Laurino

Doesn't have a clip, but... I just got the Citizen eco-drive satellite wave CC9015-54E. It's a gorgeous titanium and sapphire glass watch with dual dials, GPS-time (both time and time zone/ positioning) and it's solar powered. The secondary dial is a 24 hour one. Has a perpetual calendar with date and day of the week. Also has chronograph and alarm. Since it's set by GPS, it should work well at sea too. A bit expensive though, but much more affordable than the equivalent Seiko ones. Citizen's radio-controlled world time watches are also much more affordable.

/Henrik

Thanks for a great review of photos & your video. We are doing the same cruise in October but on the Rotterdam, think I'll have to pack some travelcam for the sea day! We are also going to take the train from Boston to New York but on the day of departure. How long did it take for you to disembark & catch the bus to South station? Thinking we will catch the train that leaves around 11.40am.

Oh a bit difficult to remember... However I checked the time tags on my photos. At about 8.20am we were still onboard and I was taking pictures of Boston harbor from the Lido deck, probably just after breakfast. We probably debarked at about 9am with our own luggage. Then shortly before 10am I was taking pictures of the Financial District, because we were heading to our Hyatt hotel there. Getting there we used the Silver line bus to South station and then switched to the Red line subway, so our journey was longer than yours. I seem to recall that debarkation was fast since we already did US immigration onboard in the previous port Bar Harbor (in Maine), so in Boston we only had to clear customs with our bags, and that's much faster. So you should be fine. You could do the early self-debark with your own luggage, if you want to be on the safe side.

We were on the Zuiderdam for this cruise. After watching the morning tenders going ashore, we decided we would stay on board. As the the morning moved towards afternoon, we were very glad not to have gone ashore. The tenders bounced around like a fishing bobber. After the Captain called off using the tenders for passengers returns, we watched for over an hour them trying to bring the tenders back on the ship. Too rough & too dangerous (in our opinion). We were happy with the Captain's decision to bus the passengers to Copenhagen & leave the tenders.

Thank you for the "insider's perspective" :) Did you enjoy the cruise?

I'm so glad you came back to give us your video link. It is wonderful. We did the Montreal to Boston cruise in September and ended up doing some of the same excursions you did, and it was such fun to re-live that trip. We went to Mahone Bay/Lunenburg and the Fortress of Louisbourg. We had done the car trip to the North Shore on PEI a few years ago, so this time we drove along the northeast and east shores, which are also beautiful.

 

Honestly, after watching your video, we have almost decided to repeat that cruise next year. It is such a gorgeous area, and there's so much to see.

 

Thank you!

That sounds wonderful :) I'd like to do the Cabot trail on Cape Breton Island some time, it just seemed a bit long as an excursion from Sydney and during a short port stop. Would definitely like to see more of PEI too.

Thanks for the info and thanks for the video. I'm doing Maasdam to Alaska this summer and just booked Cabin 421, so, I'm happy to see you enjoyed that location. Great pictures!

OK great :) Just note that I haven't been inside cabin 421. I probably wrote this before already; I just know that we stayed in cabin 418 and had some noise issues because there's an AC-room next to it and not a corridor as it seems in the deck plans. On the starboard side I seem to recall there was a corridor and not an AC-room (otherwise Interior cabin 423 would be inaccessible) which leeds me to believe that cabins 419 and 421 are better, and also 420 on the port side. However cabins 420 and 421 might be affected by slamming doors or people walking on the outside stairs next to them, I don't know, althought those stairs were not very popular on our cruise.

Thanks for the comments :)

Hi everyone, I realize this thread/ review is almost a year old now, but I thought it might be an inspiration for this summer season.

Anyway, I have finally finished my movie about the cruise and uploaded it to YouTube:

It's a long movie. Montreal & Ottawa are between minutes 14-28. The cruise from Montreal to Boston is between minutes 28-53, with interiors from Maasdam mostly in the beginning. Finally Boston is between minutes 53-58.

Hi Henrik; your theory, math and conclusion are all correct! We, of course, don't know what ZUDM's total POB's (especially pax, since they are assigned life boats, rather than life rafts, which are where the majority of the crew are assigned) are on this particular voyage. In addition, your Kustbevakningen would have a say in the matter prior to having given ZUDM permission to sail to København without three of her tenders. Enjoy the day in your beautiful country!

