Colorado Klutch

Cruise Critic just posted a review I wrote for my 6-13 May Alaska cruise aboard Koningdam. In case anyone is interested, you can find it here: https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=699968 I'm also happy to answer any questions and welcome any opinions or feedback about my review. Cruising is new to me and I'm still figuring all this out.

This seems to be a common misperception. I admit I didn't hang out in the Sea View area aboard Koningsdam last week. The instant I stepped out there, I was choking on smoke. So I simply didn't go there.

Thank you. Apparently there is a lot of confusion about this. Every cruise web site I see about Koningsdam indicates the aft Sea View pool is adults only. But as you point out, I don't see this on the Holland America web site. I'm recalling seeing a sign indicating the Sea View pool is adults only, but another sign at the sea view pool indicated children must be supervised. Yeah, confusing.

I agree HAL is not a daycare service. No doubt about it, kids run around, scream, yell and annoy other passengers on cruise ships. Not much HAL can do about lousy parents who don't parent. The one point HAL ignores is THEY SHOULD ENFORCE ADULTS ONLY AREA POLICIES! Why describe areas of the ship as "Adult" and not enforce them as adults only? As mentioned previously, you won't find kids running around in the casino. Why? Well, because the staff enforce the policy of the casino being an adults only area. There is no reason at all HAL can't enforce the same policies at the Retreat Cabanas and the aft pool area. My brother and his wife recently returned from a Caribbean cruise aboard Nieuw Amsterdam. My brother said there were ALWAYS kids in the aft "Adult" pool. People always complained about it. Only once did a staff member politely ask the parent to take her kids to the other pool. Why is that so hard? Why is this a policy passengers are free to completely disregard with no consequences? Every excuse HAL or any other cruise line can offer is completely invalid because they enforce the adults only policy in the casino. This proves they can enforce the policy. They simply choose not to do so and it's completely unacceptable. Maybe adults should start hanging out at Club HAL. When the staff asks what they are doing, they can say, "Well, I went to the aft pool area and it was full of kids, so I'm coming to the kids area to hang out." "We can't ban children from our cruises" is a strawman argument. The OP did not suggest HAL ban children.

I was on the same cruise. I'm wondering if there was no Tracy Arm because we didn't take the Inside Passage going north. Sure, the HAL tracker maps indicated we took the Inside Passage. But anyone familiar with the Inside Passage knows we didn't take that route. If you look at our path on CruiseTracker, it clearly shows we did not take the Inside Passage going north. We did take the Inside Passage going south. I haven't found out why we didn't take the Inside Passage north. And I didn't hear any announcements about it on the ship.

In Glacier Bay, the Ranger announced animal sightings and few other things from the bridge. Otherwise, I think he was in the Crowe's Nest. I'm not sure because I didn't want to fight the crowds up there. I braved the open weather up on the bow.

You're not wrong. I used to fly through Newark many years ago and it was like a giant elementary school cafeteria. Not sure when the new terminal was built, but yeah, it's pretty spiffy. And Vancouver is the only airport I've been to in years with no charging ports.

Are you the woman I ran into at the Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau? 😀

I mean no disrespect, but I fly a lot and although the Vancouver airport is nice, it it's not very modern. None of the seats have electrical outlets or USB ports. (I was at the Newark airport last month. Their seats have cordless chargers on the arm rests.) From gate E-72 I had to walk across the entire terminal to get to the bathroom. 😄

Of course, you are correct. I was just kidding. But it is fun to imagine revenge! Similarly, I was in a full elevator on a previous day when my phone rang. I was amazed I actually had a signal and it was my wife. I answered it and some big guy in the back pushed me aside and stormed out of elevator when the doors opened. I imagined following him around shouting, "Wow, what a big, strong, impressive man you are! It was so amazing how easily you pushed me out of the way to force yourself out of the elevator!". 😄

Tell me about it. It rained so hard at my house I got water in through a window in my basement. That's never happened before. Still cleaning it up...

