Oakman58

           Tuesday June 20^th Continued, Icy Strait Point 6 PM to 10 PM

 

 

In Glacier Bay the balconies that were on the sunny side of the ship were quite comfortable. However, on the shady side it felt quite chilly.  Joyce and I thought the light layers of clothing we brought with us were too light. We decided to go down to the shops on deck 3 to see if they had warmer jackets available for purchase.  We were in luck, they had nice jackets with detachable hoods so we bought one for each of us. Yes, they were overpriced at $70 a piece but the cost was covered by our onboard credit.  Thank Holland for the nice jackets.

 

 Our excursion tonight was Mountaintop Gondola and Forest Tram. The temperature was expected to be in the low 50’s during our excursion. We knew the tram would be an open-air tram, hence the jackets.  We had a meeting time of 6:40 at the Adventure Center on shore.

 

We arrived at Icy Strait Point just before 6 PM.  The Celebrity Equinox was already docked when the Eurodam arrived. 

 

We met up with Ralph and Adrienne and got off the ship.  It was a longer walk on the pier to get to shore than I expected. 

 

The Adventure Center was right there at the pier.  Inside there was a mass of people that were going on various excursions.  There was no one holding a sign for our excursion.  We had to ask where we should go. 

 

We were told to take the Green Gondola up to the Departure Center for our tickets.  The Green Gondola is free and the line to get on it was very long. 

 

 

After getting off the Green Gondola we walked over to the Departure Den on a very rocky surface.  I was concerned, because this is the type of surface that aggravates my wife’s knee condition. 

 

Inside the den we had to get into another line to get our tickets for the Red Gondola and Tram ride. 

 

 Since our tickets were on our smartphones the lady at the counter took a photo with her smartphone and then gave us our physical tickets for the ride on the Red Gondola up to the top of the mountain for our forest tram ride.  I’m glad my wife’s phone worked well with the Holland Navigation App because my phone wouldn’t call up our tickets.  This whole tickets on your phone thing seems silly to this old man.  I mean, we ended up with a physical ticket anyway.

 

The line to get on the Red Gondola wasn’t long at all.  The ride to the top where the tram ride began was up a steep mountain. 

 

At the top we had a 10 minute wait for the tram ride through the forest. While waiting we watched two people dusting off the seats of the tram which was quite dusty.  I wondered how long that tram had been in storage.

 

After boarding the tram and starting our trip I realized right away why the tram had to be dusted.  We were on a dirt road and the wheels of the tram were kicking up a huge amount of dirt and dust.  I immediately put my camera under my coat to prevent dust from damaging it, so no pics.  The gentleman seated in front of me must have had breathing problems because he kept his coat over his nose for the entire ride.

 

The roundtrip tram ride was about an hour and a half long with one scenic stop and one stop for a bathroom break at a porta potty. Basically this excursion was a boring and dusty ride through the forest.  By the time it was over, everyone was covered in road dust. LOL, our brand new jackets were covered in dust.  During dry times, they really should spray the road twice a day with water.

 

By the time we had walked back to the Red Gondola and then to the Green Gondola on uneven and rocky ground, my wife’s knee was killing her.  Fortunately at the Adventure Center there was a golf cart to take those with mobility issues back to the ship.  We took advantage of that.

 

We were back on the ship at 9:30 which was all aboard time.  We went directly to our cabin to dust ourselves off.  Even though my camera had been under my coat it still had a light coating of dust.  Thank goodness it wasn’t damaged.  Do I feel that excursion was worth the $79 per person we paid for it? Definitely NOT!

 

After cleaning (dusting) ourselves off a bit, we headed up to the buffet and got some of those delicious cookies and made some hot chocolate to take back to our cabin.  Once again Joyce was able to ice up her knee because our wonderful room steward Fredrick always made sure our ice bucket was full.

 

Later that evening we had a spectacular sunset. 

 

My next post will be our Sitka stop.

Tuesday June 20^th Glacier Bay 6 AM to 4 PM

 

 

Brrr, it was 47 degrees when I got up this morning.  Room service delivered our breakfast 10 minutes early at 6:20. The food was still very hot and quite delicious.  After eating we put on a few light layers of clothing and went out on our balcony to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

 

It was around 7 AM when the park rangers boarded the ship.  They stayed onboard all day until we left Glacier Bay.  During their time onboard they gave a little history of the park and the glaciers and were quick to point out any wildlife they saw as we cruised.  You could hear the ranger’s descriptions on the cabin’s TV if it was tuned to the channel that showed the Bow Camera. We had to turn the volume up high to hear them.

