CupKayke

I've been on 25 Carnival cruises. At the end of November I'm going over to Holland and hope to experience something that might remind me of what cruising used to be like with elegance and good food, things lacking on Carnival.

 

 

 

I'm traveling solo and have a balcony cabin. Hoping no orange in the cabin!

I just wrote a review here on the HAL board "Two Kids On A Ship" - you might be interested in reading it and viewing the pictures. I wrote a lot about the differences between Carnival and HAL.

Definitely enjoying your report! It's fun to see it all through the eyes of a "kid"! :D

 

 

 

I have been finding that Tapatalk is much easier than Photobucket for adding photos to a thread - and my big problem with the 'bucket is that if you delete a photo from that site, it disappears from the thread, too! It's only a loaner.:( All that will be left is a little blue box with a question mark in it. Whereas, (and I experimented with it...) the photo stays on after you leave Tapatalk. I did find that you have to start your thread the usual way, on line, and then you are subscribed to it, and can access it on Tapatalk on your device. It's just an app on your device. I don't have it on my computer, don't even know if I can have it on the computer. Anyway, just a suggestion from an old luddite!:)

Thank you very much for this information!! I will definitely look into this!

Thanks for all the replies. [emoji106]

So why beat a dead horse?

I'm afraid you should keep reading before you reply. Geez.

Wow....... For years, $55 plus the start up charge bought 100 minutes on HAL. This is quite an increase in cost to only now get 40 minutes.

 

The cheapest package was $55. I don't know how many minutes $55 got you for sure. The packages were steep and not a good deal. It was 75 cents per minute if you did pay as you go. The Internet was fast.

Just a couple of HAL tid-bits…

• They had Vegemite and my husband thought this was wonderful. I thought it was funny.

• There were too many fish dishes on this cruise and not enough chicken or meat dishes. I was not impressed with the main course offerings at dinner. I like Salmon but I hate pesto and I don’t want my Salmon covered in salsa which always seemed to be the offerings – Salmon with pesto or with salsa.

• The Internet prices were the highest prices I’ve seen on a ship. It was 75 cents a minute or the cheapest package was $55. The next package was $100. They had $250 Internet packages – for INTERNET. I have a blog I update for family so I prewrote the blog and then uploaded it in < 10 minutes or for about $8. It was a fast connection.

• I have several friends in their 40s and 50s who cruise once a year. They like to party and attend shows and mingle and drink more than we do. They would not be happy on HAL. I know their personalities and I know they would come home complaining. My husband and I tend to keep to ourselves and we like the quiet hallways and bars. We spend most of our time on our balcony. We live in a quiet area of town where all of our neighbors are retired so maybe we are used to the quiet…

Final notes

I think it’s important to note that I didn’t read anything about this ship or HAL before this cruise. We knew HAL still allowed smoking on balconies and that is why we booked with them. We just wanted a small getaway. This cruise fit the bill perfectly. I believe HAL is superior with their service and several other items but I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – most cruise lines are more alike than different. Still, HAL’s differences were very good and I greatly appreciate the attention to detail, the little things, the politeness, etc. Clearly HAL isn’t focused toward the 40some crowd but we loved it and we are seriously considering booking Alaska next year on HAL or at least doing the San Diego back up to Vancouver move on one of their ships in April next year. We don’t know. What we do know is HAL did a great job. It is my plan for us to take one of those extended-length 30 to 40 day Asian cruises but I think we are about 10 years away from having that much time away from work. Regardless, happy sailing. Glad this entertained a few people…

We walked off the boat and a very short ten minutes later we were at Pier 39 and we found the California Welcome Center. We had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes until they opened. We were able to store our backpacks and our two suitcases for $20 for the day. We were the first people there and there was a long line of people waiting to store luggage after us by the time we left but the luggage storage there is limited. They also offered to arrange a shared hotel-type shuttle to the airport for us at only $17 per person (for later in the day). This was a relief and a time saver for us.

We immediately went to see the Sea Lions..

It started raining when we landed in San Francisco and it rained off and on most of the day ~ more on than off. The pier area was neat to see..

Pier 39 is Carnival-like to us... would be a great place for kids. My husband is a big kid so we tried the 7D Theater. I thought it would be so-so. It was a blast!! We loved it!!

