Review: New England/Canada 9/13/18 - 9/23/18, via Zuiderdam

[Arrowinc]

We have been back from this cruise for a bit over a week and at this point and, now that the laundry has been done and "real world" reality has set it, we offer the following observations about this trip.

General: For those wise enough not to read further, the verdict was very favorable. Overall, we had a wonderful trip, aboard a terrific ship, with pleasing companions, and were happy to return to home and hearth.

The specifics:

Embarkation: We were informed a couple of days before departure that the ship would dock in Brooklyn, because of damage done to the Manhattan pier. For the first time ever, we had booked air and airport-ship transport with HAL, and were glad we did, because doing so meant only a longer bus ride to the dock. The arrangements were relatively smooth at the airport, the bus was fine, and the ride was entertaining. We were checked in promptly, and boarded immediately.

Sail-away: The departure from NY was magnificent, as we cruised past the Statue of Liberty and illuminated skyline.

Ship: All of our other HAL cruises had been on Eurodam or Nieuw Amsterdam, and this was thus our first trip on an older vessel. In a word, we found it to be fine -- well maintained, clean, and comfortable. Our cabin was an aft-facing veranda, which we enjoyed very much because of a somewhat larger balcony. Our single plumbing issue was addressed quickly and efficiently.

Staff: Wonderful, as always. Frankly, I would beat my head against the wall if I had to be so polite to so many people. Somehow, the staff and crew manage to pull it off, to the extent of actually convincing us that they really enjoy themselves. This rather broad judgment applies to the room attendants, dining room staff, bar waiters, and all the rest.

Meals: We found the Main Dining Room to be excellent, with the best food we have had in that venue and wonderful waiters and wine steward. The two Pinnacle meals were better-than-satisfactory. The Lido was busy, but efficient, with better food than might be expected in such apparent chaos. We settled on the Ocean Bar for pre-dinner cocktails, and enjoyed both that atmosphere and our waiters. Indeed, our only carp addresses the Sel de Mer dinner. On our last cruise, my spouse and I found this to be by far the best meal we have ever had on a ship. This experience caused us to influence our traveling companions to book this meal as well on this cruise. Although the atmosphere and our waiter were wonderful, and while we enjoyed the appetizer and dessert, we found the entree (sole meunière) to be almost inedible and the service to be unbearably slow. Trouble is, it was so late by the time the entree was served that we were too tired to wait for a corrected dish. Given the cost of this meal, it will be hard to persuade ourselves to book this dinner again.

Ports: We thoroughly enjoyed the stops in Bar Harbor, Halifax, Sidney, Charlottetown, Saguenay, and Quebec. Boston was absolutely packed on a busy Saturday, and it was frankly hard to make our way along the "Freedom Trail" without fighting through the crowds. We successfully and enjoyably rented cars in Bar Harbor and Charlottetown, with excellent results. Peggy's Cove was spectacular, and the "Anne of Green Gables" house was cheesy, but a required stop. We used Olie's Trolley in Halifax, with good results. Our only ship's "tour" was La Fabuleuse" in Saguenay. Although we could quibble, this was an interesting, energetic, albeit disconnected performance by a bunch of volunteers and, against all odds, we really enjoyed it. We also found the folks there to be almost unbearably welcoming and friendly, despite gail-force winds that challenged our ability to walk across the port area. The other stops were "on our own," and we managed to entertain ourselves without professional help. Suffice it to say that all of these stops deserved far more than a single day.

Dis-embarkation. We arranged to stay an extra night in Quebec, and made good use of that time. This city is very hard to adequately see in two days, let alone three. In any event, the process of leaving the ship and securing a taxi was very organized -- much more so than we have experienced at Port Everglades. The HAL--arranged flights home were also fine, despite the inevitable delays along the way.

This was a wonderful trip, and it is entirely possible that we converted our much-younger traveling companions to HAL in the process. While we would likely not take it again, all of our expectations were fulfilled (and then some), excepting only the disappointing Sel de Mer experience.

