gbeer424
June 1st, 2006, 12:11 PM
let me start by saying this was my second overall cruise but its 20 years since the first one so one could argue i am pretty new to all this
first impression is the cruise was fabulous. there were few glitches (more on that later) but overall it would be hard to knock this cruise
FOOD
the food was great. never had one bad meal. we tried every variety from the lido to the dining room and always had exceptional service and great food. the one main letdown might be the deseert extravaganza that was anything but. i know its hard to knock dessert but in this case it was easy. there was no chessecake for one thing and none of the items presented were new. most had already been offered in the lido or the dining room. staying up late for that when the next days port was at 7am was also a letdown. dont get me wrong they tasted great there was just nothing extravagent about it.
dinner in the dining room was excellent. our 2 servers (anton and banu) were both exceptional and both readily deserved the extra tip i gave them at the end of the trip. food was great and well presented each night
DRESS CODE
since its always a hot topic i thought i would address the dress code in the dining room here. it was followed pretty closely. on formal nights i only saw one person on each of the 2 nights that did not at least wear a suit and tie. many tuxes were present. it was very nice
informal really has to be dropped by HAL as a night. no one knew what it meant. it was not explained in the daily program. i saw everything from tuxes to jeans. i wore a suit, no tie. but i spoke with numerous guests who had no idea what was meant by informal. most guests assumed it was another word for casual and thats how they dressed
irregardless nothing was ever said in the dining room. jeans were not only welcome on casual night they were encouraged especially since our port calls ran right into dinner time each night
all in all it did not detract from dinner and everyone got the same service. even on casual night the table next to us dressed up. they were both in their late 70's i would guess and both admitted they were too old to change. dressed up for dinner was how they cruised. more power to them
so long as they were comfortable. we were told numerous times during the cruise that it was our vacation and to dress how we felt.
oh yeah and the dress code did not carry on past dinner. i would say 65-70% of the ship changed after dinner and nothing was mentioned about it at all on the ship
PORTS OF CALL
all were very good and well organized with numerous activities
all but one of the ports calls began at 7am. i guess on most cruises that is pretty typical. it wasent a hardship per se but when your dealing with a 4 hour time change like i was the 7am port call was hard to deal with. but we still had plenty of time to enjoy each port so no quibbles really
once again cruisecritic.com does a phenominal job of correctly showing that stuff will be available to do in port for short excursions even if you dont book ahead. even in Juneau where 4 boats were in port. we still could have taken any kind of shore excursion we wanted booking right on dock and much cheaper than what we being offered on board the boat
anyone going to alaska needs to keep this in mind. while it might not always be the case i would feel pretty confident that one could do what they wanted when they wanted regardless of reservations. our tour guide in juneau did say that there were several dates in the summer when over 14000 people would be in port at the same time. on our day there was only 7000
SHOWS
all in all i thought the shows were pretty good. we had a comedian and a magician. the rest of the nights were taken up by the holland america hired singers who did shows. while they were not broadway they were not bad at all and every seat was full for the early show each night. the final night at sea was a karoke show involving guests on the ship. it sounded real corny when it was announced but it was great
we were told later that the singers were completing week 51 of a 52 week stint at sea and they were all ready to go home. but it didnt show on stage
GLITCHES
there really was only a couple. mostly we didnt like the way the last 24 hours was handled. Hubbard glacier was our last stop. we were supposed to be there from 7am to 11am. but we hightaled it out of the area at 930am and they scheduled the disembarkation talk for 1015 am to make sure we all left the deck. we were told that everything would run smoothly
the schedule for that day left much to be desired. we all had to be up very early as the first group was leaving the ship at 6am yet many events were scheduled very late anyway. the final and only show of the night was at 945 and the final bingo game was at 1015pm(didnt start until almost 1045). i had played bingo all week so i wasent passing on a chance at $2500+ but i dont think the schedule was fair
of course the last night comes the weekly fire alarm i had read so much about on HAL> and it comes at 345am
we were supposed to dock in seward at 7am but during the day on thursday i noticed the ship was moving and its fastest possible speed so i started asking some questions. all anyone would tell me at the time was they were trying to make port. well we made port allright. we made port at 4am
so very loud docking followed the 345am wake up call. it would take a while but i would finally find out why we had rushed later
the boat was broken into 20 groups and at first each group left exactly when they were told. we had booked our own stuff after the boat so we were in group 20 and we were told to expect to be off the boat at 830
until 8am everything ran smoothly then the announcements stopped. from 8am to 930 no one left the boat. we had been told in no uncertain terms that we had to be off the boat by 10am no matter what
at 930 i went to the front desk. we had scheduled a whale watching cruise for 1130 and now i was starting to worry. the front desk completely blew me off and told me to wait for my number
in desperation at 1010 i went to the gangway and said look, i dont know whats going on but you have to let us off. we have plans. so they relented and we got off. the girl from HAL who met us at the end of the gangway said there was a luggage problem (she didnt elaborate) and our luggage should be off shortly.
