Alaska Trip Report, Holland America Eurodam Jun 17 - Jun 24

[Oakman58]

Thursday June 22^nd Ketchikan

 

 

We arrived in Ketchikan 30 minutes early at 6:30. The skies were very overcast and the temperature was 52 degrees.  This would be a short day in Ketchikan with an all aboard time of 12:00 

 

I was really looking forward to our excursion today which was the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman.  I was concerned about Joyce being able to do this, but she said she was good to go as long as we took it slow.

 

Our meeting time for the excursion was 7:40 on the dock so we ate breakfast at the buffet.  We were on the dock at 7:30 and there were a lot of people holding up their signs for various excursions, but there wasn’t anyone with a sign for our excursion.  I was concerned that our excursion had left early and when I saw one of the excursion representatives from Holland I inquired about our trip.  He assured me there would be someone on the dock by 7:40.

 

At precisely that time a young woman showed up with a sign for our excursion.  We walked over to her and she told us to walk two or three blocks to berth 3 where the Aleutian Ballad was tied up.  Joyce said she could do the walk so off we went to find berth 3.  I became very concerned when I saw we had to walk down a steep ramp to berth 3 but Joyce handled it like a champ.

 

The Aleutian Ballad was featured in season 2 of the television show, The Deadliest Catch.  As the boat was riding out a storm she was blind-sided by a rogue wave and heavily damaged.  During repairs the owner of the boat decided to turn it into a tourist attraction. 

 

The boat had stadium style seating and two levels.  We were given seats in the front row on the lower level.  Right in front of us was an aquarium with crabs and other sea creatures including a small octopus. 

 

 

After leaving the dock we were introduced to the crew and each of them told us a bit of their life and their experience as crab fishermen.

 

I’m old with a bad memory so I don’t remember the names of the crew.  They were a very personable group.  After cruising for a while, they stopped the boat to pull in a bottom fishing line they put out every day.  As the line was pulled in a crewman would grab the fish with a hook on a pole and shake them off the line. 

 

Once all the fish that were caught were on board the crew held them up and told what species they were.  Some fish were returned to the water unharmed, but others were kept.  I noticed one crewman seem to be cutting up the ones that were kept and wondered what he was doing.  I would soon find out why. 

 

After they finished their presentation, they put out a freshly baited line and then resumed our trip out to the crab pots. Here’s a picture of the baited hooks. 

 

The boat slowed once again as we cruised close to shore and a crewman threw out one of the fileted fish.  Suddenly an eagle came out of nowhere and grabbed the fish out of the water.  The crew continued throwing fish for about 5 or 10 minutes.  The passengers were allowed to come up the rail on the side of the boat to take pictures. All these fish being thrown into the water attracted quite a number of eagles.  This was quite a spectacular show being put on by the eagles as they swooped down and snatched the fish out of the ocean.

 

I took quite a few pictures and I prayed the photos would turn out.  They did, and here are some of my favorites.  I’m quite proud of how good some of my pictures turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we continued to the crab pots. They pulled a round type of trap from the ocean floor that contained a lot of rock crabs.  When he held the rock crab up, I thought he was joking because it looked like he was holding a rock.  Then the crab opened its legs and wow, it really was a crab. That crab had some great camouflage.

 

 

Everyone was given a chance to get the crabs…I mean hold a crab.  It was at this time they took some of the crabs and shrimp out of the aquarium for everyone to hold and take pics, selfies, etc. Adults and kids really enjoyed this.

 

After that a crewman grabbed a king crab and held it up while giving a short presentation about king crabs. 

 

While this was going on, some kids were having a ball trying to scare each other with a giant shrimp.  The crew finally told everyone to return to their seats and then the boat headed for the next crab pot.

 

The next crab pot was the type you see on The Deadliest Catch.  They pulled in a lot of rope before the pot finally emerged from the ocean floor. 

 

When the pot was brought onboard it had some large king crabs in it and everyone let out oooohhs and aaaaahhs.  The crew chuckled and then told everyone these were plastic king crabs.  I think they told us king crabs don’t inhabit this area.  Then they gave a demonstration of how the pot would be emptied, rebaited, and then returned to the ocean. 

 

The crab pot had a lot of tags on it and it was explained how this supports something or other.  At this point I kinda quit listening and all I heard was blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.  Sorry, that’s just the way I am.

 

Once they returned the crab pot to the ocean floor the boat went to the next pot which was a barrel pot.  A crewman opened it and pulled out a large octopus.  He then gave a short presentation about octopus, put it back in the barrel, threw in a few shrimp, closed it up, and returned it to the ocean floor. 

 

And that was the end of our excursion and the boat headed back to the dock.  As we neared the dock we saw the much small cruise ship, the Wind Star Breeze which was berthed right in front of the Eurodam.  Cruises on a ship like that are out of my price range. 

