"Live from" ms Volendam to Alaska! My First HAL Experience

[lovely_serenity]

I proceeded to take some more shots of the sports deck:

 

 

as well as the view (hm.. o_o what is the white strip I see over there?)

 

 

I turned around and climbed up some stairs to deck 10, Sky Deck. I took a look at the same view but from a higher position first:

 

 

Here is Deck 10's Sky Deck that I read so much about. I had read on CC Forums that couples fooled around here at night o__o Huh.

 

 

 

There are 2 stair cases on either side of the automatic doors that lead to the Sky Deck. It's basically just a simple wrap around deck in the shape of a U.

 

Here a look up toward the sky:

 

 

I was actually here because I read something about commemorative coins jammed somewhere up on deck. Meh, I didn't see any. (Read that on CC Forums too).

[CrznonRmynd]

Greetings Sarah,

 

I want to take this opportunity to compliment you

on your awesome review. I enjoyed reading all about

your cruise, and the photos were wonderful too! :)

 

Donna

[lovely_serenity]

Greetings Sarah,

 

I want to take this opportunity to compliment you

on your awesome review. I enjoyed reading all about

your cruise, and the photos were wonderful too! :)

 

Donna

Donna,

 

Thank you so very much! (: I always appreciate it dearly when people take the time to comment on my review, it just makes me feel like the work I put into the review wasn't for naught. ^^

 

Thank you for following too! :)

[lovely_serenity]

I also took a shot of this random balloon-looking thing attached to the ship:

 

 

By now, I had pretty much covered the entire Sky Deck. Really, nothing to see o_o'

 

I made my way to the set of stairs on the other side and took 2 shots from the top of the staircase. First in front:

 

 

Then to the left:

 

 

Oh my gosh. Are we headed toward the blanket of fog? =_=! *sigh* Better take some more shots before the ship gets covered in white again.

 

I walked along the left side path and noticed this gap on the way there. This is the gap they leave open when they're cooking something poolside:

 

 

I take a shot and then proceed to cross over to the right side where the basketball courts are. It was so that I could get this shot:

 

 

The wrinkly bumps on the logo are due to the wind. It's making air pockets beneath the HAL logo sticker.

 

From where I am, I turn around to take a shot of the direction from which I came. You can see the Sky Deck from here! :D

 

[lovely_serenity]

As I stand there, I notice the pretty sparkles coming from the water. Ooo, pretty! c: I lean a little over the railing (and once again risk my life for a photo) and take this shot:

 

 

As I'm taking these, Sis emerges from the double doors beneath the Sky Deck and call for me. "It's almost teatime!!" (LOL who thought you'd say that so often in life) I say okay and I shuffle across deck to her side. On the way, I take one last shot of the Volendam bench in the sunlight:

 

 

We go back into the buffet where I find my family chillin' at a random table eating cake. One was the awesome #1 cheesecake which I already have a shot of. The other was this delicious chocolate cake of some sort:

 

 

After a little while, we head down to Deck 5 to line up for tea. When we get there, there is quite a line that has already been formed. We join the queue and wait for the doors to be opened. Before this, I scurried my way to the front of the line to get this shot from behind the doors:

 

 

Before heading back to where my family are. We waited for a little bit before the doors opened and they started welcoming people. We request a window seat, so we are one of the first to be in this area. I take this opportunity to get this shot:

 

 

As we settle down, I notice that we are VERY far away from the rest of civilization! 0_0 We don't even have a server or anything. The only other people are a group of Japanese cruisers who have met for some kind of seminar where the disembarkation process is being explain. (yeah, we're pretty good, right? :D just from context & the little Japanese vocab we know, we could figure out what they were saying. I learned all my Japanese vocab by watching anime LOL).

 

I first took a picture of the cute set up that awaited me:

 

 

At this point, we were starting to get worried that we'd never be served. Since the Japanese meeting people had their own food set up, the servers might simply assume that we're with them, and never serve us! D: Oh no! We saw all the servers circling the tables, far, far away from us and wound up waving at every single person we could. This went on for about 2 minutes before they realized that there were people far in the corner that still hadn't been fed.

 

There's was actually a youngish looking couple nearby that were in the same situation as us. We were like, LOL if we don't get to eat, they don't get to eat ^^.

