cruisingrob21

In the past, it was (for the most part) well signed. Generally at canada place you will go to the lower level to drop luggage and go through security, then up to be processed for check in. Do not fret - there are always lots of folks that can help direct you. There will always be people who show up as early as they can to get on board - even if their boarding time is at 1pm - for a variety of reasons. Generally, the earlier you show up, the longer you may have to wait after check in to actually board, even if your time is 11:30 (but you should have priority over folks with 1pm boarding times). If it works for you, consider showing up later as the lines may die down. I'm on the same voyage on deck 5 and have a 1:30 boarding time, which is the same time as the notice says we should all be at the terminal. So to answer your question, if you want to follow the directions you were sent, show up at 11:30.

Both ships are great for very different reasons. If you want newer with lots of entertainment venues and are okay with more people - the Kdam is a good choice. While the Z-dam is older, and shows its age in some spots, its still very well taken care of. She definitely is representative of a different era of cruising - one with wide promenade decks, lots of outdoor viewing, and a large yacht feel. In Alaska, I personally really enjoyed when we sailed on the ms Amsterdam, which is a very near sister to the Zaandam. We were fortunate and got a random 7 day voyage in mid summer when she was mainly only doing 14 day Alaska voyages. We all had a great time - there are so many more places to see the scenery and just embrace the environment that Alaska offers. If that sort of a trip entices you, then the Z-dam is your ship. I recall we only had 1 line the entire time we were on board, that was to get off the ship in Juneau as we had just docked. It cleared in less than 5 minutes. I still remember sitting on the aft decks of the Amsterdam with a bottle of wine reading some Jack London stories as we sailed through the Lynn canal. I still keep this phot as the background on my phone because its calming for me - wide open promenades with plenty of loungers and beautiful scenery. You will have plenty of spots like this on both ships, but more of then on the Z-dam, and fewer people also.

Good point - you need to be more limber with your luggage to use Skytrain given the escalators and slightly further walking distance.

sky train - probably as fast or faster than a car, less expensive, and leaves from only a block away from canada to place to across the drive at the Airport. It runs very frequently so you are never late for a train, just early for the next. VERY EASY. Since the station near the cruise terminal is the start of the line, you will basically have your pick of seats. Just move towards either end of a car with your luggage.

I'm appreciative of this thread - after doing some research, we changed a voyage due to a group listed on our cruise and one of the group's guest speakers who has a controversial public reputation. I have no idea how big the group is but given the speaker's reputation, I worry it would be big enough to restrict use of some of the larger venues on board (such as the crows nest).

I've walked between several in town breweries - all have their own style and tasting rooms (need to check hours as some are only open certain days or times). I don't think there is need to do a tour if you've got a grasp on searching for breweries on a smart phone.

We had rough weather on the Eurodam 2 summers ago in Alaska. We were the 2nd cabin from the front on deck 5 and felt every wave. Only a few cabins back would have been much better. We also sailed the cape horn route on the old Star Princess (2002) back in 2012. We had "Lake Drake" which still was a bit choppy but not bad. The captain mentioned it could be much worse. We were in a cabin on the 11th deck near the aft elevators and hardly noticed it. We actually had worse weather in the straight of magellan and were told by the captain to sleep in and avoid the worst of the swells. If you are concerned about it and medications work well for you, take them proactively and enjoy your cruise. If medications don't work well, consider something further back.

You will get more responses in the West Coast departures forum

You're welcome and that's a good tip. I think she goes to drydock later this year and the tumor is that it will be extensive - it's also showing as longer than typical for a vista class ship. At a minimum, it seems like the northern lights night club will be turned into the gallery bar as has happened on the other vistas and signature vessels. Perhaps more?

I almost booked one of these cabins on the Noordam. I can only speculate that while you'll get more light, it will be windier. Not as windy as forward facing cabin due to the lifeboats nearby, but not as wind free as a "normal" verandah cabin. Not sure how else to characterize it.