 

The deeper we cruised into Glacier Bay the more beautiful the scenery became. Early in the morning there were low hanging clouds in the mountains.

 

As the sun rose higher those clouds were burned off and we had a beautiful day for cruising the bay.  The scenery is indescribably beautiful.

 

In the distance I saw there was a disturbance in the water.  Looking through my binoculars I saw a small group of seals in the water.  Sorry I don’t have a better picture of them.

 

There seemed to be more and deeper snow in the mountains as we cruised farther into Glacier Bay.  There was more snow in the mountains than when we were here the first week of June in 2019.

 

Ralph spotted a bear on the shore with his binoculars.  I managed to get a good look at the bear too, but when I turned to get my camera for a picture he was disappearing into the woods.

 

The Captain had allowed the decks on the bow of the ship on decks, 4, 5, 6, and 7 to be opened.  Many passengers took advantage of it.  This is a picture I took of deck 4 looking down from deck 5.  The views were beautiful. 

 

 

While I was at the front of the ship we cruised by another glacier, of course I forgot what the name of that glacier was.  It certainly had a lot of dirty ice.

 

The highlight of our cruise in Glacier Bay would be the stop at Margerie Glacier. As the ship got closer to Margerie the number of growlers in the water increased. Seagulls seemed to appreciate them as a place to rest and chill.

 

 

Then in the distance we could see the spectacular Margerie glacier come into view.

 

Pictures of the glacier can’t do it justice.  Margerie is 21 miles long and at the water it is .9 of a mile wide and rises 200 feet above the water line.  100 feet of the glacier is underwater.

 

 

Our port side of the ship had a view of the glacier for 30 minutes or so.  Everyone was hoping to see the glacier calving but no such luck.  Then the Captain slowly turned the ship so that the starboard side of the ship would have a long look at the Glacier.

 

With new scenery to see I took more pictures.

 

And then suddenly we could hear a combined oooooohhhh from the passengers on the glacier side of the ship.  Yep, the glacier had calved. Here’s a picture I borrowed of that calving that was posted on a different social media platform.  Bummer we didn’t get to see it.

 

We spent at least an hour at Margerie Glacier and then it was time to head back. As we departed we saw some seals resting on the floating ice.

 

We passed by a much smaller cruise ship, the Baranof Dream, as she headed toward Margerie. I think this picture of the Baranof Dream gives a better perspective of the size of the growlers in the water.

 

We passed another large growler that had some seals resting on it.

 

As we cruised, I once again saw a disturbance in the water and looking through my binoculars I was thrilled to see a large colony of Sea Otters. Not surprisingly, a group of floating sea otters is called a Raft. They were far enough away I couldn’t get a decent picture of them.  This was the best I could do.

 

Our next sighting was the Holland America Noordam as she cruised toward Margerie Glacier.  Since the National Park Service only allows two cruise liners per day into Glacier Bay, Holland America owned it today.

 

The Captain slowed the ship as we approached Lamplugh Glacier. As we got closer, I could see a small boat at the base of the glacier through my binoculars.

 

That boat was very close to shore by the glacier.

 

Then I noticed people were walking around on shore by the glacier.  I wasn’t expecting to see that, but it certainly seemed like a cool thing to do. 

 

 Lamplugh Glacier was another beautiful part of Glacier Bay National Park.

 

After we left Lamplugh, Joyce and I took time out to have a quick lunch at the buffet.  We decided to try a pizza from New York Pizza.  Just like the burgers, the pizza was made to order and they give you a pager to notify you when it's ready.  The pizza was about an 8 or 10 inch pizza which was just the right amount for the two of us.  It was very, very good. 

 

As we continued cruising, the scenery was just spectacular. On the TV we heard the ranger announce there were some seals on the rocks coming up on our port side that we would be passing by.

 

 

It was around 4 PM when the ranger boat came along side and the park rangers departed.  It was a great day in Glacier Bay and we were blessed with blue skies.  Our ship was now headed for Icy Strait Point where we were scheduled to dock at 6 PM.

 

My next post will be about Icy Strait Point.

