Trip Report w/Pics HAL Alaska June 19-26, 2022 Seattle Roundtrip Westerdam

[CupKayke]

 

Day 2 - Monday - Our only full SEA DAY

 

Let's start with Lido breakfast today.  Bad news at first.  It didn't open until 7am today.  They had only two stations open and they had no real eggs - just liquid eggs (which might be real?) for an omelet or egg whites.  I was not impressed.  Now... let me say this for all the naysayers... the very next morning and all the other mornings... they USUALLY opened by 6:30am and they had hard boiled eggs, fresh eggs you could order fried (any way you wanted), and even Eggs Benedict at the International Station.  They offered everything you could imagine for breakfast at four stations the remainder of the cruise so I this was the only day that they dropped the ball.  They even stayed open later than normal on our last day when we didn't stop at Victoria until 8pm.  

 

We were at the Sea View Bar (the aft bar by the aft pool) - this is the smoking area - when I got a text from my credit card company saying HAL charged $754 to my card.  Myself and several other people visited Guest Services and the guy was announcing "these are just holds" and so I left quickly... but the line was still long with sooooooo many people asking about the Internet service and the HAL Navigator App.   I'll talk about that later.  Once I figured it out, I was impressed but they make it difficult to navigate, for lack of a better term.   Anyway, Guest Services is beautiful...

 

The shore excursions desks are also down here.  They were busy-busy when we visited.  They have a sign-up sheet so they know who is next.  I regret that we did not take the time to meet with someone.  They were offering $500 OBC for booking while on this cruise.  Here I am, looking to book again already.

 

It was a complete white-out with the fog for most of the day today.  The fog horn was going off most of the day until the late afternoon.  The pools were busy with kids and the hot tubs were busy with adults.  It was still a good day on the ship.

 

For the record, it was not always cold or even cold enough for a big coat but my husband always wore his coat, regardless.  I wore a hoodie last night and usually just long sleeves the other days.  A lot of people wore hoodies and shorts.  You saw it all.  Which reminds me, there was an EXCELLENT mix of travelers on this cruise – large family groups, a sewing group, a group of retired Air Force guys and their spouses, a lot of families with children (surprising for HAL to me), and overall I was super impressed with the clientele this trip.  We felt like we weren’t young nor old and it was fantastic. 

Today I found the actual walking track on Deck 3.  I had walked the evening of Embarkation and early this morning on Deck 10 – outside, in the wind, with the foghorn blaring, mostly alone.  It was terrible.  I didn’t realize Deck 3 existed.  It is a beautiful covered walking track and I took advantage of it daily.

-Kay

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rubytue]

19 hours ago, oakridger said:

Very good start and the pictures are a nice representation of what you are describing!  I do love the Signature Suites on the Signature Class and Vista Class ships!  

 

~Nancy

I apologize for being so off topic of the thread (which I’m loving because I’ll be on the Westerdam in a few short weeks), but I don’t think we have DM capabilities on cc. But I just keep coming back to your username. Is this from the town in TN, which is also my hometown. 😁

Edited June 30, 2022 by rubytue

[CupKayke]

Sea Day continued…

We played Bingo at 3pm today (I think it was 2pm or 3pm).  The bartender at the casino/Bingo area makes the weakest and worst drinks we found on the cruise and he lacks the customer service we saw from everyone else on this cruise.   The Cruise Director (I think?) was a kid who looked 17 but assured everyone he was not and he read the Bingo numbers…. Wayyyy too fast!   It was $89 for the two of us to get 6 cards per game and you get a free scratcher ticket if you buy this.  I won $20 on the scratcher.

