bobomonkeyrage

Can confirm that there are several options in the various bars. When we went in June my brother in law was in a similar situation with meds. He had no trouble finding different non alcoholic beers to make full use of the HIA package.

My daughters can't wait to go on the "big boat"

Ship mates! How awesome! You may well be correct. Even though we were prepared for the liquid sunshine in Juneau, the spectacular weather in Glacier Bay definitely added to the magnificence. I have no desire to find out if the opposite would be true!

This is my VERY limited, one time experience but I did not enjoy Canaletto. Highly recommend Tamarind if your ship has it.

We didn't do much as the Grand Dutch Cafe, although we should have. One of the disappointing things for me as a beer guy was that due to supply chain issues they weren't able to get in any La Trappe beers. La Trappe is a Dutch Trappist that is among my favourites and the menu listed two that I have never been able to find in Canada. After discovering their (understandable) supply issues, we didn't return. Clearly a mistake. NY Deli and Pizza was great! 3 or 4 nights on our way to bed we stopped for a late night pizza to take back to the room as a late night snack. It was great! One night I tried the "buffalo" wings. They were good, but definitely not Buffalo. It was more of a dry Asian rub. Good, but not what was advertised. We'll start dreaming about the Panama Canal. Years from now we will be well researched thanks to these forums and people like you!

Awesome! I hope you have a great time! While the app is garbage, the feedback feature is great. We submitted feedback for several of the people I mentioned and all were very appreciative. One crew member mentioned that most people use it exclusively to complain so positive feedback is taken very seriously. It's a very simple, easy way to recognize the people who work so hard.

AS someone who has never experienced Princess, I cannot imagine them beating HAL!

Here's hoping!

Funny you should ask... I added up total costs just today. For the cruise itself, not including flights or costs in port, it was just under $3000 CDN (which almighty Google tells me is just over $2300 USD).

That is something my wife and I started discussing today. Maybe it's only because it was such a foreign experience for us, or because we just got home, or maybe we just got VERY lucky, but at this point there is very little we would do differently if it were the same itinerary. We would love to one day visit different places. Panama Canal is a bucket list place. Maybe for our 30th... Other than that, we would discuss HIA and whether we would want to do that again or simply drink less. We wouldn't have done the Mendenhall Glacier after knowing how spectacular Glacier Bay would be. We would not eat at Canaletto at all but might eat lunch in specialty dining more.

And with that I *think* I've exhausted everything I can think of. Thanks to everyone who helped make me an internet expert before my first cruise. The information I gleaned from you all was invaluable.

MISC QUICK STUFF SPA My wife had always planned to get a massage on board. She convinced me to get one as well once we each received $70 “gift vouchers”. No doubt bookings were slow. It was… fine. She agreed. The therapist was great. But even with voucher we agreed it was a lot of money for something we could get cheaper and better at home. NAVIGATOR APP Okay. Perhaps this is the one time that the fact that a Millennial is writing this will be evident. But this thing sucks. What a steaming pile of garbage that app is. It’s slow and glitchy and fairly pointless. If you can even find what you’re looking for (big if) it would take ten minutes to load and crashes half the time. I get that HAL’s clientele is primarily older but we talked to a lot of seniors who were equally frustrated. In 2022, I don’t get how it’s possible to have such a bad app. Hire a 12-year-old to build you a better one. COVID STUFF We knew COVID is real both on board and on land. We are a “mitigated risk” rather than no risk sort of couple. We were pleased to see many people still wore masks often. But we also knew that when you walk around with a drink in your hand, it’s not really practical. We wore masks in doors whenever not eating or drinking, as did most others. Again, the problem is that at dinner, the shows, the casino, etc. most are eating and/or drinking. We did find that the cleaning and sanitation was top notch. Everywhere you looked surfaces were being sanitized. We especially loved the convenience of the hand washing stations in the Lido.

