Sharing experiences from a 35 day transatlantic cruise is somewhat challenging. There is a lot of content to consider. We embarked in Boston and this cruise included stops in Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and then reversed back to Iceland, Greenland, Canada and, finally, a disembarkation in Boston. The original schedule of Holland America’s Zuiderdam included 20 port stops (one was missed due to weather) and 15 at-sea days. During one of the at-sea days, the ship was positioned to observe a total eclipse off of Iceland.
This was our longest cruise, our first on Holland America and, after many years of sailing on ships with 300-900 passenger capacity, a cabin on a 1,900 guest ship.
My plan is to describe highlights of our cruise and some observations about cruising on Holland America’s Zuiderdam. First, a little about our sailing on Holland America.
Holland America’s Zuiderdam
Understanding that we would be on the Zuiderdam for 35 days encouraged us to book a larger “Signature Suite” exterior cabin. This junior suite style cabin has about 380 square feet, with a large sofa, wide balcony and bathroom with two sinks, tub and separate shower. This cabin is among the larger accommodations, except for full-size suites or penthouses. In comparison, a standard exterior cabin is around 200 square feet. Overall, we found the cabin comfortable and well-maintained.
Staffing Ratio One observation was that the Holland America Zuiderdam staff to guest ratio is a little thin (reported to be around 1:3). Our room steward indicated he was assigned 32 cabins which seemed high to us. As a comparison, Princess Cruises has a reported 1:2.5 ratio, Viking Ocean has a reported 1:2 ratio, and Seabourn (a luxury Carnival cruise line) has a 1:1 ratio. Zuiderdam service staff were very busy - trying to keep up with many tasks. We observed that after guests departed a breakfast buffet table, the table could remain uncleared for a prolonged time (making finding a clean table difficult for new diners). The limited number of breakfast attendants were trying to dual task - taking and delivering beverage orders and clearing tables.
At-Sea Days With 15 at-sea days, there were many opportunities to attend a lecture on history, science and/or cultural themes as well as hands-on activities. Holland America did a great job offering a variety of content for guests. I attended several lectures but also enjoyed reading time and watching videos on my iPad.
All of our recent cruises have been on ships without interior cabins, We noticed that a high number of interior cabins may lead to seating contention in public spaces. That said, it is understandable that guests in interior cabins look forward to leaving their cabins whenever possible and enjoy seating in larger common areas of the ship. Guests in larger suites can always relax in their cabins or find a comfortable public area location early in the day.
We attended several lectures in the World Stage venue. This three-floor entertainment space was comfortable but tall structural columns hindered stage sighting. In addition, from third floor seating, a view of the upper section of the stage was largely obstructed by the structural frame of the deep stage. Placement of video screens could help alleviate stage sighting issues.
Dining on the Zuiderdam One practice we liked was that buffet selections were generally served by staff rather than guests serving themselves. This seems to help, to some degree, portion management and keeping the buffet area healthy. Meals in the Zuiderdam Dining Room offered a wide variety of selections. Meals were similar to what could be expected from a medium-range hotel restaurant. The meals featuring fish dishes and pasta were some of our favorites. Dining Room service seemed better organized than breakfast and lunch buffet dining. For most evenings, we were seated for dinner at 5pm and our appetizer and main course were served by 5:30pm.
35 Days and Laundry Due to the extended length of this cruise, many guests were retired (including us) as well as repeat Holland American cruisers (not us). This repeat experience was helpful as many returning Holland America guests qualified for free laundry - a nice benefit as there were no self-service laundry rooms. We enrolled into the optional laundry package ($367 for 35 days) which permitted us to submit one-bag of laundry per day. There was also a “wash and fold” option for guests to submit a single daily filled laundry bag for $40.
Excursions In general, there were many ship excursion choices at each port. We selected and paid in advance for our ship excursions. Typically, we register for excursions that start between 9 and 10am. We were surprised when checking our excursion times once on board the Zuiderdam, that a few were moved to 8am even though later start times were available. We were able to modify our excursion reservations to later times. A good recommendation is to confirm your excursion start times when you arrive. It is not unusual for individual excursion start times to change and your actual reservation time may not be moved near your original and preferred start time.
Upcoming Drydock The Zuiderdam was placed into service in 2002. It is scheduled for revitalization during 2027-2028. Cabins and public spaces reportedly will receive substantial attention. It would be great if the World Stage was also included in this work. For a 24 year old cruise ship, the Zuiderdam was in good shape though some areas, such as exterior automatic door mechanisms and teak promenade decking could benefit from additional attention.
