Amsterdam-14 day Alaska cruise Review 7-8-11

[rajkr74]

Well we have the pictures of the cruise put into Microsoft Skydrive. Here is the link:

 

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212351#!/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212886!cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212347&sc=photos

 

This will take you to the three albums of pictures we took on the cruise along with two Hubbard Glacier pictures.

Click an album and a group of thumbnails will come up.

Click on the first thumbnail and the slide show will start.

To go back to the albums just click the up arrow in the top left corner of the slideshow and you can then click on the next album for viewing.

 

We could add more as we review it and see other pictures we want to add.

Rick

[rajkr74]

Day nine, Saturday, Homer: We sleep in (again) until 7:30am and went up to breakfast there after. Joyce again had to get some MORE pictures before we sat down to eat. I think today was waffle day with sausage links and of course Chocolate milk. We then headed to Techspert class were we uploaded some pictures. The Skydrive page allows you to send a link to the photo page for friends and family.

 

We were scheduled to dock in Homer at 10:00 so we went up to the promenade deck to watch the ship come into the dock. The dock was covered with a type of gull many who were nesting and they did not like giving up the dock to the dock workers of us passengers. There was also a Bald Eagle on the edge of the dock and we got some good pictures. The tide was such that the promenade deck was about the same level as the dock.

 

We decided to try and get off the ship and get closer to the eagle so we were about first in line to get off. But there were a few other people in front of us and they ran toward the eagle with us walking behind them. But the running caused the eagle to fly off even though he had been sitting there while dock workers walked by him for 15 mins. Disappointing. We walked around the dock area and found two more eagles on a water tower and got some great shots. Also found out what transportation options were available. There were school buses that were free that took you around the man made boat harbor to shops on the spit. The other bus took you to the formal town of Homer about 7 miles away for $15 total for a hop on and hop off. You can buy this ahead of time thru HAL and add toward your points for Mariner status. We went back to the ship got and got light jackets and took the free shuttle into the spit.

 

We walked around the spit and being Sat. there were a lot of people who had come there to camp and go fishing so it was plenty busy. The weather was warm and clear but a little windy as the day wore on. We walked around visiting the shops including the Deadliest Catch’s the Time Bandit shop. The ship was not in that day but we heard if it were or the Hillstrand boys were in the town would have been even busier. But we had to be back on the ship for our 12:00 tour, A Stroll Through the Harbor. We went onto the ship to collect a few things (charged camera batteries) and we went back down to the dock. A bus took us back to the spit were we were separated into two groups of people. We proceeded with our guide down to the boat dock. With the tide being out the angle of the ramp down was pretty steep. Our guide walked us around the boat basin explaining the different types of fishing boats and was pretty personal. We saw a charter bring in its catch of fish. We then walked up to a fish processing plant where one can get their fish cleaned, filleted, frozen and shipped (for a PRICE) home by Fed Ex. It was an OK tour for $24/pp. We then walked around the spit and visited shops but the best was going into the Salty Dawg Saloon for a couple of pictures and all the dollar bills tacked to the walls and ceiling.

 

We then took the bus back to the ship around 2:30pm. We went and had hamburgers for a late lunch in Terrance Grill midship lido. I went and watched a movie in our cabin while joyce tracked some eagles on deck with her camera. There were a ton of eagles in Homer but a little hard to shoot with the wind blowing. We pulled away from the dock at 5:30pm.

 

Diner was again in the MD with four other passengers. The show was Alfred Gerald-A Tribute to the Divas, but we did not go to it. I instead went to the movie From Mexico with Love. The acting was so bad I left in the middle of the movie…never done that before but then again I did not pay for this movie. Joyce spent time in the room backing up photos and doing some editing…..frustrating for her with a slow netbook. Then it was to the late night snack to see what was available to eat, especially for the ice cream. Again the sun failed to set at a “normal” time frame. This is pretty strange.

[Shoobee2]

Just wanted to write and say that I am enjoying reading your review. I was supposed to be on this cruise but had to cancel at the last minute. I'm so glad that the weather ended up being nice for you. Plus, it is great reading about some of the same excursions that we had signed up for. Thanks for spending the time writing your review.

