ms Westerdam - June 18th, Alaska cruise from Seattle

[mmooreark]

Interesting that the schedule has "Mariner Embarkation Lunch". I thought that was open to everybody now.

 

 

 

Roy

 

 

We just ate in the Lido with everyone else. I guess the Vista was for the frequent quests. Actually, since we got on so early, there were very few people eating. It was great not to have to fight the crowd.

 

 

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[mmooreark]

Looking forward to hearing all about your cruise! If you get to the PG please let us know how everything is.

 

 

 

We are on Westerdam in October and enjoying living vicariously through others !!

 

 

We had breakfast in the PG, not crowded and great service. Will definitely be doing that again. As for dinner, I'm having my 10th anniversary dinner there in a few days, so will be able to give an update later this week.

 

 

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[mmooreark]

(Just saw the multi-quote button, sorry about that, will use that going forward.)

 

Ok, so it's early morning and I'm awake, with a bright sun outside and my family asleep. I woke up at 5 and based on the sunlight coming in above the blackout curtains, I thought it must be 7.....no, it was 5. Just gained an hour last night, but still early to be that bright! This has been a great cruise so far. It's funny to me when reading some reviews, my view is cruising is what you make it and how good it is somewhat depends on how you approach it. If you are looking for things to complain about, you will find some. If you are happy to be here and just want to have a good time, you will. Even within our own group, that is true.

 

Having said that, on my two prior cruises, Liberty of the Seas and Norwegian Jade, I had two very different experiences. On Liberty, I don't even remember anything going wrong, except them canceling a character breakfast and not telling us. Getting up early and having an excited kid waiting to eat with Shrek is not great when you get down there and there isn't one. On Jade, it was the second cruise (?) from Houston after coming back from Europe, and it was one thing after another. We laughed most of the time, saying, "what next??". It was just my 7 year old and I on that one, so I didn't let any frustration show and just made a laugh out of it, but every day it seemed to be something not going as planned. Still had a great time, though, and he still talks about it. The Jade did have some great points, specifically the shows, don't get me wrong, but can't really compare to the Liberty. Not my life story, but a little background to show that things aren't always good or bad with me.

 

Back to this trip, we have a diverse group in personalities, cruise experience, cabin types and age ranges, with two grandmothers and two 40-something couples with two kids each (11,8,7 and 4). One family planned ahead and booked excursions, the other planned ahead, but didn't actually book them and is now changing up their plans to accommodate what excursions are available. Not a major issue, but since the sled dogs I booked are no longer available, they'll go whale watching instead, so it's not like they'll just have to sit and stare at the wall. Don't delay in booking the sled dogs, that seemed to go fast. We did all add excursions for Sitka with no issues, no problems there. I wanted to do that on board to use my OBC.

 

So far, things are great. I am very impressed with the food, the staff and obviously the Neptune Suite. We brought a LOT of luggage and still have way more storage room than we needed. We skipped the first night's intro show and the comedian, as it started at 9:30. Club HAL closes at 10 (I think you can pay extra after that) and we were exhausted anyway, so just went to bed. We did see the Beatles tribute guy last night, with family comments ranging from ok to good. Some were surprised it was just a guy singing Beatles songs and not at all dressed like they would be.

 

So far, the biggest issue seems to be that we waited over 30 minutes for dessert after everyone finished eating last night. Some were ready to leave and go find it elsewhere, some were just REALLY glad to see it when it arrived. If my Dad were still alive, that would have ruined his Father's Day. His biggest pet peeve was having to wait at dinner. It was a little frustrating for me, as the kids were getting antsy and were ready to either eat dessert or get outta there! Having said that, if that is the biggest issue, we are doing just fine!

 

Three of us went to the Alaskan beer tasting in the Crow's Nest, along with half the ship (the crew joked that half the ship was up there). That was certainly a variety of beers. We all liked some, others only two of us liked and pretty much nobody liked the Smoked Porter. I like a variety of beers, but if smoked salmon was a beer, it would be the Smoked Porter. I'd eat the salmon, but leave the Porter. I was one of the few of our group that hadn't seen whales yet, so I joked that if I keep drinking beer, I might see whales whether they were there or not! I jokingly (and somewhat quietly) pointed and said "whales right there"! Not 15 seconds later, people yelled whales and ran right over to where we were. I thought they were thinking I had really seen whales and started to wonder how loud I was talking, when we turned to see three of them spouting water up. Only one was up enough to see the body, but we did see whales!

