codyody
September 17th, 2007, 08:01 PM
I received an email that it was posted today (shocking to be so quick). Ruth, I am sorry I am too lazy to break it up; it took two hours to compose and, well, I am lazy. Prescottbob; I apologize in advance, I agree about brevity but wasn't able to comply this time. Instead I just left some things out. Here goes:
This was our first cruise; it was a gift to my husband for his 50th birthday. We have both traveled often for business and pleasure, but rarely together and never on a ship. We were a little apprehensive, but were sure we would enjoy the scenery.
I am a travel-research nerd. We live in a small town and have not found a local travel agent having direct experience in the areas we wish to travel. We used our Disney timeshare points for the basic cruise; this meant that Disney was our travel agent. They do not give much input, but will contact the cruise line with any questions you have. I include this so that I can say ALL the information I used to make decisions about the cruise I chose came from CruiseCritic and books recommended here.
I want to say this now for the people who cannot read this lengthy missive; the strength of Holland America is its staff. There is no question about this. Every staff member we encountered was spectacular and every HAL cruiser I’ve met agrees.
I paid to upgrade from the standard outside cabin to an SS category, the highest category offered thru Disney. I chose the Zuiderdam because of the itinerary, Glacier Bay with Tracy Arm roundtrip from Vancouver. My husband wanted to see the land of Alaska; glaciers, mountains, inlets, etc. Wildlife would be a bonus, but was not important to him. This turned out to be a good thing because he does not have the patience (or luck) to spot wildlife.
We traveled to Vancouver a day early, staying at the Marriott Pinnacle in one of the “19” rooms suggested by other posters. We watched seaplanes land and take off from our room…wonderful! We walked to Canada Place the afternoon we arrived and enjoyed watching 2 other ships’ passengers participate in the safety drill, grinning from ear to ear thinking, “tomorrow that will be us!” I had plans for a lovely dinner out but we were too tired and keyed-up to enjoy it, so we had room service and fell asleep.
Embarkation was a wonder! As with many things on this trip, I had read of some problems in this area, but we had none. These guys must do this for a living! While we did not move quickly thru the lines, we did keep moving; what more could you ask? We arrived at Canada Place at 12:15 and were on board by 1:15. During this time the upgrade fairy stopped by and we were thrilled to find that we were assigned to a suite on the Rotterdam Deck. I knew we could drop off our carryons at the Neptune Lounge (all that research really paid off in so many ways); after doing that, we walked to the Lido. As we wandered marveling at all the food, the announcement was made that we could go to our cabins. Hmm…food…cabin…we went to the cabin of course.
Our cabin steward, and new best friend, Supri greeted us moments after we arrived. I explained the change in cabin numbers; Supri set off to rescue our luggage from the Navigation Deck. Almost like magic, he brought one piece at a time, with just enough time between to unpack. At this point we realized the aforementioned fairy was smart; we were already too spoiled to ever go back.
I had arranged for a Renewal of Vows package and 3 shore excursions on line. The information about the excursions, and the flowers (part of the ROV package) were in the cabin when we arrived. January and Carlo in the Neptune Lounge made sure the rest of the package was assigned to our new cabin. This was more challenging than you might expect since everything else seemed so easy (I know better).
We never did eat lunch. By the time we wandered the ship, checked on our table assignments, drilled for safety and attended the sailaway party, it was too close to our 7:45 dinner time. We put on clean clothes and took a glass elevator to the 3rd deck for dinner. Here may be a good place to note that it was our experience the glass elevators came much more quickly when called than the main elevators. Also, try as I might, they moved too quickly for me to see what was going on on any balconies. I mention this because some people ask about deck privacy near these elevators. I think you’re safe.
Time to meet our dinner companions…there were six of us. Unfortunately, I could not understand one of the gentlemen at all. It was a combination of his accent (Yorkshire) and mine (southern, y’all). He and his wife had originally wanted early seating and were changed the next night, to be replaced by another couple who envied our wake-overlooking table. Now everyone could communicate. I have only great things to say about the food in the dining room. There were plenty of options and the portions were not too large. If you wanted another serving, you would get it, but if you took an ill-advised chance on a dish, you didn’t feel wasteful. 5 of the 6 of us ordered the Escargot and it was the BEST. You should have seen my husband’s face at his first bite…priceless! Our dining and wine stewards were wonderful. After dinner we returned to our cabin and I fell asleep calculating how many $$ I would have to save each month to be able to cruise in the style to which we had so quickly become accustomed.
