Zaandam Vista Suite

Vista Suites on the Zaandam are comparable to what is typically called mini suites on most ships. Zaandam does not have balcony cabins so the only way to have a balcony is in a suite which makes the Vista suites the balcony cabins of that ship. They are larger than the ship’s inside or oceanview cabins as well as slightly larger than most standard balcony cabins on ships that have them.

balcony with a view of Canada Place while the ship was docked in Vancouver

The balcony is about twice the size of the veranda on most ship’s standard balcony cabins. It came equipped with 2 chairs with footstools that slip under the chair when not in use and a small table.

jetted tub in the bathroom

The bathroom is equipped with a jetted tub. While few cruise ships have bathtubs anywhere other than suites, Holland America has them in everything from ocean view and above and suites have jetted tubs. The bathroom also has the standard 3 shelves for storing things and a row of pegs on the inside of the door to hang things on. The tub has separate dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, and bodywash and there’s dispensers for both soap and hand lotion by the sink.

row of closets by the room entrance

The vista suite has lots of storage space. It has 4 closets, two with hanging bars at the top and 2 with shelves. One of those also has a low hanging bar and one of the ones with a top bar also has some optional fold-down shelves. There were enough hangers already in our cabin that we didn’t need to ask for more, which is quite rare on a cruise ship. One of the closets had bathrobes on a shelf, something we often have to ask for. The desk area has 3 sets of 3 drawers and the nightstands have 2 drawers each.

desk in the vista suite

The big drawers under the ends of the beds only had a tiny bit of stuff in them rather than being full of spare bedding as they sometimes are – at least at the beginning of the cruise. Later the steward had more stuff in one of them. A lot of the ships we’ve been on recently have had those big drawers at the ends of the beds, but the stewards nearly always have stuff in them so they rarely ever count for passenger storage space. There’s still room under the bed for luggage storage even with that drawer taking up a lot of the underbed space. There’s also a couple shelves above the desk. Suites on the Zaandam also come equipped with a set of binoculars, which can come in handy for wildlife spotting on an Alaskan cruise.

living room area

Besides the bed, which can be set up as 1 queen or 2 twins, the room has a couch a table, and a small refrigerator. Upon arrival the refrigerator is set up as a mini bar. If you don’t want to buy those things you can ask the steward to remove them. Which is always a good idea since they want a fortune for each tiny thing. Better to have empty space in the refrigerator so you can put things you want there.

vista suite

There are some hooks on the wall which is nice for hanging coats, especially since the walls on this ship are too magnetically weak to add magnetic hooks. A magnetic hook will stay on the wall by itself, but they just slide down the wall as soon as you hang anything on them. Even on the door a magnetic hook could only hold very lightweight items. The walls were magnetic enough to hold up paper for anyone who wants to post the itinerary or something on the wall. The old printed excursion tickets would have been too heavy to hang on Zaandam’s wall, but on this cruise the excursion tickets were digital in the app – and you didn’t even need that to check in for an excursion because they could just scan your key card instead. There were no paper reminders of excursions provided so unless you printed out the itinerary that included them before leaving home it was all digital in the app, including excursion reminders.

the stewards made different towel animals each day including this bear

The TV on the wall across from the bed was somewhat smaller than the wooden frame it hung in, but big enough. The safety video for the muster drill kept saying text this and text that, but texting things was not actually required so that was probably old information that had not been updated or removed. The safety video had to be played through to the end on boarding day to unlock the TV and make any other programming available.

Zaandam in Vancouver

Various things said to go report to your muster station to have your card scanned as soon as possible after boarding, but they did not actually have anyone at those stations to scan cards until they announced for everyone to go there when it was getting close to all-aboard time. Muster stations on this ship are out at the lifeboats, whichever one is assigned to your cabin. Information posted on the inside of the door says where the muster station is and maps out routes to get there.

a sinking ship might not be the best art choice for a cruise ship

The artwork in our cabin was a painting of a sinking ship – not exactly the best art choice for a cruise ship! Initially we thought there were no USB ports in the room, but then I found one hiding on the backside of the base of a lamp. The cabin had 3 outlets, which is 3 times better than the single one found in some older ships. With a 3-outlet plug and a clock with 2 USB ports we extended that a bit and had enough places to plug things in.

the stewards got a towel owl and a couple ducks along with their tip

If you happen to stay in Vista Suite 6147 on the Zaandam I hid a little stealth black duck behind the TV that blends in well enough that it isn’t likely to get found by anyone who doesn’t know to look for it there unless someone repairs or replaces the TV or is a really thorough duck searcher. I haven’t found a duck in any of the cabins we’ve stayed in yet, but usually leave a couple for future guests somewhere the steward isn’t likely to look. I also leave one for the steward, but that’s out in plain sight with the tip. We left two for the stewards on this ship since they worked in pairs. Also a towel owl, which is one I commonly leave for stewards because it’s my own creation so not one that they make, or at least not that I’ve seen so far. It’s a pretty easy one though so once they’ve seen it they might start making them. Possibly some already have.

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