Just got off Koningsdam last Saturday. Crowe's Nest seating was never available during the day during the entire cruise. When the speakers/Ranger was there, standing room was in short supply. My wife and sister were able to get seats one day by waiting around and pouncing when somebody left. I once saw a couple getting up to leave their seats. I immediately and politely stood directly behind one of the chairs and a woman stepped directly in front of me and planted her butt in the seat. It wasn't worth the confrontation.

The free drink would be nice, anyway.

Doesn't really matter. Unless you go there in the middle of the night, the Crowe's Nest will be packed with people and every single chair will already have a butt parked in it.

As a data point, I was aboard Koningsdam this past Saturday when it pulled into Canada Place. Scheduled arrival time was 7:00 AM. We were docked at around 7:10. At around 7:30 we heard the announcement that those who were carrying their own bags could depart. My cabin was on deck 5. The gangway was on deck 3. Every single elevator going down was full. Furthermore, cranky passengers would yell at us when the doors opened. "Elevator is full!". Wow, sorry to interrupt your descent... In retrospect, my group of 5 should have grabbed an elevator going up. Then, when it got it to the top, I could have yelled at those people, "Elevator is full!". (Maybe even added a nice raspberry for effect.) I was only the one in my group capable of carrying bags. So I humped five large bags down two decks. Then we were right outside the gangway. We walked right off into the cruise port. Once we were in the cruise port, there was a big sign almost immediately which directed people to "CABS". I told one of the very nice people directing people traffic I needed a cab for five. She directed us to wait next to "Spot 1" in the parking garage. There was a very long parade of cabs arriving non-stop. Within 2 minutes a van pulled up and the driver loaded our luggage. We piled in and headed to the airport. By 9:00 AM we were checked in for our 12:40 flight, but we were told it was too early to check bags. We had to wait 20 minutes to drop our bags. (Vancouver airport still uses a 1950s system where you drag your bags behind the ticket counter and drop it on a conveyor back there.) We had plenty of time to get breakfast at a cafe' in Terminal E. That was my experience.

Something in the Navigator App actually works?

I saw a gathering of veterans on the schedule during my Koningsdam Alaska cruise last week. I'm a veteran, but I'll be honest. The last thing I wanted to do was hang out with a bunch of cranky, crusty, military veterans. So yeah. I didn't go. 😀

My dad requested a wheelchair for my mom. He asked multiple times about a wheelchair, but nobody knew anything about it. Eventually, we got through the entire check in process and my mom said not to worry about it. She has a bad, but it wasn’t bothering her vey much that day.

Just pulled into Vancouver this morning aboard Koningsdam. When we embarked last week we arrived via cab at 10:00 AM. We dropped our luggage right by the cab drop off area. It took one hour to go through security and customs. Then we followed signs to “Koningsdam” where we were directed to sit in a large area for another hour. I never saw a single sign for priority, Club Orange or anything else. That was my experience. I talked to others on my cruise who arrived later. They all said it took over three hours.

Last night I was talking with a guy at the bar who was on the last cruise and continued with this cruise. He agreed the last cruise was pandemonium. He said a big part of the problem was people were hanging out in the MDR two hours after they were done with their meals. Apparently there were also staffing and management issues. I’ve talked with multiple crew members who told they just started a few day ago. Everything aboard Koningsdam is running really well for this cruise.

Showed up at MDR at 6:30 PM and asked for a table for 5. We were seated immediately. Service has been great. So sorry the OP had such a lousy experience.

Onboard now. All in all 2 hours to board.

They are boarding people by row. Orderly if not quickly.

Got to the Vancouver cruise terminal at around 10 this morning. It took just over an hour to get through all the lines for security and immigration. Inexplicably, my SIL got sidelined at immigration. She had to wait in another line for about 15 minutes. They took her picture again and sent her on her way. (??) After immigration we we were instructed to to take seat with about 400 other Koningsdam passengers. It’s now 1130. Still waiting…

I booked my cruise in early January and, at that time, assigned dining was completely sold out. The waiting list for early dining was full. I didn't see any point in getting on the waiting list for late dining.