Retreat Q's - general and Zuiderdam specific

[Boston proper]

Hi All,

Thanks to the outstanding reporting from @POA1 and @Huskerchick we are considering booking the Retreat for B2B cruises on the Zuiderdam.  Several questions:

What hours is the Retreat open?

Is the Retreat open on embarkation day?

Are there outlets in the cabanas?  

Can we bring food/drinks from other venues up to the Retreat or can we order from other venues/bars?

Specific to Zuiderdam, outside of the personal cabana areas, are there tables that have shade and/or would be protected from rain?

 

Our B2B is BOS-QC-BOS so likely to have some rain/fog.  

 

Any comments and thoughts regarding the Retreat, particularly in North Atlantic sailings would be appreciated!  I know it will be windy.  🙂

 

Many Thanks!

[CruiserBruce]

Open 9-5...better answer...staffed 9-5. You can stay longer, but there won't be service, and they may be cleaning around you.

 

Yes, they are open on boarding.

 

No outlets.

 

Yes, you can bring food and drink. You plan on making the cabana attendant run all over the ship for you? They will get stuff from the Lido, Dive In and that area, and whatever bar is supporting them.

[CruiserBruce]

And the Zuiderdam cabanas have a table and two chairs in them, so that is a possibility for getting out of the rain and sitting at a table.

[Boston proper]

I'd prefer to not have them run around!  I'd rather bring a drink and plate up than have anyone wasting time because there's some silly rule that the attendant has to get it.

[CruiserBruce]

11 minutes ago, Boston proper said:

I'd prefer to not have them run around!  I'd rather bring a drink and plate up than have anyone wasting time because there's some silly rule that the attendant has to get it.

No such rule.

[wdw1972]

A recent change (at least on Rotterdam, but I believe it's fleet wide) is they no longer bring you food from the Lido. There's a special limited Retreat menu (2 items - one is sushi, the other is some bowl thing) and the other options are Dive In or NY Pizza. On Zuiderdam they don't have NY Pizza, so not sure how that will impact. There's no problem getting your own food from the Lido and bringing it up to the Retreat.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[Boston proper]

5 minutes ago, wdw1972 said:

A recent change (at least on Rotterdam, but I believe it's fleet wide) is they no longer bring you food from the Lido. There's a special limited Retreat menu (2 items - one is sushi, the other is some bowl thing) and the other options are Dive In or NY Pizza. On Zuiderdam they don't have NY Pizza, so not sure how that will impact. There's no problem getting your own food from the Lido and bringing it up to the Retreat.

 

Sue/WDW1972

Thank you!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

No outlets.

[POA1]

Outlets? It depends on the cabana. We had one facing the pool and it had an outlet. I'll comb through my previous "research notes." I'm pretty sure that I mentioned which cabana it was.

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

47 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Outlets? It depends on the cabana. We had one facing the pool and it had an outlet. I'll comb through my previous "research notes." I'm pretty sure that I mentioned which cabana it was.

 

 

But that outlet was not a standard outlet...it was for ship's equipment. At least I have not seen a standard 110 or 120 US style outlet in the cabanas. I think they are some special marine plug or something else. They aren't European style plugs either, at least from what I have seen.

 

The Pinnacle class ships have some standard outlets at that service counter near the attendant's work room, IIRC.

[POA1]

We had the center, aft facing cabana. On the Zuiderdam, Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam, all had outlets. Most cabanas did not

[POA1]

4 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

But that outlet was not a standard outlet...it was for ship's equipment. At least I have not seen a standard 110 or 120 US style outlet in the cabanas. I think they are some special marine plug or something else. They aren't European style plugs either, at least from what I have seen.

 

The Pinnacle class ships have some standard outlets at that service counter near the attendant's work room, IIRC.

Nope. Standard, grounded 120V. I plugged my laptop into them.

[POA1]

If you are worried about power and you are getting a cabana, I'd rely on a USB battery pack. I got lucky with the outlet under the little cabana table on the two Signature class ships and the Zuiderdam.

 

Most cabanas would have been "powerless." There was no outlet in the cabanas on the two Pinnacle-class ships, Rotterdam and Nieuw Statendam. My laptop is good for hours and I carried USB batteries for the phones and tablets.

[The-Inside-Cabin]

On 5/19/2024 at 12:11 PM, Boston proper said:

 

 

Any comments and thoughts regarding the Retreat, particularly in North Atlantic sailings would be appreciated!  I know it will be windy.  🙂

 

Many Thanks!

I had retreats on the Pinnacle-class ships on the Mexican Riviera and Caribbean. For those ships and that location, the retreat was great. I booked the retreat on the Zuiderdam for the South Pacific and found it so windy most days that it was unusable.   

 

A major portion of the retreat staff's job is "running around" to get you anything that is available from any open venue—at least that was true in 2022. Not every cabana had a 120-volt outlet, but some did.    I wouldn't count on having power.  

 

It looks like for that itinerary there is only one sea day each way - I would wait until embarkation and book only the sea days (Unless you don't plan to go ashore that much)

 

[Boston proper]

17 hours ago, POA1 said:

If you are worried about power and you are getting a cabana, I'd rely on a USB battery pack. I got lucky with the outlet under the little cabana table on the two Signature class ships and the Zuiderdam.

 

 

Thank you for your detailed responses and your in-depth reporting!  I've gained a ton of information from your extensive research.

[Boston proper]

7 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

It looks like for that itinerary there is only one sea day each way - I would wait until embarkation and book only the sea days (Unless you don't plan to go ashore that much)

 

 

Many thanks for your response.  I'm considering booking by the day (or as @POA1 would call it, the "summer people" of the cabana life) due to the port-intensive itinerary and variable weather but also looking for a quiet place to have breakfast and work for a few hours each day.

 

As an aside, welcome back from your World Cruise!  Your blogs are a wealth of information and one of the reasons that we are trying our first HAL cruise.