 

 

 

One of the reasons we like HAL is you can order from the dining room menus to be delivered to your room.   I used the Navigator app evening to check the menu and we ordered from there.   Tonight was “dressy” night (many people were dressed nicely in long black dresses and heels).  The menu tonight was excellent – Filet Oscar and Salmon were the choices we made.  We loved both our choices.  We NEVER ate in the dining room this entire cruise.  We didn’t even realize we had not been in the dining room until the last day.  We usually eat in the MDR at least once.  We ordered to have the dining room menu delivered to our room 3-4 of the 7 nights.   We tipped room service $4 every time – 2, $2 bills we had picked-up from our bank pre-cruise.  I wonder if that is a decent room service tip and what do other people tip?

 

 

The skies cleared tonight…

 

We returned to our room this evening with a cute towel animal and a notice that we would be moving our clocks backwards an hour overnight.  We did not know this was going to happen and we were surprised.

 

 

Tomorrow…  Juneau

[CupKayke]

Before I forget... I LOVED the little adjustable reading lights next to the bed!!  They were hidden basically (I thought they were decoration) but then our room stewards opened them one night for us and we were like... Oooohhhh.  Nice.  

[CupKayke]

Day 3 – Juneau

 

I woke-up and saw beauty outside!  It was GORGEOUS!!   For the remainder of the cruise, this was the types of views we had 24/7!!

 

Remember the Lido deck breakfast was bad yesterday?  Well, last night our room stewards left a continental breakfast order menu in our room while we were out.  We ordered full breakfasts this morning delivered to our room by leaving the order hanging on our door.  That yogurt/chia-seed/pineapple mix was fantastic.  Everything was great.  We did this one other time.  We tried to do it again but I realized it still hadn’t been delivered and it was well past time.  I checked our door and the order menu was still hanging on the door even though it had been put out before 2am (which is the deadline).   There are some little quirks with the new crew and the processes on this ship but I’m sure they’ll work them out soon.  Anyway, the Lido deck breakfast was full-service with four stations with all sorts of eggs the remainder of the cruise so we just started eating on the Lido deck.  I was walking up there every morning anyway to fill my cup with tea.  It wasn’t “labeled” tea in the mornings but there was always tea every morning.  The label was never put on until after breakfast.  I don’t know why.  Tea is my must-have first thing every morning… like other people’s coffee.

That is also the last banana I would ever see on this cruise...

 

The weather at sea… this is the ONLY day it would rain on us for the entire cruise! We got lucky!

 

One of my irks with the HAL Navigator App (which you really must download – it’s nice and they have done a good job with it) is that the times on the TV (see the port times) never matched the Navigator times.  You were never for sure exactly what time we would arrive or what time you had to be onboard - it was anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour difference.  We just paid attention when we left the ship to see what the TV screens said on Deck A. 

 

It was foggy and lightly raining when we arrived into Juneau.   The rain didn’t stop the bald eagle from sitting around watching everything..

 

 

[CupKayke]

Juneau, continued...

 

Our balcony was definitely on the correct side of the ship for coming into Juneau… waterfalls… gorgeous waterfalls… you could hear them and see them and it was beautiful.

 

We had signed up for the Mendenhall Glacier Trail Walk and Whale Watching Tour (or something like that).   It was a small group tour of only 20 people and we were guaranteed to see whales or we get $100 cash from the tour operator.  We walked off the boat and met Phil, our guide.  He was excellent.  We took a small van to the water first (they reversed the tour in hopes the clouds would lift so we could see the glacier later).   On the way to the boat, we saw 2 or 3 bald eagles sitting in the marsh… then 4 or 5… then we saw at least 10 sitting together on a large stump!!  Amazing.  We had only been off the ship 15 minutes and we had just seen at least 15 bald eagles.  Alaska was delivering quick.  We were on a small boat that could really travel (I think 30-40 knots) and maneuvered the bay well.  

 

 We saw whales immediately.  We saw one… then two together… then another… then another… the boat moved around an island and other places.  We heard the whale operators talking and we heard them all saying “It’s a whale party out here!”  They finally called our operator and he said he had heard the talk but we had to go in and didn’t have time to come see.  Our water portion of the tour was almost over at this point anyway and we had seen and heard the whales.  It was worth it already.

