We cruised on the Westerdam in late August to Alaska – our 17th cruise overall, 5th on Holland America. It was a good cruise – ship was fine but the weather was cloudy and rainy with fog in many areas. This was our 3rd Alaska cruise – the other two were in June and weather was much better. Here are some details from our trip:

EMBARK: We stayed in Seattle 2 days before the cruise to sightsee - it was definitely worth it as there is a lot to see. We took a taxi from downtown to the ship, arriving at noon. The crowd wasn’t too bad and we boarded within 15 minutes. We went to the Mariner’s Lunch in the dining room as we were one-star mariners – it was served from 12 to 1:30 on embarkation day and beat fighting the crowd in the Lido buffet. If you are Mariner (frequent cruiser on HA), ask when you get on the ship about the luncheon. Lifeboat drill was at 3:15 and we sailed at 4 – two other cruise ships followed us out of Puget Sound.

SHIP: Westerdam was in good shape and clean. The crew was very friendly and all greeted you as you passed. Cruise director and staff were real good. Nice feature was they put the retractable roof over the main pool so it was pleasant throughout the cruise, also provided seating when the Lido buffet was packed. Plenty of bars & lounges although we spent our time in the top level Crow’s Nest lounge since it provided best sightseeing opportunities. Unfortunately due to poor weather and visibility we often were unable to sightsee so saw little of the spectacular Alaska coastline and wildlife (whales). Read more