Our First Dam Ship: Amsterdam to Alaska Trip Review

"I am really NOT interested in doing an Alaskan cruise. Who wants to cruise and be cold?!"

Famous last words, uttered by yours truly last year as my hubby and I were figuring out where our next adventure would be. I had only done warm weather cruises and just could not figure out why anyone would want to cruise somewhere cold.

Welcome to my review of our 7 day Inside Passage voyage on the ms Amsterdam. Hopefully it will contain some helpful information to those of you who are doing Alaska for the first time, or who are tentative about trying Holland America for the first time (this was our first HAL cruise, hence the title - no, I didn't forget the "n"!)

So, quick background about me and my DH:

Hi, my name is Amy and I am a cruise addict. I blame my parents - my first cruise was at age 14 on the now-defunct Dolphin IV and from there I was hooked. Despite the fact that the ship wasn't even large enough for a real theater and my brothers and I shared a cabin three decks below my parents (and right next to the watertight doors!) it had me and my family hooked on cruising from the start.

My DH is Steve, and although he came to cruising later in life, he is probably more addicted than me. (Pictures of him drooling over the HAL Collector's Voyages are forthcoming...seriously.) Steve's first cruise was to Alaska in 2003, on NCL's Norwegian Sun. His experience with Alaska was very valuable on our trip, especially with packing. And trust me, he let me know gleefully every time I admitted that he was right about one thing or another.

We are both experienced travelers, having grown up with direct ties to the airline industry, and Steve currently works for a major airline. We have done several cruises on NCL, Carnival, and most recently, Royal Caribbean. We enjoy doing things on our own and are not fans of being herded from place to place with 50 other tourists, or "barbarians" as our dear friend and infamous CC reviewer Sherri calls them.) But enough about us...

Glacier Bay - much better in person!

Picking the Dam Ship (and Dam Itinerary, too)

So, why did I finally agree to an Alaskan cruise? In short, because it was somewhere different (at least for me). And several friends had recently done Alaskan cruises and came back raving about it. I figured, why not?

We are not loyal cheerleaders to any specific cruise line. We either tend to pick our cruises based on itinerary or ship. So when it came to Alaska, I let Steve choose the itinerary. He had one demand: Glacier Bay.

This narrowed our search down right away - the National Park service limits ships in Glacier Bay and only 3 cruise lines can offer it (HAL, Princess, and NCL). Now faced with this choice: we ruled out NCL in favor of trying a new cruise line. And between HAL and Princess, well, honestly HAL was cheaper. In addition, Princess has really large ships in Alaska and we wanted something smaller. I really wanted to sail from Vancouver, because I wanted to visit Vancouver. And so, with the timing of Steve's vacation days we decided on the June 28th sailing of the ms Amsterdam.

TIPS: #1 Let the itinerary dictate your cruise. Steve had done Tracy Arm on his first cruise, and he was blown away by Glacier Bay. It was worth planning the trip around. #2 The cruise lines that have a long-time presence in Alaska are definitely worth it... we had prime docking positions in every port while people on NCL and RCI had quite a hike from their ship into town.

Trust me, I did have some concerns about picking HAL, due to it's reputation and appeal to a much older clientele than Steve and I. But we wanted something different, and were looking forward to a new experience.

Arrival in Vancouver

We flew from Pittsburgh to Toronto to Vancouver without incident. Incidentally, Steve had selected our flight on Air Canada for the simple reason that if something happened to our bags or our flight, there were no less than 13 additional flights between Toronto and Vancouver after ours.

Vancouver - we arrived at noon, and took the Canada Line right into downtown. If you don't mind doing things on your own, Vancouver's public transit is outstanding. The Canada Line of the light rail/subway goes right up to the airport. Tickets one way into town were $9 per person (there's a $5 airport surcharge included in that, but a lot cheaper than a cab!)

The Vancouver public transit also offers day passes that are a bargain at $9.75 per person, unlimited transit on subway, busses, and the Sea Bus. I think if you buy it at the airport they tack the surcharge on as well, but I don't know for sure).

The train ride into town was about 30 minutes, we exited at City Centre. We left the subway station and walked out into...

Drizzling rain and 65 degree temperatures. Now, everyone in Vancouver was apologetic about the weather, saying it was supposed to warm up and get sunny the next day, but it felt refreshing after a long day of travel. Plus, isn't this the Pacific Northwest? I thought 65 and rain was normal!

From the City Centre subway stop, our hotel was only a block away. It was an easy walk, even dragging our 47.5 pound suitcase behind me.

