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

[lovely_serenity]

Wonderful

I have learned to eat before I look at all your food pictures. :D

We love HAL's breakfast menu which they started in 2010 -- way better than it used to be.

We have also noticed that many of the juices are watered down.

 

Haha, learn well grasshopper (:

I agree, I liked the variety in the breakfast menus.

Hey! It's not just me then! :D They DO taste watered down!

 

6 more sleeps and your Cruise will be my cruise....getting very excited..Thanks for my preview..

 

Sandy

 

Oo! Have fun on your cruise! Sorry I wasn't faster :( I wish I could have provided you with more info before you left. I'll do my best to post a lot this weekend! I have a long weekend (No school Friday or Monday :D).

[Vict0riann]

Hey Sarah, I've just had breakfast, but my mouth is already watering! BTW, all we're missing is a photo of you with your camera that we've heard so much about. Ann

[lovely_serenity]

Next up were (turned out to be "was" as in, there was one.) Sis's Vegetarian Taquitos:

 

 

Sis said it was filled with vegetarian meat and tomatoes of something. She liked it!

 

While we waited for more food, I took this picture:

 

 

You can see the weather being kind of gloomy outside :/

 

Oh well, more food's here! Who cares? :D

 

Here was Mom's Chilled Berry Soup:

 

 

Again, tasted like a yummy fruit smoothie/milkshake :p

 

And then came my Melon Trio:

 

 

You know, the usual. It's melon, they all taste the same LOL.

 

One by one, our entrées started to show up. First up was Mom's Wiener Schnitzel (It's veal. Yeah. Who would've known?):

 

 

It was alright, pretty good, nothing special.

 

Then came Dad's Maple-Brined Salmon:

 

 

It surprisingly wasn't very dry, which is unusual among salmons.

[franksandy]

I love Lamb and one of the reasons I picked HAL for this cruise as the last time I was on a Dam ship they had it every night in some form....Is this still true?

 

Sandy

[lovely_serenity]

This was followed by Bro & My Traditional Fish and Chips:

 

 

I really liked this! It was crispy, delicious and moist. Bro on the other hand was kind of unhappy that his weren't crispy. They were kind of soft. Lucky me I guess? (He stole some of mine D: ... without permission. Mean!)

 

Sis's food arrived, she ordered (with my recommendation) the Classic All American Burger:

 

 

This was pretty good too. 8/10

 

Time for dessert! Here were our menus:

 

 

 

Sis ordered the Banana Foster Sundae (she would eat a lot of sundaes during this trip):

 

 

Quite tasty! Sis thought it was okay, but the ice cream was apparently delicious with banana-ness. The Banana Foster was pretty much banana ice cream covered in bitter bananas. Bitter in the sense that they were coated in rum. We kids don't like rum o_o . Sis thought the caramel rum sauce was too bitter, while Mom & Dad thought it was too sweet. So pretty much nobody liked it (the sauce). -_- Sis also commented that the whole thing was sticky so she got irritated.

[lovely_serenity]

I got the Lemon Tart with a side of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream:

 

 

Looks good right? Should taste good right? WRONG. This was one of the worst desserts I had during my whole trip. (Sidenote: HAH! I even make disgusting food look pretty >:D) First of all, the Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream was HORRENDOUS. And this is coming from a girl whose favourite flavour of ice cream is exactly this! IT TASTED LIKE ****ING COLGATE. YEAH. IT HAD THE GRAININESS TOO. I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. DO NOT ORDER THE MINT CHIP ICE CREAM. IT WAS LITERALLY TOOTHPASTE. SAVE YOURSELVES.

And the Lemon Tart!! It had the consistency of thick, dense jello. It was REALLY sour too! :( Not a good day for desserts.

*sharp sigh* Hmpf! Any who.. 0_0 (Done my rant)

 

Mom & Dad shared a Pecan Pie with a side of Mango Sherbet. This was pretty good. Yumm. And warm too!

 

 

Bro had his daily dose of ice cream. He ordered a scoop of Coffee Ice Cream and a scoop of Mango Sherbet.

