Btimmer - North to Alaska

Day 1 Seattle Cruise Terminal

Since it's our 49th anniversary and one of our travel agents offered a last minute good deal on a 7 day Alaska cruise on the Oosterdam, we decided to take it even though we were in Alaska in May on the Volendam. This will be my blog of the trip. We were last on the Oosterdam 3 years ago on a Australia/New Zealand cruise and we're excited to see the changes. I'll report on those changes that we observe.

Boarding was smooth and efficient, but being a 4 star Mariner really helped! For the first time we have a veranda stateroom and while it is compact, it's going to work out just fine.

Seeing two USB charging ports in the bed headboard was a great improvement for us.

While the Lido was crowded for a late lunch, our first meals were delicious. The look and feel of the Lido is much more luxurious than the Volendam that we were recently aboard. We also met Manny who has been our wine steward on a number of prior cruises. It's always good to see familiar faces.

Before the mandatory passenger drill we were invited to a Mariner reception in the Crow's Nest where we enjoyed some of the new Coke Zero Sugar which we found to be quite good although not as zingy as the old Coke Zero. The Cruise director is Erin but we've only heard her voice on the PA system.

In any event, stay tuned. I'll next post in a couple days from Juneau where we next have internet service (we don't use the ship's internet). If you have specific questions about the ship, don't hesitate to ask.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Great start and thanks for reporting in. If you can, we'd be interested in your impressions of the music venues, specifically, if O'dam has Lincoln Center Stage and what you think of how they renovated the old Explorers Lounge to make room of it. Wishing you smooth sailing and wonderful sights. m--

Love your start.

Looking forward to your reports.

The first captain's message was that we can expect severe weather with 20' seas tomorrow much of the day.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Better hold on. Have a fun and safe trip.

Great start and thanks for reporting in. If you can, we'd be interested in your impressions of the music venues, specifically, if O'dam has Lincoln Center Stage and what you think of how they renovated the old Explorers Lounge to make room of it. Wishing you smooth sailing and wonderful sights. m--

Will do! There is Lincoln Center Stage and Billboard and BB King are here as well as the dueling pianos. We enjoy live music, so this in our wheelhouse.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Be thankful that the 20 foot seas expected are not more so at this time of year.

Who is the Oosterdam's Master?

Have a very pleasant and--most importantly--safe cruise!

Be thankful that the 20 foot seas expected are not more so at this time of year.

 

Who is the Oosterdam's Master?

 

Have a very pleasant and--most importantly--safe cruise!

Steven MacBeath.

Our route has been modified to sail inside an island north of Vancouver Island. All he indicated we'll sail at 19.5 knots (that's fast) to minimize the rolling action on the ship.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Another change I've noted is that there's no longer a $50 soda card. It's $8 / day or $56 for the week for unlimited Coke products. We'll see if they'll allow 2 of us to drink off that card.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Hi Tim - Sorry you'll have a soggy start to your Alaska cruise. Will you be initially heading out to sea along the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the west of Vancouver Island before cruising closer to the BC coast? It's foggy and rainy right now, here along the Strait near Sequim. If you pass this way, I don't know that you'll have much of a view as you make your way out to sea this evening. Hopefully, your weather and sea conditions will improve. Thanks for the trip report!

It turned out I was sold the wrong soda card but I got it fixed for a $50 value soda card. At 6pm I volunteered to lead the interdenominational service and that went very well. Dinner we enjoyed in the Lido: prime rib. The ambiance in the Lido for dinner is quite good and it wasn't crowded.

The weather was clear off Pt. Angeles but it rapidly got dark and the ship sped up after dropping the Puget Sound pilot. My phone gps is showing 24 knots.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Enjoy your cruise looking forward to reading about the rest of it. Hopefully the weather gets better.

Allan

The first captain's message was that we can expect severe weather with 20' seas tomorrow much of the day.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Tim

That's to make up for the glass smooth crossing in the Bering Sea in May. Have a great time. We also went back to Alaska in Aug on the Eurodam and the Lido was quite different than the Volendam's.

