Zaandam in Vancouver

Holland America Zaandam began service in 2000. The ship was refurbished in 2018. This is one of Holland America’s smaller ships carrying a max of just 1432 passengers and 607 crew. It is one of the Rotterdam class, though the current Rotterdam is a newer and larger vessel as the one called Rotterdam that was similar to Zaandam has been retired and replaced. Holland America’s ships tend to be one of a long line of ships with the same name as each eventually gets replaced with a newer ship. Maybe there are only so many dam names to go around since all of their ship names end in dam. Holland America themselves refer to their fleet as the dam ships. On a previous cruise we even saw t-shirts in the onboard gift shop saying just that. All the Holland America ships that we’ve been on had paintings of various renditions of that ship on different levels of the stairway, but the current Zaandam is only the third ship to be named Zaandam so the remaining levels of that stairway had older versions of other ships – including one called Spaarndam, which is not a current ship and one I had never heard of previously. One called Spaarndam hit a mine and sank in 1922 so perhaps that’s why they chose not to use that name again. Veendam and Prinsendam are also missing from the current lineup.

bottom, middle, and top of the atrium centerpiece which looks like a giant pipe organ that rises 3 decks high and takes up the entire center of the atrium

Zaandam ship stats: ship’s registry – Netherlands, gross tonnage 61,396, length 781 feet, beam 105.8 feet, speed 23 knots, inside cabins 134, outside cabins 582.

promenade deck

Zaandam has 10 passenger decks, 5 of which have cabins. There are no cabins specified as balcony cabins on this ship. Balconies come only with suites though the vista suites are similar to mini suites found on other ships which is basically a slightly larger balcony cabin. There are also no cabins behind the lifeboats, though there are some with obstructed views on the lower promenade deck where the window is behind the metal structure on the outside of the ship. All oceanview cabins on the promenade deck have windows looking onto the outside promenade where people can walk around the entire ship. Most of those cabins have views to the sea across the promenade, but not direct views like the ocean view cabins on the two decks below with a window directly above the sea. The outside promenade goes all the way around the ship, making a nice place to go for a walk when weather permits.

stairway art of the Zaandam

The fourth and fifth decks have public areas with the ship’s shops, stage, dining room, casino, guest service areas and other public spaces. Decks 6 and 7 have suites and a few inside cabins, with all the larger suites found on deck 7. There are 3 ocean view cabins at the front of deck 6 and 2 at the back of deck 7. The ship’s bridge is at the front of deck 7.

main pool on the Lido deck

Deck 8 holds 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, the spa and fitness center, and the buffet. The main Lido pool area which includes the hot tubs, burger place, taco bar, pool bar, and seating areas has a sliding cover to keep that area sheltered and dry in inclement weather. The front of deck 9 is the Crow’s Nest, an observation lounge with views to the front and sides of the ship. The back of deck 9 has a sports court and the kid’s club area. The front and back sections of deck 9 are not connected inside the ship since the center portion of the ship only goes up to deck 8 other than an outside walkway. Deck 10 is just a very small section of deck called the Sky Deck. Since this ship only goes up 10 decks high it doesn’t even have to pretend not to have a deck 13. On American ships with 13 or more decks you never see an elevator button for deck 13 or any deck labeled as such so if you’re on deck 14 it’s really the 13th deck. Other countries that do not have superstitions about the number 13 do include that deck – like the MSC Meraviglia which has a deck 13, but no deck 17 even though the highest deck is labeled as deck 19 because 17 is considered the bad number in Italy.

guitars signed by famous musicians

Ship’s décor is a music theme and they do have several venues onboard for listening to live music as well as a variety of different instruments on display in public areas. Other entertainment includes shows, movies, lectures, and games. Food included in the cruise price is found in the dining room, buffet or poolside grill and taco bar. For an extra charge steak and seafood is available at the ship’s upscale restaurant, the Pinnacle Grill or Italian food at Canaletto. There are of course a number of bars to be found around the ship as well, and coffee bars in the Explorations Cafe on deck 5 and in the Crow’s Nest on deck 9.

duck in the bottom of a music themed table

There are lots of nooks and crannies and statues and things in which to hide ducks besides the commonly used flowerpots. Unfortunately on our cruise there were very few people hiding ducks and most of the passengers we talked to had never even heard of hiding ducks on cruise ships. Some of them sat out in plain sight for several days before anyone picked them up, especially at the beginning of the cruise.

