Haljo1935

Also on Eurodam April 29 - May 6: mid elevators 1 was out for most of the week as well as 1 of each of the glass elevators on the sides, so mud-ship had half the elevators down. May want to consider aft or forward elevators or just allow a little extra time. Enjoy the trip- you should have mostly nice weather. ☺

@ExpatBride I have personally done the following process on 3 most recent cruises (3 different ships), so I know it works. There are 2 types of OBC (refundable & non-refundable); they're identified at the bottom of the statement (on TV or in Navigator) - be sure you watch the balance of each. 1) Prepay online for excursions you want. Must be done at least 4 days before sail date. 2) Once onboard, immediately go to Excursions Desk and have them move the charges from pre-pay to OBC. It's very important you don't try to do this yourself by canceling and rebooking as you run the risk of missing out on full excursions (exactly what you're trying to prevent by buying early). The Excursions Desk can (and will) rebook you on sold out excursions if all you're doing is changing them from pre-paid to OBC. You cannot do this at Guest Services, it has to be Excursions Desk. 3) Check onboard statement to see the refund. You can use it as you would other OBC or it will be refunded to the credit card you have on file or you can take it in cash. It only goes back to the original CC used to purchase the excursions if that's the same one you have on file for the cruise as the refund goes to the card on file. 4) Enjoy those sold out excursions even more knowing you paid for them w/OBC! 🙃 No hoop jumping or unnecessary spending, IMHO.

Link for Orange Party has everything you need to know 😊 As others have said, there are no "Formal" nights, they're now "Dressy." We were on Eurodam to AK April 29 - May 6 and saw men in everything from slacks w/collared shirts to tuxedos, women wearing pants w/nice shirts to long gowns. There was a real broad range and nobody looked out of place. Even at Canaletto on dressy night we saw a ypung couple in full on formal (tux/gown/corsage) at a table next to a family of 5 that ranged from suit/tie (boy about 10 yo) to pants/dress shirt (teenage girl). Other than shorts or swimsuits, I say do what you're comfortable with and what allows you to have the experience you want to have. This is for Dressy nights; Casual nights, anything goes. 🙃

Feb NA unlimited was $49/7 days, $20/bag. This month Eurodam was $59.50/7 days, $25/bag. It is same price paid in advance or onboard

@vino100 Itrstno1 nailed it, unfortunately. We saw priority signs in random places, but as we entered the tangled maze, nobody asked us if we had priority, were Mariners/PS/NS... so we were not directed to the priority line. Eventually HAL rep heard husband say something to me about us waiting for priority and they directed us to a shorter priority line. With that said, that is only for boarding - you still have to get through the customs cluster first. I would not wait but would go early - better to wait on the ship rather than in the hall. Enjoy your trip - safe travels!

@MisterMatthewWe were on Eurodam rt Seattle AK April 29 - May 6 - no need for VeriFLY even though HAL sent us reminders to complete it. What you have listed is what you need, along w/completing the health assessment on the Navigator app. Peugeot Sound was stunning, Sitka Sound was gorgeous, Glacier Bay was rainy but still beautiful. Enjoy your trip!

Seriously wouldn't count on a better experience in Vancouver - the customs process really bogs down the boarding process. It's been that way since at least 2018. It's so bad, many people say "never again." Your cruise, though, should be awesome. Love Grand Dutch!

I believe the rock slide is still impacting wait times in Skagway.

@Grandma7as 3rdGen said, there are loungers available for just hanging out- I always see people reading. Just be sure you're doing the bulk of it in the loungers by the hydro pool (again the sloshing water is quite relaxing) or in the tranquility waiting rooms (awesome views) as the heated ceramic loungers are meant for 15-20 min at a time. Making the rounds of all 3 would be nice 😊

@Barwick Cruiserwe have done both early season (May) and end of season (Sept) but never peak season, so all we know are cooler, wetter days. But considering much of the area is located in a temperate rainforest, we expect the rain, lol. We really like the snowy peaks, and even light snow, we see/get in May; although we know we're too early for salmon running. We have been blessed with bears, though, especiallyin Sitka and ISP/Hoonah. We very much enjoy the beauty of the active waterfalls in Sept, so both are great times for us.

@Barwick Cruiser we did AK April 29 - May 6, so returned just shy of 2 weeks ago. Rained most days (all except Ketchikan) - no bugs, no mosquitoes, no flies, no ticks but there were some pesky gnats, lots of snowy peaks and glorious views! Oh, and some whales, otters and birds 😀

It's only good for the 7 day period it covers - you'll have to purchase another one for the other 7 days.

