Westerdam 5184

[WishfulThinker]

Just back from Alaska on Westerdam and have to say have to give it mixed reviews. Food in the Lido was consistently awful, inedible; main dining room a bit better, about cafeteria standard; Canaletto was excellent and Pinnacle Grill was outstanding. (As an aside, we never did figure out an efficient way to get food, silverware, beverages, etc., without going back and forth in the Lido. It is a confusing layout, to say the least....)

 

Alaska as a destination cannot be beat. It is absolutely stunning, especially when you have good weather, as we did. Port stays were too short, but we knew that we were getting a "taste" when we booked it.

 

The glaring problem with the week was the lack of air circulation (very little air conditioning) in cabin 5184. This is an aft cabin, with a larger and covered deck, making for wonderful viewing and visiting with our traveling companions who were next door, but despite repeated calls, we never had air coming from the unit. First day, in Seattle, we called three times and went to the main desk. We finally got a fan which was so loud we could not sleep. Second day we called again, and visited the main desk, and they reported maintenance found the damper had been closed on a previous cruise, and that was the problem.

 

By this time we were sufficiently north that it was not hot, but the tiny air flow coming out was still insufficient. We called again, but it was no better, so we gave up. Our friends' cabin, 5185, was fine, with plenty of air flow, so we know ours was not normal.

 

We've done the survey, and we reported all this to HAL, but I'm posting it on CruiseCritic so that future passengers booking 5184 are warned.

 

Bottom line, there are plenty of other ways to do a cruise, or a vacation, so no more HAL for us....

[geoherb]

Thanks for posting. It sounds like a great cabin to me. I can't stand to have air blowing on me.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for reporting in.

Sorry about the air conditioning in your cabin not working well. That would be an issue for us -- we like to sleep in a cold room.

Wasn't the silverware wrapped in napkins already on the Lido tables?

[WishfulThinker]

Thank you for reporting in.

Sorry about the air conditioning in your cabin not working well. That would be an issue for us -- we like to sleep in a cold room.

Wasn't the silverware wrapped in napkins already on the Lido tables?

 

No. They were kept in an area near the railings dividing food service from dining tables. And, strangely, there were always a fork and a knife, never a spoon. So, if you needed a spoon, you had to get up again, and find them and usually all that were out were large soup spoons. Strange....

[WishfulThinker]

Thanks for posting. It sounds like a great cabin to me. I can't stand to have air blowing on me.

 

It wasn't just not blowing on us, there was no air moving, period. Circulation was minimal, if any.

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for your brief report.

 

The Lido is always our venue of last resort. Most dining in MDR. PG is always outstanding, have never had a bad meal there.