Just some Zuiderdam Photos and thoughts

[cruzin4us]

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by cruzin4us

[ottahand7]

Thanks for sharing the beautiful photos!  

[cruzin4us]

Just off the Zuiderdam for a 10 day Sea of Cortez cruise.

 

The Good:   We had a lovely time and it was good to be out on the ocean again.   

The room stewards are were amazing.   Many servers as well as bartenders, always cheerful.   Had a great trip, and if you've never been to Loreto, you need to add it to your bucket list.   It's nothing like all the other places that you visit on the Mexican Riviera cruise.   No one is pushy trying to sell you things, it's super clean and very charming.   

Shows:   Saw a few shows, the comedians were funny and BB King  performers were amazing.   

Did a painting class for $25 which was a lot of fun seeing as I can't paint stick figures.   

Food:   Lido buffet was good with a lot of choices.   Tables were cleaned quickly.    Main dining room was good (I ate there for breakfast)

Retreat Family Cabana:  We  absolutely loved this.  The weather was perfect and the service superb.  We played cards and had a blast.

Crew:   They were ALWAYS pleasant and helpful.

The Capitan:  He gave an informative update everyday

Embarkation was fast and efficient

 

The Bad:   The Pinnacle Grill service:   We ate there 9 out of 10 nights (yes, I know....but that's another subject).    The waiter, the server, the assistant waiter, the buser, the table setter were all the same person.  They can't possibly do everything.  Gone are the days of bringing your meal with the silver lid.  It was not a fine dining experience at all.   The food was good and sometimes very good but 50% of the time the meat came out over cooked.   If you want medium rare, be sure you order medium.   More than that, it's the small things we noticed:   The hanging bacon appetizer is now so thin, it doesn't hang right.   There is no table side tossing of the Caesar Salad and no ground pepper offered.   Speaking of which the S&P shakers NEVER worked.     Considering they increased the price to $49/pp, it's not worth it.

 

Rust and wear and tear:   Very evident throughout the ship.   The air conditioning didn't work in the casino for the first 3 days.   The dealers and players were literally dripping in sweat.   

 

Masks were required in the casino yet across the walkway at the dueling pianos, they were all belting out Sweet Caroline without masks.    

Dueling piano performers weren't the best (I wanted to chew my arm off).

 

Debarkation:   Although the line went fast, the Custom Clearance took place on deck 3 in the dining room.   Never had that happen before.   After that we proceeded to the gangway and walked off.

 

Misc:   Masks were required in the casino (most obliged), as well as the theater.    Tenders also required masks as well as embarkation/debarkation.    Some people diligently wore their masks, others like me only did so when required or when there were masses of people.   The only mask "police" I saw was in the casinos where they continually reminded you to wear your mask.

 

Covid cases:   I don't know of any except for 1 which I overheard a woman saying her husband came down with it on day one.

 

 

 

 

[Florida_gal_50]

The service in the pinnacle was not good for me  on the koningsdam either.  Luckily there are lots of other restaurants on that ship so I  didn't have to go back.  Your pictures are beautiful.  Thanks for the review.

[quack2]

Disturbing to hear about Pinnacle service.  Not a lot of other options on Zuiderdam.

[oaktreerb]

There have been a number of complaints about the Pinnacle dining room since cruising has returned,   Now that many cruisers seem to have the Have it All package with a free specialty dining experience the Pinnacle steakhouse being the most expensive of the choices must be pretty much in demand.  Staffing has evidently not met demand.  We were disappointed with our Pinnacle service in November on the K.

 

As far as the bacon goes,  we only got a clothesline of three pieces of thick and fatty bacon in November.  California has instituted new standards for bacon recently which has caused some quality issues but I doubt that HAL has to abide by Calif bacon rules.  If they bring the bacon onboard in San Diego maybe that’s the issue.