We stayed at The Metropolitan Hotel. Steve got a great deal on the rate (hotels in Vancouver are not cheap!) and it was within walking distance of, well, everything.

It has a pretty, shiny sign too!

We liked the hotel a lot. It was very clean, there was a door man (classy!) and the location couldn't be beat. One block from the subway, and right across the street from Vancouver's largest mall, Pacific Centre. There are also several Tim Horton's near it. ;) And it was only a four block walk straight down the street to Canada Place. No cab required! (Side note to the ladies: they have Molton Brown toiletries -shout out to surfergirle- in the hotel. They also have a good hairdryer!)

We changed clothes and went out exploring. We got a quick snack of poutine (a yummy French Canadian food) at the food court in Pacific Centre Mall. Then we started down towards Canada Place.

Two ships were docked - The Oceania Regatta and the Silver Sea Shadow. You can get fairly close to the docked ships and even see inside some of the balconies from the pier. Great for research purposes! There are a lot of neat little activities along the pier as well, and the Vancouver Jazz Festival was taking place at the very tip so there was good music.

We had dinner reservations at 6:45 at Cardero's restaurant in Coal Harbour, so Steve wanted to walk from Canada Place to Stanley Park before dinner. We did and it was neat to walk along the sea wall, past the floatplane terminal and all the business people dressed in suits climbing into the small airplanes, the marina with a lot of really nice yachts, and into Stanley Park. But we had only gotten a short way into the park when we had to turn around and go to dinner. If we had to do it over again I would have taken the bus to Stanley Park then walked back.

Cardero's was great. Moderately priced, great food, and a fantastic view of the harbour. Their specialty is the Cedar Plank Salmon, and it did not disappoint. They were pretty busy, Steve had made reservations the previous day.

We walked back along the sea wall towards our hotel and found the Olympic Cauldron from the 2010 Winter Olympics. They occasionally still light it for big events.

We headed back to our room, and were pretty exhausted by then. So we went to bed, eagerly anticipating the next morning.

Better than Christmas...

There aren't many things better in life than waking up and knowing you are about to go on a cruise that day. I would say it's just like Christmas, but really, it's better than Christmas because Christmas is only one day, and a cruise is much longer!:D

True to our East Coast biological clocks, we were wide awake at 6:30am and ready to go. We had already decided on breakfast the night before, a true Canadian staple and delicacy: Tim Horton's coffee and donuts.

After our Tim Horton's we went back to the hotel to get dressed and ready to go to the ship.

You can see Canada Place from the hotel (the big white sails are visible all around the city). It was a quick and easy downhill walk from the hotel. We only had one large (47.5 pound) suitcase and a garment bag, plus small carryons, so handling our luggage wasn't difficult. There were a steady stream of cruisers making the same walk, both from hotels up the street as well as the Waterfront subway station.

We walked into Canada Place, down by the taxi line and luggage drop off. There were two ships in port, the Amsterdam and RCI's Radiance of the Seas. The luggage drop offs for both are marked, but are not necessarily 100% obvious. So make sure to look for the appropriate sign.

After a quick stop at the souvenir store to purchase a Canadian souvenir, we headed through US Customs. Because we were leaving from a Canadian port and heading to three US cities, we had to pre-clear US Customs before boarding. We had heard mixed reviews about this process, but for us it was quick and easy - less than 5 minutes in line.

Then, HAL check in. Probably the quickest and easiest check in for a cruise ever. We didn't even need to hand over our credit card for the shipboard account, because they already had it on file. We did get the health questionnaire, as well as a notice saying they had noticed increased incidents of Norovirus on the Amsterdam recently and the typical handwashing rhetoric that accompanies it. This concerned me a bit, but not too much - the excitement of stepping on the ship for the first time was starting to build!

The Suite life...

Not only was this our first HAL cruise, but thanks to the mystical, magical Upsell Fairy it was our first cruise in a suite. The Fairy was quite busy working for us, because we initially booked an aft oceanview cabin 2711 (category G). A flick and swish of the wand and we were in Neptune Suite 7030.

There was no hesitation when the initial upsell offer came from our G cabin to a Vista suite. Heck yeah we wanted a balcony for Alaska! There was a bit more hesitation when the offer for a Neptune suite came along, but after weighing the amenities (bigger balcony! free laundry!) we went for it. It was so worth it.

The makeup mirror and dressing area was awesome. This is always a battle on cruise ships when I am spending 45 minutes making myself lovely in front of the mirror before formal night and Steve is trying to maneuver around me. I proclaimed the little orange stool as my Tuffet and ruled my little kingdom (pretty much just the dressing area) from it.