We awoke to the views we had anticipated; nothing else can be said but, Beautiful! We were also happy to realize we were no seasick. Another concern come to naught.
As to a few other concerns I had from reviews and posts I had read –
1. I have an MFA in sculpture; I say this to have people understand I have strong opinions about what I see. I did not find the Zuiderdam gaudy. This had really worried me. There is a lot of very warm color, but, in my strong opinion, it did not call attention to itself. I also appreciated some of the chairs as art – my favorite was a metallic-leather overstuffed very traditionally styled chair in the Oak Room. Fit for a King, for sure – made me smile very broadly! And the Venetian figures were very pleasant.
2. The children I saw were very well behaved.
3. We did not find the ship too big. I’m actually glad it was this size because walking just to get from place to place allowed us to arrive home with no weight gain.
4. Photographers were not always in our face; a simple, “No, thank you” worked wonders.
5. The age demographic was just fine. Probably 10% were younger than we, and 10% were over 75. The rest were in between.
I had met two lovely ladies on our rollcall; we planned a cabin crawl for Sunday afternoon. I arrived with the bad news (sorry, we won’t be able to see that odd balcony in our assigned cabin) and the good news (fairy-wise). I swear we almost knocked on the door of 8094 to see if the occupants wanted to join the crawl so we could see the balcony! We did not, but discussed it several times during the week as we ran into each other, sometimes with regret. Our three extended families enjoyed meeting each other and it was lots of fun to encounter new friends in surprising places and cities. We also became friends with two of our dinner tablemates and I hope to continue to keep in touch with all of our new friends.
Monday we cruised Tracy Arm (again, beautiful) and had our first excursion scheduled. We were to meet at the pier for the Mendenhall Lake Native Canoe event. Unfortunately, one of the excursion operators’ busses was in an accident early in the day. Four of us volunteered to wait for an already-ordered taxi while the rest of the group proceeded. For 45 minutes we watched the taxi (pointed out by the transportation coordinator) pass us by, first one way, then, 10 minutes later, the other way. At least 4 times. At first it was amusing but, as dusk was coming, we asked about a refund (some of the group that had gone ahead were a little grumbly; I did not want to be the reason they had to wait any longer!) A refund was cheerfully agreed to and we went shopping! I had read that in September everything is on sale and this was true. On our Glacier Bay day about 25% of passengers were wearing very similar $15.00 jackets…mine was pink, my husband’s khaki. Most were slicker-yellow and blue. I met our neighbor after noticing her pink sleeve matched mine; what a conversation starter!
The sun rarely shone on our Glacier Bay day, but we were able to get closer to Margerie than the Zuiderdam had been able to all season. My pink-sleeved neighbor asked if I was watching the seals. I replied I had heard the Ranger note them but I didn’t know where to look. HA! She said; neither did she until the next balcony pointed out that all the brown dots were seals. Sure enough, there were hundreds! DO NOT FORGET binoculars. The seals were obvious enough that even my husband saw them. The day was wonderful. We spent time on our balcony and on deck. If wildlife is imperative, you must spend time on deck.
I feel the need to wrap this up, so, in short:
1. The Renewal of Vows package is fantastic.
2. The White Pass & Yukon RR excursion is worth it; I suggest you see the movie at the National Park Service first in case, as we did, have a car full of fun-loving Aussies.
3. Of 1850 passengers, 800 were from Australia. I love these folks; they are great travelers. Wherever I’ve been, there are Aussies. Aussie Aussie Aussie OyOyOY.
4. I had scheduled the Snorkeling excursion in Ketchikan, but, because there were not enough participants, it was cancelled. This was probably good because, by Ketchikan, we were TIRED.
5. Our second formal night the ship was literally rocking. This bothered about a third of the passengers but, thankfully, not us. Hello, transatlantic cruise.
This trip will go down in history as one of the luckiest; our flight arrived 20 minutes early, we met amazing folks and dear husband won a Blackjack AND Texas Hold’em Tournament. TWO! The casino was not as kind to me or to him when he was betting his own $$. We still are ahead. Well, since it was his birthday, HE is ahead. And. Of course, don’t forget the upgrade fairy. Yes, we did put down a deposit for a future cruise on Holland America.
