A new cruise experience

Eph60 · July 9, 2013

We recently cruised on the Holland America Statendam in Alaska. When ships are in Alaska they are supposed to try to avoid whales or get huge fines. One morning as we were cruising in very calm seas the ship started to have an extreme lean. We were having breakfast in our room and the table and dishes went flying. We were told later by others that many dishes in the dining room went flying and broke. The captain eventually came over the PA saying they had to make a sharp turn to avoid whales. He had hoped the whales would move out of the way but when they would not he had to make a tight turn to avoid them.

I have cruised many times and worked on cruise ships and never had one lean that much. Now I heard of no harm to any passengers or crew but it sure was an E ticket ride for a few seconds. Luckily my wife was sitting down because with her handicap I know she would have taken a bad fall if she was standing.

This had no effect on the cruise it just added to the experience.