View of Westerdam in Alaska by 1st time HAL cruiser

[Barek]

Just back from our Alaskan cruise on the Westerdam (June 29 - July 6). Here are views from a first-time HAL cruiser ...

 

Boarding and disembarkation: Very smooth at all ports, including Seattle. We drove to Pier 30, so I can't comment on airport transfers. But once at the pier, the lines were minimal (we were behind two people for check-in, but counters were open almost as soon as we got in line). The only large line we experienced the entire week was to disembark in Ketchikan; but once the gangway was open, the entire line was through in about ten minutes.

 

Condition of the ship: For the most part, the ship was in good condition. She's clean, the carpeting and paint is in good condition (some areas of carpeting appeared slightly faded, but nothing that screamed worn or tired). The only negatives on the condition we did notice was one of the reclining chairs in the Crow's Nest was broken, the yellow chairs in the piano bar appear dirt or sweat stained, a couple missing plexiglass panels on the observation deck (for blocking wind near the central doors, not the ones facing the water), and small cracks in three or four glass doors that accessed the outside Promenade area. But these are all minor items, and barely noticeable.

 

The cabin: We were in SS:8073. Again, for the most part in good shape - it's a great cabin for Alaskan cruising, we would take it again with no hesitation - although might want further from the elevator for more privacy on the verandah in warmer climates. There was a chip in the wood laminate on one cabin door and in front of the TV (appeared to be where the old TV turntable was mounted prior to adding the flat-screen), and the table on the verandah was in major need of resurfacing. But none of that was enough to distract from our enjoyment of the cabin. We were concerned about being below the Lido, and near the elevators - those concerns weren't an issue. The only noise we heard was from kids running down the hall in front of the cabin - something we would have heard on any deck - we could hear the elevator dings from the closet area and slightly from the couch, but either the bells turn off after a certain hour, or the bed is placed such that the sound didn't carry to it as I can't recall ever hearing the bell while in bed. The only negative for location was lack of privacy as the exterior elevators could see onto most of the verandah - but its only an issue if the elevator actually stops on that floor, and most passengers looked out to sea or at each other, so there was only one time that we actually saw anyone looking back at us from the elevator - and in the end, it actually worked in our favor as we were just aft of the elevators so they blocked much of the wind, allowing us to be comfortable on the verandah even when the ship was at sea - and we were shielded so that as non-smokers we never had to worry about smoke coming our way from someone else's verandah. There was one additional issue in the cabin with the shower - I had been planning to report it after taking a shower when someone arrived at the door to fix it before I could call. The cabin steward had spotted the issue and already reported it for us - this ties in with overall service quality that we received on-board.

 

One complaint on the cabin design: it has a curtain to separate a "dressing area" from the bedroom area, which is nice; but the only light in the dressing area is on the same switch as lights in the main bedroom, so if one person is still sleeping, the dressing area isn't usable (unless you want to wake the other person) - so we ended up using the bathroom as our dressing area some morning because of the lighting issue.

 

Service: Wonderful. Our cabin steward and dinner wine/drinks steward were top-notch - both were friendly, helpful, and made every effort to ensure we enjoyed the cruise. Our dining steward was efficient and responsive, and helped provide quicker service when requested due to an excursion needing to cut dinner short, but he wasn't very talkative so we never really got to know him. But a staff member at the Lido buffet made up for the sociality, and we always looked forward to his smile and being welcomed by name when arriving for breakfast each morning, where he would chat for a bit and help us when needed.

 

Ports: We enjoyed Glacier Bay, Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan (didn't get off the ship in Victoria, as we've gone before and wanted to use the pool and hottub in relative privacy). We were lucky and had sunny skies in the later half of GB and all of Juneau - making both the highlights of the cruise with the cracking and calving of the glacier, and whale watching with Harv & Marv. Sitka is an enjoyable port - noticeably less commercial, although its clearly starting to develop. It's also a very walkable town, so we skipped the organized excursions and explored on our own. Ketchikan on the other-hand is much more commercial; but seemed to have better prices on several items (but not all) compared to the earlier ports - so we did more shopping while there after our excursion was over.

