I just finished my cruise today so thought to give my honest feedback for the viewers while it’s still fresh . Great experience with lot of food selection.Everyone in cruise ship was nice and always greeted with the smile. Only person who ignored us and at least another party we spoke to was the south Asian bar manager who would pick and choose who he wants to talk to. I think it’s fair to say ...
This was our first Holland America cruise.
REASONS TO PICK THIS CRUISE:
* We picked this specific cruise because the itinerary was midweek to midweek rather than weekend to weekend like most Alaska cruises. This meant the ports were less packed.
* We also wanted a smaller ship with fewer people. The passenger capacity for the Volendam is only about 1400 people.
* This cruise also went ...
Our choice of Holland America was based on their reputation, itinerary, park rangers on board, age of passengers and size of ship. Alaska was amazing and the excursions in each port added to our overall enjoyment of Alaska. We wanted to experience a smaller ship with passengers that were seniors. Because it was a June sailing, we expected some children and multi generational families. ...
Holland America Volendam Ship June 2023. Unfortunately we had problems in almost every area which sadly for us is a first. We are not the complaining type which saddens me to have so many bad experiences on one trip even. I understand the minor hiccup or inconvenience but this trip was a catastrophe from before leaving the dock even to the point of being escorted off the boat under medical ...
I did HAL's Alaskan itinerary out of Vancouver, visiting Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, and Ketchikan. This is an absolutely beautiful part of the world, and definitely well worth it if you're thinking about going. Since I'm in Canada, having the option of departing from a domestic port (thus a domestic flight) is nice.
The Ship: 4/5
The Volendam is one of the oldest ships in HAL's lineup. ...
We took this cruise to Alaska because it was an outlier in price. The exact same cruise was 2x the price the rest of the year... so heck, why not? We went in with this in mind.
First off, ship is smallest one we have ever been on. It's still bigger than all heck, but keep that in mind. It has less stuff to do. It has nothing fancy. The TV didn't even have a kids channel, only news, History ...
Meh. This was my eleventh cruise, (4th on HAL) first in 6 years. It didn't rank highly, in fact it has somewhat put us off cruising, at least for anything longer than 10 days. By about day 11, we were ready to get off the ship. We felt there had been some (post Covid?) cutbacks.
EMBARKATION AND DEBARKATION (Fort Lauderdale/San Diego)
Both were fantastically swift, the best we've experienced ...
We were using up the last of the Covid Future Cruise Credits on HA. This cruise had the itinerary & timing for my Wife's Birthday & Mothers Day. The ship has many nautical miles under her keel. but has been kept up to HA Standards.
We were in Cabin on AV at the stern of the ship on Deck 1. It was a handicapped room, but the engine room noise was only a bit of a nuisance in the large bathroom. ...
We chose this cruise because it ended at our home port of Vancouver BC .
It was also our first cruise with the Holland America line.
Prior to boarding we had to sit on rows of chairs the were so close together that gave us a feeling of clostaphobia.
Upon embarking we were informed that our suites had not been made available due to cleaning etc, so we had to find a spot to sit untill ...
Bucket list and a .uch needed break! Bonus was returning to Vancouver. We were upgraded from a window G to a larger window cabin 25**. No complaints. Our cabin stewards were terrific and always attended to everything. We both felt at home and after 21 days we hadn't grown tired of the pampering! The Ocean Band was our go to after dinner. And the food! Fabulous! Ate in the dining room, and 2x ...