PRE CRUISE HOTELWe took the bus transfer provided by HAL to the Fairmont Waterfront hotel.  There are no freeways or shortcuts across town from the airport so the trip took about 45 minutes.  We arrived at the Fairmont and checked in at the front desk in a matter of minutes.  Our room is on the eleventh floor and the window looks directly down the water's edge of the southeast pier.  This will be fun to watch the ship come in to port in the morning and leave at night.The Fairmont is a beautiful hotel.  It is very tastefully designed and decorated.  The Pan Pacific hotel is right across the street and is undergoing some renovations that make the public areas seem like a construction zone.  We had thought about staying there, but with the construction going on I'm glad we are at the Fairmont.We wandered around the area and found this area of Vancouver to be very clean.  There is a big construction push going on with the Olympics coming up this year.  The one surprising thing about the area is how aggressive the panhandlers are.  I realize that every large city has people who may be unemployed, down on their luck, homeless, or mentally ill but the persistence and aggressiveness of their panhandling was a surprise.We are absolutely loving the diversity of cultures, races, gender identity, and sexual orientation that there is in Vancouver.  It is nice to be somewhere where it isn't so "white". EMBARKATIONWe left our bags in our room and the bellman picked them up and we never saw them again until we were onboard.  It was a nice touch that Holland America arranged that with the Fairmont and we didn't have to lug our bags to the pier. We went to the terminal at 11am and were onboard at 11:32!  Whoopie.  Had a light lunch at the Lido and went to the spa to see about specials on the Alpha Capsule.  We booked two treatments for each of us, one on each sea day. CABINWe were able to go to our cabin at around 1:45.  Our stateroom attendants introduced themselves and made sure that any questions we had were answered and delivered our luggage so we were able to unpack by 3 pm.  Our attendants are Luki and Bagus.We sent out our clean clothes to be pressed and our soiled laundry to be cleaned and pressed.  This service is provided free to Deluxe Veranda Suite and Penthouse Suite guests.  Our stateroom is huge compared to the cabins we have cruised in previously.  We are in Suite 7151 which is a corner aft suite with a wraparound veranda on the Rotterdam Deck, deck 7.  Our veranda is exceptionally large and wraps around the starboard side of the ship from the aft.  The veranda furniture is a faux wicker and very comfortable.  There are two padded loungers, two padded chairs with two ottomans, and two dining chairs with a 32 inch diameter dining table and a small side table that is 14 inches in diameter and stands 15 inches tall, perfect to be able to set a drink on while relaxing and watching the wake.We absolutely love having the large veranda, and especially the corner wraparound, on this cruise up the inside passage.  We sit out on the veranda and can see land both sides of the ship a lot closer than we had expected.  Sometimes there is only a quarter mile or less between the ship and shore on each side.The veranda is a total of 330 square feet.  From the divider on the side to the edge of the cabin is 6 feet wide by 22 feet long.  Across the aft it measures 22 feet wide by 9 feet deep. FOODWe did not eat in the main dining room during this cruise and found it to be a very wise choice for our comfort.  In the past the main dining rooms are way too noisy and we can not have a pleasant conversation.We ate breakfast at the Pinnacle Grill (for Penthouse and SA, SB, SC staterooms only).  The service and food was excellent.Lunch was at the Lido and there were many choices for all tastes.  The food there was quite good.  Much better than we had on our Celebrity Mercury Cruise this past March.  The food quality was consistent.Dinner was in our room having ordered from the main dining room menu or at the Lido casual dining area.  The Lido served the same selections as in the main dining room and it was always quiet with no hustle or bustle.  Again the food was consistent and very good.When we ordered off the main menu for delivery to our cabin the food was always hot and the quality was very good. SERVICEAll throughout the ship (except for the spa) the service was impeccable!  While sitting and enjoying some tea in the Neptune Lounge we noticed a gathering of what started out to be two ship's officers and one kitchen staff member.  The gentleman with the bars on his sleeves was the Culinary Operations Manager (Craig name) who was upset at how the midday snacks were set up.  By the time they were done and they all left a half hour later there was a total of 3 ship officers, 2 chefs, and 3 kitchen staff attending to the problem.  