SuzWillCruise

We had the two week version booked, and Flam was already part of our itinerary. Geraingerfjord was our main reason for booking, so we’re strongly considering canceling.

There are whale watching excursions in Icy Point, but those all got cancelled that evening due weather … they said the swells at the whale viewing area were 8 feet.

Thanks everyone for responding. We’ve book laundry for the duration, and the spa for the 1st 7 days. We’ll mention to the spa when we get our 1st sticker that we would like the spa for the entire trip, and then find out from them if we must visit on turnaround day. We’re looking at a kayaking shore excursion in Fläm (Thursday of week 2), so we’re really wanting the hydrotherapy pool for the whole cruise!

We would love to. But work frowns on vacations over two weeks long, and HAL’s Wi-Fi is definitely not sufficient for working remotely.

Eurodam was burgundy…it matched my luggage! 🙂

As someone who grew up in a small town with a tourist season, I can see the logic on limiting the commercial enterprises. The parks and forests are for all of us to enjoy, not just a money making venture for private businesses. Nothing against private business, but the public bus is way cheaper. (Just a lot less convenient with the additional walk.) The swimming hole that I went to in my youth is now over run with kayak rental places and somehow they’re the only ones who get to use the dock. We used a non-blue shuttle bus last month, and the trails were crowded, and the visitor center was a scrum. Our original Glacier Paddle and Trek tour was canceled and after a lovely 20 person max whale watching tour last year, we didn’t want to signup for the higher capacity tour we learned about on the deck, hence the knock-off shuttle. I do feel bad for the shuttle company employees, but it’s unfortunate that the companies ignored the limits. It’s so hard to balance limited resources. For anyone looking for things to do in Juneau, maybe there are food tours? Or you can do your own … there’s a lot of stuff in walking distance.

We were on this same cruise! Following along. Re the fire alarm: did you see a lot of kids? We were staying at the airport Embassy Suites, and they handed out a flyer about a bunch of “don’t do’s”. Seriously, it was a whole page! We noted to each other that “there must be a story related to this” and the front desk person said they’d had issues with kids pulling the fire alarm and the fire dept has to come out before people can come back inside, and then they said that there was a soccer tournament nearby. Most of the kids were fine, but a few of them could have remembered to use their indoor voices, and some of them were taking unnecessary trips up and down the elevator. With only 2 out of three elevators, that was annoying. But nobody pulled the fire alarm! We also ate at Pinnacle on the 1st day, and you’re absolutely right about the bacon and the ribeye. We started our meal at 5, though, because that was 8pm at home. I just realized after seeing your pictures that we didn’t have a single towel animal the entire trip! Huh. It was our first HAL sailing, so we thought it wasn’t a thing. It’s fine. (Unless you post later with a picture of a towel animal whale. Then I will be super jealous, and will have to request a towel animal whale on our next Alaska sailing!) We were disappointed by the Wildlife expert, too. The cruise director lady was good, though.

On our recent Eurodam cruise they had raw sugar at the explorer’s cafe on deck 11. For a moment I thought they also had it on the lido, but when I looked closer it appeared to be brown sugar! I used regular granulated sugar while on the lido and it was fine. At home I drink my coffee black, but cruise ship coffee needs some doctoring to be palatable. (And calories don’t count on vacation.)

On our cruise two weeks ago we had fixed early and were in the upper. (We were at a table for two surrounded by large tables, some of which had small children who weren’t really ready for prime time yet. It was not what we really wanted to celebrate our anniversary. I think we need to pick a non “school is out” date to celebrate in the future!)

