Our First Dam Ship: Amsterdam to Alaska Trip Review

[scopewest]

Enjoying your review and all the info on the ship. Keep it coming!

[ANSalberg]

"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.

 

WHAT a TOTALLY delightful review! I loved the personal tastes as well as the comparisons, LOVED the pictures and the humor! :) AND on the Amsterdam; our favorite ship [ many cruises but over a year in days; 72 MORE days coming up in September!!] THANK you!

Anne

[Steppy08]

Civic duty... done.

So jury duty wasn't that bad... ironically one of my colleagues who I taught with for 8 years happened to be there as well so we caught up on the latest news (she was lucky enough to retire 2 years ago). She is actually one of the people who raved about Alaska enough to convince me to go.

We were all dismissed at 11:30 - no trials today! I'm free! Back to the Amsterdam....

 

No Soup for You!

Before I delve into our Glacier Bay experience, I must get something off my chest that happened on our way from the bow back to our cabin. It was my first Major Disappointment of the trip. And really, in the grand scheme of things, it's not that major (so much so that I forgot to write about it last night). But... here goes...

 

I was really looking forward to the pea soup that HAL traditionally serves during trips into Glacier Bay. It was one of those quaint, old-fashioned customs that I hoped to experience. Plus, I like pea soup. I consulted the On Location for the day, and saw with dismay that they were serving the soup on Decks 3 and 8, at 10:00am. Huh? Nothing says mid morning snack like some warm pea soup!

Of course, I didn't let that upset me... One of my many talents is that I can pretty much eat anything at anytime, anywhere. If I needed to eat pea soup at 10:00am on deck, well, by golly I would! Unfortunately, Steve and I got distracted by all the scenery up on the bow, and didn't realize the time until 10:30.

"We have to go back to deck 3! I want my pea soup!" I exclaimed urgently. Steve had no desire to eat pea soup at 10:00am, but willingly followed me to the port side of the promenade. There weren't many people there at all. A few huddled on the loungers in blankets, and a bar attendant selling free hot chocolate in souvenir mugs. No one ladling out steaming cups of pea soup. So we went to the starboard side, and were met with pretty much the same scene.

Upon further inspection, there was evidence that soup had been consumed, recently, by several people on deck. A handful of mugs and saucers, some with remnants of pea soup, were stacked next to deck chairs. Did I miss the whole thing?

I was kind of upset, and had really been looking forward to the soup (as silly as that sounds.) Steve couldn't figure out why I cared about the stupid soup, and was ready to whale watch from our balcony. So I went up to Deck 8 in search of soup, and he retreated quickly to the cabin.

 

10:35 - Deck 8: I'm hot on the trail. There are more mugs and saucers with pea soup remains on them. But no one was serving or eating it. I asked one of the staff members of deck if there was still soup being served. He gestured vaguely towards the Terrace Grill and said "I think they serve it there...." Followed quickly by "Oh, it looks like they stopped serving it."

 

An intense wave of disappointment crashed over me. I was really looking forward to that soup. I felt pretty much like Elaine from Seinfeld... I hadn't really done anything wrong, maybe showed up a bit late but then again there was no time window published...and yet "No soup for you!" :(

 

Well, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but if HAL is only serving soup on deck from 10-10:15 they should probably publish that fact somewhere. Now you know... if you want soup be there right at 10:00am or whenever they tell you!

 

 

[Steppy08]

A quick tip about cabin selection...

Several people on various forums here on CC had said that it doesn't really matter what side your cabin is on for Alaska, there are beautiful views everywhere! True, but if doing Glacier Bay and you're like me and you want to see everything first, then you should probably book on the port side.

I had given it absolutely no thought whatsoever, and just happened to end up with our comfy suite on the port side. Cindi from our Roll Call did more research on the matter, and came up with several opinions that stated either side was great. But, of those who expressed a preference, it was always port. Here's why:

As you sail into Glacier Bay, all of the glaciers visible from the ship are on the left side - The Reid, Lamplugh, and Johns Hopkins are all on the left, as well as the big star, the Margerie Glacier. Yes, yes, the ship turns around and goes back out the same way, but are you really going to wait 5 hours to go and look at that side of the bay? I think not. If you want to relax and enjoy the view from your balcony, book port side.

 

Turquoise water that's not in the Caribbean?

