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Zuiderdam to Alaska Sept 17-24, 2011 with pictures


Prairie_Gal

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This was our first cruise to Alaska, and our first time on HAL. When choosing an Alaska cruise my priorities were Glacier Bay and I wanted to leave from Vancouver because I wanted to see the Inside Passage, and I had read the the cruises leaving from Seattle had a greater chance of rough seas due to being on the open ocean. (This turned out to be a very good decision.) This is what made us choose the Zuiderdam.

 

Our vacation actually began on Friday, September 16. We left work at our usual 5:00 p.m. and after packing a few last minute items and dropping the dog off at our doggy-sitter we headed to Calgary for an over-night stay at the Radisson.

 

September 17, 2011

We had a 9:00 a.m. flight booked on West Jet. We don’t normally like to fly in the day of the cruise, but since it was just a short 1 1/4 hour flight, we decided to chance it. Our flight landed without a problem at 9:25 local time (because of the time change) and we caught a taxi to Canada Place. The cost of the was $37.70, in case anyone wanted to know.

 

We found the procedure at Canada Place kind of confusing. Not enough signs directing you where to go. We saw some luggage carts when we got out of the taxi, so we grabbed one and loaded out luggage on and took it into the terminal. Turns out you were supposed to give it to the porters, but somehow we missed them. Back we go with our luggage and give it to a porter. Back into the terminal, and somehow we ended up in a line marked “Crew Only”. But, with all the schmozzle we were directed to the check in desk, and ended up being the second ones to check in. This was about 10:30. We had to wait in the holding area until 11:30, then they boarded the people in wheel chairs and those that needed assistance. Then it was our turn. We were finally aboard the Zuiderdam. We were able to go directly to our rooms, which was surprising, but very welcome as we were able to drop off our carry-ons.

 

 

We had booked cabin 4178, an aft cabin with a larger balcony. It is a bit smaller than the other aft cabins, but it was fine for the two of us. I was looking forward to sitting on our balcony and watching the wake, along with the beautiful scenery. We had an aft balcony on our Miracle cruise and loved watching the wake. Well, we never did end up sitting out on the balcony as it rained every day. Yes, every day! We did stand out there sometimes with our umbrellas, but that was about it. It turns out that the aft balconies on deck 5 are covered, ours was not. I was really wishing we had a cabin on deck 5.

 

Here are a few pictures of the cabin.

 

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I had read a lot of mixed (mostly negative) reviews of the Zuiderdam, but it turns out they were unfounded. We had no problem with the decor, or anything else on the Zuiderdam. Yes, there was a bit of evidence of wear and tear in places, but no big deal. Well, I guess I do have one small complaint. There was a rather large stain on the carpet in our room. Actually, the whole room carpet looked like it could use a steam cleaning.

 

Here are a few pictures of interesting things around the ship.

 

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A few more.

 

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I liked this display because it reminded me of Venice, where we are going next June on the Carnival Breeze.

 

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I forgot to post this picture of one of the closets with the cabin pictures, but we thought it was funny because it was so short. DH said maybe we could hang our underwear in there. Later we relized you could flip that shelf up and hang shirts, etc in it.

 

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We were invited to the Mariner's lunch in the Dining Room the first day, I assume because we have cruised on Carnival before, and Carnival Corp owns HAL. So we decided that would be a nice, relaxing way to start the cruise. So, promptly at 12:30 we went to the Vista Dining room and got a nice table for two by the windows. At the table next to us was a couple from Florida. Keep in mind that we have only been on the ship for one hour by this time. Well, Mrs. Happy (as we called her) had nothing but complaints about HAL, about her room, about the ship, about the dinner menus. You name, she had a complaint about it. She was saying that this would probably be their last HAL cruise. I was thinking HAL would probably be relieved to be rid of her. To make matters worse, they were continuing on after Alaska and doing the Panama Canal cruise back to Florida. Oh my! That poor crew!

 

 

 

Well, we didn't let her dampen our spirits. After lunch we toured the ship a bit, and ended up buying a spa pass, which we put to good use during the week.

 

 

 

After muster drill we went up to the Crow's Nest for sail away. It was very cool sailing under the Lion's Gate Bridge. There was a singer/guitarist in there and we relaxed and had a drink and some free appetizers. It was a very nice start to the cruise.

 

Sailing under the Lion's Gate Bridge.

