Some people are morning people and some people are night people, and some people are neither and don’t count. Morning people do count but they’re just weird. They’re wrong. That’s fact, not opinion. There’s nothing special about the morning and sunrises. Getting up early when there’s nobody else around doesn’t make you better; far from it, you’re alone deservedly. We’re night people. We shrug in the morning’s general direction. We like the darkness, when the music plays, when the drinks have been flowing, when there’s been partying. But not too much because we’re old. When we cruise we like to get up early enough to get breakfast but only just, after a night before of seeing how much actual fun we can have with like-minded folk.
Day two of our Holland America Koningsdam cruise to Alaska was spent at sea. We’d sailed out of Vancouver the day before and we’d gone to bed early so we were awake stupidly early the following morning. It wasn’t our fault. Go back and read about our flight to Vancouver and just how long we’d been travelling to get to Canada. Did I mention we’re old? I do that occasionally but I forget how often on account of the oldness factor.
We headed towards the buffet to get breakfast but then diverted on the way as we’d heard about the New York Deli overlooking the pool area and figured that a new ship with new features would give us a chance to do something new. This was a nice, quiet spot and we ended up having breakfast here every morning to avoid the search for seats in the main buffet. On this morning we ordered some breakfast bagels but during the week we favoured Eggs Benedict more often than not.
Time then for us to get our bearings on Koningsdam and also give our room steward plenty of time to clean our cabin. We started with the top deck space which featured a running track, a few typical activity areas including the ubiquitous shuffleboard area, and views out to sea. It was quiet because it was overcast and cool – we were on our way towards Alaska, after all – but there wasn’t a great sense that the top deck offered much space for the typical sun bather in better conditions.
At the aft was the swimming pool and seating around which we’d sat and enjoyed a little of the sail away from Vancouver with fellow passengers the day before. This gave us another chance to ponder about that green colour of the pool tiling and the overall effect it made. We’re used to blue pools. Blue pools feel normal. Green pools feel like blue pools have had some yellow added to them. That conjures up unpleasant imagery. Green pools feel wrong.
The staircase leading down to the aft pool featured a little glass floor panel in it. Not as large as the SeaWalk you might find on Royal-class Princess ships, but always a nice thing to see or to watch other passengers panic over.
Cruise fans love an aft view.
Some ships have lovely promenade deck spaces. Koningsdam did not, unless your idea of lovely is views of the sea blocked by lifeboats. Perhaps it looks more spectacular during an emergency when everyone is abandoning ship.
After exploring the outside spaces we then headed inside. It was either that or swim out to sea and cruise lines don’t like it when you do that. After a quick peek at the World Stage theatre spot we took advantage of there being nobody around to grab some photos of the dining room. We’d eaten there the evening before but hadn’t really been in any fit state to take it all in. The two-tier layout was very nice and we particularly liked the curved beams that felt like they could have been the skeletal structure of some great leviathan.
We popped into the Pinnacle Grill to get a feel for the space. We’d actually be dining there this evening as we’d booked this cruise with a deal that included a speciality dining for free and had pre-booked the meal.
All that really left was a quick look at the music area and some of the artwork around this deck space. With very few other people around at this time of day none of it really popped with life and none of it really wowed. In fact, we’d discovered that the general layout of Koningsdam wasn’t built around any central element that you see on other ships; no big atrium area; no main lounge in which to gather. What we’d come to realise very quickly on this week with them, though, was that Holland America put more effort into providing good service and good quality entertainment and food, and didn’t worry themselves too much with glitzy, showy, Instagram-worthy spots. A good, distinguishing point for a cruise line to make.
We got a message from friends aboard to ask if we wanted to meet up with them for lunch in the dining room and that sounded like a lovely idea so we did just that. With Paul and Carole, who we knew already and had cruised with before a few times, were Jill and Jerry (the Cruising Canucks), and we’d all hang out a lot during this week, particularly in the evenings. We chatted about our journeys to get to the ship as we’d all come different ways and we had a very nice lunch.
After lunch we took part in some trivia and won. Holland America Line cruise pins – not actually related to the cruise we were on – were prizes throughout the week and we’d end up with a few of these things over the course of our time on Koningsdam.
When we returned to our cabin in the afternoon we discovered a Holland America Line tote bag, chocolates, and a towel animal; all very welcome sights to walk in on.
We did a bit of reading and relaxing on our balcony, enjoying the gentle sea and landscape views we were passing. With Koningsdam’s arguably poor outside spaces both on the top deck and promenade deck this reinforced the importance of a balcony for us, especially on an Alaskan cruise with its high priority on nature.
As already mentioned, we’d a reservation at the Pinnacle Grill on this first sea day, and below you can see photos of the food we ordered at Koningsdam’s steakhouse. I also already mentioned that Holland America prided itself on the quality of their food and their superior service, and that’s… not quite true in this case. The food was very good, that’s true, but we had issues with the service. Upon finishing our starter the plates were removed and immediately replaced with the next course. Upon finishing our mains the plates were removed and immediately replaced with the next course. The courses could only have been delivered quicker if they’d been fired at us by cannon from the kitchen. Speciality dining should be about savouring the dishes at a pace not set by Usain Bolt.
We would visit another speciality dining venue at the end of the week with Paul, Carole, Jill, and Jerry, and we’d also not be thoroughly impressed with the overall service, but these would be the only glitches to report.
The evening was spent enjoying some of the live music aboard, having some drinks, then watching as the ship got very quiet very quickly with everyone heading off to bed for early nights so as not to miss any of the sights of Alaska they would be treated to. We were feeling more our normal night-people self and would have been happy enough to enjoy some late night disco somewhere if there’d been one. There wasn’t, though, so we got an early night for us too.
In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll arrive in our first Alaskan port of call, Juneau.