ITINERARY/EXCURSIONS We were doing the inside passage route. We booked that largely because we were considered about my sister-in-law who sometimes struggles with motion sickness. The ports of call were largely decided for us, but we lucked out. With the HIA package we were each given a $100 excursion credit. Originally we had booked one excursion for all four of us in Ketchikan and my brother-in-law and I had booked a distillery and brewery tour in Skagway. A few months before the cruise, we received notice that the tour was cancelled. They issued us a full refund, but we had both booked it using our credit. So now we had paid for one tour but had credit on our account. We decided that rather than call and try to sort it out we would simply book a planned trip to the Mendenhall glacier that we were going to do on our own through HAL. First up embarkation day already covered. Next was a sea day. This was actually a great thing for us. Falling on day one it gave us all a chance to unwind and get into holiday mode. We were able to explore the ship and find our favourite areas. Day 3 was Juneau. Due to the situation I explained, we had booked a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier through HAL. But to get our money’s worth, we tacked on a visit to salmon hatchery and a garden we had never heard of. First up was the gardens and… wow. Perhaps it was simply because we had no expectations whatsoever, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not a life changing experience but was well worth the 45 minutes we spent driving in a big golf cart up the side of a mountain. The salmon hatchery was good to see, but nothing spectacular. It’s a 10 minute stop stretched to 40. Finally the glacier which was great. I had hoped to be able to get closer, but the short walks to viewing points were great. The following day was Skagway. This little town of 1000 people was lovely and quaint. The girls were hoping to do some shopping so the boys decided to visit one of the breweries that was on our cancelled tour. I’ve spent years sipping different beers and consider myself a but of a connoisseur (read: snob), but Klondike brewing is VERY good. Their two bourbon barrel aged beers in particular are excellent. We chatted with the proprietor for a good 20 minutes as we sipped a flight. Next was lunch so we met the ladies at the Skagway Brewing Company and… don’t go here. It’s truly awful. Worst experience of our cruise. I suppose if you enjoy rushed service, watery beer, and $20 hamburgers then you might like it. If we were ever in Skagway again we all agreed that the train was something we regretted not doing. Day 5 was billed as “scenic cruising” day just as day 2 was. They undersold it. It was a highlight of the trip for us. The usual scenery was awesome. Glacier Bay was on a whole other level. The glaciers felt closer than when we had gone in person on Juneau and they were far more spectacular. Having park rangers on board doing live commentary was a nice touch. Truly a once in a lifetime experience. I told my children upon returning home that the only comparison I have is the Grand Canyon. Day 6 was Ketchikan. It reminded me a lot of a typical Canadian tourist town like Banff. Lot’s of shopping. We laughed pretty hard at one store selling beautiful decorative rock slices for hundreds of dollars. The certificate they come with says they were mined in Lethbridge, Alberta. You can get them for $20 there. We did the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show and an all-you-can-eat grab feast at the George Inlet Lodge. The show as entirely manufactured fun, but they were so sincere and committed that it worked. The crab feast was spectacular. The lodge is about 20 minutes outside of the city. The views while eating the freshest crab I’ve ever had were stunning. That evening we left port quite early to book it back to Vancouver. Disembarkation was smooth. We did the self assist so that we could stay on board as long as possible eating their food. Crazy, I know. But I wanted to maximize my money and experience! (Completely unimportant and pedantic: Does the work “disembarkation” not bother anyone else? Since you EMbark when you get on, wouldn’t getting off simply be “barking” or perhaps “debarking”? Having two prefixes is strange imo.)

