Westerdam Alaska review, from a former Carnival loyalist

So I've been a CC-er for a while now, and have used these threads to get all sorts of great information for cruises, booking them and things to do both on board and in port and now I think it's my turn to give a little back.

About me; I'm a single mom, newly 29, my daughter is 8 (going on 16) and in law school. My daughter and I love to cruise, thanks to my parents who literally lead me over the walkway with my eyes shut for our first cruise -- i was just that petrified. i'm often too lazy to capitalize, i type faster than i think and it's time consuming, so as a fellow grammar **** i apologize in advance. until this holland america cruise i have been quite loyal to carnival, having only taken one cruise before this one which was on royal.

About this trip; Alaska was something my mom and i have been talking about for years; we started dreaming and talking 3-4 years ago, started to seriously plan and save for it 2 years ago for last summer and then for reasons not relevant to this review, had to cancel. typically my parents cruise royal; carnival once which wasn't their thing. they're in their 50's and the fun loving party thing isn't their thing (and its not really my thing either anymore). when they cruise, they get their own room and have had various siblings of mine join in here and there in the past.

we knew we wanted to do alaska in may, before the ship was overrun with tons of kids, and the weather was just warming up and we weren't really locked into one line over another, royal was my parents first choice until my mom realized they didn't have the needed papers to do glacier bay, which was really wanted to do. which left us with princess, holland america, ncl, and carnival to choose from. while the carnival miracle is my favorite ship, my parents were totally not into it and then holland offered a 3/4th people free deal, which made travelling in a "neptune suite" more affordable than getting two balcony staterooms onboard. so that's how my parents, myself and my little one ended up on the westerdam for the 5/18-5/25 alaska cruise.

It'll be good to get a review from a youngster like you - looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Hope Alaska lives up to your expectations - I'm sure it will. :)

Looking forward to your next post.

Wishing you a fabulous cruise.

Looking forward to more post, thanks for starting this thread, Westerdam is one of my favorite Hal ships.:)

:D I love reading reviews, and I am going on the Westerdam in August. I look forward to hearing more about your trip!!

Looking forward to your review.

Look forward to your next post/review.

Keith

thanks everyone! i definitely saw things from a "younger" perspective, and while I'd imagine there are more "younger" people on board in the summer, there were maybe 30 or so under 18's on board, with maybe 8 or 9 "tweens" (my little one's age group in Club HAL). i made more "friends" with the crew than other passengers thanks to the age difference, something i was expecting. there were many walkers, many wheelchairs, and a lot of "younger" (30s-50s) with their parents, which i thought was really sweet.

I labeled our trip "Epic Trip West," since we were going to be hitting a few places before we left for alaska, and the planning started full-throttle.

while planning, i also had my mom duties, and school duties which included an obscene amount of reading and case-briefing. I booked our airfare in January, with our flight leaving May 10th for vegas, a few hours after my last final for the year, and we were to return on the 25th; but thanks to united we ended up on a flight the following day, the 26th. so all in all, 16 days of vacation.

i'm going to include some stuff about our "pre-trip trip" since i love reading other reviews where people do that as well, but if you're not into it, you'll probably want to skip the next few posts.

leaving philly for vegas is never too much of a hassle, my mom dropped us at the airport and it was ridiculously exciting to say "See you in SEATTLE!!" the flight to colorado and then to vegas were uneventful.

here are a few photos of my bugs (her nickname)

walking through the airport like the little traveller she is

bags filled with homework, entertainment, and snacks. it always shocks me how parents DON'T plan for long delays, hungry kids, bored kids, and so forth when they travel and they end up with screaming whining children who make everyone miserable.

she's like mom, seriously, another picture? this is at denver, after we ate a quick meal

so we got to vegas at 11:30 local time... 2:30 eastern time. by the time we got the rental car, and to the hotel (with an accidental detour to freemont street thanks to mapquest) it was nearly 2am local time (5am at home) and i had been up for more than 24 hours, and the bugs was up nearly as long.

finally, at 2:30am and after a bath in this:

she did this:

we stayed at the JW Marriot Resort and Spa in Summerlin... if you've done the strip and want to experience a different, more refined, less insane vegas, then this is the place. there were families here, and my only complaint was that the 24 hour hot tub was being worked on and closed. parking is free, and there is no resort fee like the resorts on the strip, and for what a basic room at bellagio cost for a night, i was able to get a priceline deal for three nights (fri-mon).

vegas was gorgeous, 91 degrees and breezy. we've done the strip more times than i care to remember, and the debauchery of freemont street isn't something i wanted to subject my bugs to, so we played in the pool, and hung out with one of my best friends who recently got engaged so we did lots of wedding talk. and eating (gotta get ready for the cruis!)

