KVI's retail manager, Jane Fisher, has just come back from a cruise aboard the Zuiderdam. As many of us know, the Zuiderdam is the one Holland America ship that seems to fall short of the pack when it comes to overall quality. Despite that and some lousy weather, Jane managed to have a good time and has some great insights on her cruise. Here is her review...
10 days cruising with Holland America on the Zuiderdam, the highlight, a partial transit of the Panama Canal. 23 November, not quite the end of the rainy season, but this was the optimum date for me to be away from home, so........... It wouldn’t be all that bad, would it?
I have watched documentaries and read much about the construction of the canal and wanted to actually see it on site for myself. It really is an amazing structure and a tremendous accomplishment for its time. So off to sea we go.
After an uneventful but smooth flight we stepped from the plane in Fort Lauderdale and felt the promise of heat but with a nice gentle breeze blowing it simply felt warm and quite comfortable. A short transfer to the Hyatt hotel, a superb dinner at the 15 Street Fisheries, (highly recommended if you like fish and shellfish) a cosy bed and a good night’s rest ensured we were ready to set sail. Ship ahoy, we are coming aboard!! Did anybody care? Not likely. Another short transfer and we offloaded our luggage to the porter and stood in a short line to start the boarding process. We were onboard in no time at all, pretty quick and efficient.
Fort Lauderdale is attractive viewed from the ship and I was looking forward to the end of our cruise to explore the city on a guided tour and also to ply the waterways by taxi with perhaps a quick stop at 15th Street Fisheries for a late lunch! All that is still to come.
I haven’t sailed on the Zuiderdam before, but viewed photographs, I was pleasantly surprised, it is not quite so gaudy as the pictures portray, the colours schemes in the public areas, restaurants and show lounge are vibrant but not excessively so, quite appealing actually. I was very impressed with the cabin stewards, even on the 1st evening at sea when so much has to be done and so little time for the changeover of passengers, the cabins stewards were very friendly, smiling and didn’t give the impression of being in too much of a hurry to stop and speak.
The weather was glorious as we left the port and sailed towards Half Moon Cay, Holland Americas private island in the Bahamas, we spent the day on this island basking in hot sunshine, I have to say Holland America have done a great job there, lots of well maintained paths to “village squares”, picnic tables, walking trails through the trees and flowering bushes. If one does not want to laze on the beach or stroll along the pathways there are lots of water based activities available. This is a great place for some serious R & R.
Having had the time to wander around the ship, the Zuiderdam is not in tip top condition, definitely signs of wear and tear, not neglect on part of the cleaning staff, they were to be seen everywhere in full swing cleaning and polishing at any time of day or evening.
Sailing on towards Aruba in ever increasing cloudier and cooler weather we arrived in the port of Oranjestad, Aruba. I really I liked this port of call the city is colourful and inviting and very well kept. We took a tour round the island from the South which is developed, to the North which is not. Once out of town the contrast is stark, timeshare resorts and hotels all beautifully groomed, but right next door or across the street, unfinished houses and rubbish piled up high. The beaches are lovely. The North side was very rocky but fascinating as the rocks are corals shaped by heavy seas and the roads are of sand which when we were there were full of deep ruts as the island had experienced much more rain than usual, still it all added to the overall experience. One of the main tourist attractions on the island was the natural bridge which was made by water formed rocks, however the bridge collapsed into the sea in 2005 and passage over is no longer possible. The smaller bridge is still intact. However the site remains a huge tourist attraction and an enterprising family have set up a cafe and boast 5* washroom facilities” available for only 50¢ a visit! We stopped at the Aloe Vera factory, not on a production day but the guide was very thorough in explaining the process from growing to harvesting to packaging, all extremely labour intensive. All in all this is a good tour to take if in Aruba.
I was disappointed with the restaurants and quality of food onboard the Zuiderdam, the buffet is not my favourite place at the best of times, I hate queuing for anything and to queue to eat is beyond my patience level, however my husband Evan likes to pick and choose so I tolerated breakfast occasionally and lunch quite often, but draw the line at dinner. The choice at the buffet stations was excellent and presented so attractively it promised delight in every bite, not so I’m afraid, meat or fish was either over done or underdone, the vegetables the same and of course by the time one gets to a table most of it is cold, salad of every description was always a safe bet in that respect, but not for breakfast thank you.
