Amsterdam cruise to Alaska from Friday May 13 to Friday May 27 - Embarkation and Cabin
Just got back from this cruise. Had a really good time and am glad I
went. Any flaws that there were (and there are always some flaws) were not enough to change the fact that I loved the cruise and I really like HAL in general. I say that because people often disagree with me on what I feel needs to be changed and assume that because I complain about something that I should not be cruising at all if I am not satisfied with everything. So I repeat. Glad I went. Had a good time. Like HAL This was a two week cruise out of Seattle, which I booked one day before the final payment. When they finally gave me my cabin it was an ocean view on the Lower Promenade Deck in a good location - except it was under the kitchen. Having been in that location before, I was aware of that and the people who were originally next door (from Cruise Critics) confirmed that they were awakened each morning at 4 am with metal wheeled carts rolling around overhead. Therefore when I was given an opportunity to upgrade to a Veranda by paying extra, I decided that if I was ever going to do a Veranda, Alaska was the place to do it. We were on the port side just a few cabins behind the wing bridge. I would rather have been on the starboard side, but this cabin was very good. I have no complaints about the cabin. The beds were fore and aft rather than athwart, but that's fine with me. There was room in the bathroom to put things and we had a good big shower - room for two in there should we have desired that. The steward gave us fresh flowers, and ice and fruit and we had a small refrigerator. I am not sure, because we didn't drink anything in there, whether HAL would have charged for the stuff in the fridge or not. The steward and his assistant had 29 rooms to do and I think this is more than it used to be. Sometimes they didn't get to us right away, but I don't fault them for that. We tipped them extra. I rented a scooter for this trip. I rented it before I made the cruise booking. It was quite reasonable to rent, and it really helped because we were pretty far forward and the dining areas are all aft. Also I rarely had a problem getting an elevator with the scooter which I think is somewhat astonishing. The only problem I had was that there was some kind of sculpture cum chair thing opposite the elevators on our deck and I could not back the scooter out of the aft elevators without running into it. I tried backing into the elevator, but I can't turn my head to look behind me without a lot of pain, so backing in was not a good option. Even my husband agreed after I tried it once. Once was enough. Bob would tell me when I could back out and which way to turn. We flew into Seattle on Thursday - got a non-stop Southwest flight from BWI to SEATAC. Arranged for a limo transfer for us and our luggage to the Mayflower hotel. Walked over to the monorail and went to the Space Needle for dinner. Then the next morning borrowed a wheelchair from the hotel and Bob pushed me down to Pike Street Market and back. At noon got a shuttle from the hotel to the terminal. Embarkation was a breeze. Gave our luggage to the luggage people and picked up the scooter at the dock kiosk so I could use it for the embarkation process and we were waved right through and even missed the photographers (a good thing). Our rooms were ready immediately when we boarded - that's the first time that ever happened. So we went to the room first. I could get the scooter through the door, but not past the bed as the turns were too tight. So we moved the outboard nightstand and put it under the kneehole of the desk and push/pulled the bed over. That made enough room for me to scooter down the hall, and made a quick left turn and park the scooter by the bathroom wall. I still had room to get out of bed and even (if I did it right) to open the nightstand drawers. Bob (knowing the lack of outlets) brought a 25 foot extension cord which he ran behind the TV and under the bed and I plugged my power strip into it, and could then charge the scooter, the phone, the computer and the camera batteries. We then went to the Lido for lunch. (to be continued) |
Amsterdam cruise to Alaska from Friday May 13 to Friday May 27- Embarkation and Cabin
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