We left Seattle on Holland America's MS Amsterdam. The Amsterdam is a fairly small cruise ship with some of these LARGE ships that Carnival and Norwegian are now sailing with 4000-5000 passengers. We prefer the smaller and more elegant service you get from Holland America.
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| MS Amsterdam |
The MS Amsterdam has 12 decks. It is 778 feet long and 105 feet wide. The passenger capacity is only 1380 with a crew of 647.
Our Caribbean Cruise will also be on Holland America but the ship will be larger, but still smaller then the Mega ships that the others are using.
We settled for room 3372 with a window view instead of a balcony for three reasons.
1. The balcony cost almost twice as much as a view only room.
2. We figured that it would be cold in Alaska and we wouldn't spend much time on the balcony. Any time we got near something we wanted to see, like a glacier, we could go outside on the deck and see it.
3. We would get a balcony on the less expensive Caribbean cruise. We are doing a 14 day cruise on November and the 14 day balcony will cost us about the same price as the 7 day balcony in Alaska and we will be able to spend time on the balcony!
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| Room 3372 |
Here we are on the stern on the ship leaving Seattle. As you can see it is not very crowded. We really like that about Holland. We met several people on board that we kept seeing during the cruise. One veteran about Crystal's age named Matt. Nice kid who we enjoyed talking to. Also the ships Catholic Priest for this trip, Father George. He kept gravitating to us because being we are Christians, but not Catholics he could talk to us but not worry about being "Father George", but just George. Just a brother in Christ!
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| Leaving Seattle |
After we got on the ship we were able to go to the Lido Buffet for lunch. Just had a deli sandwich which was really good.
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| Lido Buffet |
Most days we had breakfast in the buffet, lunch in the La Fontaine dining room and diner in the dining room. At llunch they sit you wherever there is space for you. But for Diner you have a designated seat time as well as a table and seat. We chose to have a two person table which was about where this picture was taken next to the rail. After the first night our servers always knew what drink (ice tea) we wanted and they were waiting for us! Food was great!
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| La Fontaine |
The second day was a "at sea day". We did a kitchen tour. It is amazing how much food they make and how fancy it is! No pre-made here.
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| Kitchen Tour |
One night we ate in the Pinnacle Grill. This is their extra-charge steak house dining option. They normally charge $29.00 per person, but because of a problem we had with our room (beyond their control) they generously offered to upgrade us one night. We love Holland America!
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| Pinnacle Grill |
We made it to Alaska! It is soooooooooo beautiful!!
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| Alaska |
Our intention was to go down the Tracy Arm. The Captain announced that there was just too much floating ice for him to attempt that so he was making a change and going up the Endicott Arm instead. We would see the Endicott Glacier which is still spectacular.
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| Endicott Glacier |
There were still a lot of Icebergs floating everywhere!
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| Icebergs |
Endicott Selfie! OK well not really. We took a picture of someone and they took a picture of us. It was cold and wet but quite a site!
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| Glacier Selfie |
There was a family of seals on this iceberg.
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| Seals |
The ship turned around and headed back out of the arm. It was amazing that the captain could make the u-turn. It seemed like the ship was longer then the arm was wide, but he made it!
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| Turned Around |
We didn't get any pictures, but we saw a family of Grizzly Bears while we heading towards the glacier. Very cool!
Well that's it for today.
Next we are in Juneau, Alaska,
Please continue to pray for Avery Huffman.
Here is the link to updates from Avery's father Brandon.
God Bless,
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