This is the follow up to yesterday's post, where I talked about my trip to Alaska focusing on the adventures we had during our weekend on land. Today, I'm back to talk about our Alaskan vacation--the voyage south from Seward to Vancouver. Sunday evening, my parents, brother and I embarked on Holland America Line's ms Oosterdam. I've never cruised on the same line twice, and the only reason this wasn't my favorite was because I was fortunate enough to take a Disney cruise, and come on, you can't beat Disney.
The exterior of the boat was quite classic: just navy blue with the company name in white. Other lines (think Carnival and Norwegian) really deck out their ships with colors and various designs, but I actually liked the simplicity of this! Once on board, the interior was classic and elegant with a small focus on Greek and Roman pieces. There were two pools, an outdoor one on the top deck, which is salt water, and one on the ninth deck (the Lido Deck), which is fresh water. What was so cool about the pool on the Lido Deck was that the top was retractable, so for colder cruises (like this one) it was slightly cracked or closed, but when the boat sails in warmer water, it can be open. My favorite part of the ship, however, was the Crow's Nest, the indoor section of the top deck, a cozy internet cafe inspired lounge with a Starbucks-esque counters, overflowing bookshelves and boardgames, and comfy loungers. The room was sponsered by the New York Times, so the books were all bestsellers and the paper's crossword puzzles were available for recreation!
Aside from the pool and various areas to sit and watch the waves, the ship offered tours of the kitchen and culinary demonstrations with some of the on board chefs. If you can't tell, I love to cook and I love to watch the Food Network, so I was all over this stuff. Not to mention that the food on board was incredible, so it was an honor to watch the chefs doing their thing. One of my favorite things the line does, however, is the On Deck for a Cause event. On the last day--a day at sea--for twenty dollars, all of which was donated to cancer relief programs, you could buy a t-shirt and wristband and walk nine times around the outside of the third deck. Holland America does this on every ship, every cruise they sail. I just love that they weave in something for charity into their itinerary--and I loved even more how many people participated.
We had three stops once on board starting on Wednesday, but before we got to our first stop, we sailed through Glacier Bay National Park. The whole experience and all of the sights were just incredible, and I can't think of the right words to describe the experience. I will say that the ship gave out split pea soup to those sightseeing on outside decks--a Holland America tradition--and had the bow open for guests. National Park Service sent a ranger and a native Alaskan women on board for informational purposes: the park ranger pointed out sights on the ship's loud speaker. Oh and yes, in that bottom shot, those are sea otters.
On Wednesday, the boat docked in Haines, a small town outside of bigger Skagway. There wasn't much to do in Haines, so we just walked around and explored a bit. It was drizzling, but we quickly learned that a little rain never stopped anyone in this state.
After Haines, we arrived in Juneau, the state capital, on Thursday. From Juneau, we took a Tempsco helicopter and landed on Mendenhall Glacier. I'm not going to lie, it was really cold, but we were able to explore the glacier and even drink fresh glacier water before being picked back up by the helicopter and traveling back to Tempsco base. It was the most incredible experience and really one of a lifetime. Once we returned, we just walked around the main streets of the city, but nothing compared to that excursion.
Friday we arrived at our last stop: Ketchikan, the salmon capital of the world. My parents ended up taking a little tour of the city, but my brother and I ended up just walking around and exploring the city.
We had a day at sea before docking in Vancouver, but before we flew home to the east coast, we took a Land and Sea tour of the city on Sunday. We visited a couple of beaches (where I put my hand in the pacfic ocean for the first time!) and then took a gondola ride up to a cafe/suspension bridge 3000 feet in the air where I ate antithetic Canadian poutine (swoon).
All in all, Alaska was just a wonderful vacation and I'm so happy and grateful that I was fortunate enough to be able to have such an experience under my belt. My family and I were thrilled with the program Holland America set us up on and just the whole trip in general. That being said, I'm happy to be back on my couch catching up on television and writing again--nothing better than curling up in your own bed after being away for so long!
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