We were a group of three adults in two cabins: my parents (aged 70 and 64) and myself. My parents had cruised once before on the Norwegian Dawn and loved it. They were the ones who picked this cruise. My flight into Vancouver was the night before, due to the distance and lack of direct flights. I booked a hotel near the waterfront, took the Canada Line, and simply walked six or eight blocks to the dock in the morning, with my luggage. Coming back, I stayed closer to the airport, so I took my own luggage off the ship, hopped onto the Canada Line again, got off on Marine Drive, and trundled my salmon-stuffed suitcases a mile or so over to the hotel, which provided a free shuttle to the airport the next morning. As long as you're physically capable of lifting, carrying, and moving multiple suitcases quickly, this is a piece of cake especially with wheeled luggage. But I do not recommend it for anyone who uses a wheelchair. The curbs in Vancouver are extremely high, the sidewalks are often narrow, and it's hilly. Yet I spent perhaps CAD$13.75 on ground transportation, total, including generous tips to anyone who had to handle my luggage. There was about 100 pounds of it, including carry-on, after I'd committed the last smoked salmon run.

The windows on the Zaandam never seem to be cleaned on the outside. They wash the outside of the ship while they're in port, but not the windows or the lido cover. It rains most days in Alaska, but on clear port days there's no reason to not at least wipe down the outer windows in the public areas so that people can get a clear view of the fantastic scenery at least for a while.

The hallways and public areas tended to be very noisy, especially in the restaurants, which were always crowded and extremely noisy. There's always some canned music playing in the lido area, and the noise and acoustics were bad enough to make both my parents turn off their hearing aids. Conversation became almost impossible. I'm not a huge fan of standing in line, which was always necessary at the Rotterdam, but having to stand in line several times for just one meal at the lido buffet is tiresome. There was almost always a crush of people, and although the Club HAL program seemed to be attractive to people with kids, there was no game plan for dealing with children at mealtimes. So they tended to get lost in the lido buffet and panic. They would also fidget, shout, cry, and act out during the two-hour meals at the Rotterdam main dining room. I can't say I blame them: two hours at a table is far too much for a toddler. Also, at times I felt like shrieking myself. Read more