Review -Nieuw Amsterdam Inside Passage Sept 23-30, 2017

Well, I tried to post this as a review and it seemed to just "hang" on me, so I'm going to post it here as a thread! Any questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer. It's probably not the best of reviews (we didn't do a LOT onboard the ship), but it may be helpful to some people who are trying to decide on a ship, or a route, or a stateroom!

This was our 3rd Alaska cruise, same route as our last cruise in August 2011, and a return to the beautiful Nieuw Amsterdam (which we'd previously sailed, Eastern Carrib in December 2010). DH and I traveled with DB (Demon Brother :evilsmile:) and FSIL (favorite Sis in Law). We were hoping to travel with another DB (Demon Brother :evilsmile:) but he had to cancel due to some medical issues. The 4 of us who soldiered on had 2 staterooms on deck 8, VF category just below the smoking section on the Lido deck. We had no problem with smoke because of the floor-to-ceiling windows above us, but we did have a little noise during the day when chairs were being moved around.

Backing up, the 4 of us flew Las Vegas to Seattle on Thursday the 21st, then rented an Alamo car and drove to Vancouver. We stayed 2 nights at the Day's Inn Vancouver Downtown and it wasn't too bad, but the noise at night was a bit much (street traffic, pub downstairs let out a bunch of very noisy rowdies about 4am first night, noisy neighbors....and no, I don't mean DB and FSIL!). If you book at this hotel, ask for a quieter room away from the street and elevator! Location was great, though, just about 3 short blocks from Canada Place. We did the HOHO bus on Friday and really enjoyed the Stanley Park route. There was a Tim Horton's near our hotel for breakfasts, and the Lion's Pub provided yummy comfort food dinners for the 4 of us.

Embarkation on Saturday the 23rd: We checked out of our hotel about noon and walked the short distance to Canada Place. We'd been notified by HAL that there were 3 ships in town and we knew it was going to be a madhouse. Yes, it was crowded. Yes, dropping off our bags was kind of a mess. But there were lots of chairs set up for arriving passengers and the staff kept an eagle eye on the sections who had arrived first and directed them up to check in before those who had arrived later. I think the big hangup was in Border and Customs, but we got through it and were onboard and in our staterooms (where our luggage already awaited us!), within 2 hours of leaving our hotel. I count that as a good embarkation, although some complaints were heard!

Staterooms 8143 and 8147 were great for us, fairly big rooms and fairly big balconies. Our last 2 cruises have been on NCL and their rooms and verandas were nowhere near as big. We thought the rooms looked nice and everything was clean and neat. Our room stewards, Taufik ("T") and Miko, were great; unobtrusive and yet always on hand for any issues (we didn't have any!) or requests. We went up to Lido deck for a bite to eat and a sail away drink. The pizza place seemed a likely visit, and while we enjoyed our bite of late lunch, it wasn't anything we wanted to repeat.....the pizza was average, but that's about all. The bar staff were friendly and quick.

MDR dinner and our dinner staff were great. Wish we'd gotten their names, LOL, but we ended up only seeing them once more on this cruise!

Day 1: sailing the inside Passage. A lovely day, sunshine and calm seas and beautiful sights. DB and DH went to the fitness center nearly every morning, while FSIL and myself enjoyed the good life of a leisurely morning. Lunch was mainly the Dive Inn burgers-and-dogs-and-fries whenever we were on the ship. We attended a Test Kitchen class and enjoyed watching some different foods being prepared (shrimp diablo and jalapeno poppers). We ate dinner at the Pinnacle Grill that night and thought it was very good.

