A Carnival Cruiser tries HAL ... on our Honeymoon to Alaska - Zuiderdam May 21, 2011

[COLLEYBERRY]

[SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]
I am thoroughly enjoying your delightful review and photos.:)

Rain on your wedding day is good luck.!! I recall May 14 very well.:D(friend's wedding)
Torrential rains...you are destined for much happiness.:):)

Sending my very Best Wishes to you both.
Colleen
[/FONT][/SIZE]

[jenng1976]

[quote name='COLLEYBERRY'][SIZE=3][FONT=Arial]
I am thoroughly enjoying your delightful review and photos.:)

Rain on your wedding day is good luck.!! I recall May 14 very well.:D(friend's wedding)
Torrential rains...you are destined for much happiness.:):)

Sending my very Best Wishes to you both.
Colleen
[/FONT][/SIZE][/QUOTE]

Thank you! Yes, it was definitely a rainy day ... but we did luck out and when it came time for pictures after the ceremony the rain briefly stopped and it was just a bit misty outside!

It took some of the curl out of my hair, but was so worth it to get outside and take photos outside. We got married at the Gananoque Inn, right along the water so it was a beautiful location. I'm anxiously awaiting those pictures!!

Jenn

[jenng1976]

Day 6 - Sea Day

Well, the trip is rapidly coming to a close at this point. But, we still had another day at Sea to enjoy!

We didn't do too much - in the morning we sat around and read in various places around the ship.

At lunch, we received an invitation to the Mariners Lunch so went to that. I didn't really like what was on the pre-set menu (being picky and everything, nothing wrong with the menu!) - so I just picked at my food to be social, but Jim really enjoyed his. I think he had the Salmon. The red wine was good anyway! Then after lunch we had our 2nd lunch upstairs at the Grill so I could eat! lol ... luckily I have a sweet husband who doesn't mind my "quirks"!

In the afternoon we hung out some more - played Trivia, went to the Casino, sat out on the balcony. Basically just lazed the day away.

That night we had our Pinnacle Grill reservation, and we were really looking forward to that - we had heard great things about the restaurant and it didn't disappoint! We had booked our reservation online before we left.

The service & food were fantastic - I had the New York steak with Baked Potato, and Jim had the Porterhouse & Scalloped potatoes. (And wow, were they ever big portions!). And I was so so sooooo happy about dessert - Warm Chocolate Melting Cake! omg, you have no idea how happy I was that this was on the menu. On all my Carnival cruises, it's on the menu every night - and every night I order it! I love it so much - I even have the recipe and make it at home. So - even though I ordered other chocolatey delights on this cruise, I really enjoyed having my all-time favourite. Thank you Pinnacle!!

My only regret was that we didn't book it for a different night - we heard later that this was the night the waiters did a special singing/dancing show, and we were disappointed to have missed it. I know some don't enjoy this part of it, but we always liked it on Carnival. Oh well, live and learn!

And here are some pics of that day & night - my dress was courtesy of Mom once again!

[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2509.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2508.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2520.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2522.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2524.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2525.jpg[/IMG]

[jenng1976]

Well - today is our last morning on the Zuiderdam. This past week has gone by so quickly - it's hard to believe it's almost over.

We started off the day at breakfast in the Dining Room, then headed back to the room to shower and pack up the last of our things into our Carry-On bags. (The night before, we had left out our 2 big suitcases + garment bags).

We didn't linger too long in the room - even though we know you didn't "have" to get out, we figured our wonderful room steward would appreciate the extra time to turn-around the room for the next set of guests.

After that we just found a table to hang out at by the Pinnacle Lounge on Deck 3. We read, I walked around getting some last minute pictures - just killing time really and waiting for our zone colour to be called to disenbark.

Our zone Green 3 ended up being called about 9:30AM. We found it amusing that those with "Lime" kept trying to get off, even though they kept saying "Green, not Lime". Some of the "Lime-ers" snuck out anyways it seemed. If it were me designing the system though, I would have picked a totally different colour - like purple, to avoid confusion, rather than having different shades of the same colour. But, that's just me. If you're sailing later this summer and you're Lime - don't get off when they call Green!!

