Zuiderdam: Sanitation Record & Health Report

Let's address the elephant in the buffet line: a 2002-built Vista-class ship posting a 91 on its latest inspection sounds like a "well, it's fine" number, and honestly, it is. Zuiderdam cleared its February 27, 2026 inspection with a 91 — passing, comfortably, with room to spare above the 86 cutoff. But context matters, and the honest context here is that 91 sits meaningfully below the fleet's latest-score average of 96.7 and its median of 98. So this isn't a horror story, it's a solidly average showing on a ship that's had exactly one inspection on the books, which means we're working with a single data point dressed up as a track record. All-time average, five-year average, highest, lowest — they're all the same 91, because there's only one number to average. Treat that as "decent first impression," not "proven performer."

Where Zuiderdam actually flexes is the galley: a Food Safety Score of 100.0 and a "Spotless Galley" grade is the kind of stat that should get top billing, because it means whatever knocked a few points off elsewhere on the ship, food handling was not the culprit. That's not nothing on a 23-plus-year-old vessel that got a refurbishment as recently as 2025 — a refit that, frankly, this ship earns some credit for actually using well. As for outbreaks, we can't tell you Zuiderdam has a clean record here, because the CDC outbreak data is currently unreachable — that's a gap in our sources, not a verdict on the ship, so file it under "unknown" rather than "fine."

Who it's for: travelers who want classic Holland America pacing — smaller-ship scale at 1,970 passengers, a crew-to-guest ratio that skews attentive, and a spotless kitchen record — and who don't need a decade of inspection history to feel reassured by a single strong outing. It's a reasonable pick sailing out of Miami, Amsterdam, or San Diego if the itinerary and cruise line style are what you're after. Who should skip it: anyone who obsesses over CDC score rankings and wants to see a ship consistently beating the fleet average rather than landing squarely in the middle of the pack with a one-inspection sample size — for those travelers, there are Vista-class fleetmates and other ships with deeper, stronger track records worth comparing against first.