[Lemur]

Dear RAJKR74,

 

We are very much enjoying your review from the cruise we will be making soon.

 

Thanks for taking the time!

 

Cheers,

Lemur

[CRUISEADIK]

We attempted to pull up your pictures and were unable to view. We registered for live windows and are able to view.what would be the next step to view?

[IRL_Joanie]

Well we have the pictures of the cruise put into Microsoft Skydrive. Here is the link:

 

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212351#!/?cid=07afc87cdf2f6dca&sc=photos&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212886!cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212347&sc=photos

 

This will take you to the three albums of pictures we took on the cruise along with two Hubbard Glacier pictures.

Click an album and a group of thumbnails will come up.

Click on the first thumbnail and the slide show will start.

To go back to the albums just click the up arrow in the top left corner of the slideshow and you can then click on the next album for viewing.

 

We could add more as we review it and see other pictures we want to add.

Rick

 

Tried 3 separate times to view your photo albums but get this message each time: "This item might have been deleted, expired, or you might not have permission to access it. Contact the owner of this item for more information." :(

 

Joanie

[rajkr74]

Tried 3 separate times to view your photo albums but get this message each time: "This item might have been deleted, expired, or you might not have permission to access it. Contact the owner of this item for more information." :(

 

Joanie

 

That' strange, when I click the link it goes right to the pics. Here is the link again:

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212880&sc=photos#cid=07AFC87CDF2F6DCA&id=7AFC87CDF2F6DCA%212347&sc=photos

 

I checked the permission and it is seet for everyone to view.

[superoma]

The second link worked for me like a charm, Rick. thanks for your review. i am enjoying it immensely and getting ideas for our trip next year in August (hopefully). it will be our third to Alaska but the addition of some different ports and ideas from you and others who have been on Amsterdam will make this trip.

[rajkr74]

We attempted to pull up your pictures and were unable to view. We registered for live windows and are able to view.what would be the next step to view?

 

Try the link again, the permission level was not set for "everyone". I corrected it so no permission is needed. Let me know if you could ge on.

[rajkr74]

The second link worked for me like a charm, Rick. thanks for your review. i am enjoying it immensely and getting ideas for our trip next year in August (hopefully). it will be our third to Alaska but the addition of some different ports and ideas from you and others who have been on Amsterdam will make this trip.

 

You are welcome. The diffrent ports made it a very enjoyable cruise. Hope you can do it next year. Don't ask me if the weather will hold, we had the best weather one could ask for.

[superoma]

I just strolled through your pictures, Rick. Beautifully done. What kind of a camera does your wife use? Difital SLR but make, optics, etc. I see she uses a tripod, too. Makes for a clean shot. Great stuff and now more eager than ever to get booked.

[fleckle]

Thank you. One last question. I was debating bringing our netbook, but now I am thinking that I would need the software that was on the computers in the class, so it might not be worth it anyway. What do you think?

My suggestion would be to bring it. He uses Microsoft software that is free and downloadable.

 

In addition to having the netbook available throughout the cruise for your own personal use, a big advantage would be having the instructor right there available to answer your questions in case you have trouble getting the software to work on your own computer. The screens may appear somewhat different as your settings may be different from those used in the lab and you may be using a different operating system.

 

Also he may be able answer other questions you may have about your own computer, not only what he covers in the class.

[luxurysailer]

We'll be on the 2 September sailing of this cruise. Can you please tell me:

1) Was there nightly dancing anywhere other than in the Ocean Bar?

2) Was there any dancing at all during evenings in the Crow's Nest?

[rajkr74]

I just strolled through your pictures, Rick. Beautifully done. What kind of a camera does your wife use? Difital SLR but make, optics, etc. I see she uses a tripod, too. Makes for a clean shot. Great stuff and now more eager than ever to get booked.