5 hours ago, quack2 said:

I hope you will report in on how the short, evening visit to Icy STRAIT Point goes.  Doesn't seem like enough time to do much, including what watching.  Are shops and restaurants open that late?  I love ISP, but it deserves more time.

 

I will be writing about Icy Strait Point but our excursion took up the short time we were there so we really didn't get a chance to experience the port itself. 

13 hours ago, SuzWillCruise said:

We were on this same cruise! Following along.

 

Re the fire alarm: did you see a lot of kids? We were staying at the airport Embassy Suites, and they handed out a flyer about a bunch of “don’t do’s”.  Seriously, it was a whole page!  We noted to each other that “there must be a story related to this” and the front desk person said they’d had issues with kids pulling the fire alarm and the fire dept has to come out before people can come back inside, and then they said that there was a soccer tournament nearby.  Most of the kids were fine, but a few of them could have remembered to use their indoor voices, and some of them were taking unnecessary trips up and down the elevator.  With only 2 out of three elevators, that was annoying.  But nobody pulled the fire alarm!
 

We also ate at Pinnacle on the 1st day, and you’re absolutely right about the bacon and the ribeye. We started our meal at 5, though, because that was 8pm at home.

 

I just realized after seeing your pictures that we didn’t have a single towel animal the entire trip!  Huh.  It was our first HAL sailing, so we thought it wasn’t a thing.  It’s fine.  (Unless you post later with a picture of a towel animal whale.  Then I will be super jealous, and will have to request a towel animal whale on our next Alaska sailing!)

 

We were disappointed by the Wildlife expert, too.  The cruise director lady was good, though.

 

We didn't have many kids in the hotel but there were some.  Interesting about kids pulling fire alarms, that certainly was a possibility. 

I wasn't expecting towel animals, so I was surprised when the elephant showed up.  I didn't take pictures of the others towel animals but a couple of times we had to asked each other what that critter was supposed to be.  I think we had a seal one time, but we weren't sure. 

Monday June 19^th  Juneau

 

 

With the clocks turned back I was up very early.  Once again the temperature was 49 degrees at 5:30 AM but at least the wind had died down.  We didn’t have an excursion planned for Juneau, but we did plan to take the Goldbelt Tram to the top of Mt. Roberts for the view.

 

The buffet opened at 6 AM and shortly after we headed up to deck 9 for breakfast.  The buffet always offered an excellent selection.  My wife and I have been on quite a few cruises and one thing I always hated at breakfast was watery scrambled eggs.  This was never the case on the Eurodam, at least in my experience. 

 

After breakfast we went up to the Crow’s Nest so I could get a specialty coffee at the Explorations Cafe.  There was a long line waiting to order and when it came time for me to order I had forgotten what I wanted so I ordered two Peach Bellinis.  Oops, my bad but we might as well drink them.  By the way, water and specialty coffee is included with the beverage package. 

 

After our drink we headed back to our cabin.  It was still too chilly to sit out on our balcony so I decided to explore the ship some more while Joyce stayed in our cabin to read.

 

I headed outside to the rear of the ship to take a few pics.  It was a beautiful sunny day although the wind still had a chill with it. A light jacket or long-sleeved shirt was all that was needed if you were in the sunlight. 

 

 

The scenery was already amazing. 

 

As I took some pictures, I noticed a cruise ship in the distance on the starboard side that was Holland ship and another cruise ship following in our wake to the rear that was a Princess ship. Oh boy, a cruise ship race to Juneau. 

 

 

Before I forget, there is one more nice thing that really added class to the ship.  In the public restrooms there were clean cloth towels for drying your hands. Drying your hands with cloth is so much better than paper towels. Little things impress me. It's rare to have cloth hand towels in a public bathroom. 

 

Since the four of us enjoy watching a ship come into port, we went to an early lunch with Adrienne and Ralph in the buffet.  While the others went through the buffet I went to the Dive In for a made to order burger.  After placing my order, they gave me a pager to notify me when the burger and fries were ready. You could also get a hot dog or Brat at the Dive In. 

 

 

Within fifteen minutes my pager buzzed and I picked up my order.  They made a delicious burger, not quite as good as a Guy’s burger on Carnival, but very, very good.

