We were on the Westerdam from May 9th through May 16th. First time with HAL and the to Alaska. We departed from Seattle. The weather was perfect, 65 degrees and no rain. We were onboard by 11:45am and went straight to our room. Room 4044, it was the first time having a balcony and we were very excited to see what the room looked like. The room what the size we expected. A large very comfy king bed. Nice pillows and comforter/blanket. The view from our port side balcony was very nice and faced the marina in Elliott Bay (there is a live webcam if you're interested, just google Elliott Bay). The bathroom was another story. It was larger than what we had on Princess or Carnival, which was awesome. It had a tub instead of just a shower. Unfortunately, it was filthy. The room steward had failed to remove the previous guests toiletries. There were several long hairs in the tub and sink. Toothpaste marks on the glass shelves and thick dust on the sink counter. It was gross. The room steward came to introduce himself as we were leaving the room and we told him about the bathroom. He apologized and said it must have been overlooked. Assuming he'd clean it, we left for the Mariners lunch.

Mariners lunch was very nice. We were seated with another couple at a table for 4. The other couple had one prior cruise with HAL. We were invited to this lunch because we'd cruised with Princess previously and were told we were considered 1 star Mariners. Lunch was very nice. My husband had fish tacos and I had a penne pasta dish. Both were very good. The service was excellent. After lunch we explored the ship a bit and then returned to our room to unpack prior to sail away. The bathroom still had not been cleaned. I thought it was because the room steward was busy with so many people boarding that he'd get around to cleaning soon. Surely he'd have it cleaned before we needed to get ready for dinner (early seating 5:30pm).

Sail away was at 4pm. We chose to do sail away on the aft deck. Wine was available for purchase and it was wonderful to watch the Seattle coastline disappear. We'd prepared to be with cruisers older than we were, but were pleasantly surprised to see the age of the other passengers were from early 30's to 70's (we are in our early 50's). We'd feared we'd be some of the youngest, that was not the case. There were a few children, all well behaved. A nice mix. Read more