The Zaandam Alaska cruise (Sept. 15-22) was also our first cruise. We arrived in Seattle a day early and found the airport personnel very helpful in arranging a towncar transfer to the downtown Seattle area for $35 (approx. the same price as a taxi). We had reservations at the Sheraton downtown and had no problem checking in early (approx. 11:00). We got our luggage situated and took off on foot to see the sites of Seattle. We found everything to be within easy walking distance and would recommend planning a good amount of time for Pikes Market which was a lot of fun. We walked to the Space Needle late that afternoon and enjoyed the view from the top as the sun set.

We took a taxi to the pier on embarkation day (about $10) where we were promptly greeted and our luggage quickly taken care off. There were plenty of representatives on hand to help direct us and we found ourselves onboard very quickly. We took time exploring the public areas of the ship while waiting for the rooms to be ready and upon the announcement that we could proceed to our rooms had no problem finding our way there. Luggage arrived a piece at a time and was all accounted for within the first hour. The room was very well prepared and there was no shortage of space to stow our clothing and other belongings. Our room steward introduced himself fairly quickly and we requested that the twin beds be put together which was taken care of before we returned to the room later that evening. We decided to handle our shipboard account with cash rather than a credit card which presented no problem, we simply went to the front desk where it was taken care of very quickly.

The ship is beautiful and very clean. We had no problem finding our way around. We rarely felt crowded and only occasionally found elevator waits to be somewhat long. We did make frequent use of the stairways when only going up or down a couple of decks. We had an outside room on the lowest deck (Dolphin Deck) and very near the front of the ship (1810). We did receive notice the night before arriving in Sitka that the ship would be dropping anchor approx. 2:00 am and to not be alarmed at the sound of the anchor dropping. I did hear the anchor drop but only because I happened to be awake, my husband slept thru it as I no doubt would have, it was not nearly as loud as we expected it to be. Read more