This was our first cruise; it was a gift to my husband for his 50th birthday. We have both traveled often for business and pleasure, but rarely together and never on a ship. We were a little apprehensive, but were sure we would enjoy the scenery.
I am a travel-research nerd. We live in a small town and have not found a local travel agent having direct experience in the areas we wish to travel. We used our Disney timeshare points for the basic cruise; this meant that Disney was our travel agent. They do not give much input, but will contact the cruise line with any questions you have. I include this so that I can say ALL the information I used to make decisions about the cruise I chose came from CruiseCritic and books recommended here.
I want to say this now for the people who cannot read this lengthy missive; the strength of Holland America is its staff. There is no question about this. Every staff member we encountered was spectacular and every HAL cruiser I’ve met agrees.
I paid to upgrade from the standard outside cabin to an SS category, the highest category offered thru Disney. I chose the Zuiderdam because of the itinerary, Glacier Bay with Tracy Arm roundtrip from Vancouver. My husband wanted to see the land of Alaska; glaciers, mountains, inlets, etc. Wildlife would be a bonus, but was not important to him. This turned out to be a good thing because he does not have the patience (or luck) to spot wildlife.
We traveled to Vancouver a day early, staying at the Marriott Pinnacle in one of the “19” rooms suggested by other posters. We watched seaplanes land and take off from our room…wonderful! We walked to Canada Place the afternoon we arrived and enjoyed watching 2 other ships’ passengers participate in the safety drill, grinning from ear to ear thinking, “tomorrow that will be us!” I had plans for a lovely dinner out but we were too tired and keyed-up to enjoy it, so we had room service and fell asleep.
Embarkation was a wonder! As with many things on this trip, I had read of some problems in this area, but we had none. These guys must do this for a living! While we did not move quickly thru the lines, we did keep moving; what more could you ask? We arrived at Canada Place at 12:15 and were on board by 1:15. During this time the upgrade fairy stopped by and we were thrilled to find that we were assigned to a suite on the Rotterdam Deck. I knew we could drop off our carryons at the Neptune Lounge (all that research really paid off in so many ways); after doing that, we walked to the Lido. As we wandered marveling at all the food, the announcement was made that we could go to our cabins. Hmm…food…cabin…we went to the cabin of course.
Our cabin steward, and new best friend, Supri greeted us moments after we arrived. I explained the change in cabin numbers; Supri set off to rescue our luggage from the Navigation Deck. Almost like magic, he brought one piece at a time, with just enough time between to unpack. At this point we realized the aforementioned fairy was smart; we were already too spoiled to ever go back.
I had arranged for a Renewal of Vows package and 3 shore excursions on line. The information about the excursions, and the flowers (part of the ROV package) were in the cabin when we arrived. January and Carlo in the Neptune Lounge made sure the rest of the package was assigned to our new cabin. This was more challenging than you might expect since everything else seemed so easy (I know better).
We never did eat lunch. By the time we wandered the ship, checked on our table assignments, drilled for safety and attended the sailaway party, it was too close to our 7:45 dinner time. We put on clean clothes and took a glass elevator to the 3rd deck for dinner. Here may be a good place to note that it was our experience the glass elevators came much more quickly when called than the main elevators. Also, try as I might, they moved too quickly for me to see what was going on on any balconies. I mention this because some people ask about deck privacy near these elevators. I think you’re safe.
Time to meet our dinner companions…there were six of us. Unfortunately, I could not understand one of the gentlemen at all. It was a combination of his accent (Yorkshire) and mine (southern, y’all). He and his wife had originally wanted early seating and were changed the next night, to be replaced by another couple who envied our wake-overlooking table. Now everyone could communicate. I have only great things to say about the food in the dining room. There were plenty of options and the portions were not too large. If you wanted another serving, you would get it, but if you took an ill-advised chance on a dish, you didn’t feel wasteful. 5 of the 6 of us ordered the Escargot and it was the BEST. You should have seen my husband’s face at his first bite…priceless! Our dining and wine stewards were wonderful. After dinner we returned to our cabin and I fell asleep calculating how many $$ I would have to save each month to be able to cruise in the style to which we had so quickly become accustomed.
