Live? A test of Alaskan Wifi, AKA Our Alaskan Trip Report August 2018

[Grenouille21]

I really like dessert. Like, REEEEEEALLY like dessert. My team at work has endless discussions about the desserts they serve us at lunch. Its A Thing.

Sooooo many choices!

Now, I am not really a fan of buffets. I am sort of a germophobe, and the idea of soooooo many people breathing on my food, touching my food... eeew. I have watched countless videos of cruises, and I have seen SO many kids AND ADULTS in the background of these videos taking food from the buffet, then putting it back. YUCK!

One thing I really liked about HAL was that most of the food at the buffet was plated by HAL employees behind the buffet. There were a few things you could grab for yourself, such as bread, pre-made sandwiches, etc. But there was no open salad bar where you could help yourself. No self-serve taco bar. This did lead to longer lines at each section, but I feel that is a very fair trade-off.

Some of the pre-made sandwiches (there was a list of what each sandwich was, you just can't see it in this photo).

I was overwhelmed by the choices and ended up getting a caesar salad from the salad bar (that is NOT me in the photo). They put too much dressing on it, but otherwise it was great! The woman who made my salad asked what I wanted and I could customize my salad any way I wanted. Obviously I asked for avocado, because avocado makes EVERYthing better. I have no photo of my salad because I ate all of it so quickly because ADRENALINE!

 

 

 

 

I really liked this penguin. So here s/he is.

 

 

 

 

I want to take a moment to talk about food allergies, and how they are handled on HAL. (Spoiler Alert: They are AWESOME with food allergies!)

 

 

Being a travel agent has its privileges, so I was able to note the allergy in our reservation. If you have a food allergy issue and you are working with a travel agent, make sure they know how to note the allergy in your reservation. If they don't, or if they don't know what you are talking about, you might want another travel agent.

 

 

The next step is contacting Ship Services and filling out a form, which I linked earlier in this report. There you can make note of the allergy and provide details. I also called Ship Services, where I was told to fill out the form. I had filled it out, it just hadn't been processed yet. So you can always do one or the other, or both.

 

 

When we entered the buffet I found one of the managers and asked about allergies. DD is allergic to tree nuts, and he assured me that most of the food was fine. We walked through and looked at which areas had nuts, and he advised to stay away from those areas. He said we could always ask at any station, and they would bring out the chef for us. DD ended up eating pasta pretty much any time she ate at the buffet, which is safe, so it wasn't an issue.

 

 

I'm jumping ahead, but when we arrived at dinner they knew about our allergy, though I mentioned it anyway because you always need to be proactive when it comes to food allergies. They suggested a specific dish for DD, but she wanted something else and they were happy to oblige. Each night they brought DD a menu where she could write her name, stateroom number, and star or otherwise mark her order for the next night. DD is an artist, so she almost always drew a picture on the menu (it was a paper copy and she was told to write on it) and wrote notes about things she loved. One night she wrote "I LOVE BUTTER!!!" and every night thereafter we had like 17 pats of butter in the butter dish.

 

 

Our server, Libra (YAY LIBRA!!!) was awesome, and he seemed to enjoy her drawings and notes. He started making origami animals for the kids, and our other server Hendri and our wine steward Edgar started doing magic tricks for the kids, too.

 

 

But I digress. I will talk about the Main Dining Room later. I just want to say that I felt that food allergies were handled very well on the ship. I also felt that food preferences for the rest of us were handled very well. But I'll talk more about that later.

[Grenouille21]

After lunch we went next door to check out the pool. While it may look empty now, there were always kids and adults swimming during the cruise. This pool was busy, but not the "Kid Soup" of Disney Cruise Line. This was a MUCH more manageable level of busy! Those who used the pool seemed to enjoy it a lot!

 

 

This was the only time on the cruise that the pool tables were not in use. Every other time I walked by there were people using both tables, and people waiting for the tables.

 

 

This was the thermal spa. They were (aggressively- but that is normal for cruises) selling passes to the spa on the first few days of the cruise. I don't do spa stuff, so this is as far as I went. Every time I walked by the spa it seemed busy, but I did overhear someone at dinner saying that the spa workers did not get paid to work there. Their only payment is tips. So you might pay $200 for a massage, and they don't see a penny of that $200. All they get is the tip. Now, as I said, I overheard this, so it may not be true. But he said his masseuse told him this, so... who knows.

 

 

There are two types of Cabanas on the Nieuw Amsterdam: Retreat Cabanas and Lido Cabanas. This is one of the Lido Cabanas, which are located near the pool. These are sectioned off with curtains, and offer some privacy and a guaranteed sitting area. I know there are other benefits, such as lunch and beverage service, too.

