just back from the amsterdam, alaska cruise may 30-june 6

[richie5817]

just home in good old edmonton canada,still not unpacked...just putting fingers to keyboard about the cruise, firstly a big thank-you to all the cruise critic members we met on the meet and greet on the sunday morning in the crowsnest bar..(big thank-you to HAL for the beverages and the yummy cookies too)being first time cruisers this was all very new to us,we have been all over the world but this was our first cruise,

(have been informed by my darling wife not the last too)

being told at the pier that the ship was under code red due to illness on the last cruise was alittle worrying,but HAL and the ships crew handle this very well..(after 4 days code red was stopped with no cases of illness on board)....a few passergers did moan about having to wait 30 seconds for a cup of coffee,or some other little thing,but i am sure 3 or 4 days in your cabin with vomiting and other nasty conditions would be more of an evil

the biggest surprize for everyone was the weather, bright sunny days, temps in the 70s,which my wife loved being lucky enough to have a verandah suite,which was cleaned to a inch of its life by our wonderful steward...happy....we loved the formal nights, we had all our meals bar one in the dinning rooms.(the lido food is good but we like the service and the time to enjoy our meals)..we tryed the pinnacle grill on the weds night for my wifes brithday, and well all i can say about our meal and the service at the PG is a culinary delight, and for only $20 each,i have paid over $200 each in washington dc and london for meals that would not stand up to what my wife and i enjoyed there..well done again PG staff..

all in all after this our maiden trip on a cruise(and thanks to the hours of reading cruise critic reveiws) yes my wife and i have got the cruise bug

would we try another criuse line..maybe...criuse with HAL again...you try and stop us

 

now the little not so good bits

1...to the manager la fontaine dining rooms...please,please clean the outsides of the windows..

2...to the photo shop...$39 for one small set of pictures,try $20 and i bet you would sale 100% more...

[swalm22]

richie,

 

Good to hear you enjoy your cruise with HAL and thank's for your small review. Hope next time you will enjoy again.

[sapper1]

just home in good old edmonton canada,still not unpacked...just putting fingers to keyboard about the cruise, firstly a big thank-you to all the cruise critic members we met on the meet and greet on the sunday morning in the crowsnest bar..(big thank-you to HAL for the beverages and the yummy cookies too)being first time cruisers this was all very new to us,we have been all over the world but this was our first cruise,

(have been informed by my darling wife not the last too)

being told at the pier that the ship was under code red due to illness on the last cruise was alittle worrying,but HAL and the ships crew handle this very well..(after 4 days code red was stopped with no cases of illness on board)....a few passergers did moan about having to wait 30 seconds for a cup of coffee,or some other little thing,but i am sure 3 or 4 days in your cabin with vomiting and other nasty conditions would be more of an evil

the biggest surprize for everyone was the weather, bright sunny days, temps in the 70s,which my wife loved being lucky enough to have a verandah suite,which was cleaned to a inch of its life by our wonderful steward...happy....we loved the formal nights, we had all our meals bar one in the dinning rooms.(the lido food is good but we like the service and the time to enjoy our meals)..we tryed the pinnacle grill on the weds night for my wifes brithday, and well all i can say about our meal and the service at the PG is a culinary delight, and for only $20 each,i have paid over $200 each in washington dc and london for meals that would not stand up to what my wife and i enjoyed there..well done again PG staff..

all in all after this our maiden trip on a cruise(and thanks to the hours of reading cruise critic reveiws) yes my wife and i have got the cruise bug

would we try another criuse line..maybe...criuse with HAL again...you try and stop us

 

now the little not so good bits

1...to the manager la fontaine dining rooms...please,please clean the outsides of the windows..

2...to the photo shop...$39 for one small set of pictures,try $20 and i bet you would sale 100% more...

Thank you for your positive review. I enjoyed it very much but I have one small suggestion for the future. I am sure I am not the only person who has difficulty reading when the poster does not use upper case letters to begin sentences and does not indicate the end of the sentence with a period. It just makes for tough going and might put some people off trying to read it at all.

I see you are quite new to CC and hope my "suggestion" does not upset you. I certainly do not intend to.:)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome home.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[Colombia1]

I really appreciate your post. We are leaving for Alaska on July 4th on the Amsterdam and I was so worried regarding the reviews regarding the norovirus and e coli outbreak on the ship that I thought for a moment to

change the trip.

 

By any chance did you took any of the tours offered by HAL?

[richie5817]

The crew really worked hard under code red.My wife and i only did one trip with HAL which was last minute due to the great weather that week in juneau.This was the whale watching which was good,lots of hump backs with young.If i remember right i was $139 each.

In Sitka we walked up to the raptor centre which was about a 15 minute walk.The centre was very informative and well worth the $12 each...

Little tip here,if ones legs are a little tired after the walk,grab a taxis its cheaper than the bus..$5 each for the bus,whole taxis for $7.50..and i hope you enjoy the cruise as much as my wife and i did

[cascadecruiser]

Good to meet you and Jen and enjoyed your mini review. It was really a nice cruise and "what weather"! Gary

[fsdj1097]

We really would have liked to join the Meet & Greet on Sunday. DW had a severe case of seasickness and we didn't want to risk it being mistaken for Noro. While she never really "lost it", she knows her limits and simply takes to the bed.

 

In fact we had a call from the "Medical Department" Sunday afternoon. The caller reported that she had received an email stating that we had reported symptoms of vomiting and diarhea. When I quested the caller a little closer, she stammered something and hung up. I reported the call to the concierge in the Neptune Lounge, she called the "Medical Department", and questioned them about the call. It appeared that the caller was looking at an email that had been received 2-weeks prior to our sailing!

 

What was your opinion of the service in the main dining room for breakfast? We tried it twice and the service was verrrrry slow.

 

Other than that, we really enjoyed the service and thought the ship was beautiful.