[cruzin4us]

34 minutes ago, oaktreerb said:

There have been a number of complaints about the Pinnacle dining room since cruising has returned,   Now that many cruisers seem to have the Have it All package with a free specialty dining experience the Pinnacle steakhouse being the most expensive of the choices must be pretty much in demand.  Staffing has evidently not met demand.  We were disappointed with our Pinnacle service in November on the K.

 

As far as the bacon goes,  we only got a clothesline of three pieces of thick and fatty bacon in November.  California has instituted new standards for bacon recently which has caused some quality issues but I doubt that HAL has to abide by Calif bacon rules.  If they bring the bacon onboard in San Diego maybe that’s the issue.

What you are saying is correct regarding the HIA package diners.   The first Gala night was the worst.   Every, and I mean every table was filled and the servers/waiters were literally running thru the dining room.   I felt bad for them.    The following day, I was walking by the Pinnacle when the head chef was leaving.   I asked him if he had a few seconds (at this point, I didn't know it was the head chef).   I told him last night was a cluster f* and he 100% agreed with me and I'm quoting "you are right, it was a cluster f*).   He said the problem is exactly what you said (the HIA) package and people booking online.   He was exasperated.   

 

Not sure if California is what caused the shrinking bacon, but it is definitely thinner than what we had on Nieuw Amsterdam (pre covid).   It was like they were using the same bacon they use in the Lido Buffet.

 

What was shocking about the service was there was always 5-6 servers at the Lido Bar as well as 2 bartenders.   They were over staffed there, but the Pinnacle was soooo understaffed (so I thought).   I asked the head chef as well as the Maitre D and both said the Pinnacle was completely staffed???

 

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy eating at the Pinnacle (obviously) but it's not a relaxing experience by any means and not worth the $49 price tag.

 

Pre covid bacon

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by cruzin4us

[12cruise2]

We were on the cruise with you last week and we have stayed on for this next cruise.  I agree re rust and deferred maintenance.  We are in our third cabin since boarding 4/2.  First one, there was a thunk in the window frame first and second night, every 30 seconds, that was loud enough to wake us from a sound sleep, so second night they moved us.  Long story short we moved permanently to that cabin for the duration of 4/2-13; we knew that cabin was booked for this cruise, so we had to move 4/13 to yet another cabin.  In both cabin 2 and 3, we had to have the A/C volume of air adjusted; no air coming in; it was fixed quickly and then plenty of air.  Then, in cabin 2, the faucets under the sink were leaking onto the storage shelf we noticed; that took two days to fix.  The window frame aft in the MDR next to our nightly table is loose, the window, dual-pane, seal is broken so window is cloudy and the gold metal frames on both sides rattle from time to time.  We spoke with Henk, the hotel mgr, last night; he thanked us for being patient and commented they have still not found the cause of the thunking in cabin 1!  We love cruising but. . . ; seems they have a long way to go to get the ship ready for the world cruise!

Thank you for posting these lovely pictures and your experiences!

[cruzin4us]

1 hour ago, 12cruise2 said:

We were on the cruise with you last week and we have stayed on for this next cruise.  I agree re rust and deferred maintenance.  We are in our third cabin since boarding 4/2.  First one, there was a thunk in the window frame first and second night, every 30 seconds, that was loud enough to wake us from a sound sleep, so second night they moved us.  Long story short we moved permanently to that cabin for the duration of 4/2-13; we knew that cabin was booked for this cruise, so we had to move 4/13 to yet another cabin.  In both cabin 2 and 3, we had to have the A/C volume of air adjusted; no air coming in; it was fixed quickly and then plenty of air.  Then, in cabin 2, the faucets under the sink were leaking onto the storage shelf we noticed; that took two days to fix.  The window frame aft in the MDR next to our nightly table is loose, the window, dual-pane, seal is broken so window is cloudy and the gold metal frames on both sides rattle from time to time.  We spoke with Henk, the hotel mgr, last night; he thanked us for being patient and commented they have still not found the cause of the thunking in cabin 1!  We love cruising but. . . ; seems they have a long way to go to get the ship ready for the world cruise!

