cruse to Alaska

Well I’m here to tell you about our trip on the M. S. Oosterdam with the Holland America cruise line. On Saturday, August 16 at about 11 o’clock we boarded our cruise line to Alaska. It was quite a site to see that huge ship it holds about 2000 guests and about 800 crew.
Our cabins were not quite ready so they sent us up to eat, and boy did we eat. A buffet is going at any given time. You can even have as much dessert as you want. They had all kinds of cheesecake and ice cream cones, both regular and the kind made out of waffles, and just about any kind of ice cream that you wanted. You may have to walk around to the other side to get the kind you wanted but they had it somewhere. Well after a little while we got up and went down to our room. And I can’t say that they were huge,but there is about 2 feet on each side of a queen size bed and a desk and little table and a bathroom.

But you aren’t going to spent all day in your silly room anyway. Sheryl and Brett were two doors down. (Sheryl is my sister.) Brett’s dad, Garth, and his wife Kathy (better known as Nancy, I don’t know why) were next door and Brett’s younger sister Michelle and her husband George were three doors down. So we were right next to each other.
This was our crew Along with a couple thousand other people. Before we left the dock we had a mandatory lifeboat drill. We had to all put on our life vests and truck down to the life boats and learn what to do…. Women and children first!!!




Our first day we just sat on the boat and enjoyed the cruise up to Juneau that took us Saturday and Sunday. We looked for whales and other such critters, and watched the coast line go by .


You could go and sit on the 3rd deck, the promenade deck, and have the wind in your hair or you could go to the upper decks and look out over the much wider areas or you could go to the many lounges and just look out over the water. There were 12 decks. Sunday night was the night of the formal dinner where everyone had to wear a suit or a tie. The food was good it was a four course dinner and if you wanted more they were more than happy to bring you a second main course or on one occasion one of our group even had three.

The way in to Juneau was beautiful, the coast was dark green with clouds hovering around the middle of the mountains. At this point it looked like it could rain but it did not. It was just plain beautiful. And with the help of some special little pills I didn’t even get sea sick. I started taking them when I was on land and then one every four hours most of the trip. On Monday we got to go into Juneau. We took a tour bus up to the Mendenhall glacier and took some pictures it was pretty cool. And I don’t mean cold I mean cool because the sun was shining and the weather was great. My right knee was hurting me so I wasn’t up for trucking around the glacier but we went out to the lookout, took some pictures then went up to the visitors center for the glacier. Did some more pictures came back down walked around the stream a little bit more did some more pictures and hopped in the bus to go back to town. While we’re back in town we went on a tram ride. It went 3000 feet in the air up to an Indian Visitor Center where they showed you some pictures and their way of life and how they saw things. Of course they charge $29.95 to get up the tram to see all these cute things. We walked around there and saw a bald eagle that they were rehabilitating because it had been shot and left by someone to die and they were trying to get it back to good health. They really didn’t think they had much of a chance but they are trying anyway. Then we rode the tram down. Donnie and I were walking down to the Red Dog Saloon and stood in a line to get in because the line came clear out of the saloon and went around a corner. While we’re standing there the language that was coming out of there from the Piano player was not quite what we wanted to listen to so we turned and started to leave, and that’s why we ran into Sheryl and Brett. I found a good bench to sit on and Donnie went with them t to a fudge factory. After that Donnie & I went on a ride on this too little bicycle cart thing. Maybe you have seen them before… a bicycle attached to a two seat cart.