 

 

When the pool top is closed, these cabanas are entirely indoors. The Retreat Cabanas cost more, and are exposed to the outdoors. In nice weather this would be awesome. The Retreat Cabanas were busy on Glacier Bay day, but otherwise weren't usually occupied.

[Grenouille21]

Welcome to the Dive In. This is where I ate lunch, most of the time. DS also got most of his lunches here. This is complimentary, featuring burgers (including turkey burgers and veggie burgers), hot dogs, and chicken breast sandwiches. DS got many, many orders of cheese fries here as well. You can customize your burger/hot dog/sandwich/fries or order from the menu. Service was very quick, even on Sea Days and even for custom orders. I mention this because this was not the case for the other complimentary food station that was outside the buffet/MDR. One day there was a long line and I almost walked away, thinking I would return later. But I waited and the line actually moved very quickly.

 

 

Another view of the Lido Pool when no one was there yet. For the rest of the cruise this whole area was super busy. They did beer tastings and other events here on Sea Days.

 

 

[Dogstar]

Great fun following along. Perfect blend of text, humour & photos. [emoji1303]

[HBCcruiser]

Thanks for a great review! We board her on Saturday so this is fun to read!

 

 

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[1964IceCreamLady]

I just caught up!

 

I did a HAL Alaskan cruise last summer with the fam (2 teens and a tween). I hope your kids have as much fun as mine did! They made great friends and had a blast in The Loft.

[vms]

From one musical-loving, non-sports watching (except the Olympics which I adore) cruiser to another- thanks for a great start to your review! I'm thoroughly enjoying your commentary.

 

 

Merci Beaucoup! I look forward to reading more.

[cruiznLYNN]

Really enjoying your review! I think your photos are both beautiful and artistic. Thank you for allowing us to come along.

[Grenouille21]

So glad you are enjoying the report! I apologize for how long it is taking me to get this done. I appreciate your patience :).

 

Cruise Boarding Day cont'd

 

Our stateroom had been ready for a while, so we headed there to drop off our backpacks. We were booked in a Verandah Stateroom, which has two twin beds that can be pushed together or separated, and a sofa that pulls out to a bed. When the bed was pulled out there was no space to walk out to the Verandah, but they only pulled out the sofa bed at night so it wasn't too big a deal. I was able to flip the bottom end of the sofa bed over when I needed to walk around or go out on the Verandah in the morning.

 

Word of advice: I couldn't get the lights to work. Either the previous guests or our Room Steward had left a card in the slot, but I couldn't get the lights to turn on. So these photos were taken in "the dark". Later, when I met our Room Steward, he shoved the card into the slot harder than I had been doing and like magic, the lights turned on. So if you slide a card into the light slot and nothing happens, push it in harder, and it will likely solve the problem. We kept the card in the slot until we left the stateroom.

 

 

 

 

I slept on the sofa bed each night. It was slightly wider than a twin bed, but slightly shorter, too (I think). I am short, so that was fine, but a tall person might not do well on the sofa bed. It wasn't the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on, but as sofa beds go, it was totally fine.

 

 

The basket on the table had a card in it that you could fill out to request fresh fruit. We didn't use that service, but it was nice to know it was an option.

 

[Grenouille21]

I'm going to post these a little bit out of order, but since I was posting stateroom photos, I'll throw these in. This was *after* I figured out the light situation.

 

There were three closets. One had robes in it, and one had a safe. The closets offered plenty of space for our clothing and shoes.

 

 

The bathroom was fine. Nothing to write home about. It was a bathroom with a shower/tub, sink, and toilet. There were shelves above the sink which held most of our belongings, and there was a shelf under the sink as well.

 

 

This was on the table in the stateroom. It was an overview of the week, and it was nice to see all of the big events in one place.

 

[erewhon]

Enjoying your review, great photos, thank you.

When we have stayed at the Pan Pacific we would get up to watch from the windows to see "our" ship arrive.

Vancouver is a beautiful city.

[Grenouille21]

Now that we had shed our backpacks and unpacked, it was time to check out the Tween and Teen Clubs.

 

The Loft is the Teen Club on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Teens can come and go as they please during the club's hours. There are breaks throughout the day, and the hours are posted outside the door. While the club had programming scheduled, they didn't always follow the planned program. It seemed like there were usually a few kids playing Foosball or playing video games, and a few kids talking and/or playing card games.

