PORT ANGELES — A regal welcome Thursday morning for Holland America’s cruise ship, MS Zaandam, seems to have paid off, with many passengers vowing to return to the North Olympic Peninsula.
“Everyone was very friendly, very nice,” said Marilyn Bennett from Parksville, a small town on Vancouver Island.
“They were working very hard at it.”
Bennett and her husband, Tony, said now that they have seen what is here, Vancouver Island residents such as themselves should visit Port Angeles in the future.
The 780-foot-long, 10-story-tall cruise ship pulled into the Port of Port Angeles about 40 minutes past its scheduled 7 a.m. docking Thursday.
Plumes of water from a Foss Maritime tugboat escorted the huge cruise ship — which dwarfed downtown Port Angeles buildings on the nearby shore.
An estimated 1,200 passengers taking the three-day, roundtrip cruise out of Vancouver, British Columbia, came ashore late Thursday morning to explore the downtown area and take excursion trips to Hurricane Ridge and Lake Crescent.
Nothing but praise
As they made their way back to the ship in the early afternoon, the visitors had nothing but praise for the city and its residents.
They often voiced compliments for the area’s scenery and other natural attractions.
But over and over they also said the people were friendly, and Port Angeles was “a nice little town” that was clean with great shopping and restaurants.
The ship’s captain even praised the deepwater harbor as great for navigation, and the pier gangway as being handicapped-accessible.
“They love us. They said this was very nicely done,” said Port Angeles Downtown Association Executive Director Arla Holzschuh after the Zaandam sailed out of the harbor shortly after 2 p.m.