Gary

Day 2 - Monday, 9/18/17 - Sailing the Open Sea

It was a restless night. Somewhere below us a door kept slamming shut and that continued even until we woke up around 8am.

Nobody showed up for the devotional at 9am, so we headed up to the Lido for breakfast. We shared a table with a brother & sister from Manhattan and enjoyed a lot of pleasant conversation. It turned out they were related to the duet piano player. The seas were still rough and the ship was pitching (porpoising) pretty significantly. The was fortunately no rolling action.

Now that we have been on the ship a bit, I can begin to see the differences between this short 7 day cruise compared to the 30-50 day cruises we typically take. The biggest difference is that there is a LOT of selling of goods, services, and shore excursions and virtually no enrichment lectures.

As far as the ship layout goes, three things standout to me. First, the music walk on deck 2 is new with its offering of Billboard Online with the dueling Pianos, BBKing blues club, and Lincoln Center Stage plus the Gallery Bar. It's terrific for us as we enjoy live music. Second is the Lido Market redo of the Lido buffet area. It simply feels much more elegant. Third, the Main Stage seems to have had its decor freshened up. Adagio (classical piano & violin duo) is not on this ship.

When the captain gave his noon PA briefing, he commented that we had outrun the storm. And the seas definitely calmed as we sailed inside Moresby Island.

Our principal afternoon entertainment was watching the Disneynature film 'Bears' and attending the Ask the the Captain. The sea certainly calmed down and we were able to walk a few miles around the Promenade deck.

It was gala night in the Main Dining Room. We had great table mates, but the service was really lacking. It took 5 requests to get sweetener and general the service was quite slow. We arrived for dinner at 5:10pm and didn't leave until 7:30pm. The food was quite good, fortunately. I guess we'll go back to the Lido for dinner except for the one night we'll do a Pinnacle Grill dinner, but we miss the conversations.

At the Captain's toast there was no introduction of the senior officers other than Erin Duffy- CD. It's sort of disappointing to see this depersonalization of cruising.

The cast show of 'One World' was okay in my estimation. It certainly wouldn't be in my top ten list, but perhaps it's will grow on me as we see it performed more. We enjoyed a country segment performed by the dueling piano duo and even returned for their 80's set after watching BBKing's performers do most of one set.

Our clocks get set back one hour so we will be on Alaska time for our port calls. So we get an 'extra' bit of sleep.

It's worth noting a couple things. First, the average age demographic for this HAL cruise is about 20 years younger (late 50's) than the long cruises we typically take. There are many families and younger couples. Also the casino over the past two nights has had more partipants than we saw in 44 days on the Volendam earlier this year.

Tomorrow we doing some scenic cruising as we sail into Juneau which i spent my early childhood years. Until later, stay tuned.

If you want a direct link to my blog, it's http://www.timmer2017alaska.blogspot.com

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Tim

That's to make up for the glass smooth crossing in the Bering Sea in May. Have a great time. We also went back to Alaska in Aug on the Eurodam and the Lido was quite different than the Volendam's.

Gary

You have that right about the glassy smooth crossing and the differences in the Lidos!!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Enjoying following along.

How nice of you to lead the interdenominational services.

Thanks for taking the time to share and hopefully your weather is good for the remainder of the cruise.

Catching up on your Live.

Hope your weather improves.

Thanks for taking us along.

Hope the weather improves.

Looking forward to reading more.

Good to hear you were able to get ahead of the worst of the storm.

Thanks for the update on the music venues.

Short cruises do have a different feel than long ones. Enjoy the sense of excitement and intensity. Not much time for enrichment presentations on short cruises - so I guess they don't what to hire presenters for just a couple of sea days. Especially if people are spending time and money in the casino!

Thanks for the blog! m--

Thank you for posting during your Alaskan cruise.

Congratulations on your 49th Anniversary.

Day 3 - Tuesday, 9/19/17 - Juneau

I spent my early childhood growing up in Juneau so it was special to return once again for a visit. The sailin up the channel was especially interesting as there was a genuine iceberg quite a ways from any glacier.