Thank you for posting these lovely pictures and your experiences!

 

One of our shelves in our stateroom was broken which I forgot to mention.   They did repair it, but what the heck, it was completely falling onto the next shelf.    

The elevator to the Retreat Cabanas is broken and "under maintenance", but I know this has been out of commission since at least Jan 2nd when my parents were cruising.

I did get stuck in the elevator on deck 9 aft for about 10 min (that was fun....it's amazing the s...t that runs thru your head when you're stuck in an elevator by yourself)..

I thought the ship was clean but it was just run down.

Did you notice how much the ship creaked and moaned on our way back to SD?   

[canadianbear]

You’ve got me a bit concerned.  We are booked on the 50 day South Pacific cruise this Fall on the Zuiderdam.  It’s a long cruise for a ship that isn’t up to par.   

[cruzin4us]

53 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

You’ve got me a bit concerned.  We are booked on the 50 day South Pacific cruise this Fall on the Zuiderdam.  It’s a long cruise for a ship that isn’t up to par.   

Oh, don't be discouraged.   There were a lot of awesome things about the cruise.    Beauty is only skin deep as they say.....or don't judge a book by its cover is another one.    

The crew was fabulous and service was spectacular (with the exception of the Pinnacle, which I think has other issues). 

I met a lot of super nice passengers and crew.    

If you have the opportunity to book the family retreat cabana for a few days, I highly recommend it....especially in warmer climates.    We thoroughly enjoyed this.

If I had the opportunity to do a 50 day S. Pacific cruise I'd be jumping for joy and I would gladly sail on the Zuiderdam. 

A cruise is what you make of it.   Glass half empty/half full type of thing.    I just wanted to point out a few things that I noticed that seemed a bit out of sorts for HAL.   Hopefully, they will read my survey comments (I tried to be constructive and not wah, wah, wah, wah).

I'm going on the Ruby Princess to Hawaii and Alaska (25 days total) and I'm way more concerned about that 🙂

 

 

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, cruzin4us said:

 

One of our shelves in our stateroom was broken which I forgot to mention.   They did repair it, but what the heck, it was completely falling onto the next shelf.    

The elevator to the Retreat Cabanas is broken and "under maintenance", but I know this has been out of commission since at least Jan 2nd when my parents were cruising.

I did get stuck in the elevator on deck 9 aft for about 10 min (that was fun....it's amazing the s...t that runs thru your head when you're stuck in an elevator by yourself)..

I thought the ship was clean but it was just run down.

Did you notice how much the ship creaked and moaned on our way back to SD?   

That elevator is so small too so it would have been terrible.

[canadianbear]

5 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

Oh, don't be discouraged.   There were a lot of awesome things about the cruise.    Beauty is only skin deep as they say.....or don't judge a book by its cover is another one.    

The crew was fabulous and service was spectacular (with the exception of the Pinnacle, which I think has other issues). 

I met a lot of super nice passengers and crew.    

If you have the opportunity to book the family retreat cabana for a few days, I highly recommend it....especially in warmer climates.    We thoroughly enjoyed this.

If I had the opportunity to do a 50 day S. Pacific cruise I'd be jumping for joy and I would gladly sail on the Zuiderdam. 

A cruise is what you make of it.   Glass half empty/half full type of thing.    I just wanted to point out a few things that I noticed that seemed a bit out of sorts for HAL.   Hopefully, they will read my survey comments (I tried to be constructive and not wah, wah, wah, wah).

I'm going on the Ruby Princess to Hawaii and Alaska (25 days total) and I'm way more concerned about that 🙂

 

 

Thank you for clarifying and making me feel better.  We’ve been on the Zuiderdam several times but not for many years now.   
 

If you can do a 25 can’t you do the 45 (from San Diego) or 50 (from Vancouver) with us!  
 

Yes, I read the thread about the Ruby ship, sigh. 

