We decided to take a break from the heat (we live in the IE in SoCal) without spending too much money, and decided on the Statendam repositioning cruise from Vancouver to San Diego. This was only our second cruise, the first being a southbound Alaska Cruisetour on the Ryndam about nine years ago. The cruise stopped at Seattle and Astoria along the way. Getting on the ship was a minor adventure. We scheduled a flight ourselves, and decided to take the shuttle provided by HAL. While there was no problem getting from the plane to the bus at YVR, it took us some time to get off the bus once we got to Canada Place. The driver took us to a drop off location that was actually below Canada Place, thawhich was intended to save us time. Ultimately we sat on the bus for about 45 minutes before HAL staff came on board and apologized for the delay. It didn't actually impact my wife and me all that much. However, there were people on the bus who were getting on the Westerdam, which was scheduled to leave about 45 minutes earlier than we were. The Oosterdam and the NCL Pearl were also in town, so it was a busy day in Vancouver.

Since we did not get there until about 3, it did not take long to get on the ship. We found our room relatively quickly, and our bags arrived soon thereafter. We just decided to walk around the ship until sailaway, and ended up on the Lido. Once we had sailed under Lions Gate Bridge we headed for the Rotterdam Dining Room.

We elected to go with open (rather than fixed) seating. As it turned out we enjoyed sitting with someone different at each meal. This being only our second cruise, it gave us a chance to talk to a number of people about their cruising experiences and preferences. The service at the meals was attentive and professional, if a little slow. We weren't sure why, but dinner service was painfully slow every night. That said, the food in the MDR was generally good. I enjoyed the appetizers and salads they offered. The French Onion Soup was quite good. I also enjoyed the main courses. From time to time, the food seemed a little salty, particularly the vegetables. We ordered room service the last morning on the ship and everything arrived to order. We only ate once in the Lido. The food there was good, and they seemed to have a decent variety of things to eat. We did not eat at Pinnacle Grill, Canaletto or Dive In. Read more