Overall great cruise with only minor annoyances

Westerdam Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 65

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Westerdam

7 Night Alaskan Explorer With Glacier Bay (Seattle Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 24, 2016

Ship: Westerdam

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 8103

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

The cruise director was fantastic, very engaging and entertaining. We had a large group of 11 family members and they did their best to accommodate us for dinner however when making a reservation, the only times available were 5 pm (too early) or 8 pm (too late). I was bummed when I found out we were not going to Scagway and feel like it would have been a better stop than Sitka as there is not much to do there that interested us. We were worried about being the last Alaskan cruise of the year fearing that it would be cold and stormy (the week before, no ships were able to stop in Sitka due to Gail force winds) but it was beautiful on all our stops. We found much better excursion prices booking our own and had amazing customer service in all the ports. I missed not having a comedian show more than one night as our last cruise was Carnival and we went to one nightly in the comedy club. Definitely caters to an older clientele as I felt very young being in my 30s (im guessing 30% using walkers/wheelchairs/scooters). When we first went to our room upon arrival, our largest suitcase had a huge chunk broken off as well as the wheel. It was a brand new hard case expensive suitcase purchased 2 weeks before the cruise. We were offered $100 from the front desk but we would have had to leave the suitcase with them. We were not able to do that as we needed it to get our stuff home so that was a disappointment. Our stateroom attendant Joe was amazing and could not have been better. The food was amazing with lots of fresh seafood. Overall a great cruise and we would consider HAL again. 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
Lines were very long for water and food after many people got sick on board and staff had to serve all food in buffet. I wish there had been more options for seating our large group instead of very early (5) or very late (8 pm)

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Wish there was live entertainment on Lido deck chair, loved, loved, loved the Blues Jazz band!

Entertainment

3 out of 5
Needed more game shows and comedian and needed in the larger lounge. Not enough seating in Queens Lounge.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
Needs updating, the devil benches outside the floor elevators are tacky

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Very roomy, hard to see out of glass on deck as it had hard water spots, nice sized deck

Ship tip

Get to the comedy show early as there is only one and its held in a small lounge. It was standing room only for late comers.

Ports of call

Seattle, Washington

5 out of 5

Juneau, Alaska

5 out of 5

Cruise Glacier Bay

5 out of 5

Sitka, Alaska

1 out of 5

Ketchikan, Alaska

5 out of 5

Victoria, British Columbia

5 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 65

2 Comments

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.

GerryBCruisin    2 years ago

Thanks for taking the time to share your review of the Westerdam.

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