Amsterdam-14 day Alaska cruise Review 7-8-11

[Loreto]

Hi Rick and Joyce! Thank you for the great review! Joyce, your photos are fantastic.

DH (also a Rick) and I took this cruise last year and are going again Sept. 2....can't wait!!

 

Glad to hear good things about the Wilderness Explorer Crab Feast:) we took it last year and had a great time. This year we are on ther Wilderness Explorer Misty Fjords excursion.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the cruise....thanks so much for your thorough report!

 

Karen

[rajkr74]

Day 13, Thursday, Victoria: I am getting sad…..it is about the end of the cruise…darn. Got up around 7:00 and did the same thing we did all cruise…Lido for breakfast, fresh squeezed orange juice and good food. BUT, they ran out of chocolate milk, boy was I disappointed but no one blamed me for drinking too much the days before….I was in fact truly guilty of that. I then went to another digital class and Joyce went to the DVD presentation. They were giving away some free DVDs that were taken on the cruise. She did not win. We then went to the crew farewell and disembarkation instruction at 11:00. I go for the list of “I can’t believe a passenger asked this question” questions narrated by the cruise director. Such as “ How do you take the elevator to the front of the ship? Or “What elevation is the ship presently at?”. “How long is the commute for the crew each morning to get to work?” It never fails to amaze me what are some of the questions passengers ask. There are usually new questions each cruise of which we haven’t heard before. We then went down to sort thru all the photos that were taken of us on the cruise to see if we wanted to buy. We then went to get a quick lunch since arrival in the port of Victoria was at 12:00.

We got off the ship and decided to walk over to the harbor in front of the Empress hotel. It is a 1 ½ mile walk and fairly level. There is a bus that will shuttle you downtown (somewhere) for a price of $7.50 for rides all day. Joyce was in Victoria a year ago and knew how long the walk was and where to walk. We just walked around downtown, visited the shops, took pictures of the hotel and the harbor. Joyce bought some tea at Murchies. It’s a famous long time retail tea store. We watched some of the street performers around the harbor. We walked over to the Parliament building and visited the first floor. My knee was acting up so we headed back to the ship by 4:00PM. First we swung by Barb’s on the fisherman’s wharf so Joyce could show me where she bought fish and chips when she was in Victoria a year ago. She said it was pretty good fish and chips.

When we got back to the ship the wind had begun to pick up a bit. I went to lie down and rest my knee and Joyce took a flash drive up to the digital class to let Frank view the slideshow we created for out son’s wedding that was held in June. This was the first slide show we did after taking the class in April on the Westerdam. Frank said we did a great job on a 9 minute show with slides, video and music. You can learn to do this also by taking the classes on board. We went to dinner at 6:00pm at a table for four. At 8:00pm I went to the movie “Unstoppable” with Denzel Washington that was shown in the Queen’s Lounge. Pretty intense good movie after I had to change seats because of a noisy couple behind me. Joyce, bless her heart did some more packing while I watched the movie….isn’t that sweet? If you haven’t already guessed it she is the one that is totally organized in our family and I.….well ….are not as organized?

Well for the last night…..it was the late night snack again and we sat with Melinda and Marlene. We then put out the luggage around 12:00am to be picked up. This time I remembered not to pack my razor in the luggage in the hall like I did on our April cruise. At least I did not forget to keep clothes out for morning to get off the ship in. Wonder how much that shower curtain would have cost?

[judynorth]

I have really enjoyed your commentary and am sad to see the cruise end. We took the same cruise in May and loved it. Reading your day-to-day review let me relive it. Thanks!

 

BTW, we usually try to eat breakfast in the MDR but we enjoyed breakfast in the Lido on this cruise so much that we never made it to the MDR.

[carolmacey]

Sorry I didn't think of this before. How many formal nights did you have? We will be on the Amsterdam soon.

Thanks for taking your time to write all this for us. It has been great!

[rajkr74]

Sorry I didn't think of this before. How many formal nights did you have? We will be on the Amsterdam soon.

Thanks for taking your time to write all this for us. It has been great!

 

There are 4 formal dinners.

Day 2, Cruising the inside passage

Day 7, Sea day

Day 10, Kodiak

Day 13, Sea day

[rajkr74]

I have really enjoyed your commentary and am sad to see the cruise end. We took the same cruise in May and loved it. Reading your day-to-day review let me relive it. Thanks!

 

BTW, we usually try to eat breakfast in the MDR but we enjoyed breakfast in the Lido on this cruise so much that we never made it to the MDR.

 

It was a fun cruise wasn't it?

Time to book another one right?

Rick

[judynorth]

It was a fun cruise wasn't it?

Time to book another one right?

Rick

 

Already booked. C/NE next April. :D

[cdkempton]

Thanks again for posting. It's been great. We've just got 4 more weeks and we sail on the beautiful Amsterdam. Truly getting more excited now. :D

[picture]

so what items should one bring to the ditigal workshops??

[rajkr74]

so what items should one bring to the ditigal workshops??