 

I'll post the menus and daily schedules as soon as the rest of the group wakes up and I can get some light in here for pictures. Sorry for the long post, but when you can't sleep and don't want to wake everyone up, might as well talk about your awesome cruise to anyone that will listen!

 

 

 

 

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[Amercury]

Thanks for taking us along, we are on this ship 8/1-8/7. We have never cruised in this direction nor sailed on Holland. We typically sail the Caribbean so that's pretty easy to pack for, this Alaska trip has me a little stumped.

Again, thanks for taking us along :):):)

[rafinmd]

Don't sweat the long post. Paragraphs are your friend, and you're a good friend. Everything in your post was welcome news. One question, with some of you in Neptune suites and others in regular cabins, how do you handle breakfast?

 

Roy

[Clarea]

Enjoying this, thanks.

[rothbury]

We just got home from doing this cruise last week. It was beyond a doubt the best cruise (We're 3 star) that we have ever taken. Most of our cruising has been in the Caribbean and they can't come close to the scenery and experiences we had on this Alaskan cruise. So far the menu and daily are identical. We saw so many bald eagles over the 5 days in Alaska that we stopped counting. The crew and staff for the entire cruise was excellent. Tomorrow will be your Glacier Bay experience. Make sure your cameras are charged and ready to go. The scenery will be amazing. The ice really is blue! Go to Kainoa's talks and he will explain why. He is extremely knowledgeable about Alaska having lived with the natives. There was a large group of Koreans on our cruise and it was several days before they stopped touching the food when ordering from the Lido. The crew stayed on top of it and removed what and when they saw it. Their pushing and shoving seemed to calm down after a couple of days, too. My only suggestion would be to do your shopping in Ketchikan early. Once 4 or 5 ships get there the main street can get unbelievably crowded. Have great time!! We sure did.

 

Oh yeah, look at the daily and it will give you sunrise and sunset. It is about 14 hours long and never gets completely dark!

[Kathyfromstl]

Thanks for this good review. We're on this cruise in 18 days and get more excited when I read reviews like this.

 

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[mmooreark]

 

Day 2 and 3 menus

 

 

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[mmooreark]

 

Day 2 and 3 Schedules

 

 

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[madera1]

Hope we see whales next week too.

 

 

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[mmooreark]

Hope we see whales next week too.

 

 

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Our group has seen several, along with dolphins (I hear). Haven't really spent much time looking for them, they just seem to be there when we do. Some of our group did the whale watching excursion in Juneau, had some good whale pics, too.

 

 

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[mmooreark]

Today we were in Juneau. First we did the sled dog excursion through the ship. If you have never done this, or even if you have, I highly recommend this excursion. Pictures don't do this excursion justice, that was really good. The kids and adults all loved it.

 

When we got back, we did the tram up to Mt Roberts. I liked it, but the kids were ready to go about as soon as we got up there. You can hike around up there, which seemed good, but it was raining and the kids weren't having it. I doubt I would do this again, but am glad I did it once. (I would go back to see those puppies right now, though!)

 

Tonight is the Pinnacle Grill for our anniversary! We moved it up, so we wouldn't miss surf and turf night on the second gala evening. I'll review that later. As the other poster said, tomorrow is Glacier Bay, looking forward to that!

 

 

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[Kathyfromstl]

Are you given any kind of information about the port you are visiting the night before? Like a map of the town and things to see if you want to walk around on your own?

 

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[rothbury]

Kathyfromstl, yes, there are 3D maps handed out at the shopping talks by Amber. They will be up on the Vista Stage and you can go grab one and leave if you don't care to listen to the presentation. We found the maps very useful. They listed the "approved" shopping locations but also included places to eat and points of interest. Some ports also had tourism people handing out various literature. Including some maps. Now, be forewarned that the ports are shopping intensive. If you have been to the Caribbean think of Diamonds International, Effy and myriad jewelry stores and other familiar locations.To really see some of the sights you need to either take a shore excursion or most places had solicitors trying to offer you tours. In Sitka you have to take a shuttle bus (think school type buses) into Sitka. It is too far and would take too long to walk. Some of the shore excursions weren't too expensive. Be careful of the walking tour in Victoria though. It is 3 hours of walking with no sit downs along the way. Some people were having trouble keeping up towards the end.