 

[CupKayke]

Juneau, continued..

We got on the tour bus and they took us to the Tongass National Forest.  On the way, they gave each person a little baggie with a granola bar, some trail mix, a piece of chocolate, and some fruit strip thing plus we all got a bottle of water.   The trail walk was supposed to be a mile but it felt much shorter.  It was easy and we stopped and talked about the lichen, algae, spruce trees, etc all along the way.  My husband doesn’t like to walk and he even thought we stopped and talked too much.  It was a nice, easy walk and a beautiful park area.  

 

We were at the glacier viewing area alone.  There were no other groups there.  The clouds had lifted...

 

Our guide grabbed a piece of 200-yr-old glacier ice from the water and passed it around.

 

After plenty of time at the glacier, we took a shortcut back to the van (which had been moved by the bus driver to a closer area).  The tour guide here, Phil, was great with his commentary.  He gave us interesting and entertaining information all day. 

 

We had about an hour after our tour was over to see Ketchikan.  Tracy’s Crab Shack had a long line but was highly recommended by our guide (we did not eat there).  There is a mercantile downtown by Tracy's.  The tram was not busy (surprisingly) and the cars leave every 10 minutes.  It was $45 per person. My husband did not feel like going up in the tram and I was ambivalent, so we didn't do it. 

 

[CupKayke]

Juneau, continued...

Other ships docked in port today..

and

 

 

I can’t remember anything else we did today.  We were back onboard by 7pm/7:30pm??  I don’t remember.   We ordered from the dining room menu for dinner, ate, and I probably fell asleep early.

 

Tomorrow…. Hubbard Glacier…

[Euby]

Thanks so much for sharing.  I'm looking forward to more.

[2TakeFlight]

Excellent trip report! We’ll be sailing on the NCL Spirit in July, and we appreciate the heads up about VERIFLY and ARRIVECAN. 

[oakridger]

4 hours ago, rubytue said:

I apologize for being so off topic of the thread (which I’m loving because I’ll be on the Westerdam in a few short weeks), but I don’t think we have DM capabilities on cc. But I just keep coming back to your username. Is this from the town in TN, which is also my hometown. 😁

 

Hello @rubytue.  You are correct!  I'm from Oak Ridge Tennessee! I'll start a new thread on this HAL forum to see if we can connect to say hi.  Here it is: 

 

I don't want to hijack @CupKayke's excellent review.  

 

Now back to the Westerdam review..........

 

~Nancy

[rubytue]

@CupKayke am I reading right, you got back to the ship at 7-ish and still were able to order dining room for room service? So it was still available even though it was >1 hour from the dining room opening? Was that because of the late port do you think? 

[CupKayke]

RubyTue - Yes.  I didn't even know there was a time limit until you wrote this comment.  I am fairly certain at least one night it was closer to 8pm before we ordered.  They never questioned us.  

[CupKayke]

Good Evening.  I am trying to finish this review but Cruise Critic keeps locking-up on me and/or deleting my posts which is the reason I haven't been active on CC for years basically... it's too buggy.  In an attempt to post quickly and not lose everything magically (which has already happened to me 3 times tonight), I'm no longer using the green font.

 

So... can you tell where we are today...

 

We had beautiful weather and views from early morning today...

 

 

I woke-up this morning, ate breakfast, and then did over 2 miles on the walking track.   I got in a mental competition with someone and I’m glad they didn’t know about it but it motivated me!  LOL   The views from the walking track are always beautiful.

 

Obviously… today we visited the Hubbard Glacier.   The boat flew up the coast last night to get to this area as this would be the most northern spot we would visit in Alaska.   The cruise documents say we are at the glacier from 2pm to 4pm?  Maybe?  I’m not sure but by 1pm… the views were astounding… and there were still icebergs surrounding the boat at 5:30pm!  So… if you want to see every moment of the glacier, eat lunch early.    Even the very first views near the glacier are breathtaking...

