Westerdam Alaska Review 5/25 sailing

[e058874]

This is a little late, but better late than never. This was our first cruise on Holland and it was significantly more $$$ than Carnival but had the best itinerary for what we were looking for on this trip. We had booked an SY superior verdanda suite but paid for an upgrade last minute to an SA Deluxe Vernanda suite. My mom and brother booked a regular balcony but then paid to upgrade to the SY category. The SY is a very nice sized room but you don't get all the amenities of the SA category. Addl info below:

-embarkation: less than 30 mins from drop off to room, suite guests seem to get faster service in a special line. Also when you board they try to direct you to the buffet but suite guests can go right to your room if you want. I did expect someone to escort us since we had heard that was the service you can expect. But that did not happen

-ship decor: In all honestly..I thought it was pretty dated. I liked the layout of this smaller ship but the carpet was looking shabby in a lot of areas and overall it seemed dark..or at least darker than other newer ships we have been on. it was not very luxuriously decorated compared to newer ships

-service: Very very disappointed. Again, for the higher $$ I expected more and better than Carnival and definitely did not get that in most areas see below

-dining room: food was nothing amazing or in better presentations than what I had seen before on Carnival. Our main waiter was horrible. Was not friendly and almost to a point of downright rude. On our other cruises the waiter usually introduces himself asks your names and is generally very friendly and joking. O.K. so maybe this should have been more formal but this guy was horrible. Our busboy was very good though. My brother complained after our first night evne though I didn't want him to. I wanted to wait til the end of the cruise. I didn't want it getting back to the waiter and him doing something to our food or something. (Hey, my best friend in college was a waitress so I know plenty of stories of disgusting stuff waiters can do!) And I wanted to avoid a weird confrontation with this guy. Sure enough they must have said something to him and then he said something to us!!! It was just awkward. However we did like the lowkey dining room lack of performances and dancing etc that we have been subjected to every Carnival and Costa cruise! No cheasy macarena's and waiters donning colored wigs or anything like that. That was nice.

-Pinnacle Grill: This food was awesome. They lowered the upcharge to $20 which was well worth it. One of the best fillets I have ever had! One downside is that there is a lounge upstairs from it and it was loud and playing pretty dancey music. Not the right atmosphere for what you want to hear over a nice meal like this. They should change that to more elegant music at least during the dinner hours

-cabins: like I said both very nice and good sized. Our SA suite had more cabinats than we could use even. The makeup vanity and dressing room are a very nice touch. Our room steward was very good. Plenty of closet space.

-Ports: Juneau...Went on our own to Mendanhall. I would recommend this. You don't need to pay high $$ on a tour. The bus costs $7 each way. The town itself could compare to many a Caribbean port with all the Diamonds International type shops selling the same stuff. We felt a half day here would have been better. And used a full day in Ketchikan. Sitka: great stop. you can also do everything here on your own. It's small enough and walking distance to all the sites. and there are much more local type shops with cool indiginous art and artists. See the Russian dance show at the community center. it's very cool. The bishops house tour given by a park ranger was very interesting and only like $4 each. ketchikan: would have liked more time here as we spent most of our time on the Bearing Sea Crab Fishermans Tour...TAKE THIS TOUR. You are not going to be sorry. You are not out in the open water. Seas are calm and it is so interesting. These guys deserve your tour $$$. (i have other post describing this in more detail). Victoria: just got off the ship and shopped in the place right there at the port. my husband went to town to buy cigars and walked around the big hotel there. Looked really cool from the pictures. this port is kind of bum deal because its the last night and you get in at 6pm. We were still working on packing etc so it was kind of rushed.

Glacier Bay-amazing. We say the big glacier calve several times. The ship stopped right in front of it about 1/2 mile away and on our balcony side which was so nice. It's kind of wild to hear the cracking from inside then looking around to see where the chunks would fall off

Whales: we got so lucky in that my husband was on our balcony smoking a cigar when he spotted something in the water...sure enough it was a school of Orca's we followed them for about an hour. They would jump out of the water and you could see the black and white coloring. One got pretty close to teh ship about 20 feet by way down at the front. They really are huge even though binoculars!

smoking: They took out the cigar lounge about 6 months ago so no place for my husband to smoke cigars inside. Normally not a problem but it was Alaska and cold. Not condusive. they also do two non-smoking nights in the casino and we just wouldn't gamble on those nights. So they lost our money and many others we like to smoke when gambling but let me tell you the smoking nights it was sure packed!!! So the non-smokers didn't seem to mind!

I'm sure there are other things I am forgetting but ask me any questions and I will respond.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

 

That isn't too bad for the bus -- only a dollar increase in the last 2 years.