One negative - the lighting in the makeup mirror/dressing area was horrible. It was a funky yellow and cast weird shadows on my face when I was getting ready. I had to go into the actual bathroom to see what my makeup really looked like. I thought it was my eyes going bad until fellow CC'er and head of our tiny roll call Cindi (cereo) mentioned it to me the next day.

And finally the piece de resistance- our large balcony:

Two large loungers AND a table with four chairs? This is pretty much what sold us on the upgrade. And it's a good thing, because we spent A LOT of time out here!

Thanks for the partial review and great photos. Hope more follows. From the back page of your Cruise Log, who was Master and Hotel Manager? Was the piano player any good in the Piano Bar?

Steppy08 - pleased to see your review of the Amsterdam 7-day Alaska- we were on her for the June 14th cruise. Glad you enjoyed Carderos at Coal Harbour, our favorite Vancouver restaurant. Looking forward to the rest of your review as I did not write one.

Well, I would have been perfectly content to bunker down in our little suite for the whole trip and never leave! I had a huge balcony, a sitting area, a real bar, and my Tuffet!

But alas, the rest of the ship beckoned and Steve and I went out to dutifully explore the ms Amsterdam.

Neptune Lounge

Truthfully, this was one amenity I really didn't think we would utilize that much. A concierge? Yes, but we're not high maintenance people. Hors d'oeuvres? Yeah, but come on, it's a cruise ship - it's doubtful you'll starve. We thought it would be nice but that we probably wouldn't use it that much.

We were quite wrong. We didn't camp out in the Neptune Lounge but we did use it... a lot. It was fantastic for grabbing some cheese and fruit in between our excursions in Skagway, and before and after trips to the Thermal suite, and before, after, and during being outside in the cold. The coffee machine was great. (So great, that all the ships officers apparently use it while on duty, there was always one popping in...:D) The little pistachio chocolate things were awesome as well... though they disappeared entirely by the last 3 days of the cruise.

The concierge was Rhea, and she was great. We only asked her three things the entire cruise, and two were simple reservations for the Pinnacle. Some people camped out at her desk, but she always had a great smile and was bubbly. We actually saw her in port in Skagway and she greeted us by name.

Thanks for the partial review and great photos. Hope more follows. From the back page of your Cruise Log, who was Master and Hotel Manager? Was the piano player any good in the Piano Bar?

Gail,

Master was Fred Eversen and the Hotel Director was Henk Hoekstra. The piano player in the bar was pretty good... we only listened to him directly once, but passed through several times during the cruise. Incidentally, when we did listen to him he was singing "Sweet Caroline" and his voice was a dead ringer for Neil Diamond... he actually kind of looked like him too...

Amy

Thanks for your review. Looks like the "suite" life:) Thanks for showing the NL as I never expect to see one LOL

We too stayed at The Metropolitan and LOVED it. Their restaurat, Diva is quite gourmet. We enjoyed it muchly.

Our first Dam ship was one of ms Amsterdam's sisters, ms Volendam. We fell totally in love. Can't wait for the rest of your report:)

Steppy08 - pleased to see your review of the Amsterdam 7-day Alaska- we were on her for the June 14th cruise. Glad you enjoyed Carderos at Coal Harbour, our favorite Vancouver restaurant. Looking forward to the rest of your review as I did not write one.

We were supposed to be on your cruise! We initially planned for that sailing, but had to push it back to the 28th to because that's when Steve was allowed to take his vacation. We even popped in on that roll call in the beginning. Hope you had a great cruise!

:D I am glad to hear you came out of your bubble and went to Alaska. It is amazing how many people won't go because they think it is a "cold" cruise. I will be going next month for the 9th time, enjoying whatever kind of weather is in store for us. We have experienced everything from rain in the 50's to the sun in the high 80's. The beauty of Alaska beats it all. I am looking forward to more of your trip. I love reading about cruises!!! Thanks for sharing!!

We left our blissfull cocoon of Neptune suites and Neptune Lounges that is Deck 7 and wandered upstairs to Deck 8.

Honestly, we spent very little time at the pool and hot tubs that surround it. We never went in. The movable glass ceiling kept it all a very comfy temperature (sometimes a bit too warm!). The bears in the pool were our first bear sighting of the trip.

The aft pool looked nice as well, though heated it was not covered and usually there was no one in it. There is also a Teen Area on Deck 9 Aft - it's decorated like a jungle and has a lot of tables and chairs to hang out in. As Steve and I are well past our teen years, we did not hang out here!

