Volendam Review

Alaska 7 day: RT Vancouver: Alaska shines even in the rain.

Review for Alaska Cruise on Volendam
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shrimp56
6-10 Cruises • Age 80s

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Sail Date: Aug 2012
Cabin: Large Ocean-View Stateroom

NOTE: This was my second cruise to Alaska, but the first for my husband. (Ironically my first Alaska cruise was on the old Statendam after it was sold to the Paquet Line and renamed Rhapsody. She was still a lady.)

Our trip started shakily. We were an hour late out of Chicago heading for Dallas-Ft Worth. Needing to avoid a big storm meant we had to land in Wichita Falls, Texas to get more fuel. That was another hour out of our 3 hr dinner layover. On arrival we raced from Terminal A to D, well the Skytrain did most of the racing, and made our plane. We landed on time in Vancouver in the middle of another big storm. Then waited 2 hours for our luggage because the lightening made it too dangerous for the luggage folk to be out and about. AND we made it LOL

The rest was smooth sailing, so to speak. The Metropolitan Hotel was great and just up the street from the cruise terminal, but with luggage we took a taxi. Canada Place is glorious on the outside and totally utilitarian on the inside. And it works. How well it works: on our return we exited the ship, cleared formalities, found our luggage and took a taxi to our hotel. The total elapsed time was 45 minutes.

Cabin Review

Large Ocean-View Stateroom

Cabin DA

Our cabin was perfectly located. I chose better than I knew. Close to the elevator, but not too close. Laundry down the hall on our side. But the best part? At Skagway and Ketchikan all we had to do to exit the ship was go to the stairs and turn right or left. And at Juneau it was just 2 flights of stairs down. It was also very convenient for getting places on the ship.

There was plenty of closet space and we enjoyed having the picture window over our bed. We could see what the weather was without getting up LOL The bed was comfortable. The couch was a bit tired.The bathroom had a tub and was bigger than any I remember on previous cruises. We are low maintenance so didn't have many requests, but our head steward, Eko was delightful and someone knew how to make hilarious towel animals:)

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