 

Food: Mostly very good. We ate in the Pinnacle Grill one night, and it was most definitely worth the extra $20/person. I made one mistake when ordering, I had wanted medium-rare and ordered medium ... but the filet mignon still came medium-rare. For me, this worked out in my favor as it's what I actually wanted; but when talking to others on ship about the PG later, their's were also less done than requested, and they were not as appreciative of it as I had been. Everything else in the PG, from service to food quality and flavor were excellent. Food in the Vista and Lido, while not up to PG quality, was still reasonably good - although we would have liked more light options. Due to a large group being on-board, the Vista only had reserved seating - anytime dining was not an option, so I can't comment on how that works.

 

Activities: We found it's true, the Westerdam has very little night-life after midnight. But the early port arrivals made us quickly adapt to getting up and going to bed early. For performances, the magician (Leo Ward) and the comedian/juggler (Tyler Linkin) were both fun acts. The variety act (Jeff Trachta) was funny due to multiple technical problems which resulted in some good improv, but I'm not sure if a regular show would have been as memorable. We were less impressed by the Westerdam singers/dancers and walked out on one of those shows and didn't bother going to others with them.

 

Events: Formal nights - noticeably fewer passengers in the main dining room on both nights (we had early seating in the lower dining room - anytime was not available this cruise), the reduced attendance was especially noticeable the second formal night where several entire tables were empty (among others, four along the aft windows were totally empty, rather sad to see prime locations go unused). I would guess that in our corner of the dining room, about 10-20% of the men were in tuxedos, and about half were in suits, the rest were in sport-coats and ties. Although the second formal night I noticed an increase in the sport-coats and some omitted the ties. Not a big deal to me, as they weren't flaunting their down-dressing, so it didn't distract from my enjoyment of the dinner one bit - just reporting what we saw. The desert extravaganza was an impressive layout; but overall seemed over-sold - the presentation was impressive, the deserts themselves less-so (note: if you want to dip strawberries in the chocolate fountains go early - they go fast, leaving nothing but breads and assorted melons); the event was billed as a chocolate extravaganza, although a large amount of it was non-chocolate options. The BBQ was a very enjoyable lunch around the pool area after getting back on-board from Ketchikan - I especially liked the salmon, although the other freshly grilled meats that we sampled were also good. The only other event (or non-event) issue we had anticipated ... we had heard many times on CC forums that HAL does not have a special event for honeymooners; so despite the HAL website currently saying that "all honeymooners who are noted as such on their Holland America Line booking are invited to a Honeymooners Party at sea, and receive a honeymoon certificate", we weren't shocked when this event did not take place. Still, we plan to write to HAL about this, as they shouldn't advertise something on their website if it doesn't exist.

 

Overall: I would recommend HAL to others, and will seriously consider them for our next cruise, whenever that may happen. We had a great time, and were sad to see the week end. While there were a handful of minor complaints, none distracted from the overall enjoyment of the cruise.

[il26382]

What was your weather like? My parents are on that ship this week!

[ANSalberg]

Barek -EXCELLENT critical review! I really enjoyed it.

A comment; I'm wondering if "AYW" dining is one of those "OK -we tried it; doesn't work for THIS Line" ideas. Groups demand certain formats and older cruisers with REPEATED cruise/same line not only expect certain things; they LIKE conformity and dependable table service. They also like either making NEW friends OR dining with old friends. On "Grand" cruises [lenth of 60 days or LONGER] there is no AYW dining; not everyone is thrilled WITH it and OTHER cruise lines OFFer it [fine]

Re; nightime activities. You were on a pretty Port-intensive cruise; I imagine most venues shut down relatively early so your early morning activities could start on time! Not a "Good thing" or a "Bad thing" -on longer cruises with many sea-days -there are LOTS of activities all day long!