**before anyone asks... i'm not a camera snob... all the photo's were taken with my snazzy iphone 4S... while i have a digital camera, the one i like to use most is at the bottom of the atlantic near st. thomas when it sunk while snorkeling there last summer during a cruise. and to be brutally honest, as i was uploading photos into my macbook i was shocked at how awesome they looked to me, a non-professional photo viewer**

some things to do in vegas that aren't gambling and drinking related? swim! the marriott has a HUGE awesome pool with waterfalls and the weather really is perfect for swimming.

red rock canyon is also a huge draw (or it should be!!) we did the "main" park last time we went, and this time we did what the locals do...

some local ranches

all leading up to some startling greenery... which for some reason i find as breathtaking as i did the first time i saw it. natural green in the desert always feel odd, but since this land spends half the day in the shade, and it does rain occasionally there is lots of green here. most other areas of vegas are not as green, they don't have the natural shade to allow for it :(

it's not so clear in this picture, but there are picto-graphs on the big rock from ancient times

all in all, we had a great trip. we did red rock on mothers day and it was a gorgeous day. we then went to chicago brewery and had a terrible terrible experience that ended up with most of our food being comped, and my bugs getting a pretty wicked burn on her pinky, which fortunately i packed prescription burn cream (we're both unreasonably fair skinned and burns do happen, usually on me but just in case). it's rare when i'd say DON'T go somewhere, i'd stay away from this place. besides the whole service sucking thing (45 minutes for dessert anyone? my pizza was wrong, so instead of fixing it, they just added more cold sauce)

a last few pictures from red rock

it was time to say goodbye to vegas once again and hello to portland, where i had more friends waiting. we flew in via salt lake city, which was really quite beautiful.

Thanks for sharing your review.

Loving it so far and I just know you're going to love Westerdam. I was a single mother in law school, too, although- grammar ********'s be damned, it DOES look like bugs is in law school :p.

Can't wait.

Loving it so far and I just know you're going to love Westerdam. I was a single mother in law school, too, although- grammar ********'s be damned, it DOES look like bugs is in law school :p.

 

Can't wait.

haha yes. I keep trying to edit that but it refuses to let me!! this is what happens when you try to type late at night when way jet lagged.

we already cruised. and it was truly amazing in a million little and big ways. but that's getting ahead. I thought I'd go back to the places we started at in case anyone else was doing something similar in seeing west coast cities.

sadly we left Saturday and returned home this past Sunday. while it was really nice to come back home I'm ready to book one for December. on HAL (but that comes later).

i loved your pictures. I have not been in the Westerdam, for a long time, and it brought back memories.

I have been on the Westerdam twice. We are VIP on Carnival, and I think we are Medallion on Princess..and will be something else.in 2 more cruises..then we like NCL too...RCI..never...Celebrity..once. Loved it. SO.....

We loved HAL. It was quiet. The food was the best of any cruise ship I have been on. I loved the Ice Cream Bar. I liked having it served, and being able to get the nuts and whipped cream. Our favorite was Butterscotch Sundae. We seldom go up late to the Lido Dect for snacks..but we found ourselves sneaking up to the Ice Cream Bar...on the Westerdam almost every night. We were in Aruba on Jan. 6, 2009 ,which must be a part of the Dutch Holidays because the Main Hotels were shooting off fireworks. We sat out late on our balcony..watched the fireworks enjoyed the perfect weather...and it is a memory that has stayed with me for years. Perfect ship. Perfect Port. Perfect time. Perfect person to be with...My DH. HAL seems conducive to memories like that.

There is an atmosphere....it is not crowded. You can stay as busy or not as busy as you like. I bet you had a wonderful time..and are now a lifelong HAL fan!

