LAFFNVEGAS LIVE from the Zuiderdam to Alaska (version 2013)

[Stormsam]

Thanks for the great info. My wife and I just booked the Pinnacle Suite for our 20th anniversary in May 2014 on the Zuiderdam and are very excited. Your trip report is making it seem true and we can't wait to go. I took my mom on the Volendam to Alaska in 2004 but my wife has never been so really looking forward to seeing what has changed. Thanks again. :)

[sail7seas]

Safe home. :)

[Himself]

Lisa:

 

One of the sad things about cruising is it ends all too soon. Thank you for your postings and taking us with on your voyage. May you have a safe trip home on SouthWest where the bags fly free.

 

God bless you and Tom!

[kjw869]

Thanks for the great info. My wife and I just booked the Pinnacle Suite for our 20th anniversary in May 2014 on the Zuiderdam and are very excited. Your trip report is making it seem true and we can't wait to go. I took my mom on the Volendam to Alaska in 2004 but my wife has never been so really looking forward to seeing what has changed. Thanks again. :)

 

What a great way to spend your 20th anniversary. We are currently on the Zuiderdam and are spending the last night in our Pinnacle Suite (7045). It's been a wonderful 11 days meeting all the Cruise Critic members. Enjoy the Zuiderdam--a wonderful crew and a wonderful ship!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Friday May 17, 2013

 

Good Evening from the MS Zuiderdam,

 

There is always a sadness this final day, most plan for months in advance, then suddenly in a flash the cruise vacation you planned is now ending.

 

The day started out with the usual last day Mariner Reception prior to the Mariner lunch as I have grown accustom to there just not many Mariners on Alaska sailings let alone those that are 4 star and above. Today I believe there were 7 of us that attended the Pre Lunch cocktail party and there were no medallions given out. I have never been that thrilled over the Mariner Lunch and since they were having a Salmon Bake with Mussels and Clams out by the Lido Pool for lunch today I decided that sounded much better. For the Suite Passengers they had an Indonesian Lunch in the Pinnacle at Noon.

 

The afternoon was a combination of reading and napping ;) I have been trying to figure out why I have been so darn tired and been taking naps every afternoon, not long ones just an hour but Tom thinks it is because I am so relaxed. I never ever take naps at home and am usually working from early morning till late at night. It has been good to just totally relax.

 

We have been so very fortunate with really calm seas and for the most part the weather has been good considering it is early May. We have also always had great weather in Glacier Bay which really is a very special place.

 

This evening we went to the Pinnacle and Marcia aka dobiemon joined us. It was a very good way to end out last night.

We have now packed and close to locking up the luggage to place out in the hall.

 

I want to thank the Officers and Crew of the Zuiderdam for another amazing cruise it was good to see many that we know and missed those we have loved sailing with in the past but know we will sail with again. Eleven days is a good number while i would love it to be 14 days I will take 11.

 

I also want to thank everyone on CC for following along. It actually has worked out pretty well using my iPad rather than bringing my net book and actually a lot easier when we went thry TSA at the airport.

 

Signing off one last time from the Beautiful and Elegant MS Zuiderdam

[JamesEM]

Have a safe trip home, looking forward to reading your report.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

What a great way to spend your 20th anniversary. We are currently on the Zuiderdam and are spending the last night in our Pinnacle Suite (7045). It's been a wonderful 11 days meeting all the Cruise Critic members. Enjoy the Zuiderdam--a wonderful crew and a wonderful ship!

 

Hi Ken it was great meeting you and Sue, Glad we could all have lunch together yesterday ;)

Have a safe trip home.

 

Also thanks to everyone for wishing us a safe trip home as well.

[kjw869]

Hi Ken it was great meeting you and Sue, Glad we could all have lunch together yesterday ;)

Have a safe trip home.

 

Also thanks to everyone for wishing us a safe trip home as well.

 

Lisa, It was wonderful meeting you and Tom. We'll probably see you in the morning as we'll also be traveling with Diane and Mike on the HAL transfer to Seattle. Even at 11 days, it is waaaay too short!! We hope to cruise with you and Tom again in the future.