HAL/KONINGSDAM One of the things I really had done a lot of research into was which line to book. In the end HAL was the clear winner. We knew that despite our meager budget, that we didn’t want to go on a budget line. I had read that it’s kind of like going Vegas: cheap to get there and expensive once they have you trapped. I also knew we didn’t want a party atmosphere and the we didn’t care for flashy amenities like water slides (in Alaska no less) or things like that. We really found the pace and culture on HAL to be to our liking. We liked having the two dressy nights. It added a touch of class that we were looking for. We liked that the ship was relatively quiet. Much was made about the fact that the sailing we were on was a younger group with more families but having nothing to compare it to, we didn’t find it that way. There were a couple of families with young children. But we were among the youngest travellers and that suited us just fine. 80% were 50+ by my estimate. We liked being in a midsized ship. It never felt crowded or busy. We were able to get to know a few other passengers (shout out to Naveen who we dubbed “ship grandma”). Having a full promenade deck was awesome for viewing scenery and wildlife. We found the ship to be very clean and we didn’t notice any aging save for a few chairs in the Lido that had cracked open revealing the cushion. The size was great for walking around and we never hesitated to walk from one end to the other due to distance. A favourite spot was Explorations Café. We would often get lattes there and we took to having a pre dinner drink there as well. It’s a great spot to relax. We didn’t swim at all and used the hot tub only once. We’re not big swimmers normally, and given that the it never got especially warm we didn’t ever feel like we were missing out. We had anticipated using the hot tubs more, but found we enjoyed lounging in the different bars more. The seaview pool/bar area was nice. My brother-in-law had brough a couple of cigars and it was lovely to sit out with a sweater watching the scenery go by with a drink in hand. We didn’t find the layout at all confusing as some have suggested. We found that it was easy to keep track of where we were and after a day or two, knowing how to get where we were going was automatic (this is very surprising for me since I am capable of getting lost between my bedroom and the kitchen).

ENTERTAINMENT One area I was uncertain about was the entertainment. Again, I’m a pretty boring, unrefined person. I enjoy reading and watching sports. I’m not really a “seek out entertainment” person. But I was pleasantly surprised. The main shows were from a six person dance group. Not really my style. But even a Neanderthal like me can recognize that level of talent. And when they mixed that talent with the incredible production of the World Stage…? Wow. They used the screens and lighting to their fullest and it was incredible. Comedian Drew Thomas did three sets and we found him very funny. He did two shows the three nights he performed and each grew in popularity. The first show was half full and he had to encourage people to sit up close. By the final show the venue was packed more than 20 minutes before he went on. We spent parts of most evenings in BB King’s, Rolling Stone, and Billboard Onboard - our favourite of the three music venues. All were fun for what they were. BB King’s is not really our type of music but it was fun to dance. Rolling Stone was good, but the performers were not the same level as the other two. Billboard was fun. The two piano players had great rapport and often took requests and encouraged everyone to chat and have a good time. Much more our speed. We spend far more time in the casino than we had planned. We’re not really gamblers but decided that we would each take $40 in. The first day we got quite lucky and so we had our “fun money” for the week. It was nice to pop in there for 10 or 20 minutes between events. We ended the week even as a couple which was a nice bonus (I was up significantly, but what’s mine is hers so my wife was sure to spend it).

