Fabian & Carol Contreras

Age: 62 & 57
Occupation: retired
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Holland
Ship: Zuiderdam
Sailing Date: September 11th, 2004
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean

My husband & I went on this cruise because it was our 35th wedding anniversary. We informed Holland before we left home about that and they forgot. However, our suite cabin was fabulous! More room than we needed, actually. We got so much enjoyment from the verandah. We would never go on another cruise without getting a verandah! We ate room service breakfast out there almost every day, wearing our plush terry robes. Hubby sat on a tube of suntan lotion, getting it on his pants and the bed. Our room steward came and got both, and when we came back from dinner, a new bedspread was on the bed and his pants were cleaned for only $4. The little room safe came in handy for our camera when it wasn't needed. We didn't care for the Dutch meal, but I've heard we weren't alone and Holland will be changing that. The Lido restaurants were nice, but I sure could have used some ordinary French Dressing on my salads. They only offered it one time the whole week. It's my favorite and I intend to take a few individual packets with me next time. Ahhh...and then there was room service. What a delight! We could stay late at the casino, wander about the ship, and then end up in our room to order burgers. That was something we enjoyed...simple but fun. We aren't a couple who needs lots of fancy stuff to spoil us. What we love is being waited on and we got plenty of that. We never once felt the need to complain about that. When the servers found out that the night before had been our anniversary, they were mortified and tried to make it up to us the next day. Since there were a lot of hurricanes last year about that time, we missed out on Half Moon Cay. I was really looking forward to going there. But we did get to go to St Maartens, Tortola (wow.. what a buggy ride!), and Bahamas. I liked the Straw Market and everyone there was very anxious to make a sale. But I held firm and only bought what I wanted. We had drinks and chips/salsa at Senor Frogs and the music and mood there was very tropical and fun. The captain was very good about keeping us informed about the hurricanes and we only had rough seas one night. I got a little seasick and those pills don't help! I will make sure I take the patch with me next time. Everyone said they work better. I took someone's advice and took some wire coathangers with us. I was glad I did. We only had a few in the closets and they definitely wouldn't have been enough. I wonder if you can ask for more? Since I brought some, I didn't need to ask. Then when we left, I just left the hangers there. We got our photo taken numerous times, but since I'm not particularly fond of my own photos, we declined most of them. Can't anyone make me look 20 and gorgeous?? Sigh...

But all in all, we had a great time and definitely would do it again. I'm curious about other cruise lines, but for now, will stick with Holland. Does being a repeat cruiser with any one line really give you a good discount?
 

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