Tuesday, 13 June 2017

Cruising to Alaska

Last week, for the first time in our lives, Dot and I went cruising on an ocean liner ... Holland America's Oosterdam. This well-appointed 1,900 passenger vessel took us from Seattle at 48 degrees north to the Hubbard Glacier at 60 degrees north, calling at several other interesting destinations on the way there and back. The southern part of the journey ran through Canadian territory or waters, while the top two thirds was in Alaska. That's a long journey over just 7 days. This first post concerns the vessel itself, while subsequent posts focus on scenery, wild-life, and frontier settlements.

Our suite was on the 8th floor - quite high up since the vessel only recorded 10 floors and we had a balcony on the outside rear of the craft. Alas, this magnified the sway of the craft and made me mildly seasick on the first day. Once I got used to the sway with an appropriate pill it was a lovely journey, especially as we luckily didn't encounter any storms. Of course travelling northwards as we approached mid-summer day meant huge daylight hours. Sixty degrees is the same latitude as Helsinki and St Petersburg, both of which I've also visited mid-year and the Russians appropriately called this time of year the white nights.

Here we are just before departure. The Oosterdam was very large and well appointed.


Out suite was just below the Lido deck (blackish at the top in this photo) and just below the little ladder shown outside the Lido deck two-thirds towards the right.


As we awaited departure we could see another more modern cruise ship alongside and, for most of our journey there was a flotilla of 4-5 ships on our route. Cruising to Alaska is big-time in the USA.


On the Lido deck there was an outside pool and hot tubs and also a second and larger inside equivalent for less clement weather. We dined outside here several times eating food obtained from a lovely inside restaurant. We could eat all we wanted from a huge and highly varied menu aided by highly efficient and attentive staff mainly from, of all places, Indonesia! The ship had many different restaurants with different dress requirements and cuisines. All food and entertainment was paid for in the price of the ticket.


Just after we started backing out from our wharf, Seattle came into view with also the small boat harbour alongside.



Up on level 10 there was a huge area of open deck where one could sun-bathe ... at least in Caribbean waters. It was also located towards the front of the vessel to see where we were headed ... on this occasion backing out of the wharf area.



And Dot received an expensive looking cocktail to celebrate the departure ... and she got to keep the 'glass'. While I'm photographed a little further up Puget Sound with the wake behind me. And, heading north, we raced another smaller cruise ship.




Here we are now in rather more northerly waters en route to Juneau and people, me included, began to rug up.



More open, and often unused space, except for the basketball court enclosed by the netting where guys were often practising slam-dunks.



And here's Dot inside the Lido dining area. We had fresh orchids on the table every day. And look at the pleasant view. We often had company at our table and talked to interesting people from all over the USA. This social side was excellent. Indeed, the other opportunities on board were immense: playing card games or poker machines; listening to experts on anything from cooking to computers and jewellery; attending gym classes; hearing about our destinations from experts in various fields; listening to jazz bands, solo pianists in bars, and even classical chamber works performed by an accomplished quintet from New York; attending dance shows on stage in a large and well-appointed theatre; viewing films and so on. There was a mass of things to do, all timetabled on sheets circulated daily. Our cabins also a large array of TV shows. Ladies could have experts try to reshape or enhance any parts of their bodies, though options for blokes were fewer!!


And when we got back to out cabins in the evening we always found a towel wrapped up in an interesting shape accompanied by a chocolate each and travel details / instructions for the following day. So, it was all go for 7 action-packed days.


And our experiences in various ports of call we often breath-taking. More about those shortly.

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