Zaandam nitemares!!!

[Appygirl]

Serious Cruisers - sorry that you're not having a very good cruise experience on the Zaandam. We were trying to decide whether or not to take the Puerto Vallarta cruise you're on or the Hawaii cruise the one before - which is the one we took. It looks like we made the right decision.

 

Our Hawaii cruise did not have the delay problems you've encountered and we saw all our port of call with no time issues. But yes I would have been ticked if we missed one of the islands just because they got delayed somewhere due to delays.

 

I will attest that on the Zaandam there is no sense of urgency with the crew and I can absolutely understand why they spent too long in Puerto Vallarta on repairs and too long in Cabo messing with a tender.

 

Our nightmare was the dinner food service, trying to find somewhere to eat. It shouldn't be that difficult.

 

Although I'm sure the Zaandam is seaworthy - I had no concerns in that department - it is way overdue for drydock. On our cruise there were 20 cabins on Decks 1 and 2 that were having burst pipe, leaking water issues, and I'm pretty sure they didn't just all spring a leak all at once so it may have been ongoing since the Alaska cruises. The only way they can get the burst pipe issue fixed properly is not to put passengers in the affected cabins and pull out walls and ceilings to make repairs. Continuing to make money by putting passengers in leaky cabins, or cabins that might not be leaking but water is seeping through from the problem areas, and daily mopping up and putting fans in there to help keep it dry is all part of the non-urgency attitude on this ship.

 

My cabin up on Deck 6 was fine. Wonderful cabin attendants. Zaandam staff for the most part smiling, courteous, and professional, but you can just tell that something is not quite right on this ship with the crew.

 

Captain Wouter Van Hoogdalem was on our Hawaii cruise. There was no mention on our cruise- he was featured on Good Morning Zaandam on Oct 7 - that his contract was up and he was taking time off, so he most likely is the captain on this cruise too.

[USNUZULOOSE]

Is there a way to know which port may be missed?

[Serious Cruisers]

unfortunately I am in a wheel chair and there were NO FREE tours for me!

[Serious Cruisers]

no SF, we were supposed to arrive in San Diego at 10 am today, now MAYBE 8pm tonite, they will update us as we go along. ALL passengers even 80 year olds in wheel chairs will then have to get off and go thru customs, not blaming customs as all. Blaiming HAL, they sure took my 6K fast and did not disclose there intentions of repairing the ship in LA, and PV! They only told us 3 weeks before the cruise about carpet changes. Not hiring underwater divers, bringing in specialists from germany ...etc.etc. I would have not paid 6K for this dry docking while sailing with passengers cruise.

[USNUZULOOSE]

I am sorry to hear this, I know it is not a pleasant feeling when you look forward to something. I was looking forward to touring her on Sunday. I might have been able to meet a few people. I hope you have good time any way.

[goodearth]

no SF, we were supposed to arrive in San Diego at 10 am today, now MAYBE 8pm tonite, they will update us as we go along. ALL passengers even 80 year olds in wheel chairs will then have to get off and go thru customs, not blaming customs as all. Blaiming HAL, they sure took my 6K fast and did not disclose there intentions of repairing the ship in LA, and PV! They only told us 3 weeks before the cruise about carpet changes. Not hiring underwater divers, bringing in specialists from germany ...etc.etc. I would have not paid 6K for this dry docking while sailing with passengers cruise.

 

 

I am so sorry you are going through this....... You hit it on the head when you called it a "dry docking while sailing with passengers" cruise........I would urge you to share these issues with the Hotel Manager if you haven't already. Keep track of every conversation and if any resolution or option is proposed by HAL. You don't need to accept chocolate covered strawberries for your inconvenience!!:rolleyes: At the least, what you are describing will NOT BODE WELL FOR HAL in the court of public opinion--and that is what CC is. Take Care........

[GeriatricNurse]

Many repairs, late, late late, missing ports, captain announcements can hardly be heard, was in the casino, never turned down music to let us here we will be missing San Francisco! Captain announced yesterday (lol) he would be able to make up the 12 hours we spent doing repairs to the ship to get us on time... we all knew that was impossible. Spent 3 days in PV, applied for landed immigrant status lol.

 

No official written announcements, cant hear anything, yet I have wasted paper telling me about jewellery on sale?? not impressed with this captain.. We all knew he couldnt make up that kind of time.. Tender was not able to be lifted onto ship in Cabo wasted 9 hours trying to fix it then left it there. Repairs in PV took one day more than anticipated..

 

Bad weather I get, repairs, repairs repairs.. I didnt sign up for

 

NEVER AGAIN.

