fleduc33

Totally agree. We were thrilled to see Zeri every night upon exiting the Zuiderdam MDR. It was a wonderful way to exit the room. This, along with the spectacle of the soups being served elegantly in the bowls in front of you, are small things that for us distinguished HAL from our previous cruises. 

On 1/4/2019 at 11:39 PM, ithaca gal said:

We are currently on the Zuiderdam and I’m sorry you have been affected negatively by the conduct of other people’s children. I fully believe that your children are well behaved. 

 

Unfortunately, this has not been the case with all of the children on this cruise.

 

As 4 Star mariners, we have many HAL cruises under our belts. We have never  experienced poor behavior by children (and their parents) like we have on this cruise. We noticed this difference from the beginning of the cruise. 

 

I dont know why  the Adult status of the Seavirw Pool has been enforced this time but the Lido Pool has seen some very rambunctious behavior, including lines of kids doing simultaneous backflips into the pool. 

 

In the MDR each night (late seating) we have watched kids run back and forth through the dining room every night. Why there has not been a collision with a server carrying eight dinners on a tray remains a mystery.   

 

We have often cruised during Thanksgiving week with many, many children onboard and hardly were aware of their presence.  There is definitely something different about this cruise. 

 

Thank you for your important perspective "ithaca gal" as an experienced HAL cruiser. Even though we have only done 2 HAL cruises, I did feel like this one was different from the Eurodam NYE cruise last year.

I can't contradict the fact that I did also witness the same behavior that you describe around the Lido pool area. I actually got many questions from my son who couldn't understand why I did not allow him to jump/dive in the pool when a lot of the other kids were doing so... As for the dining room (early sitting), I did not see kids running around (and my kids were busy making colorings for the crew - see picture below), but there was plenty of crying and screaming by toddlers... It does not bother me as a young parent, but I could imagine that some cruisers may not have enjoyed the ensuing atmosphere as much. Again probably just something to keep in mind for those who decide to cruise during holidays and that may feel disturbed by children.

As a final point, they did fully open the Lido pool roof on the last day in Half Moon Cay, and it made a big difference. You could immediately feel the breeze come in and the humidity/stuffiness of the pool area was gone.

Overall, we still had a great cruise. We may switch it up again and go back to other lines in the future to see how our experience compares for the whole family, but I am certain that if we do we will miss the refined HAL dining room experience that we felt was among the better ones we have had across all of our various cruises.

36 minutes ago, POA1 said:

 

Do you happen to know how many children are on your cruise? Like I said we had 60, but only saw a handful before Christmas morning. I wouldn't worry about the comments. Some people just look for reasons to complain and say they're vacation is RUINED. 

Don't know, but just eyeballing it I think it may be materially more than 60. And to be clear I understand that couples with no children on board are looking for some peace and quiet. It's just that we enjoy the aft pool area and can't use it this year, so selfishly we are disappointed and would have hoped that the ship would have found another solution than to make it an Adults only area. Maybe making it a "quiet" area and enforcing it?

On our end, I can say that our vacation was RUINED by the darn curtain that always seems to be glued to your skin as you use the shower. Yuk!

We really enjoyed your report of Poobyh's adventures on the Christmas cruise. You have a very interesting and humourous writing style!

Reporting live from Zuiderdam on second-to-last day of New Year's cruise.

I have personally cruised around 10 times on Costa/Carnival/NCL/Celebrity. This is our second HAL Holiday cruise (last year on Eurodam for New Year's cruise which we loved). I am a late 30s professional traveling with my wife, two kids 5 and 8 years old, and 2 grandparents. Ship is in very good shape, service is good and food has been very acceptable in the dining room (a few misses here and there and somewhat a step down from Eurodam last year but still quite enjoyable overall). Although the weather has not fully cooperated, we have also enjoyed the itinerary.

Why choose HAL for a family cruise? We tend to enjoy dining in the dining room at set times, dress up for gala nights (3 generations in tuxedos and long dresses!) and enjoy a more traditional cruising experience. My parents also enjoy the HAL experience and this is a way to spend quality time together. Finally, my wife and I enjoy BB King Blues Club and like to go dance there at night after the show.

I know my comments will not rally all of you, but I have found the intolerance from cruisers toward kids much more prevalent this year. Hearing a few loud comments such as "when are we going to throw all of the kids overboard?". The front desk also confirmed that one of the most frequent complaint has been around the number of kids onboard. We did not feel this resentment last year on Eurodam. Frankly, my (perhaps biased) judgment is that kids have generally been well behaved and supervised throughout the cruise. Also, my feeling is that if you don't like kids, you should not pick a cruise during an important school break, or perhaps go higher scale with Seabourn, Oceania or Crystal.

Another related disappointment is that management decided to reserve the full aft pool area to “Adults Only”. This was an area that we frequented daily last year on Eurodam for Al fresco breakfast or lunch, and this was not possible this year. Added to that the fact that the roof cover over the midship pool was almost always closed (never fully open), we have not been able to spend any quality time outside getting some of the ocean breeze or direct sun exposure.

Despite these important shortcomings, we have had a pleasant cruise but wish we would have felt more “on a ship” and not in a closed off, roofed up, air conditioned hotel… We thought we had found a cruise product that suited our family following the Eurodam cruise last year, but we will likely need to go back to the drawing board...

All the best to all of you for 2019!

Fred