My husband and I needed a relaxing and rejuvenating vacation after several years of heavy stress. We found all that and more on the MS Oosterdam May 27th sailing to Alaska.
We independently booked air, but we purchased HAL transfers. The agents meeting passengers were a little difficult to find in the baggage claim area -- they were short, had colored clipboards they held at chest level, and were often in the middle of large groups so that they were essentially invisible. However, once we found them, we quickly linked up with the buses and we were on our way to the ships. The pier is located near the airport, so the transfers were short. Check-in went quickly because we used the internet pre-registration. We were shortly on the ship and were taken directly to our cabin. It was several more hours before all of our luggage arrived, but we used the time to have lunch in the Lido and join the cast-off party.
We found our cabin to be comfortable and quite spacious. The verandah looked directly over a lifeboat and we would occasionally have maintenance workers on top of the lifeboats when we least expected it. We soon learned to shut our curtains whenever privacy was important. The beds were much more comfortable than the other two cruiselines I have spent time on (Royal Caribbean and Disney). The towels were large and fluffy. The pillows were heavenly (I wanted to steal a couple to bring home but my luggage was overpacked with souvenirs). Perhaps the only downsides were that our room was not as clean as I would have liked (I am admittedly quite picky about cleanliness), the desk was almost entirely covered with TV, a tray with ice and glasses, a makeup mirror, and a bookrack for cruiseline promotional material, and the table was broken so that it could not be lowered. Also, the guest guidebook was very cheap and had poor photocopies inside. Not exactly what I was expecting from HAL.