 

Well, that now makes two HAL ships, (Veendam & Zaandam), on which I will NEVER book a cruise! :mad:

[goodearth]

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/cruiseships.phtml

 

According to this site: the Zaandam is off Bahia Magdalena.......if so, that's a LONG way from San Diego............:confused::(

 

Click on the coast of Mexico to get the display with the Zaandam name near Bahia Magdalena...........it doesn't how up on the world map.

[SilvertoGold]

On the cruise previous to this cruise Captain van Hoogdalem said Captain Andre van Schoonhoven was on board the last few days and would be taking over starting with this Mexico cruise.

[solocanadian]

Serious Cruisers - sorry that you're not having a very good cruise experience on the Zaandam. We were trying to decide whether or not to take the Puerto Vallarta cruise you're on or the Hawaii cruise the one before - which is the one we took. It looks like we made the right decision.

 

Our Hawaii cruise did not have the delay problems you've encountered and we saw all our port of call with no time issues. But yes I would have been ticked if we missed one of the islands just because they got delayed somewhere due to delays.

 

I will attest that on the Zaandam there is no sense of urgency with the crew and I can absolutely understand why they spent too long in Puerto Vallarta on repairs and too long in Cabo messing with a tender.

 

Our nightmare was the dinner food service, trying to find somewhere to eat. It shouldn't be that difficult.

 

Although I'm sure the Zaandam is seaworthy - I had no concerns in that department - it is way overdue for drydock. On our cruise there were 20 cabins on Decks 1 and 2 that were having burst pipe, leaking water issues, and I'm pretty sure they didn't just all spring a leak all at once so it may have been ongoing since the Alaska cruises. The only way they can get the burst pipe issue fixed properly is not to put passengers in the affected cabins and pull out walls and ceilings to make repairs. Continuing to make money by putting passengers in leaky cabins, or cabins that might not be leaking but water is seeping through from the problem areas, and daily mopping up and putting fans in there to help keep it dry is all part of the non-urgency attitude on this ship.

 

My cabin up on Deck 6 was fine. Wonderful cabin attendants. Zaandam staff for the most part smiling, courteous, and professional, but you can just tell that something is not quite right on this ship with the crew.

 

Captain Wouter Van Hoogdalem was on our Hawaii cruise. There was no mention on our cruise- he was featured on Good Morning Zaandam on Oct 7 - that his contract was up and he was taking time off, so he most likely is the captain on this cruise too.

I believe Captain is Andre van Schoonhoven who was on the ship this past May/June and said he would be getting off in time for Christmas at home.

He is a no nonsense person who is completely concerned with the safety of his guests and ship.

[solocanadian]

I am so sorry you are going through this....... You hit it on the head when you called it a "dry docking while sailing with passengers" cruise........I would urge you to share these issues with the Hotel Manager if you haven't already. Keep track of every conversation and if any resolution or option is proposed by HAL. You don't need to accept chocolate covered strawberries for your inconvenience!!:rolleyes: At the least, what you are describing will NOT BODE WELL FOR HAL in the court of public opinion--and that is what CC is. Take Care........

If the Hotel Mgr is still Edwin Brunink I would not waste your time. Just write Mr. Stein Kruise in Seattle (may not have spelled his name right so check before you write). Earlier post said Mr. Brunink is not very pleasant to deal with so why deal with a person who is like a bear with a bee up his ---! Just document all your concerns & write when you get home. :)

[goodearth]

Very good point! Although I would at least try to communicate the issues while on board so they can't say "you went the whole cruise without saying anything".......if the hotel manager is a @#$%........that's one more problem on the ship--but at least you brought up issues while on board and they had an opportunity to address them. I do agree that a letter to HQ should be coming no matter what........

[jaguarstyper]

...there is a rainbow, unicorns, and perpetual "sugar people"...

 

:D Hope you don't mind, but I think that's a funny line :)

Me too, I literally laughed out loud in my office. :D

[solocanadian]

Very good point! Although I would at least try to communicate the issues while on board so they can't say "you went the whole cruise without saying anything".......if the hotel manager is a @#$%........that's one more problem on the ship--but at least you brought up issues while on board and they had an opportunity to address them. I do agree that a letter to HQ should be coming no matter what........

Good luck to you dealing with him. Hope he is not rude and untruthful to you like he was recently to a guest. If so, just tell him you didn't just roll of the back of a turnip truck. Would love to see his response to that. ;)

[solocanadian]

Serious Cruisers: So sorry your cruise has had so many problems. Sounds like the poor old Zaandam is falling apart at the seams. I never experienced any of your problems this past May/June to Alaska and back. I too would have hated to spend so much money for such a bad experience. Once again, hope they get her fixed up before my cruise on her next Spring.