Inside, we found the Amsterdam to be one of our favorite ships. It was cozy and warm feeling. The art that surrounds the ship is truly magnificent. We would be walking somewhere and I would stop cold and start reading the plaques next to the art or picture (sorry if you were behind me!).

The corridors leading to the cabins were filled with pictures of the old Dutch ships being built. This was fascinating to me. I seriously did stop on Deck 2 or 3 to get a closer look at a picture and was almost rear-ended by a very busy cabin steward!

We loved the Atrium area. It was understated but elegant. Not too much glitz, only the mirrored stairs that circle it. Steve managed to take a pretty good whack at the mirrors with a golf ball, but that was much later in the cruise. The Astrolabe was interesting and pretty, I wish it actually worked. The carillon bells underneath it were a mystery, either they don't work or we missed it.

Probably our favorite thing about the Amsterdam was that you never, ever forgot you were on a ship. Almost every public room has a sea view. There are countless lounges where you can sit back in a comfy chair and watch the ocean go by. This is why we love to cruise. We loved the promenade deck, and all the quiet aft balconies to watch the wake. The Amsterdam is a ship for people who appreciate being on a ship.

The Amsterdam is a ship for people who appreciate being on a ship.

Exactly. That's why we fell in love with The Volendam.

A Lido-less lunch...

By now we were getting hungry... all that exploring and basking in our suite does work up an appetite!

On past cruises, the embarkation lunch is always my least favorite meal of the cruise. Schlepping all of your carry on bags with you as you stake out your table and elbowing a thousand people at a buffet is not my idea of a good time. Thankfully, that would not be the case on this cruise.

Reason 1: As I understand it, HAL usually makes all the cabins available as soon as you board (HAL veterans please correct me if I'm mistaken). I do remember a few people (non-suites) not being able to get in their cabins right away. The suites were ready, so we did not have to schlep our stuff very much at all.

Reason 2: We would not be eating lunch in the Lido. We were crashing the Mariner's Lunch in the main dining room! "How is that possible?" you ask. It's obviously our first HAL cruise. Well, I have an ace up my sleeve and a Star on my key card...:D

Enjoying the review of your cruise on the Amsterdam. Isn't it a beautiful ship?. Sounds like so far your are having a great cruise. Your pictures are great.

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

The Carnival connection...

As previously mentioned, Steve and I are not really brand-loyal to any particular cruise line. We enjoy seeing how each line is different (although they are really more the same than they are different). So we don't usually pick our cruises based on loyalty to any one line.

The drawback to this is that we have a bunch of cruises on a bunch of different lines, and don't really have any kind of status on any of the multiple cruise lines. The solution is just to cruise more... but pesky work keeps getting in the way. Sigh.

In talking to several of our CC friends we found out that if you sail on Celebrity and you are part of the Crown and Anchor Society on RCI, you get reciprocal status on Celebrity. So I emailed HAL and asked about that with Carnival/Holland America. I think I asked about it on here as well.

As a past cruiser with Carnival, I automatically became a 1-Star Mariner before I set foot on a HAL ship. I didn't get any cruise points or anything, but I did get all the benefits of being a Mariner on my first cruise. Not that there's a ton, but I'll take what I can get!

Upon check-in, I got my key card and lo and behold was my one star status. I felt special. Steve, strangely, did not have the Mariner status and should have (based on my email to HAL) but we never pressed the issue.

So instead of joining the melee in the Lido, we sauntered down to La Fontaine Dining Room. There was a small line, as we found to be the case many times (more on that later). We quickly made a standing reservation for As You Wish Dining every night and then were seated at table for two that overlooked Canada Place.

It was so nice to sit and have a leisurely lunch. My initial impression of HAL's food was good. The service was good too, but I'll do a run down of that later. Note: Steve and I almost never share tables on cruises. We prefer a table for two... it's not that we're anti-social, at least I'm not. We would just rather talk to each other than to make small talk with people we may have nothing in common with, or worse, may be complete idiots. I've read the tablemate threads on here and want to be spared any of that drama!

Goodbye, Vancouver!

We returned from lunch to find our suitcases already in our cabin at the foot of the bed. We were shocked. Never have I had luggage delivered so quickly on a cruise! Was it because we were there so early? Or that we had a suite? We decided to take the time to unpack right then and get settled in our cabin. After several mini-quarrels about who was using which drawers (now really, why should Steve get ALL the upper drawers?! I'm the one with the bad back!) we had finished unpacking.

(Note: It came up several times in talking about this trip that Steve and I weren't sure if certain things were because we were in a suite, or I had Mariner status, or were normal for a HAL cruise. So HAL veterans, I may ask for clarification at certain times. :) I'm sure you all will be more than willing to oblige.)

