Observations from my first cruise

[Petrocelli]

Last week, I went on my first cruise ever.  It was on the Koningsdam to Alaska.  We had purchased Club Orange, three specialty dinners (later increased to five for reasons described below), the Thermal Suite, and three excursions.  Most of my decisions were based largely on information from this forum.  As a first-time cruiser, I thought I'd give my impressions.

 

Club Orange:  We signed up for Club Orange simply to get a smaller dining room.   However, we would not do this again.  We are not big breakfast eaters, and the food at dinner was fair to good. The other benefits of CO are few.  We did get priority boarding, which was nice, but that was pretty much it.

 

Food Quality:  We ate in CO dining room the first two nights, and then ate at Tamarind and Rudi's on nights 3 and 4.  The difference in food quality was noticeable.  After returning to CO on night 5 for a meal that was fair, we decided that the specialty restaurants were a good value, so we ate at Canaletto on night 6, and had both lunch and dinner at Pinnacle and Day 7.  When we travel by land, we always find great restaurants for dinner.   In fact, dining at great restaurants is a large part of our vacations.  We decided that the great food on HAL is in the specialty restaurants.  The meals at the specialty restaurants were always very good to excellent.  Next trip, instead of joining CO, we would simply eat in specialty restaurants for all dinners, and for lunch on sea days.

 

Thermal Suite:  It was worth every penny.  Teens and kids dominate the pool area (not that there's anything wrong with that).  The thermal suite is a great place to relax and was never very crowded.  

 

Music Walk:  This is the main reason we would return to HAL.  We loved going from venue to venue each night.  We loved Lincoln Center concerts, which were lightly attended.  We also loved BB King's.  We stayed late some nights, and there was a good deal of dancing.  

 

On Board activities:  We thought there wouldn't be enough to keep us busy, but at the end of the trip, there were many things we never got around to doing.

 

Gym facilities: Excellent.  I went to 5 exercise classes.   Four of them had less than 5 people in them.  

 

Staff:  Super friendly and helpful.

 

Room:  We had VA verandah.  We had the opportunity to upgrade to a vista suite for $200.  With hindsight, I would have taken it.  We thought having the sitting area closer to the balcony would be better, but having it further away from the balcony creates more space when both of us were getting ready for dinner.

 

Excursions:  All were great, but they are expensive.  When we travel by land, we can always get really good walking tours for around $50 per person.  Some days, we can go to a museum where the cost of admission can be $20 or less.  The cheapest excursion that we went on was $159.  As a captive audience, you have very little choice.

 

Embarkation and Disembarkation:  Easier than I thought.  

 

Conclusion:  We LOVED this trip.   But we don't see ourselves as people who will become frequent cruisers but would use HAL again if we did so.  We see ourselves as people who would use cruising to get to places that are otherwise hard to get to (like the Panama Canal, Scandanavia, or Iceland).  But if I want to see most cities in Europe, I would not do a cruise.  I'd rather spend several days in one or two cities.  Maybe when we are older (we are 62), we will change our minds.  

 

And thanks to everyone who answered my questions as I planned this trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vicd1969]

Appreciate your first time thorough review. As you become more experienced cruisers, you'll find more ways to do local experiences in most ports without booking through the ship. My first ever cruise was also to Alaska and made me a fan of this way to vacation!

Edited July 19, 2022 by vicd1969

[Mary229]

I am so glad it was an overall good experience.  About shore excursions things like walking tours are easy to arrange or do on your own,  however the shore excursions in Alaska that require transportation like, boats, sea planes, kayak etc…mare just plain expensive - it reflects the local economy.  
 

One thing I didn’t think to tell you during your planning is always check the National Park Service websites for your next journey.  In places like Alaska they offer a lot of programs. 

[Torquer]

Thanks for the insightful review by a first time cruiser.  I think many, maybe most, experienced cruisers do not use the ship shore excursions.  You can almost always find better tours (because they are smaller) and cheaper than the ship's shore excursions.  This applies to any cruise line, except for the few lines that provide free excursions.  Certainly for Alaska there are plenty of private tour companies available, if you had known to research this ahead of the cruise.  The only exception of where we would use a ship tour is if it is the only way they will let you off the ship, e.g., in the Panama Canal.

[XBGuy]

1 hour ago, Petrocelli said:

Food Quality:  We ate in CO dining room the first two nights, and then ate at Tamarind and Rudi's on nights 3 and 4.  The difference in food quality was noticeable.  After returning to CO on night 5 for a meal that was fair, we decided that the specialty restaurants were a good value, so we ate at Canaletto on night 6, and had both lunch and dinner at Pinnacle and Day 7.  When we travel by land, we always find great restaurants for dinner.   In fact, dining at great restaurants is a large part of our vacations.  We decided that the great food on HAL is in the specialty restaurants.  The meals at the specialty restaurants were always very good to excellent.  Next trip, instead of joining CO, we would simply eat in specialty restaurants for all dinners, and for lunch on sea days.

