Zaandam
Feb 22nd, 2000 | 02:44 AM
#1
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Zaandam
The wife and I will be cruising on HAL's Zaandam in May. Would love to hear some comments from those who have experienced the ship. We have taken one other cruise on Princess to Alaska which we enjoyed. We are looking forward to a similar experience. Thanks
May 7th, 2000 | 06:01 AM
#4
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You have no cause for concern on a Holland America Ship. The only thing you may experience is the fact that a new crew on a new ship has to adjust. Ships have personalities and like a good hotel, it must experience a few sailings before it reaches a level of comfort. That being said, HAL goes through great pains to train their crew and to maintain a consistency on all their ships. Every Holland America ship is familiar to its repeat cruisers and every ship feels like home. Enjoy. <BR>Guylaine
Oct 5th, 2001 | 04:42 PM
#7
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We just returned from an HAL (Zaandam) Alaskan cruise (9/22-9/29/01) and it was cold, windy and rainy and we still had a great time. The ship and it's staff was awesome.......food and entertaiment pretty good. It was never over 50 degrees and two of the days we had near Gail-force winds. We just got the pictures back and in 10 rolls of film, the sun was never shining, so it looked a little dreary to those at home 
<BR> <BR>The biggest dissappointment to us was the shore excursions in the ports. Our heli glacier tour in Juneau (which was highly recommended and we really looked forward to) was cancelled to do wind as was the same in Skagway the next day. No Glacier landing (that we had waited a year for) for us. They were finally flying in Ketchikan (in the Fjords, they have no Glaciers) but cancelled our afternoon flight because they needed 4 people and we only had two. We were sooooo upset! We ended up standing in front of the ship and asking people if they would join us on the float plane tour and we were able to find two people!! This was the "bear tour" of which we saw none. It was still really cool though (cold and rainy). Our kayak tour was cancelled in Ketchikan as well as the tram in Skagway. We ended up doing bus tours in all three towns (the best thing to do in the rain) which was not what we planned. <BR> <BR>Juneau gets 216 days of rain a year and Ketchikan gets 240. Take waterproof clothing a jacket with hood AND pants if you want to stay warm. Gloves and unbrellas are a must. <BR> <BR>We were on the last sail of the season which has its good and bad points. Some places close up for the season mid-September, but the ones that stay open mark everything 50% off so we got lots of Christmas shopping done! <BR> <BR>We got right up close to the John Hopkins Glacier which was great and on our way out we saw spinner dolphins right next to the boat. <BR> <BR>The cabins were good size with nice size windows and lots of closet space. The food was good but a little foo-foo for our tatse. We are not really meat eaters so after the 3rd night of salmon we were looking for an alternative. they had one vegetarian item on the dinner menu each night but they were never very good. For entertainment we had one of the funniest comedy shows we had ever seen and plenty of low key activities to keep us occupied. <BR> <BR>The crowd was older, only about six or seven kids that we saw. <BR> <BR>I would do another Alaskan cruise just earlier in the season next time. <BR> <BR>Happy Sailing!
<BR> <BR>The biggest dissappointment to us was the shore excursions in the ports. Our heli glacier tour in Juneau (which was highly recommended and we really looked forward to) was cancelled to do wind as was the same in Skagway the next day. No Glacier landing (that we had waited a year for) for us. They were finally flying in Ketchikan (in the Fjords, they have no Glaciers) but cancelled our afternoon flight because they needed 4 people and we only had two. We were sooooo upset! We ended up standing in front of the ship and asking people if they would join us on the float plane tour and we were able to find two people!! This was the "bear tour" of which we saw none. It was still really cool though (cold and rainy). Our kayak tour was cancelled in Ketchikan as well as the tram in Skagway. We ended up doing bus tours in all three towns (the best thing to do in the rain) which was not what we planned. <BR> <BR>Juneau gets 216 days of rain a year and Ketchikan gets 240. Take waterproof clothing a jacket with hood AND pants if you want to stay warm. Gloves and unbrellas are a must. <BR> <BR>We were on the last sail of the season which has its good and bad points. Some places close up for the season mid-September, but the ones that stay open mark everything 50% off so we got lots of Christmas shopping done! <BR> <BR>We got right up close to the John Hopkins Glacier which was great and on our way out we saw spinner dolphins right next to the boat. <BR> <BR>The cabins were good size with nice size windows and lots of closet space. The food was good but a little foo-foo for our tatse. We are not really meat eaters so after the 3rd night of salmon we were looking for an alternative. they had one vegetarian item on the dinner menu each night but they were never very good. For entertainment we had one of the funniest comedy shows we had ever seen and plenty of low key activities to keep us occupied. <BR> <BR>The crowd was older, only about six or seven kids that we saw. <BR> <BR>I would do another Alaskan cruise just earlier in the season next time. <BR> <BR>Happy Sailing!