Edited June 14, 2013 by lovely_serenity

[xznwfd]

Sarah, I think your review is the best one I've ever read! I love your photos and your witty comments - you are a very talented young lady! Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us. :)

 

Cathy

[cactusflower]

Thank you for your review. You are doing a great job and I am really enjoying reading it. :)

[lovely_serenity]

Sarah, I think your review is the best one I've ever read! I love your photos and your witty comments - you are a very talented young lady! Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us. :)

 

Cathy

 

Aw, thank you! You have no idea how much I appreciate it when people stop by to compliment my review :)

It just makes me so happy to hear that you are enjoying my report! You flatter me :p

 

Thanks again for following! <3

Edited June 14, 2013 by lovely_serenity

[sonnyjane]

Thank you for your review. You are doing a great job and I am really enjoying reading it. :)

 

I agree! I'm going on the Westerdam in Sept. and your review is getting me so excited!!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[lovely_serenity]

Thank you for your review. You are doing a great job and I am really enjoying reading it. :)

 

You're welcome! :D && haha thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying my report!

[Readytokruise]

I have been reading your posts everyday. We will be on the July 10 departure on the Volendam. I have really enjoyed your pictures and posts. Cannot wait to see the daily pages etc. although I will be sad for it to end. By far the best thread ever on Cruise critic forum.

[In Toronto]

Hi Sarah.

 

Don't want to push you, but we leave for our Volendam cruise on Wednesday so only a few more days for you to fill us in!:D

 

Really enjoying this review.

 

Ellen

[kristinp36]

I have been reading your posts everyday. We will be on the July 10 departure on the Volendam. I have really enjoyed your pictures and posts. Cannot wait to see the daily pages etc. although I will be sad for it to end. By far the best thread ever on Cruise critic forum.

 

 

Not to butt into a great review but I posted all the daily schedules for the Alaska Volendam on the Alaska page....see link

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1855282

[Krazy Kruizers]

Fell behind on this review.

Really great.

You have done an excellent job with the pictures.

[Rowsby]

Aw, thank you! You have no idea how much I appreciate it when people stop by to compliment my review :)

It just makes me so happy to hear that you are enjoying my report! You flatter me :p

 

Thanks again for following! <3

 

We so enjoy your photos.....and showing how nice the ship looks.......!!

[Rowsby]

Not to butt into a great review but I posted all the daily schedules for the Alaska Volendam on the Alaska page....see link

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1855282

 

I had saved these too but didn't know how to post them on CC....

Also didn't know about the Alaska page......great job....might help folks find these by posting a new thread on our HAL page with your link...........???

[lovely_serenity]

I agree! I'm going on the Westerdam in Sept. and your review is getting me so excited!!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Haha, well I hope you have a great cruise and enjoy yourself to the fullest (: Yay! ^^

[lovely_serenity]

I have been reading your posts everyday. We will be on the July 10 departure on the Volendam. I have really enjoyed your pictures and posts. Cannot wait to see the daily pages etc. although I will be sad for it to end. By far the best thread ever on Cruise critic forum.

 

Ohh thank you so much for being such an avid follower of my report! c: I hope you have a great time on your cruise, be sure to tell me all about it once you get back! Yea! All the papers and other fun stuff, I'm going to leave for the end!

 

Aw :,) I'll be sad when it ends too! & thank you, that means so much. <3

[lovely_serenity]

Hi Sarah.

 

Don't want to push you, but we leave for our Volendam cruise on Wednesday so only a few more days for you to fill us in!:D

 

Really enjoying this review.

 

Ellen

 

Hi Ellen,

 

LOL OMG okay, well uhm, I'll try my best to update it as much as I can before wednesday, but I can't guarantee too much since right now, it's final exams/provincial exam season for highschoolers, && I have a final for chemistry on monday ^^' so.. I'll try my best! I'll update in breaks of my studying :p

 

I'm happy that you're enjoying my review! ~

Edited June 15, 2013 by lovely_serenity

[lovely_serenity]

Not to butt into a great review but I posted all the daily schedules for the Alaska Volendam on the Alaska page....see link

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1855282

Ooo cool, I have that stuff too! :D I was going to leave it til the end before scanning all the papers and stuff I brought home!