We walked all over and had lunch at Boudin Bakery

We shared the clam chowder in the sourdough bowl and we couldn't finish it and we didn't even touch the sandwich. :o

It was a great day in this small area of San Francisco. There were open-air hop-on/hop-off buses at Fisherman's Wharf but it was raining too much. We finally took our shuttle ride to the airport and the driver had to stop at three hotels first so we did get to experience some of the straight up and down streets and see a few interesting homes from the window of the van. I think I would like to return to San Francisco and spend a few days downtown.

Up Next ~ Final Thoughts on HAL

San Francisco

Well, today is the day we get off the ship and I do have two complaints about HAL regarding this entire cruise and today is the day I unfortunately am going to write about them. It seems strange that they do so very well in almost every area – superior customer service – and then they really jack-up in another area. :confused: I thought a lot about this post before writing it but the truth is the truth and HAL screwed-up and one of the employees on HAL should be fired or at least watched by a superior member of the crew so she doesn't redo her actions this day.

So, when we booked this cruise in AUGUST for a SEPTEMBER cruise… there were NO excursions available online in San Francisco. I called twice before we booked our flights to make SURE there were NO excursions available in San Francisco. Frankly, I was having a hard time deciding what to do because we wanted to spend some time in San Francisco but we didn’t want to pay at least $400 a night for a decent hotel (I’m a cheapskate – that’s why we are retiring early). So, we needed a way to take an excursion and leave our luggage on the bus before getting a taxi to the airport OR we needed a HAL Luggage Express (I think that’s what they called it) transfer of our luggage from the ship to the airport OR we needed a HAL excursion that included a transfer to the airport at the end. I called twice before booking our flights. I checked online. NOTHING was available. I finally found one place on Fisherman’s Wharf that will store a limited amount of luggage for the day for $5 per piece on a first-come first-serve basis. I made a San Francisco itinerary we could do on our own and eventually booked us a late flight out of SFO. Having said that… I was always worried we would not be able to get our luggage to the storage facility before the other cruisers wishing to do the same and then we would be stuck in San Francisco all day with our luggage. This is where HAL screwed-up, big time…. I actually called HAL the WEEK before we left, a month after our flights were booked and NO… still NO excursions offered in San Francisco, no luggage transfer offered to SFO, nothing available. Nothing was available online, still, either. THAT WAS COMPLETELY WRONG. We got onboard the first day and there were MANY options in San Francisco. Not only did they offer 3 or 4 excursions for those staying onboard for the next 16 days (the ship was moving down the west coast, through the Panama Canal, and onto Fort Lauderdale) but they offered a direct transfer from the ship to SFO with your luggage for $49.95. They also offered a day excursion to Twin Peaks and a scenic view/picture stop to Golden Gate Bridge and then a final transfer to the airport for $104.95 per person. I immediately called down and booked us the excursion with the transfer to the airport. We would be getting to the airport around 1pm so we would be wasting a lot of time but at least we didn’t have to worry about our luggage for the day. At the time I booked I asked how full the excursion was and she said “It’s actually in danger of being cancelled because not enough people have signed-up.” I told her that this excursion was not offered online and I had called HAL the week before and they said there would be no excursions of any kind offered in San Francisco. She said the boat may have not been able to communicate with corporate and since this was cruise day one, they might have more people sign-up. Later that evening or the next day, all the people getting off in San Francisco had flyers in their rooms about a “new” excursion offered for $104.95 per person. Well guess what? Everyone had already made plans and my husband, myself, and one other person signed-up and that was not enough people so they had to cancel the excursion. This was irritating to say the least. HAL needs to fix this type of miscommunication especially in a port like San Francisco. Is this how they do all of their ports or all of their cruises? I'm a planner so this bothers me.

Now… let’s go back to disembarkation day. The Captain mentioned the evening prior that we would be coming into San Francisco around 6am to pick-up our local water guide and then we would be passing under the Golden Gate Bridge around 6:30am. I set our alarm for 5:45am and had us 90% packed before going to bed. We were awake, showered, and on our balcony watching as we sailed into San Francisco. I have been to San Francisco before. My husband had not so he was fairly excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

We sailed past the famous Ghirardelli hotel and Fisherman's Wharf area extremely slowly. We slowly moved into the port. The view from our balcony before docking..

It took a long time to actually get to the dock even though it was a short distance.