I do wish HAL had more trivia contests..like Princess and Celebrity..but that is just me. They do everything else...pretty darn well.

sorry for the little delay, it's the end of the school year and the bugs missed two weeks of school for this trip, so there's a lot of stuff to get done quickly.

so portland... gorgeous city. coming from the east coast (philly area) the city is very well planned, the people are nice, and it's very walkable. parking is super reasonable (i think it was $2.50 for 2 hours) and as long as you pay and put the updated ticket thing into your car, then you're good to go. on the advice of my friends mom we went to this place called mother's bistro, which is a local "must do" with the best service, AMAZING food, great service staff and heaping portions for a very reasonable price. the decor was pretty awesome as well.

they even had a fun coloring page to do! she's sitting on a refurbished distressed wood bench with throw pillows for seat cushions, it's kind of hard to tell, but the seating was pretty cool.

her meal, with the extra banana cost a whopping $4; and she was able to order unlimited juice with that...

i was told their pancakes are to die for (i'm really not a breakfast person as it is) and the chocolate chip walnut weren't on the menu (they were separately) and the chef put them together for me, and i ate i think all but a few bites

they even had clean, welcoming benches throughout the city.

and LOTS of bike parking (we drove and i wish we had rented bikes from a cycle shop which isn't imposible)

we played along the waterfront for a while, we got several weird looks and two parents finally asked me what the child was doing out of school (there was a field trip nearby us, and i think they were concerned that perhaps she was supposed to be with them and not with me) and after i told them we were visiting we got a wonderful detailed history lesson on the area and the moorings that we were jumping off of.

(i had fun too!)

Grimm, the show on TV is filmed in portland; being one of my dad and my favorite shows (i have a lot of favorite shows, i'm a law student, i have no life outside of my bugs and the TV) so we drove around and took some photos of the locations where the show is filmed.

this is the apothecary (where monroe's girlfriend is usually found)

this bridge was used in a few opening scenes

for a late lunch we ended up in beaverton with said friends mom, and had a wonderful meal at fuddruckers (we don't have one near us here) which had its own garden and was set in a shopping center in a neighborhood up against a pond. the weather was unbelievable, we ate outside and got a little color on our cheeks from the sun.

we then drove around the mountains, and we got a tour of the multiple farms and orchards that are in the mountains of OR. the air was crisp and fresh and it was impossible not to enjoy the car ride.

later that evening we went to the rose garden, which is somewhat confusing to find, involves driving up and down an incredibly frightening mountain road (little did i know that we'd be driving on scarier roads in the days to come). it's back near the oregon zoo and children's museum, and is accessible via two highways, but i couldn't tell you which, and it's highly confusing but worth the effort to get there.

the rose garden is totally free (there is a japanese garden thing that does have an entrance fee, but it was closed by the time we got there) and is open from dawn to dusk. it's not huge, but we spent about 90 minutes there and don't feel like we missed out on too much. there are hundreds of variants of roses with lots of gardens (both formal and informal) and all sorts of trees, flowering shrubs and what i was calling a "Greek Inspired Amphitheater"

the bugs danced and danced and danced around the grass and the stage. she then passed out in the car.

these were the bugs favorite

i loved your pictures. I have not been in the Westerdam, for a long time, and it brought back memories.

 

I have been on the Westerdam twice. We are VIP on Carnival, and I think we are Medallion on Princess..and will be something else.in 2 more cruises..then we like NCL too...RCI..never...Celebrity..once. Loved it. SO.....

 

We loved HAL. It was quiet. The food was the best of any cruise ship I have been on. I loved the Ice Cream Bar. I'm really not an ice cream person but OMG ME TOO!!!I liked having it served, and being able to get the nuts and whipped cream. Our favorite was Butterscotch Sundae. We seldom go up late to the Lido Dect for snacks..but we found ourselves sneaking up to the Ice Cream Bar...on the Westerdam almost every night. we would stop by the ice cream station every night at 10:10 after she was done at Club HAL; by the third night the guy serving the ice cream knew exactly what she wanted, and knew that i would need 5 minutes to think about it and waited patientlyWe were in Aruba on Jan. 6, 2009 ,which must be a part of the Dutch Holidays because the Main Hotels were shooting off fireworks. We sat out late on our balcony..watched the fireworks enjoyed the perfect weather...and it is a memory that has stayed with me for years. Perfect ship. Perfect Port. Perfect time. Perfect person to be with...My DH. HAL seems conducive to memories like that. the memories from HAL... it's not difficult to say this has been my favorite vacation....ever (and we vacation a lot; not always cruises) the atmosphere of the ship, the people, the itinerary; i'm probably booking a carib. cruise on westerdam for this december/january it was just that great

