Zaandam Review Jul 27-Aug 4 VERY, VERY LONG

[Robin7]

I'll post this in parts. It's VERY long.

 

Pre-Cruise

We flew into Seattle the night before our cruise, flying past the awe-inspiring Mount Rainier, glowing gold in the setting sun. We each thought about hiring a town car to pick us up but never made the arrangements. We wished we had as our cab ride downtown was HOT and, with tip, ended up being $10 more than the town car would have been.

We stayed at the elegant MarQueen hotel, an old converted building of some sort downtown near the Seattle Center. It had very nice antiques and beautiful décor.

Embarkation

We took another cab to the pier on Friday morning about 11am. It wasn’t very far—a $10 fare. Embarkation was very smooth. We dropped our luggage off to the left then proceeded back to the right and got in the line for those who had done their immigration questionnaires online. BE SURE TO FILL THAT OUT ONLINE. The line for those who hadn’t filled it out online was three times longer. Some of our group had to wait in that line, and it took them significantly longer to board.

We then proceeded swiftly through security, stopped for the obligatory photo and proceeded out to the Zaandam. What a lovely sight! The gangway was very long and pretty steep. A gentleman in front of us was wearing oxygen and had to stop several times to rest. I never saw an elevator so I’m not sure how persons in wheelchairs are boarded. I can’t imagine they have to go up that ramp, so I wondered why the fellow on oxygen did. Then entire process took about 45 minutes.

Red Alert and “Welcome Aboard” Lunch

When we stepped aboard the ship, we were immediately given anti-bacterial wipes and a letter from the Captain explaining about Norovirus. (Fortunately I knew what to expect from reading these boards and had even brought along my own Purell which we used a lot in addition to the dispensers on the ship.)

A white-gloved steward was manning the elevator and took us up to Deck 4 and directed us to the Rotterdam Dining Room for a “Welcome Aboard” lunch. When I commented to the steward serving us that I had never known the dining room to be open during embarkation, he said it was “special just for today.” I assumed that was due to the Red Alert status of the ship. Maybe they wanted to ease the line in the Lido as it was still open as well.

We had a wonderful lunch—the dining room is our favorite place to eat each meal so it being open was a very pleasant surprise—with a nice couple from Dallas. Afterwards I told my husband that it seemed like they were not married as she talked about ‘her’ granddaughter, and he talked about ‘his’ grandson. When we happened to have lunch with them again later in the week, I (being nosey) asked them how long they’d been married. “Oh, we’re not married! We’re just friends. His wife died, and my husband passed on so we travel together.” He enlightened us with “we’ve been going steady for a year now.” Sooooooooo cute. They were in their late 80s. I think one of the best things about cruising is being able to meet new people every day. Some of them ‘stick’ in my head, and we still talk about ‘so-and-so from such-and-such a cruise’ occasionally.

[Robin7]

First Impressions of the Ship

After lunch we walked around the ship and got to know the Zaandam and took pictures until our stateroom was ready. It was well past 1:30pm before it was announced they were ready. I assume they were ‘deep cleaning’ due to the Norovirus. (Unlike on the Vistas, there wasn’t a place to leave our carry ons so we just trundled them along. That didn’t bother us as we like to keep our carry ons with us (which is why we carry them on!) but I know some people might want to know that information.)

We fell in love with the Zaandam immediately. She’s gorgeous and so well laid out. You don’t have to go through the Casino to get from aft to the bow. You’re not forced through the Photo Shop to get out of the main lounge like you are on the Vistas. She’s small enough that nothing seems too far away, yet large enough that she never seems crowded. It is now our goal to sail on all of her sister ships! (Heh.)

Stateroom

When it was announced our stateroom was ready, we immediately made our way to Main Deck #2627, a lovely outside cabin located midship just across from the steward’s station. Great location, world-famous bed, nice TV with DVD player mounted above the desk with nice sized drawers, plenty of closet space, cute little tub in the bathroom. Our steward Luki, who took amazing care of us all week and made the cutest towel animals, and the plumber arrived at the same time. The toilet was plugged. Ewwwwww. Thank goodness it was fixed BEFORE we tried to use it. (Although that toilet gave us trouble all week. It often refused to flush at all and then flushed without warning. One time I was sitting on it when it flushed! EEEK! :eek: Then on Thursday it quit working altogether. Luki took care of having the plumber come. Great steward!)