 

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Leaving Vancouver.

 

 

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I just love this picture. Taken from our aft balcony of the inside passage.

 

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That night we decided to eat dinner at the Lido buffet. Neither one of us felt like getting dressed up for dinner. After dinner we made our first trip to the spa to experience the relaxation of the thalassotherapy pool, and the thermal suite. Oh my! I just loved those heated ceramic loungers. It was so peaceful in there, you could almost fall asleep in those chairs. The pass cost $179 for the two of us, in case anyone wanted to know.

 

 

September 18, 2011

Sea Day, cruising the Inside Passage – Or Man! That ship was Rockin’!!!

 

We had ordered room service for breakfast by setting the card out the night before. It is great on HAL that you can order eggs and hot foods from room service. Breakfast arrived around 9:00, and was very good. By about 9:30 some batteries that we had thrown in the metal trash can started rolling around and making a clanking sound. We thought this was quite funny. Shortly thereafter things really started to get rocking, and the room service tray started to slide off the table, so we put it on the floor.

 

The rolling of the ship continued to get worse until about 2:00 p.m. when we finally reached the shelter of the inside passage once again. The cruise director, Shane, said that in his 10 years of cruising that was some of the most “interesting” weather he had ever seen.

 

We weathered the storm in our room, watching movies. I had taken Bonine that morning, and was I ever thankful because I was fine. No motion sickness at all.

 

Around 2:00 after we were once again in calm waters. We ordered room service again, which was very good. You can get hot sandwiches on HAL room service.

 

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the spa.

 

Tonight was formal night, so we got dressed up and got some pictures taken. I must say, everyone we saw looked very nice. There were several men in tuxes, and women in gowns, including us. One man was even wearing a kilt, and looking very handsome. We had the pleasure of sitting with some very nice Australians for dinner this night. There were a lot of Australians and British on this cruise. I'd venture to say they were in the majority.

 

After dinner we went to watch the comedian in the Vista theatre. This was the only show we made it to all cruise. The show was supposed to be the song and dance revue, but they changed it because of the rocking of the ship. A lot of people were laughing at the comedian, and maybe we were just tired, but we didn't find him all that funny. After the show it was off to bed for us.

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September 19, 2011

Cruising Tracy Arm Fjord – at least it was supposed to be cruising Tracy Arm Fjord. Because to the weather the day before we had gotten behind schedule, so we missed Tracy Arm entirely. Oh well, at least we still had Glacier Bay to look forward to. We spent the morning at the spa.

 

Juneau, Alaska

We arrived in Juneau around 2:00. We had a whale watching excursion booked with Orca Enterprises. We walked around town a bit and were amazed at all the jewellery stores. This was to be a common theme in all the ports we stopped in. Just an incredible number of jewellery stores.

 

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Orca Enterprises drove us out to Auke Bay, where they dock their boats. The weather was rainy and overcast, and the sea was pretty choppy. Thank you again Bonine. We did see lots of whales, but unfortunately did not get any spectacular photos. These are the best we got. Sad, I know.

 

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We had a great time, though, and would heartily recommend Orca Enterprises. When we got back to the dock we saw a small black bear walking through some people's yard. That was cool.

 

 

When we got back to town we asked the driver to let us off downtown so we could go to the Red Dog Saloon. It was packed, but we managed to find a seat. There was a guy singing and playing guitar, and it was a lot of fun. We had one drink, and went on our way.

 

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After looking through a few shops we headed back to the ship and went to dinner. Not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but we had Anytime Dining, which worked out very well. We just went to the dining room whenever we were ready. We never had to wait, we just went right in.

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Hi Prairie Gal - I was in 4178 in July. :D The large stain on the carpet must have happened between the time I left and you arrived as it wasn't there when I was. I'm sorry your weather didn't allow you to enjoy the balcony :( as I know how wonderful it is to sit out there and watch the scenery and wake. Although it does appear the wicker chair out there was replaced since my stay....the wicker was unraveling on the legs during my stay.

 

Thank you for posting and I'm looking forward to reading more of your review!

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Thanks so much for the wonderful review and pictures. We are taking this trip in July and it was so much fun to read your post. Glad y'all had a good time. :D

 

I'm sure you will love it.