[cruzn single]

I was on Zuiderdam in January and cruise was great.  Best meal I had was in Cannaletto.  Superb.  I had never had the clothesline bacon before so nothing to compare to.  I don’t think I would ever again order it.

[DaveOKC]

Pinnacle dining IMO has been in decline for several years and I am sure all the "free" meals with the HIA package is not helping things.  I will say though that three weeks ago on the Koningsdam we had a grea meal there with very good service.  It was early on embarkation day though, so perhaps this was the reason.

[Nang]

9 hours ago, cruzin4us said:

Just off the Zuiderdam for a 10 day Sea of Cortez cruise.

 

The Bad:   The Pinnacle Grill service:   We ate there 9 out of 10 nights (yes, I know....but that's another subject).    The waiter, the server, the assistant waiter, the buser, the table setter were all the same person.  They can't possibly do everything.  Gone are the days of bringing your meal with the silver lid.  It was not a fine dining experience at all.   The food was good and sometimes very good but 50% of the time the meat came out over cooked.   If you want medium rare, be sure you order medium.   More than that, it's the small things we noticed:   The hanging bacon appetizer is now so thin, it doesn't hang right.   There is no table side tossing of the Caesar Salad and no ground pepper offered.   Speaking of which the S&P shakers NEVER worked.     Considering they increased the price to $49/pp, it's not worth it.

 

 

Just looking for clarification on the contradictory statement about PG meat being over cooked and "If you want medium rare, be sure to request medium" which would only compound the problem.  Was the meat actually over or under cooked? 

[BobbiSox]

We are on Z for the 50-day Hawaii cruise this September, so we booked a short Alaska cruise on Z for April 27 just to 'test the waters'. We are aware that the ship hasn't been dry docked since 2017. It's disappointing to learn the P-Grill is not up to par. As 5*mariners, we will dine there. at least for the two nights, complimentary. I always have dinner early, because I never eat food I don't love, and if I don't love the MDR and the P-Grill, I just go up to the buffet and find something I do love.  Too bad the ship isn't 'ship-shape'. Hope our Neptune Suite makes up for some of the shortfalls of the rest of the problems.

[albingirl]

We skipped the Pinnacle completely on our recent cruise on NS.  Love the Tamarind, and the MDR was top shelf.  That did surprise me.  I never did understand the hanging bacon thing that Pinnacle has going on.  It always seemed a bit strange. Thanks for your photos; they are beautiful.

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, BobbiSox said:

We are on Z for the 50-day Hawaii cruise this September, so we booked a short Alaska cruise on Z for April 27 just to 'test the waters'. We are aware that the ship hasn't been dry docked since 2017. It's disappointing to learn the P-Grill is not up to par. As 5*mariners, we will dine there. at least for the two nights, complimentary. I always have dinner early, because I never eat food I don't love, and if I don't love the MDR and the P-Grill, I just go up to the buffet and find something I do love.  Too bad the ship isn't 'ship-shape'. Hope our Neptune Suite makes up for some of the shortfalls of the rest of the problems.

The Canaletto has come a long, long way in the last few years.  I used my free meals in the tamarind which you couldn’t do on the z or at Canaletto.  I know it’s a lesser value but beef isn’t my favourite and I’d rather have a meal I enjoy.

[cruzin4us]

7 hours ago, Nang said:

Just looking for clarification on the contradictory statement about PG meat being over cooked and "If you want medium rare, be sure to request medium" which would only compound the problem.  Was the meat actually over or under cooked? 

Yeah, I saw that but I was unable to edit it.    We like our steaks medium rare and the only way we were able to get them that way was to order RARE.    If we ordered medium rare, the steaks always arrived medium to med/well (no pink).    The meat was really over cooked as well as the fish.  The salmon tended to be better than the halibut.     Once I started ordering "rare", my meat would come out perfect.

