Zuiderdam 10/24-11/3 2009 Long review - Page 4 - Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Forum, Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers

GeneK · 11-12-2009, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nealberk

And unlike many people, I have a habit of voicing my feelings everywhere I go. It is really fun at cruise shows.

LOL, tell it like it is, Neal. In all fairness to HAL, service has slipped on ALL the cruise lines. Only seasoned cruisers notice the difference in the service and quality. New cruisers that have only been cruising for 5 years or less, think the food and service are GREAT.

nealberk · 11-12-2009, 11:39 PM

That is so unfortunate. Even 5 years ago cruises were so much better. But with sky high fuel prices, the cruise lines have to cut somewhere.

Krazy Kruizers · 11-18-2009, 09:36 AM

Thanks Dobie for taking the time to write your review.

I always enjoy reading reviews and know exactly what is happening on a ship whether it is positive or negative. I appreciate people telling it like it is.

The Master Chef -- we did it 4 times years ago -- which was 3 times too many. The only thing different now is they also do the Baked Alaska then since this ship does it on the last night of the cruise.

The ship does have air coniditioning problems -- we also had no air from 2 PM on the first formal night until 4 AM the next morning. The second cruise the air conditioning went out a couple of times -- but thankfully for only short periods of time.

We had excellent waiters in the dining room. They had 22 people to take care of. Our orders came out all right -- don't know about the people at the other tables. There was one table for 2 where the people never seemed to like anything on the menu -- they were constantly calling the area captain over and having special meals made for them.

Sea Otter · 11-18-2009, 10:54 AM

Great review. I like to hear about the good and the bad.

Those air conditioning problems seem to plague Hal. I couldn't handle it.

The dining room service has been hit or miss for some time now.

hanna · 11-18-2009, 03:44 PM

Dobie, thanks for taking the time to do this for us. I would rather hear the truth than a "fluffed" up review.

dobie · 11-19-2009, 09:18 PM

Thank you all for the positive comments. I didn't know there were so many responses to this thread because I must have turned off the email notification, and I couldn't find the thread because it got moved. Now I'm with the program.

As far as going on HAL again, we'll see. It would have to be a really really good deal. We just booked our next cruise on Princess...we get pretty good perks since we're Elite. We were ready for a change and thought HAL would be a "step up", so gave up the perks to give it a try.

When we filled out the comment cards, we put comments in every single section, we gave specifics, and offered to speak with an HAL rep and to share my review/comments with them. Haven't heard a word. We always have a good time on cruises, we did this time as well, we were just disappointed with certain aspects.

To whomever asked about my asthma, yes I was on the Coral PC 4 or so years ago....you have a good memory. I've never had this problem with the humidity before, but I only developed asthma about 3 years ago after picking up a bug on an airplane and being hospitalized.

Thanks again for the comments!!

nealberk · 11-19-2009, 10:48 PM

Dobie, we did not hear back from HAL at all and I stressed that I wanted them to contact me with both an e-mail and a phone number.