Zuiderdam post dry dock

[natonboard]

I'm looking for comments on the improvements made to the Zuiderdam on her last dry-dock in April. We were on her in March and found her furniture and carpets very tired overall. Pool side had all kinds of broken equipment. Our Verandha suite furniture in particular looked like second hand furniture and our balcony had draining issues so we had crappy water on it every day. We are back on the Zuiderdam in July. I'm hoping these things were fixed up this past dry-dock.

[Sherry H]

I am also interested!

[6travelers]

Me Too! Sailing on her next month and would like to know how she was spruced up. :)

[VMax1700]

I was sailing on her in January and will be embarking again in two weeks. If no one else has reported back in the meantime, then I will update you! :)

[stevec999]

I was sailing on her in January and will be embarking again in two weeks. If no one else has reported back in the meantime, then I will update you! :)

 

 

Take lots of pictures of the ship to share. :)

[doodlefan]

I'm recently home from the first 11 night sailing the Adriatic. There were 6 of us, 3 in each room.

 

There were lots of brand new carpets, there was fuzz all over the first few days from all the traffic on the new carpets but the staff was constantly running a vacuum stick over it. There were new carpets in a lot of places, the buffet, many of the elevator areas, the stairs, dining room, our rooms had new carpet (along with all the smells of glue etc)

 

I've never been on the Zuiderdam before this sailing so it's hard to say exactly what was new, but the lounger pads around the pool did look new. There were 2 different colours and they looked and felt new. Didn't notice any broken loungers.

 

We had good working plumbing in both rooms but met several, at least 3 or 4 couples who had major issues with water. One couple had no hot water for 2 to 3 days, another couple had no toilet for the first 5 days :eek: They were not happy and had to leave their room to find a public washroom for their needs. They said they complained many many times and no one even came to repair it. I'm not sure about the first couple if they complained or had their problem fixed as we didn't talk to them again.

 

I was also at the front desk while a gentleman was there notifying the staff that his toilet was again not working. He said it was the third time, maintenance did come and fix it the first 2 times in a timely manner he said but it was broken again.

 

There were several public woman's toilets that have awful brown stained toilet seats. These were clean but so old and scratched and awful looking. You just didn't want to sit on it. These should have been replaced for sure. They truly were awful looking, not to get too graphic but at first glance you though they were dirty not just deeply scratched and discoloured. :(

 

There was a lot of construction going on on deck 10. The Explorations Café was not open until the last 2 or 3 days of the cruise and then 2 of those days the Espresso machine wasn't working. They had a café set up on deck 1 right across from the front desk but it was nothing like a real café and was painfully slow to get any specialty coffee as it was a temporary setup that was normally a regular bar area. The staff tried but it was slow and not at all what my sisters were used to from the Explorations café or Al Baccio on Celebrity. I don't drink coffee so couldn't compare the coffee.

 

Also many days we would come back to the ship around 3 in the afternoon to enjoy a burger or some Mexican (both by the pool area and open daily 11:30 - 5:00, burgers were awesome, fries too. :D) but they were working on deck 10 literally right at the edge of the glass roof at the end of the pool area an there was a lot of noise, grinding, banging and some sort of dust, maybe sawdust in the air in the pool area. It was not a very relaxing time to be in there with all the noise and dust in the air.

 

My Mom had a very stuffy noise and scratchy throat for many days which she swore was not a cold, it was from all the glue, paint sawdust etc that was in the air.

 

So, in summary, we had a great cruise but we were lucky with good plumbing although my Mom's joy was slightly dimmed from her reaction to all the chemicals in the air, but the food was good everywhere, dining room was good food, buffet too. We had no complaints there. Staff were all very friendly, lots of drink staff in the pool area, as we had Explore 4 so had drinks here often.

 

We loved the itinerary, the ship was clean overall but apparently plumbing issues are still a huge problem in some of the rooms. Oh and the odd day there was a very heavy sewage smell in certain areas. Our rooms were located on deck 4 by the front elevators. Rooms were fairly quiet except for something banging in the wind out on the balcony of my Mom's room. We thought it might be some of the flaps or coverings from the tender boats below. We never did figure it out.

 

If anyone has any specific questions, I'll try to answer them.

[StartrainDD]

We fly out tomorrow to board on Wednesday. We are also far-forward, but on deck 1. Hopefully we will be okay. I seemed to remember that "Historically," the main plumbing issues on Zuiderdam seem to be aft, that is one reason we booked all the way forward.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the cruise, despite some of the issues. Sure hope the construction is finished and the Explorations in full operation as DW really likes her good coffee.