 

Joyce does most of the picture taking. She has a Nikon SLR D80 with two lenses. The lenses are Nikkor, a 18-135mm and a 70-300mm with ED glass. We also use a backup camera that is a Nikon CoolPix P90 which has 24x optical zoom. Current model is a P500 with 36x optical zoom. The back up camera's zoom does use a lot of battery life so we carry extra batteries. I shot it a lot also. Strange how some pictures come out better on the smaller one (P90) than the bigger one (D80).

 

The equivalent to the D80 is now about the Nikon D7000. These new models do a lot more than our current D80. Most of these now have video capibilities that we don't have now on the D80. The P90 does have video.

 

The P90 has a better zoom than the 18-135mm so we don't always have to change out the lens for the 70-300mm but just pull the P90 up and shot with it. It's not easy to switch out lenses. She chooses the lens for what she would primarily think she would use during the day and then uses the other camera for the opposite situation.

 

 

We tried the tripod this cruise because with the telephoto lense you really need if for better pictures but when traveling it makes it hard to take a good heavy tripod in suitcases with its bulkiness and weight. The lighter ones are not as sturdy as needed.

Rick

[cruz chic]

Rick, just found this thread. It's been an interesting read. How are you going to work now after spending the first half on the year on a ship:D;)? Say hi to Joyce for me.

[rajkr74]

We'll be on the 2 September sailing of this cruise. Can you please tell me:

1) Was there nightly dancing anywhere other than in the Ocean Bar?

2) Was there any dancing at all during evenings in the Crow's Nest?

 

We are not dancers (corrected, I'm not) but the Ocean Bar and the Crows Nest, depending on the daily schedule, had dancing. The Explorer (daily schedule) listed where and when there would be dancing.

[rajkr74]

Day 10, Sunday, Kodiak: We set the alarm for 6:00am and by 6:30 the ship was coming into the dock. It was a low marine cloudy day but again NO RAIN. We enjoy watching the ship dock and always are amazed how the crew maneuvers the ship and how all the hawsers (went to the internet for that word) are pulled to the dock. Then pulling out the gangway for passengers to disembark. We then went up to the Lido for breakfast and did not rush because we did not have any excursions planned. The Lido was not very crowded either. Got a small backpack and headed off the ship about 8:00am. There are no shuttle buses here but there are taxis available. We later did see a school bus that was in downtown that provided rides for those physically challenged as a sign was displayed in the window of the bus. Did not see this option described in any of the ships information. The walk was easy only about a mile thru the dock area. We did stop and look at the Pacific Seafood processing plant on the dock side which was sorting salmon a short distance from the street. We worked our way onto the site to take pictures and then talked to an employee who wanted to make sure we did not get in the way of the lift trucks running bins of fish around. Found out he had moved to Kodiak 1 ½ yrs ago from Salem Oregon an hour north of were we live. Had a nice conversation with him and learned how they take fish off a tender boat used to transport fish to the plant from the fleet. They have a retail store on site also which we later went into coming back to the ship from downtown. And think, we did not have to pay any dollars for this “excursion”.

 

We continued into town past the boat basin and to the Russian Orthodox Church which had services going. Then went down to the visitor center a block away and then to the Kodiak Nat’l Wildlife Refuge Center. Nice center with displays and they put on a show about the research being done on the Kodiak bear that inhabit the island. Within a block there is also Baranov Museum with a small fee, we did not go in, and the Alutiio Museum a native Alaskan museum. It has a small fee also but we did not go in. (Running out of money that was used up in other ports…..for gifts and trinkets). We went back to the church and by that time the service was over. The bishop (priest?) was giving tours and explaining the history about the church. Pretty interesting having never been to a Russian Orthodox Church. Did not know the congregation STANDS thru the whole service….not sure I could do that. The elderly do have seats around the perimeter they can sit in.

 

There was also a craft bazaar put on by the locals for the cruise ship located in a building back toward the boat harbor. There were some other shops open but it was a pretty quiet town on Sunday. The clouds started burning off and the sun came out to warm up the morning. Nice town, we walked back toward the boar harbor looking out on the sites in the sound past the boat harbor.

