"Live from" ms Volendam to Alaska! My First HAL Experience

[lovely_serenity]

Oh, Sarah. Please don't worry about it. I know that this is exam time and just concentrate on your schoolwork.

 

I will enjoy reading the rest of your review when I return from our Alaskan cruise on the Volendam. Will then be able to compare to our experiences.

 

Thanks so much for doing this for us.

 

Good luck to you.

 

Ellen

 

Ellen,

 

Nah, it's fine! And it's not like I can study for 48 hours straight, I'm gonna have to take a break at some point. I'm a straight A student, so I never really have issues with exams being too difficult for me. I'll manage! ^^

 

Check a couple more times before you leave! I'm sure I'll have something up c:

 

No problem! I enjoy doing what I do, it makes me happy! :)

 

Thanks again,

 

Sarah

[brazilgirl]

Kim,

 

Thank you so much for your extensively thoughtful comment! It seriously makes my day when I read comments such as that of your own.

 

I owe all of my vocabulary skills to my addiction to reading as a child. (: Apparently, reading magically helps you write better ^^

 

I've also been known to be observant by my peers. Often I'd notice little things that nobody else cares about LOL. I guess I can put this skill to use here!

 

It certainly would be amazing if I actually had the opportunity to work for Bon Appetit! I could get my stuff published there (and nonetheless, about my favourite thing: food! :D) and get .. Well, known! ^^

 

LOL I've never thought of being a host on Top Chef, that sounds interesting :P I'm sure Padma would love to have a girl like me be her sidedkick! Now if only I could get a call from them :P

 

Oh thank you! We have actually planned another Alaskan cruise for next year as well! (LOL go figure) Except this time, it'll be like a family reunion type thing. Our relatives from all over the lower mainland, as well as china (some) would be joining us on a Disney cruise in August!

 

Be sure to update me when you've decided, I'm a curious one ^^ && I hope my review will help you pick what you plan to do!

 

Indeed, I have a family with three young ones , LOL. (It's just that I'm one of them! ^^ ) Indeed, I am very appreciative of the fortune I've been granted in which I am given the opportunity to travel the world in the manner I do now. I know that I am very lucky to be able to do so (:

 

Thanks again! And I will continue working hard on it! :)

 

Sarah

 

Your lovely response made me smile! I hope our paths cross while traveling one day.

 

I will be sure to let you know what we decide about Alaska...right now HAL and Celebrity are neck in neck. We are leaving on a European adventure next month ( sailing the Eurodam!) , so will decide when we get back. Your review made me very excited about the afternoon tea parties....I will post a review with photos when I get back . Check it out to compare experiences ( I will have avoid taking so many food photos as they will go straight to my hips! )

 

Will be keeping an eye out for you in the future , I know you will achieve great things !

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[lovely_serenity]

Your lovely response made me smile! I hope our paths cross while traveling one day.

 

I will be sure to let you know what we decide about Alaska...right now HAL and Celebrity are neck in neck. We are leaving on a European adventure next month ( sailing the Eurodam!) , so will decide when we get back. Your review made me very excited about the afternoon tea parties....I will post a review with photos when I get back . Check it out to compare experiences ( I will have avoid taking so many food photos as they will go straight to my hips! )

 

Will be keeping an eye out for you in the future , I know you will achieve great things !

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I hope so too (:.

 

I suggest you go with Celebrity is you are going to Alaska. I can't guarantee that your experience will be better, but its just from my experience that Celebrity handles Alaska better. (Food & service wise)

 

Oh! The Eurodam? Are you going for the Copenhagen to Copenhagen? Or the Viking-whatever Adventure in Norway? We were actually lokking into some of those last week!

 

Yes, yes, you should totally go to the Afternoon Teas! Especially the special ones!

 

I'll be sure to check out your review on it! When it's in progress, link me and I'll follow it! :D

 

Thank you, thank you. I hope so too (; & perhaps we'll run into each other someday while travelling! Who knows?

