We had a wonderful Alaskan experience on the Westerdam. I was concerned about the weather the first full week in September, but the weather was near perfect. Seattle, Victoria, Juneau, Glacier Bay, and even Sitka were sunny days. Ketchikan was cloudy, but no rain. The mountain reflections in Glacier Bay were near perfect.
I was concerned about the food and dining. The menus were a little different from what we had experienced on many cruise ships. I have never seen calf liver on a cruise ship dinner menu before, but it was actually very good. We looked around and did not see many others ordering it, but I really enjoyed it! Also, they had greens with some type of meat as a choice for the main course for dinner, but we did order those occasionally and they were actually very good and lighter than most other offerings. We also did not have a problem eating when the dining room first opened and even were able to get a table for two in open seating most nights.
I thought that the ship was in pretty good condition and clean. Our room stewards were very efficient and most of the servers in the dining room were very efficient and good. Our dinner at the Pinnacle Grill was excellent as was our server. A couple of times my husband's beer orders were slow, and once I was brought a beer instead of the mixed drink I ordered which was a communication problem with a waiter that must have been new and did not understand English very well, but overall we were pleased with the service on the ship.
The room was nice, but a little on the compact side. The stewards kept it clean and we were well supplied with ice as requested. We had a lovely view of the full moon and sunsets from our balcony and even from our balcony doors. I usually sat inside in one of the comfortable chairs and only went on the balcony for photos, and the full length doors made the views look nearly the same as sitting on the balcony. We had a good location near the aft elevators. We were not bothered by noise either from the lido eating area above or the stairs and elevators nearby, and we usually went to be early by about nine o'clock.