I really enjoyed your objective report of what worked for you and what didn't; it was fair/balanced -and you explained [ light in the dressing area] interesting! Thank you!!!!

Another HAL cruiser

[Roz]

Nice review from a first timer with a fresh set of eyes.

 

I found that due to the cool to cold weather, as well as the early ports and very physical shorex I went on, I was VERY tired at night. I think Alaskan cruises have a different rhythm than warm weather cruises, regardless of cruise line.

 

I wonder if the Lido and room service were busier on formal night?

 

Roz

[Barek]

Barek -EXCELLENT critical review! I really enjoyed it.

A comment; I'm wondering if "AYW" dining is one of those "OK -we tried it; doesn't work for THIS Line" ideas. Groups demand certain formats and older cruisers with REPEATED cruise/same line not only expect certain things; they LIKE conformity and dependable table service. They also like either making NEW friends OR dining with old friends. On "Grand" cruises [lenth of 60 days or LONGER] there is no AYW dining; not everyone is thrilled WITH it and OTHER cruise lines OFFer it [fine]

Re; nightime activities. You were on a pretty Port-intensive cruise; I imagine most venues shut down relatively early so your early morning activities could start on time! Not a "Good thing" or a "Bad thing" -on longer cruises with many sea-days -there are LOTS of activities all day long!

I really enjoyed your objective report of what worked for you and what didn't; it was fair/balanced -and you explained [ light in the dressing area] interesting! Thank you!!!!

Another HAL cruiser

For AYWD, there was a group which I had heard comprised nearly half of the passengers (Women of Faith", reportedly roughly 900 passengers) - we were told that both sittings in the upper dining room was for that group, so they did away with anytime dining for this cruise to have assigned seating for the rest of the passengers. Not an issue to us; we wanted assigned seating ... but for those who would have preferred the anytime option, this was likely an issue for them. The same group also used the Vista Lounge at least one day and had the Crows Nest reserved for their group on another day.

 

For events, I left out several that I should have mentioned (forgot to include them in the long initial post) - my SO signed up for some pilates classes which took place while away from ports and she thouroughly enjoyed it, she said she had suggestions for her regular gym based on the exercises they did. We also attended a cooking class on the sea day, and the intro to wine tasting and a mixology class, and enjoyed all three as fun diversions. There were also the typical trivia and bingo events, but we didn't participate in those. You are right that the available activities dropped significantly while in port; I'm guessing that on a more typical cruise with fewer port stops there would have been more options each day.

 

What was your weather like? My parents are on that ship this week!

Seattle was sunny on June 29th for our initial boarding and sail-away. The forecast before leaving home had been for rain all week in the Alskan ports; what we got was low clouds and light rain while entering Glacier Bay, which cleared mid-way through to give us clear blue skies for some fabulous glacier viewing. Juneau was also sunny all day. Sitka had clouds, and just a few scattered drops, too little to really call it rain. Ketchikan started cloudy, and a light drizzle came in towards the end of the port stay; that evening on our way to Victoria was the only rough seas (not severe, but a few scattered white caps on some of the waves at sea), the sea-sick bags were placed near elevators (and were getting used) and the outside decks were closed due to the winds. I've been sea-sick on smaller boats in the past, but this time I had started taking ginger capsules the day before boarding and had continued taking two each day - I can't prove that's what kept me from getting sea-sick, but I do credit it for it not occurring to me. The following morning was calmer seas, and Victoria just had light clouds. Seattle was cloudy when we returned, but no rain.

 

... I wonder if the Lido and room service were busier on formal night?

 

Roz

We used the Vista dining room for both formal nights, so can't really comment ... but I'm guessing the Lido and/or room service were busier on those two nights, as well as the last evening in Victoria (a 6pm port arrival resulted in the Vista restaurant being emptier that night than any of the others).

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you had a wonderful Alaskan cruise.

[dlbaqua]

thanks for the review

especially for taking the time to write out the good and the not so-good parts