Just back from Alaska on the Westerdam!

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Overall I had a great time!! Whales galore! And I saw 3 brown bears - two on the shore in Glacier Bay and one on an excursion. Running like I did with my group I got to see some places the tours didn't go. Lots of fun!!

 

And the Dive In burgers and fries were great!

 

 

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[PathfinderEss]

Glad to hear you had a good cruise on the Westerdam and you enjoyed the Dive In.

Welcome back..:)

[canadianbear]

Always great to see wildlife. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.:) Good to hear about the Dive-In. Will you going to be doing a full review in a few days?

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Always great to see wildlife. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.:) Good to hear about the Dive-In. Will you going to be doing a full review in a few days?

 

 

Yep! I am hanging at the Seattle airport until my red-eye and will try to start organizing thoughts and pictures.

 

 

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[canadianbear]

That's good to know-will look forward to your review and photos-love reading and seeing others trips....gets me prepared for mine!:D

 

Safe travel home.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

That's good to know-will look forward to your review and photos-love reading and seeing others trips....gets me prepared for mine!:D

 

Safe travel home.

 

 

Thanks!!

 

Yes, info here really helped prepare me, so I like to pay it forward. :)

 

 

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[Typhoon1]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[erewhon]

Thanks for your comments.

Looking forward to your review.

[Crew News]

Overall I had a great time!! Whales galore! And I saw 3 brown bears - two on the shore in Glacier Bay and one on an excursion. Running like I did with my group I got to see some places the tours didn't go. Lots of fun!!

 

And the Dive In burgers and fries were great!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Glad you enjoyed the Westerdam. Hope to hear more.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you had a wonderful Alaskan cruise.

Looking forward to your review.

[puppycanducruise]

Welcome back!

Glad you had a good cruise.

Looking forward to reading more.

[krazy4kruisin]

Glad that you had a good curie. Can't wait for a review!

[KirkNC]

Welcome home, sounds like you had a good time.

[Willem Ruys]

Chris and I sailed on 2 back-to-back cruises in the WESTERDAM in late May...our review is this...we liked it so much that we booked three in a row for later this month

[Keith1010]

Welcome home.

 

Keith

[RJ2002]

Chris and I sailed on 2 back-to-back cruises in the WESTERDAM in late May...our review is this...we liked it so much that we booked three in a row for later this month

 

Wow. Now that's an endorsement!

 

Enjoy your upcoming B2B2B!

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

After a nap following my red-eye flight back from Seattle, I'm slightly more awake and thinking more coherently, so I thought I'd put my thoughts between the two cruise lines down as best I can (never having been to Alaska on DCL, I can't do a direct comparison, but some things I can.) I honestly didn't go in looking for issues, but we all know that when one or two present themselves, you tend to start seeing more.

 

I was on the ms Westerdam out of Seattle and sailing to Juneau, Glacier Bay, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria. Note: I'm selecting pictures and will post those later. :)

 

Public spaces and layout:

This ship underwent a dry dock in April, but if I hadn't known that, I would never have thought she had. Yes, she's older, but you figure things will be corrected during a dry dock. There were obvious holes in the metal portions of my balcony - rust holes. There were places where various carpets met that were already fraying, not to mention step edges. Unlike Disney where it seems someone is always cleaning or repairing something (at least in my experience), other than cabin stewards working and the occasional person vacuuming in public areas, I almost never saw anyone doing repairs or cleaning. Until Friday when they were scrambling like crazy - even draining the Lido pool for a thorough cleaning. I wasn't the only one who noticed - one of my new friends in the group I was with commented "What's up with them doing all this crazy cleaning today??" My guess, though I never asked anyone or heard anything, is that they must have had or thought they might have some kind of inspection yesterday.

 

Beginning on Wednesday, the elevators had rugs that had the day of the week on them - no clue what happened to Saturday through Tuesday - which was weird and random. The decor is...dark, mirrored, and eclectic. There didn't seem to be an overall theme like the Art Deco or Art Nouveau themes on DCL, so it didn't feel coherent to me. I will give them points for the four midship elevators that overlook the outside for decks 3-9 - those are cool, and I'd often walk to midship just to use them. The interior forward, aft, and midship elevators were dark red or orange. There was a lot of mirror usage and gold leafing. There is art around the ship, but nothing that really jumped out at me.

 

The main thing that made learning the ship's layout a bit challenging is that there was no real rhyme or reason to why things were laid out how they were. Clubs and lounges were spread all over the ship rather than being in one area. Add to that the midship portion of the second deck is dominated by the casino, which allows smoking when playing. There are no doors closing it off, so anything around the casino smells of smoke, and the "hall" goes directly through it. The dining room is on two levels - the third deck and the second deck. Our seating was on the lower level, but after the first night - when the casino wasn't even open yet, but I could smell the residue - I would go up to the third deck, walk aft, and walk down just before the dining room to avoid having to go through it.