 

We finished lunch and headed out on the back of the Lido deck to watch our ship come into Juneau and dock.  The luxury ship, Oceania Regatta, was already anchored in Juneau.  Apparently those on the luxury ship had to tender into Juneau. 

 

It was noon as we began to dock in Juneau.  We had a nice view of the town as we docked and we could see two of Oceania's tenders in port. 

 

When I looked aft I could see the two cruise ships that were following us were not far behind us. 

 

After the ship was secured to the dock, the Princess ship that had been following us came into port.  The ship came in, did a 180 maneuver, and then slowly sidled toward her berth.  At one point her aft looked so close to our aft that I wondered if I would be needing a personal injury lawyer. Fortunately she docked without incident. 

 

 

Eventually there were five ships in the port of Juneau, the Regatta, the Royal Princess, the Koningsdam, the Celebrity Solstice, and of course our ship, the Eurodam.

 

Joyce and I didn’t have an excursion planned but we did intend to take the Goldbelt tram up to Mt. Roberts later in the afternoon, but with so many ships coming in at the same time we decided to go ahead and leave before the port was overwhelmed with passengers. 

 

Tickets for the Goldbelt tram were $50 each. Wow, I guess that’s why it’s called the Goldbelt tram, it’s gold for the owners.  I could be wrong, but I think when we took this tram in 2019 it only cost $35 each.

 

There was a very long line of people that extended outside the building waiting to take the tram.  Joyce got in the line to hold a place while I went inside and bought our tickets.  When I returned with the tickets the line hadn’t moved much.  It took 40 minutes before we actually boarded the tram. 

 

Here’s a picture I took on the way up of the Eurodam, you can see the roof over the midship pool was open. 

 

Here’s a picture of that unused deck 12 on the Eurodam. 

 

The view at the top of Mt. Roberts is beautiful.  The first picture shows the five ships in port. 

 

 

 

The Timberline Restaurant is at the top Mt. Roberts so we went there and ordered a couple of beers.  The restaurant has an outside deck and we were lucky enough to snag a table out there.  The weather was beautiful, the view from the deck was beautiful, and we were drinking beer, life doesn’t get any better than that. 

 

I think we spent about 2 hours at the top and then decided to head back to the ship. Once again we had to get in a long line for the trip down but this time the wait was only 20 minutes.

 

We were back onboard the Eurodam by 4:20. The walk to and from the ship along with the standing and waiting for a tram aggravated my wife’s bad knee so when we got back to the cabin she iced it up. Our cabin steward, Fredrick, always made sure we had ice in our cabin. He was the best cabin steward we’ve experienced over our previous 15 cruises.

 

At 6 PM we met up with Adrienne and Ralph for dinner in the Main Dining Room.  We never had a bad meal in the main dining room.  After eating Joyce and I went back to our cabin so she could ice up her knee.

 

We spent a little time on our balcony and watched as some of the float planes and boats were returning from their excursions. 

 

 

Later in the evening we watched as the cruise ships began to leave Juneau. 

 

Tomorrow we would be cruising Glacier Bay National Park, so we hung an order for room service breakfast on our cabin door to be delivered at 6:30.  After GBNP we would also visit Icy Straight Point in the evening.

 

Sunday June 18^th Sea Day and Father’s Day 

 

There was a Father's Day card for me when I woke up. It was not only quite windy this morning, the temperature was 49 degrees also.  There would be no sitting out on the balcony enjoying an early morning cup of coffee for me.  I always take little magnetic thermometers that I use on cruise ships to check the outside and inside temperatures.

 

After Joyce got up, we ate breakfast at the buffet on the Lido deck.  For the most part this is not a self-serve buffet, instead crew members wearing food service gloves dish up the items you wanted.  Although this takes a bit longer to go through the buffet line, it seems more sanitary to me.

 

The Shore Excursion desk in the Crow’s Nest on deck 11 opened at 9 AM so we headed there to find out why tickets for our shore excursions hadn’t been put in our cabin.  We were informed that Holland now puts those tickets on the Navigator App on our smartphone and there are no physical tickets.  ARGH!! I’m an old man and prefer things to be done the old-fashioned way, I want a paper ticket.  It took us a bit to swipe, flip, and scroll through the Navigator App, but we finally found our tickets.

 

Since we were already in the Crow’s Nest where there is a cafe bar and great views at the front of the ship, we grabbed a couple of Peach Bellinis and found a place to sit by the windows. 