 

 

After a ... semi-delicious semi-disgusting lunch, we left the dining room via the Explorer's Lounge. This is the first time I actually got pictures of it! We would pass by here frequently.

 

 

That pathway up there leads to the Piano Bar.

 

Here's a sweep from left to right (following the picture above):

 

 

 

This was one of our preferred spots because of the choice of live music. Here they had a grand piano player & a violinist. Both very excellent. Like a mini orchestra!

[lovely_serenity]

Hey Sarah, I've just had breakfast, but my mouth is already watering! BTW, all we're missing is a photo of you with your camera that we've heard so much about. Ann

 

Haha! We'll see ^^ ~

 

I love Lamb and one of the reasons I picked HAL for this cruise as the last time I was on a Dam ship they had it every night in some form....Is this still true?

 

Sandy

 

Well, looking at the menus, they were only available every second day (or so). I would know, I love lamb LOL :D

[CatgirlNC]

First of all, the Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream was HORRENDOUS. And this is coming from a girl whose favourite flavour of ice cream is exactly this! IT TASTED LIKE ****ING COLGATE. YEAH. IT HAD THE GRAININESS TOO. I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. DO NOT ORDER THE MINT CHIP ICE CREAM. IT WAS LITERALLY TOOTHPASTE. SAVE YOURSELVES.

 

 

You are hilarious! I do like mint chocolate chip, so thanks for the warning. :p

[lovely_serenity]

You are hilarious! I do like mint chocolate chip, so thanks for the warning. :p

LOL You're welcome ^^ & Haha thanks~

[lovely_serenity]

We all went back to our rooms to get ready for Juneau. Conveniently, the gangway was located one deck up! (From the port on, the gangway would be pretty much right in front of our rooms)

 

We got our stuff together and got off the boat. Unfortunately, I will not have any excursion photos since I did not take any. I mean, this is my third time here :/ we don't really want to anymore. Sorry. But I do have in town shots! This is the first shot I took of the city!

 

 

(This time, our ship was docked very close to the city center. We could see the Red Dog Saloon from the window!)

 

 

This is a crow that was pretty much the only noise down the entire street. We were being stupid and started imitating it ^^' hehe.

 

 

Oh, this is pretty. I happened to see it while taking the picture of the noisy crow :P

 

 

Down the street we were heading towards.

 

 

[CowPrincess]

More, more, more please :D

 

(your pics are making my heart ache for another trip to Alaska :) )

[Suzi4]

Love your photographys and your review!

 

Thanks for sharing :)

[nana51]

waiting for more. These are fabulous!

[chrisbu315]

You are my new review superstar! I would love to have you and Coka (my other review superstar) on the same cruise. You two would make a great pair. You can find her by typing "Coka" in the search box.

[aliaschief]

You are doing a great job. Thank you very much for sharing your cruise with us.

 

I have gained 2lbs. Just looking at you food pics.;)

[shrimp56]

Thanks so much for bringing back memories of our Volendam Alaska cruise last August :)

[lovely_serenity]

More, more, more please :D

 

(your pics are making my heart ache for another trip to Alaska :) )

 

Haha, they're coming! ((:

 

Love your photographys and your review!

 

Thanks for sharing :)

 

Thank you! ^-^ & you're welcome c:

 

waiting for more. These are fabulous!

 

Thank you! :D They're on their way!

 

You are my new review superstar! I would love to have you and Coka (my other review superstar) on the same cruise. You two would make a great pair. You can find her by typing "Coka" in the search box.

 

Awwh, Haha! Thank you! C: how kind! & I'll will make sure I look her up!

 

You are doing a great job. Thank you very much for sharing your cruise with us.

 

I have gained 2lbs. Just looking at you food pics.;)

 

Thank you! :D & you're welcome~ Haha, I am too ^^

 

Thanks so much for bringing back memories of our Volendam Alaska cruise last August :)

 

You are so welcome c: ^^ I am glad I can do that for you!

[lovely_serenity]

We continued to stroll around town. Seeing things here and there. Didn't really see anything worth buying. Pretty though!

 

 

Here's my family walking into a little shop. From left to right: Sis, Bro, Mom & Dad.

