Zuiderdam New Year's Holiday Cruise

[fleduc33]

Reporting live from Zuiderdam on second-to-last day of New Year's cruise.

I have personally cruised around 10 times on Costa/Carnival/NCL/Celebrity. This is our second HAL Holiday cruise (last year on Eurodam for New Year's cruise which we loved). I am a late 30s professional traveling with my wife, two kids 5 and 8 years old, and 2 grandparents. Ship is in very good shape, service is good and food has been very acceptable in the dining room (a few misses here and there and somewhat a step down from Eurodam last year but still quite enjoyable overall). Although the weather has not fully cooperated, we have also enjoyed the itinerary.

Why choose HAL for a family cruise? We tend to enjoy dining in the dining room at set times, dress up for gala nights (3 generations in tuxedos and long dresses!) and enjoy a more traditional cruising experience. My parents also enjoy the HAL experience and this is a way to spend quality time together. Finally, my wife and I enjoy BB King Blues Club and like to go dance there at night after the show.

I know my comments will not rally all of you, but I have found the intolerance from cruisers toward kids much more prevalent this year. Hearing a few loud comments such as "when are we going to throw all of the kids overboard?". The front desk also confirmed that one of the most frequent complaint has been around the number of kids onboard. We did not feel this resentment last year on Eurodam. Frankly, my (perhaps biased) judgment is that kids have generally been well behaved and supervised throughout the cruise. Also, my feeling is that if you don't like kids, you should not pick a cruise during an important school break, or perhaps go higher scale with Seabourn, Oceania or Crystal.

 

Another related disappointment is that management decided to reserve the full aft pool area to “Adults Only”. This was an area that we frequented daily last year on Eurodam for Al fresco breakfast or lunch, and this was not possible this year. Added to that the fact that the roof cover over the midship pool was almost always closed (never fully open), we have not been able to spend any quality time outside getting some of the ocean breeze or direct sun exposure.

 

Despite these important shortcomings, we have had a pleasant cruise but wish we would have felt more “on a ship” and not in a closed off, roofed up, air conditioned hotel… We thought we had found a cruise product that suited our family following the Eurodam cruise last year, but we will likely need to go back to the drawing board...

 

All the best to all of you for 2019!

 

Fred

[POA1]

We were on the Zuiderdam prior to you, over Christmas. There were 60 kids and I'd have never believed it until we saw them on Christmas day when Santa arrived. Sorry to hear that you had to be subjected to snide comments. 

 

Thanks for your report!

[fleduc33]

We really enjoyed your report of Poobyh's adventures on the Christmas cruise. You have a very interesting and humourous writing style!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for checking in and reporting on what has been happening.

 

Sorry that you have found this ship experience not quite to what you experienced last year on the Eurodam.

[POA1]

30 minutes ago, fleduc33 said:

We really enjoyed your report of Poobyh's adventures on the Christmas cruise. You have a very interesting and humourous writing style!

 

Do you happen to know how many children are on your cruise? Like I said we had 60, but only saw a handful before Christmas morning. I wouldn't worry about the comments. Some people just look for reasons to complain and say they're vacation is RUINED. 

[fleduc33]

36 minutes ago, POA1 said:

 

Do you happen to know how many children are on your cruise? Like I said we had 60, but only saw a handful before Christmas morning. I wouldn't worry about the comments. Some people just look for reasons to complain and say they're vacation is RUINED. 

Don't know, but just eyeballing it I think it may be materially more than 60. And to be clear I understand that couples with no children on board are looking for some peace and quiet. It's just that we enjoy the aft pool area and can't use it this year, so selfishly we are disappointed and would have hoped that the ship would have found another solution than to make it an Adults only area. Maybe making it a "quiet" area and enforcing it?

On our end, I can say that our vacation was RUINED by the darn curtain that always seems to be glued to your skin as you use the shower. Yuk!