 

[Sea42]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience!

[edgee]

Appreciate your review. We disembarked today from the Zuiderdam cruise following yours. This was a return to HAL after a 10 year hiatus due to too much smoking in open inside areas of the ship. Of course we loved the non smoking casino and resulting smoke free adjoining venues on Zuiderdam. Overall we feel HAL has upped their game in many areas including entertainment and customer service. However we were disappointed by inefficient service especially at breakfast in the marketplace/Lido venue. Having only one staff person serving everyone express breakfast and one server making crepes, waffles and handling toast made for significantly slow service and frustration. Also we felt dinner service in main dining room was slow. We loved loved loved Pinnacle grill including night of Rudi's Sel D Mer.

Edited October 4, 2018 by edgee

[ozcruizer]

We were on this cruise and were wonderfully surprised by the condition of the ship and its refurbishments. We've done a few cruises on the Noordam and I have to say it came in second to Zuiderdam. Bring on the next dry docking for Noordam!

We had booked a hotel in NY that would be close to the Manhattan Terminal but of course it was changed to Brooklyn. No worries, at least we got to go over the famed Brooklyn Bridge. This was our first cruise as 4* Mariners and so we had preferential embarkation with the suite guests so we had a lot of time to settle in before sailing. The sight of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty will never be forgotten by this pair of Australian cruisers.

The crew were, as always very attentive and forever cheerful. We did not take part in a lot of onboard activities as we were unfortunate enough to have caught colds and so took time to rest up for the next day's port. We did attend most evening performances on the Main Stage and on the whole, they were quite good. Those dancers are simply amazing.

Loved Boston and found it a lot quieter than NY. Loved Bar Harbor - could have spent longer there. Sydney (the namesake of where we live in Australia) a bit ho hum away from the pier but we did see an interesting performance by some local musicians. Charlottetown - of course went to see Lucy Montgomery's home but as it was raining we did not see much of Charlottetown unfortunately. Saguenay - it absolutely blew a gale there and if it hadn't been for an already booked excursion, we might have given it a miss. Quite a number on board did in fact stay on board. Quebec - well what can I say. Simply beautiful and so glad we stayed in port overnight. We did our own thing there and saw a lot. The next day we took the excursion which ended up at the airport - we visited a sugar shack and visited a town called Wendake with a picturesque waterfall. Flew from Quebec to Montreal where we stayed overnight. We had an afternoon flight for the long trek home but we spent the morning exploring Montreal - also beautiful.

Given the distance we had to travel to do the cruise, it's likely we will not do it again, but it's now off my bucket list (including NY and Niagara Falls which we visited while there) and I'm so glad to have done it. Would love to do another cruise on the Zuiderdam though.

 

Edited October 4, 2018 by ozcruizer
to tidy up post

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the review.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your wonderful report.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise even though Sel De Mer was not good.

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you for taking the time to post your comments.

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. Too bad about Sel de Mer.

[DaveOKC]

We are going on the Z next week, so enjoy your positive comments on the ship.

 

One question - how was the tree leaf colors? Last time we did this cruise a strong storm blew down most of the leaves and we are hoping this time will be better.

[ecormier]

We are going on the Z next week, so enjoy your positive comments on the ship.

 

One question - how was the tree leaf colors? Last time we did this cruise a strong storm blew down most of the leaves and we are hoping this time will be better.

 

We were also on this cruise. It is still a bit early for the full fall colours. A week or two makes a big difference. As well, we always hope to see the changing leaves before the wind gets them. 😜

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your Zuiderdam cruise.

[Cruizer Bill]

Thanks for your review. Glad to see you had fun!

[mamaofami]

Very happy to read your review. We're doing this cruise next September on the Zuiderdam. We've done it before, but love the ports. The ship is due to leave from New York, a plus for us, and hopefully the dock will be repaired by then.