 

Because HAL does have a reputation of being a cruise line for an "older" clientele, there is no "adult" section or pool like on DCL. Even the extra charge restaurants don't have an age limit. I didn't go to either of those, so I don't know if children went during our cruise, but I know they have on past cruises from reviews and reports on CruiseCritic. The being Alaska, there were families with children on board, and given the (from what I could tell) apparently limited kids' club space and hours, they were much more obvious and evident than they have been on my DCL cruises. The pools were pretty much unusable other than very early hours unless you wanted to be jumped on and splashed.

 

The observation deck did have great views (as did the Crow's Nest) lounge, BUT the glass was tinted, making it useless for taking pictures. I guess their theory is that tinted wouldn't have to be cleaned as much?

 

Spa:

I will definitely give HAL props on the mineral therapy pool in their equivalent of the Rainforest Room (I forget the name of it, though I got the length of cruise package). Much better than the hot tubs. BUT DCL wins with the aromatherapy showers (or whatever they are called). There was possibly one fragrance in the showers on HAL, and I really love that part of the Rainforest Room. Both have ceramic tile loungers, so that is a draw.

 

I had a bamboo massage and a manicure, both of which were fine. My masseur (it was a guy) didn't try any kind of a hard sell with me, but my manicurist did. And I also saw her look immediately to see if I'd added on an additional tip (I hadn't but not just because of the hard sell, but I felt like she was just ready to get out to lunch.) I haven't done any treatments on DCL, so I can't compare that aspect.

 

Dining:

The food was generally mediocre. It seemed like they would pretty much prepare one rotation of sides and that was it - they were definitely variations on a theme. Prime rib the first night was tough. There is, of course, only one main dining room. The group I was with had early dining, but rather than the official fixed seating, we had a number of tables right at dinner start time that we rotated between so we could meet other people - so we were seated on the "flexible dining" lower level. Our service was hit or miss depending on the server - some were good, others consistently got orders mixed up. The first night the "baked Alaska" hadn't really been "baked" from all appearances and reports. I had chocolate soufflé one night, and hands down Palo wins that round. What I had on HAL seemed barely more than warm chocolate cake with a little sauce. On the final formal night (and yes, by and large people do dress more than on DCL - there were some gowns and tuxes even), there was surf and turf, so I tried lobster (liked it) - thankfully the servers removed the meat from the shell for everyone because I would have been clueless.

 

Lunch was often an adventure. There was the Lido buffet - which was really more cafeteria for the first 48 hours and even then for most things after that. HAL doesn't let guests touch any food for the first 48 hours of any cruise to "prevent disease" - which I found weird since I'm pretty sure DCL, which has more kids, has a generally lower rate of Noro outbreaks even with self-serve from the start. The hours were pretty limited, and there were times it was actually hard to find something to eat - especially if we were on not "typical" hours as my running group often was. I found the selection rather limited - and actually found myself craving chicken fingers probably because they simply didn't seem to be found anywhere. They do have a burger place - the Dive-In - which was good and had to-order burgers, hot dogs, and fries. But even though it was good, it got old having to do that day after day.

 

Breakfast I typically had room service - food was ok, but usually arrived lukewarm, but did occasionally eat in the Lido buffet (their equivalent of Cabanas). Standard breakfast fare which was fine. Juice glasses are tiny though.

 

Cabin:

I had a balcony cabin. It was smaller than DCL, but not by much. The sofa in the "sitting area" (that also could serve as a pull-out, though at that point there would be just enough floor space to walk to the beds from the bathroom) had definitely seen better days. There was a chair in the room that honestly was just in the way, and I would think would have to be removed if there was a third person in the cabin. The bed was the typical 2 twins put together, so while it would be great for friends or whatnot traveling together, does give the annoying ridge/dip in the middle of the "queen" bed. The balcony was pretty much the same size as DCL - I did already mention the complete hole at one point in the metal from rust. As on the observation deck, the glass was tinted, so it was just easier to stand up.

 

Entertainment:

Hands down Disney wins this one. I sat through part of the "Dancing With The Stars at Sea" final competition where the Westerdam entertainment group was singing and dancing and...non-Disney theme park is the nicest way to put it. I didn't go to the comedian. I didn't have to go to Recycled Percussion to experience that - I just had to be on that side of the ship. They were loud. Yes, DCL stuff can be repetitive and possibly even cheesy at times, but there is a certain level of quality there.

 

All that said, I did have a good time - though I attribute that as much to the running group I was with than anything. The service other than the dining room was pretty consistently good. I think my cabin stewards were newer (towel animals were small (my sister's identification of one I was clueless on was "Walrus. The smallest walrus I've ever seen, but...") and basic, but nice. But they were good and eager to please. I did miss the way all crew greets you all the time on DCL, though once Ramadan ended and they could eat (most of the crew is Indonesian and therefore Muslim, so being in Alaska with such a late sunset and such an early sunrise they only had about 2 hours to eat for the first couple of days), they did seem to get more friendly. (That or my DCL hoodie had them thinking I was a "spy". Haha!) It's hard not to have a good time in the beauty that is Alaska.

