North to Alaska on the Rotterdam - My Story

[govgurl]

Just got back from my very first cruise ever, the 7-night Alaska cruise with HAL from Seattle on the Rotterdam. What a wonderful experience! I'm happy to answer any questions you might have, and will give a brief read out of my cruise below.

 

Overall thoughts on the ship: Thought the Rotterdam was a beautiful, very refined ship. I enjoyed the musical entertainment (the piano player, the Neptune combo in the Ocean Bar, the guitar player), which all veers very much towards Rat Pack/Billy Joel/Paul Simon/standards kind of music. The one show I went to in the showroom (the Dinner Belles, basically a 60s girl group review kind of show) was not impressive. THe singers were very talented but they were held back by some really cheesy dialogue, costumes, and sets. My mother really enjoyed the cooking demonstration, loved the culinary theatre and the take home recipes. I would have liked to see faster internet with more updated web browsers as well as more plugs for charging computers in the library/internet cafe.

 

The food was consistently delicious, though rarely crossing over into the "best of this I've ever eaten". I enjoyed all of my meals, which was more than I expected considering how many of those dishes they must prepare in night. The service was completely exquisite, with plenty of staff around to handle your needs. We had one plumbing issue (the toilets on our side of the deck temporarily lost pressure. Nothing overflowed or came up, but we couldn't flush them) but it was attended to promptly and easily fixed.

 

I went on this cruise to relax from a very hectic work schedule and spend time with my parents, aunts, and grandma. Even though we are a wide range of ages (from 20s to 80), we all found something fun to do and even a few things to do together. I got lots of reading and relaxation done, so it was more than worth it.

 

Embarkation - I grew up in Seattle, but this was my first trip to the cruise docks in Magnolia (which replace the old cruise docks that were at the downtown piers). I was impressed by how organized everything was. It was easy to get a porter, and get all of our bags squared away (no easy task, when you consider we had six people worth of luggage, three of them being women who have never heard of the concept of packing light). When we first arrived, around 12:30, it was very crowded, but things were moving along quickly. I had to wait for my dad to park and then come back because he forgot his passport, and by the time he and I got up to the check in around 1:30 the place was pretty deserted. The cruise terminal has beautiful views of downtown Seattle and since it was one of those amazing sunny Seattle summer days we really enjoyed our poolside lunch in the Lido, just taking in the view. I knew from reading Cruise Critic that I really wanted to get a Thermal Suite pass, so I did that first thing. The Thermal Suite windows look out over the bow of the ship, so I had the very best view of our departure from inside the hot tub.

 

Sea Day - Spent the first Sea Day exploring the ship and learning my way around. Our cabins were on the Lower Promenade level, and were classified as "partial sea view". We actually had a nice view out of our big window, and the room was very spacious with lots of storage and even a nice sized bathroom. We were blessed with good weather, so I sat outside a lot or walked around the promenade taking in the sun. This was the first formal night, which was really fun. We had made friends with the Assistant Dining Room Manager as well as our Dining Steward at this point, and since the cruise was in honor of my grandma's birthday, the manager arranged a birthday cake for her and our steward (Davis) brought over some of the other stewards to sing to her. We got very good at the Indonesian Happy Birthday song during the cruise, as many other guests were having birthdays during dinner.

 

Juneau -- In Juneau had the best weather, really sunny and nice, one of the few sunny days they had had that summer. We did the "Best of Juneau" shore excursion, booked through the ship. This was really fun, can't recommend it enough, though it is a very long day. We started with a bus ride out to Allen Marine docks with Erik, our very funny and informative bus driver. We took a boat with about 12 HAL people and maybe 15 people from other ships out to Orcas Point Lodge for lunch, a salmon bake (they had chicken as well, for the non-fish eaters). The boat ride offered some great views of Mendenhall Glacier, and the lodge was built on a secluded beach with some good tidal pool viewing as well as eagle watching. One note - It says in the program that this is not a good tour for the mobility challenged, because of uneven ground at the lodge site, but I think that since that was written they've built a new ramp there. With the ramp going all the way from the ship to the wheelchair ramp, and the area in and around the lodge having wheelchair friendly pathways, it still migth not be a great choice for someone with a scooter or electric chair, but there were people with walkers/push wheelchairs on that got around easily. You can't take wheelchairs down to the edge of the beach, but there's a wheel chair accessible tidal tank and a very nice sitting log at the top of the beach that my grandma enjoyed a lot.

 

After lunch, there was whale watching, where we saw a lot of Humpback whales, some very close, as well as some seals, sea lions, and porpoises. Then we got back in Erik's bus and he took us to Mendenhall Glacier. There had just been a calving (we didn't see it) so we got an excellent view of the deep blue color of the inside of the glacial ice.

 

Sitka - It rained in Sitka, but we had a good time anyway. For $10 we bought an all day pass on Tribal Tours, a mini-bus that does a 30 minute loop stopping at the main Sitka sites (Totem Park, Sheldon Jackson Museum, Raptor Center, Downtown, Century Hall where there are the Russian dancers). Sitka is very small, so it's easily walkable, but it rains a lot, and we decided that while we wanted the option to walk, we didn't want to neccessarily walk in the rain the whole day. I had lunch at an amazing place right by the docks, the Larkspur Cafe (order the Halibut Taco), then went on a beautiful, serene walk through the Tongass rainforest and totem park. I visited the site of the old Russian fort, the battle of the fort, and walked through the woods across a stream choked with salmon. I walked to the raptor center, enjoyed the presentation there very much, and caught the shuttle back to town. Please do not miss the Sheldon Jackson Muesum, which is small, but has a very good, very old collection of artifacts from six Alaska tribes. I stopped there last and was really glad I did.

