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Holland America Line

MS Zaandam

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:Russell McEwen
# previous cruises: 7
Date of Trip: June 17, 2000
Itinerary: Caribbean Eastern

This is an outstanding cruise with an excellent staff and a great itinerary. The service provided by the Indonesian and Filipino crew is first rate. HAL does the little things to make the cruise special like free in every room, free popcorn in the theatre, ice cream several time a day, deck service with iced tea and lemonade twice a day, etc. Nassau on Sunday morning is almost a waste just think of this stop as an at sea day and stay on the ship. St.John's/St Thomas is incredible and Half Moon Cay is a paradise. The entertainment was a strength, not a weakness and the fellow passengers are classy with a variety of ages.

Rotterdam Dining Room: very nice, plenty of room between tables, they changed the look of the table clothes for Dutch night and for the second formal night which helped to keep the appearance fresh.

Lido Restaurant: very well designed with two buffet lines in the center and seating near the windows on the outside or you could carry your tray to the lido pool where there were plenty of tables.

Lido Pool: spacious pool with several hot tubs and a retractable roof. Padded deck chairs all around the pool although these were sometimes difficult to find available. On one side of the fresh water pool is the dolphin bar flanked on either side by entrances to the lido restaurant. On the other side of the pool is the terrace grill. There are also ping pong tables in one corner and a place for the steel drum band to play.

Aft Pool: Excellent place to lay out in the sun with plenty of padded deck chairs always available and a fresh water pool that is 6.9 feet deep. There is a bar with deck chair service so you can get a tan and a drink and never leave your chair. There was one day, however, where the gusting wind made this area an adventure

Lounges: The main lounges were the Ocean Bar and the Crows nest, primarily because these had the best views and both serve appetizers from 5:00 to 8:00 each night. There were several other lounges on the ship and plenty of places to have privacy which is incredible on cruise ships these days.

Casino: There are four blackjack tables, one craps table, one roulette, one Caribbean stud poker and table for a special game of twenty one with a twist on the rules. There was also a casino bar with ESPN and a lounge area next to the bar with a big screen TV which came in handy during the US open golf tourney.

Website: The Zaandam has a room called the Website where you access the internet for a charge of .75 per minute. They also set up a temporary e-mail account for you and offer video e-mail service so the folks back home can see how tan you are getting. We had planned to communicate by e-mail to our two boys who we left at home and found instead of paying a charge to use the ships e-mail account that you can go a site called www.mailstart.com and access your home e-mail. We had our boys e-mail our home address each day and we replied back to them. The website was never overcrowded and was run by Liz from New Zealand who maintained regular hours and was very helpful to anyone who needed it.

Shops on Board: Excellent selections and prices. Look for the specials each day because there are some very good deals. These shops aren't just for show, they are a valuable resource to the passengers. I saw several $3,000 pieces of jewelry purchased the day after we left St. Thomas which was amazing. They offer good deals on this itinerary because they have to compete with the prices on shore in San Juan and St. Thomas.

Wajang Theater (pronounced Why-Yang): free popcorn and pretty recent movies with the most comfortable chairs I've sat in a theatre. However, the size of the chairs results in slightly obstructed views of the bottom of the screen which was no big deal once you got used to it.

Mondriann Lounge: Very spacious and comfortable although the stage was smaller than other cruise lines, I was told. You could arrive a few minutes late for a show and still find a spot most of the time. Bingo and shore excursion talks were also held here.

Atrium: The feature of the atrium is a huge organ spanning three decks. This organ was played four times a day at regular times. The atrium is not the large attraction that you find on Royal Caribbean, for example. However, it doesn't need to be and there is no wasted space. I say that HAL has the right idea on this one, give me the extra space in the other public rooms and a small atrium with a beautiful center piece.

Lower Promenade deck: Teak floor that wraps around. 3½ times around equals a mile. Great place to sit and watch the sunrise or sunset. There are plenty of padded deck chairs to sit in. Several nights we just fell asleep out there until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Several mornings we woke up at 5:00 am and went and slept on the deck chairs for and hour and a half or so until breakfast.