 

[cruzin4us]

1 hour ago, BobbiSox said:

We are on Z for the 50-day Hawaii cruise this September, so we booked a short Alaska cruise on Z for April 27 just to 'test the waters'. We are aware that the ship hasn't been dry docked since 2017. It's disappointing to learn the P-Grill is not up to par. As 5*mariners, we will dine there. at least for the two nights, complimentary. I always have dinner early, because I never eat food I don't love, and if I don't love the MDR and the P-Grill, I just go up to the buffet and find something I do love.  Too bad the ship isn't 'ship-shape'. Hope our Neptune Suite makes up for some of the shortfalls of the rest of the problems.

We also eat early.....5:30.      My suggestion would be to avoid Gala nights however.   The Pinnacle was packed from the moment they opened to the minute they closed.   The Chef said they served 155 guests that day.   

I forgot to mention that Rudi's was spectacular, so I would highly recommend eating there the night it's available.

Also, the vegetarian entree is very good in the Pinnacle.....I tried that one night on a whim.

My folks had a Neptune Suite and it was top notch.   We had an aft balcony and other than our shelf issue the room was nice.

Part of my problem was my expectations were set high after my last HAL cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam (pre-covid).    Had I not had something to compare it to, I might not have noticed some of the things I mentioned.

 

[TiogaCruiser]

We were on the same cruise, and totally agree on the PG. We waited at least a half hour for a glass of wine. Service was s-l-o-w. It was the last night, and there were very few tables in use. Perhaps the staff were helping handle luggage??? The lobster bisque didn’t have hardly any flavor, the baked Alaska is pre-assembled in the morning, so you now can’t get just the Cherry Garcia ice cream with warm cherry sauce, but my steak-ordered medium rare- truly did come out medium rare, with the proper pink inside. (So someone there CAN do medium rare.) We don’t have any plans to return to PG. The last 2 weren’t special-not enough for paying $75. 
 

We found the Canaletto to be excellent, and will book it as our farewell in the future.

 

Overall we were happy with the ship. Crew painted both sides of the hull and varnished the teak during the cruise. She returned to San Diego looking better than when she left. There were a couple windows in the Lido that had double pane seals that leaked and fogged. Not a show stopper. The teak chaises really need some teak oil as they are really dry. This was true my last time on Zaandam and Veendam, so I’m not so sure if HAL considers that a priority. We found the ship in good order. 

 

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, cruzin4us said:

Yeah, I saw that but I was unable to edit it.    We like our steaks medium rare and the only way we were able to get them that way was to order RARE.    If we ordered medium rare, the steaks always arrived medium to med/well (no pink).    The meat was really over cooked as well as the fish.  The salmon tended to be better than the halibut.     Once I started ordering "rare", my meat would come out perfect.

 

I agree.  I’ve ordered the halibut a couple times.  It was over cooked each time.  I’ve had mostly good luck with the salmon.

[Florida_gal_50]

It think it’s one thing for the mdr to be “off” although that isn’t right either.  When you are paying for the experience in the pinnacle it should be a good step above.  I was in Canaletto and I heard people talking to the pinnacle manager.  He had come up to talk to them.  They got served a salad, then they got served a salad again.  C’mon.  Is this the waiters first job?  When I complained about the service in the pinnacle I heard every excuse under the sun.  This is why I like a ship with multiple pay extra restaurants. If one is bad it’s on to the next.  The Canaletto had light years better service and I assume these folks have less experience.  On some nights I was there it was busy too yet they managed.

[dchip]

We were on the 35 day South Pacific cruise that ended 4/3/22. Our experience in the PG was completely different than what I am reading here.
 

 The PG was never full. We had amazing service. Our steaks and halibut were cooked exactly how we requested each time. We had 5 dinners and 2 lunches during our cruise. On the other hand Canaletto was absolutely awful! The service was the worst we have ever had on any cruise line. Different cruises, different experiences. 
 

We enjoyed our time on the Zuiderdam and look forward to sailing the 45 day cruise in October. 
 

Cheers, Denise
 

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by dchip
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