OK Copper, thank you for the confirmation. I didn't realize they needed permission from/ had to confirm with/ the Coast guard for sailing without some life boats, but that makes sense. It's so great to also have professionals on this board. I like your skills in Swedish (among other things). Hoping you'll have a nice day too :)

Everyone - thank you for your comments.

/Henrik

Tack :) for taking the time and effort to shoot these pics! Looks like Deck officers are driving those three tenders to København as opposed to the "regular" quartermasters and/or sailors and, yes, it will not be a comfortable ride down the Øresund

Hi Copper,

A question you might be able to answer - I'm guessing the Zdam tenders have about 150 people capacity, so if 3 tenders and coincidentally 450 passengers are "stranded", that would explain how Zdam could sail with the rest of the passengers but without full lifeboat capacity? It would also explain why the tenders had to leave for Cph yesterday, as opposed to stay put and being picked up by Zdam on her way north today with a full compliment of passengers (that and time constraints I imagine)?

/Henrik

I would echo the others: thank you for taking the time to shoot those photos and share them on CC. I noticed the paint scraped off the hull that I think someone mentioned in another thread happened while in the Panama Canal locks - the old girl could use a little TLC on the starboard side. ;)

When I zoom in on the photo, it looks like white paint. So they are probably already on it, just need that last blue coating ;)

Thank you so much for sharing the pictures and information.

I hope you enjoy your cruise later this year.

Thank you, I will :)

Zuiderdam was supposed to stay until 6pm in Helsingborg, and then sail for Copenhagen and overnight there. It's only about a 1-3 hour sailing (depending on the type of ship etc) to Copenhagen from here, and it's about 1 hour by car. But by the afternoon the wind picked up even more.

I didn't get home in time to see it, but apparently after 3pm, the captain stopped the tender operations due to the bad weather. At about 3.45pm Zuiderdam lifted anchor and left for Copenhagen. When leaving, Zuiderdam left about 450 passengers and 3 tenders "stranded".

Buses were arranged to drive the "stranded" 450 passengers to Copenhagen. The last bus left at about 5.30pm, the usual 30min before sailing all aboard time.

Tenders #12, 14 and 16 were left behind in Helsingborg. They filled up fuel in our local marina to prepare for their voyage to Copenhagen.

At about 6.30 the 3 tenders left Helsingborg in a convoy for Copenhagen.

Looks like it will be a bit of a rough ride for the crew.

A most unusual day and I'm sure a headache for the staff and the passengers, but it seems all will be well. Even though it's cold and windy today, I do hope the passengers had a nice time in Helsingborg. Zuiderdam will visit Helsingborg 5 more times this season.

/Henrik

Hi everyone,

Today Zuiderdam had it's slightly adventurous (sort of leaving pax & tenders ashore) maiden call in Helsingborg, Sweden, my hometown. Since I live close to the tender pier, I thought I should write up a short story with pictures of today's events. I'm not a passenger onboard, but I've been on her before and will in 2 months time for Norway and Iceland, yay :)

So, Zuiderdam arrived this morning at about 6.30am, and turned into the wind. It was windy and a strong current already in the morning.

Captain Wouter vad Hoogdalem monitored the sea conditions and decided to anchor at about 7am and started lowering tenders. At about 7.30am they started trial tender operations.

At this point I had to leave for work. But I noticed on Marine Traffic and the local news, that Zuiderdam stayed put and started passenger tender operations at about 9.30am.

/Henrik

Thanks for all the pictures, the ship looks fantastic (in most places). I'm 36 btw ;)

Are the tugs (tows) are precaution or necessary for the move?

Mandatory (and precaution) for all cruise ships in Venice, I believe. We had them when we sailed the NA in/out of Venice in July 2014. There are some tight turns, but it's hardly necessary since all the Vistas, Signatures and Pinnacles/Koningsdam have azipods (and bow thrusters) and therefore superior steering.

If you missed it:

Great thread! I'm watching the cameras right now. Koningsdam is looking good :D

Just doing a follow-up. I e-mailed HAL through their website. I was very impressed by the handling and reply of my question. The e-mail was directed to shipboard services who forwarded it to the shop's assistant manager trainee. Apparently (from the e-mail signature) the shops are run by a company called "Starboard Cruise Services". However they didn't have the model I was interested in, they only had the stainless steel satellite model #CC3005 -85E (which I saw onboard Eurodam in December) not the titanium models. The manager also offered to check with the main office if they could get the correct model, which was impressing, but I declined since I'm checking with other shops as well and it felt a bit too much.

