We had a great final day in the Nieuw Amsterdam, with several fun activities, some down time and too much eating. I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had since we boarded a week ago. I don’t think it’s ever been a secret, but I despise Holland America beds. With lower back issues, I don’t like a soft mattress, and HAL’s are among the softest. I think finally figured out how to cope…just in time to disembark tomorrow. But what joy to not need a few hours to finally straighten up in the morning.
Despite moving clocks forward an hour overnight, we were still up by 6am. It was grey and wet and chilly, exactly the opposite of our summer at home, so we didn’t mind at all. We settled ourselves in the buffet and literally grazed for about two hours, drinking too much coffee to stay warm.
We were kind of disappointed to see that we were not returning to Seattle by way of the Inside Passage, though with the low lying fog, we wouldn’t have seen much anyway. We moved up to the comfy seating in the Tamarind Bar, and had to be content with the few small islands we saw off the starboard side of the ship. I was trying hard to finish a Kindle book that I knew would disappear from my phone as soon as I got internet again, and finally did, late this afternoon.
We ate lunch in the buffet again, though I can’t for the life of me remember what I had. The food has all been very good, but it seems to be getting fairly repetitive in both the dining room and buffet. Oh, that’s right, I had salmon for lunch…just as I have for nearly every lunch and dinner since we got on board. But what has been faultless had been the service. Friendly and efficient in the buffet, super friendly but fairly slow in the dining room…I don’t know how the crew does it. If I was spending 11 to 12 hours a day in a mask, I’m not sure I could be so hospitable.
Dining room lunch menu
Buffet lunch menu
At 2pm we went to an Ask the Captain session in the MainStage. I thought it was handled so well. He started out with some slides about the bridge, the engine control room and the engine room for a great behind the scenes look. Then it was opened up for questions, but the first question was from Cruise and Travel Director about yesterday’s float plane crash
The captain said they first became aware of it when the Port Agent called the ship about 11:30am to tell them a sightseeing plane was missing and it was believed that the passengers on board were from the Nieuw Amsterdam. He said that the HAL Emergency Response Team in Seattle (actually, still working from home due to COVID) was notified, and worked with the Emergency Response Team on the ship. Then they waited. He said that the Coast Guard Search and Rescue out of Juneau, Alaska State troopers, the Juneau Sheriff’s Department and a Search and Rescue group out of Ketchikan were all involved, and the ship received updates as they were available. Once the wreckage was located and there were no survivors found, then families had to be notified before the captain’s announcement to us around 3:30pm. In fact, that first announcement said only that the plane was missing; it wasn’t until we were in dinner that he announced there were no survivors. So it is obvious there was a lot happening during a time when we were blissfully unaware of what was going on. Because I can tell you that it changes the tone of a cruise in a heartbeat to get that news. I can’t stop thinking that we will arrive back in Seattle tomorrow with five fewer passengers than we left with.
The captain finished by saying he really couldn’t say anything more about the crash, and so no one asked any more questions about it and it really was a perfect way to address the biggest issue on everyone’s mind.
We raced from there to Lincoln Center Stage for a Meet the Musicians session. The violinist is from Pittsburgh, the cellist from Buffalo, the viola-ist (is that a word?) from Poland where she plays with the Poland Opera House symphony but the opera house is being renovated so she was on a break and the pianist is from Italy and they’ve just started performing together a couple of weeks ago. Amazing.
We stayed for their 3pm performance and then got ready for our last dinner with Karma and Aziz. They have certainly made our cruise fun! I got wild tonight and had sole instead of salmon. It was excellent. G enjoyed yet another steak. He said he wants to take his leftover steaks to the Majestic Princess because he’s fairly certain that they will be in short supply there.
Dining room dinner menu
Buffet dinner menu
And then we went to the MainStage for our last show of the cruise, Tandem by the Step One Dance Company. Apparently this is a new show and it really was the best of the three that we saw. It included a few songs by a vocalist who performs with the groups in BB Kings Jazz Club on board.
It was time to pack up then, which didn’t take too long, but still required some thought as we will be spending one night in a hotel in Seattle not far from the pier, and then joining the Majestic Princess on Sunday, dragging a bag of dirties behind us. In a perfect world we will find a passenger laundry at the hotel tomorrow, but, if we don’t, we’ll be doing laundry as soon as we board the Majestic Princess. The laundry situation on Princess, even if we didn’t get free laundry as Elites, makes things so easy.
We’ve really enjoyed our cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam. There is a lot to like about Holland Ametica, most notably the size of their ships. We are definitely not of the “bigger is better” mindset, and appreciate how comfortable the ship feels. Having said that, we have never been on an Alaska cruise that offered so little in the way of destination or naturalist lectures. I remmber how much Jules Talerico added to our Island Princess cruises in 2012 and missed those lectures all week. Maybe that’s just a casualty of the times, and we’ll find similar cutbacks on the Majestic Princess next week. But I really hope not. Alaska in particular is an itinerary that just begs for a specialist to help us get the most out of the experience.
Day 7 When and Where