As soon as the boat came into the port and we saw we were docking, we went ahead and got our backpacks on, our luggage in hand, and took the elevator down to disembark. Please note that not many people were leaving the ship today as most people had embarked in Vancouver for the 19-day trip from Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale (through Panama Canal) and some had even been on since the previous Alaskan itinerary and others would be embarking today for the 16-day Panama Canal cruise. Having said that, not a lot of people were rushing to get off the boat today. I wrote that because I'm now going to write something ugly. I reported this when we got our HAL review questions after the cruise. This is not a HAL corporation screw-up but it does reflect very badly on HAL and the person who did this should be reprimanded at the very least. If HAL didn't pay attention to our review on email, maybe they'll pay attention to this review. (do ships even read these reviews? I have my doubts). Regardless, we got downstairs and there was NOONE and I mean NOONE waiting to get off the ship. Another first. We waited about a total of 10 minutes before the security came on and off and said housekeeping could leave the ship and setup for disembarkation. About 5 minutes later, we were allowed off the ship. So, in the 10 minutes we were waiting, we waited at least 20 to 25 feet away from the ropes/disembarkation podium on the left side. We were basically around a hump in the hallway where there are small round seats and a large open hallway. There were maybe 2 or 3 people waiting behind us for the entire 10 minutes besides a young couple (they were employees) who walked down in front of us and they stood directly in front of the ropes. No biggie to us. What did bother us was an older blonde/white-haired lady (whom we later learned worked for housekeeping) who started YELLING and RUDELY (I wish I had a video to post here on HAL - she would be fired) telling us we could NOT wait in the hallway and we must go to some lounge. She went on and on and on at us. I finally said to her "There is no one else waiting, we are not in the way of any walkers or anyone else who would like to pass us." She was soooo rude I can't even believe it. When we got home I asked my husband his best part of the trip and his worst part. He said this lady was the worst part of his trip. She was THAT bad. Her voice was so grating. Clearly, this lady has never worked on a Carnival or Royal Caribbean ship. They would be having a party if there were only 4 people waiting to get off a ship. Now, slowly other people did filter in and by the time we disembarked there was a small, single file line behind us. No luggage anywhere, no problems, everyone was being very polite. This lady was being so rude she actually got in my face and said "DID YOU HEAR ME?" I couldn't believe it. I don't know what made her think she could talk to me that way?? I thought my husband was going to come unglued but he didn't say a word and I just looked at her and held my tongue. She gave me a look that would make children cry. I am NOT exaggerating. This lady was soooo out of line. There was a male employee at the podium on his walkie talking back and forth with security and he was trying to ignore her and I wondered why he didn't say something to her but then I realized he was angry at the two employees standing by the ropes. He made them step back about 10 feet. Finally, they said "HOUSEKEEPING CAN LEAVE THE BOAT" and this ruder-than-ever lady and a couple of others took what looked like a luggage rack and left the boat. When she was gone I look around and the 6 or 7 of us that were waiting by that time sorta relaxed. Noone could believe how rude she was talking to us. I really, really wish I would have taken a video because I would be sending it directly to HAL. For the record, I know people are supposed to wait in this lounge or that lounge and normally we don't care what time we get off the boat and we obey all the "rules" but this cruise HAL had put us in a precarious position by not offering excursions online or on the phone precruise and we needed to get to the luggage storage place and there was another HAL ship docking the same time we were so again, we were in a hurry to get off the boat and there was not a crowd. The hallways were clear. We were all being polite and quiet. So, five minutes later they open the ropes and the male employee at the podium told the two employees waiting at the front they had to wait and let passengers off first. I was the very first person off the boat. My husband was second. THAT is a first. There was no celebrating however due to the way the rude lady had treated us. A crowd never showed-up btw... there were about 12 people total waiting to disembark at that time in the morning (around 8:30am) and 2 of them were employees. It is my opinion the lady yelling at us does not represent anyone we encountered on HAL nor should she be allowed around guests - her nasty voice alone is enough to make passengers start running.

So here are some last day photos we took on the boat...the elevators had the day-of-the-week rugs

We snapped this picture before leaving the boat.. the boat was beautiful

(I have about 2 more posts left before I am finished with this review, FYI)

We just got off the Oosterdam Sept 30th and the CHEAPEST package was 40 min for $55. They were all ludicrous like that. The packages swiftly increased from there. It was 75 cents per minute pay-as-you-go.

They told us NO. We had a long nice chat with a photographer.

Astoria, continued...