The fellow in charge of the group we were with sent us gifts! We had a lovely Alaska scrapbook with a professional photo of the Zaandam waiting for us on the bed when we arrived, and chocolate-covered strawberries were delivered while we were unpacking. The travel agent had given us a wine package, but since we don’t drink alcohol we stopped by the front desk and asked if we could change the wine package for soda cards. (‘Soda’ being fountain soda, not cans. I was disappointed I could not get caffeine-free Diet Coke with the card, nor Diet Sprite. It was explained that only the fountain sodas were available, but many times the bar did not have fountain soda and the bartender had to open a can anyway, so this policy is confusing to me.)

Our luggage arrived right on the heels of the steward and the plumber so we unpacked and took a nap until lifeboat drill. (What’s a cruise for anyway???) We wanted to see Sail Away but unfortunately our leaving was delayed by a medical emergency requiring someone to be evacuated from the ship. (Man, that would be rotten to have to leave a cruise because of health trouble.) We were assigned the Early Lower seating at 6pm so were in the dining room as we left Seattle.

[Robin7]

Food

Our table (#123) was directly on the aft wake. What a beautiful location. Easily the best table placement we’ve had on any ship. Our stewards were Nandang and Ketuk. Very attentive and efficient. Our dining companions were first-time cruisers which made for interesting conversation with them peppering us with all kinds of questions. My favorite one was: “Why is there no salt and pepper on the table?” I explained about the Red Alert. So the next night one of the ladies showed up with extra packets of S&P in her purse!

One of the couples was traveling with good friends and weren’t seated with them! (Boy, I’d be FIRING the TA for that if I were them.) So they switched dining times and tables to sit with their friends after the first night, and we were a table for four all of the remaining dinners.

The food in the dining room was excellent overall. (Although my husband found the filet served with the lobster to be tiny, tough and overcooked.) The fish was amazing. We tried several new kinds. (Well, new to us anyway.) And we were not disappointed.

We’ve never been fond of the Lido because to us cafeteria food is cafeteria food, even served aboard a cruise ship, but we had no complaints the few times we had to eat there for meals. We often left the dining room before dessert during lunch so we could go to the Lido for the bread pudding and ice cream!

The Master Chef’s Dinner was definitely a new experience. We had made reservations at The Pinnacle for Tuesday and when we informed our steward of that on Sunday night, he told us we’d be missing ‘a special dinner’ so we rescheduled The Pinnacle in order to be in the dining room on Tuesday. Well, it was…er…interesting. I couldn’t tell if the stewards were smiling because they enjoyed it or because they were embarrassed. It was pretty silly, in our opinion, and next time we would choose to go to The Pinnacle on that night.

We only ordered room service a couple of times this trip, but it was always timely, hot, and correct.

[Robin7]

Entertainment

“What was that show last night?” our new-cruiser dining companions asked us the second night at dinner. “Are all of the shows like that? It was like amateur hour!” We had to laugh. It really was BAD. The magician/comedian and “Whyte” were not there so it was the singers/dancers (missing one of the four guys so all the routines looked strange) and the musicians from around the ship. The show was plagued with completely messed up lyrics (Romeo several times), missed entrances by singers (Blue), and just plain terrible performances (Philipino band). (Maybe they were nervous?) We assured our new friends that the rest of the shows would not be like that, and thankfully they weren’t.

The singers/dancers were some of the best we’ve seen, and we got to see three shows when we usually only see two on 7-day cruises. We went to the “Meet the Cast” thing they had Thursday and found out one of the male dancers was injured the week before and was still unable to dance the first night, causing them to have to restage many of the songs. They also said we got to see three shows because the Zaandam was set to do longer runs of 10- and 14-days which have three shows. We felt that was only to our benefit. The magician/comedian, Craig Diamond, was enjoyable, and “Whyte” was great. Don’t miss them.

Activities

We didn’t do too many of the activities but enjoyed the ones we did do. The cruise staff is friendly and likeable, especially Tammie and Cody. We had fun doing the “Ultimate DAM Challenge” which sent us in teams running all over the ship to find items they gave us clues about—kind of like “The Amazing Race” or “Treasure Hunters”. We had a good time, even though we lost.

