K'dam Alaska 7/27 Review

[mshaines]

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=719420

 

Posting this here in case it's helpful to anyone. I greatly appreciated the information provided by others on this board in planning our trip.  We were very well prepared.  Thank you all. 

[Mary229]

Nice review and I completely agree about the digital and analog versions of the daily. Just when you thought you had planned your day well up pops something you were unaware of.

[canadianbear]

Just read your review-was great with good details.  We are hoping maybe next year to do Alaska with our grandson who will be 4 by then (and his parents) so enjoyed your info about Club HAL.

 

That’s a shame about your Pinnacle lunch as we enjoy lunches there.  Hope it improves & was just a one off which can happen. 

 

[Haljo1935]

Thank you for sharing. I've been on the K'dam several times, but not to AK; we tend to take the smaller ships there. So agree about Glacier Bay  - it's fabulous. 

[Maimour]

Great review! So bummed to hear about non-alcoholic drinks including water counting against the 15 drinks/day limit. It says explicitly on the HAL website that nonalcoholic drinks are exempt from the limit and unlimited. I drink so much water!!! I don’t want to be running back and forth to lido to refill my bottle at all hours of the day. 

[Sea42]

20 minutes ago, Maimour said:

Great review! So bummed to hear about non-alcoholic drinks including water counting against the 15 drinks/day limit. It says explicitly on the HAL website that nonalcoholic drinks are exempt from the limit and unlimited. I drink so much water!!! I don’t want to be running back and forth to lido to refill my bottle at all hours of the day. 

It depends on which beverage package you have. Signature package soft drinks including packaged water count towards the 15, with the Elite package they do not.

[Maimour]

@mshaines can you tell us which drink package you had?

[mshaines]

On 9/5/2024 at 5:51 PM, canadianbear said:

Just read your review-was great with good details.  We are hoping maybe next year to do Alaska with our grandson who will be 4 by then (and his parents) so enjoyed your info about Club HAL.

 

That’s a shame about your Pinnacle lunch as we enjoy lunches there.  Hope it improves & was just a one off which can happen. 

 

Hope you go!  We found the cruise to be plenty kid-friendly.  Obviously, this ship doesn't have the slides and stuff like NCL or RCCL, but the staff was very kind and accommodating to our son.  The videogames in Club HAL didn't hurt either lol.  There were lots of kids on the cruise.  Very multi-generational as I had read.  

[mshaines]

On 9/5/2024 at 9:41 PM, Maimour said:

Great review! So bummed to hear about non-alcoholic drinks including water counting against the 15 drinks/day limit. It says explicitly on the HAL website that nonalcoholic drinks are exempt from the limit and unlimited. I drink so much water!!! I don’t want to be running back and forth to lido to refill my bottle at all hours of the day. 

I *think* that refers to the juices and stuff in the lido or restaurants.  Like a glass of water or milk didn't count, but they definitely counted the cans of water.  We got a couple of extra bottles of water and sparkling water for the neptune suite which was nice.  If we had been in a regular cabin, I probably would have looked at a water package (I seem to recall that was an option like it is on NCL).  The ship isn't that big and the elevators generally weren't packed (and we were on 7) so getting up to the buffet wasn't too too bad.  But definitely bring a couple of large insulated water bottles.  (I packed SOOO much stuff for this cruise; it was SOOO different than doing a warm weather cruise!)

[mshaines]

On 9/5/2024 at 11:47 PM, Maimour said:

@mshaines can you tell us which drink package you had?

We had the basic alcoholic one that comes with the regular have it all package.  The better version was not an option when we booked, much to my chagrin.  Good points all that the Elite package is different.  My apologies for any confusion.  I was forgetting about that! 

 

That said, I didn't think the Elite package was necessary at all.  I'm pretty picky about wine and cocktails, but most things were only a couple of bucks (at most) more than the signature package limit.  And with it being a relatively port-intensive trip, 15 drinks (including coffees and water cans) was more than enough for us.  

[mshaines]

Again, thank you all who regularly post on this Board.  Every cruise line is a bit different and I personally feel like knowing the "rules" before getting on the ship makes the trip SO much better.  I asked several questions before we left and people were so helpful.