We took the trolley up to the little shops and looked around. We were not impressed. Astoria is a tiny town. There really isn’t anything here and most of the shops were just junk shops. We walked about a block or so down until we found a small shop selling Astoria t-shirts. We decided to get back on the ship probably around 4pm or 4:30pm. Well, so did everyone else. If you were on the “left” side of the road, we could easily tell you were not going to get back on the trolley/shuttle. At this point they also had a bus running the route. We walked across the street and got on the super-crowded super-hot standing-room-only bus. The bus was so full we couldn’t pick-up folks waiting at the museum. They told them they would come back around as soon as they had dropped us off at the pier. We were back at the pier in a couple of hot minutes and we slowly meandered our way back on the boat.

We sat and watched others come back the rest of the afternoon and I believe we left around 5:30pm or 6:00pm. The ship started blowing the horn about 30 minutes prior to us leaving. I must say it is good to hear a ship’s horn and this captain was always generous with the honking now and then.

My husband and I can now say we've been to the state of Oregon. I believe I have 10 US states left before I've visited them all. Regardless, I sure would have enjoyed a full, long day here so we could have taken an excursion into Portland. Astoria is like a hollow chocolate - it looks good but on the inside, it's empty. Having said that... the people in Astoria are outstanding. From the minute we stepped off the boat, through the market, at the shuttle, at the museum, downtown, and every place we visited there were folks everywhere dressed in blue vests that said something like "Astoria Welcoming Committee" and these people were soooo nice. Always offering advice, showing us the way to here or there or simply welcoming us to their town. The lady in the gift shop at the Maritime Museum was especially nice. You can't say enough nice things about the people here.

I'm not for sure what we did the rest of the this day. Again, I did not plan on writing a review .

The next day, day 3 on the ship, was a sea day. Our ship booked it all night long down the west coast and there was a slight bit of rocking and rolling. We passed into California coastal waters just before noon according to the captain. It was windy, cold, and dark skies. The captain said there had been a storm north of us and we were feeling the effects of this but both stabilizers were out so he was trying to keep the ship as steady as possible. I thought it was nothing. I've been on a ship you could barely walk on so this seemed fine to me. Anyway, all this cool weather brought a treat for us today... for everyone... not once... but twice.... WHALES!

I actually got a picture of a whale spout...

That might not win picture of the year but I was surprised to find it on my camera when we returned home. In the morning, around 7am, we saw a couple of spouts off the balcony. Later, we were walking down some stairs and overheard a lady telling her husband she was on the treadmill when she saw them, too. That afternoon, however, we saw at least 5 or 6. We were on the balcony and my husband yelled "whales" and several others came to their balcony railings and we all enjoyed a good little show for a few minutes. That was a first for us. What a treat!

We tried Dive-In today. It's a tiny little burger & fry joint on the Forward Lido deck open 11am to 5pm (I believe). There are about 5 different burgers you can order and 3 different types of fries - naked, smothered or something else. You get the idea. There was no wait and we were the only people there at the time we wanted food which I think was around 4pm. The fries were seasoned and sorta breaded and excellent. The burgers were so-so. Neither of us were really impressed because they weren't hot, oddly enough. It's free and we both like a burger now and then so that's good ~ I think it's a neat idea. I wanted a Dr Pepper to go with my burger and was told the ship only sold Coke products. Are you kidding me? Nope. They were not kidding me. I noticed one lady had her own bottled Barq's Root Beer she had brought onboard. We brought some Sprite. I think you probably should just bring what you like if you don't like Coke products. There is a large group of ladies at my work that believe they can't get through an hour of work without a Dr. Pepper. Glad I'm not one of them ladies...

Since this is our last day on the ship, I want to share one of my favorite little things about this ship... see-through or glass elevators. There are two of them on each side of the ship in the middle. They are fun to ride in and I got in them as often as possible. Almost scary, definitely cool.

It's hard to get a decent picture of them so here is a bad one...

I also remembered that I took a couple more room pictures when we boarded, out of habit I suppose so here they are...

and

Astoria, Oregon

On day two of this cruise we were scheduled to be docked in Astoria, Oregon from 1pm to 5pm or 6pm. I don’t quite remember the leave time. It was a slow docking for some reason so we didn’t actually get docked until almost 1:30pm. The sail-in was beautiful and we watched the boat slowly slide-in and dock from our balcony. As soon as they put the gangway down, we grabbed our little daypack and walked down the stairs.

Here is the crowd waiting to get off the ship:

Notice the word crowd is a joke. We waited less than two minutes and we were off the ship. I was the 5th person off and my husband was the 6th person off – if my count was correct which I believe it was. Again, this has never happened to us on any other cruise. It was nice.

