My review of Eurodam to Alaska May 6th sailing from Seattle

Saturday May 6th EmbarkationArrived at cruise terminal between 11-11:15, dropped off our 2 large pieces of luggage, filled out the medical questionnaire and got in line to check in.

We were in boarding group "E".

The first group was called at approx 11:30 and it was very quick after that. We were on board by 11:50 and in the Lido having lunch by noon. (We decided to skip the MDR for lunch, we were told by a crew member it was very busy)

(We enjoyed the new Lido Market layout and the food was surprisingly very good here all week long. It was a little difficult at times finding a table as it was a very popular dining spot on board.)

A little after noon it was announced that our rooms were ready, so we dropped off our carry on baggage and met our cabin steward. By 1pm our 2 large pieces of luggage were outside our room, that was definitely a first.

This was by far the quickest embarkation we've ever experienced on any ship.

We sent the next hour or so exploring the ship. We loved Eurodam, she's a beautiful ship in our opinion and everything was sparkling clean and shiny! I really don't have anything negative to say about the condition of this ship.

The muster drill was held at approx 3:15-3:30. We were fortunate that everyone cooperated and went to their correct muster stations, so it was very quick and uncomplicated. They scan your key card and make a few announcements and then it's over.

Very good start so far!

We stayed out on our verandah with a glass of wine for sail away and we were very lucky to have a nice sunny Seattle sail away!

Dinner in the MDR our first night was a little chaotic. We had open seating and we went down about 7:45. We were seated at a table for 4 and a few minutes later another couple was seated with us.

Our food was good but none of it was served hot...in fact it was barely warm. We all let the waiter know this but he was so rushed and busy nothing was done to rectify the situation. We let it go and hoped that things would improve the next day.

The entertainment that evening was a juggler/comedian and I thought he was pretty good, especially the end of his act.

We then headed over to BB KIng, the much anticipated entertainment for us. This is a very talented group of musicians and we thoroughly enjoyed listening to them.

Subjective BB King review...

We attended all but 1 set of their's the entire week. They do repeat songs, which if you're going to every set can get a little tiresome but there isn't a whole lot of other choices so this was where we spent most of our evenings. We are definite music people and we love Jazz and Motown so this was something we knew we would enjoy and we did. By the end of the week we felt like we knew these guys (and gal), they're a great group of people and we thank them for keeping us entertained.

Day 2

May 7th sea day

Awoke to nice calm seas and decided we would go to the Lido for breakfast. (Our bodies were still on east coast time so we were wide awake at 5 am ugh)

The Lido has a lot of great choices for breakfast and I loved the yogurt parfaits and sticky buns :D ( I balanced the sticky bun with the healthy yogurt, so it cancels out the calories, right?) ;)

After breakfast we pretty much sat by the pool all morning and used the hot tubs. I thought it would be difficult getting a lounge by the pool but nobody seemed to want to sit out there the entire cruise. I would guess that maybe 10 lounge chairs were taken whenever we were there, probably less than that.

(Both the Lido and Aft pools are heated and yes we swam in both of them.)

The ship didn't feel full at all, not sure what the numbers were but it never felt crowded and we found ourselves saying "where is everyone" on more than one occasion.

By about 5pm on Sunday, the seas picked up a little bit and some people were saying they weren't feeling so well, including the lead singer from the BB King band.

I don't think it was anything like the cruise before ours but it was definitely rocking.

We dined at Canelotto that evening and enjoyed our meal very very much.

We checked in on the show that evening which featured the ship's singers and dancers. There were a lot of empty seats, again where was everyone? The show was ok, I think we've all had our full of that sort of thing by now.

Day 3 May 8th Juneau 1pm-10pm

We arrived early and despite my efforts to wave my bed pillow to the webcam at the Hanger, nobody saw me!;p

It was drizzling rain and pretty overcast. We didn't book any excursions, we purchased a rt shuttle ride to Mendenhall Glacier at one of the vendors on the street. We really enjoyed our visit to the glacier and Nugget Falls, despite the rain and overcast conditions. We were prepared with layers and a waterproof windbreaker type jacket along with umbrellas. We didn't let the rain ruin our experience!

That evening we tried the MDR again and it was MUCH better! We had a great server and the food came out nice and hot and our faith in the MDR was renewed.

The evening entertainment was a magician who was very good.

Day 4 May 9th Cruising Glacier Bay

What can I say about this experience that hasn't been said before? This was by far the highlight of our week.

It was foggy and drizzling rain in the morning when we were entering Glacier Bay but a little before noon it was starting to clear and the experience became totally different from when it was foggy and overcast.