 

Take care and best regards,

 

Ken & Sue

[Seago2]

Have a safe trip home!

 

Quick question: did you have the pay-one-price Internet that I've heard about on the Carnival boards? Because when I did a "live from" on my iPad I wrote it as a note and then copied and pasted as quickly as I could when I signed on. My posts were full of random asterisks. Something about the reformatting- just another iPad PITA. Your posts are just fine so I'm wondering if you just used straight Internet minutes?

 

Good luck on your long travel day :(

[matondo]

Thank you for another wonderful report!

 

We were in the middle of pulling the trigger for our Alaskan cruise next summer when life happened. Hoping we can still make it happen but it is on hold for now:(.

 

We were on the Disney Dream last week for a three nighter while it was amazing we missed HAL. Hoping it won't be too much longer before we can get our next HAL cruise booked.

[mamaofami]

Sorry your cruise is coming to an end. I know that sad feeling. Safe travels.

[Two@Sea]

Thanks for another wonderful "Life From..." Lisa! Enjoyed every word and picture! :)

[vtcman]

Great following along on your cruise, looking forward to hearing about your next adventure as well as heading up to Alaska myself in a week. Safe journeys.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Greetings from the HAL Motor Coach at Rest Stop just past the US Canada Boarder. While it took a while to get thru Border Inspection they claim it was very fast for being a Holiday weekend for Canada. The was sort of a impromptu HAL CC meeting ;) with 10 of us all sitting together.

 

Our flight is not till 5:15 so we probably could have taken the 2:45 flight but we will probably stay with what we have.

[mflgolf]

Lisa, It was nice to meet so many CCrs on this cruise. The ride back to Seattle seemed to not take as long. No doubt it had to do with all of the wonderful company we had on the shuttle. Looking forward to seeing you and Tom in the future.

 

Diane

[innlady1]

Thank you, Lisa, for your "Live From the Zuiderdam" thread. I enjoyed traveling along with you and Tom! Safe travels back to Las Vegas....

[shrimp56]

Yes, thank you very much:)

Hope you arrived home safely.

[madera1]

I enjoyed reading your live from posts. Thanks so much for taking the time to report on your experience.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks for the Welcome Home :) We are home, and about 99% unpacked. Of course piles of some clothes I need to wash and cosmetics/toiletries need to be unpacked but the luggage is actually put away. It is always good to get home and see animals are all doing well and they all missed us very much. Andy our son ordered Pizza and Wings before he came and picked us up at the airport so could pick them up on our way home. He even washed Tom's car and detailed the inside for him.

 

Now I am extremely exhausted been a very long day and need to be up early for work.

 

Signing off from the Laffnvegas Homestead :D

[startwin]

Thanks Lisa, I enjoyed your reports. I went down to Canada Place today to check out the Zuiderdam - got soaked in the pouring rain but the sun came out brilliantly an hour before she sailed again.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Thanks Lisa, I enjoyed your reports. I went down to Canada Place today to check out the Zuiderdam - got soaked in the pouring rain but the sun came out brilliantly an hour before she sailed again.

 

Glad to hear that Sail Away the sun came out, we were very fortunately the previous Saturday is absolutely beautiful and warm much warmer than last year. We love Vancouver, it is such a beautiful vertical city with so many different stores than the US.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Coming back home and facing realty really stinks :( Both Tom and I hit realty head on with having to work today.

 

I did want to mention just a few items in closing. One I was totally dreading the Motor Coach (bus ride) from Canada Place to SeaTac airport but to my surprise the time flew by quickly and HAL seemed quite organized with this. We left Canada place about 8:45 and arrived at Sea Tac at 12:40. Of course it helped that oddly 10 (5 couples) of the CC Roll Call were all on the bus and we all 10 of us sat together and talked non stop there. It was a very fun group of CCers and we just continued the CC Meet and Greet on the bus :D

I will say that if we decided to cruise out of Vancouver again I will definitely consider doing the Sea Tac transfers. Many other cruise lines do not offer this so it is good that HAL does this.

