day Alaska round-trip, Inside Passage cruise from Vancouver on MS Zuiderdam. Ports were Skagway, Ketchikan, Juneau and Glacier Bay cruising.
All in all – it was pretty great. Vancouver is an hour flight from home so that was a treat from cruising from farther away ports. We stayed in VB veranda stateroom 4164. I booked that cabin purposely for the extra large ...
We had a most disappointing cruise on the Zuiderdam. Firstly we were given Cabin 4034, a balcony which had a solid steel plate from the railing to the floor. Vision from the tired balcony furniture was nil. Next the food was VERY poor and barely warm. I got food poisoning from the shrimp cocktail and/or crab cakes. My husband decided that they couldn't stuff up cooking a steak. Wrong! His medium ...
This was our 5th cruise with Holland America, our 9th cruise overall, and our 3rd time to Alaska. Our aim was a nice relaxing vacation and Holland America satisfied our goals. Overall we enjoyed the cruise and the food and service were very good.
The itinerary included Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Ketchican. We had some rain in Juneau but beautiful weather after that. The only shore excursion ...
We drove to Seattle from our home and took the " quick bus." From Seatac.
No issues.
Pre cruise we stayed at the Pan Pacific hotel. Great location. Right over the cruise terminal.
Terminal. Ask for a view of the seaplane and convention center when you book this hotel.
Hotel. Our bags were taken from the room. To the ship .
We were in a Neptune suite so we went down to embark at 1030 am. Easy ...
7 day cruise on the Zuiderdam is for anyone and everyone who wants to see Alaska. As HAL is geared more of the older folks, I saw all different ages on this ship from young guest to older guest. This is a mid size ship so it only holds about 1916 passengers.
The SY rooms can hold up to 3 guest. Our room had 2 adults and 1 child age 11. There was enough storage space for all the bags and extras ...
We have cruised with Holland America Lines for at least 25 times and this cruise did not disappoint. The relaxing seven-day cruise was just as expected with all of the pampering that one needs.
We prefer the 'Inside Passage' from Vancouver because the scenery is spectacular - much better than the 'outside' passage from Seattle where there is two days of seeing nothing but water.
Zuiderdam was as ...
Pros:
- The adults in our group enjoyed themselves overall
- The ship was very quiet because of Holland America's older age demographic
- The ship quality and cleanliness was perfectly fine (even though the ship is somewhat old according to other online critics)
- The service was extremely friendly for the most part. The staff is human, and it's hard to fault them for the occasional expression ...
I was traveling with my parents and while this was not their first cruise experience, it was mine and I didn't know what to expect other than it would probably be boring since HAL caters to an older demographic (i.e. 50+). My sister and I are both in our 20s and most of the activities & entertainment were kind of meh --- nothing really appealed to us (except for the cooking class which my sister ...
The ship is a little old but in my opinion well maintained. It was definitely more quiet then other cruise lines, but I actually preferred that. No holding/fighting for chairs, no long lines at the buffet etc… The overall atmosphere of the ship just had more class than others.
We are a family of 4 traveling with my in-laws. My boys are 5 & 10 years old. Club HAL is not camp Carnival but is more ...