 

 

 

 

The tween Club was next door, and had an inner door that could open between the clubs. Both the tween and teen club had motion sensors that would trigger a flashing light (think police or ambulance flashing light) when you approached the doorway. I liked this, because it meant no one could sneak in or out of the clubs. DS liked it because it became a challenge to walk past the sensor without triggering it (when he was with me, going in or out of the club).

 

The Tween Club (Club HAL) was a little more structured than the Teen Club. They had Xbox hour, and aside from that there wasn't the opportunity to sit around and play video games all day, like they do on Disney Cruise Line. They had Just Dance videos on sometimes, they played games, they played cards, they talked, they did crafts, and on Glacier Bay day they had a native local come in and talk to the kids, and had a park ranger program so the kids could get their Junior Ranger badges.

 

 

 

Both of my kids LOVED their clubs. Whenever the clubs were open, if we were on the ship... my kids were in the club. When I picked them up, they asked when they could go back. They strongly recommend HAL for their kids clubs and unanimously agree that HAL clubs are better than Disney clubs. They like the smaller groups and personal attention they had, and appreciated the group activities and/or group conversations. I walked in when DS was playing with much younger kids (tween club is 7-12, I think), letting them "shoot" him, or climb all over him, or roughhouse (nothing dangerous). He even participated in a drawing contest to earn a prize, which is incredible because he hates coloring.

 

The counselors were so nice, so much fun, and so awesome. *I* wanted to hang out with them myself! They always had recommendations for drinks, places to go, things to see, things to eat, etc. They gave me very good and very specific advice about when we would be likely to see wildlife from the ship, where I should go to have a better opportunity to see wildlife, when I should make sure to be on deck in Glacier Bay, etc. Honestly they were the most helpful people on the ship. Kudos to Amanda, Allison (might not be the right spelling), and all of the other counselors who were awesome but whose names I have forgotten.

[Grenouille21]

We were getting close to sail away time, and I wanted to be out on deck. We still had a little bit of time to explore so we walked outside on Deck 10. I stopped to take a photo of the Retreat Cabanas:

 

 

And then we headed in to the EXC Lounge. This area had recently been redone, and apparently there are some mixed feelings. Not knowing what this area was like before, I really enjoyed it in its current state. It has a multipurpose feel, and a comfortable vibe, at least in my opinion.

 

 

 

There is a lot of seating, but on Sea Days this space was full. People staked out the seats at the window, and if anyone stood up there was almost a rush of people asking if the seat was now available.

 

The cafe was open at 6:30 in the morning, and they served coffee drinks as well as sodas and alcohol (maybe not at 6:30am, but who knows!). They also had chocolate chip cookies that were complimentary and sooooooo good!

 

 

 

Some pricing, in case anyone is interested:

 

[Grenouille21]

Enjoying your review, great photos, thank you.

When we have stayed at the Pan Pacific we would get up to watch from the windows to see "our" ship arrive.

Vancouver is a beautiful city.

 

Thank you! The view is definitely one of the best perks of that hotel!

[erewhon]

Thank you! The view is definitely one of the best perks of that hotel!

 

Fascinating to watch the harbour activity.

[Grenouille21]

Special Cabana pricing and beverage packages for Glacier Bay:

 

 

I like flavored lattes, and they had a lot of choices:

 

 

 

There were a lot of games available, and DD and DS enjoyed several of them. They played Apples to Apples, Connect Four, and chess. DS and the friend he made in Club HAL came here a few times to play chess or Connect Four.

 

 

 

 

There were also books available to read.

 

 

 

 

Then there were these giant, interactive tablets with tons of information about our sailing and the destinations. I know I have photos of the screens that showed how fast we were going, when we would arrive at our next port, etc. This one was mostly about each of our ports.

 

 

 

 

We must have walked through the Lido Deck because this is the next photo I have. I really liked these bar stools.

 

 

[Grenouille21]

I also really liked these glass elevators. We tried to take these whenever possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently we made our way down to Deck 3, so I could take this photograph:

 

 

 

 

The shops were closed, but I did peek in and take a photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we stopped in the Main Dining Room. I didn't know it at the time, but our table was in this photo, next to the window. I had requested a window table when I made the reservation, and I was so glad we got our wish!

 

 

 

 

The menu was posted outside the dining room each day.

 

 

[Grenouille21]

We headed outside to the promenade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then up to Deck 9 and above because we were finally sailing away!!!

 

 

 

 

About 10 minutes before I took this photo my kids left to get sweatshirts. Or that's what they said, anyway. They disappeared for SO LONG and I still have no idea what happened. I didn't want to stand in one place and wait for them any more, so I left and walked up to higher decks to try and get good photos of us going under the bridge.