 

As we walked back to the ship we noticed they were processing a red ocean perch at the fish processor we visited earlier in the day. We got back to the ship about 1:30 with all aboard at 2:30pm. We got back in time for a full lunch in the Lido since it shuts down at 2:00pm.

 

During a couple of the previous evenings we had dinner with Melinda & her mom Marlene from AZ at our table. Thru them we met John & Linda from San Diego and we all decided to meet at 5:30 for dinner together this evening. We all met and again we were seated together with no waiting. We did this a couple more nights together and these evenings turned out to be very enjoyable. We struck up a good relationship with them for the rest of the trip. If I had a chance I would do that earlier in the cruise since the maître de accommodated us every night. We learned that you can reserve a time for your party and even a specific table if you wanted. It was pretty flexible.

 

After dinner the show was Avalon with the singers and dancers of which we had seen before on another cruise so we again did not go to it. The movie was Iron Will with Kevin Spacey about a dog sled race. I went to it and liked it. Joyce stayed in the room to work on photos. This night was the Desert Extravaganza in the midship Lido pool area at 10:30pm. It was comparable to others we have gone too. Joyce had a sour look on her face because there was no bananas Foster and they did not have any milk chocolate for the fruit to dip in. Oh, we are going to have grumpy wife tonight…..lol. She was really OK and it gave her the chance to try a couple of different items.

The key to these events is not to try large pieces of each desert but go for small portions so you can try more things. Believe it or not there was no late night snack…..OH DARN…..well it was really the dessert function. I guess I was really too full for any more. Then to bed to listen to my stomach make noises.

[rajkr74]

Rick, just found this thread. It's been an interesting read. How are you going to work now after spending the first half on the year on a ship:D;)? Say hi to Joyce for me.

 

Hey Lorekauf...how are you doing? We missed you on the cruise so we had to make new friends on this cruise. I bet we beat you on our weather compared to yours on your cruise? This was a great cruise, great itinerary and good sites. joyce says hi also!

[rajkr74]

Day 10, Monday, Scenic cruising and Hubbard Glacier: Ah... another day to sleep in until 7:30am, boy this is letting me catch up on my sleep. We went to the Lido for breakfast there after which was relatively busy for being mostly a sea day. After breakfast I went to a Techspert class and Joyce went to the cabin to “fight” the computer. I took some more pictures on a flash drive to up load on to our album on Skydrive.

 

We went to a casual lunch in the Lido then went down to our cabin to get cameras ready along with my video camera. I was bent to get a large calving event on video. There was a 2:30pm presentation in the Queens lounge with a naturalist going over information about the Hubbard Glacier. Quite a few people showed up for it but we were worried that we would miss some sights as we neared the glacier. I got up about 3:00pm from the presentation and went out to see what I could see of the glacier. To my distaste we were closer to the glacier than I had thought and spots around the rail was now getting limited. I ran back into the Queens Lounge and got joyce. Luckily we did find a spot on the rail on the 6th deck to set up the tripod and camera. It was cloudy but no rain and around the mid 50’s for temp. The lack of full sun allows the blue color of the ice to really stand out dramatically. This was worth the trip because this is the largest glacier we have had the chance to view. If I remember it is 6-7 miles wide and 3-4 stories tall. We immediately saw some small calving incidents but I keep looking at one large spire of ice that I thought might have the best chance of falling. I had the video camera up ready to push the recording button for over 5 minutes but nothing happened and my arm was starting to cramp and get stiff. The captain started swinging the ship so the other side could see the glacier. I kept moving to keep this ice column in sight. Then a small chunk of ice fell from near the column and I started filming and then got lucky as someone yelled “there it goes”. I had the video on the full time and got a great shot that I was hoping to get. When I replayed the video I could hear myself yelling “I got it, i got it, I got the whole thing”! We got a number of great shots of the face of the glacier but after what seemed like just 10-20 minutes we were turning around and leaving. I think we spent about 2 hours there. We left the bow as the ship was turning and went to the lido stern to watch as we pulled away. There was quite a pool party going on with all the teenagers on ship by the pool but we still got some good shots including some of the two of us with the glacier as a backdrop. We stayed up there and took pictures of icebergs as we went out. Pretty cool visit to the glacier.

