August 10th, Alaska 7 day cruise

[carri cruiser]

A review of a 7 day Alaska cruise in August

 

Amsterdam, August 10, 2014

Day 1

We boarded the Amsterdam around 11:30am at pier 91 in Seattle. went to the " Welcome back mariner's lunch in the MDR, it was way better than standing and fighting everyone for lunch in the Lido!! We had an informal M&G after the muster drill, but only Locolady, Kelmont , and myself, and DHs and my brother and SIL were there... none of the others that were on the roll call showed up, how disappointing!! We were wearing Hawaiian wear! always make 'em wonder!! We had first seating, set dining at 5:45 , and had a wonderful window table for 6... I had my usual soup, the French onion, that I always have every night... also had short ribs and the apple strudel for dinner.

I had read that some think the size of the servings have diminished... I didn't find that to be true on the Amsterdam.

 

Day 2

At sea, it was quite foggy, lots of horn blowing by the Capt., we saw some porpoise and a whale tale!! My sister in law wondered if there would be happy hour, since nothing was mentioned in the daily schedule... she perked up a bit when she saw that on this day there was to be 2 happy hours!!

Lunch was on the lido, where we spend a lot of time, looking for sea life, we tried the new Dive In, the hamburgers were really good, and the fries just as others reported were excellent!! There was an Alaska beer tasting for $12.50, but we are not beer drinkers! also offered on the lido was a German sausage buffet, but we had the Dive In!! there was an Indonesian tea at three o'clock, my DH went with me, a one time thing, I'm afraid!! I find it difficult to get all this eating in, there are so many venues!!

Our cabin is on the lower promenade, which we prefer, one can just go out turn a corner, and be out on the deck on a nice padded deck chair, hard to find a blanket sometimes though. we sit out on the deck always on the lookout for whales, but today, only saw some seals watching us.

this was formal night.I thought there was only one on a 7 day, but there are 2!

We went to the crows nest after dinner to listen to Darlene and the Halcats, they were much better than many of the Halcats I have heard before. the shows in the big showroom seem to be the same ones we saw when we were sailing in the Caribbean in January!! we haven't gone to them this time.

 

Day 3

Tracey Arm

Wheather was sunny and not cold, we sat on the lido and saw quite a few whales, and quite a few tails, it is always exciting to see those spouts, even from far away! We decided to go down to the deck by our cabins, but it seems that all the deck chairs are either full, or being saved... we went on the other side, and no one was over there, so it was easy to get a deck chair! We love Tracy Arm and especially coming in so close to those big rock walls , It is always amazing getting close to the glaciers... lots of icebergs, with the pretty blues and stark whites... We didn't see any calving, but heard a great rumble, so somewhere there was a calving!! the weather was so nice, sunny and dry it made for a beautiful day in Tracey Arm..Lots of seals on the small icebergs, I went over to the other side of the ship, and there were some larger icebergs, but NO seals anywhere!! We went to the Dive In again, and I had a hamburger and French fries again today!!

Dinner I always order the French onion soup, but today that is all I ordered, I was still full from that hamburger, and tonight was Prime Rib!! just couldn't eat any more, so just had the soup.

Jeff burkhat is a comedian in the show lounge, so went to see him, we had also seen him on the January cruise, but he was pretty funny, so went to see him again!

 

Day4

Juneau 7am - 5:30pm

Our plan was to go up the Mt Roberts tram, but it was so overcast and rainey we decided against it. we got off the ship, and went into a couple of the shops, but needed nothing, so we went back to the ship, we have been to Juneau about 8 times. We went up to the crow's nest and sat in the comfy chairs.

It seems that August in Alaska is always overcast and rainy, but it gives you lots of time to enjoy the ship! We will be in the dining room at sail a way tonight. there is no show scheduled, because it is the Indonesian crew show at 10:30... late for many. I have also seen this show many times, usually the same.

 

Day 6

Sitka - a Tender Port

One of my favorite ports in Alaska!! there is lots to do here, although I have done many of them , so elected to just walk around the town, I love to sit in the crows nest and look out at the beautiful little islands all around. for those who wonder what to do in Sitka, there is a nice museum within walking distance, A Raptor Center just a short taxi cab ride.there you can see eagles that are being rehabilitated to go back into the wild... there is a bear tour, and whale watching tours... or just up the street is the church that is open for viewing. Russian Orthodox, I believe. We looked through a few shops, I bought a couple of pieces of hand made fudge, that I didn't need. and went back to the ship. We spent some more time up in the crow's nest, saw 2 eagles fly by quite close to the windows we were looking out of, and I realized that we hadn't seen hardly any eagles this time in Alaska, wonder why???

 

Day 6

Ketchikan 7am-12:30

 

this is a short port, I walked over to Creek Street by myself, it was overcast, but not raining... I had a shop I wanted to go to, so went there, and then walked over the wooden bridge and saw lots of salmon probably going upstream. there were a couple of people fishing from the bridge, but I didn't see any salmon getting caught!! I noticed on the way back to the ship, that there were many shops going out of business, probably because the tourist season is about over. This was the second formal night, and lobster was served! This cruise was a bit different than most, I didn't take hardly any photos of food or people or places.... 7 days is just never enough!!

 

Day 7

Victoria, BC... 6pm - midnight

A strange time for a port call, if you ask me!! We did not go ashore, as there really wasn't anywhere to go in that amount of time, and we have been here many times, we did enjoy watching the seagulls on a roof top, with their babys

I hadn't ever saw baby seagulls before!!

 

IN Closing:

 

I ate in the lido buffet once for breakfast, and had the original eggs benedict.

I usually order a chocolate croissant and coffee, with a pot of water, (to dilute the coffee), my DH loves the omelettes in the Lido, so he goes up for breakfast!

I never ate lunch in the Lido, had a waffle cone once.... we never went to the MDR except at dinner. I went to tea twice. went to the Mariner's luncheon after the mariner's reception for the presenting of the medals.... champagne was served at the mariner's lunch...

 

Home again 7am

We were in the last group to leave the ship, since we live in the Seattle area, we were not in a hurry to get off the ship, my neighbor came to pick us up,

we found our luggage easily and were on the ferry and home in Poulsbo by 11!

We all agreed it was a good cruise, but a 14 day is better!!!

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review.

Can't believe that the ship is leaving Ketchikan even earlier than when we did Alaska.

[Alberta Quilter]

Thanks for the review, Carri! Too bad about the short port times, though. I agree that 7 days is not long enough.

[puppycanducruise]

Welcome back!

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Thanks for your review of Alaska on the Amsterdam. We will be on her in a few weeks.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thank you for the review..

[Cruising-along]

Thanks for your review! I agree, that was a really short day in Ketchikan!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your review, and glad to hear you had a good time, but I agree 14 days would be better.:D:D

[dharmapath]

Great write up. I was on the cruise and was one of the flakes for meet and greet. After the drill we got busy unpacking and enjoying wine on the balcony. I will share my thoughts on the cruise tomorrow.

[erewhon]

Thanks for reviewing your Alaskan cruise.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review.

 

Keith

[jbhcw]

Thanks for posting Linda! Good review:)