This is long overdue! We’ve been on 3 cruises in 12 months and have used cruise critic for so much information. I decided it was time to jump in and give back! The three ships we’ve sailed on in the past year were Holland Americas Zaandam, Seaborne Oddessy, and Oceania Vista.
We sailed on the Zaandam with a group of 8 people, family and friends. We wanted the iconic experience of going through ...
This was a 14 day Panama Canal journey from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale. Zaandam is a smaller ship and doesn't have a lot of "bells and whistles" but has a lot to offer. Passengers were on the older side and only 14 or so children on board. Staff and crew were excellent. Never a long wait for a drink or to get something from the Lido buffet.
Pools and hot tubs were never really very ...
I chose this cruise as an option. I was offered by Holland America . The employees on the ship were doing the best that they could although I think most of them were brand new. The main reason for my review is the “orange package”. It was not what it appeared to be. Getting on and off the ship it worked wonderfully, but on the ship not so much. There was not a dedicated line for shore excursions ...
We choose this cruise due to the ports and sites it covered. We were not disappointed! Although a couple of the ports we wanted to sail to were exchanged, we were not unhappy with the changes. The boarding and disembarkation were perfect. We learnt a lot from excellent conferences. The food and entertainment were par for what we xpected from this great cruise line. Our cabin stewards cabin 2572 ...
This was our first time cruising on Holland America (HAL), we usually cruise on NCL & we chose the ship because it sailed further upriver on the St.Lawrence. While smaller than the smallest of Norwegian ships, the Zaandam carries only 1,432 passengers compared to our favourite ship, the Gem which carries 2,394 passengers. The demographic of the passengers was also much older than NCL ships, with ...
My wife came to America in 1952 on a HAL ship, so we kept using them for vacations. Mostly we really enjoyed the ships we were on, but the last ship (Zaandam) was not as enjoyable as the others. They all had excellent food and steward service. For us, we had the following problems:
1. Our shower kept changing water temp while using-not extreem, but annoying.
2. Our TV kept freezing or ...
This cruise from Boston to Montreal was to see some new sights in Canada. The ports of Bar Harbor, Charlestown, Quebec were interesting. Sydney and Montreal not so much. The common areas of the ship appear to have been refurbished in the last few months, but the cabins are showing a lot of age with only one electric outlet per cabin and an in room TV that is essentially useless and too ...
We signed up with this cruise three years ago before Covid started. We were cancelled twice and finally able to go this month. We had so much trouble with reservations, Covid requirements and all the APPs that we had to download. We had trouble with boarding times and then found out at the Dock that they didn't even care what time we boarded. The ship was old and creaky. There was only one ...
We loved most of the ports especially PEW. The staff went out of their way to make my 50th birthday cruise special. I received a decorated cupcake in my room, a birthday cake for our table at dinner and $50 each for my husband and I to use at the spa.
I have made a vlog about it on youtube on my channel iheartnationalparks.
We loved Montreal and Quebec and PEI the best. Boston was good and I ...
Here are the irritants and problems, some important and some not, that punctuated my recent cruise in the Maritimes and New England on board the Zaandam:
- My interior room was in an almost unacceptably dilapidated state: scratches on the walls, missing tapestry shards on walls, broken cabinet shelf in dressing cabinet, stained shower, repeated problems with toilet flush, TV, shower (the handle ...