Zaandam May 21-June 4 Alaska Cruise Log

We are currently celebrating our 25th Anniversary on this 14 day cruise. I will try to post a daily log. It will probably be pretty dry at times, but it will almost always be positive. Negative is an attitude that is not conducive to cruising. I also don't talk much about food because that is personal preference.

May 19 Saturday- We flew out of Green Bay to Seattle, with a layover in Minneapolis. No delays. We arrived in Seattle on schedule and so did our luggage. A quick call on the courtesy phone and the shuttle was here to take us to La Quinta, our preferred motel. Nice room with a view of pine trees.We ate supper at Dave’s Diner, which was across a 4 lane highway, but it got good reviews. The restaurant was separated from the bar. The service was terrific and the people friendly. Food was okay.

May 20 Sunday- A day to walk around and explore.Temperatures in the 60s. Considering that the motel is by the airport, there are a lot of things to do. We had supper at Sharp’s Roasthouse and it was excellent! Started by an Austrian family way back when. You can watch the food being roasted. Service and food were very good!

May 21 Monday- To the ship! Starting our 14 day cruise on HAL Zaandam, round trip to Alaska. We had a 1:00 embarkation time, but the car to take us to the pier arrived early, so we were at the port by 11:45, all checked in by 12:15 and in our cabin by 12:30 (They weren’t supposed to be ready until 1:00. Outstanding! Weather, sunny and in the 70s.

May 22 Tuesday- Sea day. Chance to explore the ship. Mostly cloudy in the 50s. First glitch. We went for the breakfast buffet. Food looked good. The way they serve it is not. Generally with a buffet, you take a plate,stand in line and select your food when you get to it. Here they have serving stations. One person to deal with 8-10 people at a time. If someone wants a special order, everyone else waits. If you just want scrambled eggs and bacon,you need to be there at just the right time, because quantities are limited.Choppy seas this morning.

We have a small balcony cabin. It is only a 1,000 passengership, so not a lot of room. The ship was last in dry dock last month so there is a lot of new car smell to it. There are light switches on the back of the headboard. If you want to sit up and read, it turns off the lights. Nice thing about a balcony, though, we saw a whale! Too far away, and too quick for pictures, but close enough for him to give us a show. So much for the sun. We had fog all the way around Vancouver Island. It is comfortable out on deck with a jacket on. There was a really nice presentation on Ketchikan, Juneau and Icy Straights. The next 3 days these are our destinations. Anyone wanting scenery on the way, though, was out of luck,because the fog persisted throughout the day. Strangely enough, it was a nice day to sit on the deck.

Gala Event tonight. We have Open Seating and were placedwith two really nice couples. It is fun to meet new people and learn abouttheir cruising experiences. The performer tonight was a guitarist, who wasexcellent. His parents bought him a Les Paul guitar when he was 11, for winninga guitar competition. The lounge music has been really good.

Enjoying your review! Looking forward to more.

Hi Jeff

I am so glad you are doing a "Live" thread.

We did your itinerary twice on the Amsterdam. It is a great one.

Looking forward to reading your review.

Hi Jeff

I am so glad you are doing a "Live" thread.

We did your itinerary twice on the Amsterdam. It is a great one.

Thanks! Easy copy/paste. :) Roger is right about the internet, it is sometimes good, sometimes not. Best to do as much offline as possible first.

Ketchikan today. No surprise it is raining. :)

Zaandam in Ketchikan ...

Zaandam in Ketchikan ...

 

Great picture!!

Jeff

Not surprised that it is raining in Ketchikan.

Which port will you be celebrating your 25th anniversary?

Jeff

Not surprised that it is raining in Ketchikan.

Which port will you be celebrating your 25th anniversary?

It is actually the day after we disembark. We are spending two extra days in Seattle.

Looks like tomorrow we will be doing Endicutt Arm as Tracy Arm is still iced up.

When you did this itinerary before, was it on the Zaandam?

Maybe you can have dinner at the top of the Space Needle?? Nice place to have either lunch or dinner to celebrate your 25th anniversary.

I am not surprised that you will miss Tracy Arm. We also missed it a couple of times when we cruised in June because of the ice flows.

Enjoying reading your review, thank you.

Maybe you can have dinner at the top of the Space Needle?? Nice place to have either lunch or dinner to celebrate your 25th anniversary.

I am not surprised that you will miss Tracy Arm. We also missed it a couple of times when we cruised in June because of the ice flows.

Thank you for the suggestion! We have never been to Seattle before.

Enjoying reading your review, thank you.

Very welcome.