Day 2: Juneau. A very atypical day in Juneau, the sun was shining and the sky was blue! "The boys" had signed up for HAL's Bike and Brew excursion while "the girls" did a HAL whale watching and wildlife cruise. FSIL and I had a great time with sightings of orcas, sea lions, sea birds and lots and lots of humpback whales! Lots of boats were out to see the whales, but everyone was very respectful of the distance needed to be maintained from the behemoths. My FSIL wanted to do a little shopping when we got back to town, so we did that and then walked over to The Twisted Fish.....which was unfortunately closed for the season!! I was sad, but we went back aboard and enjoyed a delicious dinner in Canaletto (the lasagna was fantastic, so was the gnocchi with short ribs). Meanwhile, DH and DB did their bike and brew and saw a lot of beautiful sights and the weather was perfect for this type of activity. They both count this as one of their favorite moments of the trip.

Day 3: Skagway. We had signed up with an outside company for a trip up into the Yukon (small passenger bus up, and train back). The price wasn't much different from the HAL excursion, but the number of passengers on our bus was only 24, so that was great. Met a CC role call member aboard! And what a beautiful drive!! Oh my gosh, we weren't expecting so many fall colors and it was GORGEOUS. Yes, it was a bit drizzly and wet, but it was still absolutely gorgeous. We had several stops along the route for pictures, pit stops and then stopped at Emerald Lake, which was absolutely beautiful in its fall panorama. Back to Caribou Crossing for an included lunch (with a huge crowd of people from lots of buses, but they handled things pretty well), saw some sled dogs and sled dog puppies, then a short visit in Carcross (sadly, the general store was boarded up for the winter). Funny thing, on our last visit to Skagway, we did almost this exact same trip "on our own" with a rental car and really enjoyed it then. But there's something to be said about having someone else do the driving and getting all that narration....not to mention getting to ride the train back to Skagway! From Carcross, we hopped back on the bus and beat feet to get to Fraser, where we boarded the train to go back to Skagway. Beautiful ride, fairly comfortable coach, and outside platforms from which we could take pictures of the incredible views! We went straight back to the ship on our arrival in Skagway, and to Tamarind for dinner (yum, but probably not my DB's favorite.....he's a meat and potatoes guy....but the food was delicious and our waitstaff were great!).

Day 4: Glacier Bay. Our weather luck kinda ran out here, as it was rainy all day, but it was still a beautiful day. The glaciers weren't very active and a side trip up a fjord to see another glacier was canceled because it was occluded by fog. We played a lot of Mexican Train Dominos today, sat on our balconies bundled up in robes and blankets, and enjoyed the views. We went to Canaletto again to let the boys try the yummy lasagna for dinner, then went out to see the entertainers in BB King's Blues Club. That was very good except for the first song (jazz, shudder!!!). Once they got into the blues, and the singers came out, we really enjoyed the set.

Day 5: Ketchikan. We'd booked a wildlife cruise and beach bonfire with HAL, but we had found out the previous night that it was canceled. We'd all been to Ketchikan before, and it was a rainy day, so none of us were too disappointed. We pretty much stayed on the ship (and loved that it was nearly empty) and played more Mexican Train Dominos, then "the girls" went for spa treatments (ahhhhh!) while "the boys" went into town for a look around and a little shopping. Dinner was only our 2nd night in the MDR and our waitstaff greeted us like long lost friends!! We had told them on the first night that we'd be at the Pinnacle Grill on the 2nd night, but we'd never made it back to check in with them again! They said they'd kept track of us to make sure we were still aboard, LOL. Anyway, dinner was great, FSIL and I had the crab legs and they were fantastic!

Day 6: at sea, sailing the Canadian Inside Passage. This turned out to be the BEST of days. The skies cleared up, the sun came out, the seas were calm, and we saw wildlife everywhere. Lots of dolphins streaming in the ship's wake, seals/sea lions on the shore, orcas in the distance, sea birds. It was fabulous! Last dinner in the Pinnacle Grill and it was better than our first dinner. We all (except DB) added surf to our turf and the 5 oz lobster tails were so worth the small up-charge! Sadly, it was time to pack, but we made time to go outside on the balconies every now and then, to check out the moonlight and the islands we were drifting past.

