Ship:
The Zaandam is one of Holland America Line’s (HAL) smallest ships, built in 2000 it only has about 1400 passengers and 600 crew members. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that the larger cruise ships have – roller coasters, zip lines, bumper cars, ice rinks, etc. – but it very well laid out with comfortable lounges and bars, a casino, gym and spa, a Main Dining Room and specialty restaurants (Pinnacle and Canaletto), a large buffet restaurant (Lido Buffet), a large main pool (Lido - with a retractable roof) midships and a smaller pool (Seaview) at the back, a library and meeting rooms, and a large theatre at the front. The food is amazing and the service is outstanding – overall Zaandam makes for an enjoyable and pleasant cruise. We boarded Zaandam in San Diego – the whole boarding process took maybe 15 minutes from shuttle to accessing our cabin!!
We took a quick tour of the ship, we had previously been on Zaandam’s sister ship the Volendam so the layout was identical with the exception of the décor – different furniture, carpeting, artwork, etc. – and checked into our cabin at the stern of the ship, again the same cabin as on the Volendam. The ship had been decorated for Christmas: a large gingerbread village / train station in the upper atrium; trees and garlands around the ship; and decorations around the dining rooms and pool areas. On sea days we spent most of our time around the Seaview Pool, the casino, the Crowsnest at the front of the ship, or playing trivia at the Ocean Bar every night. We actually won 3 times at trivia with a perfect score and earned yellow wooden tulips as our prize 😊. We ate in the Main Dining Room every night with the exception of 3 specialty dinners that we had in Canaletto, Pinnacle, and Morimoto pop-up (also in Pinnacle).We met a lot of good people during the cruise and had a lot of fun while onboard Zaandam. The food and the service were outstanding throughout the cruise.