 

Once the Aleutian Ballad was tied up, we got off the boat and had a long slow walk back to the Eurodam.  We boarded the ship just before 12:00 all aboard time. We went directly to our cabin to drop off our gear and found two Holland America Anniversary tiles and a thank you note on our bed.

 

 

Not trying to disparage Holland, but is the certificate of authenticity really necessary? Is someone out there counterfeiting their tiles?  I do like the tiles, they make wonderful coasters. 

 

After dropping our gear in our cabin, we decided to go to the main dining room for lunch.  The menu choice wasn’t what I expected.  I honestly don’t know what I expected but this wasn’t it. 

 

After lunch we went back to our cabin to chill out a bit.  Chilling out turned into a long nap.  As we’ve gotten older, napping seems to have become an excellent hobby for us.

 

In the evening, we met Ralph and Adrienne at the Ocean Bar for a pre-dinner drink.  We had reservations at the Tamarind Restaurant at 6 PM.  The dinner was excellent, everything was delicious and the service was outstanding.  Without a doubt this was our best dining experience on the ship.

 

Tyrone Hawkins had an adult comedy show at 8:30 in B.B. Kings but when we got there, not a seat was to be had.  Joyce and I decided to call it an evening so we both got a glass of wine at the nearby Billboard Onboard bar and went back to our cabin.  The was a reminder card in our door to turn the clocks ahead one hour.

 

It was too early to go to bed, so we looked over the free movie selection Holland offers and chose the Robert Redford movie, A Walk in the Woods.  I had never seen this movie and I really enjoyed it.  When the movie ended, I decided to enjoy my favorite hobby, sleeping.

[mimmy52]

Your eagle pictures are awesome!

[Oakman58]

                   FRIDAY JUNE 23^RD DAY AT SEA AND VICTORIA

 

 

I was up early and with the time change the buffet was just about to open.  Joyce wanted to sleep in so I went to the buffet for a light breakfast.  After that I walked around the ship and took a few pictures.

 

One thing I wanted to find was an Internet café/area.  I went down to deck one and found it in the Atrium in a small area between Customer Service and Future Cruises.  There were three computers and one printer available. 

 

One thing that struck me as a bit strange, as I walked to the Atrium area from the rear of the ship on the port side, there was an alcove with two armchairs.  It seemed a strange place for anyone to sit. 

 

One thing I want to mention is that in the morning, along with the Exploration’s Café in the Crow’s Nest on deck 11, you could order specialty coffees in the Pinnacle Bar on Deck 2. 

 

The few times I walked past the casino it never seemed crowded.  I don’t gamble very often but I do enjoy playing video poker when seated at a casino bar.  I was disappointed that the casino bar on the Eurodam didn’t have any video poker screens.  It was just a bar. 

 

I took a few pictures of the theater. 

 

 

The theater seats didn’t seem to have a drink holder of any type. Most of the cruise ship theaters we’ve been in had some form of drink holder. And then I discovered the hidden drink holder that pulled out from the arm of the seat. 

 

After leaving the theater I walked by the Hudson Room and there was a Catholic Mass being celebrated.  There was a Catholic Mass celebrated every day at 8 AM on the ship. 

 

One area I wanted to take some photos of was the new library which was now on deck three.  Wow, this was the best looking library I’ve seen on any ship, and it was larger than most cruise ship libraries. 

 

 

 

There was even a section for a book exchange.

 

After that I went back up to the buffet and got a cup of coffee and made a cup of tea to bring back to the cabin for Joyce.  I was pretty sure Joyce would be awake by now and she was.

 

After she finished her cup of tea, she was ready to go up to the buffet for breakfast.  Having a second breakfast is one of my favorite things to do on cruise ships.

 

After eating we went out on the aft deck by the Sea View pool and enjoyed a couple of peach Bellinis.  It was a sunny morning and temperature wise it was comfortable if you sat in the sun.  There was never a problem finding a place to sit on the Lido deck by the Sea View pool.  We sat out there for at least an hour people watching and drinking peach bellinis. 

 

After that we went back to our cabin to do a little organizing and packing.  We met Ralph and Adrienne for lunch in the buffet and then headed back to the cabin to do some serious packing.

 

We had dinner reservations at the Pinnacle Grill again for 5:30 and met with Adrienne and Ralph for a pre-dinner drink a half hour before that.  I still had some Onboard credit left so the cost of this meal would be mostly covered. Once again my steak was overcooked.  This time I mentioned it to the waiter but told him I would be good with eating it anyway.  I tried not to sound like I was complaining but just mentioning it in passing. However, I guess because of my complaint, we never did get charged for that meal.

 

Dinner had taken two hours and ten minutes and when we got back to our cabin and as promised by Seattle Port Valet, our Black luggage tags and airline boarding passes were in our mailbox.  We had a debarkation time of 8:15 tomorrow morning.

