cruisingrob21

We had rough weather on the Eurodam 2 summers ago in Alaska. We were the 2nd cabin from the front on deck 5 and felt every wave. Only a few cabins back would have been much better. We also sailed the cape horn route on the old Star Princess (2002) back in 2012. We had "Lake Drake" which still was a bit choppy but not bad. The captain mentioned it could be much worse. We were in a cabin on the 11th deck near the aft elevators and hardly noticed it. We actually had worse weather in the straight of magellan and were told by the captain to sleep in and avoid the worst of the swells. If you are concerned about it and medications work well for you, take them proactively and enjoy your cruise. If medications don't work well, consider something further back.

You will get more responses in the West Coast departures forum

You're welcome and that's a good tip. I think she goes to drydock later this year and the tumor is that it will be extensive - it's also showing as longer than typical for a vista class ship. At a minimum, it seems like the northern lights night club will be turned into the gallery bar as has happened on the other vistas and signature vessels. Perhaps more?

I almost booked one of these cabins on the Noordam. I can only speculate that while you'll get more light, it will be windier. Not as windy as forward facing cabin due to the lifeboats nearby, but not as wind free as a "normal" verandah cabin. Not sure how else to characterize it.

It used to be a smoking/cigar lounge. Now its just a closed off room thats presumably quiet most of the time. It may be hosted for occasional functions or meetings I imagine it may get repurposed during the next drydock to increase the crows nest area. Some photos: https://halfacts.com/vista-class/noordam-observation-deck/ I'm heading out on the Noordam later this month if you want more photos.

Thats a good question. Satellite images show nothing there but this article says it just received its first ship this January. https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/01/port-of-cabo-rojo-welcomes-its-first-ship/#google_vignette

HAL won't let you, so not likely a fine has been paid. I've read that if the ships allow this to happen they can be barred from entering that port or nation again. Waivers have been granted for extenuating circumstances (during COVID) or localized emergencies (weather, health problem), but this is not something that anyone can just "pay the fine" to get around. The ship operator can get in trouble also.

Possibly related - the other day some sapphire and coral princess voyages at the end of 2025 were cancelled

I personally enjoy taking the Seabus to North Vancouver before embarking. Lots of great restaurants and you can get some great photos of the city and your ship:

To make it a legal Seattle to Whittier/Anchorage, you need to do the cruise between Vancouver and Anchorage, and you'd use the cruise line transfer service from Seattle to get to vancouver. It's about a 4-5 hour bus ride. There is a train you can take (Amtrak Cascades) also which takes about the same time, or less than driving if border traffic is bad for road traffic. Highly recommend the train routing, but I think there is only a 7am and evening train, so you are realistically looking at either a hotel in Seattle the night before, or a hotel in Vancouver.

Alaska 2025 was released in early December 2023. Seems to be kind of late - Princess released Alaska 2025 in July of 2023. So probably summer to late fall time. I will say that by and large, HAL itineraries and ships on specific runs have been the same since the restart. Eurodam and Westerdam out of Seattle, Koningsdam and Zaandam RT vancouver, and Noordam and Niuew Amsterdam doing the 1 way voyage between Seward and Vancouver. There are exceptions to the itineraries (with a few unique ones) as well as some ships doing a few oddball swaps, but generally that was the trend last year.

Well, we booked the October voyage of this itinerary instead of our usual alaska voyage. It's nice to have some variety in alaska voyages and nice (for us) that they are RT out of Seattle. Usually a voyage like this would be RT from Vancouver.

The R class (and maybe S class) also had that informal bridge-wing viewing area that was always enjoyable to visit when docking. I recall when a family member worked for HAL and invited us onboard a brand new Maasdam in Seattle for lunch. We later sailed on her and then later the Ryndam. Do any of you remember that the Statendam and Maasdam (and maybe Ryndam and Veendam) had an escalator from deck 2 to deck 3 (I think?). I think they were removed during drydocks, but I recall hearing it was to speed up getting folks to and from the common gangway deck. Funny how that "speed" was needed on a ship holding 1200.

And sometimes the opposite happens. On a Crown Princess Alaskan Sampler from Seattle to Vancouver in 2022, the itinerary map showed that it would use the outside passage both ways - however we were treated to great weather and the captain maneuvered the ship through the Johnstone Straight and Seymour Narrows. It is a bit shorter and I'm guessing if its favorable weather it might even be a net savings for the ship to use the cleaner fuel as required that close to land. Note that the Grand class ships can sail this route, the Royal Class ships are not allowed per the Canadian government. Of note, we arrived at Seymour Narrows at the same time the Noordam was heading northbound. Because its narrow, we did slow down considerably to allow the Noordam to sail through the narrows first. I'll say its unusual to get that close to another ship when not approaching port, or sailing in glacier bay or other fjord. The image below is grainy due to night, but on the lower right you can faintly make out the Crown's bridge wing.

If Ketchikan and PR entice you, you can sail RT from Vancouver on a 5 night voyage at the end of April this year on the Noordam going to both. Although there won't be a stop in Nanaimo or Victoria, and you'll miss the inside-inside passage, the voyage will be rather similar. And its clearly not selling well, as I've had two upgrade offers and there appear to be plenty of available cabins just one month out as well as a few price drops.