Relax and enjoy the view, we did. I did not let the Pea Soup Incident of the morning cloud my excitement for being in one of the most beautiful places in the world. One of the first things I noticed about Glacier Bay was the stunning color of the water. Silly me, I thought that it would be cold and murky, kind of like the Atlantic Ocean up north. Instead, it was crystal clear and in many places a gorgeous turquoise color I thought existed only in the Caribbean.

Here is the ranger boat after the Park Rangers and speakers came aboard.

 

So Steve and I relaxed and ate lunch as we sailed deeper and deeper into Glacier Bay. Pretty much every view from our balcony was post card worthy. And we had a nice bottle of Chardonnay to drink from the Captain and Hotel Director (again, we are not wine experts... it was free therefore it was nice). Coming out of the bay was another ship, and upon further inspection it was the ms Volendam. I found out from another person on the boards here (In Toronto, I think was the screen name) that they only had one working propeller, and had time cut short at the Margerie Glacier because we were on our way in. Thankfully, the engineer had the ship mended quickly and it didn't disrupt the rest of their cruise.

 

 

I'm pretty sure HAL should pay us to use this picture in some sort of advertisement...

 

On we went, and then we noticed the ice chunks in the water becoming more plentiful, and larger. Cue the Titanic jokes. Again, the water was just absolutely stunning.

 

And here is one of my favorite photos from this entire trip...

 

 

I think that Glacier Bay is very similar to the Grand Canyon. The pictures are amazing, but its not until you're there in person that you realize just how vast it really is. Pictures can't even come close to doing this place justice. You should go there.

 

 

[Steppy08]

Salmon stakeout

I will mention the Salmon Bake onboard because I know that's a common event on the Alaskan cruises, and people may have questions. It was actually before we ate lunch, and after the Pea Soup Incident.

 

Having been burned by the time factor with the soup, I definitely wasn't going to let that happen again within two hours. So shortly after the chunks of ice started floating past our hull, it was 12:15 and according to the On Location that meant it was time for a Salmon Bake. Now, I've never been to a Salmon Bake before, and we had no intention of going to one during any of our excursions in port, so this was my only chance. I have no idea how it stacks up to the Salmon Bakes in Juneau, Skagway, etc...

 

I dashed up to Deck 8 and went to the pool, where a line snaked around the hot tub areas, past the tables set up by the ship's store selling Alaska themed clothing, and almost all the way around the whole pool. Um, yikes. And there was only one line for food, and it wasn't moving quickly at all. I had a minor dilemma "Do I stay in line for a small piece of fish?" or "Do I go back to the cabin and wait for room service?"

 

Well, I stayed. This was the only Salmon Bake I would probably ever go to, unless the ones in port are incredible and we do another Alaskan cruise again. I should mention, Steve - having learned his lesson from the Pea Soup Incident and not particularly fond of salmon to begin with - was happily taking photos in our cabin and wanted nothing to do with my wild goose chases for food.

 

It was interesting. I chatted with a nice couple from Ottawa about several things. Steve is Canadian and his mother was born in Ottawa, not that I knew anything else about her time in Ottawa besides the fact that she was born there. But it was a conversation starter - and the conversation inevitably turned to hockey. Steve and I are huge fans of hockey, and in particular our Penguins. Well, the Pens and the Ottawa Senators had a bit of an interesting season this year, so we had plenty to discuss. The wait in line was probably about 30 minutes, but went quickly thanks to the lively chatter.

 

 

A HAL chef makes quick work out of a bunch of salmon filets....

 

The food choices were 3: Salmon, salad, and Yukon bread pudding. I only got the salmon and a bit of bread pudding because what girl doesn't love carbs and sugar?

 

The salmon was good, not as good as the one I had at Cardero's in Vancouver, but still yummy. I took the fish and headed back to the cabin so Steve could order room service. (Lest you think I am a total pig, I only had a salad from room service... and chocolate cake for dessert.):D

[Steppy08]

"You look cold. Was it cold?"

This is the comment from several friends and family members when we posted our Glacier Bay pictures. I didn't actually feel cold at all, because I had packed appropriately. I was perfectly comfortable. But seeing someone in a knit cap and hooded sweatshirt and jacket, one automatically assumes they were cold and miserable.

