Zuiderdam June 13th Short Review

[jmps]

Us

There were three of us on the cruise; a 51 YO couple and our 18 YO daughter. This was our first Alaskan cruise and our first time with HAL. We have sailed nine previous cruises mostly on Celebrity.

Pre-Cruise

We flew in to Vancouver two days early and really loved the city. We liked the suspension bridge, eating at Cardaro's, and just walking around the shore wall. We stayed at the Marriot Pinnacle and found it very close to everything. The beds were wonderful. We had a harbor view room and it was neat to watch the floatplanes in the harbor. A new building obscures views Canada Place.

Embarkation

We walked from the Marriot with our bags (10 minute easy level walk). The lines for US immigration were fairly long but moved along nicely. It was one hour from our Marriot room to standing in our cabin. We had booked an SY but we were upgraded to a wonderful SA Deluxe Suite (7061). The HAL check-in was fast and friendly. The upgrade was so wonderful.

Cabin

SA 7061 is right across from the Neptune Lounge. It was VERY easy to get drinks, snacks and concierge service. The room is by far the best cabin we have ever had. The Veranda is large. Our daughter used the sofa bed. She said it was comfortable. The king sized bed was very comfortable. The best we have experienced on a cruise ship. The cabin was very well maintained and the cabin stewards did a very good job. The fruit and flowers were a very nice touch. We used the free laundry twice and it was prompt.

The Neptune lounge staff could not be better. They helped with a few requests and arranged dinner for us. We felt so spoiled.

Ship Overall Impression

We liked the layout of the ship. The deep reds and purple color scheme was a bit much for Alaska but the ship was very elegant otherwise. Very nice art work and flowers were everywhere. The glass elevators were wonderful for the inside passage. After a bit we realized the elevator number and speed were the best we have seen. It was nice not to have long waits.

The passenger mix was older than we have experienced during our warm water cruises, as expected in Alaska. The only real affect that it had on was the daughter didn't have others to spend time with as in the past. We were told later in the summer more families are onboard. It might be better traveling a bit later in the season for families with children or young adults.

Itinerary

We chose this cruise because it visited Glacier Bay and left from Vancouver. It turned out great. Vancouver is wonderful and Glacier Bay was fantastic. I really recommend this itinerary. In summary I highly recommend a floatplane trip in Ketchikan to see the wonder of Misty Fjords, a whale watch on a small boat in Juneau, and taking a car trip up into the mountain vistas in Skagway.

Entertainment

We only saw the comedian and he was good. We don't get to see movies very much so we saw two in the screening room. The seating is really nice and they have popcorn. On this cruise the entertainment for us was looking out at the Inside Passage.

We asked for a "Meet and Greet" for cruise critic members. HAL arranged this in the Crow's Nest and we had a nice time meeting other CCers.

Dining

We had the open seating for the first time for dinner. It worked out well and we only waited once for a table. It was very nice to do this given the port times. The service in the dining room was a bit less formal than on Celebrity but still very good. We enjoyed the food and our favorites were; onion soup. Chilled soups, prime rib, duck, and couscous. The lobster tail was large, tender and tasty. We also used the dining room for two lunches that were relaxed and good.

We ate dinner once, lunch once and breakfast almost every day in the Pinnacle Grill. The service here was a notch up from the dining room as expected. The bone-in Rib-Eye was very good. Our daughter loves crab and although it was not on the Pinnacle menu they brought it in from the main dining room since it was served that night. The King crab was sweet and delicious.

The Lido (cafeteria) was crowded for lunch. A lot of people were using the window tables for viewing. To counter this they were recommending the dining room lunch. We used the Lido less on this cruise than ever before. The food was good but hectic getting around. They did have trays that helped in not having to make multiple trips. We liked the variety in the food stations. We ate one dinner here and it was fine. The Lido was the only place we had any food issue; the lettuce one day was very badly wilted on the salad bar.

Instead of a Midnight Buffet a Dessert Buffet was served one night. That makes good sense.

Ports/Excursions

We went with "Harv and Marv" for a whale watch trip in Juneau. Our guide/captain was Steve and he was very nice and you can tell really loves his job. We saw Orcas (not that common) and a very playful Humpback calf with its mother. It was raining a bit but the boat had a nice enclosed area. We got a quick tour of the capitol buildings and Gov. Palin's mansion. We stopped off at the Glacier on the way back to town. I highly recommend whale watching in Juneau and "Harv and Marv."

Ketchikan had a really nice feel to it despite all the tourist type shops. For some reason it just seemed very friendly. We got in at 10 and left at 5:30. We did a floatplane trip with "Island Wings" at 3:00. The Misty Fjords were really impressive from the air. We landed in a fjord where Michelle the pilot saw a bear from the air. We got some pics from shore and enjoyed the sense of peace. Then other floatplanes saw what we were doing and four landed all at once. :-) But by that time the bear was gone. I highly recommend a floatplane trip and "Island Wings" in particular.

Skagway itself is very small. The people were very friendly. The keys to Skagway are to go into the surrounding area and the gold rush history. We rented a car from Avis and drove up to Emerald Lake and back. There was a bit of wait to get the car but it was in very good condition. We decided to do the drive over the train to get more flexibility.

We drove thru Carcross and stopped at "Moose Trading." Doing this gives a glimpse into local life in the area.

It was raining in the morning but when we got to Emerald Lake it cleared. We felt sorry for those on the morning trains because the probably saw very little. I recommend waiting to buy train tickets.

We went to the tourist Museum/Dog Camp outside of Carcross. Our daughter loved seeing the Husky puppies. The museum itself had some nice displays, better than expected and worth visiting. We ate at the "Cinnamon Cache" right by Emerald Lake. This is a little very friendly place away from the crowds at the Museum. We stopped many times along the way down for pictures and just to stare in awe at the mountain vistas.

Back in Skagway we visited the Skagway Museum. It has a very nice display of life in the past and more recent local artwork. It is a very well spent $2! The town has some local artisan shops that are very nice. For our taste the carving shops were the best.

Disembark

Disembark was very smoothly done at the pier. We hit a peak time but the delay thru Customs was not long. There were no expected lines for taxis. The real delay was at the airport; long line after long line. It wasn't running yet for us but I would recommend US Direct from the pier if you are directly flying out on a busy port day (Saturday) to the US.

Summary

The Inside Passage was amazing. The experience of nature was just wonderful. We found HAL very much to our liking. We booked the Westerdam for next spring break already

[johnlcruise]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[Susie51]

Congratulations! Grieat upgrade and nice review.

[LVSue]

Informative and to the point! Nice review--of course, I pricked up my ears because we have the same cabin on September 19! I'm so glad you had such a wonderful trip on HAL--I love Alaska (who in Las Vegas wouldn't?) and I love HAL!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for your review.

Glad you had a wonderful Alaskan cruise.

[jmps]

Informative and to the point! Nice review--of course, I pricked up my ears because we have the same cabin on September 19! I'm so glad you had such a wonderful trip on HAL--I love Alaska (who in Las Vegas wouldn't?) and I love HAL!

 

Enjoy "our" cabin :-) and the rest of your cruise!

[marthasunny]

Which port did you use? I know that there are 2 in vancouver that the cruise ships use.

[jmps]

We used Canada Place. I mention it but don't say we sailed from there.

[DizzyDallasDi]

We used Canada Place. I mention it but don't say we sailed from there.

 

Where did you sail from? My May 23 Zuiderdam cruise sailed from Canada Place.

[themerle]

Thanks for sharing your review with us!