 

Sarah

Edited June 15, 2013 by lovely_serenity

[brazilgirl]

We are going from Copenhagen to Amsterdam ( visiting the Norwegian Fjords, Scotland and Ireland). We'll spend a week in Denmark pre-cruise and a few days in Amsterdam post cruise. Very excited about the itinerary.

 

We love Celebrity...as of now it is my number one choice for Alaska . We are seriously considering the Century , which will be refurbished and "Solsticized" at the end of this year. Have you been on Celebrity to Alaska? If so , could you give me a comparison when you have time HAL vs Celebrity Alaska...I would love hearing your observations!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[lovely_serenity]

We are going from Copenhagen to Amsterdam ( visiting the Norwegian Fjords, Scotland and Ireland). We'll spend a week in Denmark pre-cruise and a few days in Amsterdam post cruise. Very excited about the itinerary.

 

We love Celebrity...as of now it is my number one choice for Alaska . We are seriously considering the Century , which will be refurbished and "Solsticized" at the end of this year. Have you been on Celebrity to Alaska? If so , could you give me a comparison when you have time HAL vs Celebrity Alaska...I would love hearing your observations!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Ohh I'm so jealous! ^^ I haven't done a European cruise before and I REALLY want to. My parents went on one without us a couple years back and I'm still jealous c:

 

We love Celebrity too! It's one of our favourite cruise lines! (:

 

Actually yeah! I was on the Celebrity Mercury's last chunk of saillings to Alaska before it got sold off to that other company. It was one of our best experiences ever on a cruise. I have to say that the food on Celebrity was WAY better than that on HAL. There was never a time where I ordered something and didn't absolutely love it. On HAL, the food was very hit and miss. Either it was, ew, meh or yum. o_o" Literally, 1/3 chance of getting one.

 

Celebrity's service was a lot better too. (**NOTE: THIS IS FROM ONE CRUISE WITH EACH. SO NOT TOTALLY RELIABLE IN JUDGEMENT) The HAL servers seemed really grumpy all the time. Only a handful were actually pleasant to be around.

 

For Alaska, I've gotta say Celebrity. :)

[brazilgirl]

Thanks for your thoughts , very helpful!

 

You will love Europe ...you would go crazy taking food photos there...lol.

 

Again , thank you for the lovely review and comments.

[lovely_serenity]

Thanks for your thoughts , very helpful!

 

You will love Europe ...you would go crazy taking food photos there...lol.

 

Again , thank you for the lovely review and comments.

You're welcome! :)

 

I'm sure I will ^^

 

No problem~

[lovely_serenity]

Fell behind on this review.

Really great.

You have done an excellent job with the pictures.

 

It's okay, haha! Thanks! :) & thank you again ^^

[lovely_serenity]

Thank you so much!!! It is a great addition to this thread.

I agree! It's like a look into the future ;)

[lovely_serenity]

So finally, someone notices that there are non-fed people way at the back of the dining room. I see a man gesture to a couple servers and call out to them in Indonesian. Around 3-4 servers run over here to take care of us.

 

Here's the tea menu (first time seeing one of these):

 

 

We actually found a couple of these descriptions pretty hilarious! ^^ Like actually, please take the time to actually read the tea descriptions. I mean think about it! For Indonesian Jasmine Fine Green Tea is says:

 

"These delicate green tea buds are mingled with jasmine blossoms that are hand picked under the light of the moon."

 

... LOL, what? :D I'm so sure that all my tea was hand picked under the light of the moon. haha! ^^ A little much on the descriptions!

 

Still, I chose the "Organic Indonesian Classic Fine Black Tea". (I love milk tea, so I assumed from the description that it would match my taste. I requested it and the servers didn't seem to know exactly what was on the menu. I read the whole name out and the guy said what? I repeated it and he said, "the black tea?"

 

Me: ... "yeah, sure". ^^"

 

Everyone else asked for their drinks, but I'll go into more detail in a bit when they actually arrive.

