Review - Zaandam June 18-June 25, 2010

[txstephie]

This was a birthday gift for my mom and it was her first cruise and my second. I knew she'd love it and sure enough, she's already planning for 2011!

 

We flew in on Friday morning on SWA and arrived at 10:50. I reserved a car from Royal Coach Towncars and called him as soon as we landed. He was there waiting for us when we got our bags. We got to the Pier at about 11:30, no lines, and got right on the ship.

 

 

ROOM:

I originally booked an NN guarantee and this was because of cost. Imagine my surprise when we were upgraded to a G!! We were in room 2629, outside cabin, mid ship, not to far from the elevators. It was a wonderful room and mom and I were both happy.

The only issue we had was that we didn't see our room stewards for the first 2 days. The beds were pushed together and we called twice to get them seperated but no one ever came. So we decided to just make due and we'd get it straighted out the following day. So on Saturday morning I went up to the front desk and asked them to seperate the beds. It was Saturday evening before anyone came to clean or seperate the beds. I was a little disappointed, but hey I'm on vacation. We also only got turn down service three times the whole trip and it seemed that they didn't clean the rooms until late afternoon. When I finally met our room steward I asked for ice and he said no problem and brought some, and that was the only time we had ice. We never saw him again after that.

 

 

FOOD:

I have to say that we were very pleased with all the different food options on the ship and we tried new foods. I'm a very picky eater but there was plenty for me to eat. I don't know if this is the norm, but there was only Ranch salad dressing one day on the cruise. I asked for it everytime in the MDR and Lido, but the same answer was "we're out". I lucked out one day in the Lido I saw a bottle of ranch and made myself a HUGE salad. ;)

Can you say ice cream??? I think I ate more ice cream this week than I had in my entire life! Yummy!

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

We had a ball! Captain Keith Coburn from the tv show 'Deadliest Catch' was our guest chef in the Culinary Arts Center and he made crab cakes one day and crab stuffed mushrooms another. He was very entertaining and had great stories to tell about the life of a fisherman.

 

Joel Mason was also on board and he does a wonderful tribute to Elton John. I think that was my favorite show that we saw, from the outfits and the glasses his impression of Elton was spot on.

 

SPA:

 

I bought a Thermal Spa pass and that was the best $89 I spent!! I spent hours relaxing and reading on the heated tile chairs. It was never crowded and there were times when I had the whole place to myself. In fact, while we were cruising in Glacier Bay I was in the hot tub watching the scenery and I was all alone. So peaceful.

 

PORTS:

We didn't schedule any excursions, we really just wanted to get off the ship and explore on our own. Juneau was sunny and warm. Sitka and Ketchikan were both cool (by TX standards;)) and it rained a little bit in both ports. Victoria was nice, I just wish we could have had more time.

 

 

All in all this was the perfect vacation for my mom and I. The Zaandam is a fine ship, sure there's some wear and tear and I had issues with the room stewards and some of the dining room staff, but that wouldn't keep me from sailing on her again.

 

If you have any questions I'd be glad to see if I can answer them.

 

Thanks for reading!

[Natmar]

Hey we were in cabin 2682 down the hall - probably saw each other but didn't know who each other were. I agree the cabin steward we had also wasn't the greatest - the only way we got to meet him was on the third day when our shower stopped working and we had to prove it to him that it didn't work in order to get it fixed (he swore it did when he cleaned our room that day). And, I also agree that the rooms didn't get cleaned in a timely manner - on all of our previous seven cruises our room was clean before we came back from breakfast so it was hard to see it had to wait until after lunch. One day our steward forgot to put the upper bunk down so we had to do it ourselves in order for our daughter to go to bed.

 

Wasn't Joel Mason just great? He made the cruise for us and we even saw him on the elevator as were disembarking the last day and made sure he knew we loved his show.

 

I also agree with the dining staff having issues - because we did too. (I also posted a mini review if you want to read it on the boards several days ago - just search).

 

Our main beef was that none of the windows we saw were clean - especially our stateroom window it was filthy on the outside we could barely see out of it and never did I ever see anyone clean them or the interior of the ship our entire cruise (which is unusual).

 

Yes, the Zaandam is showing her age and needs some work but we had a good time also.

[TracieABD]

Thanks for the review!:)

[portofrome]

Thanks for posting.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome home

 

Soory you had some problems with the cabin stewards -- you should have asked to specak the Guest Relations Manager about this.

[Nanaimo Gal]

[

 

Our main beef was that none of the windows we saw were clean - especially our stateroom window it was filthy on the outside we could barely see out of it and never did I ever see anyone clean them or the interior of the ship our entire cruise (which is unusual).

 

Yes, the Zaandam is showing her age and needs some work but we had a good time also.

 

Uh-oh.....we'll be on The Zaandam in October, going to Hawaii. This doesn't sound too promising :(

[Down-Unders]

Hey we were in cabin 2682 down the hall - probably saw each other but didn't know who each other were. I agree the cabin steward we had also wasn't the greatest - the only way we got to meet him was on the third day when our shower stopped working and we had to prove it to him that it didn't work in order to get it fixed (he swore it did when he cleaned our room that day). And, I also agree that the rooms didn't get cleaned in a timely manner - on all of our previous seven cruises our room was clean before we came back from breakfast so it was hard to see it had to wait until after lunch. One day our steward forgot to put the upper bunk down so we had to do it ourselves in order for our daughter to go to bed.