 

Another thing I do want to mention that I do not want this to turn into a smoking thread but I want to mention this. I have had only a couple of times smokers near us that we smelled out on the balcony and I have not complained because that is one of the places they are to smoke. This time we actually only noticed it 2 times so definitely not a problem on the balcony but... yes there is a but where we did smell the smoke was in our cabin. The strongest was in the morning around 8 am and extremely strong in our bathroom. We were aware that the smokers were just forward of us. As the 7 day week progressed it was getting strong in not just our bathroom but but also thru the vent near the door. The last formal night while getting dress it was so strong if felt gagging. Smells do not bother Tom but even he smelled it strong in the hallway. On Saturday the 12th at Meet and Greet Joanie mentioned to me that she smelled it in the hallway when she delivered the meet and greet invites. I guess my question is does HAL approach these people that smoke in their cabin and ask them to stop smoking? is the fee they charge them for room cleaning a one time fee? I have never smoked but I do not want to deprive them from smoking but in a case where they should NOT be smoking in the cabin can it be stopped? We spent lots of time on the balcony and only two times smelled smoke so it obviously was too cold for them to go outside.

 

One last thing that did make me get mad for a short period was something that has occurred to me two other previous times so this must be something that HAL Room Stewards think they can get away with. We had the cabin for 11 days and when we joined on the 7th the shampoo, conditioner and shower gel were about about 1/3 full, by Sunday the containers were pretty low, then Monday morning I go to take a shower and they are suddenly back to about 1/2 full but instead of refilling them with the shampoo and shower gel they just added water. The color was basically clear for the shampoo and was just water coming out. I have had this before on both the Zuiderdam last year and the Westerdam last year. I love the Elemis products and know when it is just watered down really bad. When I left the cabin that morning I mentioned to our cabin steward and he all but admitted that it was filled with water and apologized and said he would removed and replace which they did. Not sure if HAL Management knows they do this or they just look the other way.

 

This was really a great cruise and fun meeting those we met here on Cruise Critic. I thought the Zuiderdam was in better shape over last year, thru out the ship the carpet was new, for her age I actually think the Zuiderdam looks pretty good. Did not hear of any complaints about the ship with one exception one of our CCers had an Aft Suite the first 4 days then moved to a mid ship Suite on the Rotterdam Deck but the A/C would not turn off in this corner aft, HAL maintenance kept trying to fix and they could not get it to heat up over 58 degrees. Because they ship was full heading to Vancouver they had no where to move them.

Food was really good in all the venues. Menus in the MDR were different than last year with a few old favorites although some of the menus were kind of strange:D

 

Thanks for following along it was another great HAL cruise now the long count down begins for the next cruise. :)

[Monsoonalblue]

I really enjoyed following your blog:). Many, many thanks:)

[SilvertoGold]

Glad to hear that Sail Away the sun came out, we were very fortunately the previous Saturday is absolutely beautiful and warm much warmer than last year. We love Vancouver, it is such a beautiful vertical city with so many different stores than the US.

 

Thanks, Lisa, for the kind comments about Vancouver. We think that lately there has been an addition of a lot of American stores we aren't familiar with!!

[sapete]

Did not hear of any complaints about the ship with one exception one of our CCers had an Aft Suite the first 4 days then moved to a mid ship Suite on the Rotterdam Deck but the A/C would not turn off in this corner aft, HAL maintenance kept trying to fix and they could not get it to heat up over 58 degrees. Because they ship was full heading to Vancouver they had no where to move them.

 

Lisa,

 

I guess you were talking about the Aft Suite Lynn and I were in. When we came back from lunch in the MDR on the first day there were four engineering folks in the suite with the sdie electrical panel and the ceiling access plates pulled off. They said they replaced two relays inthe heater and a breaker in the electrical panel. The the worked all week long.:)