 

This night we meet John & Linda for dinner at 5:30pm. Melinda and Marlene were supposed to be there also but Melinda was not feeling good so Marlene went back to their room and they called room service. After dinner I went to the movie Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon. Pretty interesting movie and I liked it. Joyce again worked on photos. After the movie it was the Late Night Snack again…oh how I missed it from the previous night!

[cruz chic]

Hey Lorekauf...how are you doing? We missed you on the cruise so we had to make new friends on this cruise. I bet we beat you on our weather compared to yours on your cruise? This was a great cruise, great itinerary and good sites. joyce says hi also!

New friends:confused:...how could you:D;). Actually the weather was pretty nice on mine. It rained one day but otherwise it was good. I forgot how beautiful Alaska is. I hope we'll get together on another cruise some day.

[luxurysailer]

Thanks for the response to my inquiry about dancing, RAJKR74. I am very pleased to learn that there is dancing in the Crow's Nest. Now just have to wait and hope it isn't exceedingly late and that they're playing some dance music that their older passengers enjoy.

[Dreamakermom]

I will read your observations with a keen eye since I was on the same voyage.

 

This is GREAT!! I will BE going on this cruise!!!! :D

[Okie1946]

Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews - This is the cruise that my DH and I have decided will be our next one (2012) and we have already started looking at the schedule. Even though we have been to Alaska twice before - the additional days gives us a wider variety of ports.

 

Have really enjoyed the comments about the various excursions that you booked. That will help determine which ones we decide to take ourselves. Like you said, book through the ship - that way we can get our next Star rating faster.

 

Your photos were amazing and have inspired me to be sure and take my netbook with me AND to be sure to take the computer classes offered on board ship. I have not been able to figure out how to move my photos out of my library onto CC and would really like to do that. Looking at the photos also make me want to go out and get a new camera with a much larger zoom and lenses.

 

Please don't stop. Again thanks for a great description of your trip.

 

Previous Cruises:

Westerdam - September 2009 - Alaska

Rotterdam - September 2010 - Alaska

Oosterdam - April 2011 - Mexican Riveria

[rajkr74]

Day 11, Tuesday, Sitka: We got up around 7:00am and went to breakfast at 7:30am. The Lido was not very crowded because we were not expected to dock until 10:00am. I think this was back to omelet day again. Have to admit I have been eating too much so the desire and anticipation of going to breakfast at this point in cruise is not having the draw with me as I had experienced during the first few days of the cruise. Nothing wrong with the food but more of the body throwing up a STOP sign at this point of the cruise. But this was good since we planned to stay in town the full day and not come back for lunch on the ship. We threw some jerky and granola bars in to eat for lunch but was not real worried about being hungry since I think I have been putting the food away like squirrels do before winter.

 

We went back to the room to pack our backpacks and it looked like we would need rain gear this morning. We had low clouds and it was FINALLY raining a misty steady drizzly rain. As an Oregonian I did not have to worry any more about the shakes coming on from missing rain for so long. We headed down to the Queens Lounge for tender tickets. We got # 5 and within a few minutes numbers 1 thru 5 were told to go to the Deck A and get on the first tender. It was pretty full and was an easy ride in. We tendered to the O’Connell Bridge Visitors dock just below Castle Hill in the rain. Lucky we could take cover right under the overpass just up from the dock to put on rain gear. Joyce was having a tough time keeping the lens cleaned on her camera and wished she had brought a cleaning cloth. Right next to the dock in the water we had a show of jumping salmon that had schooled up. For a fisherman like me this was driving me nuts to see multiple fish in the air at a time and there was nothing I could do. We got a good map from a small visitor center at the top of the dock. We headed into town taking in the sights. Good photos ops with the misty clouds that were around the town. Less than an hour into walking around town and in shops the rain quit! I, as usual with rain gear on, started to over heat so off the gear came. It sputtered a little bit later but never rained as hard as it did coming in earlier in the morning. We spotted an eagle on the cross at the top of the Russian Orthodox Church right downtown who looked to be soaked by the rain. I sat down for a few minutes with my netbook computer and got on the free wifi that was available around the whole town, which was pretty nice.

