My family (9 of us - 4 seniors, 2 adults, 3 kids) went on the 7-night Alaska Inside Passage Cruise on HAL Amsterdam in early September. The Southeast Alaska scenery was breath-taking and the weather was quite pleasant. However, the experience with HAL Amsterdam was just so so.

Pre-cruise: We stayed a couple of nights in Vancouver (Richmond area) prior to the cruise. Before cruise, we were worried how we would transport a large group like us in Vancouver. It turns out the Vancouver public transportation was adequate. We used Skytrain & Bus and found those to be quite good. The Skytrain is especially helpful since it stops at or around all major city sites tourists need to access, including the airport, Vancouver downtown, Richmond area, etc. We went to Stanley Park the day prior to cruise - it takes a bus ride from near Waterfront Station so not too hard. Once in the park, it's actually quite difficult to get around the park since it is so big. We walked around the park and spent sometime on the seawall which is very nice. The hotel we stayed in is in Richmond and close to a lot of Asian shops and restaurants, so very convenient. Vancouver / Richmond has outstanding Chinese / Japanese food!

Boarding: we boarded the ship from Canada Place Terminal around 12pm. Boarding was relatively smooth - apparently we were early so the line was short. The only thing was that I forgot to print out paper copies of the cruise documents. That caused some delay but overall not too bad. Overall it took us about an hour to get on the ship. The rooms were ready and the luggage delivered shortly after. We ate at the buffet (not impressed, more on this later) and the drill went smoothly. Read more