Oosterdam

Boarded Holland America's Oosterdam about 5:30 pm yesterday after a scenic four-hour train ride from Anchorage.  Through a series of last minute (paid) upgrade offers, we moved from a standard to a superior to a deluxe balcony stateroom.  Comes with a bottle of champagne, complimentary laundry service, and a private dining room for breakfast.  Well worth the money, we say!  

Most of our cruising to date has been on Princess, so it's quite disconcerting to not know where everything is located on the HAL ship.  We've been giving the map a good workout.  For a start, the Oosterdam is much smaller - about 1,900 passengers - so there's no big central piazza.  The single main dining room is a two-story affair, quite nice looking.  We'll be eating there tomorrow.  (Tonight is Formal Night, so we're taking a pass.)  The buffet area on the Lido deck is nice, and we even found table for two at lunch!  The theatre spans three decks, and is a combo theatre/lounge affair.  There are two pools, an indoor and an outdoor.  The weather has been a frosty 12C, so only the indoor pool is seeing any action.  I've also located the casino ...

We are currently sailing south from Anchorage and are scheduled to be in Glacier Bay tomorrow.  We've been promised spectacular scenery and more wildlife.