[Eurodeva]

I am part of a group of 6 in oceanview cabins on Jul 23rd, too! Hoping to get onboard early enough for the embarkation luncheon in the Vista.

[gts101997]

I hope you and your family had a wonderful cruise. We enjoyed your early postings and hope when you have time you will come and post regarding the rest of your cruise.

[mmooreark]

Whew, just got back home late last night. Here are the remaining schedules. Menus and reviews are next.

 

 

 

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[mmooreark]

 

 

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[mmooreark]

Menus for days 4-7. My dessert menus got all out of order and seem to be missing some, but here are the main menus.

 

 

 

 

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[mmooreark]

Here are the dessert menus for days 4 and 5, I think in the right order. Just found these and don't want to repost the previous menu post.

 

 

 

 

 

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[mmooreark]

OK, sorry for the long wait, my access was limited. Where was I....?

 

Ok, so we had our Pinnacle Grill anniversary dinner, it was awesome. I had a wonderful steak, my wife had an excellent king salmon. They gave us an anniversary cake that was very good, but I didn't get to see how the other desserts were. The waiter offered, but I was way too full, so I have no recommendations. Kim was our waiter for that dinner, as well as every morning when we went in there for breakfast. He was an excellent waiter, with a perfect mix of professionalism and a great sense of humor. My kids loved him, too.

 

Glacier Bay was great. Since we were new to Alaska, I was amazed at the glaciers and could just look at them all day. Well, until the ship sailed off....

 

Sitka - We tried to do the Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest, with all 10 of us. However, my oldest son wasn't feeling well and we were afraid of what would happen if he went on a boat, so he and my wife stayed on the ship. (HAL did end up selling those two tickets for us, even with basically no notice, so that was a bonus!) That ended up being a good call, as his 7 year old cousin got sea sick during the whale watching part of the trip where we had some pretty good motion. It didn't bother me, but a few others were turning various shades of colors. The smooth part was smooth, but the rough part was pretty rough. My wife had packed the backpack well, so I gave out the seabands and motion sickness drops to the others in the group, so nobody else was sick. The tour was great, saw lots of sea otters, a family of bald eagles (including the baby), one jellyfish, lots of whales and a lot of seals. I'd say well worth it, but you might bring motion sickness meds..... Strange, when we did something similar in Maine, they handed out seabands, as they didn't want you to get sick. Without getting into too many details, let's just say maybe they will consider that now....

 

Ketchikan - My son was feeling better, so we got to do the Adventure Karts that we had been looking forward to for about 6 months. On the way up there, saw a bear eating salmon berries right by the road. He looked over and almost posed for the camera, then went back to the eating. We really enjoyed the Karts, that was fun. I would definitely recommend that excursion, too. You don't go super fast or get crazy, but it is a fun ride and you get to go up into the rain forest and see some great views. My wife and 4 year old did a simple trolley tour and totem pole excursion. They liked it, but my 4 year old is a sucker for trolleys, so he'd like it no matter what. My only complaint is that we weren't in Ketchikan long enough to do anything else. When the Kart excursion was over, we were running through stores looking for some decent t-shirts and just didn't have enough time. We had to be on-board at 12:15pm, WAY too early for what seemed like it might be one of the best ports on this itin.

 

Victoria - Well, I think I read somewhere that these cruises have to stop in a foreign port. I guess that is why they go to Victoria. It's pretty, but we didn't plan to do anything and just walked around, then took a horse-drawn carriage for 15 minutes. Originally, we were going to do an Orca whale watching tour, but between Sitka and just on the ship during the cruise, we saw so many whales that we didn't think it was necessary. I didn't dislike Victoria, but just didn't see the point of getting off at 6:30pm or so for a few hours. I guess we can say we've been to Canada this year!

[mmooreark]

We did have an absolutely incredible time. Funny though, with a group of 10, different people had different opinions. Everybody had a great time, but comments on the food and shows ranged from ok to excellent, sometimes with the same meal!