We arrived about 1/2 hour early and the departure went very smooth. The plan for the day was to meet up with some new friends (Mike & Pam) we met online on Cruise Critic and do a hike starting from the top of the Mt. Roberts tram. But first, we walked to our family's home out next to the Evergreen Cemetery. While it doesn't have the same exterior as when we left in 1953, it was readily recognizable. I have many good memories from that house including sledding down the hill, fishing in Gold Creek, walking to town past the Governor's mansion, becoming left handed after a fall onto some garbage cans broke my right collarbone, some loving landlords, and many more.

We made our way back to the port area and purchased Pilipino grilled pork sandwiches from a street vendor. They were quite good. Along the way we purchased tram tickets at a $2 discount ($31 each) from a vendor in a local hotel. This saved us waiting in line plus the discount.

At the tram entrance we met up with Pam and Mike and headed out on our hike which was steep in places but quite lovely. The clouds lifted which made for great sightseeing. We made it up past the large cross and enjoyed many vistas. We tried looking for bears and mountain goats, but didn't spot any. There was a scenic bald eagle in a tree near the upper tram station.

Back down in town, we wanted to eat king crab at the Crab Shack, but there was a long line and one leg was $22.95. So we had a terrific crab tostada appetizer at a Mexican Retaurant. We walked around a bit more and did some shopping before returning to the ship at 7pm which was well before the mandatory onboard time of 8:30pm.

Salmon was the main dinner item in the Lido, and it was good. I should comment that the food service lines are really slow and there are only two main course stations in addition to the pasta and 2 salad bar stations and two ice cream stations. Typically there are 20 people lined up for each of the stations at all meal times. It's also slow to get a server to provide water or iced tea or lemonade. But as I've said earlier, I do love the ambiance.

After dinner we watched part of the string quintet play classical music at the Lincoln Center stage . They were quite good and we'll return. The Main Stage entertainment was a very funny comedienne from Seattle, David Crowe .Afterwards we stayed for the Philipino crew show, and it was quite good once again.

I enjoyed a late BBQ chicken snack in the Lido and we checked out whether we could see the Northern Lights ( we couldn't due to the cloud cover). And so ended Day 3. The Hubbard Glacier is tomorrow along with scenic cruising.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Day 4 - Wednesday, 9/20/17 - Hubbard Glacier

Today was all about seeing one of the most significant of the natural wonders of Alaska. But first we attended a lecture on plate tectonics, volcanoes, and glaciers. This was followed by one of the BBC game shows and a chat session with the cast.

After a nice LIDO lunch we donned our warm clothes and headed for the outside forward deck as we proceeded into Yakutat Bay and up to the face of the Hubbard Glacier. The Hubbard Glacier is one of the few glaciers that's increasing in size. It's face is about 7 miles wide and about 15 stories high. The Oosterdam sailed to about 2 miles from the glacier, but it seemed like we were right up against it. Our position on Deck 5 was terrific and we also went out on the bow on Deck 4.

While we were there, the glacier was continually calving. Calving is where chunks of the glacier break off and crash into the sea. Many times that action is accompanied by a loud report like a loud explosion or gunshot. Once you've heard it, you'll never forget it! The larger pieces that break off also create significant waves. After hoovering there facing the glacier for an hour, the ship was rotated 180° to the right where it held its position before rotating 180° to the left where it did the same. Then we sailed out of the bay and began our southward journey to Sitka where we are scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning.

Before dinner we watched the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, 'Dead Men Tell No Tales'. For me, the film made no sense and I'm glad I didn't spend good money at a land theatre to see it.

We also discovered that the Club Hal attendants were the same as on our earlier Volendam cruise. That brings the total crew we've previously sailed with to 4.

We enjoyed a light pasta dinner in the Lido before watching the evening program which was a film 'Alaska in Concert' accompanied by a live orchestra. I found it to be really good but spoiler alert: there are no polar bears in it.

Stay tuned for more.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for the updates.

Enjoyed reading your up dates.

Allan

I am enjoying your reports.

Amazing that you were able to see your childhood house where you grew up.

We actually like Hubbard Glacier better than Glacier National Park. We have seen more calving there and think the ice is bluer.