Today HAL had the option of 3 excursions – the same three they had on the boat were the same three they had online pre-cruise (this was not the case in San Francisco as I will discuss later). You could… 1)go on a brewery tour or 2)do an inside culinary event or 3)take a bus ride an hour away to another little Oregon town and see their markets and get your feet wet in their beach. All three options were at least $49.95 per person and didn’t appeal to us. We decided to get off and see what we could see.

If you look at this next picture, you will see small white tents. This is what they call the Astoria "market"...

It took about ten minutes to walk through and buy some homemade toffee (wrapped very nicely and made a good gift plus they had free tastings) and take a gander at the other homemade paintings, portraits, purses, and like items for sale. It was probably the second best thing in Astoria, unfortunately.

We walked past the market and they were selling all day on and off shuttle tickets for about $8 a person I think. Your other option was to walk 1.3 miles into "town" so we chose to sit in the open-air shuttle/trolley-like-thing and get a ride to town. The trolley stopped first at a small row of downtown shops and everyone got off but us... we continued on to the Maritime Museum which we had read about and thought might be interesting. This was a smart little move on our part because later as we were leaving the museum it was starting to get packed with people.

This museum was about $12 a person and was interesting. My husband loved the information about the Coast Guard. Did you know the US Coast Guard saves an average of 600 lives per year? They do. Also, this area of Astoria is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean and is called The Graveyard Of The Pacific. The waters are so dangerous that the Coast Guard actually trains here in Astoria. The Coast Guard ships were actually setup just outside the museum area. The museum had lots of other information about Astoria and its history. Back in the day, Astoria was the home to Bumble Bee Tuna. They also had lots of old items to see like the old "guns" they used to use for shark fishing. My husband enjoyed this museum quite a bit and I was not bored. Also, the gift shop in this museum was a good little find - they were selling silly stuff like "Sea Lion Poop" in cute souvenir bags, wild huckleberry chocolates and even things like Wild Huckleberry Pancake Mix with jam/syrup. My mom and sister both appreciated the unique gifts I purchased at this little gift shop.

(He's not crazy, really, he just acts that way sometimes)

We were onboard Oosterdam and got off Sept 30th. Candid shots were $19.95 each. Posed pictures were sold in packages starting at $195.

The food on Holland America was impressive to this girl who enjoys eating (too much). They have a sandwich station with some great pre-made sandwich options or you can order your sandwich while they make it in front of you. They have a Thailand food area which also has fresh sushi every day. They have a pastries area that has hard, hand-dipped ice creams like strawberry, butter pecan, etc. They have the regular cruise ship salad/fruit/cheese/bread bars and hot food bars. There is more than enough to eat on the Lido deck almost any time of the day. I was impressed with the pastries – items like Key Lime pie and Mango cheesecake and the cookies are soft. The food resembled the other lines except HAL far exceeds in the pastry and sushi area.

The sushi…

We ordered room service every night. We would walk to the dining room, write down our evening choices from the menu on the outside wall (starters, main courses, & desserts), and later when we were ready to eat, we just called room service and they brought the dining room selections to our room! This is a good perk of HAL not available on Carnival (but is available on Royal Caribbean). We called the first night and inquired and they told us we could order from the dining room menu up until 9pm. Most nights we ordered around 8pm and they would always say 40 minutes or so but it never took that long and they never forgot the A-1 sauce for my husband’s steak or the salt and pepper. The little things mean a lot on HAL and I was impressed with the service. The main food was the same as the other lines, IMHO. I wish they offered more chicken dishes but that is just me. The desserts were fantastic.

Below is a blueberry crisp with vanilla ice cream (me) and an “Alaska Gold Sundae” (hubby) which consisted of butter pecan ice cream, butterscotch, nuts and whip cream. I love HAL just because they offer butterscotch – you can hardly find that anywhere these days. Needless to say, we shared the sundae.

Soo… the first night we ate our room service then we put our tray & dishes in the hallway. They called and asked us to please not do that anymore because they need the hallways clear for walkers and such. I’m sure someone is going to think I’m going to joke about this but no, that was fine by us. Every time they delivered to our room after that they left a small card with the meal that said “Please dial extension XX and we will pick-up your dishes. Please do not leave your dishes in the hallway.” It said something along those lines if not that exactly. I didn’t like calling to have our dishes picked-up so most of the time we took them to the Lido deck and left them in the dirty dish bins. This is different from any other cruise line we have sailed with but it was no biggie and of course we would oblige.

