Dropping Anchor in Anchorage

The Alpaca was very eager to cruise aboard Holland America's (http://www.hollandamerica.com/) lovely ms Statendam (http://www.hollandamerica.com/cruiseships/Statendam)!

To get on his way, Alpaca woke up bright and early to fly to Anchorage, then boarded a bus for a beautiful two and a half hour ride down to Seward to board the ship. The first portion of the bus ride feautred portions of the lovely city of Anchorage (above), where he snapped a few pictures through the window (note the reflection). Anchorage was very green, and the mountains in the background really added to the "wilderness" feel of the city. En route to Seward, we saw Beluga whales swimming in the water next to the road. That was pretty amazing. We also saw big horned sheep and a deer.

The ship was very pretty. In use since 1993, the ship had some wear, but was generally well-maintained. The cabins were large by comparison to other lines and the beds were more comfortable. Common areas were plentiful despite the relatively small size (55,000 tons) of the ship, and despite the 1200 passengers and 600 crew, rarely crowded. The main theater, called the Van Gogh Theater, is themed to Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh's paintings "The Starry Night" and "Irises," and even has replicas of the famous paintings set in tiny mosaic tiles across the sides of the theater. Lovely. The shows were mediocre, as the ship had only one night of comedy. On two nights, a ventriloquist and singer performed. The remaining nights' entertainment consisted of the ship's singers and dancers butchering old Broadway musicals. Alpaca's ears are still bleeding. They were just BAD. The line is definitely known for its older crowd, and the ship's activities (golf chipping, trivia featuring questions about the 1920s through 1940s) reflected that. We won at trivia once, when the questions were a little more timely (don't get too excited - I mean 1960s-1970s). The portions in the restaurant were small - husband joked that they were "Senior Citizen-sized" (but it was great - less waste, and you could try a greater variety of items) and, except for a few nights, not particularly good. All in all, the cruise was very mellow and relaxing.

Alpaca was particularly amused that the Statendam staff wore shirts and caps bearing the words "dam ships" as a nod to the -dam suffix of the line's fleet of ships.