 

So this was one of the reasons I DIDN'T want to go to Alaska. But I was thinking about it all wrong. I just pictured me, in beachy vacation clothing, freezing my arse off on the deck of a cruise ship. But you won't be cold if you pack for cold. In this case, I deferred to Steve. I saw his hooded sweatshirt and knit caps in the suitcase and thought he was a bit crazy. But I followed along, and packed the same way. And I was fine. The air temperature on our Glacier Bay day was in the upper 40's (Fahrenheit, sorry Celsius people, I'm not good with the conversion... maybe 4-5?). The sun made it feel much warmer, and I took off my coat in favor of just my sweatshirt in the late afternoon.

 

Happy as a clam, if clams could in fact drink chardonnay...

 

Rivers of Ice

So we saw four large glaciers on this part of the trip. The most impressive was the focal point and the furthest point in to Glacier Bay, the Margerie Glacier. It was enormous. Steve had seen the glacier in Tracy Arm (I forget the name of it) and said this one was far more impressive. It towers over the ship! And the colors coming off it in the mid afternoon sun were beautiful.

 

We couldn't really hear everything that the park rangers were saying from our cabin, but we heard enough to know what was going on. We kept hoping for one of the massive, super unstable looking pieces to calve, but only had a couple smaller chunks come off during our time there. The small bits were still ridiculously loud for their size. The whole entire glacier groans and creaks, and at times it sounds like small explosives going off inside. Very cool (ha!)

 

 

After about 30 minutes, the ship turned around, giving the starboard side the same view. Wine glasses in hand, Steve and I (and probably everyone else on the port side) made a mad dash for the starboard side. I pictured the entire Amsterdam listing to the starboard side as we all ran over there. (Yes, I know that wouldn't happen, but it was just this mental image I got!)

 

Down to the promenade on Deck 3 for further viewing of this spectacle of nature. We ended up, entirely by accident, right next to Cindi and Roger, as they had made the same journey from their port side balcony to the starboard deck 3.

It just had this iridescent blue glow to it...

 

Note: If you fitness buffs REALLY need to get in your power walking, may I suggest NOT to do it when half the ship is watching an amazing glacier from Deck 3. Yes, there were seriously two women power walking on the promenade deck while we were in front of Margerie Glacier. And THEY were getting annoyed at the people on deck taking pictures! I was good, and resisted the urge I had to trip them. :D

[Steppy08]

Glacier Bay Summary

Go there. It's beautiful. Take a warm hat and layer your clothing so you can stand out on deck all day and be comfortable.

 

The Johns Hopkins Glacier, as seen from Jaw Point...

 

 

The Topeka Glacier, a tiny one that doesn't quite hit the water, in the Johns Hopkins Inlet...

 

Heading around Russell Island towards the Margerie Glacier...

[Steppy08]

Okay, I promise I'm coming back, but sadly I do have a life, and Steve and I are headed out to dinner and a movie...

 

I will be back this evening! Don't despair! :D

[trophy_23]

Great review!! We had a wonderful time on the Amsterdam last summer on the 14-day itinerary, can't wait until that one is back in 2014.

[pepsigirl64]

The pictures are amazing, but its not until you're there in person that you realize just how vast it really is. Pictures can't even come close to doing this place justice. You should go there.

 

:D :D EXACTLY, Well said......that is why we are going again next month!!!!!

 

Great review, your story telling is wonderful!! I am looking forward to more tonight!!!

[FoghornLeghorn]

What a wonderful and entertaining review!

 

I, too, have been putting off a COLD cruise....you now have me excited for my first Alaska next year.

 

Can't wait to read more

[jbhcw]

GREAT review:) and awesome pictures! We have 30 plus cruises but no Alaska. DH just doesn't like cold...but we did Canada this year from Boston and he enjoyed it...so.......it's either the Panama Canal next year on the legend...or glacier bay on a Hal ship!! We sailed out of Vancouver a few years ago on a repositioning on the spirit and loved Vancouver...again thanks for all the info and pictures!!

[startwin]

Fabulous review and great photos! Thank you.:)

[Typhoon1]

"You look cold. Was it cold?"

, sorry Celsius people, I'm not good with the conversion... maybe 4-5?). The sun made it feel much warmer, and I took off my coat in favor of just my sweatshirt in the late afternoon.