 

By the way, early in our trip the ship’s WiFi worked well for me but later in the cruise it became very slow and useless.  Oh well, it was freeish.

 

After our morning liquid treat of Peach Bellini, we went to B.B. Kings Lounge for the Meet Your Wildlife Expert presentation.  I thought it would be the expert talking about wildlife but no, he only talked about his qualifications to be called a naturalist and wildlife expert for 30 minutes.  ZZZzzz!

 

After the talk, we went back to our cabin so Joyce could get ready to meet up with Adrienne and go to the spa.  We had that onboard credit so why not?  When we entered our cabin this towel animal was waiting for us, but more importantly there were two little chocolates too. 

 

While the girls were pampering themselves, I took this opportunity of alone time to explore the ship.  I especially wanted to take a few pictures of deck 12.  Deck 12 doesn’t exist when you look at the deck plans on the Holland website. It’s as if Holland doesn’t want you to know about it. Basically it’s a secret deck.

 

Deck 12 was larger than I expected and quite empty.  On the port side there were a few loungers tied up and on the starboard side there was a shower.  The door you see in the pictures opens to a set of stairs that takes you down to the Crow’s Nest on deck 11.

Port side of deck 12

 

Front of deck 12

 

Starboard side of deck 12

 

The door opened to a set of stairs that went down to deck 11.

 

This door had a warning to open it slowly because people might be on the other side.

 

Every now and then during our time at sea I would go up on this secluded deck for some quiet time. This seemed like a lot of wasted space.

 

I also used this alone time to take a walk around the Promenade Deck.  I love ships that have a full wraparound promenade. 

 

 

 

The crew was always busy cleaning various areas of the ship.

 

With the ladies still at the spa Ralph and I met up and went to the buffet for lunch.  I thought the buffet offered a good variety of food every time we ate there.  Just as we finished lunch our wives found us and joined us.  The ladies told us how wonderful the spa was.  Once everyone was finished with lunch, we all had dessert.  The cookies and ice cream available at the dessert station in the buffet were very good.

 

At 3 PM we went to the Main Dining Room for afternoon tea.  Our tablemates were very interesting folks, and it was an international gathering since one of our tablemates was from England.  Which he made a point of mentioning more than a few times. 

 

Back at our cabin there a Canadian Declaration Card in our mailbox with instructions that we had to fill it out for the final stop in Victoria.  We were to return the form to customer service by Tuesday.  There was a box next to the CS desk to drop the form in. 

 

We met up with our friends again at 5 PM for pre-dinner drinks at the Pinnacle Bar.  Thirty minutes later we headed to the Main Dining Room for dinner.

 

After dinner Joyce and I went to the theater for the 7:30 show, Move. The show was delayed 20 minutes as there was a technical difficulty with some motorized panels that were to be used in the show.  This show was done by the Step One Dance Company and it was an outstanding presentation of sight, sound, and motion.  In my opinion, the show was as good or better than any dance production on any cruise line. 

 

After the show we stopped by a bar to get a couple of glasses of wine to take back to our cabin.  There was a reminder in the keycard slot on our cabin door to turn our clocks back one hour to Alaska Daylight Time. That ended our full day at sea.

OUR CABIN 6142

 

On embarkation day, after unpacking I tried to put our luggage under the bed, but I encountered something already under the bed.  It turned out to be two drawers.  We were still able to squeeze our large luggage under the bed anyway and put our carry-on luggage in the closet.

 

This was a standard balcony cabin and it had good closet space with three closets. On a shelf in one closet was the room safe, and another closet had the life jackets.

 

There were also two hooks high on the wall for hanging coats and hats.  Those hooks were too high for my wife, so we always bring magnetic hooks and put them much lower on the wall for her.

 

Also in the bottom of one of the closets there were two blankets for use on the balcony, two robes, and a bag for sending out laundry.

 

There was a nightstand with storage on each side of the bed.  There was also a reading light and a USB port on each side but no electrical outlet.

 

The loveseat in our cabin was in great shape, it looked and felt new.

 

Opposite the loveseat was a desk and chair.  The mini fridge was on the left and on the right, there was a hair dryer and some wine glasses.

 

By the desk there was another USB port.

 

Also, there were two 115v and two 220v outlets. I guess I should have moved my wife's hair dryer before I took the picture.