He whipped us around town and showed us the places to go, of course we were not going to go to them, because our ship was about to leave pretty quick. And then he dropped us off near the ship loading ramp.
The ship left port and on the next day we went to the Hubbard glacier. Donnie said “What in the world could we watch for three hours at some silly glacier. I really don’t want to spend three hours watching ice melt.” But it was one of the most fascinating things we did. As you watch the fissure break apart and the ice fall down into the water and the seals and the others playing. The three hours went by very fast then Donnie took off to some silly cooking class she and Sheryl had signed up for. Later we went swimming in the pool on deck 9 outside. The water was sloshing around so much because we had wave activity on the ocean… the pool looked so fun with all of the water splashing all over. And it was! The sun was shining and we got a bit of a sunburn too!! We had awesome weather our whole trip...not any rain like we were told to expect. Even the captain was amazed.
And off we sailed to Sitka, Alaska. Now Sitka was different in that they had to tender us to port. Tender means they had to get the life boats out and take us in to the port. Here we caught a bus to the other end of town that conveniently dropped you off so you walked back through the shops to look at the things that they were trying to sell us. It was a cute little town with a Catholic church and lots of art shops. We went up to see the Indians dancing and saw the last two minutes and that was the only performance of the day. So we missed out on that one, so back on the ship we go. It was a cute little town. And then we headed out for Ketchikan. In Ketchikan I made the mistake of getting on the tour from hell. It looked okay they had a really cool sign, and off to the right side of this there were these big buses, some drawn by horses, some diesel engines looked good. These guys came up to us and told us that they had a great tour, the city and wildlife both, probably $50 each. And for us, lucky us, he would do it for $45 and throw in tickets for Dolly’s house and yes Dolly’s House is just what it sounds like. Well he pointed to where we should go and it wasn’t towards those big buses, it was to a beat up twelve passenger van, and of course by the time we got there all the good seats were gone. That would have been the first two rows. The next row was reached by crawling over the seats and over the wheel well and back into the seat. Of course I wanted to sit by Donnie and crawled back there too. I should’ve right there got out and demanded my money back, but I didn’t. Then a young man who basically told us he didn’t know anything about this island as he lived on another island would do the best he could to lead our tour. He took us a to the totem poles of the Indians. Now the other tours had already gotten there and they had the Indians tell stories about the Totem poles and then dances in their tribal meetinghouse. Our guide told us if we wanted to sneak in and not tell them that we were from his tour, Sourdough Tours, (remember that name if you are ever in Ketchikan and avoid this one) we might be able to get to see the Indians dance. Otherwise just walk around the outside of the clan house and take a look at the totem poles. After a while we got back into the bus. Yes I crawled all away the back and set my big butt in there, but I think this is where I ripped up my knee. Now I will live, but that knee was never the same the rest of the trip. We then went over a stream a salmon stream with a bald eagle and lots of salmon swimming up stream. And we got to get out and we did see a bear catch a fish and walk back into the forest. We were about 600 yards from the bear. Those who took the other tour bus were about 100 yards away from the bear. I don’t mean to sound bitter but……. I was. A nice gentleman changed spots with me in the van so I did not have to climb over the wheel well again. I’m not sure I could have, but I didn’t have to. Then the tour bus dropped us off at Dolly’s house. It was right on the main stream there in Ketchikan and we got to hear how Dolly made her living. We hobbled back to the ship and got back on.




That night was Chef night at dinner. That meant everybody got to wear a chef hat. The waiters sang to us, and danced around as they gave us napkins and we got a different menu to look at. It still had the cool same things on it... I’m not sure if this is the night we got lobster and filet mignon or not but like I said the food was fabulous. Most of the nights we didn’t get out of the dining room until 9:00 or 9:30. It did put a damper on us making it into some of the shows since they started at nine o’clock and by the time we got down there most of them had ended or were about to end. But the truth be known I was pooped out by my nine o’clock so I didn’t have any problem with that. We were a little late at getting out of Ketchikan because the Smith family didn’t make it back on the ship. They ended up flying to Seattle and taking a helicopter to meet us in Victoria.
On the way to Victoria we got to see a pod of whales and a whale come out of the water and a bunch of blows ,you know when the whales surfaces . It is pretty cool. We sat out on the deck and took pictures. But I won’t bore you with a hundred pictures of little whales blowing and jumping and swimming in the water.
We didn’t get into Victoria until about 6:30 or 7 o’clock and we had to be gone by 11 so there really wasn’t a lot to do. We rode around on one of those open buses the one’s they took the can opener to and just cut the top off. It was a pretty good tour that shows you most of Victoria and all I wanted to see anyway. I know Donnie wanted to go back out to Buschart Gardens. But there just wasn’t enough time. Sheryl says they will have to make it back to Seattle to go check that out another time. And then we were back on the ship and trucked day and night to make it into Seattle at seven o’clock in the morning. Our time to get off the ship was 9:30 so we had room service bring us a breakfast. Oh, that’s got to be good, just pick up the phone and order whatever you wanted. I must say I did enjoy myself. But now here’s the good part I lost a pound on the trip. So instead of gaining 7 pounds, that’s what the staff told me the average passenger gained on a trip. 1 pound per day, I lost a pound for the week, not bad, and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Now back to work I go.............