r/HollandAmerica

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!

Can I change, and do you have one you can recommend?

Update: seems HAL (and maybe all cruise lines) just call this tipping but we should simply think of the $20/day per person as a part of the cruise cost. I’ll bring cash for ACTUAL tipping (which I’m happy to do because I don’t think these folks make enough at all.)

As above — if I go to guest services to cancel the automatic gratuity charge to my account will they try to guilt me or be weird about it? I mean, I’m still going to do that, just want to prepare myself.

(As I understand it, each employee makes their contracted rate no matter if all guests auto pay or no guests auto pay. The salaries do not fluctuate based on tipping unless they’re given cash. The “all tips are pooled” thing is true in the sense that it offsets a cruise line’s own investment toward crew salaries, but not in the way that a restaurant pools/distributes tips.)

When I’m at a hotel I put up the Do Not Disturb tag and leave it on my entire stay. I don’t need someone to make my bed or move my things. I keep reading about stewards cleaning one’s room each and every day, sometimes multiple times a day and I do not want that — I take it there’s no problem telling them to just leave your cabin be?

I'm a first time cruiser taking the 7 day Western Mediterranean this summer on the Oosterdam.
It seems like there's a lot of heritage and tradition with Holland America and wondering if there are must try food and drinks in this tradition too?

Taking a 28 day cruise next summer leaving from Dover. Is the cruise terminal in Dover or close by in another area? We want to arrive a few days early and stay nearby. So staring our search for Airbnb or bead and breakfast nearby.

I am currently on a Holland America Line (HAL) cruise and wanted to drop a massive warning about the onboard spa called Greenhouse Spa & Salon. While the treatments can be nice, their sales tactics are deeply predatory. After a multi-day battle with management, I successfully fought to get $3,476 refunded. HAL's demographic skews older, and the spa relies on passengers not checking their accounts or feeling too intimidated to fight back. Here is exactly how they operate.

1. The "Embarkation Day Special" Bait-and-Switch
On day one, they offered a multi-treatment discount (10%, 20%, and 30% off three services). I booked a facial, acupuncture, and a massage. I bought some expensive creams after the facial simply because I had forgotten to pack mine from home. The trap is that if you cancel any part of the package later because of their terrible service, they will retroactively strip your discounts and try to charge you full price for the services you already completed.

2. Ghost Packages & $714 Supplements
During my first acupuncture session, the practitioner pushed a 5-session package for $999 with "included add-ons." Because I was feeling exhausted and worn down, I also agreed to a supplement recommendation just to leave the room.

When I checked my onboard statement, my bill was a staggering $3,550. They had charged me for a 6-session package ($1,649 including the mandatory 18% gratuity) and charged me $714 for the supplements. Furthermore, she barely used any of the promised add-ons during my sessions.

3. The Return and Cancellation Runaround
When I discovered the overcharges, I immediately returned to the counter with the unopened supplements. The manager wasn't available, so I left the merchandise there and called her later. Over the phone, she agreed to refund the supplements and cancel my remaining acupuncture sessions and my massage. However, she informed me that because it was within the 24-hour window, I would still be charged a 50% service fee for the next appointment, even though I was only cancelling because of their original misbilling.

She promised to look into the booking error and call me back the next day. Instead, she completely ghosted her own staff. At the time of my scheduled appointment, the acupuncturist called my room asking where I was, having no idea I had cancelled with the manager. When I finally tracked down the manager the next day, she claimed she was out sick with a cold sore, and she expected the acupuncturist to explain the pricing and refunds to me. Despite her initial verbal agreement, I had to repeatedly follow up and audit my statement because the promised supplement refund still hadn't processed.

4. Preying on Non-English Speakers & Seniors
This is what made me the most furious. My aunt, who does not speak English well, went in for a session. They pressured her into a second appointment and pushed $700 worth of creams on her, telling her they only cost "a hundred dollars or so." They also charged her $600 for two sessions by intentionally confusing a $59 "add-on" price with the actual base price. She agreed out of confusion and fear of saying no.

5. Retaliatory "Mystery" Add-Ons
When I returned to the spa with my uncle to demand a refund for my aunt, they retaliated by hitting me with retroactive bills. Because I had cancelled my package, they tried to individually itemize unauthorized "add-ons" to claw back cash. They charged me for "facial rejuvenation" because the acupuncturist put needles in my face when I mentioned I was stressed, claiming it was a separate service. They tried to charge for alternative light therapies performed while I was face-down with my eyes closed without my consent.

The Confrontation & Resolution
I told the manager that this ship has a heavily older crowd, and you are preying on people who don't know how to check their accounts. My aunt was living proof, if I hadn't been there to speak fluent English and advocate for her, they would have successfully scammed her.

After refusing to back down and presenting my own itemized notes of what I actually owed, they finally backed off and removed the 50% fee and unauthorized add-ons. My total refund was $3,476 (I paid $147 for the red-light add-on I actually agreed to over three sessions). My aunt was refunded her $700 for the creams. The ultimate audacity was that after all of this, the manager still asked if I wanted to add an extra gratuity to the final adjusted $147 bill.

