My Own Ocean Voyage

In 2004, my mother, brothers, and father sailed from Seattle, Washington, to different places in Alaska. Our ship was named the M.S. Amsterdam of the Holland American Line (a branch off of Carnival Line which owns Cunard). When the ship set sail, we didn't even feel the ship moving. The ship was beautiful with a nice staircase, of which had paintings on the landings (like the Grand Staircase on the TITANIC). We had a lifeboat drill around half an hour after we set sail. The lifejackets were bright orange, and they were not very well designed to be strapped to your person, especially in a short period of time. When we ate dinner, the dining room was a nice place with assigned seating, green carpet with elegant designs, and huge windows where we could look out to sea. In the middle of the room, was an opening that looked over the lower level of the dining room. Our cabins weren't very big. They had a double bed in the main room, and the hallway near the entrance had a bathroom and a closet. When-ever we ate breakfast, we ate in a room with a bar. It too had huge windows, and it opened up to the for-castle deck. It kinda reminded me of the Veranda Cafe. There were many decks and once, and I ran down all the decks in the stern and saw the engines. The engines were huge, seeming to tower around two stories. The voyage was nice, and we saw a few mountain goats occasionally. There was an observation platform, where we spent our mornings looking for sea-life. We did see a porpoise. One night, we went to see a magic show in the theatre. On the way there, we went up a nice staircase that had what looked like silver squares on the wall. Beside the stairway was a towering, 3 story clock that had a beautiful mural on the ceiling, surrounding it. The theatre was pretty good, and the magic tricks were all stunning of course. At Glacier Bay, we saw many icebergs and sometimes run over or hit them. Rough weather rocked the ship, and sent large waves across the ship's front decks. There were 5 pools. One was indoors, but the roof could open which let in sunlight. After a week of sailing, we arrived back in Seattle, Washington.