Jammu2

For sure. We have noticed this too. Times into and out of port are generally better as well. We were first in and last out (along with either Eurodam or Nieuw Amsterdam) to Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. With one exception we had the preferred docks closest to the action.

I did rate Princess specialty restaurants the highest! But food in the MDR was pretty poor on our cruise and the buffet wasn't much better. Could have been the particulars of the cruise - new crew, first Alaska cruise of the season. Pizza was good! Hamburgers were terrible!

Plaxlovid costs $530 for the course in the US. Maybe you pay $10 - that's what insurance is for. But HAL paid Pfizer at least $530 for the drugs.

This was one of our criticisms of the new Discovery Princess.

Burgers - yes as late as 2019 we enjoyed the Dive In. But my husband, the cheeseburger connoisseur, was pretty disappointed in the quality this last cruise. The fries were ok but I don't eat many French fries.

Yes.

Itinerary: I've done the southbound on Princess and indeed it is the best. That's why I qualified the Vancouver round trip! Entertainment. Very subjective. I thought Celebrity had more (and better) musicians throughout the ship at all hours not only in the evening. But I guess I should disclose that we did not attend the big shows on either Princess or Celebrity as we were traveling with our older parents and did not want to risk large gatherings. I liked the cafes on all three ships, since we don't drink alcohol we spend more time in them than other passengers might. I didn't really think the International Cafe on Princess was that distinctive. Explorations was great but being on 12 forward we only made it up there after the gym. Nice, tho. The Grand Dutch might have been my first choice but I just think al Bacio has an edge.

Greetings! Our first three post-covid cruises just happened to be on different lines to Alaska! We were on Discovery Princess in May, Celebrity Solstice in August, and Koningsdam this past week. We had similar amenities on all three ships - balcony cabins, specialty dining packages, have-it-all type packages, etc. So this gives me a pretty good idea about where we want to spend our cruise dollars going forward. Since this is the HAL forum, I will tell you all up front that our recent cruise on Koningsdam was my favorite. I will update this post when my formal review gets published, but I did want to make note of some comparisons for the forum readers. Food: Food is subjective, and I don't think our party of 4 would all be in agreement with my assessments. But food is very important to me and it can make or break a cruise for me. With that said… Buffet - 1) HAL 2) Celebrity 3) Princess Main Dining Room - 1) HAL 2) Celebrity 3) Princess Specialty Restaurants - 1) Princess 2) HAL 3) Celebrity Burgers - none of them had a decent burger bar Pizza - Princess Cafe - 1) Celebrity 2) HAL 3) Princess I say more about the food in my formal review. Itinerary: Hands down, our itinerary on Koningsdam is one of the top itineraries in Alaska. Our Celebrity and Princess cruises did not do Glacier Bay National Park, which is a must-see for any bucket list Alaska cruise. Also, since our Koningsdam cruise left and returned to Vancouver BC, we did not need to do a Jones Act stop in Victoria (and I like Victoria!) so that is basically like an extra day in Alaska. Plus, starting and ending in Vancouver, you sail on the east side of Vancouver Island, which makes for a much more interesting sea day. Ships: I am partial to the Celebrity S Class of ships. They are scheduled to be Revolutionized at some point and I hope they dont ruin them. But they are in a kind of shabby condition at the moment, sorry to say. Discovery Princess is brand new, and a pretty nice looking ship. Koningsdam is my favorite of the three. Good size, nice spaces, very nicely appointed cabins. A bonus of Koningsdam (and also the Vista and Signature classes of ships) is the retractable roof over the main pool area. This is a great feature for Alaska and gives you a lot of additional options for hanging out on cold or rainy days. My only criticism of the ship would be the Buffet area. It is much too small for the number of passengers, and the tables and chairs are way too close together. Staff: The Discovery staff was pretty green and I will just leave it at that. I felt the Koningsdam was understaffed. You couldn't get drinks at meals unless you actually got up to get them. I think it was 4 days before a single plate was ever cleared from our breakfast table up in the Buffet. We never saw the assistant waiter in the MDR. Our room steward was nice, but he seemed overwhelmed and our cabin did not get made up until mid afternoon. Then a couple hours later it was refreshed. He needn't have bothered. Celebrity seemed to have the most seasoned and competent service staff. Entertainment: - 1) Celebrity 2) Princess 3) HAL I did like the BB King Blues Band. They were pretty tight. I lived in Chicago for a time and the band would have fit right into any blues bar there. Passengers: Koningsdam had a pretty good mix. I think leaving from Canada, we had a lot more international passengers aboard than we had earlier in the season leaving from Seattle. That said, there was a wide variety of ages and nationalities. I think the HAL passengers were more interested in the guest lectures and the various Alaska related activities, which I appreciate. Celebrity has more social activities, it seems to me. Also, there seems to be more drinking in the bars etc so if you like that scene you might not find it so much on HAL- though people seemed to be having a good time at all hours. Princess seemed to draw a younger crowd. I know HAL has a reputation for older passengers but honestly I did not see a big difference in the demographics from Celebrity. In Sum! Great cruise on the Koningsdam, and we are very lucky to have been able to cruise 3 times to Alaska during the 2022 season. My spouse and I are planning another HAL Alaska cruise for next year, possibly Eurodam out of Seattle, and despite some misgivings, we have a Princess New England cruise booked for Fall of 2023. We would certainly sail any of the three lines again!