 

 

 

Thank you for the report.  It was very interesting getting the insights of a first-time cruiser.

 

Mrs. XBGuy and I are in complete agreement with you in that we always look forward to our dining experience.  We feel that if you are on a cruise, and you want to eat, then the dining room is great.  If you want to dine, it is best to head to a specialty restaurant.

 

You mention "walking tours" for the port stops.  If you enjoy hiking, you can find trails in most Alaska ports.  I like the ones in Skagway.  They are easy walking distance from any of the ships' docks--$0.  I'm guessing, however, that you might be inclined to book your next cruise--or your next few cruises--to other destinations.

[BroncoBobblehead]

This was fun to read - thanks for sharing it. We finished our cruise just the week before yours (same ship/route) and also our first cruise. It's fascinating to me to see how others perceive things compared to our experience!

 

For us, we had access to club orange because of being in a Neptune Suite. Our experience was opposite of yours. We had one night in signature dining (Pinnacle) and we kinda wished we'd just stuck with club orange. We found the service in CO quite superior, and the food was great for us but we are not high-scale eaters. While the food in Pinnacle was great too, I'd not say it would have been worth paying extra for at all. Nonetheless, I'm fairly certain our Pinnacle experience would have been better with a different server (ours was middle of the road at best), but the CO staff were above and beyond exceptional and personable. We especially liked being able to eat whenever we wanted to (only had dinners there - did breakfast in room or at Lido) and still could get a table for two and it was never more than half-full, and usually just 2-3 other tables occupied (but we always ate fairly early - around 5-5:30pm on average).

 

Agree with excursions - SO expensive overall and cost vs benefit was quite low, though we enjoyed the two excursions that we did just fine!

 

Thanks again for sharing!

[Nymich]

Excellent fair review

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for posting your comments.  Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[albingirl]

Thanks for your really nice review.  Yes, one note: excursions through the ship are expensive.  We've found that the more we traveled and the older we got, the more we went off on our own.  However, your roll call is a very good resource for less expensive tours, as well. There's many times someone there setting up tours for far less money.  God bless them.

[DENIE]

Thanks for your review!  We will be on the Koningsdam in December (first HAL cruise since 2010 but have tried a variety of other lines).  Eager to experience HAL again - this was pre-"music walk" days.

 

Agree with other comments regarding excursions.  We have done a mixture of more private tours as well as ship tours.  It kind of depends on the excursion and amount of time away from the ship.  We have been bolder in recent years with full day private excursions as long as there are guarantees about getting to next port (but would have to be a reasonable expectation that the next port is not too far away).  Professional tour operators do not want a reputation for making people late.  We have always been good getting back to the ship 1.5-2 hours before sail away.

[Btimmer]

Nice and fair review of the Koningsdam.  As a veteran cruiser, we are destination driven and the ship is generally second choice for us.  I'm glad to see you recognizing the destination is a high priority for your future travels. 

 

We enjoy the specialty restaurants and especially the Tamarind. 

[Petrocelli]

Regarding excursions:

 

I understand there were cheaper options than HAL excursions.  But we wanted to stay within the umbrella of HAL, and I think that was a wise choice.  I also understand that excursions in summer in Alaska are going to be expensive, simply based on labor supply and demand.  I was just pointing out the cost of an excursion versus, for example, the cost of a visit to a museum when visiting NYC.  

 

However, the things I saw on excursions were incredible.  See the attached pictures....

[0106]

The reason I book Club Orange is for the cabin upgrade.  I booked an obstructed verandah and used  CO to move up to an aft verandah (my favorite cabin).  The cost of adding CO was less than the cost of booking the aft cabin.

[Petrocelli]

Regarding food and service:

 

I think there is a HUGE difference between the dining room and the specialty restaurants.  This is not a knock on this forum, but I did not understand how big that gap was until I ate at CO for two nights, followed by meals at Tamarind and Rudi's.   

 

I have heard anecdotal stories about bad service at a particular restaurants.  I had excellent service at every specialty restaurant.  In fact, come to think of it, I had excellent service at everywhere on the ship.  

Edited July 20, 2022 by Petrocelli
clarity

[aliaschief]

Appreciate your comments on your first cruise. Thanks for sharing your first cruise experience. Yes, the specialty restaurants are better then MDR and that’s why they are called specialty restaurants. 

Did you utilize any other of your Club Orange benefits? 
We did Club Orange on our last cruise because of our cabin assignment and agree nothing special versus MDR.
 

 

 

[Gray Lady]

I have an excursion question which I hope experienced cruisers here can help me with. We booked our first cruise ever to Alaska, along with a land tour component first. We booked all of our excursions through HAL. We were one of the many who came down with COVID on land prior to our cruise (we did wear masks the entire time, but the virus just doesn’t care) due to too many people packed together. We missed half of our land tour and all of our cruise. Because we booked our excursions with HAL, everything we missed is being refunded to us. If we had booked with outside vendors, would we get our excursion money back? Would we have had to contact each vendor ourselves to get a refund? I just am curious for a future cruise. Thank you in advance.

