Westerdam docking at Sitka?

Early this season the Westerdam was docking at a "new" berth in Sitka. The 28 May update on theCLAA website still shows it anchoring off. Has it gone back to tendering? HAL in Seattle was no help.

Same question for the Amsterdam this year - docking or tendering??

We were on the Westerdam July 11-18 and we tendered in Sitka. I've seen the Amsterdam at anchor as well (looking at the webcam). On the Westerdam we were told that they'd tried the dock but for the foreseeable future would be anchoring and tendering in. Not sure if we were told why. We tendered in by the Convention Center/Hall.

Karen

The last few cruises -- Westerdam and Amsterdam -- we anchored down by the bridge.

I had read a post on CC that mentioned the Westerdam had docked in Sitka early in the season (maybe the first cruise of the season). I found this odd, so when I was planning a private excursion in Sitka for early July, I questioned the tour operator about this and she told me that the reason Westerdam docked that particular day was because she was having a problem with her anchor but has gone back to anchoring & tendering since then.

The person that told me this is not affiliated with HAL.

We where on it in June and we tendered . I would rather not dock.

I read that about the Westerdam docking early in May but didn't realize it was because of an anchor problem.

I do remember they mentioned that this "new" dock is not close to town and they had to take buses into town. Don't remember if they had to pay for the shuttle buses.

Primary tender dock location in Sitka is Crescent Harbor (about a 10 min tender ride from the anchorage opposite Kutkan Island). The O'Connell Bridge tender dock is backup tender landing which was used full-time during the 2013 Alaska season when the Crescent Harbor parking lot was undergoing renovation

I read that about the Westerdam docking early in May but didn't realize it was because of an anchor problem.

I do remember they mentioned that this "new" dock is not close to town and they had to take buses into town. Don't remember if they had to pay for the shuttle buses.

DS was on an NCL cruise earlier this year and they docked in Sitka. It's far from downtown (not walkable) and Sitka does not have enough buses to efficiently move a couple of thousand passengers when they get off the ship. It took him over 1 hour to get to the downtown area from the pier, while the HAL tenders were bringing their passengers ashore very quickly.

I don't know if they had to pay for the bus.