Advice about Alaska cruise

[cloudsail]

We've never sailed HAL but I've heard some very good things, so thinking about it for Alaska next year. The ships we'd be looking at are probably the Eurodam or Oosterdam.

 

My one concern is, the HAL ships seem significantly smaller than those of the other lines that go to Alaska (we can see our cruise terminal from our house so have good visual comparisons). The one time we cruised to Alaska eight years ago was on the NCL Pearl, and I remember quite a bit of motion on the last night. We are not super prone to seasickness, but I am a little worried about rough seas on a small ship. In your experience, what is the motion like on HAL ships going to Alaska? 

 

Our other option would be Princess, which we've also never sailed on. If anyone has opinions about HAL vs. Princess I'd be interested too.

[catl331]

The Eurodam (2104 passengers, 86000 GRT) and the Oosterdam (1916 pax, 82305 GRT) are not significantly smaller than the Pearl (2394 pax, 93530 GRT) in my opinion, and would ride similarly.

 

The ships which you've been seeing that seem small may be some of HAL's six oldest ships, the S and R classes.  Our two AK cruises were on ships of those classes, and we only had a brief period (maybe 30 minutes) of rough motion on one of them, and would not hesitate to go on one again.

Edited November 23, 2019 by catl331

[Krazy Kruizers]

You mentioned rough seas the last night of the cruise.  Did your itinerary have you swing out into the ocean to get back to Seattle?  If so, many ships take that route and it can be rough no matter what size ship you are on.

 

We have done quite a few cruises to Alaska on all sizes of ships.  Sometimes it was rough and sometimes it was smooth.

 

JMO -- I would book the book the Eurodam -- she has the Tamarind restaurant which we love.

[Oakman58]

Have you considered cruising out of Vancouver rather that Seattle?  Most cruise ships departing from Seattle cruise the Pacific going to their first port of call which means you might encounter some rough water.  Ships out of Vancouver cruise the inside passage and for much of the trip in water that is more calm and more scenic.  You could drive to Vancouver from Seattle in under 3 hours.

 

If you are concerned about the size of the ship the huge NCL Bliss (4000 passengers and 168,028 GRT) sails out of Seattle too.  Living in Seattle you have a lot of options for Alaskan cruises.

 

As for motion or seasickness there are plenty of products on the market that are very effective combating that issue.

[RuthC]

How well a ship rides in rough seas is less a matter of its size, and more a matter of hull design. Many smaller ships (the late Prinsendam being a prime example: 38,000 tons) was built to cut through the seas and did so beautifully. 
Don't be afraid to sail the Eurodam or Oosterdam because you think they are 'small'.

[AlanF65]

I would second looking at cruises out of Vancouver, inside passage, more ports and longer time in ports for some sailings. The Alaska Forum is full of reviews and things to do see and do.

Alan

[rkacruiser]

My opinion, the size of the ship has little to do with the amount of motion one does or does not experience when King Neptune is upset.  (Check out Anthem of the Seas experience during one storm sailing from New York.)  Sailing on Volendam's Asia Pacific Cruise in 2002, we encountered 2 or 3 times during that cruise of very rough seas with water coming above the Crow's Nest when the bow dropped into a wave's trough during one such experience.  She rode through that type of seas well.  Did we feel motion?  You bet!  

 

This Summer, I sailed on Westerdam NB from Vancouver to Seward and on Coral Princess SB from Whittier to Vancouver.  Both ships rode well and the Gulf of Alaska, which both crossed, was calm to almost as smooth in appearance one afternoon as glass.  (King Neptune was having a good day.)  The Alaska cruise program for each of them was very good with, I think, Coral Princess' programming having a bit of an "edge".  

[knittinggirl]

We've been to Alaska from both Seattle and Vancouver.  And we were on the Nieuw Amsterdam and Emerald Princess both out of Vancouver. We did a side by side.  Nieuw Amsterdam first, spend a night in Vancouver then Emerald Princess second.

 

The Princess ship was well over 100k tons.  Just wanted to say, that the HAL ship was pretty smooth, just like every Alaska cruise up to that point.  Then the next week, we sailed out of Vancouver on the Emerald Princess.  We were late out of Vancouver, so the captain chose to hit the ocean as soon as he could.  AND we had Beaufort 8 sea.  But up until the Emerald Princess, all cruises we took were nice and smooth.

 

If you're worried about ship motion, I'd suggest mid-ship and one of the lower decks.    If it gets bad, you can get some sea sick pills, and if it's really bad, then the sea sick  bags appear near the elevators.

[Hlitner]

Funny thing is that the smoothest Alaskan cruise we ever took was on the Seabourn Soujourn!  And the small size of that ship was a terrific advantage in ports not to mention the high quality of everything aboard.

 

Hank

[Oceansaway17]

well HAL is bringing the Koningsdam to Alaska in 2020.  Look into that ship as well.  Newer and bigger.

[Heartgrove]

Bigger is not always better. We sailed on the Nieuw Statendam last month in the Mediterranean. On the twenty-day cruise we missed three ports due to high seas/winds. One was a tender port that could not support safe tendering, and the other two because of the captain's wise decision to not attempt docking. The Pinnacle-class do have a taller air draft than other ships in the HAL fleet so have more surface area. Regarding the Prinsendam ride, check out the YouTube video of it in rough seas. 

I have sailed on the Veendam in Beaufort Scale 7 seas. Even in those seas, the ride was way better than the  Coast Guard  cutter I was aboard earlier in my life sailing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

 

Bottom line is: rough seas are rough seas.

 

 

[crystalspin]

17 hours ago, cloudsail said:

We've never sailed HAL but I've heard some very good things, so thinking about it for Alaska next year. The ships we'd be looking at are probably the Eurodam or Oosterdam.

We have done transAtlantics on those ships' respective sisters: Nieuw Amsterdam and Zuiderdam. Maybe we were lucky but felt NO MOTION on the NA; the slightest motion could be felt, while laying in bed, on the Zuiderdam -- but our cabin was on the highest cabin-deck and forward, right behind the Crows Nest/Observation deck.

 

We have sailed Inside Passage (R/T Vancouver) in the smaller R-class Volendam, and noone had any problems on that ship. But when we took the longer R/T Seattle to Anchorage in the R-class Zaandam, my brother did experience seasick crossing the Bay of Alaska. 

 

So your route can also affect your choice, but (1) I would not worry about Eurodam or Oosterdam, (2) I would choose by ports and times in ports, between those two. Tamarind is fine, but not superior to many Asian restaurants, at least on the US West Coast! We really liked the Observation Deck cabin on the Vista-Class ship; we will be sailing 28 days on the Oosterdam next spring!

[propwash]

In the 3rd week of June 2002 we sailed from Seattle Northbound. After coming out of the inland passage we encountered 18ft swells and gale force winds. Rough seas! On the return from Hubbard Glacier we had the same situation BUT the ride was MUCH smoother. Reason being the ocean current flows from North to South so you're going with the current instead of fighting it. 

Danny