 

Arie

[LMM1801]

"I seemed to remember that "Historically," the main plumbing issues on Zuiderdam seem to be aft, that is one reason we booked all the way forward."

 

Agreed. The only time we had toilet issues was on the Oosterdam and we were in a aft cabin all the way on the back of the ship. Maintenance told us this was the case. Since then I have always picked forward cabins.

 

Now I just did a Verandah Guarantee on Zuiderdam for June (upgrade) so I might not end up so lucky. I really didn't mind going to public restrooms so much, but my husband really hated it.

[Waverolling]

I would be so upset after spending all that money and having to experience some of those conditions regarding non working toilets in your cabin, etc. Come on those people should be compensated that is disgraceful if you ask me.

 

We are going to be sailing our 1st. with HAL in Oct. on the Zuiderdam and I hope all is good by then well at least the majority of it. Our cruising experience has been very limited and this is something I am really looking forward to. Actually I can't believe the stuff I read about some of these cruises. I use to think cruising was sort of a luxury vacation but not so much anymore by the sounds of it.

 

We are going to enjoy our adventure no matter what but just hope it doesn't turn out to be a big let down.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Waverolling

[HoustonTom]

We sailed on the Zuiderdam (i.e. Sewerdam") on the 22 day cruise beginning April 14th 0215. It was our second Holland cruise (the first was uneventful, but I was not overly impressed).

On the bright side/. we had 22 days of excellent ports, and the weather was outstanding (sunny, 59 at night and low 70s in the day).

The ship should have never sailed. They had an Italian labor strike during the “refurbish” which left the ship half-baked at sailing. We were given keys to our SUITE, and upon entering, the bathroom was locked. The steward said there was no water, but we later found that of the four sewage processing systems on the ship, number 4 was not working. It affected a large number of toilets on every level of the ship.

We made new friends as we waited outside the public bathrooms that worked (many were affected by the outage). It was not as if we had a clean sparkling bathroom that did not flush, there was human waste in the commode. We were given a key to a room with toxic waste.

We were without toilet and water (as were MANY others for a full day, and then intermentant problems with the toilet. We would leave on an excursion and return not knowing if the toilet would work when we got back.

The electricity would flip a breaker multiple times a day/night and we would have no lights. They finally found the problem on day 3. We also had no hot water that others have reported, and other smaller problems, but when there is no bathroom and electricity, hot water is a minor inconvenience.

After day 4 all the toilet problems were fixed (we had one minor 2 hour toilet outage).

Half of the top decks were off limits, which made the stern Lido area VERY crowded.

I spoke to the Captain at the CC Meet & Greet, and he was very arrogant and laughed “That’s what you expect after dry-dock”. (No apologies). I mentioned that when I booked the cruise there was no mention of a post dry-dock cruise, and that I should expect inconveniences... like no toilet or water in my suite.

As far as the refurbished boat, there might have been new carpet in some common areas (I could not tell), but none of the people I talked to had anything done to their rooms. The room carpet was worn, and the balcony furniture looked like it was original to the ship.

[cruz chic]

I did a cruise on the Westy last year after dry dock and they sure seemed to struggle. It was not like you are describing. Not cool.

[debdiva]

We just got back from 22 days on the Zuiderdam after drydock. We heard complaints of plumbing issues. We did have issues with hot water and I had to rinse my hair in an unoccupied stateroom one morning. They rebuilt the water system in drydock and there were some glitches that didn't show up until there was a relatively full ship. We didn't have toilet problems, but we heard some people had them. The carpet was new in all public areas as was much of the upholstery and some of the furniture was new. It was my understanding that the curtains and bedcoverings were replaced in the drydock. Consequently, there were a lot of respiratory issues among the passengers. My husband and Iwere among those with bronchitis that came from cheaing out and not using the ship's doctor.

That said, all passengers got a $200 shipboard credit on the first 11 day out of drydock. We thought that was fair. We knew we were on the first cruise out of drydock and there might be issues and anyone who joined the roll call was well aware of the dry dock. I think we even heard about the strike. We were willing to risk inconvenience for a spectacular itinerary at a marvelous time for weather in the Med.

We had great service, good food, marvelous ports and perfect weather. Yes, there were snafus, including a rather disorganized departure in Rome, but it was a good cruise, particularly compared to a previous, not out of dry dock cruise with 5 toilet outages in a 7 day cruise, never getting my vegetarian meal ordered the night before until my tablemates were eating dessert. There was no drydock to blame on that cruise, no responsiveness from staff or crew.

Iguess it is all relative.