So overall very impressing customer service by HAL. Slightly disappointing they didn't have the model in regular stock, but not surprising since I haven't seen it onboard previously and maybe it's more difficult to sell since it's much more expensive than the usual quartz/Citizen line up. And now we know who runs the shops onboard.

That could be the one. I remember remarking that it would cost about $1200 after the discount. That was before I found out the MSRP was around $2200.

 

It's unfortunate that a couple of years ago they changed the discount from 40% to 35%. Deals aren't as good as they used to be.

Ok great, thank you. That msrp seems about right, compared to what I've seen online. I've also tried e-mailing HAL, will see what happens.

These watches were available on the Nieuw Amsterdam when we were on from Jan 24th to Feb 7th, 2016.

 

I suspect they will be available on the Zuiderdam as well.

Thank you, that sounds promising! Do you know for sure it was that model? I don't think (I was looking for another model at that time) they had it on Eurodam in December.

I should've shown a picture from the start, it looks like this:

I had absolutely no problem having an issue resolved by the manufacturer of a watch I purchased on board that I saved several hundred dollars on even after paying the duty on it. The key is to be knowledgeable about what you are buying. The manufacturer's warranty is world-wide and any well known "brand" will honor their warranty. The seller of such a watch, unless you buy from a guy on a corner with watches hanging from the inside of an overcoat, really has little to do with the manufacturer honoring a warranty. I doubt that HAL or any other main stream cruise line knowingly deals with those who sell "knock-off" or "counterfeited" merchandise.

I agree, you do get a World-wide warranty and I don't think there will be any problems. But I haven't had any problems yet with my previous two Citizen watch purchases onboard, so I wouldn't know for certain what would happen. Btw I can't see the difference in buying onboard or buying in a land store for example in the US? I would be going home in either situation and couldn't visit the vendor anymore.

Thanks for the many replies!

That said, from what we have seen and compared, I would bet that you cannot find "a deal" on Citizen watches on ANY ship, regardless of how much percentage off on the "SALE" the price tag says. Personal research and comparison with my wife's Citizen watch purchased at Costco.

Actually I already have two Citizen watches that I've purchased on previous HAL cruises. From what I've seen, the signature shops advertised 35% sale compared to msrp/list prices on land have been correct. Also prices in Europe and Sweden are higher than in the US (and Asia), which additionally increases the savings. Most stores on land sell with list prices, unless the model has been out a couple of years then they might discount, but it won't be 35%.

I'm wondering if the watch store onboard Zuiderdam (and generally) are operated by HAL or a contractor?

I'd like to get in contact with the store and check if they carry a specific watch model, the Citizen Satellite Wave F900 model #CC9015-71E or #CC9015-54E (even though I realize stocks can't be guaranteed). Is there an e-mail adress or phone # for the shop, HAL or contractor?

Or maybe someone on the boards have seen that watch on a recent cruise on Zuiderdam or another Vista or Signature ship? They should have similar stores.

I'll be sailing Zuiderdam in July. I'm interested in purchasing onboard, since it's tax and duty-free and you get Mariner days.

I have obviously never seen one (despite numerous bridge tours on various ships) but you might get a clue as to the size if you look at the deck plans of most HAL ships, the Navigation deck. Those white cabin-like areas behind the bridge are usually the senior officer quarters and the largest one is most likely the captain's abode. At least, that's always been my assumption. ;)

I agree too. Just an interesting addition - the Eurodam deck plans have been recently updated on HAL's site, and now the inaccessible white parts no longer shows walls etc, it's just a big white space without dividers. Resembles how many other cruise lines show their deck plans. However for the other ships, such as NA or Zdam, you can still see the "contents" inside the white space.

On the NA deck plan for deck 8, next to the bridge you can see a bigger cabin on the starboard side vs the port side. The cabin has at least 3 big rooms.

Thanks guys, I think a few cocktails and food by the pool sounds perfect.

It will be late June and departure is 6pm so I believe it should be light.

According to port website we are s167 which is right in town, hope that is the case!

Yes you will have light, sunset won't be until after 10pm. And yes s167 is quite close to downtown (for that size of ship), it's not in the more distant "Free port". So you're all set! :)