when we reached the terminal we found out we had been lied to, apparenlty for hours
there was a longshoreman problem and they were holding our luggage hostage and wanted more money to deliver our bags. the reason we got in port at 4am was seattle told the boat to get there and get the bags off before the longshoreman clocked in at 8am. they didnt make it. of course everyone who booked a post cruise trip with hal made it but the rest of were left hanging in the wind
let me suffice to say it got real ugly from there. police and state police came in. there was a near riot as one angry customer blew threw security running after a longshoreman who mistakenly appeared on the dock
i finally grabbed a few quiet minutes with the hotel manager of the statendam and finally the situation got resolved at least to the extent we got our bags
we made it to our excursion with 4 minutes to spare. had we not made it this would be a much hotter email
my main complaints are as follows:
HAL changed our schedule without explanation
Made no announcements on board that there was or could be a problem with our luggage
Never once apologized i had to wait 3+ hours for my luggage
so yes it was a very good cruise but it had a very ugly ending and i really dont like the way HAL conducted themselves that friday
Welcome to comments
first impression is the cruise was fabulous. there were few glitches (more on that later) but overall it would be hard to knock this cruise
FOOD
the food was great. never had one bad meal. we tried every variety from the lido to the dining room and always had exceptional service and great food. the one main letdown might be the deseert extravaganza that was anything but. i know its hard to knock dessert but in this case it was easy. there was no chessecake for one thing and none of the items presented were new. most had already been offered in the lido or the dining room. staying up late for that when the next days port was at 7am was also a letdown. dont get me wrong they tasted great there was just nothing extravagent about it.
dinner in the dining room was excellent. our 2 servers (anton and banu) were both exceptional and both readily deserved the extra tip i gave them at the end of the trip. food was great and well presented each night
DRESS CODE
since its always a hot topic i thought i would address the dress code in the dining room here. it was followed pretty closely. on formal nights i only saw one person on each of the 2 nights that did not at least wear a suit and tie. many tuxes were present. it was very nice
informal really has to be dropped by HAL as a night. no one knew what it meant. it was not explained in the daily program. i saw everything from tuxes to jeans. i wore a suit, no tie. but i spoke with numerous guests who had no idea what was meant by informal. most guests assumed it was another word for casual and thats how they dressed
irregardless nothing was ever said in the dining room. jeans were not only welcome on casual night they were encouraged especially since our port calls ran right into dinner time each night
all in all it did not detract from dinner and everyone got the same service. even on casual night the table next to us dressed up. they were both in their late 70's i would guess and both admitted they were too old to change. dressed up for dinner was how they cruised. more power to them
so long as they were comfortable. we were told numerous times during the cruise that it was our vacation and to dress how we felt.
