So, my sister and I wanted to surprise our husbands with a first cruise and the destination was Alaska. We chose HAL because so many reviews stated that this was a top notch cruise line with attention to superb detail. First off, the ship is so run down that it wasn't very impressive. The red leather chairs in the Vista Lounge are so dirty that the chair arms are no longer red but gray with dirt!!! The carpeting thru out the ship is a disgrace; chairs in our room were all stained. The first 2 days on ship the staff served the food for hygenic reasons thereby making for extremely long lines in the Lido buffet. There were lines everywhere on the ship! We couldn't ever make reservations for any of the restaurants because they were already all reserved. My sister had the room next to me which was a Superior Suite; she was supposed to get all these upgrades and be treated extra special for the room category; well, nada zip zilch! she didn't get anything different than me.

After watching so many different movies over the years, I had a vision of being treated like a queen in a large stateroom and wearing beautiful clothes and having great dinners. So if I didn't have that impression, the cruise probably would have been fine. However, service was truly mediocre, food was so so, room was small and not very clean. I know without a doubt we won't be on HAL again.