We just disembarked from the Eurodam about two weeks ago. We absolutely loved her, but it was our first cruise with HAL. Our points of reference are Carnival (my spouse is almost diamond status and I’m just shy of platinum) and NCL, which we were NOT happy about at all. Our sailing was to Alaska and there was fresh oj included on the Alaska Brunch day. (I’m pretty sure it was. However, I did also get a Bloody Mary and a cappuccino so it may have counted against my HIA pkg? ) The fresh oj was better, but the regular oj was pretty good, too. I had read so many threads here on CC about the food quality going downhill that we were a little worried, but we really liked most of the food we had. (I agree that Pinnacle was disappointing. Not bad by any means, but our gala night food in the MDR was better. Tamarind appetizers and desserts were great, but I’m still trying to find a wow main dish there.) We want another cruise on the Eurodam. We had hopes for Alaska 2025, but it looks like it’s doing the exact same itinerary we just completed. I did say I’d be happy to do that same cruise again, but we were hoping for some new ports this time around, and save a repeat for 26 or 27. (2024 is not an option.. there’s only so much vacation time and we have a two week cruise to Norway plus an RV trip for the total solar eclipse that will possibly take two weeks as well.) Oh, someone mentioned loving the Eurodam but had only 500 people on their restart. That ship is fantastic. If you do the math on gross tonnage per passenger, it’s one of the highest for HAL at 41 gross tons per passenger , tied with another ship that I don’t recall. Our sailing was full, per the “no upgrades” sign at the customer service desk, and the only times it felt crowded or I had to wait were: 1. long slow lines at customer service on embarkation day and next day, no surprise 2. long lines, not sure how fast they moved, for Wi-Fi help. (The Wi-Fi is pretty sucky) 3. Glass elevator midship seemed to be two of 4 working the whole cruise, so those waits were sort of long. Knee issues meant I needed to wait, plus didn’t want to prep the buttons for all three options, so your mileage may vary) 4. embarkation day one of the front elevators was persnickety if there were too many people, and it seemed to define “too many” as more than five or six. But embarkation day is always bad for elevators so what can you do. 5. The chocolate surprise event, held outside BB King. Who thought it was a good idea to hold that at a choke point? It wasn’t worth the effort in my opinion. 6. There WERE lines at the exploration cafe on Glacier Bay day, but they had extra people and it moved super fast. Most times I was up there I only had 2 or 3 people in front of me, and often none or one. Seriously, we loved the Eurodam. Maybe it’s just that we’re comparing it to Carnival, but I think a lot of it is the ton per passenger ratio. On Carnival we like the Spirit class best for the same reason. I don’t need a shopping mall or go karts on my cruises!

For those of you have booked, or been able to see itineraries, what have you seen? I found some info on a cruise booking site that I used to book a river cruise back in 2016, but I don’t know if they have access to all of the HAL cruises. All I can find are 7 day cruises that are identical or practically identical to the cruise we just did two weeks ago, and then two 14 day cruises, one starting May 4th 2025 and the other September 15th 2025. (Both out of Vancouver, which does NOT seem to be a preferred launch port for people here on CC.) We were hoping to find an itinerary that includes Juneau plus Sitka, and then some ports we haven’t visited yet, but no joy so far.

So, we booked a 14 day cruise to Norway in May of 24, and realized later that it’s also 2 seven day cruises. We’ll have the same cabin obviously, but what should we expect on the turn around day? So far, we’re tripping over the fact that we can’t seem to book the spa for the full 14 days. I’d rather book it for the entire cruise now, and not waste part of my vacation trying to figure out the exact right window to book days 8-14. I’m guessing we’ll need to leave the ship at some point, which is fine, and we’ll find something to do in Rotterdam, but we shouldn’t need new keys, right?

In the Elite plan, the non-alcoholic drinks are covered, and do not count towards your 15 drink per day limit. Drinks costing up to $15 are covered. If amount is higher, you pay the difference. Not covered: mini bar, room service alcohol or specialty beverages, whiskey/cocktail classes. (I think. We haven’t actually cruised with HAL yet, but we’ve been reading the boards for months.) We’re about to cruise with the signature package. Our non-alcoholic drinks DO count against our 15 drink limit, and we pay the difference for items over $11. Same non-coverage for classes and room service.

Is smoking allowed in the casino now? Restricted to active gamblers, or open to all? As non-smokers we were happy to read about some casino smoking restrictions on the Eurodam several months ago, but I don’t recall what they were or if they were Covid related. (On Carnival the smoke definitely travels beyond the casino, and impacts how we traverse the ship and where we can eat.)

This thread has clinched it for me … I’m going to bring a “Great Plate” on our cruise. If I don’t use it, it’s not that heavy.