 

You're from Pittsburgh. You know how to deal with cold. It's those people that live in year round warmth that don't know any better. Cold is all relative, on our post cruise stay in Fort Lauderdale last year, highs were in the 50's. The natives thought it was cold, I asked them if they would rather have highs in the teens. :eek::eek:

Edited July 12, 2013 by Typhoon1

[Steppy08]

You're from Pittsburgh. You know how to deal with cold. It's those people that live in year round warmth that don't know any better. Cold is all relative, on our post cruise stay in Fort Lauderdale last year, highs were in the 50's. The natives thought it was cold, I asked them if they would rather have highs in the teens. :eek::eek:

 

I think it's because I'm from a northern-type climate that I was so reluctant to do an Alaskan cruise. That's why all of us northeast and midwest folk flock to the south! We've had enough of the cold and snow during winter!

 

I do remember one of our cruises out of Jacksonville... it was 32 degrees and the natives were shocked and didn't know what to do. Worse yet, when we got to the Bahamas the people there were in full length winter parkas because it was in the low 60's! :eek:

[Bead Babe]

I couldn't wait to get home from work and see if there was another installment of your review. Thanks for your efforts. Your review is just the type of review I want to read as I anticipate my first cruise. Very entertaining!

[Steppy08]

Leaving Glacier Bay...

After our time in front of Margerie Glacier, Steve and I went back to the cabin to unwind from a hard day of looking at stuff. He elected to stay in the cabin, I went up to the thermal suite to warm up and relax while still taking in the magnificent views that would still surround us for another 5 hours as we sailed out of the national park.

It almost felt wrong to ignore the scenery as we went past, but after 5 hours of looking at it we needed a bit of a break. And I'm pretty sure we took all possible photos during that time, so there wasn't much else to do besides chill out before dinner.

 

Wait, isn't that the song from Titanic?

Steve and I found a routine we enjoyed very much, we would go about 30 minutes before dinner and sit in the Ocean Bar and listen to the jazz trio, The Neptunes, play while enjoyed a pre-dinner cocktail. Tonight was no different, and while I'm on the subject let me talk about the live music on the Amsterdam.

 

You should probably know this about Steve and I: we are both classically trained professional musicians. We actually met in the brass section of a local community orchestra. So we are quite picky when it comes to live entertainment, especially that of the musical type. We found this out the hard way last summer on the Serenade when they had a guest billed as "The World's Greatest Xylophone Player." We left halfway through that one, with Steve muttering "World's Greatest? He wouldn't have been the fourth greatest xylophone player at my music school!"

 

That being said, we were really impressed with the amount of live music, as well as the quality of the performers, on the Amsterdam. We listened to the jazz trio, a piano-violin duo, the pianist in the piano bar, the guitarist, and the ship's 6-piece band with vocalist. We had not been on a cruise with that many live musicians - many lines are going with one guy and a computer with a bunch of synthesizers or click tracks instead of a real band to save money. (This excludes any of the show performers, again, Steve and I didn't attend any of the shows in the theater. For all we know they could have been terrible! ;)) All of the performers we saw were technically good and played with a fair amount of style and artistry. And they were in tune, thank god!

 

The only bad thing on the cruise

So, I do speak my mind. And although most of my review has been positive here comes a big, fat negative. Brace yourselves...

 

We had possibly the worst dinner service on all of our cruises combined this night in the Fontaine dining room. I'll let that sink in for a bit while I gather my thoughts...

[Steppy08]

Starving on the Starboard Side

After listening to some music and grabbing a pre-dinner cocktail, Steve and I went to La Fontaine Dining room about 5 minutes before our reserved time. Keeping in mind that we ate at the Pinnacle Grill on the second night, this was only our second time in the MDR and we hoped it would be a quick and easy walk to our table. Incidentally, we did appreciate the reminders they send to your cabin for As You Wish Dining. We would get a card each day with the time of our dinner, as well as what other guests were included in the reservation. And at the bottom it would say - Table 134 is assigned but not guaranteed.

 

Not only was the line to be seated longer than the first night of the voyage, it was somewhat unorganized. People with reservations were growing impatient with the wait and jumping over to the other line, which may or may not have actually been moving faster. This happened every night we ate in the MDR for the entire cruise. Something needs to be improved in HAL's system, or they just need more staff to escort people to their tables. So even though we arrived at 7:40 for our reservation, we didn't get seated until about 7:50. Ten minutes isn't much, but apparently tonight it would make quite a difference.