SERVICE If my favourite time on board was dinner in the MDR, then the most consistent thing I loved was the staff. What an incredible experience. Does HAL grow these people in a lab somewhere? They are tireless and wonderful. Every one. Our room attendants, Putu and Komang, were awesome. They went out of their way to serve us. We would leave the cabin to get a coffee and come back to find it already clean. Do they hide under the bed so they know when to clean and when to disappear? We would often see them in the hallway and they were always so nice and respectful. Truly wonderful guys. We had purchased the unlimited laundry package (one of my wife’s few requests) and when we arrived and unpacked discovered that a bottle of hand sanitizer had leaked all over my suit and much of my clothing. The second night of the trip was scheduled to be a dressy night, but we knew that with the package it would have had to be submitted much earlier in the day to get it back in time for that dinner. We asked Putu if there was any way to rush just the suit dry cleaning while leaving the bag of laundry as regular. He said not worry that his friend worked in laundry and that he would take care it. We had everything back by 9 am the next morning and received no charge for the dry cleaning and pressing (not included in our package) or the rush fee. I was blown away. The bar staff was awesome to. I’m a pretty big drinker and was determined to get my money’s worth from the HIA package but did not want to be inebriated at any point. This means having a strategy. Alvin and Christian and Archie (the whisky master) were awesome. We would see them at multiple venues. Within a couple of days they learned my wife’s wine order and noticed that I was attempting to make my way through the various cocktail menus. They would often compare notes and simply bring me the next drink on the list. Miguel in the casino bar would chat us up every time we ordered or passed by. In my regular life when it comes to alcohol my philosophy has always been that the best drink is the one you’ve never tried. I am big into trying new beers and whiskies in particular. So we did a beer tasting led by Archie that cost $15. It was great to try some Alaskan beer, including one you can only get on board HAL (sort of. Turns out it’s just a rebranding of an existing beer, but still cool). We also tried several whiskys from Notes. I confess to briefly considering the 20 year old Pappy Van Winkle that was available but at $260 per glass, I decided it’s probably better to be able to send at least one of my kids to college. Our MDR serves previously mentioned… Man, I don’t know where to begin. My wife began calling them “our boys” despite them all being older than us. We loved them. The second night we dined there Djefri had already reviewed our drink orders and knew that my wife would be having her favourite Chianti and that I would start with a Negroni. Our drinks were never empty unless we declined to order another one. They joked with us and told stories. By night 5 they were doing entertainment for our benefit. Nestor, our beverage person, even made us little tree ornaments out of the tops of champagne bottles. My wife likes that better than the fancy bracelet I surprised her with… I honestly cannot say enough good things about these guys. We submitted feedback in the app halfway through praising them and each of them came separately to thank us for doing so. Francis in particular was quite emotional because he has been trying to move up from assistant waiter and was confident that feedback would help. We were also sure to speak to the Maitre d on the last evening about them. All over the ship the people were incredible. The ladies who worked in the Explorations Café memorized my wife’s latte order and greeted us by name every time we saw them. The people cleaning the hallways and bathrooms were so kind. I cannot say enough good things about the staff and the level of service they provide.

FOOD This being our first cruise experience, we were very excited to experience the food everyone raves about. We are big foodies and I pride myself on my cooking skills. HAL did not disappoint for the most part. We at all breakfasts and most lunches in the Lido simply for convenience. I’m an early riser and with the time change it was even earlier. It was nice to sit and drink coffee for several hours and eat when convenient each morning. I was usually among the first passengers out and about and got into the habit of sitting and watching the incredible scenery while chatting with the staff as they prepared to open the buffet for breakfast. By the third morning I had found “my” section and staff. A wonderful server named Ayu served coffee and juice each morning and we would chat for a few minutes every time she passed by. The buffet lived up to my expectations. Nothing spectacular but solid food. The eggs benedict and the crepe station were favourites of mine. My wife could not get enough of the cinnamon roll esque things from the pastry section. We couldn’t nail down what they actually were. Sort of a sticky cinnamon bun with a dark icing. She would often return later in the morning for round 2. Lunch was a mixture of venues. Lido was fine. Usually unspectacular but no complaints. We at in port once. And once we ate at the Pinnacle Grill. That was a pleasant surprise from Expedia. When we arrived, they had left a note that they had comped us a lunch there. It was very good. I highly recommend the seafood cioppino. It was among the best things I ate all week. The HIA package included one specialty dining which we used on Tamarind the last sea day. Having been comped a meal at Canaletto we booked it for the second night. Tamarind was incredible. The food was different from the MDR and very good. The atmosphere was nice. We remarked that it was the least cramped restaurant we had been to. Our party of four ordered 5 entrees to share and we did not regret it. The wasabi and soy tenderloin was incredible as was the yuzu cheesecake. Canaletto was… a different story. It certainly wasn’t bad. The food was fine, but nothing special. The setting was not great being right off of the Lido it was loud. Having gotten the reservation from our stateroom experience, my wife and I dined alone there while our travel mates went to the MDR. When we met up later and learned about their experience there we were sorry that we simply didn’t turn down the free meal in favour of the MDR. Which brings me to the highlight of the trip for me. The Main Dining Room experience. Being the boring people we are, we chose the early dinner seating. Our head waiter was Djefri working with his assistant Francis. Our beverage guy was Nestor. They were incredible. More on them specifically later. The first night we looked in the navigator app to see what the night’s menu was. The next evening we forgot to do so and decided we preferred to be surprised. It was a nice treat to arrive and sip a drink while discussing the menu. The food was always superb. As expected, whenever we couldn’t decide, the servers would suggest getting both appetisers or entrees. I wasn’t a skinny man before the trip and afterward… well, let’s just say my wife doesn’t have to worry about other women being drawn to me. We truly loved our nightly experience in the MDR and were very glad that we chose the early seating as it was quieter. We liked having the same wait staff every night and I wouldn’t do it any other way in the future.

