Belated Zaandam Repo Report

[synman]

Thoroughly enjoyed our trip from Vancouver to San Diego, with a few noteworthy pluses and minuses.

 

First of all, we fell in love with Vancouver...spent a couple of nights there before disembarking on Sept 24. Looking forward to a lengthier visit, and will certainly consider cruising from there again. We're already talking about catching the Zaandam on the flipside, reversing our itinerary from this trip.

 

Having previously sailed on Vista class ships, we were looking forward to a smaller HAL ship and we were not disappointed. Even without the musical theme (I'm a music industry veteran) the smaller of the Z'dams is now our favorite.

 

Getting on board was a breeze...Vancouver has a lovely cruise ship facility.

Getting off the ship would prove to be more problematic yet again (more about that later).

 

While it's a little more worn in spots, the overall atmosphere and intimacy was preferable to the vibe on the Zuider and Ooster Dams. For some reason we really liked the carpet of the day in all the elevators...reassuring should I ever decide to get so soused I might forget what day it is!

 

Service continued to live up to expectations...pretty much totally wonderful. Everyone is smiling and friendly and was eager to offer up a hello, even when we didn't say it first.

 

Our cabin steward Suryadi wasn't as on top of the ice as our previous guys, but the towel animals awaiting us on our bed 3 of the 4 nights made up for it...we got 2 lobsters and an elephant, with the chococate coins used for eyes.

 

Speaking of the cabin, our outside was absolutely lovely. While we prefer a verandah, we felt the layout of this cabin with the bed against the outside wall made it feel a bit more roomy than the Vista verandahs. Only complaint is the AC wasn't quite up to snuff. Whereas the unit in our cabin on the Oo could freeze us out at 3/4, this one was kept cranked the entire trip and it still got stuffy when we caught some western sun. Should we do a similar itinerary in the future we'll try to get on the port side of the ship. I really liked the upgraded audio/video setup...flatscreen with a DVD player and a wider selection of channels than on previous trips.

 

The Zaandam's library was the overall highlight. Big and beautiful with an impressive selection, and what seemed like a greater number of internet terminals than previous trips.

 

Had a chance to visit the spa one day as I was a bit under the weather and wanted to do the steam room stuff. Very nice, but seems the spa prices were double compared to our Vista class trips.

 

Food was as expected...from very good to often excellent. Only really bad dish was a pork chop which our waiter insisted on taking back even though I wasn't that hungry. He brought out a full order of Dutch pot roast that was so good we took the leftovers and ate them on our flight home. I think the quality on the Lido was a bit better than our Vista class trips, especially the baked goods...they were out of this world. The omelet chef was pretty darned good too.

 

Dining room service was very good overall, but still a mixed bag. Our waiter started out OK, but by the 4th night earned some extra tippage. Very attentive and personable. Our past 2 cruises the assistant waiter was the star, but this time our assistant was barely ever there, save for serving dessert. And also speaking of barely ever there, this was the 2nd out of 3 where the captain didn't even show up until the last night hoping for a handout. A far cry from the incredible Johnny from last November's Oosterdam adventure.

 

Service highlight was Eddy the wine steward. Our previous 2 were both laughably bad, but Eddy was WAY on top of things. Knew the wine list and made a couple of good suggestions, knew our drink orders by the 2nd night, and was always hovering around his tables making sure everyone was well taken care of.

 

Our evening at the Pinnacle Grill proved to be good but not great. We had hoped to get in Saturday night as it was our anniversary. But they were booked, and as it turned out my mom had prepaid for our visit, so we reserved for a couple of nights later. The room itself is lovely...more traditional than the Vista versions. Service overall was excellent, both food and drink servers were on top of things. Starters were excellent, except that this chef puts finely minced green bell peppers in the Dungeness crab cake and I can't stand the vile veggie. A little extra surgery and I was fine though.

 

I requested my large filet charred rare, and Ferdinand, our Dutch waiter, knew the term "Pittsburgh". The steak was awesome, cooked exactly as ordered. Creamed spinach was superb as well, scalloped potatoes were merely OK. Lowlight of the meal was the lovely Denise's halibut which was mushy. We mentioned this to Ferdinand, but that is as far as it went. Desserts were also a bit mixed...her Grand Marnier chocolate lava cake was awesome, my creme brulee trio not so much (but I am quite the cb snob).

 

And speaking of the creme brulee, it would be part of the highlight of our onboard adventures. Denise had previously gone to a demo in the new Culinary Center, and she signed us both up for the cooking class ($29 per head). While not as hands-on as we had hoped (I got to slice monkfish medallions, but didn't actually cook anything). The class was limited to 12 and is headed by the Pinnacle Grill chef. It's interesting in that the recipes are not the chef's but are supplied by the head office. As such there is some liberty taken and it almost turned into a Q & A about techniques and approaches.

 

We did a 3-course meal, all wearing our paper toques and embroidered aprons (included with the class fee). Appy was an awesome chilled goat cheese polenta. Entree was Proscuitto Wrapped Monkfish with Tomato Fig Relish and dessert was the creme brulee trio. The chef did a down and dirty version, and then the ship's asst pastry chef brought in a dozen of the real deals. I REALLY wanted to pour on the caramelized sugar and terminate mine with the blowtorch, but they wouldn't let us handle the flame. Damned tasty, but not near as good as it could have been if it had a nice sugar crust. HAL has made a big deal about the Culinary Center as the key improvement in their fleet-wide overhaul, and they should be rightfully proud. The kitchen setup is to die for, and I cannot recommend the class highly enough.