As we unpacked, our room steward came in to introduce himself. He was Heri, and the other steward who assisted him was also named Heri. (This led to a conversation later between Steve and I about the percentage of Indonesians named Heri) At any rate, both Heris were really nice and personable, and greeted us warmly every time we saw them in the hallway. I'll give a run down of their service later as a summary of this review, but they were good.

We went over the Neptune lounge to partake in the free(!) champagne/sparkling wine (yes, I've read the debate over this here on the boards). We're not wine experts, and it was free, so it was lovely thankyouverymuch. Soon it was time for the Muster drill.

Once you've been on several different cruise lines, you can't help but compare them directly, especially with something that's standard and required like a muster drill. In this aspect, HAL could actually take a page from the Royal Caribbean book. We waited until the call and then made our way down to the muster station, where it was crowded and chaotic. Once everyone (or almost everyone) was there they called out cabin numbers to take roll.

My first impression was... "Really? Are we really doing this?"

I'm a teacher. I have to take roll on school busses all the time with noisy, distracted, and moody teenagers. But they are noisy, distracted, and moody teenagers that I know well, and they know and respect me. I can't imagine taking roll with noisy, distracted, moody adults, teenagers, children, etc that have no clue what they're doing and would rather be anywhere but at a muster station. It took quite a while and was frustrating for the crew, as well as us.

Yes, I realize it's important and that roll should be taken. I'm not arguing that. RCI does this and it is by far the most efficient method since cruise lines started taking roll at muster drills: You report to you muster station and give them your name/cabin number. They check it off a list. When everyone gets there they only call the cabin numbers that have not checked in. (On the Allure they actually scanned your room card on a hand held electronic database). This saves time and energy for all involved.

Enough of muster drills. It was time to leave Vancouver. Steve and I watched the initial sailaway from our cabin. It was cool to be so close to the pier and actually see people waving good bye. We also had some protesters to wave to as well:

Not sure of the political undertones involved here, but their sign was well done and spelled correctly. And they were enthusiastic!

After we left we moved up on deck to pass underneath the Lionsgate Bridge.

And we were off to the Inside Passage! Would it really be so different from a Caribbean cruise? Well, in mere hours we found out the answer to that question.

I am loving this review.

We have sailed quite a few days on the Amsterdam and love her.

All in either an SA or PS.

Amy: Thanks for answering my questions. Sounds like you had a great time. I too find the lighting not so good for me at the vanity with the makeup mirror. I take a special light with me that I only turn on when doing my makeup. The piano player sounds interesting. Hope he is still on for my September cruise. Gail:D

Thanks for your review. Pictures are excellent.

Thanks everyone for the positive comments. The snarky comments from my one attempt at a prior review kind of turned me off from wanting to write this one, but I do have to say that most of you on the HAL boards are far more welcoming than on the Royal Caribbean board!

I am taking a short break for right now... Steve is demanding that I feed him dinner. :rolleyes:

Sorry to leave you all hanging... talk amongst yourselves for a bit! I'll be back in a bit.

We

 

 

 

Probably our favorite thing about the Amsterdam was that you never, ever forgot you were on a ship. Almost every public room has a sea view. There are countless lounges where you can sit back in a comfy chair and watch the ocean go by. This is why we love to cruise. We loved the promenade deck, and all the quiet aft balconies to watch the wake. The Amsterdam is a ship for people who appreciate being on a ship.

And have you been in the woman's restaurant on deck 5 outside the MDR. It has windows with the sea view. I just love that.

:eek: Dinner??? Did you tell him that you have a following and we are waiting for more??? Tell him to go to the Lido and grab a bite.....oh, that is right....you are home now.....sorry. Are you adjusting okay??? :confused:

And have you been in the woman's restaurant on deck 5 outside the MDR. It has windows with the sea view. I just love that.

:eek: You mean restroom.....I love it!! :D

And have you been in the woman's restaurant on deck 5 outside the MDR. It has windows with the sea view. I just love that.

Yes! (I am assuming you mean women's restroom?)

But I didn't find it until the last day!!!

The women's restroom on Deck 5 outside of the dining room is the BEST public cruise ship restroom I have ever seen. So good, in fact, that I took pictures of it. I can only assume what the other people in the restroom were thinking...

Here it is... no less than 5 personal make up areas! And a sea view to boot! So if you are not able to be in a Neptune Suite you can have your own Tuffet here to sit and primp. But I only discovered it on the last sea day. For those ladies sailing on the Amsterdam in the future, make good use of this space!