Bruce Berman

Age: 51
Occupation: Financial Advisor
Number of Cruises: This was the first but won't be our last
Cruise Line: Holland America
Ship: Zuiderdam
Sailing Date: June 5th, 2004
Itinerary: Caribbean

Wow what a wonderful way to spend a vacation on a spectacular ship. This was our first cruise and I have always been apprehensive about cruising, my wife is prone to sea sickness and I'm a little claustrophobic so the last thing on our minds was a cruise. Yet we decide on this vacation at the last minute (only two weeks before we left) so we decided to give it a try. I went on the Internet and discovered a wealth of information concerning the different types ships and all the fun ports to explore, and I decided to make our decision based almost solely on price. We booked an SS suite on the Zuiderdam for the price of what most ships charged for an inside cabin..it was a great value. After I gave them my credit card # I started to read the reviews of the ship and boy did I start to worry, Everybody was complaining about something...it was so bad I was afraid to tell my wife or my friends what ship we were taking. Well guess what? All the bad reviews are wrong...yes it does take 45 minutes to get on board but for a week in paradise its well worth it. Our room was magnificent! Large King size bed, very large bathroom with two showers and a Jacuzzi bathtub on what a great balcony with two full sized lounge chairs, table and plenty of extra room. We slept with the door upon all week and woke up each morning with a view of another wonderful Island. The Stewart was great I would hire him for my company in a minute, he cleaned our room at least three times a day. The food is as good as any five star restaurant I have been to and dinner at the Odyssey room was even better.

We worked out at the great gym everyday and had a blast walking two miles around the deck each morning. I had heard many stories that Holland America is only for the old crowd but this was not the case at all. We our both 51 and I would guess this was the average age on this trip. I will admit this was not the cruise ship for my 20year old son or my 22 year old daughter but on this trip we left them at home. If your looking to fall back in love with someone again don't let any bad reviews chase you away from this ship. What a pleasure!

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