Alaska Inner Passage on Holland American Westerdam
Westerdam Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage
7 Night Alaskan Explorer With Glacier Bay (Seattle Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 21, 2013
Ship: Westerdam
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 4146
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 11 years ago
Review summary
Overall an intesting experience. We went in late fall a weather gamble we mostly lost with lots of rain and fog but weather is out hands of the crew, they skipped a port and change course 2nd day out to avoid rough seas. That was wise. We did get a beautiful day in Glacier bay, a very wet one in Ketchican, and a cold and cloudy one in Juneau. Bring your poncho and umbrella . Food on board was fine and staff was friendly. Not too many excursion for active people if you go to Juneau use the local bus and spend all the time at Mendenhall glacier the trails to Nugget Falls, the visitor center and other trails, Skip the cruise sponsored excursion to here which has a unneeded add or to a commercial place called Glacier Gardens, (its boring) . Use all your time for the nature hikes and bus back to the city. We found out too late that its cheap and easy to do though luckily we got in the hike to Nugget Falls since we new in advance our time at the glacier was a brief one hour. You can do most ports on your own, Ketchican is easy as is Victoria. in Ketchican walk past the people hawking the excursion till o get to the actual visitor center for tips and maps . We had been to Victoria before its easy to walk in so this time we booked our own trip to Burchart Gardens an amazing place and 30 minutes out of town. I liked the décor on the ship, the pool is too small and even though they close the roof for bad weather its still too cool to enjoy that area but we know we didn't go on this cruise for the swimming. We liked sitting on deck 10 at the explorers café a good place to be mellow on bad weather days. We really liked a jazz pianist and violin player duro, they we true artists, show were the usual but I still like the Broadway night with all the costumes. This is a smaller ship then some but that has its advantages. We got to the ship on our own with our hotel shutter and Seattles great communter trains but took the ship shuttle back to airport at the end which was a good idea and not too badly priced and saved stress too. We got to Seattle a day early and enjoyed the great Chilluley glass art next to the Space Needle. A wow museum if you like vivid color, shape and art that doesn't require thinking and its open from 10 till 8 most days. One of best parts of a cruise is meeting nice people and a few boring ones but mostly people are in a good mood and open to chatting if you want it. Bring you seasick pills just in case you hit bad weather seas like we did. The week before on Sept 17 they hit winds of 70 mph so you know those folks turned green. My sister and Mom took a similar cruise in July , that is the best time to go though you will pay the higher price.Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Remember its a rolling ship and life isn't supposed to be like it is at home. Be flexible , even in bad weather you can have good times, don't be afraid to book your own excursions or don't book any and find your own hiking. I used Port insider , didn't see whales boo hoo but glaciers were great
Ports of call
Sitka, Alaska Did not visit port
Traveler Photos
