Thoughts on our Zuiderdam Cruise - June 30th - July 11th 2015

[Lottie A]

This was my first HAL cruise, although my friend had cruised on Eurodam several years ago. She had not enjoyed that cruise but the marvellous itinerary and keen pricing tempted us to try this Holland America cruise.

 

Our T/A had a great deal for us, with flights from London Heathrow instead of Gatwick and a two night stay in Barcelona prior to our cruise. We enjoyed shopping, eating and drinking in our favourite and well known city for actually four days, as Zuiderdam had an overnighter and a late departure to start our cruise. Embarking in Barcelona was quite easy and we were in our deck 4 balcony cabin within 30 mins. We had booked a Gty balcony (or veranda as you Americans say) and were quite pleased with our allocated cabin, which had one of the deeper deck 4 balconies. We attended the enjoyable Mariner lunch (we both had Mariner privileges due to many previous Cunard/Princess/P&O cruises) and then unpacked our clothes. We had noticed that our toilet did not flush every time but it was working intermittently, so we went for a drink and attended muster drill. Why HAL still hold musters on the deck is beyond me. Hardly any cruise line does this now. It was chaotic and took a long time, standing out in the heat of a Barcelona day. This definitely could be held inside and the organisation could be improved. Azamara know how to do a muster drill!

 

Anyway back to our cabin after muster to find that our loo had stopped working altogether. We reported it to Guest Relations and were told it would be fixed soon. An hour later no-one had arrived, so we rang again. After our third call a plumber arrived, worked on it for about ten minutes and told us it was fixed. The toilet then gurgled a lot, flushed once and promptly stopped working again! We called Guest Relations again and were told the plumber would return. By now we were hungry so went to dinner, which was excellent. After a couple of drinks post dinner, we felt quite tired so decided to have an early night. This was not to be as our toilet had not been repaired and there was now overflow from other toilets in ours. This was highly unpleasant and upsetting. We called the plumber yet again and this time a very nice man (who had to be woken up!) came to attend and he was very honest and told us that our toilet could not be repaired permanently because it needed a new part and until that was put in, the toilet would only flush once or twice and then break down again. He said this had been an ongoing problem for our cabin and the one next door for about ten months. Apparently there were many cabins affected by faulty plumbing and toilet flushing issues on this cruise. I was walking past the new cabins near Explorations Cafe one day and they were pulling up carpets and changing sofa's.

Anyway back to our saga.....by now it was 1am and we were tired and very annoyed. They should not have sold that cabin knowing the ongoing plumbing issues. We asked to be moved but were told by Guest Relations that the ship was absolutely full and there was no other cabin available for us. We then asked to see the Guest Relations Manager early the next day, as we were contemplating flying home. There was no way that we were staying in a cabin for 11 nights when it had a toilet that did not flush. Apart from being very inconvenient, it was a Health & Safety issue.

 

Next morning we saw Maia, the newly arrived onboard Guest Relations Manager. We were not happy, to say the least, but Maia listened, reacted very professionally and told us the issue would be sorted. We went into Barcelona for the day and when we returned later a plumber had a "new part" and was working for hours on our plumbing. Maia told us that she had been told the plumbing would work now, but she couldn't absolutely guarantee it and wanted us to move cabins just to be sure. A family in a balcony cabin very sadly had an emergency at home and would be disembarking that evening to fly home. We could have their cabin. We were happy with this but in the meantime something else happened. An American family of four had been unable to board Zuiderdam as they did not have the required three months left on their passports demanded by Schengen countries and HAL had denied them boarding. They had given them 24 hours to replace their passports but sadly the family were unable to do this, so they could not cruise. Maia told us that to compensate for all the disruption and distress caused to us .....and I have left a lot of it out....on the first two days of our cruise, she was able to upgrade us to their suite. We thought it was a Signature suite and would have been very happy with that, but No, it was a Neptune Suite! It was mid ships on Deck 7, near The Neptune Lounge and was simply spectacular. To say we were delighted was an understatement! :D Sorry for the family that could not sail of course, but very happy for us. Maia had been wonderful throughout and truly what a Guest Relations Manager should be. She problem solved and made two new and now loyal HAL cruisers very happy.....and also very likely to book a Neptune Suite every time we sail on HAL in the future. :)

 

The rest of the cruise? Well we enjoyed it very much. The weather was very hot as Europe was experiencing a major heat wave but the ports were great. We did a ship's tour to Nice and Cannes and had just about enough time in those lovely Riviera towns. We had arranged a private tour to Lucca from Livorno with an American family and this was a lovely day. Calvi, Olbia and Palermo were very hot and we just ambled around and chilled in some nice sea front bars. Salerno was a surprise for me....very attractive Old Town and had it been a bit cooler then I would have spent many hours happily getting lost there.