The Vista dining room was chaotic most of the time whether it was at breakfast lunch or dinner time. The food was always mediocre despite sounding appealing on the menus and being attractively presented. No matter whether it was breakfast, lunch or dinner the service was extremely poor and the wait exceedingly long, in particular one evening we arrived at 7pm in the dining room as we wanted to take in a show after dinner, waited 15 minutes to get served, 30 more minutes to get the 1st course, 20 minutes more for the 2nd course which arrived before the plates had been cleared, then at 9pm the entree arrived. We were six people at the table and not one of us had a meal worth waiting for, in fact 2 of the entrees were sent back as inedible and so we waited again. Fortunately we enjoyed good company throughout our meal, one of the nice aspects of dining with different people every evening in the main dining room.
What is never disappointing is the Chocolate extravaganza, it is a sight to behold I am an admitted chocoholic and this is one event I wouldn’t miss.
The clouds burst as we sailed onto our next port Willemstad, Curacao, my first thought was liqueur and the islanders are very proud of their famous liqueur and don’t mind telling everyone that only Curacao made on the island can be labelled authentic. There is much more industry on this island and much of it is in view as the ship sails into the harbour. The very attractive inlet is lined with cafes, bars, restaurants and hotels. The floating bridge across this natural channel swings open about 30 times a day to allow small boats, tankers for the refinery and other vessels through, when the bridge is open a ferry transports people across. The cruise ships now use the Mega pier which is a short distance outside the channel. Our visit coincided with a prolonged rainstorm so visibility was not great at times. We took an island tour coupled with an underwater sea tour over the coral beds. Despite the rain this tour was really interesting and on a good day would be superb.
Panama, my main reason for being on this cruise did not disappoint despite rain that surpassed anything Scotland offers on a bad day. As we approached the breakwaters the rain came down in sheets and visibility was extremely poor however as the first gate opened the skies cleared and I was able to watch our transit. Crikey there is not much room to spare, a couple of feet at the most, it is not hard to understand why the “Mules” are required to hold tension where needed to guide the ship through without touching either side. The Mules run on rail tracks and it is easy to understand how they came to be named. As we slowly advanced to the breakwaters of the Gatun Locks, on each side there is dense jungle and with the rain blasting down and visibility poor, huge ships, tankers and sea vessels of every size and description seemed to loom out of nowhere, all were sitting waiting for a slot to traverse through the locks, but it gave an almost surreal picture to our approach to the first lock, thankfully we were safe in our very comfortable ship, ah but my imagination had started working overtime. I shudder to think how it might have felt working in similar weather conditions so very many years ago without the basic comforts we take for granted today. The heavy toll in human lives and the cost was horrendous, but the vision was a great one and the construction of the canal an outstanding accomplishment for its day, an amazing structure that has stood the test of time, still operating like clockwork albeit with a lot of modernisation.
Construction of the “new” canal was clearly visible.
The traverse through the Gatun locks was enlightening and fascinating despite the dreadful weather, I was so glad to be there.
Once we were through the locks and into the Lake we tendered to the small pier to take an escorted City/Country type tour of old Panama, Colonial Panama and the new Panama City.
There is no comparison to the building of the Canal, but there is a certain fascination in the way the cities developed and of course what Panama became. I really enjoyed the seeing what remains of the old city, the buildings and monuments and also soaking up some of the culture. Panama City today is truly a concrete high rise city, unexpected to my mind in the jungle setting surrounding it. Panama seems to be moving forward, the people are hopeful and Panama is a true world player in the commercial world. It is an absolutely intriguing country. We finally arrived at Colon and boarded the ship to set sail for Limon, Costa Rica. We chose our shore excursions to make the most of our time ashore and to see as much as possible in a short time, this tour lived up to
expectations.