Captain

We didn’t go to the Captain’s reception as it was held on Saturday before our dinner, and my husband was still madly preparing his stuff for his presentation at the seminar on Sunday morning. (The Front Office and Internet Manager could not have been more helpful to us that afternoon.) But whenever the Captain updated us each day, we found him to be very funny. And he was adorable at the Mariner’s ‘party’ when we were able to speak with him for a few minutes privately. I what they will name the ship he had said HAL would be launching sometime in 2008. He said they’re having a naming contest for it right now, and he had suggested “Hooverdam” in honor of the room stewards. Funny man.

When we ate in The Pinnacle on Thursday night during our stop in Victoria, he came in with three ladies and sat at the table across from us. (Gosh, talk about PRESSURE for our waiter, huh?) Our waiter told us two of the ladies were from the Olympic Committee for 2010 (?) there in Victoria and were looking at chartering a cruise ship. I guess HAL was wooing them. We heard lots of laughter from that table. The Captain seemed like such a personable, approachable man. I hope HAL gets whatever contract they were angling for that night.

[Robin7]

Weather

Not too cold in Juneau or Ketchikan, down right cold in Glacier Bay and Sitka. Rained off and on all day, nearly every day. We were disappointed that it was so gloomy in Glacier Bay, but we still got some spectacular photos. I’m warm-blooded and was fine in my hoodie with a windbreaker (which I scotchguarded) over it. My husband, however, was FREEZING. We didn’t bring winter hats or gloves, and he wished we had.

As we were leaving Glacier Bay, a fog moved in. (I kept waiting to hear a little girl singing “Yo Ho! Yo Ho! A pirate’s life for me.”) We happened to be in the Crow’s Nest at the time and looked outside and saw a crew member climb up onto the ledge in front of the windows to do something to the light that sits in the center of the ledge. It was POURING rain then, and the wind was whipping. We figured he had to have drawn the short stick. We all applauded when he was done. He waved.

We did a whale-watching tour (more about this in excursions) in Juneau and were fine with no sweatshirts or coats, although we took them along.

In Sitka it rained and rained and rained and was COLD. We had rain hats and heavy sweatshirts and windbreakers on, and I was still cold. I’m NEVER cold. I was okay walking around town, seeing St. Michael’s and shopping, but I was frozen after our three-and-a-half hour boat tour. I had to take a long hot bath to thaw out!

Ketchikan was beautiful. In the 60s, maybe low 70s. We kayaked for an hour and a half and had bright sunshine and rain both in that time! But we were never cold.

[Robin7]

Excursions

We had no excursion planned in Juneau because of some business stuff we had to do so ended up purchasing one off the dock. (Risky, I know, but we were there so long that we figured we were okay, and we were.) We bought a whale-watching tour from Dolphin Enterprises and were the only two tourists on the boat! The pilot found us a great group of humpback whales, and we had them come right up to us! They’re so incredibly enormous. We could hear them calling to each other and even got sprayed by whale-blow. It was one of the most amazing two hours of my life!

In Sitka we did the “Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest” offered through the ship. It was great as well. We saw two large sea otter colonies, as well as some just floating along all alone on their backs including a mama with a baby on her tummy. They were so adorable! A lot larger than I thought they were, too. We also saw more humpbacks, harbor seals and lots and lots of eagles. They took us up to the end (south?) of Redoubt Lake where a small waterfall marks where it meets the sea, and there were millions of jellyfish. We also saw a fisherman netting salmon there at the base of the waterfall. I cannot believe how beautiful this area is. I’d love to live in Sitka, even with the cold, gloomy, wet weather!

Sea Kayaking in Ketchikan was also booked through the ship. We’d never kayaked before so it was a new experience. We LOVED it. We docked very early in Ketchikan and had breakfast in the dining room. (A lot of people had 7am shore excursions!) We then RAN off the ship to ‘Steamers’ right there by the gangway and bought last minute items (cheap, too!) for our kids, ran back on and put them in our stateroom and met the tour person. We and eight other people were right on time. A woman and her three daughters were not. She came down the gangway and basically demanded that the tour operator wait for them. ELEVEN MINUTES later, we left with the woman and her daughters. (Very rude! Do not do that. It makes your fellow passengers cranky.) The kayaking was another story. Tour operators put the oldest daughter (14-ish) in a kayak with one of the younger ones (9-ish). We got in our kayak and were paddling out to where the girls were (where the guide told us to wait) when we realized the younger one was just screaming and crying. Seriously out of control. One of the guides hastened out there (we were calling to her, trying to help her calm down) and hauled their kayak in and put her with the mom, each of the guides then taking one of the other daughters in his kayak. All was well after that. We saw eagles and more eagles, beautiful trees and scenery and kamikaze salmon throwing themselves out of the water. (Apparently to break up their egg sacs prior to spawning. We saw them in every port and all along the way as well, but this was the first time I thought to ask anyone why they were doing it.) We also saw some gloriously colored starfish. The weather was predictable—bright, warm sunshine, gloomy-dark clouds, a downpour, followed by more sunshine. I LOVE ALASKA!

