About US: We are recently retired (teacher, nurse), in our early 60's, fairly active, and have enjoyed 16 cruises on many different lines. We see cruising as a way to unpack once and visit different places without worrying about where to eat our meals. We select cruise based on the itinerary. We enjoy being on the water, as we sail out own boat in the summer on the Great Lakes. We do a lot of research when planning our cruises and use CC and Trip Advisor as well as travel guides. We do not take ship excursions, prefer to do our own thing ashore, and do not need to be constantly "pampered" by the crew.

Why Alaska?-This was my wife's retirement trip. She had always wanted to see Hawaii, so we booked RCCL Rhapsody from Vancouver to Hawaii (12 nights-Sept 17). We had never been to Alaska. It was not on our "list". But since we were going to be in Vancouver anyway, I saw that we could go in early and take the Volendam to Alaska, returning to Vancouver for 2 nights before our Hawaii cruise. So we booked it. We called it our Fire and Ice cruise.

Pre-Cruise - We found that it was quite expensive for us to fly into Vancouver, so we saved a lot of money and flew to Seattle. Money saved was use to pay for 2 nights in Seattle (Hotel Vintage Park) and then take AMTRAK to Vancouver the day before our cruise. We saw a Mariner's game at Safeco Field, visited Gold Rush Museum, took a tour of Pike Place Market (Savor Seattle Tours), and enjoyed our 2 days. We bought first class train tickets (well worth the extra cost) and took the morning train to Vancouver the day prior to leaving for Alaska. In Vancouver, we stayed at Coast Coal Harbor Hotel; 4 blocks from Canada Place, less than a year old, very nice. We toured Stanley Park and the downtown area. At evening, we took the sea bus across to North Vancouver and had dinner while watching sunset over Vancouver. Read more