 

Paper and pencil because Frank has a lot of website for information that you might use. There are computers there that you can use in the workshops. If you have digital cards from your camera you can do some picture touchups from the instructions that he will teach you. Also bring every question you might have about digital pictures and videos because he is pretty knowledgeable.

[kplady]

Thanks so much for your wonderful reports. My husband and I did a 7 day Alaska cruise on the Amsterdam (with his 2 sisters) in 2008, and are seriously thinking about this 14 day one for next year. We're doing a 17 day from Vancouver to Hawaii, back to San Diego, in September. I feel like I've been on the ship with you...your descriptions are fantastic!

 

Sorry the cruise has to end, and reality strikes...:eek:

 

Laura (and Bill)

[rajkr74]

Thanks so much for your wonderful reports. My husband and I did a 7 day Alaska cruise on the Amsterdam (with his 2 sisters) in 2008, and are seriously thinking about this 14 day one for next year. We're doing a 17 day from Vancouver to Hawaii, back to San Diego, in September. I feel like I've been on the ship with you...your descriptions are fantastic!

 

Sorry the cruise has to end, and reality strikes...:eek:

 

Laura (and Bill)

 

Thank you for your comments. I am not a writer but it's been fun with all the good comments. Maybe those that don't like my writting did not post....lol. You should book this cruise you will have a great time even if I can't guarantee the weather...which did make it even more enjoyable. But we would still have had a good time since we are Oregonians and rain gear is manditory for us.

Rick

[Okie1946]

We are in the process of booking our next cruise and having a tough time deciding between the 14 day Alaskan cruise out of Seattle and the 20 day round trip landcruise out of Vancouver.

 

Reading your review has made that decision even harder.

 

Want to thank you for a great blog while you were gone. Your descriptions about your shore excursions and the computer work shops made us feel as if we were with you. Luckily, we have a few months to discuss this before we make our final choice. Either way it will be a good one.

 

Again thank you for a great cruise.

 

Previous Cruises:

Alaska - Westerdam - September 2009

Alaska - Rotterdam - September 2010

Mexican Riveria - Oosterdam - April 2011

[JamesEM]

Thanks for sharing, we have booked this cruise for 7/13/2012. When you were visiting Victoria do you know if shops and taxis accept $$.

[rajkr74]

Day 14, Friday, Seattle: We pulled into Seattle pretty early, but not sure exactly what time since I’m in a depressed mood due to the end of the cruise and did not write it down or remember the time. The weather did help; it was clear and in the low 60’s. Joyce went up on deck and snapped a few parting pictures before we went to breakfast which was pretty busy. After breakfast we wandered around the ship trying to locate everyone we had met on ship to say goodbye. This cruise we met quite a few more wonderful fellow cruisers than we have ever met on previous cruises. This made the cruise maybe the best we have taken.

 

We were scheduled to disembark between 8:15am and 8:30am. We had called Lorin about 6:30am and he was headed out early to fight the traffic but he got to the cell phone lot at 7:30am and wondered if everyone in Seattle had called in sick because there was no one on the roads. He was fine sitting in the lot until 8:30am. We checked and rechecked all the closets and drawers for any “hiding” personal items that we may have missed. We had the color Red and number 2 for disembarking. We did not see any list that showed what order the colors and numbers were to be called but were pretty sure we were near the first on the list. On the Westerdam in April there was a list posted on an easel board near the exit of the ship that listed the colors and numbers in the order they were being called. When the Reds started to be called we headed to the Atrium area from our room to wait. We were called shortly thereafter and preceded down the ramp to locate our suitcases. Easy up to that point…….then it all went crazy.

 

When we got to the warehouse where the suitcases were “suppose to’ be lined up it looked like the unloading of suitcases were way behind the unloading of passengers. There was only one small row of Red tagged suitcases that were all mixed up with 1’s, 2’s & 3’s, but ours were not there. And due to the baggage handlers madly trying to get bags in line we were not permitted to go under the caution tape to look until they moved the tap. This is understandable because if every passenger started moving into the unloading area it would be dangerous with all the lift trucks moving around. After 10 to 15 mins. they finally moved the tape and we still did not locate our bags. They were now unloading yellow tagged bags…were did our Red bags go???? We even ran into a couple who were scheduled to fly out of Seattle at 12:30 with Black tagged bags (one of the first off the ship) that were no where to be found. The all of a sudden a crate full of mixed colors showed up in one of the doorways ?????. The handler’s jumped on those as we all anxiously looked for our bags. EUREKA there were two of our three bags, but the one couple still did not see theirs….yuke. The poor supervisor was pretty embarrassed as she madly tried to find out what was wrong. She said this never happens with the crew on the Amsterdam and she then started filling out forms to have the bags, once located, shipped to the couple who needed to get to the airport. Luckily we were not in that situation, but I called Lorin, who was waiting patiently for us, to explain what was or was not happening.

