Welcome to Your Favorites, where you have the opportunity to share your travel experiences with fellow Internet Travelers around the world.

Holland America Line

MS Zuiderdam

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Rich Turnwald
# previous cruises: 50 or more
Date of Trip: March 3, 2007
Itinerary: Caribbean

This was an excellent cruise experience, consistent with everything that Holland America does right. The ship is now over 4 years old, but kept new and clean, with friendly crew, superb food and service. This is simply the best product in the 7-day Caribbean market, at rates comparable or lower than the competitors. Definitely a must-try for those looking for a higher-quality cruise experience.

Holland America in general offers a variety of public rooms and quiet areas on their vessels, and the ZUIDERDAM does not disappoint. Extremely clean, with carpets and upholstery looking fresh and new, her lounges are inviting places to linger and listen to various music or just to converse with people. Her outer decks offer teak wood, wooden deck chairs with plush padding and plenty of towels. The walk-around Promenade Deck is classic, and her pool areas ample.

There is one main dining room with two levels; thus, four staggered dinner seatings are offered. Food was very high quality, well prepared and with more exotic, expensive offerings than usually found on a 7-night Caribbean cruise. A large variety of seafood, shrimp offered nearly every day, even pheasant breast for lunch! The Lido Restaurant was quite an extensive and comfortable place for breakfast, lunch, or even a casual dinner, offering most of the same choices as in the dining room. HAL's Pinnacle Grill, the extra-tariff restaurant ($30.00 p.p. for dinner) seemed well-worth the extravagant food and service received there.

We were in a minimum balcony, category VF, #5061 on Verandah Deck. Ample storage space, as well as a good-sized bathroom. The balcony, one of the smaller ones, measured 9' x 4.5' and offered two chairs and an ottoman/table. Our area was very quiet. Frette linens, Egyptian cotton, very nice!

Entertainment is not HAL's strongest forte, but the shows were well-received by the audiences and were quite entertaining. Two evenings had typical production shows, while other nights offered a juggler and soloist singers.

If you're looking for non-stop deck activities and a party atmosphere, you're better off on Carnival or Royal Caribbean. Holland America satisfies those people looking for a more quiet, relaxing cruise. The pool areas were large, as well as the spa areas. There was even a children's program for the handful of children on our cruise, although more kids were expected as we go into Spring Break and Easter time.

Ports of Call -- Grand Turk, recently developed as a cruise stop, is basically like a private island. Don't expect too much from the town, which is a small village with no shops, located 3 miles from the ship. At the new pier there is a Margaritaville with restaurant, bar, shops, lagoon pool, and nice beach area. This is where most people stayed.

Tortola offers a small town with limited shopping; most people took tours to see the natural beauty of the island.

St. Thomas was crowded as always, with 5 large ships in port. It still remains a very popular island, however.

Last stop was Half Moon Cay, very nice and well-developed as private islands go. We walked around during the morning, headed back to the ship for lunch in air conditioned comfort, versus eating barbecue in the heat.

Quite a mix of ages on this sailing. 50% Senior Citizens, but many young couples also--HAL is appealing to a younger crowd, and finding many who have moved beyond the party atmosphere of the mass-market ships and are looking for better quality cruising. If you're looking to step up, do consider Holland America and do not let people tell you everyone there is too old for you to have a good time!