Reflections and The Trip Home

We wake with our 6:30 AM wake up call and get dressed and head to breakfast.  As we leave the cabin our final bills are in the mail slot.  I just glance at mine but Kay has a meltdown because they have charged her a baggage fee when she is first class and shouldn't have one.  So we are diverted to the front desk where we fear the line will be to the end of the ship since everyone has just gotten them.  I check my bill and it's fine.  Luckily, our floor must have been the first delivered and we only have to wait for a minute.  The girl assured Kay they would send an email to the airline and get it straightened out so we head to breakfast.  Kay is mad now and the Lido buffet is packed and they are out of everything....as in clean glasses, cups, etc.   We eat and go back to the cabin and get our carry on stuff and it is time to depart.  We are off the ship in record time and outside heading to the cab line.  We get the first one and he is a robust man named Omar from Africa.   He said we were strange women because we didn't have any luggage and we had to explain it was already sent to the airport.  He is very funny and it was a very pleasant ride on a beautiful sunny day in Seattle.  We head to security and get in the wrong line as our line was someone who was either new and was scared to death to miss anything or he just had poor eyesight and couldn't tell what anything was because he had to make everyone scan things two and three times.  I take practically everything out seeing this ahead of me and lo and behold he of course needs to look in my bag...of souvenirs!  Now I had carefully packed this so that nothing would get broken (I had bought some crystal pieces for my mantle) and he rips the whole damned thing apart and then has to carry it back and run it through the machine again.  Of course it was fine but he is now stuffing it all back in this bag...now I am as pissed as Kay since she is sitting on the bench across the way snickering.  She does come to my aid and I had to sit and repack the whole bag.  We look for a Crown Room and of course Delta has closed the one in Seattle so we opt to just get something to drink and sit in the dining area until it's time for Kay to head off to her gate and I to mine which were in opposite directions.  The flight was uneventful and my luggage was in Atlanta when I got there so HAL did the luggage service as good as Celebrity did but as with Celebrity, not without hitches as Kay and Debbie now know.  It works great if you have a direct flight and have no deviations.  I got some beautiful photos from the plane of Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainer as we became airborne.

We flew over the Amsterdam, see above next to the marina.

This was my first trip to Alaska and I loved every minute of it!   I have to say that this was a great itinerary and I would do it again in a heartbeat!  This was my first experience on Holland America and there were several things that disappointed me after everything I had heard about them.  The first was the slow service with our "anytime" dining and the food was just ok and the deserts were not good.  I just don't think that ships are really set up to handle making dinners at random times and the wait staff doesn't like it because they generally don't see the same people every night so they don't have the opportunity to make extra tips like they do in assigned when they can get to know their passengers.  They are also running to the kitchen more because their tables are all sat at different times.  I know that all the ships are going to this to one extent or another now but with the prestige that Holland America had I would have expected that they would have had more assigned dining and they need it.  The second floor of the dining room was assigned and the main floor was all "anytime".  I don't believe there were that many people on this ship that wanted anytime dining. This service delay was also extended to Caneletto their Italian restaurant and the Pinnacle Grill where not only was the service slow but the food was just so-so...not like in the Carnival Steakhouse or RCL Chops where they double team you on the service and the food was 5 star. The other thing I noticed was with this mostly Filipino crew which is different than other lines which has a variety of countries represented, they speak English but don't seem to understand it.  We had a difficult time with conversations or conveying instructions at times and you knew they didn't understand the language.  The ship itself was very nice and certainly a smaller one than I have cruised recently but a nice size.  The Holland America touches were the fresh flower arrangements in every area of the ship and the Culinary theater where they held cooking classes is top notch with a full kitchen, wide screen TV screens so you can see exactly what the chef is doing at all times and comfortable tiered seating...very impressive.  The activities were more plentiful than I was lead to think prior to going with a wide range of things to do from cooking classes, flower arranging, wine trivia, really hard trivia, dance classes, singalongs, mixology (the art of making mixed drinks), they have an impressive library, games and cards.  The entertainment with the fly on entertainers was ok, but in the end we wound up hanging in the piano bar because Diane was fun.  The casino was small and other than the few slot machines they had, it was hardly used but for a couple hours so it was never busy and closed early.  Also for those interested, the casino is not open the 1st night of the cruise out of Seattle because they are still in Washington waters and the last day and night (before and after Victoria) for the same reason.  We didn't use the spa although we saw a lot of people that did (they walked around the ship and were in the elevators in their bathrobes) but Kay didn't like the Thermal Suite chairs like Debbie and I like to do and there really wasn't time anyway.  These are not complaints but just observations and I would definitely cruise Holland America again but then most who know me know I would cruise any line that was going where I want to go.  I have never had a bad cruise on any line.


In summing things up I have to say that traveling with Ma'am Bonnie (Kay) was delightful, fun and funny.  We laughed so much that our cabin steward Luki used to love to be in our cabin because we were constantly laughing at something, anything, everything and all that know me know what a problem that causes. Luki said we were very funny ladies. There were also those who didn't think we were as funny as we thought we were but you can't please all of the people all of the time. Kay was a trouper to put up with me and my issues and pressed on even when she didn't feel good and was sick with her cold.  She only evoked the "cone of silence" on me a couple times....sometimes I evoked it myself for self preservation for my supply of clean underwear and clothes.  :-)  Ok, there you have it.  I look forward to my next adventure on the Emerald Princess with the Just-us-girls cruisers on their annual Halloween cruise.  This will be my first time on Princess since 2004 so stayed tuned for that report too.  Thanks to all that followed our cruise.