 

Table 134 was our table from the first evening with Edy as our waiter. However, tonight we were led to a table on the starboard side, Table 334. Like some kind of horrible parallel alternate universe, our worst dining experience on a ship was about to begin. (Cue Twilight Zone music...)

 

We honestly don't even remember our waiter's name. He was a bit older than most of the other waiters. There were two other tables of 2 people, and one table for 6 that he was taking care of. We were all seated within 5 minutes of one another. We sat and waited at least 15-20 minutes before he even came to take our orders. After that it was another 15-20 minutes before he brought our first course.

 

Now - I have cruised enough and taken enough galley tours to know that they are not sitting down in the kitchens waiting for my order to come through so they can make it nice and fresh when I order it. Most of that food is plated and prepared well in advance of the first seating. So I am really unsure of why it took so long, not just for us but for the rest of our waiter's section. And we were well into the second seating time for dinner, past 8:00.

 

The food itself was not memorable, it wasn't terrible or inedible by any stretch, but the service was so bad that it eclipsed all other memories of that meal for me. The other couples began looking around as we waited another 10 minutes for our main entrees to arrive. The waiter offered no explanation or any real personal interaction with us. We were just left sitting there wondering when our next course would come.

 

Our water glasses emptied, no additional offers of bread, nothing. The service was sporadic - The first course took forever, then the second and third came quickly, then the entree again took another 20 minutes. We finished dessert quickly and left at about 9:40. Yikes. We were not happy campers. And we wanted Edy back!

 

By the way, we left and the table of six was JUST getting their entrees.

 

Silver Lining

 

That experience made us appreciate our usual waiter more. I'll give a full run down of what I think of HAL's overall service at the end, but at this point we had serious concerns about the rest of the cruise.

 

Thankfully, we were still on a cruise and life can't be all that bad even if it takes you 2 hours to eat 4 simple courses of dinner with terrible service. We ended our night with a beautiful sunset at 11pm overlooking the entrance to Glacier Bay National Park.

Edited July 13, 2013 by Steppy08
typo, oops!

[jer_l]

Wonderful review! We will be sailing on the Amsterdam in just two weeks; however, the itinerary is different and we will be cruising Tracy Arm instead of Glacier Bay.

 

This will be our tenth cruise to Alaska. It's our favorite destination, but we live in Central California where we have had temperatures of up to 110 this month so we look forward to cooler weather.

 

I totally understand your frustration with the MDR. We have chosen flexible dining for most of our HAL cruises because we enjoy eating in the specialty restaurants and didn't feel that would be fair to our tablemates if we opted out of the MDR for half the cruise. The last couple of times we have cruised with HAL we have not had the best experiences with flexible dining so we have opted for late seating at a table for two. We will just let our waiter know the night before when we plan to dine elsewhere.

 

Again--your review is wonderful--filled with the same excitement we experienced on our first Alaska Cruise 13 years ago and still experience when we are in Alaska.

Edited July 13, 2013 by jer_l

[Steppy08]

Good morning sunshine

Well, not sunshine really, but my eye mask slipped off sometime during the night and I woke up at 4:30 again to way more daylight than I am used to at that hour. Eye mask re-secured, crisis averted.

Our plan that day involved lots of physical activity, so we ate a good breakfast out on our balcony as we docked in the quaint Alaskan town of Skagway. As it was Canada Day, I presented Steve with a Canadian flag to wave at breakfast.

The room service breakfasts were actually quite good, with a lot more variety than we were used to on previous cruises. The omelets were big and fluffy, and the trick I learned on the "HAL Secrets" board about writing "chocolate" next to the croissant worked perfectly. (Note - it apparently does not also work to write "honeydew" next to the seasonal melon, as the room service waiter apologized for not having any honeydew. Meanwhile, there were loads of delicious fresh honeydew at the Lido non-stop during the cruise. Go figure)

 

Skagway

Well, we had been cruising for two and a half days, and this was our first real port. The big thing to do in Skagway is the White Pass and Yukon railroad. It's a railroad that takes you into Canada's Yukon territory. Steve had already done this on his previous Alaskan voyage, and the price had gone up a lot since 2003. It was well over $130 a person, and we were splurging on excursions in Juneau and Ketchikan, so sadly we did not do the railroad in Skagway. Maybe next time.