It used to be a smoking/cigar lounge. Now its just a closed off room thats presumably quiet most of the time. It may be hosted for occasional functions or meetings I imagine it may get repurposed during the next drydock to increase the crows nest area. Some photos: https://halfacts.com/vista-class/noordam-observation-deck/ I'm heading out on the Noordam later this month if you want more photos.

Thats a good question. Satellite images show nothing there but this article says it just received its first ship this January. https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/01/port-of-cabo-rojo-welcomes-its-first-ship/#google_vignette

HAL won't let you, so not likely a fine has been paid. I've read that if the ships allow this to happen they can be barred from entering that port or nation again. Waivers have been granted for extenuating circumstances (during COVID) or localized emergencies (weather, health problem), but this is not something that anyone can just "pay the fine" to get around. The ship operator can get in trouble also.

Possibly related - the other day some sapphire and coral princess voyages at the end of 2025 were cancelled

I personally enjoy taking the Seabus to North Vancouver before embarking. Lots of great restaurants and you can get some great photos of the city and your ship:

To make it a legal Seattle to Whittier/Anchorage, you need to do the cruise between Vancouver and Anchorage, and you'd use the cruise line transfer service from Seattle to get to vancouver. It's about a 4-5 hour bus ride. There is a train you can take (Amtrak Cascades) also which takes about the same time, or less than driving if border traffic is bad for road traffic. Highly recommend the train routing, but I think there is only a 7am and evening train, so you are realistically looking at either a hotel in Seattle the night before, or a hotel in Vancouver.

Alaska 2025 was released in early December 2023. Seems to be kind of late - Princess released Alaska 2025 in July of 2023. So probably summer to late fall time. I will say that by and large, HAL itineraries and ships on specific runs have been the same since the restart. Eurodam and Westerdam out of Seattle, Koningsdam and Zaandam RT vancouver, and Noordam and Niuew Amsterdam doing the 1 way voyage between Seward and Vancouver. There are exceptions to the itineraries (with a few unique ones) as well as some ships doing a few oddball swaps, but generally that was the trend last year.

Well, we booked the October voyage of this itinerary instead of our usual alaska voyage. It's nice to have some variety in alaska voyages and nice (for us) that they are RT out of Seattle. Usually a voyage like this would be RT from Vancouver.

The R class (and maybe S class) also had that informal bridge-wing viewing area that was always enjoyable to visit when docking. I recall when a family member worked for HAL and invited us onboard a brand new Maasdam in Seattle for lunch. We later sailed on her and then later the Ryndam. Do any of you remember that the Statendam and Maasdam (and maybe Ryndam and Veendam) had an escalator from deck 2 to deck 3 (I think?). I think they were removed during drydocks, but I recall hearing it was to speed up getting folks to and from the common gangway deck. Funny how that "speed" was needed on a ship holding 1200.

And sometimes the opposite happens. On a Crown Princess Alaskan Sampler from Seattle to Vancouver in 2022, the itinerary map showed that it would use the outside passage both ways - however we were treated to great weather and the captain maneuvered the ship through the Johnstone Straight and Seymour Narrows. It is a bit shorter and I'm guessing if its favorable weather it might even be a net savings for the ship to use the cleaner fuel as required that close to land. Note that the Grand class ships can sail this route, the Royal Class ships are not allowed per the Canadian government. Of note, we arrived at Seymour Narrows at the same time the Noordam was heading northbound. Because its narrow, we did slow down considerably to allow the Noordam to sail through the narrows first. I'll say its unusual to get that close to another ship when not approaching port, or sailing in glacier bay or other fjord. The image below is grainy due to night, but on the lower right you can faintly make out the Crown's bridge wing.

If Ketchikan and PR entice you, you can sail RT from Vancouver on a 5 night voyage at the end of April this year on the Noordam going to both. Although there won't be a stop in Nanaimo or Victoria, and you'll miss the inside-inside passage, the voyage will be rather similar. And its clearly not selling well, as I've had two upgrade offers and there appear to be plenty of available cabins just one month out as well as a few price drops.

