"Bringing Back some of the traditions we love about Holland America:
Lunch in the Main Dining Room on embarkation day, the Captain’s Brunch for 4- and 5-star Mariners, (with the traditional “dam ships” toast and tiles), chocolates at night and towel critters at least on gala nights.The Ports:
With one exception (listed under the not-so-good) the ports were interesting and fitting to the cruise...."Read More
MostlyLegal
10+ Cruises
•
Age 70s
Filters
1-10 of 265 Holland America Line Zuiderdam Gay & Lesbian Cruises Reviews
Zuiderdam Boston to Quebec City b2b Quebec City to Boston 8/26/2023-9/92023
My wife and I have over fifty cruises and our favorite cruise lines are, in no particular order, Holland America, Princess and Celebrity. We would not turn down a Royal Caribbean or Carnival if the timing and itinerary were to our liking. We chose the b2b Boston-Quebec-Boston for a two week get away aboard ...
We had a great cabin - aft, veranda - that we loved. No diesel, smoke/ash and little noise from Lido above. Great views, tiny sitting area.
We chose to take meclizine, starting the night before our cruise. This was the most sea we've seen on any cruise (still topped out at 2+ meters - 7-8 foot swells) and were both fine. I had anxiety but no actual motion sickness. There was an outbreak of ...
As one of Holland America’s Legendary Cruises (and also as one of the most expensive), the Voyage of the Vikings on the Zuiderdam, which sailed July 22-August 26, 2023, should have been nothing short of epic. It fell short of that goal, but was still very good and certainly worthwhile.
This review will cover the good things we experienced, as well as the not-so-good things.
THE GOOD ...
This was a 35 days cruise and sure enough I got Covid after about day 25. It was well handled, but what surprised me was that there were no announcements each day at noon as to how many people were in quarantine. It was a big secret. Without transparency on this, it makes you reluctant to travel again.
I also got a fungal infection on my toe, which makes me wonder about the hygiene standards ...
This was our 6th HAL cruise. Our interest in this crossing was sparked by the interesting ports (Cork, Waterford, Torquay, and Dover) in Ireland and the UK. Our cabin stewards (Rio and Ewan) were phenomenal and kept the cabin in perfect shape. They are assigned approximately 35 cabins to take care of by HAL which is an unreasonable workload. We had great dinner and lunch in the Pinnacle Grill with ...
1. Itinerary kept being changed before and during the voyage mainly due to islands with Covid-related issues such as lack of tourist infrastructure for two years. During the cruise, stormy weather also affected some scheduled ports, especially tendering operations. We were about 1,700 passengers, mostly from the US but a large group from Canada and a few from other countries. Due to the length ...
Although we have travelled internationally often, we had only previously taken one cruise on Princess to the Caribbean years ago. Covid travelling restrictions left us eager to try something different. As Canadians, we figured that taking a cruise from Vancouver, B.C. would be easiest for us, so we flew from Toronto area to Vancouver the day before our July 6th, 2022 departure for 7 day inside ...
This ship was part of the package we booked. Overall it was great, food and drink service was pretty good. The excursions left a little to be desired - one of our three was amazing (the most expensive), the other two were a major disappointment and not worth the money at all. The dog-sledding and helicopter trip was fantastic, yes it was expensive but, to me, well worth the money. The other ...
We have enjoyed previous holidays with HAL and were anxious to get back cruising after two years stuck at home. As we prefer not to fly, a trip out of Vancouver was very convenient. The price was reasonable for a balcony cabin and we opted for the Have It All package. The pre-cruise requirements were a bit of a hassle (Covid testing, ArriveCan and VeriFly documentation) and a lot of people seemed ...
Background: Nov 2021 we went on our second HAL1 week Mexican Rivera cruise on the Koningsdam from San Diego. Fun, high energy good cruise. Would repeat.
In June 2015 we were on our first Holland America cruise on the Zuiderdam for 33 days: 29 ports, 13 countries from Barcelona to Rome. Inside cabin. We had a wonderful time with the ports, fellow cruisers, food, music etc. we would ...