 

Steve did have a couple hikes planned out for us. We are not outdoorsy types AT ALL in our real lives, but for some reason Steve and I like to do moderately difficult hikes on vacation. We hiked the Austrian Alps, Santorini in Greece, Sandia Peak in New Mexico... so of course we would hike in Alaska! That's why people go there!

Our first hike was one Steve had not done before, out to the Gold Rush cemetery on the outskirts of town. The second hike was to Lower Dewey Lake, which despite its misleading name is anything by low. It sits about 600 feet above the docks to the right side of the town.

 

So we fueled up our bodies and went to leave the comfort of our warm, dry ship for the wilderness of Alaska.

 

Um. It's raining.

Okay, so it was not a picture perfect day like Glacier Bay. It was misty, cloudy, with a steady drizzle that turned into a steady rain and occasionally a steady downpour. With weather, you have really only two options: Whine about it and let it put a damper on your vacation, or embrace it and have fun anyway. We chose the later.

 

Packing Tip: A good waterproof jacket with a hood is pretty much required for Alaska. Rain pants aren't required but may be a good idea if you're going to be out all day. Rain boots - well, that's what all the real Alaskans wear - they even sell little souvenir rain boots in all the stores in the form of shot glasses. We do not own rain boots and did not buy them, but one of Steve's brilliant ideas was to bring two pairs of athletic shoes in case one gets wet. I questioned this, but did as I was told and dutifully packed two pairs. (Side note: I had to go out and BUY a second pair of shoes to pull this off, something Steve did not consider. So basically he told me I had to go buy shoes. HA. :D)

 

My point is - prepare for it to rain all day in Alaska, and then if it doesn't you'll be pleasantly surprised. But at least you'll be prepared. About 30 seconds after I stepped off the ship I was glad for my jacket with it's waterproof hood.

 

We stopped at the Visitor Center to get trail maps. The building itself is unmistakable... it's completely covered in driftwood.

 

And then we set off for our first adventure down the main street in Skagway...

 

Edited July 13, 2013 by Steppy08

[Steppy08]

Are we there yet?

We embarked on our journey to the Gold Rush Cemetery and walked all the way through town. At this point, everything was okay except my legs were getting wet. I opted for lightweight capris and really should have had on jeans. The capris are great for things in which you get wet and need to dry quickly, not so great for repelling water in the first place.

So my legs were wet and the first hike was not at all scenic Alaska. It was residential Skagway. I was getting grumpy and started to whine to Steve about why we were walking through all this boring scenery just to see a cemetery. Bus loads of people from our ship and the other 3 ships in port were speeding by us with their warm and dry passengers.

We crossed the train tracks and headed down a dirt road. Several small coaches and cars full of tourists went by - so at least we were headed in the right direction. After an hour of walking we came upon the destination - the Gold Rush Cemetery, where legends and lore of this wild frontier town come to life.

 

You should really take the time to zoom in and read some of these bios, especially Soapy Smith and Frank Reid, two legendary characters in Skagway's history.

 

So after this sign, my interest was piqued and I forgot about my wet legs and went into the cemetery to explore. It is not your typical cemetery. People's final resting places have been squished under trees, the edges of hillsides, etc.

 

 

It was interesting. But I wasn't fully convinced it was worth our long and relatively boring walk to get here. There is a small sign on the left side of the cemetery indicating the direction to Lower Reid Falls. Steve and I decided to see what that was. Waterfalls are scenic and interesting. I had been on Alaskan soil for over an hour and I wanted to see something scenic! I was getting impatient!

 

After a really short, well marked, and fairly easy hike we came upon Lower Reid Falls. It was spectacular.

 

 

We were expecting a short and tiny little waterfall. This was pretty awesome. I told Steve it made up for the tour of residential Skagway. So if you go to the Gold Rush cemetery, take a short walk (maybe 5 minutes or less) up and see the waterfall. It's worth it.

[SF49erfan]

Wonderful review and great pictures. Thanks for taking the time. We will be on the Amsterdam on August 9th for our 7th Alaskan cruise. This is making me really anxious! Thanks.

 

Terry

[Steppy08]

Like a moth to a flame

My faith in Steve's vacation planning skills was redeemed, and we headed back to the town, this time opting to walk along the railroad tracks. Along, NOT on. We've seen Stand By Me. :rolleyes: Our plan at this point was to head back to the ship, get some lunch and dry off a bit, then head towards the REAL hike up to Lower Dewey Lake. Well, sometimes plans change.