 

Wasn't Joel Mason just great? He made the cruise for us and we even saw him on the elevator as were disembarking the last day and made sure he knew we loved his show.

 

I also agree with the dining staff having issues - because we did too. (I also posted a mini review if you want to read it on the boards several days ago - just search).

 

Our main beef was that none of the windows we saw were clean - especially our stateroom window it was filthy on the outside we could barely see out of it and never did I ever see anyone clean them or the interior of the ship our entire cruise (which is unusual).

 

Yes, the Zaandam is showing her age and needs some work but we had a good time also.

 

 

 

 

We were on the Zaandam in April for 21 days, went to the front office and even took an officer for a guided tour of the windows which were no " Signature of Excellence " Zaandam is not being properly maintained and obviously Carnival doesn't care as many passengers we met complained about issues including windows.

 

Carnival's fault you did not meet your cabin stewards, same in the dining room these people have more cabins to service and more tables to wait on than ever before.

[Stevesan]

ROOM:

The only issue we had was that we didn't see our room stewards for the first 2 days. The beds were pushed together and we called twice to get them seperated but no one ever came. So we decided to just make due and we'd get it straighted out the following day. So on Saturday morning I went up to the front desk and asked them to seperate the beds. It was Saturday evening before anyone came to clean or seperate the beds. I was a little disappointed, but hey I'm on vacation. We also only got turn down service three times the whole trip and it seemed that they didn't clean the rooms until late afternoon. When I finally met our room steward I asked for ice and he said no problem and brought some, and that was the only time we had ice. We never saw him again after that.

 

Thanks for the detailed review.

 

I'll understand if this was your first cruise, but don't ever again accept repeatedly poor service from a steward.

HAL is rightfully proud of their stewards. A note addressed to the "Hotel Manager" will quickly remedy any problem.

 

I've had premium service on HAL's ships. Only once did I have difficulty with a cabin steward. He was busting his buns, but royally screwing up. I addressed a note to the Hotel Manager describing the steward's short comings, and dropped it off at the front desk.

The next two days a white coat supervisor mentored his perfomance. Result: The steward straightened up his act and did a first rate job the rest of the cruise.

[Bill HaHa]

I was on the Zaandam March of this year 11 day to Mexico. We found our two stewards to be very good as was all of the crew. I had no problems.

[liketraveling]

This was a birthday gift for my mom and it was her first cruise and my second. I knew she'd love it and sure enough, she's already planning for 2011!

 

We flew in on Friday morning on SWA and arrived at 10:50. I reserved a car from Royal Coach Towncars and called him as soon as we landed. He was there waiting for us when we got our bags. We got to the Pier at about 11:30, no lines, and got right on the ship.

 

 

ROOM:

I originally booked an NN guarantee and this was because of cost. Imagine my surprise when we were upgraded to a G!! We were in room 2629, outside cabin, mid ship, not to far from the elevators. It was a wonderful room and mom and I were both happy.

The only issue we had was that we didn't see our room stewards for the first 2 days. The beds were pushed together and we called twice to get them seperated but no one ever came. So we decided to just make due and we'd get it straighted out the following day. So on Saturday morning I went up to the front desk and asked them to seperate the beds. It was Saturday evening before anyone came to clean or seperate the beds. I was a little disappointed, but hey I'm on vacation. We also only got turn down service three times the whole trip and it seemed that they didn't clean the rooms until late afternoon. When I finally met our room steward I asked for ice and he said no problem and brought some, and that was the only time we had ice. We never saw him again after that.

 

 

FOOD:

I have to say that we were very pleased with all the different food options on the ship and we tried new foods. I'm a very picky eater but there was plenty for me to eat. I don't know if this is the norm, but there was only Ranch salad dressing one day on the cruise. I asked for it everytime in the MDR and Lido, but the same answer was "we're out". I lucked out one day in the Lido I saw a bottle of ranch and made myself a HUGE salad. ;)

Can you say ice cream??? I think I ate more ice cream this week than I had in my entire life! Yummy!

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

We had a ball! Captain Keith Coburn from the tv show 'Deadliest Catch' was our guest chef in the Culinary Arts Center and he made crab cakes one day and crab stuffed mushrooms another. He was very entertaining and had great stories to tell about the life of a fisherman.

 

Joel Mason was also on board and he does a wonderful tribute to Elton John. I think that was my favorite show that we saw, from the outfits and the glasses his impression of Elton was spot on.

 

SPA:

 

I bought a Thermal Spa pass and that was the best $89 I spent!! I spent hours relaxing and reading on the heated tile chairs. It was never crowded and there were times when I had the whole place to myself. In fact, while we were cruising in Glacier Bay I was in the hot tub watching the scenery and I was all alone. So peaceful.

 

PORTS:

We didn't schedule any excursions, we really just wanted to get off the ship and explore on our own. Juneau was sunny and warm. Sitka and Ketchikan were both cool (by TX standards;)) and it rained a little bit in both ports. Victoria was nice, I just wish we could have had more time.

 

 

All in all this was the perfect vacation for my mom and I. The Zaandam is a fine ship, sure there's some wear and tear and I had issues with the room stewards and some of the dining room staff, but that wouldn't keep me from sailing on her again.

 

If you have any questions I'd be glad to see if I can answer them.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

I cruise with my dad all the time. We always ask or split beds but they are never split so we ask them to split them at dinner time and it usually happens.

 

I hope you didn't have to wait two days to have your bed made!

 

Glad you had a great time!