This was a bucket list cruise for my wife. All the ports and excursions surpassed both our expectations. The narration by Exploration Team as we sailed into and around Antarctica was superb. Zaandam is a typical HA ship, one of their smaller ones with a nice cozy feel. We are 4 Star Mariners, with lots of cruising experience and always appreciate HA’s itineraries and attention to detail on ...
Why?
The Itenary
A not so common one, long and much to see.
Done out of Europe, by a German travel office: Berge und Meer
Yes we know it's an old ship wich had the atmosphere of faded grandeur
But the compagny plays it all very poche, a bit pathetic...
This was our 23rd cruise, and the first with HAL.
There was a cabin on the promenade deck confirmed by the HAL 5 months ...
Having been on the Zaandam in January 2018 and been very impressed with the ship and its amenities, I chose this cruise for the chance to be on her again and to transit the Panama Canal again with stops in South America.
Embarkation/debarkation: As always, HAL did these impeccably for a mass market cruise line. Both were a breeze and I was onboard for a nice lunch in the MDR in minutes. The ...
I think I should start with what I did like. The new (i had not seen these before) hand wash system in place and the covers over the dining selection in the Lido dining room.
Its a pity that guests do not adhere to using these and it is not monitored by staff. Only one sanitiser as you come out of the lift and again not many use this either before going to the food counters. I think the ...
Choose this cruise for the itinery and appeared good value.
Cabin fine we choose interior and are happy lots of storage. The itinery was good and we saw lots the highlight was transitting the Panama canal AWESOME. Yes there were senior passengers on board but we were treated as aged and any entertainment past 9.30 pm was considered to be a disturbance to those asleep in bed according to the ...
This was a tailor made holiday to Brazil and ended with the cruise from Bueno Aries to Santiago.
The facilities were fine. Food in buffet was excellant but in restaurant I was underwhelmed.
Tendering was a shambles. Missed my private pre booked trip because the steward would not allow me off the ship although I explained I needed to leave to meet my tour. Even when I booked a ship tour I had ...
The ship was badly affected by what can only be described as the Holland America cost cutting strategy. This was evident everywhere on the ship and throughout the 34 day cruise.
The main restaurant should be the main attraction of any cruise ship, this was our 22nd cruise on various cruise lines and ships and our worst possible main restaurant experience by far. The plates were very nice, but ...
Wanted to passage the Panama Canal again - to see the new larger locks that were being built the last time we passed this way - Holland America was recommended to us - we were disappointed at the poor meals - not much choice and constantly had rice (which we are not keen on) - the expensive poor trips - some of which did not actually visit all the places listed.
As the cruise went on - things ...
Overall the first week' s weather was poor, rainy, misty and windy although the temperature was about what we expected ie cool, at times even cold.
The ship was pleasant enough, with good food and cleanliness and excellent service. However, being used to UK cruise lines such as Fred Olsen and P&O we found the on board activities sadly lacking. Many of the activities seemed to be designed to ...
We chose this two week cruise as it was visiting some places we had not been to before. From Chile north through the Panama Canal to Florida.
We like the ship and the size; not too large.
So assume everything is good except for the following comments:
The daytime 'entertainment was quite poor; no lectures ; no silly sports games; no competitions for table tennis or tennis or ...