14 vs 7 day westerdam

[Mrs Soap]

Hi everyone,

 

it has been a long time since I have been on the forum!

 

We have recently booked the 14 day Japan to Alaska  cruise on the westerdam for next April.

 

this is our first HAL cuise, have previously done 2 MSC cruises both 7 days but with our 2 teenage daughters at the time.

 

This time we will be travelling just the 2 of us  ( ages 60 and 48) ... most of our travelling has been the on the go type trying to fit in as much as possible, we come from Australia so the distance and airfares are high and we have always tried to do as much as we can.

 

So sorry----my question is= there is another cruise that just does the 7 days alaska trip  without obviously all the sea days , Im just wondering what are we going to do?? well in particular my husband , not a reader, not a lie by the pool type...

So many people say the they just love the sea days and actually try and book cruises which have as many as possible...I am not sure if I am being unneccesary anxious about the sea days or trying to convince myself it will be great and we will love them like everyone else??

 

hoping to hear some thoughts from people who may have been in a similar position with their 1st longer cruise

 

many thanks!!

[USN59-79]

You are taking a repositioning cruise from Yokohama to Seattle.  Yes, there will be a lot of sea days with only one other Japan port and three Alaska stops.  Actually, 14 days is fairly short for an Asia to Seattle repositioning.  We have taken a few and will be on this one too.  One recommendation would be stay on for an additional 7 days and do the Seattle to Alaska and back to Seattle portion.  We enjoy the relaxed cruising of repositioning cruises like this.  Once we did an Asia to Vancouver repositioning and were offered a deal to take the next 7 day Alaska cruise portion.  We were surprised how different those 7 days were.  The ambiance changed from calm and friendly to almost frantic.  The passengers were all in a hurry to do everything and see everything on their 7 day cruise and didn't want to meet other passengers as they probably wouldn't see them again.  We have cruised over 500 days on Holland America and have never again taken a 7 day cruise.  Hope this helps.

[Mrs Soap]

Thankyou...yes we are booked in an SS suite, so hopefully that will be nice.

as you know we disembark in seattle, we are then picking up a car and doing a driving trip up to the rockies.

 

And yes i see what you mean the 7 day ones we have done have been "frantic" good word for it! I think I put that down to it being a very large MSC ship with lots of kids etc...

 

We have had sea days before but no more than 2 ...herein lies the problem...have I signed us up for too many sea days...should we just fly to seattle from tokyo and do the 7 day...

 

I know this is a difficult question to answer 

[VennDiagram]

6 hours ago, Mrs Soap said:

should we just fly to seattle from tokyo and do the 7 day...

 

Have you thought about flying from Tokyo to Vancouver, and doing a 7-day northbound, and a 7-day southbound? Then doing the Rockies road trip from Vancouver?

[Euby]

I enjoy the sea days.  Holland America does a good job of loading more activities on those days than port days.  Sometimes I'd have to pick between 2 things that I wanted to do because they were at the same time and in different parts of the ship.  While some things may seem quite silly (paper airplane contests), everyone always seemed to enjoy themselves (I know that I did).  Have SS suite, you might be tempted to stay in a few days and just enjoy the scenery and room service.

[tupper10]

My suggestion is to look at some of the daily schedules that people post here for 'sea days' and see if your husband would enjoy the activities.  If not I would fly to Seattle- do an Alaska cruise and do a land trip as well to Denali not just the cruise and then the Canadian rockies.    If you can afford it (and it is open) I would stay in the park at one of the lodges. We stayed at the Denali backcountry lodge.  It is very expensive now because this summer you can only get there by helicopter - if the road is open - like it was for us - you take the bus and while the price was high it was not outrageous.    You can do the cruise and then your own land trip with a good travel agent.  

 

 

[Mrs Soap]

Thanks everyone....could anyone let me know where I could find some daily planners?

 

Also thinking getting the spa pass might be a good idea?

[Roz Z]

I think you’ll love the newly refitted Westerdam! There is much to do on board; the new explorations room alone will keep you busy, the shows, B. B King Blues Club, Lincoln Center Stage with classical music…I could go on and on! I’ll be doing my longest trip yet with Holland, 27 days in Asia and solo. Been a widow 10 years and tired of the cold winters in central Minnesota. Rose F

[Mrs Soap]

Thanks Roz....have a great time!

[Sallyandtex]

Hi Mrs Soap,

We are from Australia too, and did a trip to Alaska in 2018.

We didn't want a huge flight to Vancouver, so we flew to Tokyo for 3 days to break up the trip, then onto Vancouver, 2 nights then started our cruise.

We got a 14 day HAL New Amsterdam Alaska cruise in a balcony and it was amazing! Especially loved the Tracey Arm excursion need to book in advance.

I would rather pay the money for the Alaska section rather than the ocean crossing.

We then did a Rockies tour 14 days that included a lot, as we didn't want to drive ourselves, and met some lovely lifelong friends.

On return, we had only a short stopover in Tokyo to stretch the legs.

 

Hope this helps!

(:

 

[Mrs Soap]

thanks Sallyandtex,  

 

Im actually not sure if we can change it at this point ...mainly due to our flights are booked ...we use qantas points and to secure business class you need to book the 12 months in advance...

so at this point we fly to yokohama and have 4 nights there...get on board and have the 14 day cruise, disemabarking in seattle, we will then have a car  for about 8 days and do a driving trip to the rockies etc ( my husband likes to drive)

I keep changing my mind on all this ! one minute i think how many people love the sea days and actually book cruises to get as many as possible and hopefully we will feel that way too and learn to just relax for a change! all our previous travels have been very on the go with 2 kids . Just us this time and thinking that after a busy time in yokohama we will just relax?? will see! 

next minute I think of what have I signed us up for!! will we be busting to get off after day 3!! lol

I so appreciate people giving their pespectives thou..as newbies to this every bit helps!