 

Above the desk in the corner where the TV used to be there were two more 115v outlets. Those came in handy for charging camera batteries.

 

The door to the balcony was a hinged door, hooray!  I hate the cabins that have sliding doors to the balcony because on older ships that have them, it takes two gorillas and an orangutan to open it.

 

The balcony was deep enough for a lounge chair and under each one was a footstool.  I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the footstool that was under each chair.

 

Because the bathroom had a tub, we had plenty of room in the shower.  There was also body wash, shampoo, and conditioner in the shower.

 

There wasn’t a lot of shelf space by the washbasin, but we made do.  There was also hand soap and hand lotion.

 

There was a storage shelf under the wash basin counter.

 

Funny thing about the faucet in the washbasin, to turn on the cold water you turned it to the right while the hot had to be turned to the left.  That got a bit confusing.

 

Above the wash basin near the ceiling there was an electrical outlet for shavers that could be switched between 115v and 230v.

 

One last thing about the cabin, there was a floor light that automatically came on when you walked to the bathroom.

 

That completes the tour of our cabin which was more than adequate for our needs.

For anyone interested, I've begun posting about our Alaskan trip on the Eurodam on June 17th to June 24th in the Alaska Forum in the Ports of Call.  Here's a link.  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2948920-alaska-trip-report-holland-america-eurodam-jun-17-jun-24/#replyForm

6/17/23 EMBARKATION DAY

 

We were already awake when at 5 AM the hotel’s fire alarm sounded.  A hotel employee was on our floor yelling for everyone to evacuate the building.  As we exited the building, three fire trucks were already on the scene.

 

 

By 5:30 it was determined to be a false alarm and we were all allowed back to our rooms.  At 6:00 AM the hotel began serving their free hot breakfast.  Along with the standard continental items, they also served scrambled eggs, sausage, and pancakes.  The pancakes were made fresh in an automatic pancake making machine that you operated.

 

Our friend Adrienne ordered a large Uber that could take the four of us and all our luggage.  The Uber showed up on time at 9:30 and we arrived at pier 91 at 10:20. Check-in was easy peasy and we were assigned to boarding group 2.

 

Boarding began at 11:00 and we went to the buffet for lunch.  It was announced that rooms were ready at 11:30. My luggage was already waiting for me at the cabin door.  Our room steward Fredrick delivered my wife’s luggage a short time later and introduced himself.

 

This was just our second cruise with Holland, and I was happy to see the cruise line still gives you a carryall bag. We also were given a necklace with a charm from the Effy Jewelry store onboard.  It’s simple little things like that make you feel the cruise line appreciates your business.

 

 

 

We unpacked, then watched the Safety Drill on our stateroom TV, and then went to our muster station and were checked in.  One of the few good things to come from Covid was the way muster drills are done, quick and easy.

 

After muster we headed to the Ocean Bar around 2 PM for the first drink of the day, a rum and coke.

 

 

 

Sailaway was at 3 PM and there was a light mist of rain falling with a temperature of 54 degrees.  I took this picture from our balcony of the NCL Bliss at pier 66 as we left port.

 

 

We met with our friends at the Pinnacle Bar for a pre-dinner drink at 5:30.  Because we couldn’t use our onboard credit until we actually boarded the ship, earlier in the day Adrienne made reservations for the four of us at the Pinnacle Grill for the last night of our cruise too.

 

At 6 PM we went to the Pinnacle Grill where we had reservations for that evening.  For my appetizer I just had to order the candied bacon.  It was good but not great.

 

 

The Ribeye steak I ordered was one of the few disappointments, my steak was overcooked and had quite a bit of grissle.  Yes, I could have asked to have a different steak but service was slow and it wasn’t the end of the world for me to eat an overcooked steak.  For dessert I ordered the “Not so Baked Alaska” and it was delicious.

 

 

From start to finish our meal took over two hours and twenty minutes.

 

After dinner we retired to our cabin.  Our bodies were still on Central Daylight Time so we went to the 9:30 presentation of We Are Alaska, it was very informative.  After that we called it a night and went back to our cabin.

 

Continued tomorrow.

I’m Bob and my wife is Joyce and just a heads up, we are in our 70’s so you might find this trip report s_l_o_w and boring.

