When the decision was made to do a group tour of Alaska including a cruise and the land trip to Denali I strongly suggested that we book on HAL.  Although I have not sailed HAL for 5 years I felt that the atmosphere on HAL would suit our group perfectly.  I was mostly right although there have been some negative changes over the last few years.Our group reached Seward about 5 PM in the bus directly from Denali.  There was no one else in the embarkation area when we arrived and since we had preregistered on line we completed the embarkation process and were onboard the ship in under 10 minutes.  As we passed through the ship's security I noticed the first change in the procedure.  In the past there were staff on duty to help passengers who were not familiar with cruising get to their cabins but there was no one stationed there to answer questions or help.  Our cabin was on the Navigation Deck 10.  The cabin was adequately sized and was pretty much as I expected.  We had a level A Verandah Suite.  The cabin was very clean and obviously had new carpeting and other new upgrades.  I did notice right away that there was no bench or stool in the vanity/desk area where you would sit to apply make up.  I thought that was quite strange as that only left you the option of carrying a chair in from the verandah if you wanted to sit.  The bathroom was small but adequate with oversized bath towels.  My major problem with the bathroom was the water temperature in both the sink and the tub.  The water temperature in the shower would not get over just warm even with the temparture turned up all the way.  The sink faucet was operated with a single lever and I found it very frustrating.  If you got the temperature almost where you wanted it and then nudged it just a notch higher it went to very, very hot.  There was adequate closet and drawer space.  I did miss having a clock in the room.  Bring your own travel alarm and a multi plug surge protector because is no way there are sufficient electrical outlets at the vanity to charge personal appliances.It took a very long time to get our luggage delivered to the cabin.  Our final suitcases did not arrive until 9:30 PM which was 4 hours after they arrived on the bus with us.Our room steward was adequate.  We had to call a couple of times for ice as he did not fill the ice bucket when getting the room ready in the evenings.  At dinner I asked some other members of our group who were on the same deck as we were if they had a stool at their vanity and they all did.  The next morning we went to the front desk and did have a stool delivered to our room.  Now my problem with our cabin steward is that you think he would have noticed that our cabin was missing a piece of furniture that the other cabins of the same level contained and taken action to get a stool for the cabin.  I should not have had to order up missing furniture.We ate dinner 5 of the 7 nights in the Rotterdam on open seating.  Sometimes we ate as a large group and other times with just one or two other couples.  For the most part the food was good.  My major complaint was the lack of beef dishes on the menu.  I am a big beef eater and for 3 of the 5 nights I had the sirlion steak because it was the only beef dish on the menu.  They were really heavy on the fish dishes.  My other complaint was the French Onion soup which did not have a nice thick crust but only a piece of toast with cheese on it floating in broth.My major problem with the main dining room was that the service often left much to be desired.  It was almost impossible to get a coffee refill and one night I had to ask 4 times before I got a glass of ice tea.  One night 10 of us ate at 7:45 which was the only time we could get a reservation for.  The waiters were obviously much more interested in cleaning up the dining room and getting everything ready for the next morning then they were in serving us.  We had all finished our main courses and we sat for almost 15 minutes before a waiter showed up to remove our dirty dishes and hand out desert menus.The bst meal we had was at Cataleno's.  The food and service there were just wonderful.  Absolutely worth making a reservation for,On our last night we all ate together as a group at the Pinnacle which our travel agent had given us a freebie for.  I realize that there are a lot of raves for this restaurant and everyone has a different experience to judge it against.  The food is certainly better than the main dining room but if you have ever eaten at a Morton's or a Ruth Chris you will find it wanting.  The onion soup and the ceasar salad are identical to that served in the main dining room.  I ordered the Filet Mignon and a another member of our group sitting next to me also ordered it.  I ordered mine Med Rare and she wanted Med Well.  When our steaks arrived her filet was cooked more rare than mine was.  The food arrived warm but not hot.    I did have the volcano cake for desert and it was truly wonderful and the best part of the meal.I only went to shows 4 nights but the ones I did see were really teriffic.  Some of the other couples with us have sailed with RCL and Celebrity and they said the shows were much better than either of those two lines.Now for the interesting part.  One of the couples sailing with us were on the Navigation Deck in Cabin 052 which was one fo the new cabins added during the recent drydock.  The first night on board he took a shower and when he finished his shower he turned on the sink.  The fittings on the sink broke and he had water spouting like a gyser.  He was trying to turn the water off under the sink and was unable to do so.  He yelled for his wife to call for help and he had all the towels on the floor to sop up the water which continued to gush from the faucets.  The cabin steward ran in and opened the bathroom door which of course caused the water to gush out all over the hall rug.  The cabin steward then shuts the door with Hugh still in the bathroom and says to his wife "I would like to help him but he has no clothes on".  We all just fell over laughing when we heard that.  Anyway help in the form of the plumbers arrived and got the water turned off.  Now by that time it is almost midnight.  The rug in the cabin is soaking wet.   The people who were supposed to be in Cabin 53 missed their flight so that cain was going to be empty until Juneau so they moved them in there while they worked on drying out their cabin with big blowers.  They stacked all the furniture up on end and put as much as possible on top of the vanity and out on the verandah.  However further misfortune befell our happy group.  The next day we sailed the Inside Passage and it was rainy and foggy and the seas were pretty rough.   It was the first formal night and we all assembled in the dining room with most of the men in tuxes and the woman in long dresses or skirts.   As the dinner progressed our group began dropping like flies due to sea sickness.  I had to leave right after the salad course and I have never been seasick on any of the prior 6 cruises I have been on.  Out of the 20 people in our group only 12 were left standing or in this case seated at the end of the meal.  Everyone else (including Hugh) had left to retreat to their cabins with moderate to severe seasickness.  However the next morning it was evident that it was not just sea sickness for everyone.  Three of the men in our group including poor Hugh had come down with the dreaded neuro virus.  They were all on the Navigation Deck and were really down and out.  The medical staff took good care of them but they were all confined to their cabins for 36 hours and could not get off the ship in Skagway.  Hugh has already declared that he will never get on another cruise ship as long as he lives.The ship did go on Neuro alert as other people also had the virus and the staff did a total cleaning.  However the Lido was covered in plastic and all your food had to be handed to you by the staff.  I did not go to the Shopping Talks but I did see them on the ship's TV.  The shopping expert was Ty Cittenden and it was so obvious that he was only interested in shilling for the HAL "approved" shops which seemed to consist of Diamond International in all three ports, Tanzanite International and Del Sol (also in all three ports).  He was really hard sell and reminded me of a sleazy used car salesman.  Ugh!