Zaandam/Alaska Review - May 21-28, 2010

[jmk22574]

This was our third cruise with HAL, all being to Alaska roundtrip out of Seattle. We arrived in Seattle the night before the cruise and had our HAL pre-cruise stay booked at the Fairmont Olympic. This was a very nice hotel, within walking distance of Pike Place Market (two blocks).

 

We arrived at Pier 91 around 11 a.m. on the morning of the cruise. There were already quite a few people checking in. There were no glitches with the check-in process as we had experienced in June of 2009 at this same pier. We boarded with group 1 as we were among the Deluxe Verandah Suite guests. Boarding took place around 12:15. We dropped our carry-on bags off in the Neptune Lounge and met Kris, our concierge. Unlike the Vista Class ships, the R-class ships only have one main concierge. Katrina filled in for an hour or so each day, and both of these ladies were top notch. We were NOT able to dine in the Rotterdam dining room for lunch as there was a private party booked there. This was just a very large group of college-age looking folks who were only on the ship for a few hours that day. So, we proceeded to the Lido and found it to be a bit hectic but not terribly so.

 

Being our first "non-Vista class" experience with HAL, we definitely found the walking distances on the Zaandam to be very short. The entire first day, I thought I was only midship, but we were actually at the aft elevators. All aft elevators worked the entire cruise, the midship elevators were all working; however, the forward bank of elevators had one out of service the entire cruise and often times two or three in total were out of service. This was most unfortunate as these were the busiest elevators on port days. We became very fond of the forward stairs. :)

 

Sailaway was a bit delayed, not sure why, but no biggie. We enjoyed this sailaway from our balcony (cabin #7003). The seas started to get a bit rough later that first night and continued so throughout day two (day at sea). The weather was perfect, however, so the rough seas were a mystery to me. We were due to arrive in Juneau at noon on Sunday if I remember correctly, but we didn't receive our daily program for Juneau until very late Saturday night, and the reason for this was that we were now going to be four hours late arriving in Juneau. We did make it there a little ahead of that schedule, but our shore excursion had to be canceled unfortunately. The captain did make up for the late arrival by giving us a later "all aboard" time. The next day we found out that the rough seas were not so much to blame for the late arrival, but we had lost an engine apparently. Juneau was still wonderful, and with our shore excursion canceled, we just decided to go up the Mt. Roberts Tramway and even hiked through the snow atop the mountain.

 

With our new "all aboard" of 10 p.m., this bumped Joel Mason's show to fairly late that evening....but we wouldn't miss his show for anything. We loved it! Three HAL cruises on three different ships to Alaska, and we have been lucky enough to have Joel Mason on board each time.

 

We had perfect weather at Glacier Bay and saw the best "calving" that we have ever experienced at Margerie Glacier. There were two naturalists on board that day, and they were very pleasant and approachable with questions, etc. We saw sea otter that day and bald eagles. No bears as we had seen in 2009. Also, going from Ketchikan to Victoria is the only time we witnessed any whales - as seen from the Crow's Nest during team trivia.

 

All other ports were perfect...on time arrivals, perfect weather, etc. We did go to Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, and the only thing I wish is that we had so much more time to spend there. They almost rush you out of there (not the workers, but the time frame the ship gives you there). We also were not cleared until almost 8:15 p.m. in Victoria to disembark, so this added to the "hurry up" feeling at the castle. My husband and I both hope to get back there one day and visit that entire city independent of a cruise.

 

Just some random thoughts now - after two previous cruises on the Noordam and Westerdam, we thought the Zaandam (being smaller) would have fewer children on board. Boy, were we wrong. I would dare to say that 20% of those on board were children - from teens down to babies. Club HAL was hopping on this cruise. Thankfully, everyone was very well-behaved. The crew was apparently very prepared for this. Another thing, there were many "groups" on board. One being a group of "tweens" on their 8th-grade class trip. I'm not sure what school they were from, but I sure don't remember any class trips like that! Very lucky group of kids. Also, there were many, many children under one year old. Again, the parents always seemed to remove crying babies from shows, etc. Even the Neptune Lounge was typically occupied by as many children (with their parents) as adults on any given visit.