Once off, we quickly found our luggage and made our way to the Sky Train. It was a couple blocks away - we had 2 big rolling suitcases, a garment bag, and 2 carry-ons, and made it no problem. The bargain price of $2.50/person to the Airport made the walk worthwhile! There was an elevator to the station so we didn't have to navigate any stairs/escalators with our luggage.

I think it was about a 30 min trip to the airport - we got there shortly after 10AM so we had lots of time before our flight, at 1:30. We had lunch at White Spot (delish!) and later enjoyed a couple beers at Milestones. Very reasonable prices at YVR compared to Pearson at home.

And so, before you knew it we were back at home. End of honeymoon, but start of our life together!

I'll post some final pictures ... and then I'll end with some comparisons we noticed between Carnival & HAL and different odds & ends I didn't talk about elsewhere.

[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2531.jpg[/IMG]

Lionsgate Bridge
[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2534.jpg[/IMG]

Waiting ...
[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2556.jpg[/IMG]

Vancouver Airport - White Spot
[IMG]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/gre0177/Alaska/IMG_2586.jpg[/IMG]

[jenng1976]

I'll do a bit of a compare/contrast between Carnival & HAL here ... these are just my opinions, I know a lot of this is just personal preference.

FOOD -
Breakfast: For me, advantage HAL - I loved their Cinnamon French Toast. On Carnival, their Cin. French Toast is made with Raisin bread, which I don't like. Jim likes both equally.

Both lines make great pastries.

Lunch: Advantage HAL that their Dining Room is open all days for lunch, not just Sea Days. Otherwise, food is great on both. My favourite for both is the Grill. HAL also has great bar service at lunch, you don't have to wait at all to get a drink.

Dinner: I like both equally. Jim prefers HAL on the strength of their soups!

Desserts: On Carnival, I love you can get Melting Cake every night. I really missed that this cruise. A plus for HAL is their real ice cream with waffle cones, not just soft-serve.

Overall - both are great! We certainly didn't lack for delicious food!

SERVICE:

We have always found the service outstanding on Carnival, and expected and got the same on HAL. No complaints here - from our cabin stewards to dining stewards, to the bar staff, everyone was top notch and remembered our preferences.

ENTERTAINMENT:

We enjoyed the entertainment on HAL, but found it was just a little bit better on Carnival. No complaints though, we enjoyed all the shows we went to.

CABINS:

Cabin itself - very similar in size to Carnival. Neutral.
Balcony - Advantage HAL. Way nicer furniture, and more space (even with regular size balcony). Carnival balconies are quite small width-wise.

FRONT DESK:

They were great, very professional and friendly. One thing that we missed though - on Carnival you can get an up to date summary on your tv of your cabin charges, instead of having to go to the front desk to get a printout.

ALCOHOL:

Advantage HAL. We liked that on HAL you could bring as much wine as you wanted onboard. And - that you could over 6 packs for your cabin at a reasonable price of $21-22. Usually we smuggle a dozen beers on Carnival to keep in our room, but didn't feel the need here.

TIPPING:

Both lines have automatic tips, which we like. HAL was $1/more per day which was fine. We generally tip extra to those that treat us well, and it was the same on this cruise. The crew are so hardworking, they deserve every $!


OVERALL:

We loved our cruise with HAL. Would we sail again with them? Absolutely - but, only at the right price. At this stage in our lives we only have limited travel $ per year to spend and generally Holland America is a lot more than Carnival. It's for that reason that our next cruise will be on Carnival - we've booked the Pride for next Fall.

I will continue however to monitor HAL's specials, and hope very much that we will sail them again!

And that about sums it up ... as I mentioned before, I am happy to answer any questions, or if there are any pictures you would like to see I haven't shown (like Vancouver), let me know.

Thanks so much for following along and hope all your future cruises are just as great as ours was!

Jenn

[bcnvcanada]

Thanks so much for sharing this time in your lives. It was an eye opener, in that I forget that we have so much to see in our own area, and yet we spend hours in the air going to those oft distant places. We will be booking an Alaska cruise sometime in the near furture. Thanks so much, for the pictures and review. Congratulations.

[rkacruiser]

Thank you for a most interesting review and providing truly excellent photos! They make me want to return to Alaska again!

 

Missing your flightseeing trip to Misty Fjords provides another reason to return to Alaska. The flight I was able to experience was/is one of the sightseeing highlights of my travels. I hope you will be able to experience this in the future.

