margaretgolden56 Cruise Review on Oosterdam on Aug 27, 2017

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 12

Review summary

We thoroughly enjoyed this cruise. It was our 15th cruise but first on Holland America. The food was great, the ship was nice, and the employees were friendly and so accommodating. I will definitely cruise on Holland America again. Here are some quick points I liked: Embarkation/debarkation was a breeze from Seattle Lido and dining room had good food. Lido hours on a couple of port days seemed to be more flexible than other ships I have sailed on. Test kitchen was interesting Comedian and comic magician were funny Billboard Piano duo were great Band in BB King bar was excellent!! Crowes nest was a nice quiet area for coffee, drinks, reading and board games. Nonsmoking casino. In fact ship seemed to only allow smoking outside in one area at back of ship. Beds were comfortable Ship was small but we found plenty to do to fill our days Excursions seemed typical. Whale watching from Juneau was pretty good. Saw a few whales from afar. I would recommend excursions at this port. We walked Sitka on our own once the complimentary bus shuttle dropped us off in town. We walked the nature path to the raptor center (less than a mile). The nature path crossed a stream where thousands of salmon were running. We also took a cab to Fortress of the bears which is a habitat for rescued bears. Ketchikan - we did an excursion that combined the Lumber jack show with a bus ride to Totem Bight. This gave us zero time for exploring the town. If I do this again, I would get my own tickets to the lumberjack show (which was great) and walk around the town. I didn't get much from Totem Bight. Ketchikan is a great port for walking around all the shops. VIctoria - took the bus for ten dollars round trip into town. Plenty of shops and restaurants there.