 

Ketchikan - In Ketchikan I went sea kayaking with my mom through South East Sea Kayaks. We had a really fun guide, and despite a little mild drizzle, had a nice 2 hour paddle. You won't see too much out of the ordinary wildlife on this one, we saw some eagles, some deer, lots of jumping salmon, and a couple of domesticated goats out for a swim. Sometimes they see bears or even whales, but there were none on our paddle (it goes through a pretty well inhabited, for Ketchikan, stretch of water, so I think for the really good wildlife sightings you need the more distant trips). Afterwards we had just enough time to shop around, buy some smoked salmon, and visit Creek street before jumping back on the ship.

 

Victoria - the Victoria day is really just another sea day, with a few hours in Victoria at the end. I would have really preferred that the ship stay in Ketchikan the whole day, to allow for more Alaska time, rather than rushing out of port in order to reach Victoria by 7 PM (when most of the attractions in Victoria like the BC Museum are closed anyway), but then again, as a Seattle native I've already been to Victoria plenty of times. For those not from the Northwest, maybe squeezing in the extra Victoria stop was worth the very shortened day in Ketchikan. In Victoria we just had dinner, walked around, enjoyed the sights. A hint for Victoria - If you're going in a group, take a taxi downtown, don't buy the shuttle bus tickets. The shuttles are $7 per person round trip (so for a group of four, that's $28), but it only costs about $10 each way for four people to go from the dock to downtown Victoria by taxi, and it's faster, more convenient and more comfortable.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank your your review.

 

Glad you had a wonderful first cruise.

 

The reason you have to stop at Victoria -- Jones Act -- you must stop at a foreign port before returning to the states on a cruise ship.

[portofrome]

Thanks for the review.

[aliaschief]

Thanks for the review. Whetting our appetites for our booked transatlantic to Rotterdam next May on the MS Rotterdam.

[Willsot]

Sounds great! Can't wait until we board the Rotterdam on Saturday.

[Himself]

I am glad you enjoyed your cruise on the Rotterdam. I kind of wish we had more time in Victoria. Victoria is a wonderful place to conform to the Jones Act. I, too, enjoyed the Rotterdam this summer. The performers at the Showroom At Sea must have changed. We had two women singers and four or five men Singers and two women dancers. Those shows were the best I have ever had at Holland America. I am sorry they left the ship.

By the way, who was the CRUISE DIRECTOR?

[govgurl]

Our cruise director was Anthony, sort of a walking, be-spectacled tower of pep. He was great, though I think that much enthusiasm is hard to take first thing in the morning.

 

I think that there were other performers on board this year, I just went to the one show. Well, one and a half actually. I went to the end of the comedian's act, whcih I thought was ok. He was pretty funny, but he was an impressionist and the people he was impersonating were mostly older entertainers who are either dead now or haven't been on stage/screen in years. For example, he did an impression of the old guy from Sanford and Sons, he did Johnny Cash (not a great Johnny Cash, but passable), he even did a little Bob Hope and he did the actor who plays the father of Ann Magaret in Bye Bye Birdie (and has been in other movies, I forget his name). Funny, but definitely for an older crowd. Lucky for me, I'm a 20-something that watches a lot of old movies, so I got most of the references. My parents went to another show with a male and female singer that they liked a lot, I opted not to go to that one as soon as I heard the strains of "I've Got You Babe" drifting out of the auditorium.

 

Also, I completely forgot - Hubbard Glacier! That was such a great day, one of the coolest of the whole trip. We were worried we wouldn't be able to go, the Princess ship ahead of us was turned back because of ice conditions, but we did make it after all. I watched the approach from the thermal suite, but then they turned the ship to the side, so my bow-facing view was not good, so I got dressed and went below. Once the ship stopped moving, the bow was not so cold and rainy, so I really enjoyed being out there. The Parks Ranger gave a great description of the glacier, and there were Tlingits on board telling the Tlingit creation story and other Tlingit lore. The Park Ranger later came down and talked to us few hardy people who were standing on the bow (tip for Hubbard Glacier: You are there for several hours and most people lose interest after the first 30 min. If you wait a bit, you can have a great view from the bow or any side of the ship you like, without having to crowd). That's when I learned that Park Rangers are not only smart, but often easy on the eyes :-)

 

We saw multiple calvings, so amazing! Everything is off-scale in Alaska because everything is so huge, so even though the glacier wall is 320 feet tall, it looked kind of small at first. Then we realized we were still 2 miles away from it (and we felt so close), so it was nice to have the rangers to put things in perspective. It was beautiful and really awe inspiring to be the only ship in the bay with one of the really great natural wonders. Really awesome.

[Belle]

Do you know how long Anthony will be

on the Rotterdam. We sail on her on

Sept. 22nd. We had him on the Zaandan.'

Great CD, you see him around the ship

all the time and stops and talks to you

all the time and remembers you day to day.

 

Thanks for a good review. Glad you all

enjoyed yourselves.

[govgurl]

Most of the crew I spoke with said they were just on board for the summer, which they said was going to be about 4 more sailings with the Rotterdam, assuming one sailing a week, he should still be there on the 22nd.

[Himself]

Anthony Choice was the CD on the Rotterdam on The July 10th Sailing of the Rotterdam. He was oustanding as a CD.