 

 

We signed-up for the Hubbard Glacier Excursion - the small boat that sides-up to the ship and takes 148 passengers and 2 crew members to see the glacier up close.   The crew members are not there to assist us, they are there to enjoy the glacier too (which I think is nice).   We talked about this excursion pre-cruise and decided this may (or may not) be the only time we visit Alaska so we decided to do it.  I am very glad we did this excursion.   This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we had beautiful, sunny weather today.   I am going to go into detail about this excursion on this review and you can decide if it is for you or not.  If you think this is the only time you will ever go to Alaska and you can swing it... I highly recommend this excursion!  Since I was not on the ship, I don't have a picture of the little boat except this picture I took when we were first getting on showing us next to the HAL ship loading everyone...

 

The “small” boat is 3 levels.  There are views out all the windows that are phenomenal.  Some people stayed outside on the upper deck (no seats up there) the entire time, others stayed on the 2^nd deck or 1^st deck – regardless, you still get to see and hear everything from any deck.  We did stay outside most of the time on the 2^nd deck and if you want to hear the cracking of the glacier, I would suggest being outside.   The audio/comments being made overheard can be heard much better inside, however.    If you are taking this excursion… get on the right side on the 2^nd deck… that’s my opinion.  Don’t move.  HA!   Regardless, everyone moved around a lot so you always got your chance to see and hear the glacier cracking and popping and calving… and before I go there… let me just say…. They told us we had the best weather they had seen all year and they really could only think of 2 other days they had ever had weather this clear and beautiful.   We had been told to dress in layers and once the boat slowed down, people were taking off their coats and hats and one lady said she was sweating so that’s the type of weather we lucked-out with today! 

 

Plenty of pictures on the next post and less writing  

[CupKayke]

Leaving the ship...

 

We immediately saw a mamma bear and two baby bears... the boat slowed-down and idled close to the shore.  It was pretty neat to see them walking around and looking at us.. but my pictures are not the best.  I was just using my iPhone.

 

We started getting closer...and the views on the way to the glacier are gorgeous too..

 

We passed some minibergs (that's what they called them on the overhead announcements)

 

And then we started seeing the glacier up-close...

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2022 by CupKayke

[CupKayke]

 

Hubbard Glacier is phenomenal.

 

It started cracking (very loud - sounded like a volcano erupting or thunder or exactly as you would imagine a giant river of ice cracking would sound)... and calving...

 

and calving some more... (left side)

 

and it crackled and popped and calved over and over and over and over... not kidding... at one point.. I was SO happy I got to see this but I was SHOCKED to see it...  the far right side which was sort of in a little alleway of it's own... kept calving continually and then a gigantic calve happened and it pounded ice so hard in the water that a huge wave erupted and started moving super fast... but the only place it had to go there was against the shore on the other side of the alley so the wave just crashed up against that shore and then waves kept crashing and in a little bit, our boat rocked quite a bit and even though we thought we were so-so-so-so close to the glacier....  they announced "THAT'S WHY WE ARE CURRENTLY 1/2 MILE FROM THE GLACIER" because a wave like that coming to our boat would be very bad.  So we were a half mile away and had no clue we were that far away because there were moments I was sure that a big break would cause that glacier to pummel our boat.   The views were astounding...

 

Here is sort of a view of the little alleyway to the right where the giant wave took off...

 

[CupKayke]

Hubbard Glacier, continued...

One thing we started noticing was not just that we were surrounded by ice in the water... 

 

...but how CLOSE the HAL Amsterdam ship was getting!!  We were all like "WHAAAA???"  I mean, they were super super close!!  It was a beautiful, sunny day so the ship got super lucky too! I wish I would have taken a picture of how close they actually got but basically, the boat scooted to the far left of the glacier and stayed over on that shore.  I wish I would have gotten a better picture to show you some perspective..