STATEROOM Being young and having few resources (read: broke because I have two daughters and daughters are expensive), we booked an inside cabin. We were cautioned by several people that we would feel claustrophobic (rural Saskatchewan is not exactly cramped) but it was all we could afford so that decision was made for us. Honestly, we didn’t regret it for a second. I can see a balcony being an awesome experience, but we didn’t find we missed a window at all. Perhaps it’s one of those situations where ignorance is bliss. We were assigned cabin 7007 located at the very front of the ship. Our travel mates were mid ship on deck 4. We headed to our room, and on the way met one of out two room stewards, Putu. Even though we were a ways down the hallway, he already greeted us by name. I assume he had our aforementioned picture. I was both impressed and kicking myself for forgetting my tinfoil hat. When we arrived in our room, it was actually a bit larger than I had expected. It was nice. The shower was larger than my shower at home which while nice, seemed like an inefficient use of space. All in all we were quite happy. Unfortunately, we noticed that the wastebasket in the bathroom was still full of used feminine hygiene products. We are not picky people but did want to make sure that was dealt with. We searched for our room attendant but were unable to locate him, so we headed to guest services. I now regret doing so. Guest services was very apologetic and said that they would take care of it right away. They even offered us a reservation at Canaletto by way of apology. While I was happy to accept the free specialty dining, I didn’t realize that we would be getting our room stewards in trouble, which we later found out had happened. These guys are human and with the positioning of the waste basket, it was an easy mistake to make – and one the fixed right away. Was it an oversight? Yes. But a minor one. Had I known we’d be getting those two wonderful guys in trouble I would have waited and mentioned it to them discreetly. Lesson learned. They later apologized profusely and insisted on having the head housekeeper and hotel manager come to apologize as well. I spoke with them both and tried to reiterate that we were not unhappy and that we didn’t want anyone getting in trouble, but I doubt I was successful in that. That evening, unbeknownst to us, the had learned of our anniversary celebration and put up a wonderful sign on the door as well as rose pedals in the room. It was such a wonderful surprise.

EMBARKATION The original plan was to drive to Vancouver from Calgary where we would leaving our children in the care of that wonderful child care facility Grandma and Grampa Incorporated. (Wonderful business. The cost can’t be beat. 10/10 would recommend.) However, as you will no doubt have noticed, the price of gas has increased ever so slightly recently. Not wanting the cost of getting to the ship to cost more than the trip itself, we chose to fly. We stayed overnight at a nearby hotel and headed down to meet our travel mates at the port around 11:00. Their boarding time was 11:40 while ours was 2:30. I had read a lot about whether those times were enforced but we decided to give it a go with them and see what would happen. We figured worst case we’d sit and have a coffee for a few hours. Best case we get on board and start eating their food and drinking their booze sooner. The port was chaos. Little to no signage saying where to go. We asked a port employee and she ushered us onto an elevator that took us back outside. We went back in and asked a person every minute where to go and got different answers each time. We started to amass a group of equally confused travellers – mostly seniors. We were finally about 30 people in all. All equally confused. We finally found our way thanks to a sign no bigger than a foot square and followed it. It led us down to the parking garage. We were certain we were in the wrong spot again, but nope. This time we were greeted by the first HAL employee we’d seen and from there it was a strange experience, but much better communication from HAL. The parking garage was cordoned off for dropping bags and that went smoothly. I will say that while I’m sure it was the port’s doing rather than HAL’s, it was not awesome to be walking long distances with heavy suitcases breathing in exhaust from dozens of trucks and buses. From there we were sent up to the main floor for the embarkation stuff. Vaccine verification was smooth for 99% of people but as is always the case there were one or two Karens screaming about something or other. Seriously, HAL was incredibly clear about the requirements and what constituted proper proof. My six-year-old could have done it. But the employees were awesome. After that was the picture taking for security. When my wife was taking her photo, I made a joke about smiling because this will be our anniversary portrait. That was the only time I mentioned it, but somehow it made its way to the staff on the ship (more on that later). At no point did anyone even ask when we were supposed to embark and we were on board shortly after noon. If we hadn’t gotten so turned around early on the entire process would have taken less than half an hour. Once on board we were surprised to hear that our staterooms were already cleaned and waiting for us. I assume the previous sailing was low capacity.