 

The supervisor then filled out a form for our one missing bag as we decided, after 45 minutes, to give up. We had spent this whole time looking at EVERYBAG on the dock just to be sure. After we got our copy of the form we turned around from her podium and low and behold standing about 10 feet away, like a lost child, there was our suitcase. We have no idea how or who got it there. Was it a passenger mistakenly grabbed it then returned it or did it come in on another crate and a baggage handler rolled it over to where Red bags were located? It’s a mystery that will never be solved. The couple who needed to fly luckily finally located their luggage but they also were not sure how their's showed up.

 

We then raced out and breezed by (thru) customs and called Lorin who ran over to pick us up. Dock 91 has defiantly improved passenger movement and pickup/drop-off compared to April 2009 when we were on the Westerdam for the first docking at this new dock. Two years ago it was a nightmare and I was glad to see things had improved. Now we were headed home.

[carolmacey]

there are 4 formal dinners.

day 2, cruising the inside passage

day 7, sea day

day 10, kodiak

day 13, sea day

 

thanks!!!

[rajkr74]

Thanks for sharing, we have booked this cruise for 7/13/2012. When you were visiting Victoria do you know if shops and taxis accept $$.

 

We accidently left our canandian dollars on board so anything we bought we used the credit card. But I thought, in one store, they gave one to one to a customer using USDs which would have been pretty good since it was $1.05 USD to Canandian at the time. Now it's about $1.02 USD to $1.00 Canadian dollar. With as many tourists and cruisers I would think they would take USDs. I bought Canadian $'s before we left at a better exchange rate but did not use them. But we get to Canada a lot so no big deal.

[SharonN]

Thanks so much for your review. We'll be on this cruise in just under 4 weeks so it's fun to read about what we have in store for us shortly.

[rajkr74]

Thanks so much for your review. We'll be on this cruise in just under 4 weeks so it's fun to read about what we have in store for us shortly.

 

That's great, you will have a good time. Hope you saw the link to our picures we took? If not here it is again:

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos#cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212347&sc=photos

 

Rick

[karatemom2]

We are considering this cruise for next summer. DH enjoys the casino and is wondering if you noticed if there is a craps table onboard. We have gotten mixed answers in the past. Thanks!

[rajkr74]

We are considering this cruise for next summer. DH enjoys the casino and is wondering if you noticed if there is a craps table onboard. We have gotten mixed answers in the past. Thanks!

 

I don't frequent the casino but one day walking thru I looked for a craps table but did not notice one.

[CRUISEADIK]

We are on the August 19 sailing and you can guess how excited we are. Loved your blog and the pictures. We have a couple of things in common--this is our anniversary (46) and Don is tall 6' 4 ". Also, he is a "foodie". My questions are about the pictures. Was that Pioneer House in Sitka? Did you go inside? They are supposed to have a store with handcrafted items made by the residents? How did you get there? Is it far to walk? We love the dining table you were at. Do you know the number? Also, fixed or flexible sitting? The last questions are about Victoria. How far is it to town. Is there a shuttle? What is the cost? Isn't there a public bus close where we dock? I know that's lots of questions and I know I have read some of the answers. The problem is I don't know where I read it. Thanks in advance for any answers you can give us.

Sandy and Don

[judynorth]

Congratulations on your anniversary. We celebrated our 46th last week. We were on this same cruise in May and loved it. I am sure that you will too. I hope you are as lucky with the weather. It was beautiful every day except the day in Kodiak. I wish it had been as nice as during Rick's cruise.

 

I can answer a few of your questions particularly about Sitka. It is a small town and very easily walkable. The Pioneer Home is just a couple of short blocks from where you will be tendering. We have not been inside but friends on the cruise with us visited the gift shop and said they had lots of nice things there.

 

In Victoria the ship is about 1-1 1/2 miles from downtown. It is a flat walk and many people walk it. There is a shuttle to town for $7.50pp and I think it is all day. If you haven't thought about going to Butchart Gardens, I highly recommend it. The gardens are beautiful and well worth the visit. We took the ships excursion because it fit in best with the times the gardens are open. However, they are open later so you could probably take one of the private tours from downtown. You would have more than enough time to do both.

 

There is a link below to the pictures from our cruise if you would like to see another viewpoint.

[CRUISEADIK]

Judy: Thanks for the answers. We looked at your pics when you first posted them. They were wonderful. We are going to Buchart Gardens on the ship tour. It fit in better with our schedule, too. We plan to do that first and have them drop us off in town. Since we've never been there we wanted to walk around town awhile. We are not ones to venture out after night, so we will just spend a couple of hours walking and go back to the ship in time for dinner.

 

In Sitka, we planned to go to Fortress of the Bear first. We plan on going to find Pioneer Home and then walk to as many things as we can. We have been to Sitka once before. We saw the historical park, museum, New Archangel Dancers and the Russian Orthodox Church. So, whatever we find will be great. Are all of those things doable?

Sandy

[kazu]

Your review was great - even greater - how you are helping all of the posters out:)