So... Day 2... I was up early (2 hour time difference in my favor) so I decided to walk the outer deck 3. This deck is the morning walking/running deck for several passengers. Actually, I also saw several walking and running the outside Lido deck in the mornings too. Here is a picture I quickly snapped during my deck 3 morning walk before more of these “older” people came to lap me :o (true story). It doesn't look like it but the deck goes all the way around the ship. Most people were just walking on this lower deck.

The Oosterdam is what I would call "Classic Beautiful"... lots of framed black and white photos of previous/older years of HAL cruise ships lined the halls. I LOVED looking at these photos. Here is one next to our cabin door...

This is the large painting by the fifth floor stairwell... there was something about it I liked...

Each floor had a marble bench between elevators... they were different on each floor.

There was not an open ten-story or even five-story atrium-type area that most larger ships have on the Oosterdam. I'm not sure if this is how all HAL ships are designed or if this is an older ship or a smaller ship. There was a 2-story area near the front office and the main dining rooms. This crystal-filled world was slowing spinning and it is beautiful.

We sailed away after a quick and easy muster drill. Everyone showed-up at their muster stations on time, they were quiet and they listened to instructions and this muster drill was the easiest I've ever attended. No one was paged over and over while everyone waited. No one seemed drunk. This IS a difference from our past cruises.

We enjoyed sail away from our balcony. Here we are about to go under Lion's Gate Bridge

The most people we ever saw on the ship was during our muster drill. Then they all disappeared again. Soon after sailaway I again commented how quiet the ship is... my husband replied they were all taking their afternoon naps... and so we joined them. Maybe these retired folks have the right idea...

After finding our room we threw our bags down, changed into warmer clothes (it was cool and windy on deck) and decided to explore the ship. The ship was very quiet and none of the public areas were crowded. It would remain this way our entire cruise. We loved it. Today we walked all the way up to deck 10 and all the way down to deck 1, inside and out.

Here we are on Deck 10, an observation deck

Lido Deck, Forward Pool… as soon as we began cruising, this became a covered area due to the cooler weather. Nice. It is also interesting to note that on some of our past cruises the hot tubs have been lukewarm but not on this ship, they were steaming and hot and wonderful. There are 6 hot tubs on the Lido deck and always one or two are empty. Double nice.

Hubby with Canada Place in the background…

View of the Westerdam across from us…they left out about an hour or so before us…

Forward Lido Bar (there is another in the Aft section). For a Carnival cruiser here is one BIG difference... the bars were never busy. EVER. At least not the Lido bars. This bar was open for business but the bartender was over to the right arranging some ice. You could always get service immediately and Alaskan beer was buy one bottle, get one free. Never seen that on a ship before. The only time I saw the bars packed was the inside bars near the dining rooms before, during, and after the evening dining hours... lots of well-dressed, good-smelling, gentlemen and ladies enjoying their martinis and wine among other libations.

Our drinks before noon on embarkation day...

Thank you all for your nice comments.

Photobucket is being a pain but I'll try to get some more posted tonight.

It’s Sunday Sept 27th and we board the Oosterdam today. We took a taxi to Canada Place around 10:30am. The taxi driver was actually allowed inside the parking garage and dropped us off directly where we leave our luggage - very nice! We tipped the porter, took the escalator upstairs and the entire check-in process took about 10 minutes. No lines, no waiting. We were given an invite to a Mariner’s Club party or something of that sort. Holland America considered my husband a “one” star or something like that because my husband was booked on a HAL cruise around 10 years ago with his family. They paid for the cruise but he no-showed on them. He got that one star anyway.. somehow. Regardless, we don’t usually attend those types of gatherings but one never knows. This time, we did not.

We waited quietly and patiently with about five rows of individuals in front of us to board first. They also waited quietly and patiently. It was nice. My husband looked around and whispered we were surely the only individuals waiting that were still employed. There was a survey girl walking around asking basic questions – how many days pre-cruise did you stay in Vancouver, where are you from, and what is your age group, etc. We heard a lot of 70-plus. Actually, we didn’t hear anything younger than 70. I was surprised but figured this would change later as most people who are regular cruisers know to arrive early and beat the rush and this crowd probably had some cruise experience. It did not change later. If I had to make an estimate I would say 10 couples under 60s/70s total. Who knows. It didn’t matter to us or them. We felt like kids. It was great. Prior to this trip we were both feeling old. We needed the mental relief and something to look forward to in retirement which is planned for us in our 50s but now I’m off subject...