 

Thanks again!

[NancyJewel92]

Jenn - Thanks for your thorough review! Your writing was a delight to read and your photos were georgous. (And loved that your DH was always beaming a warm smile for the photographer. :D )

 

My DH and I did the same itinerary aboard HAL's Statendam. It was great to relive our trip through yours. :p

 

Congrats on your marriage. May you have decades of cruises ahead.

[SwissMyst]

OMG, you are sitting in exactly the same table where we had unfortunately a disastrous evening at the Zuiderdam Pinnacle Grill a few years ago. Glad to learn it has improved --- it had to! :p

[DeepWaterMariner]

Wonderful review and great pictures. I hope you enjoy your next cruise as much as this one.

[hpf]

Thanks for the trip down memort lane,your photos and writing were awesome.

It's been 6 years and now i think I'll have to book another Alaska cruise.

 

I did notice from your photo's, and compareing them to mine, that the glaceries do seem to be getting smaller.

 

Thanks again and many, many wonderful years of married life; and cruising as well.

 

Helen

[Prairie_Gal]

Thank you very much for the awesome review! Sorry you missed your flightseeing excursion.

[kjw869]

OMG, you are sitting in exactly the same table where we had unfortunately a disastrous evening at the Zuiderdam Pinnacle Grill a few years ago. Glad to learn it has improved --- it had to! :p

 

It has. I'm pretty sure that is the third table back from the front where we also sat for both of our dinners at the Pinnacle in January of this year. I remember back a year or so ago a poster was complaining how bad the Pinnacle was on the Zuiderdam on one of their cruises.

 

It turned out to be two of the best dinners we've eaten at the Pinnacle on all the HAL ships we have sailed. Then again, we've never had a bad meal on any of our cruises.

[kazu]

Jenn - your review and pictures were just incredible. Thank you so much for taking the time to post the pics and share your cruise with us.

 

Very enjoyable:)

[SwissMyst]

....

 

It turned out to be two of the best dinners we've eaten at the Pinnacle on all the HAL ships we have sailed. Then again, we've never had a bad meal on any of our cruises.

 

The mystery for us was the Zuiderdam main dining room had the best HAL food we have had so far, so for the Pinnacle to be so far off the mark from service, attitude, tension in the room, to really poor food from the soggy "crisps" right off the bat to their terrible take on the uneaten "baked Alaska", it just seemed really odd there was so much disparity between the two kitchens on the same ship.

 

Glad to hear the Zuiderdam high dining standards now are across the ship because it just did not make sense to have such good mass dining and such poor specialty dining. Yup, it was probably my vivid complaint you heard about the PG here a while back. I didn't let go of it and found there was also quite a bit of support from other diners who had similarly poor PG experiences too. We don't hear much of that any longer and that is a fine improvement.

 

PG is lovely and it deserved to offer a better and far more consistent premium experience than had been reported a while back.

[jenng1976]

Thank you for a most interesting review and providing truly excellent photos! They make me want to return to Alaska again!

 

Missing your flightseeing trip to Misty Fjords provides another reason to return to Alaska. The flight I was able to experience was/is one of the sightseeing highlights of my travels. I hope you will be able to experience this in the future.

 

Thanks again!

 

Yes, Misty Fjords was our biggest disappointment! We were so looking forward to flying in a floatplane and seeing the Fjords, but I guess it wasn't meant to be that day.

 

Hopefully one of these years we will get back and do a one-way cruise, with some time in the Interior and Denali! And of course a Misty Fjords trip.

 

It's good to have something to look forward to! :)

[jenng1976]

Jenn - Thanks for your thorough review! Your writing was a delight to read and your photos were georgous. (And loved that your DH was always beaming a warm smile for the photographer. :D )

 

My DH and I did the same itinerary aboard HAL's Statendam. It was great to relive our trip through yours. :p

 

Congrats on your marriage. May you have decades of cruises ahead.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it! It was fun reliving our wonderful honeymoon, and I know when I was researching our trip, it was interesting/informative to get others perspectives on what we were considering.

 

And I'm definitely a lucky woman to have found such a sweet, loving guy!