 

There is an atmosphere....it is not crowded. You can stay as busy or not as busy as you like. I bet you had a wonderful time..and are now a lifelong HAL fan! i had the most wonderful of times, and am most certainly a lifelong HAL fan now!! i just got off the phone with the mom i usually travel with and told her all the ways HAL is so much better, and she's going to seriously look into the ships and itineraries so we can book for winter

 

I do wish HAL had more trivia contests..like Princess and Celebrity..but that is just me. They do everything else...pretty darn well.

HAL really had a good mix of things to do; not a fan of the massive bingo jackpots; it's basically numerically impossible to get a full card in 36 numbers to win 100 grand and i think its deceitful to advertise that when the chances of winning that are about the same as winning the powerball. the only thing i really hated was fact or crap, it was waaaaaay too raunchy for me and my mom and we weren't the only ones who left.

finally on wednesday the 15th it was time to leave portland and head to seattle. but first, we spent one last morning with my friends' mom at their store in downtown, and we planted some flowers!!

but first, one last rose garden photo, after i explained it to the bugs, she really loved it.

it's a REALLLLLLY bad photo, but the weather finally cleared out far in the distance, and we were able to get a decent view of Mt. Hood.

we walked to the store in the rain (finally, it rained like it was meant to all three days we were in town) and my friends' mom put the bugs in charge of the store for a minute. i'm posting this picture because there's nothing identifying the store, i'm pretty sure that's not allowed here...

and the flowers.... which we did with our hands, and his mom was quite shocked i was willing to "get down and dirty" with the insects that took up residence in the planters.

and then it was time to say goodbye to Portland.... i decided to take the Amtrak Cascades Line to seattle... i thought the view would be amazing and maybe in winter it is but in spring its just a dreary industrial boring view.

the portland train station:

two tips... we booked using the AAA rate... it's a bit cheaper... and we upgraded for $80 total to business class seats, it was much more comfortable than "coach" and each ticket came with a $6 food credit (not a lot but still nice to have, it paid for a sandwich that was DELICIOUS and what the bugs called some of the best mac and cheese ever). we take amtrak to NYC and DC and it can be stressful knowing that i have to fight for two seats together (everyone wants a window seat and no one wants to sit next to a child) so the extra 80 was worth it to known we'd have two seats next to each other. total the tickets cost 120 with the AAA discount. and a third tip... make sure your checked bags weigh less than 50. our one bag weighed 54 pounds and the employee (nicely) told me that his union contract prevents him from lifting that bag. i totally lifted that bag and tossed it on the table like it was nothing, but mr. body builder wasn't allowed to touch it until it weighed less than 50 pounds.

and one last picture... the shirt and bracelet came from my friends' store, and has started a mustache obsession

i had to take a nap during the train ride, after we were to arrive in seattle i was picking up the rental car, checking into the hotel and then driving about 3 hours west to amanda park right near lake quinault in the olympic national forest...

so i told the bugsy to take photos of anything interesting, and there is one of the photos i found that was laughable... i asked her what she was doing and she told me she was being interesting because the view was boring.

time for bed now, my time zones are still all messed up, but 12:40 is much better than the 3 am's bedtime has been.

oooh, and one last thought... after paying way too much $ for wifi that sucked on airplanes, the free wifi on amtrak was pretty fantastic and allowed her to play her disney club penguin website without any trouble. out of all the travelling amtrak had the best wifi of all the places we were at.

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to your cruise review and photos.

Subscribing! I'll be on the Volendam later this summer, but also coming from a mainly Carnival/Royal cruise history myself, I'll be interested in seeing your thoughts on HAL.