We’ve just returned from a 7 night trip on board the Koningsdam to Alaska. We did the Vancouver round trip inside passage with stops in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan from June 11 to June 18. I did a LOT of research before and after booking, much of it coming from this forum. Consequently, I feel a duty to report back after gleaning so much from all of you, despite you having no idea I did so. What follows is my in-depth (hopefully somewhat entertaining) review. My wife and I had never cruised before. We live in rural Saskatchewan and so the plan to be able to do round trip to Alaska was very appealing. We are 35-year-olds who were celebrating 15 years of marriage (I’ll let you do the math – I had to lock her up before she was mature enough to know better). While we are young, we are what our friends and family affectionately call “boring”. I prefer to say that I am aging into my personality. Consequently, when we decided to do a cruise for our celebration, after looking into what different lines are like, we settled right away on HAL. We certainly haven’t regretted that decision. We booked with my wife’s sister and brother-in-law. It wouldn’t be a romantic get away if we didn’t have people to use to ignore each other. We booked using an aggregate site (Expedia), which was mostly not a bad experience, but one I would not repeat after learning how helpful local travel agents can be. Wanting to be as carefree as possible, we booked that Have it All package. And I issued a myself a challenge to make sure I got my money’s worth. I’m sure my doctor would agree that it was a great idea. I wish I could say we were well researched and booked the exact ship and itinerary and stateroom type we wanted, but that would mostly be lying. The truth is for people like us with young children, cost was the biggest factor. All things considered, we got VERY lucky. (more details on our stateroom to follow). After booking, I watched the prices of the trip very carefully. A few months later, the price dropped by $800. I called Expedia and they gave me a hard time so I simply said that I would like to cancel. Our deposit had been less than $400 so I would still come out ahead. Suddenly they were able to make the change no problem. It’s amazing what happens when the company will lose business. The savings ended up being closer to $500 net, since the previous rate had included gratuities, but I was still very happy to have saved that much. With our final payment due in March, we were very concerned about the COVID situation in January and February and had pretty much resigned ourselves to the idea that we would have to cancel or postpone. But as things improved in March, I called HAL to see what our options were. They assured me that even after final payment, if the COVID situation made us uncomfortable that we could reschedule for no cost (something they were offering when we booked). By May/June, with the protocols Hal had in place, we felt comfortable enough to proceed.

Thanks for the info!

We are sailing on the K-Dam on June 11th. We have the "Have it All" drinks package. We are pretty big drinkers and like to try anything new we can. My question concerns happy hour. My understanding is that the current offering during HH is buy one get the second 50% off. I'm curious if anyone knows whether the deal with ordering a different drink as the discounted one. Does it have to be the same? Is it one of equal or lesser value? I doubt it could work this way but I'm trying to see if I can be strategic and get a couple of the drinks we want to try that are over the $11 limit within out package using the 50% off. Again, I know it's probably a long shot but thought I'd put it out there if anyone has any insight. TIA