Trip report - Westerdam Alaska July 1-8

Hello, I just returned from a 7 day cruise on Westerdam in Alaska (Seward to Vancouver). I got lots of great info from this board in planning our trip so am hoping this information will be helpful and useful to others. Here goes!

Itinerary: 6/25 - 7/1 land touring on our own, then Westerdam south bound 7/1-7/8. Who we are: multi-generation family with tween, teen kids and parents for land portion - met up with grandparents for cruise. We have been on one Celebrity Summit southern caribbean cruise, and one Disney Fantasy cruise. This was our first time on Holland America, chosen for three reasons: 1) Itinerary included Glacier Bay (so that limited our choices to HAL or Princess), 2) prices for 3rd & 4th person in cabin were much lower than Princess, making this cruise much more affordable, and 3) extended family members are 4 star mariners and prefer HAL. We had fantastic weather - sunny almost every day, highs in the 70's and 80's for the cruise portion. Only one rainy day in Ketchikan.

Land portion:

6/25 arrive Anchorage late, overnight near Airport

6/26 Matanuska Glacier hike with MICA guides - excellent! Great way to get close to a glacier, learn all about it, and really helped us when we saw glaciers multiple times later in the trip. Took a ride up Hatcher's pass to Independence Mine, beautiful location, nice easy alpine meadow hiking, highly recommended. Stayed in Wasilla.

6/27 Drive up to Denali, lunch stop at Talkeetna. Quick stop in the visitor's center to get our bearings for the park, then a scenic rafting trip in the evening with Denali Outdoor Center. This was a great activity - gentle class II/III rapids perfect for those of us who had never rafted before. Fun rolling rapids and splashes but not scary. Stayed at Denali Bluffs hotel - excellent choice, paid extra for riverview room, but it was modern, with very nice balcony overlooking Nenana river.

6/28 Shuttle bus to Eielson. Saw wildlife but unfortunately bears were at a distance. We could see them well through binoculars but I was hoping for the pictures I've seen on the web of the bears right next to the road/bus. Although this was a long ride (8 hours) it went by very quickly. Bathroom breaks every 60-90 minutes, beautiful vistas, time passes quickly when hunting for wildlife through binoculars. In addition to bears, saw dall sheep, lots of caribou. Stayed extra time at Eielson and it was easy to catch a different bus back (our bus out only stayed about 20 mins at Eielson). Denali was behind clouds when we were there, but we did see it out during the drive up on 6/27 from Talkeetna. 2nd night at Denali Bluffs.

6/29 Drove back to Anchorage with stop at the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla and dog sled cart ride ($10 per person), plus they had puppies to hold! A highlight for the kids in our group. In hindsight, I wish we'd either gotten up and out earlier and gone back into Denali for a 2nd day to try to find more wildlife before heading back to Anchorage, or had planned a 2nd full day (and 3rd night) in Denali. We had to be back in Anchorage to return the rental by 5pm as we were dropping it downtown so that we could walk to restaurants, and easily get to the rail depot in the morning for our train to Seward.

6/30 Early glass dome (Goldstar service) train to Seward from Anchorage. This was an expensive outing for our family, and it was overcast as we headed out of Anchorage, but the weather improved and the views were great. This was worth it to do once - the train goes through a gorge and some other areas not near the highway or visible by car. Plus the glass dome and the breakfast in the dining car are pretty neat. Really a great way to get to Seward but now that we've done it once, I would go a cheaper route if we go again, either bus transfer or downgrade to Adventure class instead of Gold Star. Arrived Seward 11:15 and immediately went on the 6.5 hr tour with Major Marine through Kenai Fjords. This was a very easy transfer - Major Marine reps were at the Seward Depot and they stored our luggage in the 360 hotel while we went out on the boat. This wildlife watching trip was a highlight of our whole trip. The boat (the new 360 catamaran) was very comfortable, stable, and clean. Plenty of room to move around inside and out and see all the wildlife. A NPS ranger was on board and pointed out lots of animals and gave excellent information about the animals and landscape. We saw a pod of 14 orcas, several humpbacks, lots of sea lions, puffins, sea otters, harbor seals, and lingered in front of a glacier to hear and see the ice calving. The on board lunch was tasty and filling. I hesitated on whether we needed the lunch option but glad we got it as we had only had breakfast on the train and went straight out on the cruise. If you don't sign up for the lunch, they do serve hot dogs and other snacks you can buy. I got a good deal on the major marine tour by booking a black friday (day after thanksgiving) special. Overnight in Seward, did some laundry and got ready to board the Westerdam!