 

We have many things in our "cruise bucket list" in the years to come - including the Mediterranean, Hawaii, Australia - and many others!

[jenng1976]

The mystery for us was the Zuiderdam main dining room had the best HAL food we have had so far, so for the Pinnacle to be so far off the mark from service, attitude, tension in the room, to really poor food from the soggy "crisps" right off the bat to their terrible take on the uneaten "baked Alaska", it just seemed really odd there was so much disparity between the two kitchens on the same ship.

 

Glad to hear the Zuiderdam high dining standards now are across the ship because it just did not make sense to have such good mass dining and such poor specialty dining. Yup, it was probably my vivid complaint you heard about the PG here a while back. I didn't let go of it and found there was also quite a bit of support from other diners who had similarly poor PG experiences too. We don't hear much of that any longer and that is a fine improvement.

 

PG is lovely and it deserved to offer a better and far more consistent premium experience than had been reported a while back.

 

Well, I am glad they worked out the kinks before our dinner! I hope your next experience will be better. :)

 

We had a lovely experience, it was nice eating in a quiet, intimate environment - our reservation was for 6PM so the PG wasn't very busy at that time. Plus, this might sound like a silly thing - but I loved the giant water/wine glasses! Never-ending glasses of water are one of my favourite things on a cruise, so the big glasses were nice, haha :D

[tarheeltravel]

Don't stop, Jenn! I'm excited to be going aboard the Zuiderdam for the exact same trip in two weeks, and your wonderful review has made the wait unbearable! Thank you so much, you answered many of my questions. The reveiws were wonderfully written and the pictures glorious. You and your husband are exactly the kind of engaging people we always hope to meet on cruises! You are an adorable couple and I wish you many happy years of cruising through your lives together.

[the2ofus]

Thank you so much for sharing your honeymoon cruise experience with us. Wonderful review with a nice informal writing style...I feel I had a great afternoon visit with a good friend. Your pictures were lovely and the ones featuring the two of you showed your happiness so clearly. May your lives together bring you even more happiness.

 

I am especially glad to know you felt comfortable on HAL. My husband and I cruised to Alaska and I always wanted my kids to enjoy it too. This summer we are doing a 3 generation cruisetour. I have had some anxious moments wondering if the kids and grandkids might find it too sedate. I am reassured by your posts.

[pookey1265]

Thank you so much for posting the pictures. They are just breathtaking. I have been to Alaska twice - once on Carnival Spirit and once on RCCL Rhaspody of the Sea. Want to try this ship in May, 2013. I am going with my mom, since she has never been to Alaska. Can't wait.

[lanord]

I enjoyed so much your report and your photos! I have been ambivalent about our upcoming first visit to Alaska, but seeing your wonderful photos is getting me excited about going!

 

:)

 

Thanks again for taking the time to share.

 

Leigh Ann

[jenng1976]

Thank you so much for sharing your honeymoon cruise experience with us. Wonderful review with a nice informal writing style...I feel I had a great afternoon visit with a good friend. Your pictures were lovely and the ones featuring the two of you showed your happiness so clearly. May your lives together bring you even more happiness.

 

I am especially glad to know you felt comfortable on HAL. My husband and I cruised to Alaska and I always wanted my kids to enjoy it too. This summer we are doing a 3 generation cruisetour. I have had some anxious moments wondering if the kids and grandkids might find it too sedate. I am reassured by your posts.

 

That sounds wonderful to have a multi-generation trip! I've been on a couple cruises with my parents, and we're hoping to arrange another for their 40th wedding anniversary in a few years.

 

There weren't a ton of kids that we noticed on our sailing, but we did see some and most seemed to be having a fun time! Especially in the covered pool area.

 

We did get a chuckle or two about a couple of teenage boys we saw here and there who always seemed determined to look like they were having a miserable time. Even at lunch! I mean, how could you be unhappy eating wonderful food and with all the beautiful scenery around!

 

Personally I think a vacation is all what you make of it ... if you think you'll have a great time, you probably will. If you're looking for the negatives - well, you'll probably find that too!

 

Happy sailing :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great -- thanks for sharing!!

[Patrick IL.]

Well this was just a pleasure to read and wonderful pictures too! So glad you enjoyed, we will be doing our very first Alaska adventure next year.

Thanks so much.