 

Ports:

Juneau was nice - my time there was limited because we were running (which took us to places regular cruiser weren't going). I did get to the Red Dog (man am I going to miss Alaska Brewing Company White (or Summer or Amber)!!) for a beer and some food before my excursion. On HAL it is called Discover Alaska's Whales and is through Gastineau Guiding - they do one or two on DCL, but I'm not sure what they're called...Photo Safari or something I think. It was awesome! Very small group - we had 18 but could have had 20. We were able to see Stellar sea lions up close and 3-4 cycles of bubble net feeding of humpback whales. Soooo cool!!

 

Glacier Bay! Not having done DCL to Alaska I've not been in Tracy Arm, but WOW, Glacier Bay was breathtaking!! We entered under heavy fog and ended up going to Johns Hopkins Glacier first in hopes that the fog would clear over Margerie Glacier, which it did. I think I heard someone say we were the first ship to get to Johns Hopkins this season, but I could have heard incorrectly. The scenery is just breathtaking. We saw brown bears along the shore (two of them), which was awesome!! They do have a "Polar Plunge" in the Sea View pool while you're at the glacier, which was super fun. The water isn't that cold as you're in the pool (they added some ice for the men), but the "polar" part is the air afterwards.

 

Sitka is just charming. It hasn't been tarted up like some little towns frequented by tourists can feel. It's just a simple, pretty little town. I did a 4x4 excursion through HAL that was run by Alaska ATV Adventures, and it was so much fun. We saw a Sitka black tail deer and a brown bear in the meadow!!

 

Ketchikan has some fun shops (KetchiCandies - on the street where the Welcome to Ketchikan sign is - is yummy! Creek Street has some cool local artisan shops). The running group got bussed out to Ward Lake in the Tongass National Forest for our final race and that was beautiful! We did have to watch for black bears - those on the 10K route saw fairly fresh scat, and at one point on the 5K course I'm pretty sure I heard a bear-like grunt and snort, but never saw anyone.

 

Victoria is pretty, but I do wish I'd done an excursion like to the Gardens or something as it is a walk into the Inner Harbor from the ship, and it's harder to find places to eat, etc.

 

Overall:

I'm still a Disney girl at heart, but depending on the itinerary and group I'm with I would not rule out going on HAL again. Next year the group is doing a southbound from Anchorage/Seward to Vancouver on RCL Radiance of the Seas, so it looks like I'll be learning another new cruise line as I LOVE LOVE LOVE the running group I was with!!

[cruz chic]

Thx for doing your comparison between the 2 lines. I enjoyed reading it.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to compare the 2 cruise lines.

Glad you enjoyed Alaska.

[Ians Grandma]

Who do you run with and how much running did you do on board?

 

 

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[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Who do you run with and how much running did you do on board?

 

 

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This was with a group called Marathon Expeditions. We had a 3-mile deck race on Sunday, then a 5K or half marathon on a trail in Juneau, an "at least" 4 mile "Amazing Race" (if you went directly point to point to point to point to point (we broke into teams of 2-3 and got a map and a list of 5 checkpoints to get to) it would be around 4...our groups had a low of 4.25 and a high of almost 8 - that one missed a checkpoint), and a 5 or 10K trail run in Ketchikan. It was great - like running camp!! :)

[Ians Grandma]

Did they allow you to do the 3 mile deck race on the promenade deck?

 

 

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[Dismomx5]

This was with a group called Marathon Expeditions. We had a 3-mile deck race on Sunday, then a 5K or half marathon on a trail in Juneau, an "at least" 4 mile "Amazing Race" (if you went directly point to point to point to point to point (we broke into teams of 2-3 and got a map and a list of 5 checkpoints to get to) it would be around 4...our groups had a low of 4.25 and a high of almost 8 - that one missed a checkpoint), and a 5 or 10K trail run in Ketchikan. It was great - like running camp!! :)

That sounds like FUN!

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Did they allow you to do the 3 mile deck race on the promenade deck?

 

 

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Yes. We started at 8, and there were signs up about it beginning about 6 or 7. This was all arranged with the ship in advance by the team at Marathon Expeditions.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

That sounds like FUN!

 

It really was!! I *only* did the 5K in Juneau, but from all reports the half was QUITE challenging. Alaskans have a different idea of "small hill" and "creek crossing" than most of us in the lower 48. But it was cool that we got to run with two stellar ultra runners - Geoff Roes and Houston Laws - and that was cool!

 

Sitka truly is beautiful. I'm selfishly glad that it's a tender port because that seems to keep it "honest" and not all tarted up for the tourists. It's so charming as it is!

 

Alaska truly is beautiful. By the end of Glacier Bay day, I almost felt like I was on natural beauty overload.

 

Looks like next year we'll be on RCI's Radiance of the Seas, so I'll get to see some different places and experience another line! Whee!! :)