[POA1]

29 minutes ago, fleduc33 said:

 

On our end, I can say that our vacation was RUINED by the darn curtain that always seems to be glued to your skin as you use the shower. Yuk!

 

Leave an air gap to allow the pressure to normalize. You can use either the front, shower head or the back end. Don't pull the curtain too tight at the top, and allow a little space around the bottom. If you can leave the bathroom door open, that will help. 

 

The hot, steamy air pushes out at the top. The cooler air pushes in at the bottom. You want to allow enough air flow to prevent the curtain from coming in at you. 

 

May I just say that this is not the kind of high quality, situation-tested advice you can get elsewhere. 

[ski ww]

Sorry to hear about the people & the comments about kids. We did a three week New Years cruise with our 7 year old great grand daughter on the Eurodam in 2016/17. On sea days she was at Club HAL & loved it. We also spent time around the Sea View pool area on the loungers, but not in the pool for that we used the Lido pool. On past cruises where there were kids we never had a problem with them. 

[Dulciana8]

Hi fleduc33! I appreciated reading your review. We are also a late 30’s well traveled professional family who (before kids) loved the Eurodam. Over Thanksgiving we took our 4 year old on his first HAL cruise on Oosterdam and we had a blast. I really really hate to hear that all of these old stereotypes of child hating HAL cruisers came to fruition for you during your family’s NY’s cruise. Over Thanksgiving the Oosterdam had like 280 kids on board. 

 

Our very first Eurodam Cruise in 2010, I recall the aft pool being adults only, but our second cruise in 2011 this wasn’t the case, nor was it on Oosterdam two months ago. It seems like a thing left entirely up to the hotel director’s discretion. I truly empathize with you for not being able to use it on sunny days. And no one wants to hear negativity about children, especially when they’re generally well behaved as you describe. Parenting is hard enough without strangers throwing shade for no reason. 

 

We are booked on Nieuw Statendam for Thanksgiving 2019, and are looking forward to another fabulous family HAL cruise. 

[ithaca gal]

We are currently on the Zuiderdam and I’m sorry you have been affected negatively by the conduct of other people’s children. I fully believe that your children are well behaved. 

 

Unfortunately, this has not been the case with all of the children on this cruise.

 

As 4 Star mariners, we have many HAL cruises under our belts. We have never  experienced poor behavior by children (and their parents) like we have on this cruise. We noticed this difference from the beginning of the cruise. 

 

I dont know why  the Adult status of the Seavirw Pool has been enforced this time but the Lido Pool has seen some very rambunctious behavior, including lines of kids doing simultaneous backflips into the pool. 

 

In the MDR each night (late seating) we have watched kids run back and forth through the dining room every night. Why there has not been a collision with a server carrying eight dinners on a tray remains a mystery.   

 

We have often cruised during Thanksgiving week with many, many children onboard and hardly were aware of their presence.  There is definitely something different about this cruise. 

 

[ski ww]

Bad behavior from kids mean that their parents aren't doing their job. 

[kazu]

Thanks for the review, OP.

 

Sorry to hear that you were subject to snide comments.  It's not fair at all to generalize all children.  I've seen some pretty precious little ones on our cruises that were a delight to everyone.  (Of course, I've seen some not so well behaved ones as well but I try not to let a couple of bad apples spoil the whole barrel).

 

The aft pool has always been for adults on any of my cruises.   I prefer the aft too like you as I like fresh air..  Sorry that you were not able to take advantage of it.

 

 

[ithaca gal]

Yes, this cruise was decidedly different. Yesterday security had to be called to the aft pool area to break up a skirmish between guests. 

 

Guest services confirmed tgat there had been as been many complaints about children’s behavior and, as a result, more security personnel have been patrolling the ship, especially the Lido area. 

 

I want ant to stress that we face taken several Thanksgiving cruises  and one other New Year cruise and never noticed any problems with children on board in any manner.  This cruise is atypical from our usual HAL experiences.  