 

We walked thru town toward the Sitka National Historic Park with all its totem poles. We stopped off, on the way, at the Russians Bishop’s House which had a museum in the lower floor that was free. Also walked by the St.Peters by the Sea church. On the way, there is also the Sheldon Jackson Museum. We did not go in but I think it cost money to get in. Our friends took an excursion that got them into the museum and they thought it was OK. We went onto the Park that had a good visitor center oriented around totem poles including carving demonstrations, but they were having lunch while we were there so did not see any carving. On the side of the center Joyce took a walking path thru the woods toward the end of the peninsula where there was a battle site and a site of a old fort but no buildings. She saw quite a few totem poles on the way, about 11 all told. I lost her on this walk when I went down another tail and then came back to the visitor center. I waited until she got back and since I did not do the walk I had to view the totem poles on the camera. Her walk was about ½ mile and easy. The walk from the dock to the Park was a little over a mile and again easy. Joyce’s sister and husband had done this walk around town a few years ago on a cruise and said it was an easy and very nice. We had a number of great shots of the ship in the harbor from almost any place in town. After spending about an hour at the park we headed back toward downtown stopping off at the aquarium which was free but they asked for a donation. All we saw there was a touching pond with starfish, anemones and sea cucumbers. Not much there except we learned later that you needed to walk out back of the building to see the hatchery with salmon.

 

We then headed back toward the harbor and the Harrigan Centennial Hall for a free show from the New Archangel Dancers who perform traditional Russian folk dances. It’s an all volunteer, unpaid group of talented women who perform both male and female roles during the routines. It’s well worth going to see them. This building is also the Sitka visitor’s center. After the show we wandered back into the downtown area to visit shops that we did not get to in the morning. Joyce spotted the eagle again (all dried out by now) for more photos including one where he flew off the cross. We made our way back to the dock, but first we walked up Castle Hill for a great panorama view of the harbor, the ship and the town. The last tender left for the ship at 4:30PM. We pulled anchor around 5:00pm and we watched from the promenade deck as we pulled out into the channel accompanied by a tugboat. Why it followed us for a good distance we did not know.

 

We ran into John and Linda in town at the center for the dancers so we scheduled diner together along with Melinda and Marlene. As we had before, this was another good dinner sitting near a window with great views. This was the Master Chefs diner that we had experienced twice on board the Westerdam in April. It was about the same menu but for some reason a couple of the courses got left out, the appetizer and salad. Like I was disappointed in not getting my food……..NOT. Later, the show was with Jeff Trachta an actor who did impressions and was once on The Bold and the Beautiful. He was pretty good with some good humor and singing.

 

After the show we went to the cabin to read for a while because having missed a course or two at diner I knew I would be “starving” by the time 11:00 showed up! The whole day turned out to be very enjoyable but we wished we could have stayed in Sitka longer. Would have liked to visit the raptor center which was up hill from the park we walked to. We did not have the time to get there and also get back to see the dancers.

[rajkr74]

Day 12, Wednesday, Sea day: Now this day we DID indeed sleep in until 8:30 which made the Lido pretty crowded. After breakfast we went to a digital class and then to a cooking class where they made Filipino bread that had cheese in it. We got samples, (more food) which turned out to be pretty good similar to malasadas. We all wanted to know where we could get some for lunch but were told they are made and served to the crew in their mess and were not available for the guests…bummer. We had the Mariners lunch to go to at 1:00pm and then back to the cabin to read so we could take the library books back before we left the ship. It was formal night so we went to diner with John and Linda. Marlene and Melinda do not like lobster so they backed out. The show was the singers and dancers again, with Las Vegas Nights, as usual we did not go. We did pull the suitcases out and start doing some preliminary packing.

 

Then again, to the late night snack. This time I really did only have a small bowl of ice cream…..if you believe me……