Niew Amsterdam

Reminds me of the time we were late boarding the Westerdam in Seattle after a one-day cruise because they couldn't roust all the drunks and get them off the ship in time. I believe the answer is "no." Or at least it used to be.

Beautiful morning aboard Koningsdam. We will head into Tracy Arm at around 9:30 am local time then on to Juneau. I believe we are being tailed by the lovely Eurodam. See you all at the pier!

Good luck. Can't wait to read more.

Hey Matt, did you notice could you order a can of coke or were they only serving fountain?

Your ship passed us on the way to Juneau earlier today.

Here's Koningsdam in transit to Juneau earlier today, from Celebrity Solstice. We will be on the Koningsdam in September. Nice to see Eurodam in port as well.

There's not much near Ogden point where we dock but iirc there is a shuttle. I like Victoria downtown. Also the walk along the water is nice but it is a good hike into town. The Castle is interesting.

Yes this is basic stuff. And I thought the Princess app was bad. Holy cow. Sorry for my last review, Princess! I am yet another person waiting to take care of some simple tasks until I get on board. It makes embarkation more stressful than it needs to be both for employees and passengers.

Greetings! We are beyond final payment but potentially want to rebook our cruise. We can cancel our cruise at this point and receive future cruise credit. How long does that take to show up? Will we be able to rebook our cruise immediately after we cancel or is this something that takes time? Can anyone share any insights on this? Thanks in advance!

Lol.

omg I've uploaded all the photos twice and the thing still shows as incomplete and the photos are gone again. I give up for today.

Thanks. I can't figure out how to get to the form to input the info. I have done the check in and it wasnt there. ETA oh I think I just found it. They could probably cut down on their hold times if they provided a little more direction in their communications.

I've received this email twice now so I figure I need to do something. On Princess you enter your vax info into the app. I can't figure out how to do it on the Celebrity app? Also the email tells me to bring the original documents to my "wellness appointment." What is this? I never was able to get through to Celebrity on the phone yesterday.

Once you do it once, it remembers all your stuff so next time just fill in the dates.

We were talking about this just now. We have 3 cruises booked this year but we haven't booked anything for next year because we wanted to see how it went. Princess earlier this year was pretty disappointing. Looks like Celebrity is trending the same way. We have a HAL cruise in the fall so we shall see how that goes. Otherwise next year we will be looking at other options !

Crazy. I think I have to give up for now. I have spent several hours wasting my time with this already today I'm just not in the mood anymore. I did have the two accounts logged in on different web browsers at the same time to try to match up times at least but honestly their reservation app is very difficult to work through. We all have dining packages already purchased and they want to charge us all over again for the three reservations per person so I backed out. Not sure it is worth the aggravation. I might just cancel the dining packages.