ryansmemom
December 26th, 2004, 08:58 PM
Our journey began with a three day pre-cruise stay in San Diego. We were booked into the Manchester-Hyatt by Holland America and we were very impressed with the hotel. Unfortunatly, Southern California did not live up to it's reputation regarding the weather and it was chilly and it rained almost continuiously during our stay. However, this afforded us the opportunity to try out room service at the hotel, which was excellent. I would recommend it. The hotel concierge also suggested some excellent restaurants.
We had originally planned to use our HAL transfers to the pier on Monday morning, however, when we discovered that the arrangements included a 3 to four hour city tour, we elected to opt out and make our own arrangements. The main reason we chose to arrive 3 days early was so that I could recover from the cross country flight and a 3-4 hour city tour would have negated the effects of my rest. We contacted the limo driver who had picked us up at the airport and he drove us to the pier Little did we know at the time that this would be one of the best decisions we could have made.
Embarkation was a mess. As we drove up, we saw a huge line of people waiting at the curb. These were just the people trying to get on the pier. We only got up close to the tent because of the persistance of our driver who refused to stop and open the door until he was right at the entrance of the tent. Once out of the limo, the security guard asked for our ID and let us pass. We were then stopped by an abrupt, rude and insistent "Red Coat". I was in my wheel chair with our very heavy carry on on my lap. We had our documents in hand. She would not let us in until we filled out our credit card registration, on the spot. We fumbled through that. Then we had to argue because we wanted to check in at the suite check in desk because the line was shorter. The "Red Coat" wanted us to register at the Handicapped desk. Interestingly, the one person in front of us in line was very slow to check in because he was slowly filling in his paperwork!
After checking in and having our picture taken, we boarded the ship. We used the crew entrance on B deck because to use the entrance on Main Deck required climbing up quite a few steps. Anyone not in a wheel chair was required to use the Main Deck entry, regardless of their health status. This included people using canes or oxygen.
We were told that a report was sent to Seattle regarding this debacle of an embarkation. We did speak to the Hotel Manager at length about it and he asked us to write to the VP of Customer Relations in Seattle as well. He said that there were many reasons he could give us that would explain why this disaster occured, but he would not bother, because it should not have happened and the fact that it did was unacceptable.
Once we were aboard, however, we were home. We were back to the Holland America we have come to expect.
The Statendam is a beautiful ship. Obviously, she is not brand new. She is going in for a major overhaul in a few months and the wear and tear of thousand of people using her shows. But, despite her worn fabrics and carpets, her brass shines and wood surfaces gleam. She is obviously lovingly maintained. Her crew seems happy and they do work very hard. We met a lovely bar server we had known on the Rotterdam and she told us this is a good ship. The Hotel Manager does a daily inspection at 5AM and everything must be "ship shape" without so much as a name tag out of place. Are things perfect? No. This is a small city. Do things break? Yes. These things happen in my small home with just my family. One thing that really stood out for me was that the people working on this ship really work hard to make everyone of their guests happy and to make their cruise as perfect as possible. Oh, and one other thing, not one crew member seemed to be looking for a tip.
To be continued
Linda
We had originally planned to use our HAL transfers to the pier on Monday morning, however, when we discovered that the arrangements included a 3 to four hour city tour, we elected to opt out and make our own arrangements. The main reason we chose to arrive 3 days early was so that I could recover from the cross country flight and a 3-4 hour city tour would have negated the effects of my rest. We contacted the limo driver who had picked us up at the airport and he drove us to the pier Little did we know at the time that this would be one of the best decisions we could have made.
Embarkation was a mess. As we drove up, we saw a huge line of people waiting at the curb. These were just the people trying to get on the pier. We only got up close to the tent because of the persistance of our driver who refused to stop and open the door until he was right at the entrance of the tent. Once out of the limo, the security guard asked for our ID and let us pass. We were then stopped by an abrupt, rude and insistent "Red Coat". I was in my wheel chair with our very heavy carry on on my lap. We had our documents in hand. She would not let us in until we filled out our credit card registration, on the spot. We fumbled through that. Then we had to argue because we wanted to check in at the suite check in desk because the line was shorter. The "Red Coat" wanted us to register at the Handicapped desk. Interestingly, the one person in front of us in line was very slow to check in because he was slowly filling in his paperwork!
After checking in and having our picture taken, we boarded the ship. We used the crew entrance on B deck because to use the entrance on Main Deck required climbing up quite a few steps. Anyone not in a wheel chair was required to use the Main Deck entry, regardless of their health status. This included people using canes or oxygen.
We were told that a report was sent to Seattle regarding this debacle of an embarkation. We did speak to the Hotel Manager at length about it and he asked us to write to the VP of Customer Relations in Seattle as well. He said that there were many reasons he could give us that would explain why this disaster occured, but he would not bother, because it should not have happened and the fact that it did was unacceptable.
Once we were aboard, however, we were home. We were back to the Holland America we have come to expect.
The Statendam is a beautiful ship. Obviously, she is not brand new. She is going in for a major overhaul in a few months and the wear and tear of thousand of people using her shows. But, despite her worn fabrics and carpets, her brass shines and wood surfaces gleam. She is obviously lovingly maintained. Her crew seems happy and they do work very hard. We met a lovely bar server we had known on the Rotterdam and she told us this is a good ship. The Hotel Manager does a daily inspection at 5AM and everything must be "ship shape" without so much as a name tag out of place. Are things perfect? No. This is a small city. Do things break? Yes. These things happen in my small home with just my family. One thing that really stood out for me was that the people working on this ship really work hard to make everyone of their guests happy and to make their cruise as perfect as possible. Oh, and one other thing, not one crew member seemed to be looking for a tip.
To be continued
Linda