TLDR

1. Check your onboard account daily. Do not wait until the final night.
2. Say "NO" to the post-treatment pitch. They act like medical professionals diagnosing you, but they are commission-based salespeople.
3. Protect vulnerable family. If you have elderly or non-English speaking relatives, do not let them go to the spa alone.
4. Demand itemized receipts immediately. Never leave the counter without a printed receipt showing exactly what was charged (including add-ons!)
5. Look out for fellow passengers. If you see an older passenger or someone struggling at the front desk, help them out.

The spa on HAL is called Greehouse Spa & Salon and it is run by a third-party contractor called OneSpaWorld.

How do I book high tea on the sea day? The AI chat bot directs me to th dining reservation page but high tea is not there. Thanks.

Hi HAL players,

Quick question -- do you usually use one of the HAL personal cruise consultants when you book a casino offer? If I price out a balcony cabin on the webiste for a cruise that is part of my free interior cabin offer and get $3,070 --then that's exactly what she should quote me?

Also, do you ever opt to save a few bucks and let HAL choose your cabin?

Many thanks - my first comped cabin booking....don't want to mess it up :-)

I know that the $100pp deposit is given back as OBC; also that the full amount of the cruise is due within 24 hours after booking.

Going on my first cruise this month and had a question about disembarking with a full size suitcase, not a carry on.

What is the policy/procedure for this?

My hope is that I can just carry it with me off the boat and not have to give it to a porter. We apparently reach vancouver at 8am on the Zaandam and I have a flight at 2pm at YVR. I just want to minimize any variables, hop straight on the skytrain and head to YVR. That's probably ample time, but I'm unfortunately paranoid. I want to note that safety is not an issue as I'm in my 30s and physically fit to lug around a 50lb suitcase without an issue.

Thank you!

Does holland America supply binoculars in the balcony staterooms on Nieuw Amsterdam for the Norway cruises?

They were in stateroom for Holland America Alaska cruises.

Here we go.

We now will not depart Vancouver on 7/15 until 5pm.

On Friday 7/17 Tracy Arm Inlet is out, AND we will not dock in Juneau until 4:30pm and will depart at 11pm instead of 10pm. That extra hour adds nothing since the sun sets at 9:50pm.

I was booked on a Mendenhall Glacier + whale-watching trip … one of the main reasons I booked the cruise for July instead of later. Was able to book a different HAL-sponsored whale-watching trip, but it skips Mendenhall … and it supposedly leaves at 4:45pm which I have a hard time trusting (though again, it is a HAL excursion so we’ll see).

I am really sad about this. I know, the people two dates ago lost ALL their excursions, but I’m still so disappointed. Now it feels like waiting for the other shoe to drop, wondering what other changes will come.

Was already trying to be positive-minded in the knowledge it’s supposed to rain the whole time.

SIGH.

If anyone knows of any other wildlife-specific things to do in Juneau that can be done after 5pm (in case the new 4:45pm whale trips fall through), will you share? 😓

We are going to Alaska on koningsdam in August. Me, wifey, our kids (11,14).
So we have our excursions booked and that’s all fine. We are trying to figure out if it is worthwhile to go with Have it all or if it’s better to do it piecemeal.

HIA is $420 each so $1640
That includes $100 each in excursion credit, so it’s effectively $320 each so $1240.

Internet is going to be essential so that’s $133 each if we go piecemeal.
Wife wants to do a date night dinner so we would be doing 2 meal upgrades so that’s $120 since the kids would just hit chicken strips or pizza. So piecemeal we are up to $650 basically. So there’s a $590 difference.

Assuming the kids are allowed 3 sodas per day and wife has 3 (I don’t drink carbonation) that’s 9x7x$4? I’m figuring gratuity and tips etc so that’s $250. Iced coffee we will call $5.50x2x7 so that’s $77.

So as close as I can tell it’s $263 more expensive to do have it all assuming I just drink water. I’m still bitter about the coke freestyle machines going away.

I’m kind of thinking I should just mash the button and let $260 be fudgeable if I decide to have a martini with dinner or something. Am I figuring this out correctly?

Is this normal or was it a bad week?
Beautiful ship, excellent staff, but just downright uneasy food.

Hi! Newbie cruiser and I wonder if it's worth packing my swimsuit. Does anyone use the pool on Alaska cruises? Thank you in advance for your help.

Hi there,

This may be a stupid question but what are the carry on luggage allowances when boarding? For example, would a carry on suitcase measuring 55 × 40 × 23 cm / 21.5 × 15.5 × 9 inches and a backpack per person be allowed?

Just over a week to wait now and am getting very excited.

Many thanks.

We recently went on a cruise aboard the Nieuw Statendam. We were so excited and this was our first cruise. Here is a cautionary tale, but also a big shout out to Holland America for helping rescue our vacation.

