Live from the Westerdam

I usually love these "Live From" threads, so I thought I'd do one. I'll try to keep it up to date as we go.

Our first day is behind us. The day didn't start out so well, though. On the way to the port, our cab was in a three-car accident. We were rear-ended, which caused us to hit the car in front of us. No major injuries (my wife had a scratch on her eyelid from her glasses), but nothing was going to keep us from getting on the ship. Police and paramedics came, and we were delayed by about 45 minutes. Luckily, we left plenty of time to get to the port.

We checked in early; it was a breeze at the Seattle port, not nearly as hectic as Fort Lauderdale!

This is our first time on the Westerdam; as with our previous HAL cruise, everything is perfect. Very pleased with all of the friendly staff that we've met, and our stateroom is fantastic - my wife Toni is in love with the veranda. We spent most of the first day getting acquainted with the ship, went to the Mariner's cocktail hour, met a couple of people from the boards here, and of course attended the muster drill. We received a great upsell offer to a Neptune Suite a couple of weeks ago, and glad we did it. The cabin is great! We spent some time in the Neptune Lounge, and it was a pleasure booking our excursions without having to wait on the long lines at the excursions desk.

We went to dinner at Canaletto (we had missed that on our first HAL cruise) and were pleasantly surprised. Very nice meal. Afterwards, we went to the Marquee show (basically a welcome aboard show) in the Vista Lounge; that was OK, then caught the show at the BB King Blues Club. The band was good, but not the kind of music I expected. There were a few songs that I'm sure BB King would never have done! That ended around 11pm, and we were done for the day. Another day tomorrow...

Just as I was posting, the Captain came on with an announcement - sounds like we're in for some rough weather and seas later today. Wish us luck...

Thanks for posting...and for the pictures....I have sailed the Westerdam twice...one of my favorites. Sorry about the accident..good no one was hurt...what a way to start a cruise!!

Thanks for the live from! We be on Westerdam in two weeks in 7070- anxious to follow your cruise!

Thank you for posting and for the photos. The Westerdam is a lovely ship and the crew is fantastic. Hope the weather settles down for you and that you have smoother seas.

So good your wife was not injured any further. Stories to tell about the beginning. Please keep it up. Love the live from threads.

Looking forward to your "live".

Glad no one was seriously hurt in the accident.

Hope you don't have too much rough weather.

Hope you have recovered from the cab accident. We will sail on the Westerdam in June so will be closely following your reports. Thanks for taking the time to do a live update.

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Oh fantastic another "Live from the Westerdam" thread to follow. I posted on the other one that we will be cruising on her in January and can't wait.

So sorry to hear you were in an accident on the way to the ship, what a way to start your cruise but glad that all ended well.

Be safe and I'm praying for calm seas for you guys. Love the pictures, keep 'em coming! Congratulations on your upsell, we are hoping for one too. Love those upsells!

Stay safe!!!

Looking forward to this.

What a way to start the cruise! Wow! So glad no one was hurt and you still got there in time.

We had a great time on the Westerdam last time and hope you do too.

Worried for your weather and hopefully you escape it.

Have a great cruise :)

Looking forward to your "live" thread. Thank you.

Lazy sea day so far on the Westerdam. Many people are concerned about the impending weather, although the sun is trying to break through as I write this.

We started out the day by having coffee on our veranda, then had breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill; that was very nice. We went to a cooking demonstration in the Culinary Arts Center, and my wife also attended a cake decoration demonstration. Cruise Director Rick did a good job with a trivia contest in the Crow's Nest, and we played Name That Tune in the Northern Lights lounge (we won!) Spent a little time reading and also visited the casino. It's sad that they allow smoking in the casino. On second thought, that's probably a good thing, because I can only stand to be there for an hour or so before I have to leave...

We're about to head out for a short movie on Alaska. More later...

Glad your accident was not very serious. Looking forward to reading your "live" reports. Have a great cruise!

THANK goodness nobody was seriously hurt. Thanks for sharing your live report. I love feeling like I'm on the cruise with you.

The movie on Alaska was packed, so I'm going to try that again at 6pm. Toni's shopping.

The weather here off the coast of Alaska is extremely fickle. Dark, rainy and ominous one minute, beautiful and sunny the next. It's been sunny for the past half hour or so; hopefully that continues!

Tonight is the first formal night (Thursday is the other). We're eating at the PG tonight at 8pm, then off to the "Recycled Percussion" show at 10pm.

Thanks for posting "live" and really looking forward to reading your posts about your trip. We were on the Navigator of the Seas out of Galveston last month and I'm really having cruise ship withdrawal!

I am enjoying your live thread.

Thank you for posting live! Hope y'all have a wonderful cruise.....hopefully the "bump in the road" is the only negative and now behind you! (Glad no one was hurt). I look forward to hearing more!

Thank you for reporting "Live" from your Westerdam cruise.

Enjoy life in the Neptune Suite.

Thanks for the updates. Yeah, I know what you mean about he smoking. I thought that it was limited to a deck or specific area away from non smokers

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Thanks for taking the time to do this thread. Much appreciated! :)

Thanks for taking us along to Alaska.

Sorry for the lack of updates; haven't been in our stateroom long enough to be able to post!

Yesterday was Juneau. News flash --- it rains in Juneau! We did a combo excursion with Mendenhall Glacier as the first part, and Whale Watching for the second part. We had heard rave reviews about Mendenhall, and I don't know if it was the rainy weather, but we weren't overly impressed. The visitor center was great, but the glacier itself, not so much. Especially after seeing the glaciers of Glacier Bay today. Much more impressive. More on that in a while.

We didn't get into Juneau until 1pm, so after a leisurely breakfast, we spent some time in the Pinnacle Lounge before heading to the cooking class we signed up for that was held in the Culinary Arts Center. This was the second time we had done one of these, and it was excellent. There were 12 of us in the class, and we made four recipes in groups of three. Then lunch afterwards in the Pinnacle Grill. Highly recommended.

Our excursion was scheduled for 3:15 for 5 hours. We spent an hour or so going up and down the main drag before meeting to take a bus to Mendenhall. The highlight of that time was seeing the world famous Red Dog Saloon. Otherwise, it just seemed like almost every other port that we've cruised to; a jewelry store every other storefront and local specialty stores in between, just colder and rainier. Some of the local specialty stores had some nice things.

On to Mendenhall Glacier. We got a late start (the bus was supposed to head out at 3:15, but didn't until 3:35). With the 25 minute drive to Mendenhall, we were only able to spend about 40 minutes there before getting on the bus to head to the pier for our catamaran ride to see some whales. After taking a handful of pictures of the glacier (didn't come out very well due to the weather), we spent the rest of the time in the visitor center. We probably could have spent more time there if we had it. Overall, not too bad.

Then on to the pier. The 15 minute ride got us there at 5pm. The three hour time on the catamaran didn't seem like it was that long. It was nice that the boat was fully covered downstairs, (and partly covered upstairs). They had hot chocolate, coffee, tea and some snacks on board. We saw some orcas within 10 minutes from the dock, but they weren't too cooperative. Nice to see them nonetheless. After some close calls with some humpbacks, we had quite a show from three or four humpbacks at the end of our time out. One was no further than 100-200 feet from us. Got some nice photos.

We're in Glacier Bay today. It's been amazing!! Gorgeous landscapes and nature. More later; I have to get back out on the veranda for some more photos!

Some photos of Day 3...

Niiiiiiiice!! thanks for posting the photos.....especially the whales.