 

Feeling a little bad for leaving us alone for so long, they sent 2 people with trays of Indonesian snacks to our table. As we were ordering our tea, they were already standing around our table waiting! :D Usually, this doesn't happen. Usually the food guys simply run around hitting every table near by. This was nice of them! ^^

 

Here's my first shot of (w/ the guy holding) the Indonesian snacks:

 

 

We all got similar things, but Sis & I already knew what all of these were (: Experts you could say. (LOL we ate this in the Lido yesterday) So we already knew what we liked.

 

 

Here was Dad's plate, it consisted of a fried banana, a green coconut filled crêpe and a coconut covered rice ball:

 

 

Something I thought was really nice, was that the crêpe somehow gave Dad a really strong sense of nostalgia. Apparently he ate something just like this back home in Malaysia when he was younger. Which is understandable, since in Malaysia, their cuisine is a mix of Indonesian, Indian, Chinese and Malaysian! c: It was nice to see Dad reminiscing happily ^^ <3.

 

Here was my plate of goodies. A green cake (like the chocolate dipped orange one from yesterday, except green! :D) and a crêpe.

 

 

There are doubles in colours. Although different in shade, taste the same. (ie. green/orange crêpe & cake)

 

I did't take anyone else's plates because those 2 shots basically covered everything.

 

Finally, out tea arrived. They came in nice soft mesh bags. Here was my "Organic Indonesian Classic Fine Black Tea":

 

[kjeanne2001]

Do you have a link to your pictures. I have so enjoyed looking at them. I, too, will be sad when your review is over, but I am sure I will refer back to it many times in planning our cruise.

Edited June 16, 2013 by kjeanne2001

[Krazy Kruizers]

It is just a few minutes after 4 where I live -- and it is tea time in our household.

Everything looks so good.

[lovely_serenity]

Do you have a link to your pictures. I have so enjoyed looking at them. I, too, will be sad when your review is over, but I am sure I will refer back to it many times in planning our cruise.

 

Unfortunately, I don't, sorry ^^" I used multiple Flickr accounts, as I maxed out like 6 of them. So I just privatized all of the photos. Perhaps, you can link yourself or bookmark this? C:

 

I know how you feel, I'll be so sad when this is done :(

 

Sarah

[lovely_serenity]

It is just a few minutes after 4 where I live -- and it is tea time in our household.

Everything looks so good.

Mmm, I know, right? ^^ I get hungry posting them lol :p

[erewhon]

Continuing to enjoy your posts and fabulous photos.

Thanks again.

[lovely_serenity]

Continuing to enjoy your posts and fabulous photos.

Thanks again.

No problem! :)

 

Sorry if it's a little slow though, I have a final exam tomorrow ^^"

[Krazy Kruizers]

Good luck on your final exam!!

[erewhon]

No problem! :)

 

Sorry if it's a little slow though, I have a final exam tomorrow ^^"

 

Best of luck for your exam.

[Rowsby]

Hope your exams went well....

Too bad they aren't in photography....you would definitely get an A+.........!!!

[lovely_serenity]

Good luck on your final exam!!

 

Thank you! :)

 

Best of luck for your exam.

 

Thank you! ^^

 

Hope your exams went well....

Too bad they aren't in photography....you would definitely get an A+.........!!!

 

Haha thank you! ^^ I just came home from taking it. Hopefully it went okay. I caught 4 mistakes that I managed to correct (:<, so I'm hoping that I did alright.

 

It was actually kind of stressful, since I almost didn't finish O_O !!

 

We were given 1h45 for 60 questions. At the math portion, it takes forever too! By Q31, I only had half an hour left!! D; I started panicking and skipped over the math ones to do everything else first and then comeback. Thankfully, I finished in time (: *phew

[lovely_serenity]

Hi Sarah.

 

Don't want to push you, but we leave for our Volendam cruise on Wednesday so only a few more days for you to fill us in!:D

 

Really enjoying this review.

 

Ellen

 

Ellen! I'm done exam #1 and I don't have another til friday. I remembered that you're leaving tomorrow, so I'm going to update as much as I can today before you leave!

 

Sarah

[In Toronto]

Sarah, you really are the sweetest!

 

Actually we don't leave until Wednesday so will be checking in until tomorrow (Tuesday) evening.