Day 7: disembarkation. Super smooth, super easy! We ordered breakfast 'in' and it arrived on time (actually, room service breakfasts had arrived early the whole trip), and we waited in our stateroom until our group was called. We were into Canada Place very shortly, found our bags very quickly, and located the car rental place within minutes. I think we were on the road with our rental car within 30 minutes of our group being announced! The border crossing was a little busy, we had about an hour wait and then were through and on our way back to Seattle. We had decided to take things easy and not be stressed by trying to catch an afternoon flight, so had booked a Best Western in Kent for the night, and would catch the early morning flight home Sunday. Everything worked out great, and we even made it over to Southcenter Mall to enjoy dinner at Din Tai Fung's! Mmmmm!

So..........it was a great trip, the Nieuw Amsterdam was in good condition and it was a pleasure to return to her after so many years. The food was great, the staff was great, the excursions were a lot of fun. The cabins were very roomy in our opinions! We didn't do a lot of entertainment activities, but the spa was nice (although expensive). Sadly, we had chances to see the Northern Lights on this trip (high activity) but the sky was always cloudy on the nights we had the best chance. There was a lot of rain, too, which didn't bother us too much, but might bother some. It's a rain forest area, after all, but September weather can be unpredictable. I'm happy we had calm seas and a few bright and sunny days!

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would definitely go again. We've been to Alaska in August and now in September, if we go again, maybe we'll pick high summer next time!

Thank you for the review. I am planning an August 2018 cruise on the NA. Trying to decide which aft balcony to get. Between Rotterdam deck (7)or Upper Promenade (4). Is it better to be higher or lower? Could you see things in the water from 8? And did you feel much motion that high up? Thx!

Thank you for the review. I am planning an August 2018 cruise on the NA. Trying to decide which aft balcony to get. Between Rotterdam deck (7)or Upper Promenade (4). Is it better to be higher or lower? Could you see things in the water from 8? And did you feel much motion that high up? Thx!

Hi, Pompein, you'll have a great trip! I think if we were to book again, I'd have picked deck 7 so that we didn't get the noise from above (Lido deck). I've found that having cabins above us AND below us are a good bet. That said, yes, we could see things in the water from deck 8, although any wildlife is going to appear bigger from a lower deck. For example, we saw lots of dolphins from decks 8 and 9, then saw them from deck 2 when we were at the Pinnacle Grill, and they were definitely larger from that much closer to the water! We didn't feel a lot of motion, but there was a little "rocking to sleep" on a few of the nights. I believe you'll feel less motion if your stateroom is midship and a lower deck.

Best wishes!

Thank you for reviewing your cruise.

Hi there CruiseMGM. Great review of the cruise. I don't really have to add to the review.

Thanks foe sharing your experience.

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Thanks for your review.

Thanks for your great review. Any tips or things you learned that you didn't know before your embarked?

Wonderful review and sounded like a terrific trip.

Keith

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Sounds like you had a great time.

Didn't you ever go to the Tamarind Restaurant? We love that place.

Great review!

Sounds like you had a good time.

thanks for taking the time to share and... welcome home:D

We did the same cruise in Jul & really enjoyed it. The embarkation in Vancouver was our only complaint. As you mentioned 3 ships in lots of people very crowded , took us a little longer to get on board. Once we got through all the security & customs that was what took the longest. When we got to the HAL check in we went right to priority boarding & where on board 10 min. later.

Allan

Hi there CruiseMGM. Great review of the cruise. I don't really have to add to the review.

Hi, Princess!! Glad to hear from you! What tours did you do in the ports? Happy we got to meet, sorry we didn't get to see more of you. It went by very quickly!

Best wishes!

Thanks for your great review. Any tips or things you learned that you didn't know before your embarked?

Hi, Crew News! Here's something silly.........which we probably should have known but didn't think of.