We awoke to the views we had anticipated; nothing else can be said but, Beautiful! We were also happy to realize we were no seasick. Another concern come to naught.
As to a few other concerns I had from reviews and posts I had read –
1. I have an MFA in sculpture; I say this to have people understand I have strong opinions about what I see. I did not find the Zuiderdam gaudy. This had really worried me. There is a lot of very warm color, but, in my strong opinion, it did not call attention to itself. I also appreciated some of the chairs as art – my favorite was a metallic-leather overstuffed very traditionally styled chair in the Oak Room. Fit for a King, for sure – made me smile very broadly! And the Venetian figures were very pleasant.
2. The children I saw were very well behaved.
3. We did not find the ship too big. I’m actually glad it was this size because walking just to get from place to place allowed us to arrive home with no weight gain.
4. Photographers were not always in our face; a simple, “No, thank you” worked wonders.
5. The age demographic was just fine. Probably 10% were younger than we, and 10% were over 75. The rest were in between.
I had met two lovely ladies on our rollcall; we planned a cabin crawl for Sunday afternoon. I arrived with the bad news (sorry, we won’t be able to see that odd balcony in our assigned cabin) and the good news (fairy-wise). I swear we almost knocked on the door of 8094 to see if the occupants wanted to join the crawl so we could see the balcony! We did not, but discussed it several times during the week as we ran into each other, sometimes with regret. Our three extended families enjoyed meeting each other and it was lots of fun to encounter new friends in surprising places and cities. We also became friends with two of our dinner tablemates and I hope to continue to keep in touch with all of our new friends.
Monday we cruised Tracy Arm (again, beautiful) and had our first excursion scheduled. We were to meet at the pier for the Mendenhall Lake Native Canoe event. Unfortunately, one of the excursion operators’ busses was in an accident early in the day. Four of us volunteered to wait for an already-ordered taxi while the rest of the group proceeded. For 45 minutes we watched the taxi (pointed out by the transportation coordinator) pass us by, first one way, then, 10 minutes later, the other way. At least 4 times. At first it was amusing but, as dusk was coming, we asked about a refund (some of the group that had gone ahead were a little grumbly; I did not want to be the reason they had to wait any longer!) A refund was cheerfully agreed to and we went shopping! I had read that in September everything is on sale and this was true. On our Glacier Bay day about 25% of passengers were wearing very similar $15.00 jackets…mine was pink, my husband’s khaki. Most were slicker-yellow and blue. I met our neighbor after noticing her pink sleeve matched mine; what a conversation starter!
The sun rarely shone on our Glacier Bay day, but we were able to get closer to Margerie than the Zuiderdam had been able to all season. My pink-sleeved neighbor asked if I was watching the seals. I replied I had heard the Ranger note them but I didn’t know where to look. HA! She said; neither did she until the next balcony pointed out that all the brown dots were seals. Sure enough, there were hundreds! DO NOT FORGET binoculars. The seals were obvious enough that even my husband saw them. The day was wonderful. We spent time on our balcony and on deck. If wildlife is imperative, you must spend time on deck.
I feel the need to wrap this up, so, in short:
1. The Renewal of Vows package is fantastic.
2. The White Pass & Yukon RR excursion is worth it; I suggest you see the movie at the National Park Service first in case, as we did, have a car full of fun-loving Aussies.
3. Of 1850 passengers, 800 were from Australia. I love these folks; they are great travelers. Wherever I’ve been, there are Aussies. Aussie Aussie Aussie OyOyOY.
4. I had scheduled the Snorkeling excursion in Ketchikan, but, because there were not enough participants, it was cancelled. This was probably good because, by Ketchikan, we were TIRED.
5. Our second formal night the ship was literally rocking. This bothered about a third of the passengers but, thankfully, not us. Hello, transatlantic cruise.
This trip will go down in history as one of the luckiest; our flight arrived 20 minutes early, we met amazing folks and dear husband won a Blackjack AND Texas Hold’em Tournament. TWO! The casino was not as kind to me or to him when he was betting his own $$. We still are ahead. Well, since it was his birthday, HE is ahead. And. Of course, don’t forget the upgrade fairy. Yes, we did put down a deposit for a future cruise on Holland America.