jennaja

We'll be sailing on the Amsterdam 14 day Alaska sailing next month.  Is there anyone currently or recently on the Amsterdam that can answer any of the following:

- What brand of regular bottled water do they carry, and how much is it per bottle?  Trying to determine if we need to carry bring it onboard with us, or just buy as we go.  I know that the ship's water is tasty, but due to meds I need to drink lots of bottled water.  Ship water makes me swell up like a blowfish!

- Does HAL internet support the use of a Jetpack/VPN?  I am required to do my work while I'm gone, so if the internet and/or Jetpack won't work while we're at sea, I'll be sitting in the cabin while everyone else is on shore.  I'm not tech savvie.  If the Jetpack/VPN won't work with HAL's internet, is there any other option that would work for me?

- At Pier 31, is it a ramp or stairs that take you from the port onto the ship?  This will determine how much carry-on we bring with us.

- Anyone know why it's taking so long for HAL to assign the guarantee cabins.  On the HAL site, all they have left are guarantee insides and guarantee unobstructed oceanviews, so seems like they would be ready to assign the cabins.  We just booked a few days ago.

Thanks in advance for any responses!

 

We've used light rail before, and found it very convenient for getting from the airport to the downtown hotels.  Not sure how far the Marriott is from the light rail line.  Where would we get off to go to the Marriott Waterfront hotel?  Is it very far/walkable with our rolling luggage?  

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

On ‎5‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 7:18 AM, bebe08 said:

We are currently onboard Zaandam and have the soda card.   We bought in advance for 25.  All our sodas have been cans...no fountain soda.  Not sure if this is unique to certain ships.

Can you use the soda card to buy bottled water?  Do you know how much a bottle of water costs, and what brand it is?  Trying to figure how much we want to carry aboard.

Can you get bottled water with the soda fountain card?  Anyone know what brand of bottled water the Amsterdam carries, and the cost per bottle?

Does everything show up onboard, even though it's not showing on the online reservation page?

I have this same question.  My travel agent told me that HAL offered two beverage cards when I asked if they could do anything since the price of our cruise dropped the day after I booked it.  I can't find it anywhere, although I can find the onboard credit.

On sea days, the Pinnacle Grill serves a nice lunch.  Last summer, it was $10 per person.  I believe it was only open for an hour or so, so if you are interested, be sure to book early.

42 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

While not an official list I believe that some D & all CA rooms on Lower Promenade and all C & some DA rooms on Main were updated along with all Neptune and Vista Suites.  BEst best - book a C or CA room if you want the refreshed bath - anything else is a gamble. 

 

 

Yes, I got the same response from ship services.  Our travel agent didn't know either.

We really like HAL's Alaska itinerary, but HAL is our least favorite cruise line.  We sailed on this ship approx. 15 years ago, and didn't care for it back then. That  14 day cruise on this ship had torrential rains + dense fog for 13 of the 14 days, and it wasn't much fun with the drab old cabin and lack of daytime activities on the ship.

Thanks for the link to Halfacts.  Most of the pics are circa 2012 -- only saw one with a renovated bathroom.

Anyone on the Amsterdam since it was renovated, that can comment on the oceanview bathrooms?

We're considering a 14 day Alaskan cruise on the HAL Amsterdam.  Does anyone know if the bathrooms in the oceanview cabins have been renovated, and if so, which ones? 

We did this cruise on the Amsterdam many years ago, and felt the cabin (that we had) was in dire need of renovation.

We aren't booked yet, so if anyone has photos of the bathrooms and specific cabin numbers, we would appreciate it.


 

Why not just pre-order your water and have it in your stateroom waiting if its available on the ship you're sailing. Just a thought.

We're just looking for Arrowhead or Crystal Geyser, not Perrier or distilled water.. HAL doesn't offer that. ( I am on medication that makes me blow up like a blowfish when I drink the ships water.)

Is that for the $20 bag?

1. There's nowhere convenient to Cedarbrook Lodge where the OP could pick up some water before heading to Pier 91.

 

2. Using the light rail would be exceedingly inconvenient because it doesn't go anywhere near Pier 91, and switching from the light rail to a taxi for the last 3 miles (Westlake station to Pier 91) would be a massive hassle and wouldn't really save much money; it would, however, make for a journey time at least twice as long as a car service or Uber straight from the hotel to the pier.

 

3. Taxis and Ubers have a "standby" rate based on minutes rather than miles.

 

In my view the simplest way to handle this would be to book an Uber from Cedarbrook to Pier 91 but have the driver shoot past the Pier 91 turnoff two blocks to the big Whole Foods just north of the Smith Cove cruise terminal. The Uber would wait for 5 or 10 min. (probably $4 or $5 extra on the clock) while the OP runs in and grabs a case of water. The Uber then drives to the cruise terminal and everybody bails from the car. Badda bing.

 

Alternative plan: They sell water, really good water, in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway.

