Alaska - HAL Volendam Review with pictures

I am finally finding time to review my HAL cruise to Alaska. We cruised on the Volendam out of Vancouver BC in May 2013. This was my first HAL cruise but I have sailed on Carnival and Royal Caribbean quite extensively.

I am going to start you off with some teasers....some of my favorite moments and pictures of the trip.

Our first sunset....day 1 after leaving Canada

Humpbacks!!!!!!

Cruising Glacier Day

More of Glacier Bay....this day was amazing to me. Pictures can never capture the beauty.

My float plane ride with Island Wings....

Me and the pilot Michelle

This was a beautiful plane

Your teasers are great.

Looking forward to the rest.

Wow. Great pictures!! Looking forward to see more!!

Kind regards,

Gina

A little story on how this cruise came about....this was my first trip to Alaska which is a shame since I live in Oregon.

Alaska has been my father's dream vacation for years and years. He always dreamed of taking the ferry system and going from town to town. As he and my mom have aged the idea of traveling on the ferry was not something my mom wanted to experience....so they started considering a cruise. My husband and I have cruised with them on 1 Caribbean and 1 Mexican cruise over the years so they have some exposure to cruising. They were still not comfortable cruising by themselves which makes me laugh because they take off for weeks at a time with a camping trailer driving all over the place. Because I knew they wanted to get to Alaska sooner rather than later I was always on the look out for cruising deals to Alaska. Finally one came up and the timing was right so they decided it was time...May 2013.

Hal was running a special that included 3rd and 4th person for free. I called and they committed that night. I was really surprised but it was on the condition that myself and my husband go too. My husband being a non-outdoorsy person and loving HOT weather had no desire what so ever to cruise to Alaska....cruising to him includes sun, beaches and frosty drinks. I decided to go on the cruise with my parents without my husband.....if your thinking 3 adults in a cabin should be "interesting" you are CORRECT. I knew it was not going to easy having a mother and daughter share a room.

Don't get me wrong....I love my parents but my mother (69 yrs old) can be challenging and being an adult (40 yrs old) I am pretty set in my ways as well!

I got everything booked and next thing I knew several other family members decided to come too. None of which had been on a cruise before. I was turning into an official cruise planning tour guide. The group included:

ME: 40

Dad: 74

Mom: 69

Aunt 1: mid 60

Uncle 1: late 60

Aunt 2: low 70

Uncle 2: mid 70

Aunt 3: mid 60

This is should be interesting......

Enjoying your pictures and reviews. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us and looking forward to more of your review.

Looking forward to he rest of our review... I think you are correct it should be interesting.

Great pics !!

We chose the Volendam because we wanted to sail out of Vancouver and get more of the "inside passage". Our itinerary included the following:

May 22 - Embark/Sail - 5 pm - Vancouver BC

May 23 - At Sea - Inside Passage

May 24 - Tracy Arm/Juneau

Tracy Arm - service call to drop off excursion passengers

Juneau - 1 pm - 10:30 pm

May 25 - Skagway - 7 am - 9 pm

May 26 - Glacier Bay - Scenic Cruising (one of my BEST cruising days ever)

May 27 - Ketchikan - 10:30 am - 6 pm

May 28 - At Sea - Inside Passage

Debark - May 29

Formal nights were on May 23rd and May 26th

Enjoying your review and wonderful pictures. Was surprised to see a female pilot for the float plane. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

I'll be back on the Volendam to Alaska next year, so I am looking forward to reading your review. I do hope you mention the entertainment.

Looking forward to your reviews! Your pictures are stunning. We are looking at the Volendam for May 2014.

Enjoying your review and wonderful pictures. Was surprised to see a female pilot for the float plane. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

There are plenty of female pilots up there. Because of the vastness of the state, people get pilot licenses like we get drivers licenses in the lower 48, pretty routine.

Great pics. My wife and I have been to Alaska twice before on DIY land travels , but will be doing our first Alaska cruise on Zuiderdam 8/31, also our first HAL trip.

Refreshes my memory as to why I tell everyone that they have to see Alaska.

Enjoying your review and wonderful pictures. Was surprised to see a female pilot for the float plane. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

The pilot, Michelle, was great.....she went to Alaska to fly one season and has been there ever since. It was either 14 or 17 years. She is the owner and only pilot for Island Wings. She flies a beautiful plane.

OK....where was I. As you can see we have a growing group of people. We all live in the Portland and Salem area but took various routes to get to the cruise.

Mom/Dad/Me decided to drive up to Vancouver the day before the cruise and get a hotel. Hotels are spendy in Vancouver so we stayed at the Accent Inn near the airport. The room included parking for the week and shuttle service to and from the port. It was a basic hotel that was great for 1 night. There was a Denny's and IHOP within walking distance.

Aunt 3 decided to take Amtrak from Salem the day before. She arrived fairly late into Vancouver and took a taxi to her hotel near the train station. She then took a cab the next day to the cruise port.

The remaining aunts/uncles....drove the night before to Seattle where they stayed with family. They then took the BOLT bus into Vancouver the morning of the cruise. Then a taxi from the bus station to the cruise port.

No one had any problems with their option. We all arrived at the cruise port within about 30 min of each other. We were first at 10:30 am.

Remember how I said this was Dads dream trip....well he is not known as someone who smiles much. But look at him in our boarding picture. He was definitely happy and excited. I had to buy the picture!

Wow, your pictures are beautiful. Thanks for posting and looking forward to more.

As I mentioned this was my first HAL cruise so I was interested to experience any differences. We were in an Ocean View cabin on Deck 1 (Dolphin Deck). Room #1819. Check-in was smooth....we were a little early so they were checking people in and having us wait seated in rows of chairs. We probably waited about 30 minutes after checking in. During that time we saw the rest of our crew check in and join the excited but chaired passengers.

Stepping onto the ship I was a little underwhelmed by the ship....I really enjoy a ship with a large atrium. Over the course of the cruise I came to appreciate the ship and really enjoyed the size.

Thank you for this review, and sharing your fabulous photos.

Once on board we were able to access our room right a way...this was a plus in my mind. On RC and Carnival you usually can not access your room until after 1:30. It was nice to check out the room and drop off some of our carry-ons. We headed down to deck 1. As we left the elevators and started towards our room the hall had a slight musty smell. This smell lasted throughout the cruise and some days were worse then others. It was mainly in the hall and didn't seem to affect our room which was about 10 cabins from the elevators.

The room was in good shape but was stuffy and fairly warm. We assumed it would cool off after the ship left port. Kinda like with an airplane. When it is sitting boarding it is warm but cools off fast after take-off. We looked around and found 2 more pluses for HAL. A bathtub and a fruit bowl in the room. The fruit bowl had a small card where you could indicate what type of fruit you would like. The bathtub while a plus on day 1 quickly became a negative....boo.

Dad checking out the room. We had a room that could fit 3-4 people so I had the option of sleeping in a bed that dropped out of the ceiling or the couch that made into a small bed. The bed that dropped out of the ceiling would be better for a child as it required climbing and did not have a lot of head room. It also would be "floating" above my parents bed. The couch was located approx were I took the photo below from.

Fruit bowl....loved this touch

We had 3 in a room and found separating the beds made the room feel bigger, as we could have a little walkway between the beds.

Thanks for the review and pictures....thinking about Alaska for next year!!

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Breathtaking.