I think all the cruise lines are approaching the recovery different. Some (Princess, RCL etc are increasing costs, making formerly free things now have a price, and doing some cutting here and there). HAL seems to be keeping their pricing somewhat controlled, but they do seem to be more aggressive in the cost cutting realm. All the cruise lines have hefty amounts of debt and are likely preparing for expensive drydocks to upgrade their current ships as well as contemplating new ship orders. HAL also seems to be changing their approach to entertainment and leaning more into their most well attended events. They have started embracing more interactive games and trivia than I remember in the past and they seem to be well attended. Personally, I think we may have gone over the crest of a pricing wave centered on this summer. I'm seeing somewhat more reasonable prices later this year and next, but I think there is more room to drop - fingers crossed. Cooking classes are occasionally offered, but not as much as they used to and it seems like the partnership with America's Test Kitchen is over (fun fact, many of the lights in BB Kings are holdovers from that partnership and are inverted mixing bowls and collanders). Classical music is now held in the World Stage area occasionally. A much less intimate venue, but more seating.

Well, now I come to you all with another question and hoping for your wisdom on Noordam verandahs. Choices on either a deck 5 aft cabin where there are 2 availabile (5187, 5189) or deck 4 wide balcony cabins (4164 or 4166). What would you choose? I've stayed in similar cabins to 4164 and 4166 on the K-dam and it was nice - never stayed in an aft verandah and a bit concerned about the noise from the wake when underway.

Keep in mind that Alaska ports on voyages RT from Seattle are not typical. Juneau is afternoon and into the late evening, ketchikan is AM to noon-ish. Victoria is 8pm to midnight. Icy Strait Pt is evening only. It's likely the performers will have one of the nights off where the ship makes an evening call since only a certain percentage of the passengers will be aboard - so you may not even miss it.

You say you've never been on a cruise? I think you'll have a great time as long as you manage your expectations compared to land resorts. There are many beneficial aspects of a cruise over a land resort, but obviously there are some tradeoffs. For instance, generally, rooms are smaller than the average resort/hotel room, but at the same time, you are much closer to food, recreation, and entertainment. While I think you have a nice list here of things to compare the ships by, I wouldn't get too hung up on the details. We took folks that had never been on a cruise on the old ms Amsterdam (near sister of the Zaandam before she was sold in 2020) and they had a great time which was nice to see given that that ship had very few bells and whistles compared to the newest ships out there today. To speak to your questions specifically. The lack of Club Orange private venue won't be that much of an issue. On the K-dam its in an interior area where you have to look through a hallway to see the water. On all HAL ships the main dining room has stunning views - and the Zaandam and sister ship Volendam have probably the best views of all the ships. As for dining options, it depends if you get bored eating in the same place each night. yes the K-dam has a few more choices but unless you like those venues that it has over the Zaandam, you wouldn't notice. The main dining room menu is mostly different each night. The other venues also cost extra - the food is very good and highly specialized for the venue, but I think most would agree that the included main dining room food is very good to excellent. Sorry, that's not a good answer I guess. I can't speak to the NS rooms being quieter on the Zaandam - someone who has stayed in them is probably better qualified to answer. But there really isn't that much to move around on the lido deck above compared to bigger ships. Overall, the Zaandam is a quiet ship unless you are on deck 1 during docking or port activities. Crowds - well the Zaandam handles crowds very well in that you'll rarely see them, but compared to a land resort, you may experience them when you wouldn't expect them. There will be fewer crowds than the K-dam for food and entertainment, for sure. But remember, you are on a ship and when its at sea, everyone is onboard also. If its a sunny day, expect it to be a bit more crowded around the pools. On embarkation day, expect it to be very busy in the buffet right after boarding. But on the Zaandam, I don't really recall seeing crowds other than those times. There may be some when getting off the ship to go into port if there is only 1 gangway down. The Zaandam has better viewing areas, and more of them for the amount of passengers onboard, for sure. The Zaandam also has a better space in the Explorations Cafe and for that we would sail on her again over the K-dam. The K-dam is a beautiful ship, as is the Zaandam. The Zaandam may not be around too much longer as its one of the older ships in the fleet and the cruise lines can make more profit with larger ships. If I were you, especially going to Alaska, I would stick with the Zaandam.