Thanks, I like this idea!

OK, I'm lost here. Near the airport, the light rail runs purely north/south. Cedarbrook is east of the airport, so you're not going to use light rail to get to the hotel. You've then inquired about shuttle options from Cedarbrook to Pier 91, and people have provided ideas. The light rail doesn't go from the airport to the Interbay region, so if you were to take light rail, you'd have to transfer to a bus anyway to get to the ship. Yet you've been given options for a shuttle/Uber/etc.

 

My suggestion was to fly into SEA, get a hotel shuttle or whatever from airport to hotel. You're going to spend the night there, so sometime during your stay, pick up a case of water, whether it be walking to a nearby convenience store, Ubering to dinner/breakfast/touristy stuff, whatever. Now, you have everything you need for you to be ready to board the ship, so take a (means of transportation: Shuttle Express, town car, Uber, whatever) to the ship; now you no longer need to stop mid-transfer to grab that case of water.

 

 

 

Cedarbrook Lodge has a free shuttle that transports guests to and from the airport, and to and from the light rail station. We'll use the free shuttle to get the hotel, check-in, then go the light rail to go in to Seattle for the day.

 

Until we check-out of the hotel to go to the Pier, we will only be using the hotel shuttle, light rail and the ferry system to get around.

What about getting the case of water before your ride arrives?[/quote

 

We're staying at the Cedarbrook Lodge by the airport, and won't have a car. Would be hard to carry a case of water on the light rail.

Seattle Express

Will they stop at a store so that we can pick up a case of water?

Based on this information, there are some sailings that I would avoid like the plague! Thanks for the heads-up!

Does lunch in the Pinnacle Grill book up quickly? Is it offered every day, or only on sea days? Is the experience worth the cost?

Yes...your cabin should have the new bathroom with the walk-in glass shower and new carpeting. We just did a 23-day cruise on the Zaandam in April & May in cabin #3339. We were the first cruise after the drydock when the bathrooms were changed and got this notice from HAL:

 

This is to advise guests who've booked Ocean-view staterooms on board Zaandam that during the April 2018 dry dock, the bathrooms in the below staterooms will be updated to a shower-only configuration:

Lower Promenade Deck: D3331 - D3370

Main Deck: C2564 - C2647

Please note, this change does not affect all Ocean-view staterooms, only the

specific staterooms noted above. We thank you for your attention to this matter

and look forward to welcoming you on board.

We loved our cabin and the location. It was so handy to run outside on the promenade deck...it is like having a giant (but shared) balcony. No one can see inside your windows during the day, but you do have to keep the drapes closed at night for privacy. You will have to deal with them washing down the deck early at morning, but for the most part it didn't bother us. There will also be walkers going past your window during the day, but again....the benefits of the cabin location far outweighed the negatives for us. (We could tell the weather just by looking at how the walkers were dressed each day!)

 

Your cabin will be just a few steps from the atrium and the stairs leading up to guest services. My husband loved checking out the DVD's from guest services so the location was great for him.

 

I have some photos of our cabin on my blog if you want to see the room layout and new bathroom. Here is the link:

 

Zaandam 23-day Cruise (My Souvenir Memories Blog)

Mary, I went in to your blog to check out the cabin pics, and ended up reading the entire blog! Sounds like a great trip, and I enjoyed both the information and your writing style.

Huge difference in the remodeled bathrooms!

Yes....the Lanai cabins have the new walk-in shower bathrooms.....:)

Is our cabin a "lanai" cabin? I don't know what that is. Will people be able to see into our cabin if we keep the curtains open? Does it have a door to the outside?

Here is the water offered for sale in your booking:

Thanks, Miss G. I think we will have to carry our own water aboard.

There are pictures at http://halfacts.com/r-class/ for 3335, 3339, and 3341. We like Lower Promenade cabins. Only negative I see with 3334 is probably high foot traffic because it's so close to the atrium.

Is the foot traffic only outside of our door, or is there foot traffic going past our window? I checked out the photo of a nearby cabin from your link, and it looks like there are people outside the window?

We booked an "f" oceanview guarantee. They only had guarantee cabins left, either total or partial obstruction, porthole, or unobstructed. The day after we booked, they were totally sold out.

Does anyone know if ours is one of the cabins that has the new bathrooms? Neither our travel agent or HAL could tell me.

What are the best transportation options from the Cedarbrook Lodge to Pier 91? We want to stop at a store along the way to pick up bottled water for the 14 day cruise, so light link isn't an option this time around. I think we used a car service last time we were there, but don't recall who they were or what the cost was. Are they usually willing to stop at a store to pick up last minute items?

Any advise?

We received our cabin assignment on the Zaandam -- we booked less than 2 weeks before sailing, so all that was left were guarantee cabins. Anyone have any information on the pros and cons of cabin D3334?

Is it one of the cabins with the newly remodeled bathrooms and carpeting?