 

Only problem area (again) was disembarkation. Obviously a repo cruise with immigration issues is different than a Carribean roundtripper, but this trip was a total joke. Our only port was Seattle the day after leaving Vancouver. The brochures provided no details...just that we would be in port at 7AM. We made plans to have a friend pick us up at 9:30 for brunch and a few hours hangtime. Unfortunately, when we made it to the gangway we were informed that all pax leaving for good in Seattle and all shore excursions had to get off the ship before us. We stood waiting for about 45 minutes until we were cleared to leave. Once off the ship I headed into the port structure and skirted one of the tour groups heading for the exit so I could locate our friend in the parking lot. At the exit some young woman in a port authority asked if I was getting off the ship? DUH! I turned around to try to find my wife and instructed her to go around the tour group and catch up with me. A customs agent would not let her pass and told me I had to come back, yelling at me that I can't just walk off a ship into a new country without any papers. I PAY YOUR SALARY BUDDY! Another customs guy made us stand around for about 20 minutes, then said we could go, while never asking for any docs whatsoever. PURE BS. Especially in their home city you would think HAL would have it together enough to provide pax with appropriate details regarding disembarkation procedures at each stop.

 

Disembarking in San Diego was a zoo as well. Too many groups called at the same time leads to elevators and passageways backing up with people.

Way disorganized, perhaps as bad as trying to get off the Oo with my mom and her broken leg.

 

While we would never consider spending our cruise dollars with anyone else, you can bet HAL will be receiving a letter detailing multiple bad experiences with leaving their ships. They seem to be responsive with smoother embarkation and the tip thing, maybe they'll improve their product by applying some tweaks to this problem area. Then they can set about trying to get some decent entertainment.

[Vic The Parrot]

Hi

 

 

Thanks for your input. There's a nice group of us going on this ship on Oct next year, and it's great to know everything is up to snuff.

Just wondering what cabin you had ... did they manage to fix the AC?

 

:)

[peug]

I was also on this cruise. We did B2B with Alaska first. I think the problem with your AC could have been that in Alaska we were freezing. There was no way to get the cabins to heat up. Many of us called and complained and maintenace fiddled with the thermostat so the rooms would get warmed. Then after Seattle the same ones of us called and had them reprogramed so we could get cooler again.

 

We were also very upset in Seattle. We found out that the main problem was that some of those disembarking for good refused to get off the ship. Security went to find them and they were still having breakfast and refused to leave! My sister met the ship at 8am to spend the day with us and we couldn't get off until 10. We didn't have any trouble once we got off. I had my ship ID and photo ID in my hand and just showed it to anyone in uniform who looked our way. I told security they should have send some of us after these passengers and we would have gotten them off! We were very relieved that we were allowed off at San Diego before the 700 who were leaving the ship for good.

 

Our waiter on the first 7 days was OK. Our waiter on the second 18 days was superb. We had no complaints about anything except the Lido coffee which was drinkable but only just. I did love the carmel latte at the Explorations Cafe and the cappicino at dinner. We thought the service was better than before automatic tipping, especially from the staff who had not received tips before.

 

We found out that the bar staff, including at Explorations Cafe, do not get any wages except for tips. They get 11% of all orders they take. No orders that day - no pay. HA keeps the other 4% for "administrative" costs. There is nothing taken out of the $10 per day automatic tips. $3.50 to cabin steward, $3.50 to waiter and $3 split among a variety of staff.

 

We had a wonder 25 days and buy the time we came home we felt like we knew the captian and cruise director. We saw them both around the ship almost every day and they always stopped to talk.

 

I would love to said on her again.

[Bramcruiser]

Disembarking in San Diego was a zoo as well. Too many groups called at the same time leads to elevators and passageways backing up with people.

Way disorganized, perhaps as bad as trying to get off the Oo with my mom and her broken leg.

 

 

Hmmmm. Had a totally different disembarkation experience in San Diego when we took the Oosterdam repo cruise. I thought for sure I'd be the last to leave the ship but we were called out at 8:30 am. We were the second group called. There were no large crowds hanging around and it was amazing just how ultra-fast I was through customs and collecting the bags. It was the smoothest departure and customs clearance I ever had in my life.

 

This is completely the opposite of my very first cruise back in 1994. Carnival's Fantasy at Port Canaveral held us up on on the top deck of the ship outside in blistering 80+ heat for a record four hours. Believe me, there was a near riot and probably for good reasons. I was kind of hoping that someone would get heat stroke so a law suit could begin. Now that was an experience to write a letter and it was the main reason why it took us 11 years to even bother to cruise again. Thankfully our San Diego departure with the Oosterdam convinced us that four hours in the sun was not the norm.

 

Yeah Vancouver has a beautiful cruise ship terminal building but I boarded the Oosterdam with just about every other passenger so it was a very slow embarkation. However, nothing went wrong.

[Atomica]

Had the same problems in Seattle on the Veendam on Sept. 26th. Customs was late in clearing the ship, and they were having trouble rounding up the passengers who were disembarking there which delayed everyone since those pax have to be off first before the rest of the guests. We docked at 7am, and it was after 9:30 before the rest of us were allowed off. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but as much as I like Seattle, the two times I've been to the port haven't exactly been smooth...

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks for the great review, we will be doing the repositioning on the Veendam next September like Aaron did this year. If it is any consolition Seattle was a mess for embarkation and debarkation in May 2004 when we took the Oosterdam to Alaska. I think it is just the Seattle imigration department. On the other hand this past Saturday we had by far the easiest debarkation you could ever imagine in San Diego. Other than showing the HAL people our ship board card to get off the ship that was the last of any I.D. We did hand a person our declaration card but that was it:confused: Quickly found our luggage and go.....

One thing new was we were one of the first off and they only had the luggage for the first group in the room all others were behind closed doors. It did make it easier to find our luggage but if someone else got off with you and their luggage was not in your color and number group it was not there yet.