How can you verbally describe a phenomenal trip? You really can’t, but in these next few posts, that’s exactly what we’re going to attempt to do. Our last 3 weeks have been spent at sea, Alaska, Washington State, and Canada. It wasn’t all fun, and there were some inconveniences, but it was mostly enjoyable and memorable—one of those lifetime experiences you never forget!
The trip was conceived about a year and a half ago, as we watched the beautiful scenery of Whistler and Vancouver unfold during the Olympic coverage on TV. We decided that we wanted to see the gorgeous, towering mountains up close, and we booked a week at Whiski Jack North Star in Whistler. Then, a few months later, we found the Raintree Sandcastle Resort in Birch Bay, Washington. This was one of the states that I had not been to, yet, and so that seemed a good choice for a second week.
The Alaskan cruise was something that we had been thinking about for a few years, and thought might be a good idea for our 40th anniversary. (It’s actually in December, and the Alaskan cruises only run from May to September.) So we zeroed in on summer of 2012 to do that. At some point we realized that we were paying around $800 to fly to Seattle for our September, 2011 Whistler/Birch Bay trip. Maybe we could add on the cruise to this trip rather than pay another $800 to fly out and do the cruise in the summer of 2012?
We did our research, and ended up booking the last Alaskan cruise of the season with Holland America. It was a 7-night cruise that actually turned out to be the first week of our 3-week trip. So we drove to Chicago, flew to Seattle, and boarded the Oosterdam on a rainy Sunday.
Our stateroom was on the 8th floor, or the Navigation Deck, which was the highest floor containing passenger cabins. We had opted for a cabin with a balcony, so that we could view Glacier Bay easily. It worked out well for us, because it was convenient to stay warm and go in and out of our cabin in the pouring rain. It was an amazing day, and the ship picked up some park rangers who filled us in on glacier facts and folklore.
Besides Glacier Bay, we visited Juneau and Ketchikan, Alaska, and Victoria, Canada. In Juneau, we bought an excursion to the Mendehall Glacier. They took us by bus, and we had an excellent guide who filled us in on the Tlinglit culture and told some interesting family stories. We visited the public library and caught up on eMail and family phone calls (We had been on the ship for 2.5 days with no communications; internet was $.75 a minute and we had no cell phone reception.) And, we shopped at all the touristy stores. It rained almost constantly.
It was not raining for most of our time in Ketchikan, but was cloudy and overcast. This is an old fishing town, complete with salmon hatcheries. We took numerous pictures of totem poles, and followed Creek Street, which housed all the dwellings of ill repute. During Prohibition times, liquor was not allowed on land, so all the houses were built up off of the land so that liquor could be brought in off the boats through the bottoms of the houses.
We were originally scheduled to visit the port of Sitka, but since it sits directly on the ocean and a storm was brewing, we bypassed it and headed to Victoria, Canada. It did not rain that day, and, in fact, the sun appeared a few times. The city is charming. We visited the world-famous Empress Hotel and took a city tour that took us up on a mountain for a great view. We saw the Parliament building and Craigdarroch Castle, although we didn’t go inside. It was just so nice to be in the sun again. We wanted to see Buchart Gardens, but felt that we might run short on time. We’ll save that for next time.
As you have probably deduced from reading thus far, the weather was not great on this trip. We knew that the best times to visit Alaska were in July and August, and even then, they get a lot of rain. Actually, the rain didn’t bother us—it was the storms. It was amazing to us that a huge ship, carrying 2004 passengers and a crew of 800, could rock and sway so much. Neither of us is prone to seasickness, luckily, but at times the rocking was almost violent in nature. It seemed that we would just be done with one storm, and another would begin. As mentioned, our itinerary was changed once, and we didn’t get to visit Sitka.
The lurching of the ship and the sounds of the storm at night kept us awake 6 out of the 7 nights. I kept thinking about the Titanic, and I wondered how long you could survive in a life jacket in those cold, cold waters. Overdramatic? Maybe. But then I began to wonder how often this bad weather occurs on the last cruise in September? Probably Holland America knows the answer to this. Obviously, they can’t control the weather, but they can control whether or not their ships sail that week. Then, I multiplied 2004 paying customers by the amount that we paid for our cruise—hmm—food for thought.
So, for the last few days of the cruise, we began making some comparisons between cruising and timesharing. We’ll deal with that in a future post.
Changing gears, the food on the ship was outstanding! We sat in the formal dining room with two other couples (you can choose how many are at your table) and every evening we could choose from 4 or 5 different appetizers, 4 or 5 salads, 4 or 5 entrees, etc., etc. Our waitstaff was efficient and friendly. We had 2 formal nights, and the other evenings were designated as “smart/casual.”
One evening, we didn’t care to go to the formal dining room, as we’d been out shopping in the rain and got back kind of late. So we had dinner on the Lido Deck, where you can wear jeans, or whatever. The food here was also excellent, and by no means consisted of sandwiches or snack food, although those were available, too. In fact, there were many more choices than in the formal dining room, but it was buffet style. In both dining areas, there were a lot of seafood offerings, especially salmon fixed many ways. There was also some sort of steak or beef on the menu every night. On the Lido Deck, there were Mexican, Asian and Italian stations—really similar to a Las Vegas buffet. We also ate breakfast (heavy on the made-to-order omelets) and lunch here.
The housekeeping staff was friendly and very attentive. Davis, our cabin steward, excelled in making animal towel arrangements—he even demo-ed some for the whole ship. Speaking of talent, the Filipino staff put on an entire variety show for the guests. The evenings featured professional shows done by singers, dancers and magicians. There was also a small casino. The entire waitstaff performed at dinner on the last night of the cruise.
And, of course, there were all the other amenities and activities that you find on a cruise ship—pools, spas, gift shops, bars, lounges, ping pong, etc., etc. As of this writing, Holland America is the only (I think) cruise ship that has a Catholic priest on board, who says Mass every day. There is a Friends of Bill W. meeting every day, and I believe there are also Singles and Gay/Lesbian group gatherings.
The Oosterdam offered numerous offshore excursions in each port. Generally, they were very expensive, and I’ve read that the cruise line gets a kickback from every one that is booked. Usually, you could buy the same excursions at kiosks that were stationed at each pier, for about half the price of the ship excursions. One of the drawbacks with these is that if you get into heavy traffic, or your transportation breaks down, then you may miss the boat when it sails. If this happens, you have to fly to the next port at your own expense—not a good situation. We did two excursions this way, and just made sure that we had plenty of time to get back to the ship, even if we had to walk!
What really makes for a memorable cruise is the people you meet-and we met some of the nicest. When you’re on a ship for a period of time, it’s kind of like a village. You think that you’ll probably know these people forever, yet you know that’s not true. Then you think, “well, maybe we’ll keep in touch.” So far, that hasn’t happened. Once you get home, you’re swamped with work, paying bills, catching up with errands, friends, relatives, and you’re back to “normal” life. So, if you’re reading this Kathy & Ron from Texas, Joe and Joan from Georgia, Julie and Ian from Australia, Tita and Ronnie from Indiana—know that we treasure the memories of our time with you and we miss you—still hope to hear from you.
And so, our cruise came to an end. Would we do it again—you bet! But probably not the last cruise in September to Alaska!
P. S. Stay tuned for our post on cruising vs. timesharing!
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