Just got home from our first cruise
My family and I just got home from our first Alaskan cruise with Holland America. For myself, daughter and parents it was our first cruise ever but my husband, sister and her family and a few aunts and uncles, they have cruised with other cruise lines before.
Full disclosure - my mom gifted this cruise to my sister and I and our families. So the majority of the cost, did not come out of our pocket.
We got the have it all package. We worked with a cruise consultant through HA. We spent roughly 11 months planning for this trip and since we live on the East Coast, it was a lot of travel for us. We had veranda state rooms on floor 7, at the front and the back of the boat.
I spent a lot of time in this group preparing for the trip and expectations and it was so helpful! A lot of people’s frustrations on the boat, I went in mentally prepared for and a lot of the time I ended up being really pleasantly surprised.
We absolutely loved the trip. It was truly amazing and the ship and crew made the majority of that experience. We were apart of a larger group about 20 people but there was 8 of us that were traveling together the whole time. We had 2 smaller kids, 4 and 5. Collectively, we haven’t ever been so pampered on a trip before. Working with the cruise consultant, Devaughn was amazing. We had transfers from the airport to a hotel in Seattle, the hotel to the ship and then after the cruise back to the airport. This was a bit expensive, especially because by the time we signed up for the transfers and the hotel stay, the Renaissance was the only hotel option left (World Cup played in Seattle the day before we left) and that is the more expensive hotel they work with but the hotel was amazing. The process was absolutely seamless and with a larger group and 2 kids, the transfers made our travel days so easy.
The staff on the ship are so kind and accommodating. They are such hard workers and often the staff we would see at night was helping with our breakfast. They were so kind to our kids, like went above and beyond. The average age on the boat is definitely a bit older leaning but everyone seemed to enjoy the kids, no one gave us a hard time and there was a good amount of other kiddos on the boat but not an overwhelming amount. We also lucked out with truly the kindest group of older kids also sailing who treated our little ones so kindly, included them in their play, watched out for them in the pool. It was really the best.
I went in with low expectations for the food but was pleasantly surprised. Some stuff wasn’t amazing but the food was all decent. The pizza was actually so good. Some dishes in the dining room were a hit, some were a miss but that’s personal preference and everything came out beautifully. I ate the French onion soup like 5 nights in the dining room. It was so good! Lido market is definitely a quicker food option and it is certainly more cafeteria style but we found some things that we really loved. The tacos at lunch were really good! My daughter ate a butter sugar roll every morning. I really enjoyed the eggs Benedict is lido market and the dining room. We had steak that was really good a couple times in lido. There was definitely a mac and cheese preference in the lido market for lunch rather than dining room at dinner lol
Breakfast in the dining room we didn’t discover until half way into the cruise and I wish we had gotten to do it more. It’s free and was so good.
The ship was clean, a little older but didn’t bother us at all still beautiful and truly we liked the fact that there weren’t water slides and giant screens on top of the ship. The kids loved the pool but otherwise it allowed us to really enjoy Alaska more rather our kids be begging to do all the extra bells and whistles. We used the kids club 2 times. It was amazing. The staff was unbelievable. For the littler room, the staff was a 1st grade teacher during the school year so my daughter had an amazing time. We didn’t use it a lot because we wanted to experience the trip with our daughter but it was an amazing option to have.
We liked our room and for a hotel room on a ship, it was pretty was noise controlled. If we did it again, we would try to be closer to midship just because there were some rougher nights at sea and you could really feel it at the front of the boat. You wait a long time for the elevators so we opted for the stairs often but we had that luxury and understand that’s not always possible.
We didn’t book a lot of excursions. We did mendenhall glacier on our own. We got a shuttle right off the boat in Juneau. Recommend going as soon as you can get off the boat. As we were leaving the park it was absolutely packed as 5 cruise ships came into port that Monday which is apparently typical. Most of my family went to tracy’s crab shack and my brother in law said it was his favorite part. We just walked around in icy straight. We did the free tram up the mountain. It was pretty quick but it was an absolutely beautiful spot. Lots of history. Part of our group did the zip line and said it was amazing. In Sitka we did the raptor center on our own. We walked through part of the rain forest. We got a taxi back to town after we were done cuz the little kids legs were done. We ate at this local place the taxi recommended called Campfire Kitchen. The pizza is wood fired with local wood and it was insane. It was so good. In Ketchikan we did the lumberjack show and it was so fun!! Highly recommend. The only thing I wish we did was a whale/otter watch. We weren’t sure on getting off a boat to get on a boat with the kids. But that is definitely the way to see the wildlife up close. We saw otters, humpbacks, orcas, eagles (everywhere!) on our own but you need to be watching the water and spending some time trying to look. I really wanted to see a puffin and there were a ton of them on the whale and otter tours but I couldn’t catch one on my own off the boat. You definitely need binoculars!! They do sell them on boat.
Ross the wildlife tour guide was amazing. We went to his presentation at the beginning of the week ok what wildlife we could see and where. He also did wildlife watches throughout the week.
I did get a deep tissue massage and it was phenomenal but they do sit you down afterwards and try to sell you stuff pretty hard. And I’m not going to lie, it kinda ruined the vibe after. I should have been more strong about not wanting anything else. The prices on the products are also insane. It wasn’t even an option I could be manipulated into.
Also a warning, if you get portraits done, outside of just the pics they take of you around the boat. The ones you set up with a photographer with a beautiful background, we did glacier bay an they were truly amazing. But the packages and prices are really shocking. Like lowest package/ price was around $1800.
My husband and brother in laws only complaint was the casino. They played table games a lot and they felt pretty sure something untoward was happening. Another guy hit 4 out of 44 hands and was threatening to call the gaming commission on them. I don’t gamble but I used my free$25 to play some slots and won $1300 so it’s a give and take I guess.
All and all it was amazing. The staff, the customer service, the experience. We absolutely loved it. Sorry for the novel!