My wife and I are seasoned cruisers. This was my 14th cruise, her 12th. We wanted to do something special to celebrate our 25th anniversary, and decided to return to Alaska, accompanied by her sister and her husband, who were celebrating their 35th (although they were seasoned travelers, this was their first cruise). We are simple people, who live a simple life, and have very simple needs. When it comes to cruising, these needs include good food, pleasant staff, and a good night’s sleep. In all of these areas, HAL’s msStatendam exceeded our expectations.

Although our vacation included three nights in Vancouver before the cruise, and six days in Alaska after debarking, I am going to limit my comments in this posting to the actual cruise experience itself, and save the land portion for a separate posting under the “Alaska” message boards. We considered the various Cruise Tours offered by HAL, but none of them fit our needs, so we did it ourselves, and really struck gold!

Embarkation was a piece of cake. I dropped off the other three and our luggage at Canada Place, returned the rental car, and walked four blocks to meet them. We then just walked through customs, showed our documents, and went on board. We were warmly greeted by the staff and shown to our staterooms. By the time we had enjoyed the delightful lunch and taken a quick tour of the ship, our checked luggage had already arrived and we had time to unpack before the mandatory drill. Read more