 

Our friends on the boat asked us if we knew how close we had gotten to the glacier and BEFORE we answered they said (they were ON THE SHIP)... that they figured the ship got about a half mile from the glacier!   That's hilarious because that's how far away we were in reality so they were at least a mile or so away.  It's so odd because we all felt like we were just feet away!

 

There were pink gulls flying around the ship and they were beautiful.  There were 2 or 3 otters swimming in and out of the water and laying on the floating ice in the water.  It was an excellent experience.   They came around and served everyone free hot chocolate (it was chilly at first when the boat was moving but eventually, the boat just scooted around slowly).

 

We had about 2 hours total on this little boat and it was the perfect amount of time... and the glacier never quit calving the entire time... but I will say the loud cracking and popping and thundering was more in the beginning than the end... like maybe our boat disturbed the water a bit... so keep that in mind.  

 

It was a fantastic experience. 

 

They told us the glacier is 76 miles long and 6 miles wide! So strange.

We got back on the ship and the ship was surrounded in ice floating around it too!  That surprised me.  We had beautiful views for what seemed like forever.  This photo was taken at 5:24pm..

 

 

 

[CupKayke]

Hubbard Glacier Day continued...

 

This was taken from our balcony on the ship at 5:03pm.  We had gotten back onboard and stripped off our hot sweaters (at least I had) and taken some pictures from our balcony. 

 

 

By 5:52pm... we were back in non-glacier waters.... but it was hot out there and we actually closed our blinds like you would on a Caribbean vacation so the heat wouldn't get in our cabin.  HA!

 

If you are highly interested in this glacier, plan to be preoccupied from 1pm to 5:30pm.

 

Tomorrow,  Sitka!  

 

[canadianbear]

Absolutely stunning photos of the glacier.  What a great excursion you experienced!

[CupKayke]

Oh!  I wanted to say one other thing about the little excursion boat.  The lower level has a gift shop/foodie area.  They had a big pile of free donut holes (I didn't try them but they were all gone quickly) and they were selling some sort of boxed salmon and they were offering free samples that were going quick.  Lots of people were buying items from them - they sold "Glaceritas" to drink on the boat or sodas and water and etc.   They also offered lots of neat little souvenirs.  My mom and dad LOVE rhubarb pies and my mom makes an award-winning rhubarb pie (a local award).   They were selling little jars of Alaskan-made rhubarb jam.   My mom had never tasted rhubarb jam until I gave her that little jar!  They were also selling salsas and etc... made with "glacier water" or somehow connected to and made in Alaska.  We aren't big shoppers but we didn't see these items anywhere else we looked.  So, lots of neat little items on the boat that you might not see elsewhere. 

[CupKayke]

Sitka, Alaska

 

 

Sitka was small.  The homes seemed to be taken care of and the lawns were nice.  The morning started with a slow cruise in the fog but as we got closer to the pier, the clouds lifted and we had a nice day.   Clear skies, no sun, and 54 degrees was the TV weather report.   Again, Sitka is one of those places were the arrival times did not match the Navigator app but we didn’t have an excursion so whatever. 

Arriving..

 

We opted to not take an excursion today because I had read about the Sitka National Historic Park with the totem poles and my husband wasn’t going to Alaska without seeing totem poles. 

We were off the ship before 9am.  We passed a large gift shop on the pier before the free shuttle into town and decided it wasn't busy at this hour and this was our only Alaskan port where we had time to shop...so we proceeded to spend over $200.  We purchased an ulu made in Anchorage, my dad a baseball cap, a Christmas ornament, and my mother-in-law a 2023 calendar showing “The Men of Alaska” with no clothes on except a blanket covering their private parts (she loved it!).   My husband bought a new hat.  He thinks he's Indiana Jones...