We (me an' FSIL) visited Canaletto and really didn't find much that we wanted to try from the "mains" section. They recommend 2 starters, a large pasta and a large main dish per couple. Anyway, we asked if we could have 2 pastas instead, and it was easily done. They said the lasagna was the chef's special, but I think they have it as a special every day. We ended up going back and taking the boys to try it, plus the gnocchi with beef short ribs (also delicious) and we ordered an additional pasta dish to share and try (eeek, 5 dishes of pasta in all for 4 people). We made good headway through it, but it was a lot of food. Anyway, the Canaletto will likely serve you up whatever you want, no matter what they recommend!

Best wishes!

Thanks for the welcome home, Kazu, and thanks to everyone for your comments. It really WAS a great cruise, we all enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

Krazy Kruisers, yes, we went to Tamarind one night and really enjoyed it. Well, DB probably didn't enjoy it quite as much as the rest of us, LOL, but he had the Shanghai ribs appetizer and the filet, which he said were very good...........he's a little more of a meat and potatoes man than the seafood lovers in our small group. I think we all really enjoyed everything! The satay sampler was especially good as an appetizer. I think my only complaint would be that (IMO) the Thai Basil Szechuan Shrimp may have been better as "regular" (eg: non breaded, non fried) shrimp, the tempura shrimp just seemed to get a little soggy in the sauce. DH loved his curry coconut chicken and he also had a spicy tuna roll that he said wasn't very spicy but was very good. You can't trust him, though, as his definition of spicy would set me on fire for days! It was a really fun evening made even better by our wait staff, who were great..........funny and friendly, and they had us laughing a lot!

By the way, the chocolate almond fortune cookies were pretty amazing! :D

Best wishes!

Thanks for your great review. Any tips or things you learned that you didn't know before your embarked?

Another thing I just remembered! The last few cruises we've been on, the stateroom staff wouldn't open the "gate" between balconies when we were traveling with others, and that was a real disappointment. Maybe that's just an NCL thing, but I distinctly remember Celebrity doing (NOT doing) that, too. This time, "T" quickly opened the door between our balconies and so we had a GREAT time on our adjoining outside areas, and each couple could talk to the other a lot easier. It made for great family time visiting!

Best wishes!

Hi, Princess!! Glad to hear from you! What tours did you do in the ports? Happy we got to meet, sorry we didn't get to see more of you. It went by very quickly!

 

Best wishes!

CruiseMGM, the tour that I did was in Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier. Which was good to see. I didn't walk down to any of the trails there. Just hung out took some photos of the glacier. Skagway and Ketchikan walked around town and did some shopping. I did rent a Cabana on the Lido Deck while sailing the Glacier Bay National Park, $50 from 9-5 Had Breakfast, Lunch, Drinks, in the Cabana.

It was good meeting Yourself and your Husband on the cruise. The cruise sure went by fast.

Thank you for sharing your cruise!

CruiseMGM, the tour that I did was in Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier. Which was good to see. I didn't walk down to any of the trails there. Just hung out took some photos of the glacier. Skagway and Ketchikan walked around town and did some shopping. I did rent a Cabana on the Lido Deck while sailing the Glacier Bay National Park, $50 from 9-5 Had Breakfast, Lunch, Drinks, in the Cabana.

 

It was good meeting Yourself and your Husband on the cruise. The cruise sure went by fast.

Hi, Princess! Your Mendenhall Glacier trip sounds nice, that's a really beautiful place to visit. We did a rain forest walk on our first trip there, with a photographer who pointed out all sorts of amazing things (being from the dry southwest, mushrooms of all variety are an endless and fascinating wonder for us). DH and DB visited 2 sides of Mendenhall Glacier area on their bike ride, and took some really goofy pictures at the glacier, but (aside from the clowns in the picture [DH and DB]) it looked like it was a really beautiful day there!

The cabana idea in Glacier Bay sounds like a good one, glad you had a nice time! And yes, it went by soooooo fast!

Best wishes!