 

The food was generally very good. Pinnacle Grill was excellent, Canaletto was excellent once, but the second time we went the veal was so over salted that I was nauseous. The rest of the meal was good. MDR food only disappointed twice but the second Gala Dinner was abysmal. Really poorly cooked, burnt surf and turf and as for the foie gras starter.....well it was horrible. However, we did enjoy the majority of the food and it certainly wouldn't stop us from booking with HAL again. Loved the peace and calm of a Pinnacle Grill breakfast.

The Spa treatments we had were fantastic, prices were reasonable and I enjoyed spending time in The Casino too. My donation was reasonable and the slots were fun. We enjoyed sampling the cocktails of the day and found a new favourite...a Valencia, which is apricot brandy, orange juice and prosecco....delicious! Loved the several happy hours and we took advantage of them all! :D

 

Entertainment.....hmmm. Not particularly to my taste, but my friend enjoyed a few shows and films. The Piano Bar guy Damian was very good....it was just the stupid songs that other guests requested he sing that were bad! The Band were not exactly charismatic and even The BB King Blues Band was not marvellous. I am used to more modern music and pretty good entertainment on Silversea, Azamara, Cunard and Celebrity, so HAL did disappoint me a bit. Trivia was fun though.

 

Overall, my impressions of Holland America are very positive. We met some lovely and interesting people and were delighted with our Neptune Suite. We would not hesitate to cruise with them again on an interesting Med itinerary, but perhaps we may choose a more modern ship than Zuiderdam next time. One thing is sure though.....that Neptune Suite has surely spoiled us for Balconies from now on! :D

[bonvoyagebites]

Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear that some of your meals were less than par... but, it happens. :(

 

If you're up to it, I am sure we'd all like to hear more. Do you have any photos? My next cruise isn't until October, and I feel the need to live vicariously. <wink>

[nordski]

Well, perhaps the resolution of the stateroom issue had a lot to do with your ability to deal with these issues as well as with the cooperation of the staff.

 

Given my skills, I'd be afraid we would be consigned to the toilet overflow situation for the duration :).

 

On an insider's note, what's the value of an itinerary with only ONE stop in Sicily??? :)

 

Regardless, as usual, an excellent assessment and it was a pleasure to read.

[Lottie A]

Well, perhaps the resolution of the stateroom issue had a lot to do with your ability to deal with these issues as well as with the cooperation of the staff.

 

Given my skills, I'd be afraid we would be consigned to the toilet overflow situation for the duration :).

 

On an insider's note, what's the value of an itinerary with only ONE stop in Sicily??? :)

 

Regardless, as usual, an excellent assessment and it was a pleasure to read.

 

Hello fellow Montalbano fan. What are you doing on the HAL boards? :)

 

Yes I know, just Palermo and on the wrong side of the island for my Salvo. You know the phrase often quoted by Mimi "una ragazza e stata violentata a Palermo" to which Salvo shrugs and says "ehhh" .....well I can understand why it happens in Palermo! :rolleyes:

I think it was a combination of both mine and Hazel's negotiating skills re the wonderful upgrade....but also that the very nice Guest Relations Manager Maia really wanted to do something nice for us, as we had a pretty horrible time for the first two days on Zuiderdam. She would do very well on Azamara. See you back "home on Azamara" and I have been reading some great books. Will give you the info when I finish them.

Xx

Lottie.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

Sorry your cruise got off to such a horrible mess with the toilet situation.

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your Zuiderdam cruise.

 

Am pleased that you were upgraded to the Neptune Suite after the toilet problems.

[hamburg15]

Lottie, do you remember the stateroom numbers on deck 4? We are booked on the same deck in 4162 and 4160 for a cruise starting in two weeks...

 

Thomas

[Lottie A]

Lottie, do you remember the stateroom numbers on deck 4? We are booked on the same deck in 4162 and 4160 for a cruise starting in two weeks...

 

Thomas

 

Hi Thomas,

It was cabin 4172 and it is just past the cabins you have booked. It's right at the end of the line and we were told that the adjoining cabin, 4170 also had the same plumbing problems. Hopefully they should be solved now, as the new part was obtained and installed while we were onboard. I suspect it was removed from another cabin, as I cannot see how it was ordered and delivered in one day when the plumber told us he had been waiting for months for it.

I hope you have a trouble free cruise and once we were moved to our new cabin, we had a wonderful time.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for taking the time to write and share your review.

 

Keith