oh yeah and the dress code did not carry on past dinner. i would say 65-70% of the ship changed after dinner and nothing was mentioned about it at all on the ship
PORTS OF CALL
all were very good and well organized with numerous activities
all but one of the ports calls began at 7am. i guess on most cruises that is pretty typical. it wasent a hardship per se but when your dealing with a 4 hour time change like i was the 7am port call was hard to deal with. but we still had plenty of time to enjoy each port so no quibbles really
once again cruisecritic.com does a phenominal job of correctly showing that stuff will be available to do in port for short excursions even if you dont book ahead. even in Juneau where 4 boats were in port. we still could have taken any kind of shore excursion we wanted booking right on dock and much cheaper than what we being offered on board the boat
anyone going to alaska needs to keep this in mind. while it might not always be the case i would feel pretty confident that one could do what they wanted when they wanted regardless of reservations. our tour guide in juneau did say that there were several dates in the summer when over 14000 people would be in port at the same time. on our day there was only 7000
SHOWS
all in all i thought the shows were pretty good. we had a comedian and a magician. the rest of the nights were taken up by the holland america hired singers who did shows. while they were not broadway they were not bad at all and every seat was full for the early show each night. the final night at sea was a karoke show involving guests on the ship. it sounded real corny when it was announced but it was great
we were told later that the singers were completing week 51 of a 52 week stint at sea and they were all ready to go home. but it didnt show on stage
GLITCHES
there really was only a couple. mostly we didnt like the way the last 24 hours was handled. Hubbard glacier was our last stop. we were supposed to be there from 7am to 11am. but we hightaled it out of the area at 930am and they scheduled the disembarkation talk for 1015 am to make sure we all left the deck. we were told that everything would run smoothly
the schedule for that day left much to be desired. we all had to be up very early as the first group was leaving the ship at 6am yet many events were scheduled very late anyway. the final and only show of the night was at 945 and the final bingo game was at 1015pm(didnt start until almost 1045). i had played bingo all week so i wasent passing on a chance at $2500+ but i dont think the schedule was fair
of course the last night comes the weekly fire alarm i had read so much about on HAL> and it comes at 345am
we were supposed to dock in seward at 7am but during the day on thursday i noticed the ship was moving and its fastest possible speed so i started asking some questions. all anyone would tell me at the time was they were trying to make port. well we made port allright. we made port at 4am
so very loud docking followed the 345am wake up call. it would take a while but i would finally find out why we had rushed later
the boat was broken into 20 groups and at first each group left exactly when they were told. we had booked our own stuff after the boat so we were in group 20 and we were told to expect to be off the boat at 830
until 8am everything ran smoothly then the announcements stopped. from 8am to 930 no one left the boat. we had been told in no uncertain terms that we had to be off the boat by 10am no matter what
at 930 i went to the front desk. we had scheduled a whale watching cruise for 1130 and now i was starting to worry. the front desk completely blew me off and told me to wait for my number
in desperation at 1010 i went to the gangway and said look, i dont know whats going on but you have to let us off. we have plans. so they relented and we got off. the girl from HAL who met us at the end of the gangway said there was a luggage problem (she didnt elaborate) and our luggage should be off shortly.
when we reached the terminal we found out we had been lied to, apparenlty for hours
there was a longshoreman problem and they were holding our luggage hostage and wanted more money to deliver our bags. the reason we got in port at 4am was seattle told the boat to get there and get the bags off before the longshoreman clocked in at 8am. they didnt make it. of course everyone who booked a post cruise trip with hal made it but the rest of were left hanging in the wind
let me suffice to say it got real ugly from there. police and state police came in. there was a near riot as one angry customer blew threw security running after a longshoreman who mistakenly appeared on the dock
i finally grabbed a few quiet minutes with the hotel manager of the statendam and finally the situation got resolved at least to the extent we got our bags
we made it to our excursion with 4 minutes to spare. had we not made it this would be a much hotter email
my main complaints are as follows:
HAL changed our schedule without explanation
Made no announcements on board that there was or could be a problem with our luggage
Never once apologized i had to wait 3+ hours for my luggage
so yes it was a very good cruise but it had a very ugly ending and i really dont like the way HAL conducted themselves that friday
Welcome to comments