 

Ellen

[lovely_serenity]

I got hot water added to mine (black tea), and it came out looking like this:

 

 

Mine tasted nice, not at all bitter. I loved it, very delicious c:

 

Sis on the other, got the "hand picked under the light of the moon" Indonesian Fine Jasmine Green Tea. ^^:

 

 

Sis also had hot water added to hers, and it came out looking like this:

 

 

Sis said her tea tasted "just as it had been described". LOL, yeah right. :D

 

Dad, Mom & Bro however, went for the coffee instead. Mom & Dad wanted to try both types, so he ordered the "Sumatra":

 

(Here's it being poured for him; nice shot, eh? :D):

 

 

(And then after it's been poured):

 

[lovely_serenity]

Bro got the same thing (Sumatra):

 

 

And Mom opted for the "Celebes":

 

Pouring~ :

 

 

Poured! :D :

 

 

According to them, though the Celebes had a more attractive description, the Sumatra tasted much better. They said that the Sumatra had a more nice and fragrant aroma and a better taste overall. It was also stronger to a more appropriate degree. The Celebes (although good) had a weaker aroma, as well as taste. Its description indicated that it was supposed to taste "chocolaty", but showed no actual results. It apparently tasted just like normal, weakish coffee.

 

As they critiqued their coffees, I tasted my tea again (yum~, && it has a calming effect ^^) and added milk & sugar to it:

 

 

Just as the description had said, mine tasted great with milk. Must better than my failed Dutch milk tea on day one ^^. This tea was actually made to have milk & cream added to it. Some others are just simply not.

 

Soon enough, some more food started arriving. It was the usual tea time goodies!

 

Here's my (as usual) Smoked Salmon thing:

 

 

Bro's (as usual) random plate of things that usually include a cheese:

 

 

Yum~ ^^

[lovely_serenity]

Here's Mom's tart with Chicken:

 

 

And Sis's cucumber thing: (I feel like I can't say tart because it's like a little piece of bread. Let's call them small open-faced sandwiches :D)

 

 

(I didn't take a shot of Dad's because it was just a repeat)*

 

We enjoyed our snacks and suddenly, I heard a: "HO HO HO~". Puzzled, we turned around. Standing by some passengers at the center of the dining room (where the rest of civilization is), was the Captain, wearing the decoration mask from the entrance! ^^ LOL. For the next 10 or so minutes, we would occasionally hear a "HO HO HO~", coming from random parts of the restaurant. He was taking pictures with all the passengers.

 

Finally, he came over to our side of the room. Here he stands, "HO HO HO"ing to the Japanese passengers: (sorry lady, I focused on you instead of the Captain ^^' it's okay! It's a nice shot!)

 

 

Soon enough, he was "HO HO HO"ing to us. We turned around and saw him bobbing up and down all over the place.

 

Bro: "LOL OMG, what is he, Santa Claus? :D"

 

He comes over to our table and starts "HO"ing. As he takes a picture with my brother, I ask him:

 

"LOL, isn't it hot in there?" :p (His costume made covered in wool & hair)

 

Captain: "HO HO HO~ WHY YES IT IS!"

 

LOL ^^

 

We laughed and soon enough, he was on his way. As were we! We finished up teatime and made our way up to the Lido to see what was up.

 

At that time, I took pictures of what would be tonight's casual dinner menu:

 

 

and ate some ice cream!

 

 

We hung around and ate some chips & ice cream and took pictures of each other for a while. Since the early dinner food wasn't out yet, we decided to go down to the Explorer's Lounge to play this card game my brother bought. (it's called San Guo Sha) He went to go get it and we met back up in the lounge. We played that for about an hour:

 

 

It's a Chinese card game where the basis is that there's a King, his supporter, a betrayer pretending to be his supporter & 3 other guys trying to kill the King. No one knows who anyone is, except, only the King's card is flipped. You get characters & lives and what not as well. The idea is: San = dogdge! Guo= heal! and Sha = stab! That's basically how it goes. Everyone has different objectives c: Though they all share one in common: Win!