We stayed on the ship in Victoria, both of us having been there previously and not really wanting to see Buchart Gardens in the dark when we’ve seen it in the daylight.

[Robin7]

Disembarkation

Our flight was not until after 3pm so we were the last color called off the ship. That was fine with us. We had a leisurely breakfast in the dining room then read in our stateroom until time to pry my fingers from the railing and leave. I love being able to stay in our rooms. Thanks, HAL. I remember the days of hanging out in the Lido (HAL) or under the stairway in the atrium (Princess), being unable to find anywhere for my husband’s elderly grandparents to sit.

We love the Zaandam. We'd sail her anytime.

This is soooooooooooo long! I don’t know what to leave out though, and I’m sure there’s stuff I didn’t cover. I’d be glad to answer any questions.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Thank you Robin!!:) We get onboard in just under two weeks to do your same itinerary, and your review will be a hard act to follow!:) It wasn't too long at all; you could write another 10 pages and I'd still be reading avidly. How were things on the ship regarding the "red alert" status?

[raadsel]

Thanks for the great review! I second Middle-Aged Mom, I would have happily kept reading if it were longer. Glad you had a wonderful time. I'm getting anxious for my turn. ;)

[Tinknock50]

Robin,

What time did you get off the ship? I'd like to be the last off too.

[Tinknock50]

Was "Wyte" the 2 brothers that did the Beatles songs? I think we had them on the Oosterdam. They were good.

[hammybee]

Thank you for making the time to share your cruise experience with us. I am still laughing about your "spanking" soda card comment on a different post. You are my kind of lady.

[Robin7]

Thank you Robin!!:) We get onboard in just under two weeks to do your same itinerary, and your review will be a hard act to follow!:) It wasn't too long at all; you could write another 10 pages and I'd still be reading avidly. How were things on the ship regarding the "red alert" status?

 

You're all very kind. Thank you.

 

The Red Alert status wasn't as bad as I originally thought it would be. We used every Purell dispenser we saw when we passed them. Stewards would greet us with the dispensers as we both entered and left the Rotterdam Dining Room. (I noticed they had them at every line in the Lido, too.) I even carried my own bottle with me, and we used it after we ordered. (Who knows who had been touching those menus???)

 

The lack of salt and pepper was kind of irritating because the stewards are so busy that we hated to ask for them after they had already brought our food.

 

We seriously tried not to touch the handrails on the stairs and pushed all elevator buttons with our knuckles. We would introduce ourselves to people but not shake hands, following the Captain's example of 'keeping our germs to ourselves.' We made sure the first thing we did when we entered our stateroom was wash our hands. (And we continued to do those things all week long, even after the alert was lifted.)

 

We never, however, ate in the Lido during the Red Alert. I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed having to have the stewards serve me each little thing.

 

Sean, we were called around 9am. Disembarkation was not a long process. We were at the airport before 10am, even having to get a cab.

 

Also that was The Beatles guys. ("Whyte"? "Wyte"?) I thought they were great, but I love The Beatles. I look at them, though, and wonder if they really are brothers. You'll have to let me know what you think.

 

Hammybee, I'm blushing! :D I still can't believe that so many adults abused the 'unlimited' sodas that HAL was forced to change the policy.

 

Robin

[eastonce]

Robin,

 

Thanks for your post, it was definitely not too long but entertaining and informative.. We are going to be on the 8-18-06 sailing along with "Middle Aged Mom" and her family. Glad you had just a great time and enjoyed the Zaandam - it just makes makes me hope the next 2 weeks pass really quickly.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post.

 

Carol

[Tinknock50]

That is funny about Wyte. They were on my last HAL cruise and they have followed me to my next one.:)

 

I guess I will tell the wheelchair lift van for my Mom to come at 9:30.

 

I was hoping to wheel my carryons on while I push Moms chair, but now I am wondering if that won't be possible with that steep ramp. Maybe I should take anything crushable out and check them at the port. Weare traveling light ,so we won't have a regular suitcase.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for taking the time to post a wonderful review!!