Live from Holland Oosterdam May 25, Vancouver-Anchorage-Denali 21night Alaska trip

[tlcoke]

Thanks for sharing your review from your trip.

[brookeinmn]

Thanks for the review! I really enjoyed it. Do you happen to have the On Location pictures uploaded in a bigger size on a different site? You can also use a great app called camscanner. It makes a pdf of photos that you take. It works great with papers.

[aerospace]

Thanks for the review! I really enjoyed it. Do you happen to have the On Location pictures uploaded in a bigger size on a different site? You can also use a great app called camscanner. It makes a pdf of photos that you take. It works great with papers.

 

I can upload then again in a bigger size(all of my pics are way scaled down from original just to save space), look for them tomorrow. If anyone wants some of the other shots in full size let me know.

 

I'm in the Denver airport with some time until my flight so I will upload some pics while waiting. I can't wait to catch up some sleep, my vacation tired me right out! lol

 

 

 

 

 

[aerospace]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aerospace]

Some notes from Disembarkation day/Seward

 

Announcement: make sure you have your customs form filled out when you disembark...I didn't get one, head to guest services-it's an automatic message, you don't need one. *annoying*

 

Suggest final morning room service to avoid the crowds. Good wake up service; hot coffee and pastries? Ok I'll get up lol.

 

Seward port does not have wifi. Disembarkation was the easiest ever due to no customs checks. Scan card, walk off, 30seconds and in terminal. Numbers started being called at 6:30, I just did walk off at 7:15.

 

ACT Big Bus $48; instead of 2 hr straight to the airport in Anchorage it does 4 hours and has a few stops. Ship price for just transfer is $75.

 

Today is not especially cold 55ish, low clouds make it look a bit spooky like a horror flick...also not good for photos.

 

Lots of turquoise lakes colored from the glacial silt runoff. Many towering peaks covered in new snow. It just snowed a few days ago here.

 

^One of the stops on my tour was an animal sanctuary. These were all recuses or born here. First up reindeer!

 

 

 

^Musk Ox

 

 

 

^Mr. or Mrs Porcupine, I'm not getting poked checking...

 

 

 

^Bison, yumm haha

 

 

^Worst weather on this trip was embarkation and disembarkation day, couldn't have been more ideal.

Edited June 17, 2014 by aerospace

[theloo]

Glad to hear it's a quick disembarkation. I had heard stories (not at Seward) that it could take up to 3 hours.

 

Is the sanctuary the AWCC? Did you see any bears there? Thanks for the additional photos.

[txmomofjandr]

Thank you for your detailed post. I've read it and taken lots of notes. Which nights were the "formal" dining nights? Hope our weather is great like yours...

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[aerospace]

Glad to hear it's a quick disembarkation. I had heard stories (not at Seward) that it could take up to 3 hours.

 

Is the sanctuary the AWCC? Did you see any bears there? Thanks for the additional photos.

 

I'd be curious if they have customs for boarding at Seward. It was definitely a nice treat to not have to line up and wait.

 

Yes the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is the stop. Someone had booked the transfer and not showed up so we waited and waited to leave. I think that's why our stop was short but it should be about an hour. They had a couple bears but I didn't get any shots, the one walked past me and I only got to see her behind. It's a rather large place and I almost ran from one area to the next to see it all in our short stop. There is a shuttle that constantly makes the rounds(free) but I would say skip it unless you have trouble walking.

[aerospace]

Thank you for your detailed post. I've read it and taken lots of notes. Which nights were the "formal" dining nights? Hope our weather is great like yours...

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Formal night is Day 2 and 6 (the first full day on board and Glacier bay day)

[chrismch]

At what stop did you go to an animal sanctuary?

 

Did I see folding chairs in the ship's lounge/theater?

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review and awesome photo's. Thanks for taking the time to write and post everything.:)

[aerospace]

27 days and I'm home at last! Or home unfortunately, not sure how I feel at the moment.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVhrN2pI2X8

^^check out the bear video, looks like a stuffed animal :D

[aerospace]

At what stop did you go to an animal sanctuary?

 

Did I see folding chairs in the ship's lounge/theater?

 

 

It was on the ACT Big Bus Tour from Seward to Anchorage. The tour mentions "scenic stops" but due to the bad weather I imagine we skipped them. On a clear day you can see McKinley from Anchorage so I'm sure there are several good vantage points to take good pics that they know.

 

That's not the main lounge, that's the smaller one they do cooking demos, and game shows and such in...but yes I commented on how bad the folding chairs are to sit in in an earlier post :mad:

[aerospace]

Ok so no updates for a few days but I'm home and rested and will finish the review now :)

 

Due to some complaints with the number of photos I posted on the board I will only put a couple photos and then link to my gallery where you can see the rest. Not sure why but cruisecritic seems to randomly decide to post a lower quality photo sometimes and not others even though all mine have the same resolution so at my gallery the photos should be better anyway...