[brazilgirl]

Sarah ,

 

Your review is absolutely wonderful! You are witty , observant and a truly talented writer ( and you have a great vocabulary!).

 

I think you should work at Bon Apettit or as a Top Chef host in the future (you could be Padma´s sidekick).

 

Your photos are stunning. We are planning a trip to Alaska next year , so your review has been very helpful. We are still deciding on the ship.

 

Our family , like yours , consists of 3 young ones (lol) who have been traveling all their lives. I am so glad to see how appreciative you are of this gift of seeing the world .

 

Kudos to you...looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

Kim

[vbmom87]

Not to butt into a great review but I posted all the daily schedules for the Alaska Volendam on the Alaska page....see link

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1855282

 

Thank you so much!!! It is a great addition to this thread.

Edited June 15, 2013 by vbmom87

[lovely_serenity]

We so enjoy your photos.....and showing how nice the ship looks.......!!

 

I had saved these too but didn't know how to post them on CC....

Also didn't know about the Alaska page......great job....might help folks find these by posting a new thread on our HAL page with your link...........???

 

I'm glad! (: I'm sure that my photos do not do justice to how wonderful the ship looks in real life!

 

How did you enjoy your cruise? I hope you had as great a time as I did!

 

I actually have come across the Alaska page a few times, but that was just pure luck. I was broswing through the "New Post" section and came upon a few questions regarding Alaska. Proudly enough, I could answer pretty much all of them ;)

[In Toronto]

Hi Ellen,

 

LOL OMG okay, well uhm, I'll try my best to update it as much as I can before wednesday, but I can't guarantee too much since right now, it's final exams/provincial exam season for highschoolers, && I have a final for chemistry on monday ^^' so.. I'll try my best! I'll update in breaks of my studying :p

 

I'm happy that you're enjoying my review! ~

 

Oh, Sarah. Please don't worry about it. I know that this is exam time and just concentrate on your schoolwork.

 

I will enjoy reading the rest of your review when I return from our Alaskan cruise on the Volendam. Will then be able to compare to our experiences.

 

Thanks so much for doing this for us.

 

Good luck to you.

 

Ellen

[lovely_serenity]

Sarah ,

 

Your review is absolutely wonderful! You are witty , observant and a truly talented writer ( and you have a great vocabulary!).

 

I think you should work at Bon Apettit or as a Top Chef host in the future (you could be Padma´s sidekick).

 

Your photos are stunning. We are planning a trip to Alaska next year , so your review has been very helpful. We are still deciding on the ship.

 

Our family , like yours , consists of 3 young ones (lol) who have been traveling all their lives. I am so glad to see how appreciative you are of this gift of seeing the world .

 

Kudos to you...looking forward to the rest of your review!

 

Kim

 

Kim,

 

Thank you so much for your extensively thoughtful comment! It seriously makes my day when I read comments such as that of your own.

 

I owe all of my vocabulary skills to my addiction to reading as a child. (: Apparently, reading magically helps you write better ^^

 

I've also been known to be observant by my peers. Often I'd notice little things that nobody else cares about LOL. I guess I can put this skill to use here!

 

It certainly would be amazing if I actually had the opportunity to work for Bon Appetit! I could get my stuff published there (and nonetheless, about my favourite thing: food! :D) and get .. Well, known! ^^

 

LOL I've never thought of being a host on Top Chef, that sounds interesting :P I'm sure Padma would love to have a girl like me be her sidedkick! Now if only I could get a call from them :P

 

Oh thank you! We have actually planned another Alaskan cruise for next year as well! (LOL go figure) Except this time, it'll be like a family reunion type thing. Our relatives from all over the lower mainland, as well as china (some) would be joining us on a Disney cruise in August!

 

Be sure to update me when you've decided, I'm a curious one ^^ && I hope my review will help you pick what you plan to do!

 

Indeed, I have a family with three young ones , LOL. (It's just that I'm one of them! ^^ ) Indeed, I am very appreciative of the fortune I've been granted in which I am given the opportunity to travel the world in the manner I do now. I know that I am very lucky to be able to do so (:

 

Thanks again! And I will continue working hard on it! :)

 

Sarah

Edited June 15, 2013 by lovely_serenity