Our passage from Colon to Limon was not smooth by any means the heavy seas, rain and wind did little to give comfort to many passengers aboard. Costa Rica was our next port of call; we again experienced heavy rain and much of the land we travelled was still under water, it is the rainy season and to be expected in November. However everywhere we travelled the story was the same, it had been raining much harder and for longer than usual. We decided on a tour of the Tortuguero canals and thankfully the rain stopped as we headed out on the short bus ride to the starting point, but not for long. This tour travels along some of the countryside on the Caribbean side which is less developed but promotes eco tourism with a passion; the Pacific side is more developed with resorts and hotels, fabulous beaches and suggests a more relaxed vacation. We stopped at a Banana plantation, oh my there is more to the humble banana than I thought! I just assumed the bananas we buy in the local supermarket were picked from the tree put in a box and delivered to the supermarket for us to enjoy. It is very labour intensive. In spite of the torrential rain the people were still outside working on the Banana plants. We journeyed on through rainforest until we reached the staging point to enter the canal. Open sided boats travelled slowly along the canal stopping each time a bird, lizard, flower, sloth or monkey were spotted, no crocodiles on this trip though. Much as I have a fascination for the rainforest, I have to admit ensconced in the safety of a tour boat with a knowledgeable and amusing tour guide was much more appealing to me than some of the other tours available that involved trekking amidst all that beautiful Greenery with goodness knows what underneath, Ugh! Unfortunately most of this tour was undertaken in lashing rain and wind therefore visibility was poor for the most part but I believe in pleasant weather this tour would have been very entertaining and interesting.
Back on the Zuiderdam we were looking forward to a couple of days of R & R and to take advantage of the onboard amenities and perhaps develop a nice tan. This was not to be, the seas remained extremely rough and a storm stayed with us for most of the 2 days at seas. The inclement weather ensured that every indoor facility was booked up to the hilt, the casino was of course busy all the time, the Greenhouse Spa and Salon was a welcoming haven for many, and it was difficult to get appointments when wanted, I did not make much use of the Spa services or the hairdressing salon. The Sea bar pool and hot tub was only for the very hardy who did not mind braving the cold and who could swim in the huge rolling waves in the pool. The Lido pool although undercover and a much warmer environment also had enormous waves, swimming was too much like hard work. It was a good time to sit and chat with some fellow travellers, we were a cosmopolitan bunch, Japan, China, Italy, Holland, France, England, Ireland, Australia, Canada and USA and this was only the people I managed to speak to. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with everyone and even met a lovely FBI agent who was very happy to talk of her very interesting life. The reality was that we rocked and rolled so much it was no fun sitting outside or trying to walk, even sober, quite why I decided to wear stilettos on the worst squally night I do not know, it was hard enough to teeter in a straight line never mind with the ship rocking from side to side, I noticed a lot of unintentionally amorous couples in the most unexpected places.
The entertainment day and night on the Zuiderdam was excellent, the ships dancers and singers were classy and professional, quite how they managed to keep their feet in the dance routines with the rolling and lurching of the ship is beyond me, they were truly amazing. The highlight of the entertainment was the Island Magic Steelband, totally captivating and more orchestral that I ever thought possible from a steelband. Definitely not the first thought that comes to mind when thinking steelband.
On our last day at sea one of the engines had to be shut down and therefore our progress into Fort Lauderdale was somewhat delayed, this was not a problem for us as we had booked late afternoon flights, but I was sorry to miss the city and waterways tour we had booked , Holland America did refund the cost. However I was totally amazed at the number of people who had early and mid-morning flights arranged and also at the huge number of people who did not have travel insurance. Why do people do that? Why invest so much money into a holiday if one is not going to protect that investment by purchasing travel insurance? So many upset people, some of whom could not reach their online booking company to try to change their flights, some who at the end of their holiday were unable to use their credit card to purchase alternative flights, and so many other stories of misery that I heard first hand, please people purchase travel insurance, it is better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it
Despite the horrible weather and disappointing food onboard, I did enjoy the cruise and the opportunity to traverse through the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. The canal did not disappoint at all.
Jane Fisher
Retail Manager, KVI Travel
1-888-768-6777, ext. 304
c. Mayan meal. Luis then took us back to Coba for a traditional Mayan meal. A good experience. I really enjoyed the chicken wrapped in a banana leaf. Again – an experience that most tourists would miss out on.