Food and especially service is a strength of this ship. There are several ways to have breakfast either by pre-scheduled room service which you order the night before and specify the time, or the lido buffet complete with made to order eggs and omelets and fresh baked muffins and pastries. You can also dine in the made dinning room which is open seating for B'fast and lunch. We mostly ate in the lido buffet because we liked the made to order omelets. For lunch you can enjoy open seating in the main dining room, or lido style buffet or hamburgers, hot dogs, taco's or pizza in the grill next to the main pool. We either skipped lunch to maintain our weights or had a hamburger or a piece of pizza in the grill. Dinner has multiple choices as well. Of course there is a five course dinner in the Rotterdam dining room which we did every night but there are some excellent alternatives. The most popular alternative is the Marco Polo Italian restaurant which is by reservation only and you better make them by Monday a.m. because this restaurant is very popular and word spreads fast amongst the guests. We talked to several guests who ate there and they were absolutely raving about it. The Zaandam also offers a casual dining alternative in the Lido buffet restaurant complete with steaks cooked to order. You can also enjoy room service or, during the stay in San Jaun, P.R. you can eat on shore.

As I mentioned, we ate every dinner in the main dining room and we were extremely impressed with the service of the Indonesian staff. Abdul Nasir, our dining room steward, had a delightful smile and was extremely well spoken and knowledgeable. Any special requests were handled with no problem including a double serving of entries.

Our Indonesian cabin steward, Gede Marioso, was also excellent. The Filipino bar and lounge staff was incredible. We visited the Ocean bar for drinks and appetizers most nights before getting dressed for our second seating dinner. After the second visit they know our drink preferences, cabin number and names.

I especially enjoyed interacting with the casino staff which is very international in flavor. I met dealers from England, Canada, Russia and Romania and they were happy to interact and cut up with the passengers and they were very good at their jobs.

Cabins are definitely a strength on this ship. We had an outside cabin on the dolphin deck in the center of the ship. The two of us had two suitcases, a hanging bag and two large carry on bags. In other words we overpacked, but the closet space was more that adequate and we didn't use the majority of one whole closet. There was plenty of room in the cabin as well as the bathroom. We never heard a single peep out of the passengers on either side of us or above us which I believe is due to the excellent construction and condition of the cabins.

Much has been made that Entertainment is a weakness of HAL. If this is a weakness, then you'll just have to imagine the strengths. The entertainment was very good although with a second seating dinner we did not work all the shows into our plans. We saw a fabulous magician, a hilarious juggler and a pretty well performed show by the dancers. The cruise staff was excellent and made you feel like the activity that you were at was the place to be on the ship at that moment. The cruise staff is led by the elegant Susan Wood with a delightful accent from Newcastle, England. She keeps the cruise staff hopping and there is no shortage of activities. In fact, sometimes you have to make some difficult choices because you can't be in two places at once.

Itinerary starts with a Sunday morning in Nassau until noon where few stores are open and with the exception of a couple of interesting shore excursions there is not much to do. I wish HAL would consider dropping this as a stop and adding another day at the private island. Monday is at sea, Tuesday in San Juan until midnight, Wednesday in St.John's/St Thomas, Thursday is at sea, and Friday is at Half Moon Cay. We took a tour of Nassau which we arranged on the pier at a cost of $20 per person, and spent the rest of the afternoon at the aft pool working on our tans. Monday, we enjoyed the pool again for a while but also took part in several of the activities of the day. In San Juan, our original excursion choice was cancelled so we substituted a historic walking tour of Old San Juan which was very interesting and after a lunch back aboard ship we spent the afternoon shopping in Old San Juan.

St John's/St Thomas was a definite highlight of the trip. Those passengers with St John's excursions tender off the ship at 6:45 am and are transported to Cruz Bay. Our excursion was at Trunk Bay so we boarded taxis which would stop at several spots for pictures, etc. Trunk Bay is absolutely beautiful and the snorkeling is great in terms of beauty but average in terms of seeing lots of brightly colored fish. The ship had gone on to St. Thomas and we were transported there arriving back just after 12:00. After a shower and a quick lunch we hit the shopping. But with only 4 hours to go this was difficult to see enough of Charlotte Amalie. There definitely needs to be more time at these two islands. Half Moon Cay is an absolute paradise and another highlight of the cruise. There's plenty to do there and the ship's staff pampers you with a great lunch and tropical drinks as well as beach service with soft drinks and beer. You can lay on the beach all day or participate in a variety of activities.

Because this was a Caribbean cruise in the summer the normal age range for Holland America did not apply. Yes, most of the passengers were in the 50-70 range but all other age ranges we well represented including young children, pre-teens, teens, 30's, 40's, and over 70. The passengers are classy (although it is difficult to make blanket statements about the passengers), but I will tell you that all activities were well attended, and the crow's nest disco was hopping with activity well after midnight contrary to previous reports. In general all the passengers got along very well, but to the guy who rudely stole my seat at the blackjack tables and his pushy wife, you won't be getting any invitations to dinner from me soon.