 

 

^Bacon and Blue Appetizer, Glacier Brewhouse Anchorage AK

 

 

^Alaskan Rockfish, Glacier Brewhouse Anchorage AK

 

 

^Creme Brulee, Glacier Brewhouse Anchorage AK

 

 

http://www.solodeals.net/#!oosterdam-ak-2014/c1za9

^^link to main review page which currently has the 7 x "On Locations"

 

http://www.solodeals.net/#!oosterdam-anchorage/c1feg

^^link to anchorage day where we left off so far

 

I will upload the whole review to the gallery in the next couple of days depending how long it takes. Then anyone starting from the beginning can just visit there instead of reading 200+ posts :cool:

 

Enjoy, and please comment!

4k views since I last posted and not a single comment lol.

[mort&fran]

...

Enjoy, and please comment!

4k views since I last posted and not a single comment lol.

 

OK. I'm one of the lurkers who has been soaking up your offerings without posting a comment :o, just waiting open-mouthed for more. Your reports and photos for this Alaska journey have been great! Keep it up for future cruises (and hopefully you will have posted similarly for when we plan our next cruise).

[aerospace]

OK. I'm one of the lurkers who has been soaking up your offerings without posting a comment :o, just waiting open-mouthed for more. Your reports and photos for this Alaska journey have been great! Keep it up for future cruises (and hopefully you will have posted similarly for when we plan our next cruise).

 

Welcome! It's appreciated :D

 

ANY POST whether it's "This looks yummy", or "I've been there!", or a whole page of comments is helpful. Each bump puts this near the top again making it visible to more people. If no one posts I assume no one is interested and don't bother continuing...or doing it next time :eek:

[dh1968]

Thank you so much for your extensive review. It gave us a great preview of what we can look forward to when we set off for our cruise in just over 2 weeks from now.

Having read all your stories, we look forward even more to our first ever cruise on the Oosterdam.

 

Cheers 👍

 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn C6903 met Tapatalk

[bagluvr]

I have enjoyed your review and have it bookmarked for future reference. Thank you for sharing your experience. It is definitely appreciated!

[aerospace]

Update: If you haven't already seen it I made a gallery with all the food photos here, plus a few others that I am still adding to. It has over 100 cruise food photos for you to enjoy and I just added the reviews.

 

Food Porn Gallery

 

More AK photos & review tomorrow stay tuned :)

[chrismch]

Loved the pictures. Will have to try Glacier Brewhouse in Anchorage as you rated the food so highly.

[aerospace]

Loved the pictures. Will have to try Glacier Brewhouse in Anchorage as you rated the food so highly.

 

It was great :D

 

Update: I added 40 more photos and descriptions.

 

Have fun!

Michael

[bunnyrab]

Thanks for using your vacation time to give so much pleasure and info to all of us cruisers. Have been to Alaska with Celebrity but noticed Hal got much closer to the glaciers when we were there. Would like to go back and go higher up in Alaska with some land time in Denali etc. Will you be returning to the work force or are you permanently retired? All the best. Heather.

[aerospace]

Thanks for using your vacation time to give so much pleasure and info to all of us cruisers. Have been to Alaska with Celebrity but noticed Hal got much closer to the glaciers when we were there. Would like to go back and go higher up in Alaska with some land time in Denali etc. Will you be returning to the work force or are you permanently retired? All the best. Heather.

 

How close you get depends on how big the captains balls are lol; his experience, the ship draft, and the weather. Two years ago I went celebrity b2b and the first week we got super close to the glacier and by the next week it had gotten so warm and created so many mini icebergs we were probably half a mile back. He had to push his luck to get us any view. In fact the National Geographic had sent their ship to study the glacier, photo it etc and they had gotten stuck for several days. We saw them in the distance...which of course would be terrible for a cruise ship and probably get the captain fired. :p

 

I will most likely need to return to work at some point. :(

...but I'm only 33 so don't cry for me

 

I am working on my blog solodeals.NET which I'm hoping will eventually be able to supplement my income and allow me to do something I enjoy to make some extra travel money. At the moment it hasn't earned me a cent but I just signed up for adsense an hour ago. Even with a lot of luck it will likely be a year or more until it earns anything substantial.

 

Glad to know it's being enjoyed by so many. I'm already planning my next trip!

Michael

[aerospace]

 

We hit 20,000 views !!!

 

That means this page was viewed 80 times for every comment, not as bad as I thought.

 

^^^I think everyone needs to post a congratulations, atta boy, something lol.

My goal was 40k but we might hit 30K if interest remains and the post sticks around for the summer. :cool:

Edited June 26, 2014 by aerospace

[aerospace]

OK back to business...

 

 

^that's a dinosaur footprint found in the park o.o

 

^he was regurgitating lunch on the side of the road...

 

I have started adding to the Denali review portion of my trip so check it out. 30 new pics have been added for your viewing pleasure :p