Long story but it's a doozy. TLDR at the end.

We had booked flights to arrive in London (layover in Atlanta) the same day our cruise departed from Dover. I know, booking a flight to arrive the same day as your cruise embarks is risky. But we figured it wouldn't be a problem. Mistake #1.

On our first flight, the gate agent made the usual call begging people to check their carry on bags due to limited space in the bins. We decided to do that. Mistake #2.

Our first flight was delayed getting to Atlanta due to bad weather, so we missed our connecting flight to London. There were no other flights to London for about another 20 hours, meaning we would not make it to the cruise in time. So we book that next available flight to London for now and figured we'd call our travel agent afterwards to figure stuff out.

After some persuasion, the airline agent at ATL caved and got us a hotel room and meal vouchers. We then go to baggage services and ask for our bags we checked since we now had to stay in a hotel overnight. They said they would not be able to retrieve our bags, and they would be at our final destination (which at this point was still London). So most of us only had the clothes on our backs, and whatever we had in our personal items.

Our travel agent called us back when we were at the hotel. She rebooked us for a flight to Amsterdam for the next afternoon, and informed HAL we would embark in Rotterdam on day 2. Sweet, no big deal.

We get back to the Atlanta airport the next day and ask about the bags. The agent reassured us that they would all be sent to Amsterdam instead. We were smart enough to put air tags in our luggage. So when we land in Amsterdam and turn our data back on, we see 1 bag with us in Amsterdam, and 5 still in Atlanta. Not promising. We make it to baggage claim and we find the 1 bag, but no others... just what we were afraid of.

We go to the baggage services and fill out a claim. We show them the airtags showing the bags still in Atlanta, which was very helpful. We get a claim number, leave them our contact info but let them know we were going on a cruise and gave them the ship phone number too, and eventually make it to the cruise terminal in Rotterdam.

We were pretty jet lagged and pissed off about all of this. Luckily the staff at the Rotterdam cruise terminal were VERY sympathetic and helped us skip the line and get on the ship ASAP. A big reason for this was because the following day we were at sea, and the cruise terminal staff highly recommended we spend whatever time we had left in Rotterdam to buy spare clothes at a store nearby, which was excellent advice, and we did that.

HAL guest services was fantastic. We told them the situation, and they basically said "Give us your claim number and any documents and bag tags you got from the airline. We'll take it from here. Go enjoy your vacation." They said they have someone on the ship who is a lost luggage guru. They contacted the airlines, the airports, and coordinate everything. Since we would have no cell service at sea, this was a big relief.

They also gave us free express laundry until we could get our bags back, some extra onboard credit, a refund of our missed Rotterdam excursion, and a free wifi voucher so I could check email, etc. in case we got any alerts from the airline. On our day at sea, I checked the airtags and found 1 bag made it to London, 1 more made it to Amsterdam, with the rest still in Atlanta. No word from the airline yet. Later on, guest services informed us that they found all our bags and planned on getting them to Edinburgh, where we would be on day 4.

Once in Edinburgh, I checked the airtags, and sure enough, some of them were there at the Edinburgh airport! I checked again a few hours later and all but 1 were in Edinburgh. The one bag was actually sent by Atlanta back to our home airport. That airport called us confused, and we explained the situation. They asked if we wanted them to send it to Edinburgh, and we said hell no! Keep it there, we'll send someone in town to pick it up.

HAL got a local courier to pick up our luggage at the Edinburgh airport and drop it off at the port. You have no idea how thrilled I was to see the luggage tags moving along the motorway towards the port. They x-rayed the bags and brought them to guest services for us to pick up once we got back on board.

Shout out to HAL and the Nieuw Statendam guest services team for recovering our lost luggage, and helping us enjoy our vacation! 🙌

Lessons learned:

1. Don't book a flight to arrive the same day your cruise departs. Crap happens. Arrive a day early at least.

2. For me personally, I will never check a carry on bag at the gate ever again, unless it is direct and I have no connecting flights.

3. Put air tags in ALL your luggage. It helped us a ton in this situation.

4. Apparently you have the right to get your checked luggage if your delay is more than 12 hours, which we didn't know at the time. The lady at the baggage counter in Atlanta was either not aware of this, or was just lazy (this is likely the case given her demeanor). I should have asked for a supervisor. It was already like pulling teeth just to have them give us a hotel room. Having our bags given back to us right then and there would have likely prevented any of this from happening.

TLDR: had a nightmare with missing luggage in various countries. HAL guest services took over recovering it and gave us some freebies so we could relax and enjoy our vacation, and got our luggage back.

Sailing out of Vancouver on Koningsdam on July 25th. Staying at Pan Pacific. What time should we checkin in?? PCC says they start the general boarding at noon so show up at 11:30. ChatGPT says you must go at your assigned time. We want to get in asap but don’t want to sit and wait forever.