 

Once I get into the body of my trip report, I will be posting quite a few pictures. My three cameras are a Canon SX540, a Canon Elph, and my Motorola smart phone.  This report will be a bit wordy at first, but I have a lot of photos of our trip to post.  Sorry I’m not a foodie so no pics of food.  I’m too busy eating it to take pics of it.  It was hard to choose which photos I would use for the Glacier Bay National Park part of this trip. Glacier Bay is spectacular and should be on everyone’s bucket list. 

 

 ALASKAN CRUISE 17 Jun – 24 Jun 2023

 Holland America M/S Eurodam

 Prologue

 

My wife and I (Joyce and Bob) booked this June Alaskan cruise when some good friends of ours, Ralph and Adrienne asked us to join them.  The cruise was a roundtrip from Seattle and would be our second time cruising Alaska.  Our cruise would visit two ports of call that we didn’t see on our first Alaskan trip, Icy Strait Point and Sitka.  This cruise would also visit Juneau, Ketchikan, Victoria, BC and would cruise Glacier Bay NP.

 

We booked a standard balcony cabin on the Eurodam with Holland’s Have it All package for this 7-day cruise back in February 2022.  We booked cabin 6142 which was right next to our friends’ cabin.  Over the ensuing months there were a couple of price drops and increases in perks, so we always called to have them added to our booking.  By the time final payment came due, our Have It All package included the following.

 

7-day surf WiFi for both of us (no limit on the number of minutes).

The Signature Beverage Pkg (gratuities included)

Shore excursion discount ($100 each).

One night specialty dining.

OBC of $50 each ($100).

Pre-paid crew appreciation ($16.00 pp/pd).

 

Along with the HIA package, I also applied for and received the $100 military appreciation OBC, and the $100 Carnival shareholder credit.  That brought our OBC up to $300.

 

We always fly into the cruise port a day early so we booked a flight from St. Louis to Seattle on Southwest Airlines.  We also booked a night at the Best Western Seattle Airport Hotel.

 

Since Covid is still a thing, and we didn’t know if Holland was isolating passengers who contract it, so we went ahead and got our 5^th Covid bivalent booster shot a month and a half before the cruise.  We’re both in our 70’s so we try to minimize our risk of getting Covid.  We also bring sanitizing sprays, wipes, and hand gel, along with face masks that we wear in elevators and entertainment venues.  Hopefully this will also reduce the risk of getting Norovirus too.

 

A month before our cruise I signed up for Seattle’s Port Valet.  A free service that takes your bags from the cruise ship and checks them in at SeaTac and the next time you see them is your home destination airport.  On the last night of the cruise, you receive your airline boarding pass and luggage tags in your cabin.

 

On June 4^th we received our boarding documents online from Holland and we were assigned a check-in time of 11:30 with Group C.

 

THE TRIP BEGINS 6/16/23

 

We left our house at 5 AM for the drive to Lambert Airport in St. Louis for our 8:30 AM flight to Seattle with a change of planes in Denver, CO.  We parked our car at a commercial parking lot across from the airport that offers a shuttle to the terminal.

 

At the terminal, we dropped our checked luggage at the Southwest Airlines counter and then went through security.  One of the advantages of being 77 years old is I don’t have to take my shoes off.

 

The flight and the change of planes in Denver went smoothly and we arrived in Seattle at 1:15 PM PDT.

 

In Seattle it was quite a walk to the area to claim our luggage and then another long walk to the area where hotel shuttle buses

picked up passengers.  My wife and I are in our 70’s so we’re not fond of long walks in airports.

 

We caught the hotel shuttle and we were checked in by 2:30. During check-in we were told if we needed a ride to any nearby restaurants the hotel shuttle would take us there.  That was an unexpected and nice touch.  Our friends were already at the hotel and checked into a room that was much larger than ours.

 

For dinner the four of us decided to walk to the IHOP restaurant which was just a block away. Unfortunately, it began to rain so we took advantage of the hotel’s offer of a shuttle.  We were told to call when we were ready to return and they would pick us up.  That worked out quite well.  After dinner we went back to our room and called it a night.

 

Next post will be embarkation day.

 

 

I am bummed.  Our little group booked the 6 day cruise on the Reflection in May because it made a stop in Key West.  Now that port has been replaced with Coco Cay and the ship changed to the Beyond.  I’m 77 years old and have undergone treatment for skin cancer twice, I’m not interested in Coco Cay. I’m also not interested in having an infinite balcony. We will be cancelling the cruise.

