This is our 10th cruise. 7th cruise to Alaska. 2nd time with Holland America to Alaska. 1st time was also on the Westerdam back in 2006. We've sailed on Carnival, Princess, Norwegian, and Star Cruises in Asia. As with most of our cruises, we went as a family of 6, myself, DH, 2 kids, and my 2 parents. Our last experience with Westerdam in 2006 was so wonderful that we have been recommeding it to our friends. In 2006, food quaility, service, entertainment was top notch. We have been looking forward to sailing with HAL again. However, this we were sadly disappointed. There have been some positives and negatives, but the negatives outweights the positives.

Embarkation: Check-in was smooth and efficient. We arrived at the pier around 11AM. Didn't wait in line for long since we carried on our luggage and didn't have to go through the luggage service line. At 11:30, we were called to board. As we were about to step onto the gangway, we were stopped and told that the gangway computer is showing that it is unsafe because the automatic tide compensation system (or whatever) is not functioning. We waited outside for 1 hour in line. Some people chose to go back inside the building. After 1 hour, we were allowed to board through the lower gangway the ones that the cruise uses for ports of call. The only difference is those gangways have steps which would make it difficult for the elderly and handicapped passengers to board.

I read somewhere that HAL has a policy in place that rooms are ready by 11:30AM. That was untrue, on this cruise, at least. Our rooms were ready around 1PM per announcement. Read more