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Holland America Line

MS Westerdam

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Bruce Tuffin
# previous cruises: 1
Date of Trip: May 17, 2001
Itinerary: Alaska-Inside Passage

Go and do it NOW!!! The Westerdam is a "real" ship, with sailors as crew; not a floating gin palace. Polished brass and timber and immaculate. Few kids; average passenger age probably a bit high -- in the 40s at least. The food is just SUPERB -- there is no other word. And the captain handles that ship like you and I would handle a 12-foot dinghy.

Imagine this: You're sitting in a luxurious leather armchair, sipping a cocktail of your choice. Your wife is nibbling on a handmade chocolate. Outside, the temperature is just above freezing -- inside, you are in light slacks and a summer shirt. It is almost dusk as you glide through a channel. Ice and snow-covered hills slip past, not a hundred yards away from your full-length picture window, while a first-class string ensemble oozes classical music into the opulence.

The cruise is about food, food, and more food.

You haven't lived until you've eaten freshly-barbecued Alaskan salmon on the pool deck.

Or until you've stood in awe in Glacier Bay, watching small icebergs calve with a rumbling "cr-a-a-ck", while sipping hot Dutch pea and ham soup brought around on trays by the crew.

The buffet is five-star; the dining room even better. Dutch, Indonesian, seafood --- you name it; it's the sort of cruise where you keep the menus as souvenirs!!!

Our cabin was just above the water line; outside double, with window -- "H" grade from memory. We were only about 8 cabins from the stern and the ride was magnificent. Only once did we even realise we were at sea. Any "rhythm" just lulled us to sleep -- and I'm the sort of person who can get seasick on a wet lawn!!

The shows were first class without being world class --- but, hey!! they were damned good!!

TIP: Book your tours ashore, not through the cruise -- and save about 50%!!

The casino is small but fun.

The cinema had some great shows, and the seating was, for a relatively small cinema, first class.

My biggest regret is they had no clay target shooting off the stern as they do on some ships.

We DID invite some of our fellow passengers over -- not just for a meal but to stay with us on holidays.

We met some really wonderful people on the cruise. There were a lot of Aussies because it had been heavily promoted.