I offer a mixed review of our recent Volendam trip to Alaska: some positive, some negative. Please keep in mind that these opinions are subjective and influenced by experiences with past cruises and cruise lines.
We have been to Alaska twice before and live on the West Coast, so for us, this was a trip focused on the cruise experience more than on the destination and was taken largely because of the great rate we received.
Embarkation and disembarkation were handled efficiently by HAL and we have no complaints in that department - we were on a back to back and simply kept our key card for the second leg of the journey (they also gave you an "intransit" card to present when you re boarded the ship, although it was not asked for). We did not have to go through check in again in Seward. We kept the same cabin.