 

We attached the luggage tags to all of our luggage, including our carry-on luggage, and set them out in the hall by our cabin door.  We both wondered if we would ever see that luggage again. The only thing we would be carrying on the plane would be a small bag with personal items.

 

The ship docked in Victoria an hour early at 7 PM while we were still eating dinner.  We didn’t bother getting off the ship and instead just relaxed in our cabin.

 

 

We were anxious to get back home but we were sad the cruise was over. We called it a night.

 

         

[Oakman58]

SATURDAY JUNE 24^TH SEATTLE END OF CRUISE

 

 

After waking up I looked outside and we were docked in Seattle and there was a fueling barge alongside the ship. 

 

We went to breakfast and Ralph and Adrienne joined us.  After eating we chatted for a bit and then realized people were having troubling finding a place to sit so we left and returned to our cabins to wait for the 8:15 call for those with Black luggage tags to depart the ship.  Our flight to St. Louis was scheduled to leave at 2:30 from SeaTac so we were in no rush to get off the ship.

 

They called for us to leave the ship at 8:00.  We had to wait for a couple of elevators with room for us and that was the slowest part of debarkation.  The line to get off the ship was short, we breezed through customs, and headed out of the terminal.

 

As we neared the exit of the building, a man from Holland was selling bus tickets to the airport for $25 per person.  So instead of taking a cab or Uber the four of us bought bus tickets.

 

The was a long line of people using the buses, but it moved quickly and soon we were on a bus and headed to the airport.

 

It was nice not having to check luggage at the airport so we checked the departure board for our gate number and then got into a huge line to go through TSA security.

 

Our Southwest Airlines flight took off on time.  Our change of planes and gates seemed so much easier without any carry-on luggage.  We arrived in St. Louis shortly after 10 PM.  Once luggage started coming out on the carousel all 4 pieces were there.  Seattle’s Port Valet worked perfectly for us.

 

Outside we had a rather long wait for the shuttle to take us to the parking lot.  The shuttle driver was very nice and even got off the bus to put our luggage in our car.  That was a first for us.  We were back home just before midnight.

 

Joyce liked Seattle’s Port Valet so much, she says we should only pick cruises that end in Seattle. LOL!

[mimmy52]

The port valet sounds great! Thanks for doing this review. I enjoyed it a lot.

[cabland]

Great review - loved your writing style and the pics - really told a story!

[Oakman58]

19 hours ago, cabland said:

Great review - loved your writing style and the pics - really told a story!

 

Thank you for the nice comment.  I might have overdone it with all the pictures I included.

[gregma60]

2 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

 

Thank you for the nice comment.  I might have overdone it with all the pictures I included.

In My Humber Opinion...  It wasn't overdone even one small micro-iota!  

 

-gregma

[LabMom57]

Thank you so much for your detailed review and pictures. I really appreciate all of the great information. We are on this same itinerary in August!

[BuddyBee]

On 7/7/2023 at 4:34 PM, Oakman58 said:

Deck 12 doesn’t exist when you look at the deck plans on the Holland website. It’s as if Holland doesn’t want you to know about it. Basically it’s a secret deck.

So, please do tell how you got to this deck?  Is the only way there through the staircase in the Crow's Nest?

[Oakman58]

4 minutes ago, BuddyBee said:

So, please do tell how you got to this deck?  Is the only way there through the staircase in the Crow's Nest?

 

No there was an outside staircase also just outside the elevators.

[canadianbear]

Finally found time to catch up on your report.  
 

Love your eagle photos.  Actually enjoyed all your commentary and photos.  Appreciate the time you took to do this.  
 

We have cruised several times to Alaska and I’d love to do it again but Mr Bear isn’t too interested.  Hoping my son, DIL and grandson might allow me to come along with them next year. 
 

Thanks again for this. 

 

[BuddyBee]

23 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

 

No there was an outside staircase also just outside the elevators.

Thank you!

 

[cruiseryyc]

Balcony chairs with foot stools!  A fully wrap around Promenade deck!  How lovely.

[Anita Latte]

I enjoyed all your photos. Wonderful report. Lovely to take a virtual trip to AK...thank you for taking the time to share.

[Hogladyrider]

@Oakman58...just found your review....LOVED IT, ALL OF IT!

 

Trying to decide cruise Alaska out of Seattle or Vancouver.   I have cruised Alaska out of Vancouver but now I want to bring my other half and he will not fly.  We are HAL all the way and your review with the ports you visited is making Seattle departure VERY appealing.

Thanks again for a great review!  We also watch Deadliest Catch and I think we would both enjoy that excursion and we are both in our 70's......I can relate to your wife's bum knee issue, just had TKR surgery in November 2022, now I am bionic knee woman!