 

 

We caught the free shuttle and we were dropped off in downtown.  We walked just around the corner (like 2 minutes max) to the reindeer dog stand because my husband also needed to try a hot dog made from reindeer meat.  We both liked it.  I thought it tasted like warmed summer sausage.  

 

The local lady selling the reinder dogs said it was her own recipe.  She was nice.   

 

So... let me be very clear about this... I'm a walker.  I've been walking 2 miles IN THE 87 DEGREE HEAT (90 degrees tonight) and 99% HUMIDITY in Missouri every day - not including what I'm doing inside the house.  I have met my step goal (which is a lot more than 2 miles a day) for 44 days.  I have walked or exercised since April 5th this year - every day.  Earlier this year, I realized I was the fattest I've ever been in my life and I didn't like it.   I am taking care of myself this year by exercising and eating healthy.  I am on zero medications (which is great for my age) and I'm planning to stay that way for as long as possible.  Having said all that... I read it was a 5 or 10 minute walk to the Sitka National Historic Park.  I read that and that is what the local shuttle lady told us.  I was tired today.  The backpack I wore in the airport weighed too much and now I was wearing a backpack again carrying $200 worth of souvenirs including a heavy ulu with a cutting board included.   We walked slow and I felt like I'd rather lay down and take a nap the entire way.  Not normal for me.  Regardless... I did stop and take pictures, the walk is BEAUTIFUL and EASY, and CLEAN, and well-manicured and lots of people local people are using this same path to walk their dogs.   Several cruisers were just like us... doing their own excursion... but it did take us 20 minutes today.   There was a young group of healthy looking 20-30 somes from the ship and they didn't pass us so maybe it wasn't just me. . It's not "just 10 minutes" away.  It's 20 minutes.  

 

The walk is along the waterfront so there are plenty of places to sit and benches along the way to view the water or rest.   The views are nice.

 

You can walk down to a shallow rocky beach area.  There was a lady down there with her child.  

 

 

 

The park is free.  There is a visitor's center inside with a park ranger and she will answer questions or give you a free tour or talk to you about anything you are curious about (we know this because of some other people and we saw her) but we did not go inside.  We just took a path and started walking.  The totem pole walk is not very well labeled so just stay on the beach path and you'll keep seeing totem poles.  It is a one-mile loop.  The paths are nice - some paved, some not - and there are plenty of people here and there ~ not crowded at all but just enough people to feel safe.   

 

 

 

[CupKayke]

Sitka, continued...

You will immediately see the totem poles.

The trails are well laid out and somewhat marked. 

 

Several totem poles

 

Nice little bridge area

 

Walking back to the shuttle location seemed to be super quick in comparison so maybe it was just my attitude...  but it's at least 15 minutes and at times you think you've went the wrong way.  If you get to the hatchery/museum area... keep going...

 

The path has little things like this for kids to play on... or adults to be morons on... your choice...

 

Their high school is the small yellow and grey building (on the right) behind him.  

 

The grounds are taken care of in Sitka

 

 

[oakridger]

The new hat suits your husband!  These pictures are very nice.  I've only been to Sitka twice and I enjoyed the Russian Bishop's house.

[Euby]

Thanks for posting about the small boat excursion at the glacier.  I booked it for my cruise a few weeks ago.  It's going to be my "splurge excursion".  I won't do any whale watching excursions anymore.  Not for the reason many would think, though.  The last one I went on can never be topped.  We got to see several pods breach feeding.  At one point the captain had to kill the engine very abruptly as one of the pods (about a dozen whales) breeched within 50 feet of us.  Then they swam so close to the boat (easily within 10 feet) that I was able to look one in the eye and got sprayed from their blow whole.  Yep, nothing will ever top that excursion.

[RoonlouX2]

Thank you for posting your trip so far, we have an Alaskan trip booked for April next year and this is getting us really excited for it! Looking forward to the next update 😊

Edited July 2, 2022 by RoonlouX2