LAFFNVEGAS

I have to say that was my fear, read of several Princess ships and NCL the same but oddly have not hear coughing and it so far seems to be a healthy ship. But keeping my fingers crossed 🤞🏻. The thing I found strange is at no time all the way up to boarding did we have to fill out a Health Questionnaire, that really surprised me.

Here is what Tom and I had. First we are still in Juneau All Aboard is not till 8:30 and it’s only 7. Alaska time. We had 5:00 pm dinner. There were very few of us in the Dining Room. We had for drinks the Holland America Sparkling Wine that we had a bottle of and had it sent to the dining room to be on ice. I have always said that the cruise lines NCL, Princess and HAL had the worst house Sparkling, I always called it rot gut swill😂 and refused to drink it but was shocked when I saw Wycliffe Sparking which is inexpensive but very tasty. It is a cross between Prosecco and moscato. Definitely a good move for HAL to have made. I ordered the Seafood Deviled Eggs and they were good, then I ordered the Chile Rellenos and the No sugar added Almond Fruit cake. I was disappointed with Chile Rellenos it badly needed a red sauce or Ranchero Sauce, it had a strange lightly coated deep fried batter on it like panko and a lot of queso stuffed in the chile but it was dry. But the Chile was tender and tasty so that was a plus. Then the Almond cake was very moist and tasty 😋. Tom skipped starters and he had the Steak and Lobster. He was actually surprised that the lobster was very good as was the steak. Then he had the red velvet cake and said it was very good. Overall we have felt the food on the Westerdam has been much better than our last several Holland America cruises.

Time to play What’s For Dinner from Juneau Alaska What would you order from Tonight’s menu?

One last pic

Getting ready to move into our parking spot 😂

We should be in view shortly 😊

Using zoom I can see the Bliss

You will be seeing us shortly 😃 I can see NCL Bliss

I think we are getting close but we are moving so slow. Last picture is Bow cam 😃

Always beautiful sailing into Juneau

I think we are right at Grand Island

I would say we are about an hour and a half away from docking in Juneau. The sun is out but there are clouds and it’s cold brrrrr.

Well the pics state where we are right now on the map. Looks to be a sunny day but cold.

Yes, definitely Pea Soup out there this morning at 7:40 am.

Thanks Leanne, Captain said it will be a nice day so keeping fingers crossed. I wish that Westerdam would not be blocked or we could have had a Web Cam Wave. 😃

After dinner we went to the Captains Toast and stayed to watch the first show of Major Fourth in a show called Sing. They are a quartet of three men and a lady. The show was good, the female vocalist was definitely the talent of the group. It was good to see something different for talent on HAL. Although just my opinion and others may not agree they still need to bump it up more to compete with Princess, NCL is even better but they have had some major cutbacks. I will not see those cutbacks till April. My guess is HAL sending their better new talent to the newer ships but I will see in December when we sail NS. On a side note I mentioned the aft being extremely loud and vibrating more than I ever remembered, it lasted most of the day. Captain stated at one point we were going at 23 knots for most of last night and into today which was no wonder it was loud , he joked about going over the speed limit. Then about 30 minutes ago it suddenly got much quieter and the vibration stopped, it appears we will have smooth sailing for a while , he also made comment that he will have to speed again after we leave Ketchikan. 😉 I will give you some more pictures from tonight

I have to say our first impressions of this Dressy Night menu we both were not impressed. It is definitely not what it use to be for formal night but we actually walked out impressed and both enjoyed our meals and no it was not the whole bottle of Prosecco talking 😂 First I had the Potage Salferino which was Tomato Bisque Soup with a few tiny potatoes and a small dumpling. Then my main entree was Glazed Beef Tenderloin with Shrimp Newburg and the Warm Flour less Chocolate Cake. All three were excellent. Tom skipped the starter and had the Braised Short Ribs which he said were excellent and the Cherry Crisp. Of course he also enjoyed the bread basket which I have stayed away from. I will admit I should have skipped dessert but for the past three months been cutting way back on most days I totally follow keto so I am feeling like I fell off the wagon 😂 I was mostly good for breakfast and lunch did the Free Dive which has the lettuce leaves instead of the bun.

Let Play What’s for dinner tonight!! It’s Dressy night what are you ordering? We are starting with some Prosecco 🥰 Not showing is the Club Orange Entree is a Braised Short Ribs with potatoes and Asparagus but hint they let you switch out the veggie for a different veggie 😉

Not necessarily, we had Boarding D stated 12:00 noon, we are 4 Star and in A Neptune Suite. I don’t think those things help with assigned time. But you can go early and state you qualify for Priority Boarding. They tried to give us boarding group 27 and I stated we were Neptune Suite and 4 Star , they then said oh you are welcome to board now.

Good Morning from the Westerdam, sailing to Alaska in the Pacific 😂 that is about as detailed as I can tell you. Got up around 7:30 this morning, showered and went to the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast same usual breakfast. I have been attempting a better food plan which consists of lowering my bad carbs and increasing my protein so skipped any breads this morning but had the Passion fruit yogurt dish I always enjoy then an omelette with no potatoes or toast. But did have to indulge with a mimosa. It really was not overly busy in the Pinnacle but sadly service was very slow. I would have like more coffee. I am looking forward to our December cruise on the Nieuw Statendam to compare the difference with the Club Orange dining room. Right now my comparisons for recent cruising is NCL Encore Haven Restaurant that was in February and Discovery Princess Sabatini’s Suite breakfast last December. Sadly at least for breakfast HAL ranks third. Overall I thought food quality was very good last night and as well as lunch in the Lido. After breakfast we decided to visit the Neptune Lounge, definitely different. Reminded me of a smaller version of the lounges on the newer Princess Ships (Royal Class on up) Although it did not appear to have much for food offerings. The decor was nice and relaxing and confused me at first with the door placement on starboard side. The sun is trying to peak out. So may be coming into nice weather. We have early dining but there is a Disneynature film in the World Stage about a family of bears in Alaska I want to see at 3pm so may try to go to that for an hour. Interesting in The Daily I saw that at 12 noon is a Mainer Society Welcome Aboard Lunch, there were no invites for it that we saw. Doubt we will go, would rather have a lite lunch in the Lido. Signing off now till later 😃

Good Evening from the Westerdam. we are in deck 5 corner aft and as reported previously it does really vibrate and a ver loud noise. We are ok with it but I could imagine that people who never had an aft cabin and or are fairly new to cruising would be shocked. The aft on the Vistas have always had a bad vibration but now it is very loud. We had a nice early dinner, then headed to the shops, Tom bought a couple of shirts, I did not see anything but may change my mind later in the week. No shows tonight in the World Stage just a film on Alaska at 7:30 and movie Fast 10 at 9:00 pm. We actually were exhausted so decided to end the evening out early. We will check out the Music Walk tomorrow night. Tomorrow night is a show called Major Fourth “Sing”. We will definitely check that out. Signing off from the Holland America Westerdam.

We have fixed Early Dining.

Ok what I actually had. Of course had a glass of Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling, then forgot to take a picture of the Tomato Mozzarella Starter, the the Roasted Chicken with carrots and green beans and dressing. Then Passion Fruit Sorbet(not showing on the menu) and a cup of coffee. Tom skipped the Starters but had the NY sirloin and a Hot Fudge Sunday.

What’s for Dinner??? Having dinner but thought I would play this game here. I will post the dinner menu and you can say what you would order. I will tell you later what we ordered.

Ok my mistake Sail Away may have been at 3, it just seems so early. We are all unpacked and ready for a great week ahead.