August 14-26 Alaska Cruise Marlene Minegar

This was a long awaited land/sea tour with Holland America. We are veteran cruisers, but first time with HAL. We are in our 70's and youngish in spirit and ability. The only place we had not cruised and explored was Alaska. It beckoned to us and we planned for a year to embark on this trip. Day One didn't start out too well when we were told our flight was cancelled from Boise, ID to Seattle. The airlines offered to get us there on Day Two and we said that wouldn't work. However, hanging around the airport for an hour or more netted us two seats on Alaska Airlines to Seattle so we could make our Fairbanks flight. This was somewhat unnerving, but we got to Fairbanks in time to meet our travel coordinator, who did a fabulous job of rounding up all the latecomers and errant baggage. We were delivered to the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks and were very pleased with the accommodations. The hotel was clean and the beds were wonderful. The dining room was unsurpassed and we ate breakfast and dinners in the hotel. We even had free use of the internet. We were met by Dianne, our appointed Tour Director, for the land portion of our cruise. We were given paperwork outlining our first day, which included a short stop at the Alaska Pipeline, a prolonged lunch and tour of the #8 Gold Dredge that was fun. The lunch at the Dredge consisted of a delicious Miners Stew accompanied by delicious biscuits and beverages. It was fun to watch the adults in the group get so excited over finding a few pieces of gold in the bag mixture. . It didn't matter if the bags were "salted", they still got such pleasure out of seeing the bright gold. We then boarded the river boat for the Chena River Discovery trip. There were good seats for everyone and we enjoyed seeing the float plane take off and land and the presentation of the Athabasca Indians at their compound on the river. We got a fun view of the sled dogs as they demonstrated their summer workouts pulling an ATV.. Other interesting points along the way were the beautiful river homes. We giggled at the little Indian girl whose job it was to shoo the caribou out to a fenced area on the river so we could see them. August 16th, we boarded the beautiful McKinley Explorer for our 4 hour trip into Denali. Dianne accompanied us, but we were entertained and educated along the way by employees of the Explorer. We had breakfast in the dining car below the domed seating area. The train wound through beautiful scenery all the way to our destination. . When we approached Denali, we ran alongside the Nenana River, which was as grey as cement from the silt coming down out of the glacial ice. The town of Denali was nestled in a valley and our hotel (the Cottonwood Chalets) was a short shuttle ride down to the river. Again, the beds were awesome and the chalets were warm and inviting. In fact, the temperature was in the high 70's and the sun shone the whole time we were there. The food in the Cottonwood lodge was good, but a little spendy. We took the advice of Dianne, our tour guide, and made sure we made a stop at the local ice cream store. Although other passengers went on various excursions and out to dinner, we knew we had an early call for the Wilderness trip into the National Park, so we hit the bed early. At 4:30am, we were up and the hotel was serving an early breakfast for us. We were somewhat disappointed at the bus we were traveling in. After the lush accommodations of the tour buses and the McKinley Explorer, we were somewhat surprised to be put into what looked like a converted school bus for this long trip. My husband is a big guy and the seats were pretty narrow for him. Also, there was a bar across the middle of the window that obscured his view at his eye level. Nevertheless, we had a great bus driver who gave us a running commentary on the varied terrain and vegetation in each area. There was a lot of wild life spotted during our trip. My husband has a pair of Zeiss binoculars which are the best, but the game was so far away that it was hard to see them. We got a great surprise when we saw the first glimpse of Mt. McKinley and it was a totally clear view. As we approached it throughout the ride, the mountain showed more and more of itself to us. We were aware that we were one of the chosen few passengers who had this rare opportunity. At the end of the trip, as we turned around to go back to Denali, we had hot chocolate and lingered a while to take in this amazing mountain. The following day, we chose to go visit the Husky Sled Dogs at Jeff King's facility. We were greeted as we got off the bus with an armful of beautiful puppies. This was truly a wonderful tour for us dog lovers. We got to meet Jeff King and his family. Jeff is a four time winner of the Itidarod. August 18th, Another 8 hour train ride on the MckInley Explorer took us to Anchorage, AK. It was during this lengthy trip that we realized just how vast this beautiful State really is. We were picked up at the train station by buses and taken to the Anchorage Hilton. Once again, the comfortable rooms and beds were welcome after our long train ride. The next morning, we boarded yet another bus for our trip to Seward, which took another 3 hours. There was an optional ride on the train, but we opted for the bus instead since we had been on the train quite a bit. We had a great driver and he was as knowledgeable about Alaska as they all had been. We had signed up for an excursion to take a boat ride to the Portage Glacier, but when we came into that area, the owner got on our bus and said that they were experiencing "hurricane winds" and the excursion had to be cancelled. So we continued on our way, stopping at a wild game orphan farm where we viewed bears, caribou, and many other Alaskan natives. We arrived in Seward at the dock and it was rainy and gloomy, but we then had our first glimpse of the Statendam, which brightened our spirits as we looked ahead to the next 7 days on the water. This concludes our review of the land portion of our Land/Sea tour. In summary, I would say that the quality of the rooms and the comfortable beds surprised us. It is unusual for hotels, particularly in remote areas, to have such great accommodations. We made the choice to decline many excursions. We knew our limitations in energy levels and decided to enjoy a few things rather than cram so much into this trip.

