We chose this cruise for the itinerary, especially Iceland and Greenland and because we have had 3 very good cruises with HAL in the past. There were many good features. Most of the ship has been beautifully refurbished, the food was good, staff very helpful and it seems a happy ship. Great itinerary, Iceland was brilliant, sunny and fantastic scenery. The sun really does shine at midnight in the ...
We were on this boat and the main reasons were to visit greenland and island. At first the good: the food we compare with celebrity and princess, hal is a little bit better. The speciality restaurants are not much better. The service in the pinnacle grill is arrogant and the maitre too and not friendly. The food was OK , there is the murano celebrity much better. Very good was the fitness trainer ...
This was our first Holland America experience after sailing on Royal Caribbean and Carnival. We picked this cruise because it was one of the few lines that visit Istanbul. Athens, Mykonos, Istanbul, Crete, and Olympia we’re all great ports. Things that were a disappointment on the ship: entertainment was sparse, food/drink service was not available at all times and ended at 11:30pm, and ...
First the good:
I am an avid cruiser, but I had never cruised Holland America before. I had some trepidation because I had heard that it skewed older. Not that I am a spring chicken, but I’m also not 70. At any rate, the cabins were of familiar size and the crew was excellent, although there was some inconsistencies in the bar, especially with the featured drinks, which you would think all ...
We chose to go on this cruise (our very first cruise) because it was advertised as an Irish music cruise to Alaska promoted by Gertrude Byrne. We expected, from the title of the cruise, to be treated to true Irish music, along the lines of We Banjo Three and other types of traditional Irish sounds. What we got was primarily American country music sung by Irish bands. We are not fans of most ...
We’re back cruising again! This cruise is fundamentally different than the dozen or so others that we’ve been on, as it’s the first one “sailing” north that we’ve been on, and by north I mean we’ll end up at Denali National Park in Alaska and not dealing with tropical heat. In fact, parts of Denali are above the Arctic Circle.
You can’t actually cruise to Denali as it’s deep in Alaska’s ...
We chose this cruise because we didn't feel up to going to Europe this year. Never having been to Alaska, we felt that the three-hour flight to Seattle wouldn't be too taxing and then a leisurely, relaxing cruise of seven days with no jet lag would be just the ticket. We opted for Holland America to assign our rooms and when, the week before, we were assigned Room we were at first happy. Back of ...
We have sailed 7 times on HAL and have always enjoyed the cruises. This was the first HAL cruise that did not meet our expectations. While the service and crew members were outstanding as usual, our main complaint was the quality of the food and the food selections in the MDR. Many times at dinner in the MDR our server did not ask if we wanted a drink or wine with dinner and rarely were we asked ...
We chose this cruise for the itinerary and our previous experience on the Rotterdam, last summer.
Overall, the cruise was average, with a lot of hit and misses.
The embarkation process in Vancouver was awful…hours in lines..3 times through customs, no explanations or set expectations as to how long this would take.
Weather was poor for the first week and gale force winds caused the ship ...
We wanted to take my MIL and FIL on vacation. Living in Hokkaido their entire life, they'd never been to the USA. We found this transpacific cruise last September and we chose it- my second repositioning cruise; their first cruise EVER.
Embarkation - we'd received a message indicating the Inside Passage was now a no-go. Ok, I thought- though beautiful, it wasn't a deal breaker. We got on ...