 

Here are my opinions about random things on the Westerdam, (again based on my previous experience in the last year on the Liberty of the Seas and the Norwegian Jade):

 

Staff: While certain dining staff stood out, like "Prince" Albert the waiter and Jayson the wine-steward (and i already mentioned Kim in the PG), the dining staff was fair/good overall, but not excellent. I learned quickly that if you wanted more tea, you have to specifically ask for it, even after several nights. Water sometimes, too, specifically had to be requested. They were ranging from very friendly to not overly friendly, not real consistent from person to person. Outside of the dining room, however, I can't recall passing another HAL employee in the hall that didn't seem incredibly friendly, ranging from the room stewards (mine or not) to a person vacuuming to the ship's third officer to waiters, etc. All generally made me feel like they were glad I was there and they seemed to be, too. While Liberty was full of friendly people, I think the Westerdam wins the most consistent smiley faces award.

 

Food: Again, different people have different opinions, but since I am writing, I will give you mine. We mainly ate in the PG for breakfast, room service a few times and the Lido on the last day. The PG was never busy, the food was very good and the staff was excellent. Room service was good, on time and very helpful for the early port days. The one Lido breakfast was actually better than I thought it would be, but we still were glad to be able to go to the PG to avoid the craziness that is sometimes the Lido. For lunch we either did the Lido or room service. The Lunch Lido was fine, with plenty of options to choose from. I'm not too picky, so wasn't a big deal to ignore the pizza that wasn't great and head back to the Asian station that was. I hit some things that were very good and some things that were just ok, but overall the Lido was good if I had to nail down a rating. I would have to say ordering a steak for room service was nice, but the club sandwich was very good, too. For dinner, we were in the main dining room most of the time, except for the PG night. Overall, I really liked the food. Sometimes things were a little too fancy for me, but I was always able to find something delicious. For comparison, I would say this food was better than the Liberty, but the Liberty was really good, too. I can't really compare the Jade, as it was just my 8 year old and I and I let him pick the restaurants, so we didn't do the main dining room often enough to compare.

 

Entertainment: The production show is Ever After, I think it said "your favorite fairy tales....Rocked!" Basically, rock songs sung by fairy tale characters while dancing a choreographed routine. We go to a lot of musicals in my house, but overall this was just a little different. I was trying to figure out what the target audience was, as many on board were older. I knew all of the songs, but my 74 year old mother knew maybe 2 of them. I enjoyed it more than she did, but it was just ok in my book. She said "mediocre". The performers were extremely nice and took pictures with people afterwards. The magician was awesome, with a lot of slight of hand tricks and some larger illusions. Hard to compare to Krypton on the Jade who had mainly large illusions, I would say it was too close to call, they are both great. The comedian was hilarious. I didn't realize my 11 year old niece had joined us until the end and that just made some of his last jokes a lot funnier, but overall his act was pretty tame. They have a Beatles-singing guy that was ok, but maybe I'm too picky. I liked the songs and he was a good singer, but it was just a guy standing up there singing Beatles songs. It was ok.

 

Neptune Suite and perks - We were thinking of getting two rooms and because of the deal at the time, the 3rd and 4th person were about $250. So it was the same price to put all 4 of us in a Neptune Suite, when OBC was considered, so we did it. We brought WAY too much stuff (my wife still disagrees) and still had storage areas that we didn't even use. Being able to just pop in the lounge and get a snack, non-alcoholic drink or ask the concierge something was very useful for us. Given our large group, we would meet in there sometimes, too. For example, rather than knock on the door and possibly wake someone up, just meet in the lounge.

 

It's 1am and I'm exhausted. Not sure what I might have forgotten, but if anyone has any questions, please let me know. All for now....

Edited June 28, 2016 by mmooreark

[Kathyfromstl]

Thank you for all of this information. I'm on this cruise in 11 days. My first cruise and first time to Alaska. I have some questions if you don't mind.

1. On Location has 2 items the day before arriving in a port: Plan your day ashore and Highlights and shopping talk. Are either of these worth attending?

2. I only saw one movie in the On Location. Is there not a movie every day? Is the movie replayed on the tv?

3. I have Explore 4 and it will be way too many drinks than I will want. The menu has After Dinner Drinks with souvenir glass. Is the glass worth keeping as a souvenir?

4. Was there a culinary class where you actually cook? If there was do you know the menu?

Thank you.

 

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[RuthC]

Entertainment: ... The magician was awesome, .... The comedian was hilarious.... They have a Beatles-singing guy that was ok, ....

Would you kindly give us the names of these people? After all, if they are so good, we might want to be on the look-out for them on our own cruises, but we need to know who to look for.