Love the Corn Hole - to watch, not play as I'm horrible at it 🙃

When we took the shuttle but had not booked? Yes - Dec (San Diego) & Feb (Ft Lauderdale), we showed our boarding pass and they wrote our names & cabin number at the bottom of their passenger list. This month (Seattle) they just looked at our luggage tags then wrote name & cabin number on passenger list. The charge showed up as "shore excursion" on the statement.

They absolutely could take your cabin number and bill the charge to your room; that would be similar to jumping on the airport shuttle when you hadn't pre-booked it - they ask for your cabin number and it ends up on your stateroom account. We've done that several times, including this month, Feb & Dec - all trips where we were not charged the corkage fee. Policy says wine must be carried on, so we do a "wine transfer" dance at airport after we claim our luggage moving it from our airport checked luggage to our ship carry-on bag. Sure wouldn't do that if we didn't have to 🙂

We brought them in carry-on as per policy and acknowledged having them when they scanned our luggage and asked if we had 2 bottles of wine. So we were prepared to see the charge on our statement due to any of those instances, but never did. I did, though, think it was having them open in MDR that triggered the fee, so I appreciate you advising otherwise.

While the policy clearly states a corkage fee, we have not ever been charged one. As recently as Nov/Dec '22 Koningsdam did not charge - we had them open a bottle for us in MDR at dinner, they kept it & we drank it over a couple nights. Feb '23 Nieuw Amsterdam did not charge us - we had them open a bottle for us in MDR at dinner again having them keep it for us to drink over couple nights. May '23 Eurodam did not charge us- had them open a bottle for us in MDR - we drank it in one sitting. We did not have a drink package on any of those trips, did not buy the wine from HAL and had the bottle fully visible as we went into MDR. So the policy is $20 corkage fee to drink your wine outside of your cabin, but it is not consistently enforced. I'd plan on paying and accept the "gift" if not charged.

Kathy - my recent experience (Nov/Dec '22, Feb '23 & May '23) on 3 different HAL ships (KO, NA, Eurodam) is if you have 2 separate booking numbers (so the 14 days is really 2- 7 day B2B) they will not let you book the 2nd week Thermal Spa. On each of these, I let the spa mgr know I was on for 2 weeks and very much wanted to add the 2nd week before the spots were all taken. All 3 times I was told to come in early on turnaround day to get on the list and get my sticker. In Feb on NA, she had me come in Sat evening before they closed and added it herself as a presale, but I had to go in the next day to officially get on the list and get the sticker. BTW - that trip it did show on the onboard statement as a purchase during the first week.

Congrats on the milestone and welcome to HAL! Please see my responses above.

This is Margerie Glacier taken May 3 in Glacier Bay. It was cloudy and rainy the entire time we were in Glacier Bay - but still so beautiful

I love that store (and all the Russian ornament and doll stores) - try to go in every time I'm in Sitka whether I buy anything or not. Thanks for sharing!

This is about 1/3 the number of excursions available when we were in Sitka May 3. They are located right where the free shuttle (from the cruise ship port) drops you off. If you book prior or walk up - same place, same companies.

Fortress of the Bears was a great stop when we were there pre-Covid; seem to always mention it. It was undergoing expansion construction, but surely complete by now. We were in Sitka just under 2 weeks ago - the new welcome center is very nice. Shuttle to town is free and easy - there are several non-ship excursion options in town at the shuttle stop. Had whales join us for dinner! No pictures but they were nice to watch.

We were on Eurodam April 29 - May 6; I did mention some maintenance issues in my review. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2934932-live-review-eurodam-alaska-april-29-may-6-2023-seattle-roundtrip/page/2/ Only real negative was in regards to lack of maintenance - food and service were as expected . We have only cruised on HAL, Princess and Carnival, so I can't comment on other lines or compare. I will say (as I have here on various threads) we price other cruiselines, but ultimately book what we do due to ship size (don't care for mega-ships) and mostly consistent crew. We still have jobs (gotta pay for the cruises, lol) so we can't take longer cruises, but would probably not go longer than 14 days; we are having difficulty finding 7 day cruises with itineraries we like at prices that work for us. HAL is making us work to stay with them. 😪🤔

That's my internal debate.