Vista Suite

The cabin walls in Zaandam are only slightly magnetic. Enough to hold lightweight things like paper, but not enough for a magnetic hook to hold much of anything. The door is slightly more magnetic than the walls. A hook there will hold a very lightweight sweatshirt, but not a coat. Magnets will stick to the outside of the cabin doors if you have magnetic or lightweight decorations that you want to put there, but again it is not strong enough magnetically for magnets to hold up anything heavy.

The Explorer’s Lounge has games, a library, a computer room, and a coffee shop

Internet on ships has greatly improved since they are all getting upgraded to Starlink. It doesn’t rival shore internet yet, but is much faster and more functional than it used to be. Holland America’s app was quite functional. Everything worked most of the time, which is way better than the apps of other cruiselines we’ve sailed on recently. The chat feature even alerted people when someone sent them a new message, which you would think is a no-brainer, but we have been on ships where it did not.

wide open casino next to a bar

Apparently I’ve just always sailed on the right Holland America ships before. In recent years none of the ones we sailed on have had indoor smoking, or even allowed smoking anywhere except under a shelter on one side of the open back deck. After coming across the occasional person smoking in the Zaandam casino, hearing of it from others, and choking on the smoke it as it spread about the ship, I looked up their smoking policy. Turns out that keeping it limited to that one shelter on the back deck is not the policy on all of their ships, just a select few. According to the app, the Eurodam, Neiuw Amsterdam, Noordam, Oosterdam, Westerdam, and Zuiderdam only allow smoking outside on the back deck near the Seaview bar. The Konningsdam, Neiuw Stattendam, Rotterdam, Volendam, and Zaandam also allow active players to smoke in designated areas of the casino. Online after listing things the same way the app does, it then adds the Eurodam in its own space saying casino smoking is allowed, contradicting what the app says about that ship.

the seaview pool on the back deck has cow decorations

There weren’t a lot of people smoking in the Zaandam’s casino, but it only took one for smoke to spread a long way. Not long before the cruise I had just recommended Holland America to some relatives because of the no indoor smoking, thinking that applied to all of their ships so I gave them a bum steer after finding out it does not.

dining room

We had one night sailing through rough waters. Cruise ships these days have pretty good stabilizers that reduce the motion you would otherwise feel, but various things around the room did a lot of creaking that night so it was a bit noisy. I’ve never had any issues with seasickness on a cruise ship even though I get motion sickness sometimes on other things and have been seasick on smaller boats before. Those who are bothered by the motion can get seasick pills from guest services if needed.

75% off sale at the gift shop

The weather was not cooperative, raining nearly the whole time we were on this cruise, which was Zaandam’s end of the season cruise to Alaska. We still had fun though. I’ve never not had fun on a cruise. It’s what you make of it. You can choose to gripe about the weather and not do anything in port, or you can bring raingear or an umbrella. I’d recommend rain gear. Umbrellas are good for light rain or to bring along in case of a shower, but for constant heavy rain good rain gear can’t be beat. Sailing on the last cruise of the season had its advantages in everything Alaska related being 75% off in the gift shop – which included some really good raincoats. I bought one there that kept me totally dry, which the one I had brought from home would not have as heavy as the rain was at times. The gift shop also had ship model Christmas tree ornaments of the Zaandam, something that is often hard to find when not sailing close to Christmas.

Zaandam Christmas ornament

When cruising through scenic areas like glaciers on Alaska cruises Holland America allows passengers out on the open front bow. Additional smaller open areas on some of the decks above will usually be open for scenic sailing as well. Zaandam had just one open bow area above the main bow, accessed from the port side of deck 6. This area was open throughout the cruise rather than only when the main bow was open.

photo of the bowcam channel view in Endicott Arm with people on the upper and lower bows

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