 

 

This shot was also taken at the same spot as the last one.

 

 

Those cables you see are the cables for the Mount Roberts Tramway. From what I heard, it's a waste of your life to go on it so.. yeah. o_o

 

Here are a few shots I took of around the town (this one is back up the street from where we came):

 

 

 

And here's a nearby information building for tourists:

 

[lovely_serenity]

From where I stood, there was a pretty mountain in the distance. Sadly, the fog was blocking a lot of it.

 

 

We slowly made our back back to the ship. Here are some shots of our beautiful ship!

 

The front (notice the flag?):

 

 

then down the side:

 

 

and then (LOL) I tried to put them together c:

 

 

Hey look! My family! c: [Left to right: Mom, Bro, Dad, Sis]

 

 

As they slowly walked away, I started to take pictures. By the time I was done, my whole family was almost at the gangway 0_0 WAIT UP!!!

 

[lovely_serenity]

Here are some of the shots I took while my family left without me.

 

 

 

 

While I tried to catch up with them, I saw this:

 

 

Cool right? It's where we eat!

 

I then turned around and say how far they had gone. (See Sis's backpack?) OMG! 0_0 So far!

 

 

After that, we proceeded up the gangway to have our cards and bags scanned. We then dropped off some stuff in the room and headed upstairs for a bite to eat.

Unfortunately, there was no food upstairs. We went to the main dining room to see if Afternoon Tea was still available. Nope :( We ran around to look for food, but only

found stuff at the Explorer's Café. But that would not suffice. I got the lady's attention and got these:

 

Left to right: Chocolate/Normal English Pound Cake, Brownie and Cookie:

 

 

Everyone else then said that we should go check out the Lido, but it was closed in preparation for tonight's Klondike Goldrush Dinner.

[lovely_serenity]

We left the Lido Buffet and checked out the poolside area. It was open with food for the first time! Ooo, check out what they have!

 

Pizza!

 

 

 

 

The taco station!

 

 

 

[lovely_serenity]

Taco Station continued:

 

 

 

 

I then turned around to take pics of the example food. There were people who would grill up whatever you ordered.

 

Hamburger:

 

 

Salmon Burger:

 

 

Cheese Burger:

 

[lovely_serenity]

While I was in the middle of taking pictures of the display food, I looked up to see this: (Haha ^^)

 

 

Following a couple platefuls of nachos, we all headed back to our rooms to play cards & order room service (since we couldn't find much food anywhere else). These room service snacks would need to tie us over until 5:30pm, when the Klondike Goldrush Dinner would start in the Lido.

 

Here was my shot of the Room Service menu I took later in the week specifically for this: ^^

 

 

We didn't really order too much. A couple of smokes salmons, a couple desserts and a couple of shrimp cocktails. And this took 50 MINUTES. It even took ~3 calls because it wouldn't connect with Room Service. Dad ended up calling the Front Office to ask them about it. The kind woman who worked there was nice enough to take our orders for us and send them to Room Service.

 

After a really long time, here it comes!

 

 

Here's the Bay Shrimp Cocktail, we ordered 3:

 

 

It was alright, sauce was good, shrimps are tiny.

 

Next up was Sis's Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce:

 

 

=__= Yeah. That's what it looked like. Where's the chocolate sauce? It was pretty melted too.

 

And then came (our 4) Smokes Atlantic Salmon:

 

 

Yummm~

[lovely_serenity]

Here was my Chocolate Cake with raspberry sauce. As I had read online, delicious. One of the best cakes I had all week!

 

 

After we finished eating and played a couple more card games, we saw that it was approaching 5:30pm, so we headed upstairs to the Lido. Here's the first thing I ate.

 

 

I then proceeded to take pictures of my brother eating another shrimp cocktail:

 

 

Dad's Ketchikan Fisherman's Chowder & Lamb:

 

 

and the flower at our table:

 

 

After finishing eating, I went around and took pictures of some of the Lido food:

 

the salad bar:

 

Edited May 18, 2013 by lovely_serenity

[JamesEM]

Enjoying your detailed reports and photos, do you have a photo of yourself with your camera equipment?