This report covers the seven day Alaskan cruise following the Land portion. Our cruise started on August 19th when we hooked up with the ship in Seward. Our cruise was on the HAL Statendam. We are veteran cruisers, but this is our first time on the Statendam. It was recommended by our travel agent. We are in our mid-70's and thought we would enjoy a smaller ship after the newer super-ships. Embarkation was easy. We had filled out all the necessary papers ahead of time on line and we were on board in less than 20 minutes. Our room steward led us to our room. We had chosen the Deluxe Veranda Suite this time, thinking that we would be in our room more due to the weather. When the steward opened the door with his key, I said, "There must be some mistake. Use our key to open the door" He did that and our key worked also. This fabulous suite was to be our home for the next 7 days. We were in Stateroom 020 and delightfully just across the hall from the "Neptune Room", which was our shared common room with the other 28 suite rooms. How nice to have coffee, tea, snacks, a library and tables so close to us. It opened at 7am so we could have early morning coffee and pastries. We had been told that the beds on the Statendam had been upgraded to pillow top mattresses and the story was correct. The beds were fabulous and piled with pillows of every consistency for your personal choice. The balcony stretched the length of two normal balconies and the windows looking out afforded us a view of everything on the port side. The ship was in pretty good shape. I am told that it is not a new ship. Our bathrooms were clean and well kept. We always tried to save our towels, but our steward brought us clean ones every time he came in. I thought the Jacuzzi tub/shower was almost too high to climb in and out of. I have a knee replacement and it was hard to exit and enter. I did notice several times a particular odor in the stateroom hallways. I noticed that some rugs had been replaced in the corridors and wondered if there had been some water damage that caused the odor. There was a specific sewer odor sometimes. The food on the ship was elegantly presented, but I think we all would have appreciated a little less presentation and a little more focus on food selection. All the French names in the world do not comprise a delicious meal. We met a delightful couple and we hit it off. It makes it much more enjoyable to have compatible dinner and excursion companions. Dining room service was excellent. Our server noticed that we enjoyed a glass of wine before dinner so he had the wine poured before we sat down. (A nice touch) Our Head waiter asked me if I would like something else when I didn't eat the salmon. It was a little overcooked for me. Now, as far as the entertainment. We thought the ships dancers were excellent. Costumes were brilliant. The shows were obviously geared to an older crowd (which we were). I think they missed the boat on the other entertainment. The woman comic was a tad crude and her act reminded me of a female Jackie Gleason. Her presence on the stage was mercifully short. The other entertainer was a Neil Diamond impersonator. I felt bad for him because I don't think he was that good or that sure of himself. I felt like I was watching the early stages of American idol before they were cut down to the talented ones. The last night we were there, the Activities Director got on the stage and asked about how long people had been married. My husband and I had been married the longest (57 years) and we were given a nice applause and a bottle of champagne and a hug from the very nice director. (Very nice touch…thank you HAL!) Because of the smaller ship, we were spared the "Mall atmosphere" with the clothing and other ship sales clogging the aisles in the Centrum. There were several activities on board, but as I travelled through the ship, I noticed a lot of seniors just reading, enjoying the quiet or conversing with friends. On other ships, there seems to be a frenetic effort to keep everyone on their feet. I appreciated the lower key climate as I believe others did. The computer room was great. The price was a little high per minute, but if you wanna say, you gotta pay! Didn't quite understand the split pea soup on the deck. Didn't seem to be enough and only on one side of the boat. Never did see the hot chocolate wagon. I must admit the view from our spacious balcony was just as good as the promenade deck, so we spent time in our room enjoying the glaciers. Glacier Bay was other worldly. The day was gray and cloudy and the glaciers looked like you could reach out and touch them. The pictures I took captured the blue ice and the magnificence of their glaciers. Touching on the excursions, as I explained in my land portion of this review, my husband and I know our energy levels and we chose to be really selective in what we chose. We did take an unscheduled car tour in Haines because there wasn't much else to do there. A delightful Indian woman drove us up to Chilkoot Lake past the salmon weir. We watched as a brown bear strolled across the road in front of us and quickly returned to the bushes with a large salmon in his mouth. That was worth the price of the tour in itself. When we got to Juneau, the Mendenhall Glacier was a must-see and also worth the price. Our bus driver was delightful and said she was a school bus driver and she only knew how to say "Sit down and Shut up", but she was extremely knowledgeable and funny and entertaining. The glacier and the accompanying movie and walk through the Visitor center was informational. I have had the feeling of the enormity of this universe only one other time and that was when we visited the devastated Mt. St. Helens in Washington State. In Ketchikan, we visited the Lumberjack show. The show was just OK. The kids who performed the feats were great. The Mistress of Ceremonies was very into herself and her histrionics were more suited for a Shakespearean play, but whatever !! We opted out of the Totem Pole since it had started to rain. I did not think the lumberjack show was worth the cost. Just my opinion. One wonders if you could do it cheaper by just walking up and purchasing a ticket rather than the ship excursion. As we sailed past the touristy towns and approached Vancouver, we experienced the beautiful Inland Passage with vistas of beautiful coastal mountains and trees on both sides of the boat. The ship took it's time and the views were incredible. Brooding dark skies reflected our mood as we knew our journey was almost over. lOne last note: We were offered the "Signature Express Disembarkation". For a fee of 15.00 per person, our bags were given white baggage tags and when we went into the Van Gogh Lounge at 7:15am on that morning, we were the first to get called to disembark. Nice option ! That meant we were the first bus to get to the airport, which helped us get through a very confused Canadian Security section. To summarize, we would travel with HAL again. We liked the smaller ship. We ran into people we had seen before on board. Our companions from the Land tour won a Caribbean cruise on a raffle. One last word on organization… I must congratulate the entire Land/Sea staff of tour directors, event coordinators and drivers. How you can herd all these confused travelers from Point A to Point B and make sure no one is left in the train or bus terminals or the ship is just phenomenal. Good Job HAL !!