May 23 Wednesday-Ketchikan. They get over 200” of rain a year and it was raining when we pulled in to port. Temperature in the 40s. It stopped raining and cleared up somewhat by the time the passengers could go ashore. We just walked around, took some pictures and got most of our shopping done. (I hope) No excursions this time,but we have done the Misty Fjords tour from here and it was terrific! It started raining as Soon as we got back on the ship! We went to the Dive-In for lunch. It is pretty neat. You can get your hamburgers and hot dogs with French fries there, or build your own tacos. The name is appropriate since it is right by the Lido pool. It is also by the Lido Bar, which makes it real handy! Did I mention we are on deck 7 just below the Marketplace and really close to all that other good stuff? By the way, our cabin steward is Dewa and he is very good. Definitely get tipped extra at the end of the cruise. If someone sees the sun, please send it our way. Tomorrow we were supposed to go to Tracy Arm, but I think the NHL playoffs are being held there. In other words, we can’t get there from here. We are instead going to Endicutt Arm, which is actually better because we have never been there and because bears live there. Good photo ops hopefully.

Enjoying your review.

Glad you were able to walk around Ketchikan between the rains.

Thanks! Easy copy/paste. :) Roger is right about the internet, it is sometimes good, sometimes not. Best to do as much offline as possible first.

 

Ketchikan today. No surprise it is raining. :)

You might try posting from near the Future Cruise Consultant’s desk ( next to the Egyptian art). I got pretty good internet there. It was the only cone I could find. They must have placed the rest in the plenum so it’s hard to know where they are.

You might try posting from near the Future Cruise Consultant’s desk ( next to the Egyptian art). I got pretty good internet there. It was the only cone I could find. They must have placed the rest in the plenum so it’s hard to know where they are.

Good advice! Will test on our August Zaandam cruise and report back.

Maybe you can have dinner at the top of the Space Needle?? Nice place to have either lunch or dinner to celebrate your 25th anniversary.

Last time I checked, the restaurant up there is closed. They are doing a big remodeling project replacing all the glass and other stuff.

Enjoy your trip and thanks for sharing.

You might try posting from near the Future Cruise Consultant’s desk ( next to the Egyptian art). I got pretty good internet there. It was the only cone I could find. They must have placed the rest in the plenum so it’s hard to know where they are.

Thanks! :cool:Headed toward Dawes Glacier right now. :)

Last time I checked, the restaurant up there is closed. They are doing a big remodeling project replacing all the glass and other stuff.

Thank you for this information.

Hope it will still be as nice as when we dined there a couple of times. Love the view as the restaurant revolves around and around. We stayed a couple of hours eating slowly!!

Thank you for this information.

Hope it will still be as nice as when we dined there a couple of times. Love the view as the restaurant revolves around and around. We stayed a couple of hours eating slowly!!

Apparently the glass floors were freaking people out, so now there are just a few sections like that.

Hope to post photos of Dawes Glacier, but everything needs to be reformatted.

May 24 Thursday-Sea day today as we head into Endicott Arm. Temps in the low 40s and not likelyto get any warmer as we head to the glacier. We have eaten most of our meals inthe buffet, so far, which means usually being seated next to other passengers.I continue to be impressed with the friendliness of the people we have met Headedfor the Dawes Glacier, named for Charles Dawes, 30th Vice Presidentof the United States. A school of dolphins (we think) went by while we were atbreakfast. At the glacier, there have been several ice pods with seals on them.Every once in a while the sun shows up. And it did, while we were at theglacier!

One nice thing about Holland America and this ship, is that,being as small at it is, it can get a lot closer to the glacier than ships fromother lines. We were told it might be possible to see some brown bears today,but it was not to be. If you want to see some black bear, head over to our place.They are probably partying on our deck, with us gone and our doge with friends.Our birds aren’t happy with us, though, since we took the feeders in, exceptfor the hummie feeder. Today is our dog Anna’s 10th Birthday. HappyBirthday Anna! She is an Eskie. We went to see the magician tonight. Veryentertaining. He didn’t bring his A game, but he seemed to be going more forthe comedy. We were in the balcony seating for the guitarist and the way theyhave the seats laid out is really neat. Seatings for two even though they areall together. The lower seating, where we sat for the magician, is much smallerand more like you expect in terms of seating.

Dawes Glacier

Looks like you had a beautiful day at Dawes!

Apparently the glass floors were freaking people out, so now there are just a few sections like that.

 

Hope to post photos of Dawes Glacier, but everything needs to be reformatted.

I am confused....I thought they were just now finishing the glass floors?

I am confused....I thought they were just now finishing the glass floors?

Yeah, I was confused. They are done with the glass floors, but only certain sections.