 

Hi Prairie Gal - I was in 4178 in July. :D The large stain on the carpet must have happened between the time I left and you arrived as it wasn't there when I was. I'm sorry your weather didn't allow you to enjoy the balcony :( as I know how wonderful it is to sit out there and watch the scenery and wake. Although it does appear the wicker chair out there was replaced since my stay....the wicker was unraveling on the legs during my stay.

 

Thank you for posting and I'm looking forward to reading more of your review!

 

What a small world, it's cool to hear that you were in the same room. The wicker was unravelling on the other chair that's not in the picture. Couldn't get them both in one shot.

 

Fabulous pictures! Thanks for posting!

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

I will be working on my review over the next few days, and hope to complete it this week. Stay tuned.

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September 20,2011

Skagway, Alaska

White Pass Railroad and Yukon Excursion with Chilkoot Charters.

 

We chose to take the van up to Carcross, and ride the train back to Skagway, mostly because we could sleep in an extra hour. You can take the train trip first, and the van back down, if you wish.

 

 

Our day started at 8:30 a.m. when we were picked up in a van at the dock.

It was rainy and overcast when we left the ship.

We were driven a short ways away, and transferred to another van for the excursion we were doing. Our driver was James, and he turned out to be a really neat guy. He told us lots of history about the Gold Rush, and some personal stories from his life. He was a great guide.

 

In our van were some people from a Princess ship that had sailed from Seattle. Oh my goodness, the stories that they had to tell about their voyage through the storm the day before! They had it much worse than us. They had the rocking, rolling for about 10 hours. At this point I was really thanking my decision to leave from Vancouver.

 

 

One man had a bandaged thumb, and what happened was that his poor wife was so seasick that he had gone to the washroom to get her a cold cloth. Well, the ship lurched and the bathroom door slammed shut on his thumb. So they had to go to the infirmary together. Him to get his thumb taken care of and her to get a seasickness shot.

 

 

Another man in the van had slipped on some broken plates that were flying around. He had to go to the infirmary too, but thankfully was OK, just a little bruised.

 

Anyway, we went to across the White Pass Summit all the way to Carcross, with many scenic stops along the way. It was a beautiful drive. Once we got over the summit the weather cleared, and it was the only sun we say all week.

 

DH an I at Bridal Veil Falls

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Inukshuk at the Summit built by the Kiwanis Clubs

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Another one of my favorite photos from the trip. Notice the fresh dusting of snow on the mountain top.

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At Caribou Crossing we had lunch (included in the tour price) which was good, but a little rushed. Then we went on our dog sled ride, which was fun. The cart was on wheels, and they pulled us along a course that was probably a mile in length. Michelle explained that these dogs were in training for a race, and pulling the heavy carts helped to get them in shape.

 

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The dogs got to stop for a water break along the way.

 

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Dog sled puppies

 

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After Caribou Crossing we drove up to Emerald Lake, and then back to Fraser to catch the train.

 

 

Beautiful Emerald Lake.

 

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The White Pass and Yukon Railroad is an old narrow gauge railroad that was built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush to carry the miners. It is an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. We heard lots of interesting commentary on the trip about the Gold Rush, and saw lots of beautiful scenery.

 

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They have this old train car set up as a cabin, and you can rent it for the night. I think that would be cool.

 

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September 21, 2011

Scenic Cruising – Glacier Bay

 

Once again the weather was pretty rough until we reached the protection of Glacier Bay. It was raining and chilly, but that could not detract from the beauty of Glacier Bay. Just spectacular! Here are some photos.

 

DH in front of the Lamplugh Glacier

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Margerie Glacier

 

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We saw some fantastic calving at Margerie Glacier. I couldn't believe how loud the cracking sound was!

 

When we left Glacier Bay the waters were too rough for the naturalists to dis-embark so they stayed on-board until the next day until Ketchikan. I wonder how often this happens, and what they thought about spending a night on board ship?

 

 

Tonight was the second formal night so we got dressed up once again and had a lovely dinner in the dining room.

 

 

During the night the seas were really rough once again as we had the head out to open waters to empty the grey water tanks as they were full. It was enough to wake us up, and we spent a couple of hours during the night watching TV, and trying to distract ourselves.

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September 22, 2011

Ketchikan, Alaska

 

We arrived at our scheduled time of 10:00 a.m. We had a 10:50 floatplane flight booked with Island Wings to see Misty Fjords. I was feeling poorly, so did not end up going on the flight. DH went and said it was spectacular.