It takes a lot to impress my DH and I have to admit it took a lot of convincing on my part to even get him to agree to an Alaskan cruise because we do love warm weather vacations...but even he was blown away by Glacier Bay.

It was like entering a far away realm....almost like a dream. My kids will probably say "mom you're showing your age" when I tell them about it but I can honestly say that I've never experienced anything quite like it. It literally brought tears to my eyes, the beauty and vastness of this national park is beyond words. I will never ever forget what I saw and experienced there.

I hope all of you can experience it too.

We spent a lot of time on our balcony this day...we went out on the bow for a little while and then the aft deck but there were so many people outside and it was so loud we really just wanted to sit on our balcony with a nice glass of wine and soak it all in in peace. I'm so glad we booked a balcony for this cruise...we were out there all the time, it's the most we ever used our balcony on any cruise. It was protected from the wind so with a light sweatshirt we were warm enough.

Thank you so much for your review so far. I especially enjoyed reading about your reaction to Glacier Bay. We leave on the Noordam next week and I expect Glacier Bay to be a highlight for us.

Thank you for this review. I am so excited to go May 27th. I am glad you said you liked your balcony. This is our first time on an Alaskan cruise so we splurged on a verandah room. Glad you reaffirmed my decision.

We also enjoyed Glacier Bay. Following along.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

Thanks for the review!

Day 5 May 10th Sitka

Sitka is an interesting place. It's the largest (land area) city in the US but has only about 9,000 people living there.

We took the free shuttle to town from the cruise ship dock. The buses will be waiting there for you when you walk up to the building at the pier.

From town we purchased a rt shuttle from Sitka Tours for $10 pp to take us to the Fortress of the Bears and The Raptor Center. (Admission to each place is separate)

You can spend an hour at Fortress of the Bear then they pick you up and bring you to the Raptor Center and an hour later pick you up and bring you back to town.

We really enjoyed the Bear Fortress. We also saw so many bald eagles while we were there that we decided to skip the Raptor center and just go back to town.

Walked around town a bit, saw the famous St Michael's church, had a cappuccino at a cute little back door coffee shop and then headed back to the ship via the free shuttle.

It was a nice sunny and warm day in Sitka...we were very lucky.

Day 6 May 11th Ketchikan

Arrived to some light rain and fog. We only had 5 hours here which doesn't give you much time to do anything except a little souvenir shopping. So that's what we did. There were 6 ships in port so the town was busy as were the stores.

We wished we had more time in Ketchikan but the captain explained that it was a long way to Victoria so we needed to leave on time to stay on schedule. Oh well.

Day 7 May 12th Victoria

Despite leaving Ketchikan on time we got to Victoria late because of high winds overnight.

We were actually disappointed in this port. I understand it's a token stop to fulfill the international part of this cruise, but a lot of things close early downtown and there wasn't much to do if you didn't book the garden tour. We did go downtown via taxi ($10 each way) but there wasn't much to do there once you see the Empress hotel and the parliament building. We ended up going back to the ship about 9pm to finish packing and see the BB King last two sets.

Day 8 Today May 13th

Disembarkation was quick and easy for us. We chose an early time slot so we were given lime green group 2 luggage tags and we were off the ship by 8:15 and at the rental car agency by 8:30...no lines at immigration.

Final thoughts...

My overall impression of this cruise is that Alaska far exceeded my expectations and I will return in a heartbeat. I hope everyone gets to experience this beautiful state at least one time in their life.

We loved the Eurodam...she's a beautiful ship, our room was always clean and it was very spacious. We enjoyed most of our meals, (my filet at Pinnacle Grill was cooked well done instead of medium rare and even though I didn't eat it the server did nothing to fix it which was disappointing) Other than that we felt that the crew was 99% fantastic, with a couple of duds along the way.

Stone the cruise director, who I guess is new to this ship, really really needs to work on her people skills. She does nothing to engage the passengers...I've never met another cruise director like her. She doesn't promote the entertainment they do have so you leave the main show not really knowing if anything is going on in the rest of the ship. Usually CD's tell everyone what's happening around the ship but she was almost shy or nervous...I couldn't figure her out.

We really missed the venue they used to have for before dinner dancing/waltzing. There wasn't any place on board for that kind of dancing.

I loved watching the older couples dance together on our Veendam cruise and on other cruises in the past and I don't know why they've eliminated that. Not everyone wants to dance to a DJ at 11:30 at night or at BB King club.