I just returned yesterday from a roundtrip 7 day Alaskan from Seattle.  This was my second time visiting Alaska.  This morning I had to see if the photos of eagles I took from the Aleutian Ballad (season 2, Deadliest Catch) as we cruised out to pull crab pots turned out.  I'm not a photographer, just a picture taker, but I'm very happy with these pics.  I'm especially happy with the last photo because you can clearly see the fish in his talons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, RB9643 said:

 

Still trying to figure out why anyone would get a burger on a cruise ship, when there are 1000 other things to try.

 

But then, I'm a hotdog guy, so there you go...

 

 

 

I'm a hotdog guy too, so you can imagine my joy when I was on a Princess ship for the first time and saw they offered a chili dog at their Trident Grill.  You can imagine how disappointed I was in what I was served.  Who in their right mind would call this a chili dog?

I've never been impressed with the burgers served on any cruise line until I had a burger from Guy's Burger Joint, those burgers were outstanding.

19 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

I cant believe we are all still debating over a bottle of water left in the fridge and the cruise's prior dailies still in the rack.  Perhaps a group of passengers with pitch forks can hunt down the person or persons responsible for such a travesty.  I don't know what I would do if I was in the same situation.  The shock, horror and disbelief of all of it.  I am not sure I could gather the strength to throw them away and continue on the journey.  I would be knocking on the captain's door that night to make him aware. 

 

 

According to the OP a half bottle of water was left in the fridge, daily print outs from the previous cruise still in the rack, the sink hadn’t been cleaned, and dried foam on the shower head.  Totally unacceptable because all that would lead me to wonder if the bedding had been changed.

On 6/4/2023 at 8:31 AM, shof515 said:

all cruise lines is cutting back on room stewards and assigning them double the work. i notice it on all my previous on all major cruise lines

 

Really?  On our Hawaiian Princess cruise we had twice a day service for the entire 16 day cruise.

This will be the latest new thrill ride on the ICON, $9.95 per person/per drop.

 

On 5/23/2023 at 5:23 PM, Georgia_Peaches said:

When our kids were young my husband and I never traveled on the same plane together unless we were flying with the kids as well.  I was too afraid of leaving them orphans should something terrible happen.  Now they are grown and flying separately is a thing of the past.

 

And here I thought my sister was the only one that did that.  I would call her a nut case every time she booked different flights.  Apparently she didn't think her brother and sisters could care for her kids properly.  That ended when her kids became adults.

1 hour ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

Taking off once a year is willy nilly?  I'm glad I do not have your job!

 

Then you don't want to be a small business owner.

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all.  Personally I think FCC should be good for 5 years.  Not everyone has a job that allows them to take off willy nilly to go on a cruise every year.

Very interesting.  That's the second lifeboat incident in 6 months.  Back in December Quantum had a lifeboat fall from the ship.

Has anyone had a bad experience using Port Valet in Seattle?  I'm think about using them when our Alaskan cruise ends.

Covid is still around but don't wait until something happens and you can no longer travel, tomorrow is guaranteed to no one.  Go on a cruise but take precautions such as getting a bivalent booster shot, hand sanitizer, face masks, and sanitizing spray.

 

Those are the precautions we took for our 16-day roundtrip Hawaiian cruise from San Diego this past January.  That cruise saw so many Covid cases that the Captain recommended everyone begin wearing face masks and face masks were made available to everyone.  There were a lot of Covid cases onboard including the cabin next to us being in quarantine.  Even so, we came off the ship Covid free.  BTW we are both in our 70's with health issues.

 

My wife and I are going on a Alaskan cruise next month and last week we got our 5th booster shot as a precaution.

Go for an ADA room because, depending on the width of the scooter, it may not fit through the door of a regular cabin.

49 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

Kids are supposed to have water slides?  Damn!  I made my kids go to the lectures and museums and write a five-page essay on the changing scale of economics in the Alaska gold rushes. 

 

Yes, kids should have water slides and video arcades.  I would never curse my kid to a cruise with mostly old people which is pretty much what Holland and Princess cruises are.  

 

On my last cruise there were so many old people that instead of a doctor in the medical center they had an archeologist.  😂