Once onboard we were told our rooms were immediately ready. WOW! That’s new. We took the elevator to the fifth deck, room 5037 – a forward balcony room. Our luggage was arriving in the crew elevator the same time we were arriving and one suitcase beat my husband inside the room. Impressive.

The room… standard balcony room. I see no difference here between other cruise ships except for a few items. I’ll write a few details because some people may be interested. The couch in this room was a pull-out sleeper. Nice. It was also old, stained, and looked broken on the corner. It was the only item on the entire ship we saw that didn’t seem to live-up to what I would now consider HAL standards. It wasn’t of interest to us even if it was new as we just used it as a place to keep our backpacks. The closet and storage space in this room was incredible. PLENTY of places to store items - several cabinets were left untouched by us. Also, once unpacked we realized the bed was designed so we could slide our two now-empty suitcases under the left side of the bed. The shower has shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. My husband thought they were decent. I carry my own shampoos. The bathroom had the oddest thing and I don’t even remember if other ships have this or not but they had a small, metal waste basket attached to the wall – and yes, you could remove it from the wall. It was very slim. I was sick the first night and there was nowhere to “relieve” myself so I had to call and ask for some vomit bags, literally. Don’t most ships normally have a regular size wastebasket? I don’t think I’ve ever been sick on a ship before so I don’t know the answer to that. It was an interesting situation to find myself as I do not vomit in toilets. Regardless, I was not sick after that first night as I know it was because I had a very large margarita upon embarkation and overate all the delicious food that first day. I learned my lesson quickly.

My husband smokes on the balcony and he was given a special ashtray to use. I think it keeps the butts and ashes inside it. He used one we had brought from home until the room steward noticed he smoked and then brought him the HAL ashtray. Later, I read in the informational booklet that if you smoke on the balcony you need to call and ask for a special ashtray.

The TV was a small flat screen. I wondered if all cruise ships have such tiny TVs but really, it was fine. We actually watched two movies and didn’t even notice the TV was small. Which reminds me of something… we noticed there was a small DVD player, too. My husband found this little booklet of movies on our desk – 100s of movies – that you can call and have delivered to room to watch on your DVD player for free! Only one movie at a time. The movies are all oldies but goodies – everything from When Harry Met Sally to The Hangover series (all of them) . I ordered a movie the first night and they delivered it. Then we tried to order another movie and someone else had it so apparently this was a popular perk. The last night my husband wanted The Count of Monte Christo (one of his all-time favorites). They were busy and said it would be 40 minutes until they could get the movie to us unless we would be willing to come to the front desk (floor 1) and pick it up. Of course I had it picked-up in just under five minutes. I had never seen this movie and thought it would be horrible so I was packing-up some items while watching a bit and hubby started snoring while "watching" and within 30 minutes I was hooked and watched the entire movie and loved it! Anyway, I’m sure it is a little thing but we thought this movie exchange was wonderful and a great perk for those who don’t like dancing or clubbing or jazz n’ blues – which was the feature entertainment on this ship.

The balcony, in both our opinions, was about 2 feet longer than any other cruise balcony we’ve had. We could be totally wrong but it felt so much bigger out there than on any other ship we’ve been on previously. We could put the chairs back against the glass wall and spread our legs out and still have several feet until we would touch the balcony glass. Not only does this feel more private, it feels safer. We loved the balcony.

I’m finished talking about the room now.. let’s get out and explore the ship…

While in Vancouver we enjoyed several areas of Vancouver and loved them all! We took the free shuttle from the hotel to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. The hotel gave us $3 off per person tickets when we asked where the stop was but when we got there, we got $4 off per person with our AAA card. I realize it’s a bit steep in price to visit this park and walk around and it is a workout, I assure of that… but we spent at least 3 or 4 hours here and walked the Cliff Walk and the Suspension Bridge (twice) and perused some other areas as well.

The Crazy Cliff Walk or Cat Walk…

I was scared going down the stairs to the Cliff Walk…

I was barely breathing come back up the stairs from the Cliff Walk..

So we checked-out the suspension bridge a few times…

We had a good day here. We also visited Stanley Park - which the free Capilano Shuttle will pick you up from here or drop you off from here. That was nice.

