Westerdam Alaska review, from a former Carnival loyalist

[xitappers2bx]

some people on CC have made passing comments about the state of the pull out beds on HAL, and i honestly thought that because we were cruising in a suite there was no way they'd have a terrible bed they'd force people to sleep on.

 

boy was i wrong.

 

the bed was so bad it induced tears. lots and lots of tears. and lots of heartbreak. i could not believe i had spent a years worth of saving and years worth of dreaming about this trip to sleep on something you wouldn't even find in a jail cell (not that i know what a jail cell bed feels like, i just know it couldn't have been any worse than the pull out bed).

 

it was so bad, i was regretting even going on this trip. i was devastated. i had paid for half the room, i could not believe i was going to be forced to sleep on something that belongs in the trash. and while i made threats to my parents that i was sleeping in the king bed after the first night of horrific, painful, miserable sleep (my neck and back are still bothering me, two weeks after that one night on that bed) i knew that i could never kick my "older" parents out of the most comfortable bed in the world onto the disgusting wreck of a trash bed they provide their guests.

 

now, why am i so upset? because i know better exists. i've slept on pull out beds before. i've slept on them on a carnival ship, and i took a nap on one on a royal ship. so i know they can do better. why else am i upset? because holland america prides itself on being above the "walmart-esque" carnival and royal. at least, i thought they did. as a "luxury" line, i was expecting something that would at least provide a good nights sleep, maybe not the best bed in the world, but something at least on par with carnival.

 

 

it's a cheap pull out bed, metal frame with a long, 2" wide metal pole running from side to side in the exact middle of the bed. creating a painful bump. the mattress is an embarrassingly thin 4" thing that had less volume to it than my 2" bed topper at home. i knew from the brief bed-reviews i've seen here that i would going to need an egg crate mattress and i immediately asked the room steward to get one when he had a chance and he said he'd put it down for me when he makes the bed ready for the evening.

 

i must bring my bugs to dance class, and then i'll continue.

[xitappers2bx]

alright...

 

so our room steward, Hendricks was the best we have ever had. he was so incredibly happy so cheery and just so on top of things. without him, this vacation would have been ruined and i'd be writing a very different review than i am right now.

 

so hendricks put the egg crate down on the bed while we were at dinner and tried it out, and it was awful. he came to check on me and see if it was okay, and he could tell i was upset and that it wasn't okay. so he asked what was wrong with the bed and after i told him he asked if it was okay for him to add some duvet's underneath the mattress. the bugs went to club hal and my parents and i went to the free round of bingo in the theater before the welcome aboard show. after the bingo i was so stressed out and so worked up over the bed that i couldn't stay there any longer and went back to the room where Hendricks and his assistance (Dawa I think... i called him the russian since he was the spitting image of a friend of mine that we call the russian--he's actually from russia and loves the nickname before anyone thinks i'm being mean... the assistant he thought calling him the russian was hilarious and even spoke a little russian and wowed me with his language skills for the entire week.) were putting the duvets under the mattress.

 

for the first of many tries, he had me lay down on the bed to test it out, and i think 4 duvets later it was decided that i should call guest services and request a board for under the mattress and he would speak to his supervisor about getting one for me. so i thought it would be tolerable for a night.

 

i was wrong. it was downright awful. one of the worst nights of sleep of my life. i was up every 30-40 minutes, and finally woke up for good at about 5:30am crying silently to myself hoping not to wake anyone else up.

 

where was the bugs for all of this? she's tiny. so she curled up into a little ball at the foot of the bed and slept the night away without too much discomfort.

 

when the family finally was up, i let my parents know i was not sleeping on that bed again and they were going to have to figure something out because i didn't spend all this money to be in pain and get no sleep. Hendricks showed up not too much later with a board, saw that i was still really upset and asked what was wrong so i told him it was the bed. it was horrible and i didn't get much sleep. so hendricks and the russian put the board under the bed and had me lay down on it and he could tell i still wasn't happy.

 

we went to breakfast at the pinnacle, (which i'll talk about in another post coming up) and when we got back they had made up the pull out bed with the board, some extra duvets, the mattress and the egg crate. at this point, again, we're now outside of his working hours (which i honestly always respect; i understand they work insanely hard and they work a lot of hours with only a short break between the two shifts and i'll always feel guilty for being the reason he lost that precious time off) and he comes by the room to see if its better and i felt so incredibly guilty to tell him it was okay... and he said just okay? and i said yea, but its fine... at this point i just felt downright terrible.

 

instead of my "its fine" he went off on a hunt for something else... and decided to try another mattress on top of the first one. so at this point there's about 4 duvet's, a board, two mattresses and an egg crate. they re-make the bed, and have me get on it... and it was acceptable. this doesn't mean that i am not going to contact every single employee of the relavent departments; it just meant that i wasn't getting off the ship in juneau and calling off the vacation thanks to the disgusting beds.

 

what saved the vacation? the room steward. i know a lot of people treat these employees as if they're nothing (well, i've noticed more and more people treat the crew like slaves which is disheartening, but that's another topic for another day). Hendricks and the russian saved our vacation by going above and beyond in order to give me a somewhat acceptable bed that allowed me to at least sleep for 6 hours a night.

 

so whats the bottom line?

 

if holland america is actually going to charge people to sleep on their disgusting sofa beds, they need to put sofa beds in there that are actually conducive to sleeping. if they want to give those spots away for free, by all means they should be able to give you the best or worst sleeping place they so choose. but when people are paying to travel, they deserve to at least have a comfortable place to lay their head down. at that this bed was found in a suite... there really are no words for that one. nothing strong enough that i can type here at least.

 

so in a final post where i rate everything, this is why the room stewards get a 10 out of 5. because they were just that freaking incredible. never have we ever had such a great room steward.

[xitappers2bx]

so... with the bed drama sorted, it was time to actually enjoy this cruise...

 

so the itinerary...

 

we boarded on saturday

sea day on sunday

juneau on monday

glacier bay on tuesday

sitka on wednesday

ketchikan on thursday

victoria on friday

return to seattle on saturday

[TSTSmom]

Patiently waiting for what happens next! :)

[In Toronto]

Waiting for you:D

[omago4th]

me 2 and I was on the cruise..............................I enjoy reading others reports.

[jbhcw]

Also hoping op comes back and finishes review...she has a nice writing style:):):)

[omago4th]

I give up waiting....................... sure did want to read the rest of the story.

[nana51]

I enjoyed her review but can't get past her dislike of the bed. Come on! If you can't sleep with all those duvets and eggcrates, the fault is not the bed.

[Jean1946]

I enjoyed most of the review, but all the whining, about all the food wherever they ate, then didn't get royal treatment at the dock, then the bed. Wow!

[brazilgirl]

I really would love to read more... I quite enjoyed the review!

[canadianbear]

I enjoyed her review but can't get past her dislike of the bed. Come on! If you can't sleep with all those duvets and eggcrates, the fault is not the bed.

 

 

That is a harsh statement and SO not true. We had a good pull out bed on the Ryndam the first time in the Neptune suite but the 2nd time it was a disaster and nothing helped.

 

 

I am missing the continued review too-was enjoying it and totally agree HAL needs to do something about the pull out beds.

[comfortcove]

I too was enjoying reading her review, and hope she will finish it. I can understand being upset over a miserable bed that prohibits rest while on precious vacation time.