Zaandam in Vancouver

There’s always something to do on a cruise ship. Even a smaller ship like Holland America Zaandam that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the mega ships still has plenty to do. Some people are quite capable of keeping themselves amused while others take advantage of the activities the ship has to offer.

main Lido pool with sliding cover open

Even a small ship like the Zaandam has some built-in things people can do. It has pools, hot tubs, a library with books and games, ping-pong tables, deck chairs, the Crows Nest observation lounge and other places with views, and a promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship.

sports court

It also had a sports court with basketball and pickleball. There’s a casino too and some bars. Most things at the gym are free to use, though there are classes that cost extra. The ship has a spa too, but other than things like sample massages or a boarding day spa tour everything there costs extra.

hiding ducks for other people to find is a thing on cruise ships

People can bring ducks to hide and make their own fun hiding them. It’s also fun to find them if anyone else brought some to hide. Most ducks have a tag that either says conquackulations or oh what luck you found a duck. The finder can either keep or re-hide the duck.

chairs by windows

Movies and shows are available on the stateroom TV. It also has a bow channel if you want to see where the ship is going from the comfort of your own stateroom. Otherwise you can get a great forward view from inside at the Crows Nest or outside on the little open bow accessed from the port side of deck 6 that is open even when the main bow is not. There were also places with window seating on the sides of the ship. Most of the time we were sailing through scenic areas, and sometimes there was wildlife to see as well – which included whales, orcas, porpoises, and of course birds.

sale table at one of the ship’s shops

The ship’s shops are open when it is out to sea. There are shops on 2 different decks on the Zaandam. Exploring the ship is fun too. Even the hallways on the decks that just have passenger cabins have a different sort of artwork on each deck. There is all sorts of other artwork around the ship including the enormous centerpiece in the atrium that looks like a gigantic pipe organ.

one of the kid’s club rooms

There are kid’s club spaces for several different age groups.

Dutch Tea

Eating is always a good part of any cruise, and the Zaandam had good food. Besides meals they also had afternoon tea in the dining room each day. The ship also had a couple of coffee bars besides the regular bars.

movie theater

The ship had a little movie theater separate from the main theater. The movie theater had several showtimes for a movie each day.

production show in the main theater

The main theater had two performances of the whatever the show was for that evening each night. Sometimes it was production shows by the ship’s cast and other nights they had guest performers. During the daytime the theater had port talks or lectures.

bar with a piano

Some of the bars had musicians playing each evening.

scenery in Endicott Arm

Whether we were sailing through scenic areas or not (mostly we were) there were also quite a variety of scheduled activities each day. Zaandam still left a paper copy of the next day’s schedule in the cabin each evening, and it was also available on the app. Their app actually worked most of the time, which is quite an improvement over a lot of ships we’ve been on where the app often had issues.

ping pong tables on the Lido deck

Daily scheduled activities included things like dance classes, origami folding, adult coloring, calligraphy classes, lectures & port talks, Tai Chi, yoga, mahjong, bridge, and trivia. Sometimes they had deck games like cornhole or ladderball. Dancing was often an option in the evening, and each morning the schedule included an option to walk a mile around the ship with a group.

gym

There were also one-time things on the daily program that would only be there just for that day – like sailing through the inside passage or down Endicott Arm to a glacier. Other one-time things included a 5-mile walk for a cause charity walk, an Alaska brunch in the dining room one morning, and chocolate surprise one evening. Another passenger kept telling people that chocolate surprise was just the gift shop trying to sell chocolate diamonds, but that person was quite wrong. Chocolate surprise was actually waiters wandering around deck 5 with trays of various different chocolate treats to hand out to anyone who wanted them. We found the best treats with a couple waiters standing outside the theater waiting for people to come out when the show ended. They had better stuff to offer than the ones wandering around the deck had.

part of the library in the Explorer’s Lounge

It’s always nice to sit somewhere near a window with a good book where you can read and watch the scenery go by. I have the kindle app in my phone so I always have lots of books without actually bringing any, but for those who didn’t bring their own they had a lot of them in the library. It was in the Explorer’s Lounge, which also had view seating, a computer room, a coffee bar, lots of games, and tables where people could spread out the games or puzzles which were also available there.

puzzle in progress on a table in the Explorer’s Lounge

One nice thing about cruises is the option to do as much or as little as you want. If you just want to relax and do nothing you can, but if you want to fill your whole day with activities you can do that too. Or some of each.

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