 

We are not big on eating in the dining room, only had one meal there at lunchtime...it was very good. We typically visited the Lido, Terrace Grill, or ordered room service for our meals. This was hands down the BEST room service we have experienced on HAL. We've never really had any problems in the past, but we received our food in a very timely manner and our orders were always exactly right. Now, another odd thing was that for the majority of the cruise, the phones on board were not working correctly. I'm not sure if this was only relating to room service or all calls. We received a notice about this one day, but Kris (our NL concierge) just asked everyone to write out their orders on a daily basis and she would call them in for us. We thought all the food was wonderful. If I don't have to cook it, that's wonderful enough.

 

We did receive a notice on day two or three of the cruise that Glacier Bay passenger taxes have been increased since booking our cruise, and we would have an additional $7 and some odd cents/per person added to our shipboard account. We also never received any of the port tax credits I had been reading about on the boards prior to our cruise. Not sure if those were ever a reality or just wishful thinking. Again, no big deal to us.

 

We both LOVED the depth of the S suite balconies as compared to the SB/SA balconies on the Noordam and Westerdam. However, I much preferred the bathrooms on the Vista class deluxe verandah suites - their separate showers and double sinks actually IN the bathroom. We also were used to the plentiful number of outlets in the SB/SA suites on the Vista class ships and were not prepared for the lack of such on the Zaandam. We made it work though. I never attempted to use the "elephant" hair dryer as it came to be known. And the funniest thing ever was that a gentleman came into the Neptun Lounge after boarding and said that his bathroom was missing a hair dryer. I just figured he didn't know that the giant contraption on the wall was the hair dryer, but in fact, someone had taken the hand-held part of the dryer (aka - the elephant) home as a souvenir I guess. Not at all sure how they pulled that off or how it got overlooked.

 

Our cabin stewards were excellent (Adi and Anton).

 

Neptune Lounge concierges were beyond amazing (Kris 'the main concierge' and Katrina).

 

Cruise Director - Mike. The Zaandam/Alaska itinerary is his first ship with HAL. He started with Celebrity 13 years or so ago and has also worked for Disney and NCL. He grew on me as the cruise progressed. He even sat with my husband and I one day in the Crow's Nest and that's how we came to know about his past endeavors.

 

DJ Brett - he was outstanding! He became our favorite "face" at events throughout the cruise. He is very personable and very upbeat. The Zaandam/Alaska itinerary is also his first experience with HAL. It is actually his first experience with any cruise line I believe.

 

Captain - Jan Smit. There had been a Canadian captain on board whom I had hoped would be with us on our cruise, but that captain left after the Hawaiian cruising season. We never met Jan Smit, he didn't attend the farewell show, and was a man of few words. This was just fine by me because I could understand very little of what he was saying anyway when he would address the ship. So, I really am indifferent with regard to him. We did not attend the Mariner's Luncheon or the Suite passengers luncheon, so I'm assuming he was at these events, but we just prefer to do our own thing and not attend these events.

 

Disembarkation in Seattle went very smoothly. It seemed as if everyone had settled their accounts in a timely manner and we were off the ship at our scheduled 8:15-8:30 a.m. time frame. This was the time assigned to us by HAL for our 1:30 p.m. departure from SEA-TAC. We were at the airport (via HAL transfer) by 10 a.m.

 

I would give this cruise a solid "A." Our first cruise ever was with HAL to Alaska on the Noordam in September of 2007. That was a perfect experience in every way. Our second cruise was to Alaska on the Westerdam in May/June of 2009. This was a very disappointing cruise as the ship was in poor shape and the crew seemed very indifferent, my laundry was lost and never found, and there was just an overall negative vibe surrounding that cruise. This cruise on the Zaandam has renewed our love of HAL, it's crew, and this ship was in much better shape than the Westerdam, even though it is older I do believe. I'm not sure which will win in the future, the R-class or the Vista class, for our next cruise, but this positive experience will most definitely bring us back on board a HAL ship very soon.

 

Hopefully I didn't miss anything major, and feel free to ask any questions that I can hopefully answer. I'll post the link to Shutterfly (my first time using that site) and hopefully that will work to view some of the pictures I have already downloaded from our cruise.

 

Jill

 

http://alaska2010zaandam.shutterfly.com/

[TracieABD]

Thank you so much for your detailed review! I am glad you had a great cruise.:)

[Sailkeywest]

Really enjoyed reading your review :) Kids don't go to school anymore? :P

[mearsfansinboise]

8th grade field trip - a cruise?! Wow....