There isn't any room to dance at the Lincoln Stage or the Bill Board club where the pianists are playing so if you want to go and have a nice slow dance with your honey you're out of luck. That was a bit disappointing to us.

Also the singers and dancers only perform 2 nights on this itinerary. I wonder what they do the other 5 nights. Some of them have fantastic voices and could be utilized in some of the empty lounges around the ship. We walked by the Pinnacle bar, Tamarind bar, Ocean Bar and Atrium bar many times throughout the evening only to see them empty and the bartender dusting the bottles etc because there weren't any customers.

If only they had a singer in these places to offer a little different music experience it would add some dimension to the nightly entertainment. The talent is already on board but they don't seem to utilize it.

Last night three of the dancers were doing the electric slide with us in the BB King club...now we had fun but I bet they would love to sing for an hour or so once a week in one of the lounges. They're talented enough to do that and we've seen it on other lines.

So itinerary was a 10 plus

Eurodam itself was a 10

Food was an 8 overall

Entertainment that they did have was an 8-9

(but the limited amount of nightly entertainment needs to be increased in our opinion, especially a place to slow dance.)

This was by far our favorite cruise of any we've done in the past.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you so much for your review so far. I especially enjoyed reading about your reaction to Glacier Bay. We leave on the Noordam next week and I expect Glacier Bay to be a highlight for us.

Thanks for reading! I'm excited for you to experience Glacier Bay...it's amazing. Have a great time!

Enjoying your review!

I actually wanted to sail on the Eurodam because I have never been on that class of ship before. I even booked her. But suddenly the Oosterdam was repositioned to Alaska and the prices were unbelievably low, so I switched. (Its seems many TA's didn't even know it was in Alaska, so I think HAL needed to price it attractively to fill the ship) I have been on her 3 times before, but just couldn't pass on the deal. Maybe next year for the beautiful Eurodam. :)

Thank you for this review. I am so excited to go May 27th. I am glad you said you liked your balcony. This is our first time on an Alaskan cruise so we splurged on a verandah room. Glad you reaffirmed my decision.

You're welcome, thanks for reading! We were the same with the verandah, it's not something we splurge on every time but we were so happy we did this time. You'll use it a lot! Hope you have a great cruise too!

One of my favorites taken in Victoria last night...the sky was gorgeous

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Silly selfie reflection off the balcony door with Glacier in background

Margerie Glacier

Two of the many rainbows we saw

Leaving Glacier Bay taken from Aft deck it was almost 60 degree at this point

Enjoying your review!

 

 

 

I actually wanted to sail on the Eurodam because I have never been on that class of ship before. I even booked her. But suddenly the Oosterdam was repositioned to Alaska and the prices were unbelievably low, so I switched. (Its seems many TA's didn't even know it was in Alaska, so I think HAL needed to price it attractively to fill the ship) I have been on her 3 times before, but just couldn't pass on the deal. Maybe next year for the beautiful Eurodam. :)

I don't blame you for jumping on a great deal!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for reviewing your cruise and sharing your photos.

Hope you get to experience Glacier Bay again in the future.

thank you for taking the time to share with us.

Great review and photos.

And welcome home and back to reality.

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. Love the pictures.

We have been to Alaska quite a few times.

If you get a chance to go back -- pick an itinerary with Hubbard Glacier.

We're doing Alaska on the NA in Jul. Love your pictures & your review.

Allan

Love the review - September can't come fast enough!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Was wondering about the movies and television viewing available on the Eurodam. We were recently on the Koningsdam and the selection was quite extensive. Do you know if the televisions were updated with the recent refurbishment?

Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Thanks for taking us along. Great pics!!!!

Thanks very much for the well-written review and pics ! steve

Great review! Thank you!

My DH and I will be on the June 10th sailing. I was wondering how long the bus ride in Sitka is from the dock to town? Were taxis available at the dock?

Was wondering about the movies and television viewing available on the Eurodam. We were recently on the Koningsdam and the selection was quite extensive. Do you know if the televisions were updated with the recent refurbishment?

Yes they were!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Great review! Thank you!

 

My DH and I will be on the June 10th sailing. I was wondering how long the bus ride in Sitka is from the dock to town? Were taxis available at the dock?

It was a quick 10 min ride. I didn't see any taxis at the dock when we got there but there were some taxis in town to get back to the ship.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. Love the pictures.

 

 

 

We have been to Alaska quite a few times.

 

 

 

If you get a chance to go back -- pick an itinerary with Hubbard Glacier.

Thank you! Will do that for sure. I'd love to include Denali as well.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums