Spring is Coming to Seattle
Special thanks to HAL’s Director Mariner Society Gerald Bernhoft for this post.
Spring in Seattle brings with it two Dutch treats: Beautiful tulips of every color of the rainbow and soon the return of Holland America Line ships to our fair city. A sight that rarely graces Seattle’s Elliott Bay was the arrival of the ms Amsterdam and ms Zaandam on the same day which was May 13, 2011. A beautiful sight indeed!
Our Alaska season is beginning. Sister ships ms Oosterdam and ms Westerdam will sail two stunning Southeast Alaska cruises this Spring and Summer. The ms Westerdam will sail every Saturday seven-day roundtrip from Seattle cruises with visits to the state capital of Juneau; famed Glacier Bay; Sitka, which is known for its Russian history; Ketchikan, known as the Salmon Capital of the World, and Victoria, B.C., before returning to Seattle.
Her sister ship ms Oosterdam also will sail seven-day roundtrip cruises to Alaska with port calls at Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Tracy Arm, known for her 30-mile long cruise through gorgeous sheer granite rock cliff-lined fjords to Sawyer Glacier. Prior to returning to Seattle, the ship will visit beautiful Victoria, B.C. where guests have the early evening to visit famed Butchart Gardens.
Holland America Line will showcase the beauties of our Pacific Northwest hometown and those of the 49th state from May through September 2013.
Thanks, Gerald, for this post! We’ll be back on the Zaandam later in May and really appreciate the photo of it and the Amsterdam, on which we have also had many wonderful HAL cruises.
The tulips are such a beautiful reminder of the Dutch heritage of the HAL ships: a truly lovely photo!
This has been our fourth trip to Alaska and we enjoyed it very much. The current D.J. Matt on the Westerdam impressed me as exceptionally talented at his work because he does “free style” mixing as I did almost 10 years ago thus he knows how to keep the dancers on their feet and appreciating the music too, his sense for public relations in other activities with the guests was notable.
Thanks for a great trip: Patrick and Julie