Thanks for the review. We're going on our first cruise soon so I am engrossed in reading reviews - the more recent, the better - - thank you.

[MrsMuir]

Jill, thanks for your review. We disembarked Zaandam on May 14 after the last Circle Hawaii cruise of the season, and share your impressions of the good room service and the overall atmosphere of a great crew. We liked CD Mike, too, though we don't get involved with many activities or shows. DJ Brett impressed us with his kindness towards physically- or mentally-limited passengers who wanted to join the fun -- HAL at its best, in my opinion. Capt. Smit was our captain, too; personable but not outgoing.

 

Glad you had a great time.

 

Mrs M

[oulaLuLu]

Some great insight on what to expect! Thanks for the review and gorgeous photos. It sounds like glacier viewing was nothing short of spectacular. Am very surprised to hear about the %age of kids - a little different than what I pictured. :rolleyes:

 

Glad to hear that your in-room dining experiences went smoothly even if the phones did not. I am curious, did you just stick to the room service standard menu or did you order from the MDR offerings? I suspect I may be experimenting with this myself...

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome Home.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. Enjoyed it very much.

[Sailkeywest]

 

Glad to hear that your in-room dining experiences went smoothly even if the phones did not. I am curious, did you just stick to the room service standard menu or did you order from the MDR offerings? I suspect I may be experimenting with this myself...

 

Good questions, Oulalulu. I am very curious about this also!

[jmk22574]

We definitely ordered from the dining room menu more than the standard room service menu (for dinner). I think the rule is that you have to place your room service order for items off the dining room menu within the first hour of early seating?? We were told we could place the order earlier and give them a later "delivery time" if we'd like, but once the room service phones went down, we just ordered each time around 5:45-6 p.m. and our food arrived within 30-45 minutes.

 

For breakfast, we almost always filled out the breakfast card the night before and hung it on our door, and our breakfast arrived each morning within the designated 30-minute time period (which we had chosen) and the orders were perfect each time - first cruise that we haven't gotten either extra food in our order or failed to receive something we had ordered.

 

Mrs. M - I'm so glad that you had a great experience with the Zaandam crew as well. This truly was a great blend of people on board.

 

And yes, there truly was an 8th grade school trip on board. I don't remember "passing" the 8th grade being such a reason for celebration, but they were overall very behaved. On a few occasions, we found one or two kids from this group just completely zonked out in the Crow's Nest, but everyone just let them be. We even held team trivia one day and that didn't even startle one boy awake. :)

 

I do know that the link to some of our trip photos is working now. I should have made the link a different color from the entire review so it would stick out a bit better, but at least I know this link works, unlike the previous one I posted on another thread.

 

Jill

[JWJs]

I enjoyed reading your detailed review and looking at your wonderful pictures.:)

I think spotted the Celebrity Millennium (love that ship) in one of your port pics.

[LoyHAL]

Wow, Jill! You really got your photos and review up fast! We, too, were on board -- right across the hall in 7030. Great cruise, huh?

 

I have mostly glacier and sunset pictures, as well, and hope to post a review soon -- before I forget!

 

Thanks for tweaking my memory. BTW, boarding day lunch was served in the Dining Room, but upstairs.

 

Great job on the review and photos!

 

LoyHAL

[portofrome]

Thanks for the review.

[DaveOKC]

We were on the Zaandam mid-April in 7030 and 7032. Great location for the rooms as there was no noise from above and they are right at the mis-ship stairs and elevators.

 

We agree that Kris (neptune staff) was a very nice and helpful person.

 

DaveOKC

[jmk22574]

LoyHAL - I guess we should have been more insistent about eating in the dining room on embarkation day....we did ask, but were told both upstairs and downstairs were for private parties only. Again, no big deal. Can't wait to read your review and see your pictures also! :)

 

Jill

[Susie51]

Thank you for your report. I am interested in your comparison between Za... and Vista ships. I have been on 3 of the Vista ships and I like them a lot. I hope to be on Noordam for the S. Carib. one day.

[auntibe49]

Great review! Thank you! We will be boarding the Zaandam next week, the 11th, and glad to hear how well your cruise went. Can't wait until we board!

[Crusing Bob]

Jill, really enjoyed your review and pictures. We look forward to our turn on the Zaandam.

 

Bob

[earl_m]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.glad you enjoy your cruise!!