We also had a scheduled Vancouver Foodie Tour of the Granville Island Market. We have taken these foodie tours in several other cities now. The best part of a "foodie" tour to us is getting a fantastic history of the area and trying something new. My husband's favorite food was the boar hash at Edible Canada and mine was the chai latte from a Granville Island tea store. Our guide was Andrew and he was fantastic. Here is Andrew with some freshly made donuts from Lee's Donuts...

We loved-loved Edible Canada (that's a restaurant name) and we will make time to eat here again and shop in their quirky gift shop again if/when we visit Vancouver in the future. The gift shop sold many delicious and unique items... homemade caramels, bacon salt, and bacon n' eggs ~ which was chocolate speckled eggs filled with bacon. Cute.

We took the Aquabus tour of False Creek and walked all over Granville Island. The area is beautiful...

Up next... Embarkation

We flew from St Louis to Minneapolis, ran through the airport thinking we were dying from not having moved so fast in so long, and walked to the gate just in time to make our next flight to Vancouver. We arrived in beautiful Vancouver on a rainy Thursday night around 10:30pm. The nighttime Vancouver view from the taxi was beautiful. I like the city lights and the lighted bridges. Note: we had visited Vancouver for a whopping hour or less back in 2010 when we embarked on another cruise here but that day we took the train from Seattle then a taxi directly to the cruise ship and we only saw graffiti along the way so I had low expectations for Vancouver…but I was greatly impressed with Vancouver this time.

Our hotel for 3 nights was the Best Western Chateau and Suites on Granville Street. We were given mixed reviews about this hotel here on Cruise Critic but Trip Advisor has great reviews. So-So glad we decided to stay here. It was perfectly located, great service, excellent restaurant and bar on the main floor of the hotel, quick and good room service, 5 to 10 minute walk from not one but two Starbucks, near fresh vegetable markets, 10 minutes walk to several food/restaurant options, and two seconds across the street was a small grocery store. Every suite had a balcony and you can smoke on your balcony (husband smokes, I do not). Anyway… great hotel…

Since there is some controversy about this hotel here on CC, I will just say THIS was our first view out the front of the hotel and from our third floor balcony….

We watched this shop for 3 days to see if anyone ever went inside to try-out the 25-cent peep show. We saw people hesitate at the door but never, one time, could we see anyone walk inside – day or night. It became a game for us. Not a peep did we see. Regardless, if you walk out the front of the hotel and turn right you are in the entertainment/bar district which I hear is a bit seedy. We never turned right. We always turned left. We were literally two blocks away from a beautiful community garden…

And one night we had some delicious, cheap, and filling Vietnamese food at Pho Central (about four blocks away? 10 minute walk)….

This was the normal, beautiful view from our balcony...

The hotel is located a short walk to a mall and the main downtown sites. $10 taxi from here to Granville Island (and back). $10 taxi from here to the cruise ship. $31 set taxi fare from the airport. When you shut the door to your room, you don't hear a peep from another hotel guest or from the hallway... always very important in my opinion. I would obviously recommend this hotel and we would stay here again.

My husband (41) and I (43) decided in August that our jobs demanded a quick vacation. We booked a Holland America cruise leaving from Vancouver, BC and traveling down to San Francisco with a stop in Astoria, Oregon. We left Sept 27th and arrived in San Francisco Sept 30th. 3 nights - the shortest cruise we’ve ever taken. I wasn’t planning to write a review but after reading the HAL boards, I thought it might help some other 40some “kids” considering taking a cruise on Holland America. We spent 3-nights pre-cruise in Vancouver so I’m going to cover a bit of that fun, too. There will be pictures. This will not be in-depth and detailed like most of my reviews have been. If you want the dirt… here it is… the ship was beautiful, the food was outstanding (far exceeds Carnival’s offerings), the service was excellent, and the other cruisers were about 30 to 40 years older than us on average which made for a quiet and peaceful cruise. We loved it. We will be returning to HAL.

And on that note… let’s start a little review..

Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver vs Best Western Plus Chateau in Granville? Pros and Cons please

We have the option of moving to Lonsdale Quay hotel (North Vancouver?) versus BW Plus Chateau in Granville. I have very little time to make this decision. Is this area safe? Can we take aqua buses everywhere? I would rather have a water view vs entertainment district view any day. Seeking Opinions

I think you are good. We did this same food tour and loved it. Smart of you to plan time after the tour to go buy items! We did the same thing. In my opinion, you have plenty of time for the tour and the needle and something else but I know nothing about those gardens are or how long you plan to spend there (?) but if < 2 hrs, you should be fine. We loved Seattle.