 

Also, I have enjoyed reading the impressions of a first time cruiser, which we hope to be in the future. I also appreciate the pictures of things we weren’t able to see. makes it seem like we were there.

[Btimmer]

1 hour ago, Gray Lady said:

I have an excursion question which I hope experienced cruisers here can help me with. We booked our first cruise ever to Alaska, along with a land tour component first. We booked all of our excursions through HAL. We were one of the many who came down with COVID on land prior to our cruise (we did wear masks the entire time, but the virus just doesn’t care) due to too many people packed together. We missed half of our land tour and all of our cruise. Because we booked our excursions with HAL, everything we missed is being refunded to us. If we had booked with outside vendors, would we get our excursion money back? Would we have had to contact each vendor ourselves to get a refund? I just am curious for a future cruise. Thank you in advance.

 

Also, I have enjoyed reading the impressions of a first time cruiser, which we hope to be in the future. I also appreciate the pictures of things we weren’t able to see. makes it seem like we were there.

In the scenario you described, yes, you would need to contact each vendor.  One of the questions to pose to an outside vendor BEFORE booking is what is their cancellation policy.  We've booked many independent excursions over the years and the only ones we've been stiffed on were several in Africa after the 2020 Grand Africa cruise was cancelled due to covid.

 

Booking independently from HAL does have some risks, but in many cases we've had some amazing shore excursions that HAL wouldn't even begin to consider.

[julia]

@Petrocelli

Your very first cruise will forever be your standard bearer.  You will never have another "first".  Fortunately...  yours sounds like it was quite wonderful and your pics and posts are beautiful!

 

@Gray Lady

Yes, there is a downside to booking independent excursions (the covid shutdown of early 2020 saw this to the extreme). Larger, more reputable companies were able to refund (or issue credits), while others just closed down and didn't respond.  We got burned by one in Ketchikan, but just wrote it off.

Do not let that deter you from booking private excursions... most are very good and go beyond what the cruiselines offer.  

[VMax1700]

So glad you enjoyed your first cruise ever.

Looking forward to your report on your second cruise! 😉   

 

[Balsam12]

Always good to read a review from a first time cruiser.

 

We are not first time cruisers, but have booked the Alaska cruise on Koningsdam for next year, and it will be our first HAL experience.

My concern here is that the OP is comparing Club Orange to specialty dining, and from what I read, never actually dined in the MDR, so basically all dining was at an extra cost. I was hoping that there would be a comparison to the MDR in the review, as we have generally enjoyed MDRs on other cruise lines.

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Balsam12

[DENIE]

On our last cruise (different cruise line) we had the option to purchase "insurance" through the tour operator.  We had travel insurance for the cruise itself and our flights but purchased these options from the tour operator as a "just in case".  Thankfully we were able to make all of our tours.  Because we did not need to use the coverage from the tour operator, one of them (Tours by Locals) gave us a credit for future tours.

[Petrocelli]

2 hours ago, Balsam12 said:

My concern here is that the OP is comparing Club Orange to specialty dining, and from what I read, never actually dined in the MDR, so basically all dining was at an extra cost. I was hoping that there would be a comparison to the MDR in the review, as we have generally enjoyed MDRs on other cruise lines.

 

Club Orange serves exactly the same food as the MDR, except there is one additional dish each night.

 

In fairness, I spoke to several people during the cruise who thought the food in the MDR was great.  I thought the dishes I ate were fair to good.

 

 

[DaveOKC]

12 hours ago, 0106 said:

The reason I book Club Orange is for the cabin upgrade.  I booked an obstructed verandah and used  CO to move up to an aft verandah (my favorite cabin).  The cost of adding CO was less than the cost of booking the aft cabin.

To the OP - since you were in a VA this likely would not have helped you, but in the future the way to go is to book a VH cabin and then buy CLub Orange.  You can normally get your VA that way as the free upgrade and likely save some money while doing it.

[Petrocelli]

1 hour ago, DaveOKC said:

To the OP - since you were in a VA this likely would not have helped you, but in the future the way to go is to book a VH cabin and then buy CLub Orange.  You can normally get your VA that way as the free upgrade and likely save some money while doing it.

I figured that out long after I reserved my room.  I will do that next time.

[WriterOnDeck]

Re missing independent tours: previous advice to ask the tour company about its cancellation policy is important. Some will not charge if the ship doesn't make the port. On the aborted 2020 world, I got refunds from our Africa tour companies (and am booking with one now for the 2023 world). So you don't necessarily lose the money.

 

One advantage of getting on-HAL trip insurance is that it can cover the entire cost of the cruise; not just the HAL portion. Trip insurance should cover the cost of missed excursions (make sure it covers for covid). Yes, it's a little more work, but really not that bad -- a few emails and saving receipts.