 

 

I was not the only person who had this idea.

 

 

 

 

As you can see, there is glass all around this deck, so my photos were kind of crappy. Later in the cruise (like, on the last full Sea Day) I found the perfect deck for viewing everything. Could I tell you how to get there now? Probably not. I have photos from that deck, though, so maybe it will come back to me when I get to that part.

 

 

For now, I present my glass-shaded view of the bridge.

 

 

 

 

Looking back at the bridge

 

 

 

 

And quite a bit later, looking back from the Sea View pool

 

 

[rajkr74]

We were in Whistler in Aug. and did walk out on the Suspension Bridge which had just opened in July. Thought maybe you'd like a photo of the bridge to see what you missed. It was pretty cool and did sway a little when a bunch of people were on it. :eek:

[Grenouille21]

We were in Whistler in Aug. and did walk out on the Suspension Bridge which had just opened in July. Thought maybe you'd like a photo of the bridge to see what you missed. It was pretty cool and did sway a little when a bunch of people were on it. :eek:

 

 

 

That looks terrifying!

:eek:

[Grenouille21]

Embarkation Day cont'd

 

So, this beer sign was everywhere, and they were really selling these Alaskan beers. At Sail Away the bar tenders were dressed in lumberjack style shirts, and there were drink stations everywhere with these beers and other drinks.

 

 

I have a 6 pack of the Husky here, and it is pretty good!

 

I had pre-ordered the Signature Beverage Package, and made good use of it trying different drinks. I'll share some of my favorites throughout the report. I know there are always questions about what is included in each package, so I thought I'd share this page they had out at a few different locations.

 

 

We walked through the casino and Billboard Lounge. In the evenings, there was a Dueling Piano style show in the area with the blue lights. The two pianists were great! I wasn't a fan of the evening bar scene. The music is nice, but sitting and watching a band isn't really interesting to me. I eventually found the perfect place for me, which I'll share later.

 

 

And another stop to check out this scene:

 

 

And then we were headed to dinner! BTW I promise this will become more interesting again. Right now its kind of boring since this is just me touring the ship and taking photos.

[Grenouille21]

We had the second seating for dinner, on the 3rd floor. I prefer second seating for several reasons, mainly because 5 is too early for dinner, and also because early dining would cut into our excursion time.

 

I had requested a private table near the window, and we were fortunate to have my request granted. Every night I took a photo out the window, just because.

 

Behold: The first night 8:15pm photo:

 

 

Our serving team was awesome. They learned what we liked and what we did not like, and served us food that we enjoyed and that was safe for DD's allergies.

 

Every night each of us had a Caesar Salad

 

 

After the first night they left off the anchovies.

 

DS had French Onion Soup every night. I tried it, and YUM!!

 

 

I ordered the Beef Short Rib Stroganoff, at Libra's recommendation. Something I learned from reading another review (Anita Latte's review of her family's Alaskan Cruise on the Celebrity Millennium) that you should always ask your Head Server for a recommendation, and go with it. So I did, and that was a good call! Sometimes there was something else I wanted to try, and so we would order that as well so we could all try it.

 

 

I really appreciated that HAL served NORMAL size portions of food, instead of jumbo Disney size portions of food. This allowed us to sample different dishes without feeling sick or wasting food.

 

I asked for a dessert recommendation and was told to get the banana crisp. I was intrigued, and wasn't sure, but it was really good! It was nice to try something different for a change.

 

[Grenouille21]

DS got 2 desserts, I think, but again the portions were small enough that this seemed OK at least once.

 

[Grenouille21]

I took the kids up to the club, and went down to Deck 2 to check out the music. The band at BB King was great! They had a great energy, and played a lot of really fun songs. However, I was bored and I left. Music just isn't my thing.

 

 

I'm not sure where I ended up, but eventually I went and signed DS out of the club when they closed and we headed back to the room where this guy was waiting for us.

 

 

Nieuw Amsterdam has a web page that you can use on the ship, even without the internet package. Just connect to the ship wifi (free) and open your browser. You'll be taken to the page automatically, where you can set up an itinerary and chat ID. Anyone over the age of 13 can use the chat. DS, who was still 12, was unable to use the chat feature, which really stank. DD was able to text me when she was coming back from the club, or I could text her to let her know where I was hanging out when the Teen Club closed during the day. It was really helpful being able to communicate with her on the ship.

 

DD eventually texted that the Teen Club had closed (midnight) and she headed back to the room.

 

That was the end of our boarding day! Now on to Sea Day 1!

[Lido deck main]

Thanks for posting, love your comments, reviews and photos. Hope for more.