Volendam Review
Rating by category
Additional details
ALASKA 14-DAY CRUISE-TOUR ON HOLLAND AMERICA'S VOLENDAM, JULY 2007 This was my husband's (age 64) and my (age 60) first cruise. We're both "young" 60's. We did the 14-day southbound cruise-tour (Tour 20, Double Denali, Alyeska, & Cruise), flying from Sacramento to Fairbanks (via Seattle), and returning from Vancouver to Sacramento (via Portland). Our tour began 07/07/07. Our impressions are as follows:
HOLLAND AMERICA: We received our cruise-tour document package a couple of weeks ahead of time. All documents, including airline tickets, were in perfect order. HAL handled every aspect of the cruise-tour very professionally and without any difficulty from beginning to end. We bought the $15 per person baggage handling for the end of the cruise and the ship-to-airport transfer; both are very well worth it. Our embarkation was hastened by our deluxe veranda stateroom status. We stood in a separate line about a minute. Even our friends who had packed their passports in their checked luggage got checked in pretty quickly. But do keep your passports available. Even though they were not yet strictly required for entry into Canada, HAL expected you to have a passport or picture ID and a birth certificate.
SHIP: Volendam, about 1450 passengers. The ship is very nice, with lots of lovely areas and bars to sit and watch the world go by. The Crow's Nest at the top deck forward is a great place to watch the scenery. I thought the decorating was beautiful in some areas and a little jarring in others. There was a bit of wear and tear visible here and there, but well maintained. The ship is well organized and has excellent diagram/maps to find everything easily. The one major disappointment about the ship was that both hot tubs are next to each other right by the kids' swimming pool and right in the midst of the forward outside eating area. So you have kids in the spas most of the time and you feel like you're on display for the outside diners. As a result, we did not use the hot tub even once. The swimming pool at the aft end is adults only. I'd give the ship 3 stars.