Subscribing....we loved Alaska and I like to relive the experience through others!

now, this gets a little more relevant... i'd imagine that a lot of people cruising to alaska from the east coast probably fly out at least a day in advance to make sure they're there on time and to get onto west coast time so they can truly enjoy the cruise minus the jet lag.

washington state probably had a TON of stuff to do but i'm going to talk about the two areas i saw, and leave the rest of the state to those who have seen it.

our train arrived in seattle around 6:20, and after a minor disaster (just an FYI, even though the amtrak reservationist might tell you that there's a shuttle to the car rental agency THEY offered to you does NOT mean this service actually exists... and just because the baggage claim is closed does NOT mean if you ask nicely they won't get your luggage, because they totally will). and avis in downtown seattle closes at 7pm on weekdays. it was a little stressful getting the car, but once we got to avis it was smooth sailing. they had the cheapest rates and it was maybe 20 minutes or so from the port (it was a $13 cab ride).

i booked a two bedroom/two bathroom "jacuzzi" room at the hawthorne suites by wyndham (i think earlier i said it was by marriott) in Kent (less than 10 minutes from the airport) and it was perfect... i hate staying in a hotel because you have to buy all your meals, and it's a lot of hassle and i always feel on top of everyone else. this was spread out over two floors with a master bedroom and bath downstairs with a queen bed and a bedroom upstairs in a loft type room with a bathroom in that hallway. downstairs there is a kitchen (full fridge, full dishwasher, coffee maker and microwave as well as all the dishes, cups, utensils, etc) and a living room with a 42 inch flatscreen. each bedroom also had a 42 inch flatscreen. i booked it with a book three nights and save 20% deal, and it cost for three nights for what a single night in downtown seattle cost. and parking was free and there was no daily service fee.

alrighty... so things to do in washington. one of my best friends from high school lives three hours west of seattle on lake quinnault in amanda park (near forks for anyone who likes twilight). wednesday night we drove out there and it took a touch over three hours (dark roads and the rain made it a little scary) but the apple GPS on my phone worked perfectly and got us there in one piece.

the olympic national forest isn't something i thought i'd really enjoy, i'm not such an outdoorsy type, and this was a hikers/bikers/joggers paradise. the scenery is very green (it is a rainforest) and the nature is seemingly never ending. having never been to the pacific ocean that was the first thing we did and it was really insanely awesome. if this is something you do make sure you check the times of the tides. we got there as the tide was going out, leaving us a few hours to play which we did. there were huge rock formations that are under water for chunks of the day with starfish and sea anemones in the tide pools. muscles (black and white, and a bunch that were "eating' size) were also widely abundant.

the day started off a little gloomy, but quickly the sun burned off the clouds and the sun was out in force; this is going to start to sound like a broken record, but the weather was magical and perfect.

(a few pictures)

even though the sun did come out, the water was still ice cold (not that the water where i live is any warmer)

some tide pools (there were so many, and as the water was draining out things like hermit crabs and octopi became more visable

and with a little imagination and some dirty work, you can even build an "epic sandcastle" with no tools other than a discarded broken shovel.

coming from almost three decades of vacationing on the jersey shore these views blew my mind... and this coast gives new meaning to tide pools.

there are at least 9 star fish in this picture

so after we were hungry for lunch, we headed back up to where the car was and saw some pretty vegetation (i kept saying to myself its just so green -- duh its the rainforest).

and one last cool thing from the beach.

there are a LOT of waterfalls (the first photo above was the bugs walking towards a waterfall) and they run into the ocean. when the tide is out, it creates a little stream and some "quick sand" which was somewhat fun and challenging to walk through, but since i didn't see a gym the entire time we were travelling to this point, it was a much needed work out.

this beach was maybe 20 minutes south from forks which i thought was pretty cool and there was a restaurant not too far that we stopped to eat at. the view over the water was like a post card. the only thing letting you know this actually exists were the waves rolling in, otherwise you'd think it was pretend.

life in that area of the state is very relaxed and outdoorsy. things like new homes and the latest sports car just aren't on the radar. cell service was spotty at best (at least for me, with AT&T) and it was nice to feel disconnected to the rat race for a day.

we then headed to the lake, which is kind of in the middle of a "fight" between the tribe that controls it and the people who use it which was somewhat sad. we drove around the lake to check out some waterfalls, and saw the river that is slowly taking over the land.

and the river