Cruise portion:

7/1 went on a Seavey Iditaride tour in the morning which was fun (puppies again!) and then boarded at noon in Seward. We had a verandah cabin on Observation deck of Westerdam. Extended family had cabins on deck 4. Initial impressions - the ship is beautiful. All main areas are updated with new looking carpet and furnishings (it just had a dry dock a year ago), everything in very good shape, I didn't see anything that looked worn or in need of replacement. I had read about HAL having more traditional decor but found the Westerdam to feel modern and sleek. Our cabin was perfect - since it was only a year old, everything was in great shape. Bathroom had nice tile walls in shower, granite/quartz vanity top. Our family's other cabins on 4th deck did not have those upgrades. The balcony was narrower than the deck 4 balconies (maybe 3.5-4ft) but fit four of us standing fine, and 2 sitting in the chairs with a little drinks table in between. It felt about the same as on the Celebrity Summit and Disney Fantasy. We had a quad cabin and all beds were very comfortable. The best part about this cabin was it's location - on deck 10 just behind exc (old crow's nest). We were constantly going up front, then out the back to see scenery from the open deck 10 and deck 11 forward areas, and it was a quick run down a flight to get to the indoor Lido pool, lido market and aft pool. There were 160 kids on board and lots of multi generation groups. The crowd felt similar to the one on the Celebrity cruise, and our family members that have cruised HAL before said this is the youngest group they've seen on a HAL cruise. I think the combination of Alaska, summer school vacation, and great 3/4th passenger pricing is drawing more families to HAL. One interesting comparison is that I felt like there were more drinkers and emphasis on alcohol on HAL than Celebrity or Disney, that said, nobody was out of control or obviously drunk. Food was consistently good in both the lido and MDR (better than Disney), the taco bar in the lido pool area was great. Entertainment was mixed - the billboard piano players, BB Kings band, comedian (Chris Pendleton) and magician were excellent. The in house singing/dancing show was average and not as good as we've seen on Disney or Celebrity. The only other shortcomings were lack of a venue with top 40/current music (although we did not stay out for the last sets of billboard onboard or BB King so they may have played newer music later in the evening) and that a lot of the daytime activities were geared to an older crowd (art auctions, acupuncture/spa seminars). The activities we liked were the trivia contests, bingo, and ping pong tournaments.. The exc/crows nest area was great for scenery watching and playing board games, as well as the Gallery Bar that had several new board games scattered around for guest use. Pools and hot tubs were clean, aft pool was heated and well used on a few days when temps were in the 80's. The lido pool was also nice and the weather was good enough that they opened the roof a few days. The large flat screen tv in the cabin was nice and they had a large library of movies - new releases included.

Excursions:

7/4 - Haines, rented a car and went on our own to Kroschel Wildlife Sanctuary, Eagle foundation, and drove out to Chillkoot lake along the river. Chillkoot looked like a painting, very picturesque. This area is famous for bears but we didn't see any as it was a little early for the salmon but if you are in this area in a couple of weeks, definitely ride out to Chillkoot.

7/5 - Juneau, whale watching with Juneau whale watching combined with ticket to Mendenhall. This was good, but we only saw a few humpbacks. It was a short trip and I preferred our longer trip in Seward with major marine. I'm glad we did the combo tour though - they took us directly from whale watching to mendenhall and then we were free to jump on their shuttles to return to Juneau every 30 minutes. I preferred this open ended return as some of our family took a short hike and others went on a longer hike - everyone could do what they wanted to go back when they were ready.

7/6 Ketchikan, no excursions planned here and this was the only rainy day of the trip. Did the walking tour to the salmon ladder and hatchery (worth the stop - the person who was working there took a lot of time to explain all about the hatchery, also saw some HUGE adult King Salmon starting to show up in the creek), went to the totem pole museum, and walked creek street. Hopped back on board for a nice lunch and loafing around on deck and in the pools.

This was a great trip and I will definitely be back on HAL again!

Great review. Sounds like a wonderful trip. Will be headed on RT from Vancouver in September. Even more excited after reading your review.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for your review.

Sounds like you had a great holiday.

Wonderful review.

Glad you enjoyed your land trip and the cruise.

Good to know that you will sail on HAL again.

Thanks for the great review, especially the info on the land part of the trip!

Nice review. We were on land 6/12-6/22 before a 7-night SB RCI cruise and I’m so long winded that I’m only on day 3 of my review (although I also didn’t start until yesterday). We did some similar things with slightly different experiences. Things in Alaska really do change week-to-week or even day-to-day when it comes to stuff like wildlife or weather.

I should really get back to my own review. :)

Great review. We have been on three Alaska cruises on 3 different cruise lines, and plan to go back again. Our favorite was the 14 day Alaska cruise on the Maasdam. Alaska is amazing!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Forums mobile app

We will be back again too. We may spend some time checking out the Yukon next time, or taking more time in Denali, or heading to Katmai for bear watching.

Thank you for taking time to write a review and good to know your family had a great cruise.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi there. Were you in Cabin Vb10018 on the Westerdam? Just wondering how motion of the ship was in the cabin (we have 2 first time cruisers coming with us) and could you sit comfortably on the balcony? Was the balcony under complete cover? Would you have any photos of the cabin and balcony? Many thanks.

We were in cabin 023. Here is a link to my wife's website where you can see the pictures of our cabin. http://nancysoasis.com/2016suite/2016suite.htm

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Forums mobile app

Thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

Sounds like a wonderful vacation.

Great review.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Forums mobile app

Just seeing the questions on the cabin. There was not much movement in the cabins but we had very smooth seas. Waiters said previous cruise was very rough so we may gave just lucked out with the weather. We did have a vibration at times that I think must have been the stabilizers or some other mechanical reason. Balcony is not covered and there is room to sit in two upright chairs.  I do not have photos but the cruise critic site has an extensive virtual tour of cabin 10007 and it looked exactly like ours.