[Hlitner]

We will not get into the half empty half full debate....but would welcom any cruise where we could never hear any announcement. I have had wonderful dreams where we personally disable the ships' PA system. Personally, we can read the daily schedule and also look at a clock. We do not need to be disturbed with those very important announcements such as "we are having an inch of gold sale," or "Bingo starts in 15 minutes and the Jackpot is up to 2 Trillion dollars," etc etc.

 

Hank

[goodearth]

Me too, I literally laughed out loud in my office. :D

 

Salacia and Jaguarstyper........ I take your comments as a compliment!:D

[sunviking90]

I am generally an HAL apologist, but I do feel bad for those on this cruise. Mexico is not my cup of tea anyway, but out of curiosity we looked at the prices for this cruise and they were not cheap. I realize it is 2 weeks, but the fares were up there with fares to Hawaii. People who gave paid a fair amount of money for their vacation expect to receive appropriate value. Hotels usually warn guests of construction or renovations. These people were not told of renovations during their cruise until it was too late to cancel.

 

On a personal note, I don't mind the work being done as we are boarding her in 4 days. I am prepared for a late boarding and departure though and planning to roll with the rest. I've never had a bad cruise!

[HALFans]

<SNIP>The only way they can get the burst pipe issue fixed properly is not to put passengers in the affected cabins and pull out walls and ceilings to make repairs. Continuing to make money by putting passengers in leaky cabins, or cabins that might not be leaking but water is seeping through from the problem areas, and daily mopping up and putting fans in there to help keep it dry is all part of the non-urgency attitude on this ship.<SNIP>

 

It would be nice if that's all there was to it. Unfortunately the staterooms are modular, and kind of stacked like a roll of mints. To get to one in the middle, you have to start at one end and yank every stateroom between you and that one... generally through a hole cut into the side of the ship. If you can't reach the problem through one of the access panels, it's a huge undertaking.

 

I agree though; it's unconscionable that they sold these staterooms knowing they couldn't fix the problem during the cruise, if indeed, that is the case.

 

We're boarding in less than a month and certainly hope everything's ironed out before then!

 

I know it's horrible, but 'better you than me' keeps running through my mind. Sorry, I apologize. (Mostly.) ;) (See? I'm a "MY glass is 1/2 full 'cause YOU got a rotten pour from the waiter" kind of guy.)

 

Just kidding.

 

Oh, does anyone know... can you make Mead from lemonade?

[Salacia]

Salacia and Jaguarstyper........ I take your comments as a compliment!:D

 

Goodearth, happy to hear that...that's what I intended it to be :D

[Serious Cruisers]

but wouldnt you like to know that you will not be arriving on time and missing a port??

[Wakepatrol]

Well, that now makes two HAL ships, (Veendam & Zaandam), on which I will NEVER book a cruise! :mad:

 

 

There's 13 more ships,why stop now? forge ahead

[the2ofus]

My son was a technician working on board Zaandam on this cruise. I believe he disembarked in PV. He e-mailed me about the carpet issues with atrium areas inaccessible during the day, traffic patterns disrupted, odors, repairs to the ship etc. Said he thought there would be a lot of unhappy pax. He said the hydraulic issue with the lifeboat hoist appeared to be an unhappy coincidence, not a maint. issue.

 

He has been on many HAL and RCCL ships in the course of his work so I think his assessment of the situation on Zaandam is probably spot-on and closer to Serious Cruisers than Canadianbear. Still, I hope both can find some things to enjoy amid the difficulties.

 

BTW I was on a 7 day Maasdam cruise once in a flooded cabin, yes, some parts of the cruise were good but living with a wet carpet, not being able to put anything down on the floor, always having to keep shoes on and constant dampness sure put a damper on our trip.:) We had to complain multiple times and even with me in tears before we were offered meaningful compensation.

Have never again sailed on Maasdam but I still love HAL.

[off2ctheworld]

Hoping the repairs will be quickly fixed before our cruise and all the others taking her soon. So sorry this cruise had problems.

[Salacia]

Wow. Same cruise as canadianbear. Really glass half full vs glass half empty.

 

I have to say, especially based on my Zaandam experience, I'm more in tune with canadianbear.

 

Roy

 

Hi rafinmd. I'm struggling to understand the concept of " Really glass half full vs glass half empty."

 

Candianbear wrote that she was on a "cruise to nowhere", and I'm happy that Candianbear is enjoying the voyage.

 

HOWEVER, is it not resonable to expect that passengers have other expectations, and might be unahppy when the voyage they booked turned into a "voyage to no where"? Clearly, we all have different expections, but please consider that a voyage to nowhere was not what passengers booked.

 

Best wishes,

Salacia