3rd time's Alaska?! Volendam Alaska TR:

[DnA2010]

I thought I'd do a bit of a review as requested on our recent trip to Alaska on Holland America's Volendam. We got off the ship wednesday. I will try to modify somewhat as this is copied from posts on the Dis board (Disney forums)

I think I will break into sections and then add on.

 

These are the sections I am thinking off- let me know if there is something I miss as I go and I can add it-

-History/our group

-Departure

-Cabins

-Food

-Service

-Cleanliness

-Kids/Teen activities

-Entertainment

-Ports

-Disembarking

 

 

 

History/the Group:

 

Our party consists of my family- husband, Daughter 13, Daughter 11months and myself- H and D and I have done 2 cruises-RCL's Oasis of the Seas and then DCL's Fantasy. We loved both of the cruises, honestly pretty darn equally. We also have my sister, her husband, and their 11 month DS. And we have my mom, who had decided that she wanted to get us all together and wanted to see Alaska. We are from BC and my sister Alberta, so they flew to BC where we live and we all drove to Vancouver. My sister's family, and my mom have not cruised before.

So my mom was paying for this cruise, and had a set budget which I was working with- I could have afforded to pay extra on top to say cruise Disney, but wasn't really an option with my sister, having been off work on maternity (I went back in July) and the other criteria I was working with was visiting Glacier bay and preferably round trip Vancouver. Budget wise I believe I was finding Holland, Princess, and NCL in my budget. After some research, the 7 day Holland on Volendam fit the criteria and budget, and I was able to secure 3 interiors together. As we needed 2 cabins that would fit 3 (annoying as the babies didn't need beds but such is) ocean views weren't an option if we wanted to stay close (which we did as Grandma monitored the babies in the evenings once they were in bed)

 

Cost for our 3 cabins - Aug 16 departure, 2 that had 2 adults and a 11 month old and one cabin of 1 adult and 1 13 year old- around 11K Canadian - this was booked in July- if we booked the same cabins right now for next year, it would be around $12,300 Canadian, and as a bit of a comparison, I have priced the same week, same people and similar inside cabins for 2018 on DCL and it would be around 19K Canadian- I know Disney's prices are best at opening, and I'm not sure if their prices for 2018 have gone up much already, but anyway that's the numbers as they stand. The DCL would cost me even more as I'm using

xe.com

to compare the US cost to CAD, and I would loose a couple more % I'm sure due to exchange.

So really, we are talking around 7-8K difference.

 

Itinerary- same ports, HAL does the run into Glacier Bay.

 

Size of ship:

Wonder- 2400 passengers

Volendam- 1432 passengers

 

 

 

Departure:

 

We stayed the night before with family in Surrey. We used a shuttle service to get all of us and our luggage to the port- very much recommend Apex Shuttle/Limo service- cost was $105 each way for the 8 of us, and they had 1 car seat and stored 1 of our car seats and had it at pick up- this was important to me, that our babies could be secured. My husband is a paramedic and goes to a lot of car accidents- I think that's all I need to say there. As our driver was very early, had bottled water, loaded all our bags etc, I tipped 20% so total return for the shuttle (prob an hour drive?) around $250. Pulled right into the bag drop area and dropped the big bags.

 

We were dropped off around 11 and visited with some of my sister's friends till we headed to the terminal around 11:45- this whole processes was super quick and simple- into the terminal, lots of pleasant people to show the way, right into the the short line, which only really gave us time to fill out the sickness card and then we were at an agent- quick check in, cards in hand, and we were directed through the passageway and onto the ship- no boarding wait or groups, just right on- whole process maybe 20 minutes? Photo I took at boarding shows us getting on just after 12. No greeting by name, but lots of friendly people around, letting us know we could drop bags in our rooms and that that the buffet (Lido) was serving. It was nice to be able to head there and drop bags.

 

Be back in a bit for more

 

 

[DnA2010]

Cabins-

So we had 3 interior aft cabins, starboard side. 2591, 2695, 2699- on RCL we had an interior balcony and on DCL we had balcony on deck 10. My DH and I have done one cruise just the 2 of us that we had an interior (Freedom of the Seas from RCL)

Size- in comparison to the interior we had on Freedom, these were surprisingly bigger! there was def more room on either side of the bed which was nice, full side tables. Even when we had the playpen down for the baby to sleep in, we could get by to the door. We just popped the playpen on the couch when we weren't using it. The room steward asked if we wanted it taking down, but we said not to bother with naps and that.

 

Storage- lots and lots! More than we needed and we had lots of stuff. I will try to add some pictures, but off the top of my memory, there was room under the beds for the suitcases, 2 big drawers in the bedside table, 3 closets, one which we only kept the stroller in, the other we hung stuff (lots of wood hangers) the other had shelves. Lots of storage in the bathroom (which was a good size) huge shelf under the sink and counter, and the mirror opened for storage and we didn't even need/use.

 

Only 1 plug in, but we had a splitter so that helped. We didn't use our phones at all as we wanted to be totally unplugged (and didn't get around to adding a US plan), so mainly just used for hairdryer and baby monitor.

 

Lets see what else about the room- so size- good, bathroom size good, no tub (I believe the interiors are the only ones that don't have a tub) we had brought a blow up bath for bathing the baby, decor a bit dated but we expected that, as this ship is heading to dry dock after the Alaska runs, bed was fine, pillows ok, playpen for baby fine. No issues with the safe, you set it with a regular card.

 

Ah another thing, we found the rooms were very sound proof! We had 2 babies (the only ones on the ship for our cruise!) and could barely hear the other ones when they cried- you had to really listen, and our baby cries loud when she does cry!

 

Given someone was in the rooms in the daytime when the babies napped, it wouldn't have been nice to have a window, but it was fine.

 

The room was holding up well for it's age, the furniture was fine, the only major sign of age we saw was the tiles in the shower were a bit bleh and there was this crazy old school hair drying I think on the wall (I hope I got a picture) but the couch seemed pretty new, the stool at the desk was new.

My BIL gets super hot and found his room a bit hot, but the staff happily brought him a big box fan.

 

Given they were interior rooms, we didn't feel like we were on top of each other which was nice.