[fleduc33]

On 1/4/2019 at 11:39 PM, ithaca gal said:

We are currently on the Zuiderdam and I’m sorry you have been affected negatively by the conduct of other people’s children. I fully believe that your children are well behaved. 

 

Unfortunately, this has not been the case with all of the children on this cruise.

 

As 4 Star mariners, we have many HAL cruises under our belts. We have never  experienced poor behavior by children (and their parents) like we have on this cruise. We noticed this difference from the beginning of the cruise. 

 

I dont know why  the Adult status of the Seavirw Pool has been enforced this time but the Lido Pool has seen some very rambunctious behavior, including lines of kids doing simultaneous backflips into the pool. 

 

In the MDR each night (late seating) we have watched kids run back and forth through the dining room every night. Why there has not been a collision with a server carrying eight dinners on a tray remains a mystery.   

 

We have often cruised during Thanksgiving week with many, many children onboard and hardly were aware of their presence.  There is definitely something different about this cruise. 

 

Thank you for your important perspective "ithaca gal" as an experienced HAL cruiser. Even though we have only done 2 HAL cruises, I did feel like this one was different from the Eurodam NYE cruise last year.

 

I can't contradict the fact that I did also witness the same behavior that you describe around the Lido pool area. I actually got many questions from my son who couldn't understand why I did not allow him to jump/dive in the pool when a lot of the other kids were doing so... As for the dining room (early sitting), I did not see kids running around (and my kids were busy making colorings for the crew - see picture below), but there was plenty of crying and screaming by toddlers... It does not bother me as a young parent, but I could imagine that some cruisers may not have enjoyed the ensuing atmosphere as much. Again probably just something to keep in mind for those who decide to cruise during holidays and that may feel disturbed by children.

 

As a final point, they did fully open the Lido pool roof on the last day in Half Moon Cay, and it made a big difference. You could immediately feel the breeze come in and the humidity/stuffiness of the pool area was gone.

 

Overall, we still had a great cruise. We may switch it up again and go back to other lines in the future to see how our experience compares for the whole family, but I am certain that if we do we will miss the refined HAL dining room experience that we felt was among the better ones we have had across all of our various cruises.

[ithaca gal]

6 hours ago, fleduc33 said:

Thank you for your important perspective "ithaca gal" as an experienced HAL cruiser. Even though we have only done 2 HAL cruises, I did feel like this one was different from the Eurodam NYE cruise last year.

 

I can't contradict the fact that I did also witness the same behavior that you describe around the Lido pool area. I actually got many questions from my son who couldn't understand why I did not allow him to jump/dive in the pool when a lot of the other kids were doing so... As for the dining room (early sitting), I did not see kids running around (and my kids were busy making colorings for the crew - see picture below), but there was plenty of crying and screaming by toddlers... It does not bother me as a young parent, but I could imagine that some cruisers may not have enjoyed the ensuing atmosphere as much. Again probably just something to keep in mind for those who decide to cruise during holidays and that may feel disturbed by children.

 

As a final point, they did fully open the Lido pool roof on the last day in Half Moon Cay, and it made a big difference. You could immediately feel the breeze come in and the humidity/stuffiness of the pool area was gone.

 

Overall, we still had a great cruise. We may switch it up again and go back to other lines in the future to see how our experience compares for the whole family, but I am certain that if we do we will miss the refined HAL dining room experience that we felt was among the better ones we have had across all of our various cruises.

What a sweet little girl!

It's a shame that cruisers who aren't fond of unsupervised or ill-behaved children would have to avoid HAL for their NYE vacations.  I think there are relatively few HAL loyalists who dislike seeing children on their cruises.  If they are like me, I don't even notice the kids unless they are behaving in such as way as to call attention to themselves.  

Let's hope that this cruise was an anomaly and that the "bad apples" choose to go elsewhere next year!

(I bet the crew loved getting the artwork from your children!  How thoughtful!)