My Holland America Fam Cruise

Holland America - m/s Zuiderdam - New England to Canada - June 21-28, 2025On June 21st, I set sail on a Fam Trip hosted by TLN & Holland America.  Andrew Davis from HAL & Lisa Kinney from TLN accompanied us and organized our training sessions, meet and greets and dinners.  Approximately 35 agents attended from many different areas of the US. The Zuiderdam is an older ship built in 2002, and refurbished in 2017.  It is considered mid-size, with passenger capacity at just under 2000.  It has 985 cabins, 11 passenger decks of which 7 feature cabins.  I was assigned a Veranda Balcony Cabin, which provided a beautiful scenic view throughout our cruise.  Generally the cabins are considered well-designed with lots of storage, even if on the somewhat smaller side. The ship offers both indoor (with a retractable roof) and outdoor pools, which is a great perk for cruises with potentially cooler weather in New England and Canada.The Dining on the Zuiderdam offers the Lido buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  For breakfast, omelet stations and crepe stations, a yogurt bar, as well as the full buffet featuring eggs, bacon, rolls, etc. - all the typical breakfast amenities.  Lunch and dinner offered a wide variety of food; we really enjoyed the salad bar at lunch.  The wait for seating and food in the Lido could take a bit long if you went during the busy hours.  We liked that the buffet was not self-serve.  Having staff serve the buffet food added an extra sterile & cleanliness factor for us.  For a more formal dining experience, the Main Dining Room is also available for all three meals.  There are two assigned times in the Main Dining room or you can opt for any time dining whenever you’d like.  There are 2 specialty restaurants on the ship, the Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto.  There is also an occasional popup asian inspired/sushi restaurant, Morimoto’s.  Room service is available 24/7 and is complimentary (but also has some a la carte options).  There are several bars on the ship, and many are music-focused.  There is the Rolling Stone Lounge, the Billboard Lounge, Ocean Bar, Pinnacle Bar, Gallery Bar, to name a few.  There is a small casino that is non-smoking and nicely it is not the focus of the ship like some other cruise lines.  Because Holland America is of Dutch Heritage, there is an Orange party, as well as a Royal Dutch Tea.  Also of note was the “Cake Me Away” and the chocolate party.  Our Port stops included Portland Maine, Nova Scotia ports - Halifax, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island & Sydney with disembarkation in Quebec City.  Many guests were staying on board for a back to back cruise.  We booked an excursion in each stop (except for Portland as we’d been there before).  Who would this cruise be best for?  For clients with children, there is a kids club, but the kids may miss things like the big water slides, mini golf etc. However, if your client is looking for a more “relaxed” vibe and a smaller ship, I would definitely recommend Holland America.  Some highlights for us were the selection of bars,  dining, game room & library.  The tours were excellent.   One of the biggest highlights was the amazing staff!  We found all of the staff super friendly, helpful and just wonderful overall!  The ship  does not have all the bells and whistles that a ship like the Icon or Utopia have, but we actually enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere.  I would absolutely sail on Holland America again, especially for a destination like Alaska.