 

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We had lunch on the Lido when he returned and then got off the ship and went to Creek Street to do some shopping and have a look around.

 

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We saw two harbour seals. We watched one catch a salmon along some shallow rocks along the bank, which was really cool.

 

The merchandise in the shops was drastically marked down because it was the end of the season, and we got some great deals.

 

We went to dinner when we got back on board, and then visited the spa, before calling it a night.

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September 23, 2011

Sea Day - Today we started our return journey home. Once again the seas were pretty rough in the early part of the day until around 3:00 p.m. We just relaxed and took it pretty easy, watched a couple of movies. A really nice thing about HAL is that you can borrow DVD's from the front desk for free. They even deliver them right to your room.

 

 

 

I took two computer classes that the ship puts on for free. The first one was on Windows Live Gallery photo editing and the second was on Windows Live Movie Maker. Both were good, and a lot of fun. It is really nice that HAL offers these classes for free.

 

 

 

We also made one last trip to the spa. The ceramic loungers face a wall of windows, and it was very picturesque watching the scenery of the inside passage today.

 

Tonight was the Master Chef dinner. You could only eat at either 5:30 or 8:00 p.m., so we made a reservation for 8:00. We were seated at a table for 6, but no-one else ever joined us. We thought the singing and dancing was kind of fun, but we are used to that kind of thing from our cruises on Carnival. There was one waiter that was really hamming it up and dancing like crazy.

 

I should mention that the fellow that manned the front desk for Anytime Dining was phenomenal (sorry I have forgotten his name). By the third day he knew our names, room number, and that we preferred a table by the window. Exceptional service from a man that must see hundreds of passengers every week. Anyway, tonight we said goodbye to him and gave him an extra tip for his great service.

 

September 24, 2011

We docked back in Vancouver this morning at 7:00 a.m. we had a 1:00 p.m. flight, so weren’t in a real hurry to disembark. We had put our luggage out the night before, so just had our carry-on to pack up. After a cup of coffee on the Lido, we said goodbye to our room stewards, gave them an extra tip for the great service during the week, and got in line to disembark.

 

 

 

We decided to take a shuttle to the airport and it was $14.00 per person.

 

 

 

So, that was the end of our Alaska cruise. Although the weather could have been better, and the seas could have been a whole lot calmer, we had a great cruise. Alaska is beautiful, and I encourage everyone to go at least once.

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Judy,

Thank you for your review and all of the wonderful pictures you included.

We are planning a family cruise to Alaska in 2013. We want to do the 7 day, inside passage, r/t Vancouver in late August.

If HAL is using the same ships, it looks like it will be a choice between the Zuiderdam and the Volendam.

We will be a group of up to 15 people including 5 kids ( ages 8 to 13 ) and one person with mobility issues, although in two years time, there could be more than one!:p

This will be a first trip to Alaska for all of us and a first cruise for many so there will be lots of decisions to be made over the next two years. Our DIL insists it is 22 months and counting.:)

Deen

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Not sure what kind of camera you use but your photos are wonderful! So sorry about the weather you had but it sounds like you still had a great time. You never know about the weather. One year we went in September and we had some rain. Another year we went in May and could wear shorts! We absolutely love Alaska and the Inside Passage....if I was "allowed" I'd do it every year!

 

I enjoy reading about the experience everyone has aboard the ships-thanks for sharing!

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Prairie Gal, you're the shy one. You should've been at our meet & greet to watch the hors d'oeuvre fly across the room!

 

I'm so glad your whale pix look just like mine! I did get a picture of a bear and a glacier calving, but whales ....

 

Ketchican deals: we got 5 T-shirts for $10!!

 

Believe it or not, we booked again next year for the same time, but we have never had this kind of crazy weather before, so we're keeping our fingers crossed!

 

Thanks for the memories!

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September 23, 2011

I should mention that the fellow that manned the front desk for Anytime Dining was phenomenal (sorry I have forgotten his name). By the third day he knew our names, room number, and that we preferred a table by the window. Exceptional service from a man that must see hundreds of passengers every week. Anyway, tonight we said goodbye to him and gave him an extra tip for his great service.

 

 

Are you referring to Imam (formerly Hunky Dory I hear). He is worth his weight in gold to HAL. He also got an extra tip from our family for the great care he took of us.

 

Glad you enjoyed the Zuiderdam! Ours cruise on her in August was one of our best ever:)

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