 

Confession time: I am ALMOST as addicted to buying jewelry as I am to cruising. I was infatuated with rocks and minerals as a child (proud owner of a Rock Tumbler!) I feel that my addiction to jewelry is a more mature and adult version of that childhood infatuation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

I'm also pretty good at buying jewelry and haggling with the salespeople at the jewelry stores. I know how much I can get a similar piece for at home, and how much gold is going for per gram of finished jewelry. Yes, cruise ports can be tourist traps and people are lured into thinking they got a deal, but I was armed with knowledge. Plus, I wasn't looking for tanzanite or ammolite or a diamond.

 

I wanted an Alaskan Gold nugget. A piece of relevant local jewelry with a story and a real tie to Skagway and it's history. So we ended up in one of the local jewelry stores, probably not recommended by the cruise lines but that of course is all about kick backs and commissions. I found a nugget I liked and was going to come back later, but the guy kept dropping the price to the point where I felt like it was a pretty good deal, so I bought it. Chain included, although the chain was sterling silver gold plating... but I had better chains at home worthy of the Nugget.

 

We came back to the Amsterdam toting the Nugget and pretty hungry. We thought the Lido would be a great place to get a quick bite to eat. And thought it would probably be pretty empty, since most people were doing excursions into the Yukon. Yeah.... no

 

Lido - Our Third and Final Attempt

This was our third try at the Lido, and thankfully the last one. By this point the 48 hour time limit had passed so self-service was allowed - at least at some stations. If you wanted an entree you still had to wait to be served and if you only wanted a small taste of something it was even harder to communicate that to some of the staff members.

Ugh. Overall it was inefficient and annoying. I was just not impressed at all with the flow of people and the access to the food. The food was always okay, the made-to order sandwiches and wraps were pretty good. But it was my least favorite dining experience on the Amsterdam. And we pretty much deemed this our final attempt at trying to like the Lido and stuck with room service and the MDR for meals afterwards.

 

A dry Amy is a happy Amy...

I mentioned this in my first couple of posts... but our berth in Skagway was awesome. Front and center, looking straight down main street. The Rhapsody of the Seas and Celebrity ship were a good 1/4 mile from town, and the Silver Sea Shadow was probably the same distance to our port side. We definitely had prime real estate. This made it really easy to get back to the ship quickly and eat/change clothes.

I changed into my jeans, and a fresh dry pair of hiking shoes after lunch. We set back out to conquer the climb to Lower Dewey Lake.

[PathfinderEss]

Sorry to hear about your dinning service, hopefully it got better as the week went by.:(

[Steppy08]

Don't look down!

The trail system is fairly well marked. If you head down the main street in Skagway, make a right and walk past the (insert sarcasm) historic Diamonds International Store and you will see this sign...

 

The trail goes across the railroad tracks and you come to a large sign with a map and a bunch of disclaimers. The trail to Lower Dewey Lake is short but strenuous, with uneven footing and difficult terrain and a 500 ft elevation change in a short distance. It is definitely a work out, especially if you're only moderately in shape like Steve and I. Steve had done this trail before ten years ago, and said it was more difficult than Santorini but not as bad as the Austrian Alps. I was game.

 

It started out okay, and offered a really nice lookout view of the harbour and our ship.

 

There were quite a few switchbacks because it was so steep. We were sucking wind pretty quickly into the hike. And then there was this part....

 

 

It actually wasn't that bad. It looks worse in the picture than it did in person. We came to find out that Steve didn't actually make it all the way to Lower Dewey Lake ten years ago - he mistook the reservoir for the lake and stopped there. Now it's clearly marked which trail is to the Lake and which one goes to the reservoir. We continued on to the plateau where things leveled off and caught our breath.

 

Wilderness Expert Steve amongst the Sitka trees....

 

As the trail became more level, we heard streams of water rushing around and knew we were getting close to the lake. You have a couple choices here- you can hike around the lake, which isn't that far but the trail is extremely rough and slow going - or you can hike to Upper Dewey Lake which is a few hours away - or you can hang out in the flat parts of the trail, take a bunch of pictures, then hike down by way of the reservoir. We picked that last one. Actually we started going around the lake, but gave up about a quarter of the way around. It was too much like work.