They were given very specific directions on how things were to be down to the placement of each item and the napkins that were underneath the food trays.  I did see the Culinary Operations Manager tell one of the other officers, "You should have NEVER accepted that".  When he left he walked with his head down.  We were looking around the room and it appeared none of the other guests had a clue that there was an issue because everything was done in discreet, hushed tones.  We were very impressed that the expectations that everyone is held to is such a high standard.  SPABack to the spa...they have a dry sauna and a steam sauna that are co-ed and are very roomy.  We used the T-pool, steam room and heated loungers.  I figured that just for one hour on land of spa services would be at least $100.  We paid $250 for the two of us for 7 days!  That is a very good deal.We scheduled the Alpha Capsule treatment to try it out.  On the first day you could sign up for treatments for half price ($25).  We decided to schedule one for the first sea day and the last sea day.  So, the Mork from Ork treatment (as Vince calls it) was ridiculous.  The headphones that we had were defective, the speakers in them were cracked, the Egg was set up in a very noisy area, and the attendants seemed to care less about you.  We had no explanation of what this thing was supposed to do other than 30 minutes in it would be like 3 hours of sleep.  NOT!  We canceled our other treatment.  The women that were working at the spa were only interested in selling treatments and products.  We had to bring our own ice water every time we used the Thermal Suite.  It was not until the last day I forgot to bring my own water and asked them if there was some nearby.  The woman looked at me like I was nuts!  I asked again and she finally showed me the area (that they did not show us on the tour) where we could have had ice water, juices, tea, and snacks. SHIPWe enjoyed how the ship was set up, the dEcor and the public areas.  We did not use the casino, or go to any shows.  Explorations Cafe and Crow's Nest - This is a very large area and they allow smoking on one side of the room and it does drift all about so the smoke drove us out.  We tried using this area both late at night and at 5:30 in the morning and it was the same.  Smoking on verandas - the people in the cabin above ours smoked on their veranda and one of the gentleman used our veranda as his ashtray and flicked his ashes down on to it constantly.  At the end of the cruise we received a survey about future cruises and allowing smoking on board, in public areas, in cabins and on verandas.  We filled it out with a resounding NO SMOKING because of our experience in the Crows Nest and above us.  We did mention the smoker above us to our cabin stewards and they reported it, but it never stopped.   It appears Hal is looking seriously into possibly changing their smoking policy.EXCURSIONSJuneau - Harv & Marv Whale Watching  http://www.harvandmarv.com/   I can not find the words to describe this trip.  First, I would like to say that this is a family owned business with brothers, wives, father, sons and daughters all involved one way or the other.  They were born and raised here and their passion for the environment, wildlife and being able to point out the beauty that surrounds you just oozes from their very soul!One of Jay's brothers picked us up and we rode to Auke Bay where the boat was docked.  He was a very colorful guide and pointed out places of interest along the way including beaver dams, seals catching salmon, bald eagles, and the local world class runner getting in her miles along the road.  We hopped into Jay's new boat the OB1 and as we headed out of the small quaint harbor he gave us the mandatory safety instructions and off we went!  We proceeded to move around the bay for the next 3 hours!  With the help of Eileen (Jay's wife) and the radio communication of his friends on other boats we found several whales and babies.  A few tails and one baby was rolling from side to side while gently floating as she slept.  We watched for a couple minutes and left her to her slumber.We saw light houses,  eagles, harbor seals (uncommon), stellars sea lions, salmon jumping, sea birds diving and catching fish while all around us were mountains capped with snow, rugged shore lines of islands, and remote houses tucked away in the trees.Jay takes only 6 people on his tours and is able to keep it intimate.  There were only 4 of us so he called his brother Jim and his wife to join us.  That was so much fun for them as well as us because it doesn't happen very often for them and they enjoyed it just as much as we did.It was nice to have Jim and his wife point out whales, landmarks, eagles, university buildings, houses, mountains and Mendenhall Glacier.Jay and Eileen live on an island and the only way to town or to their boat is by kayak to small skiff and then 12 miles to the harbor. There has only been one time they needed a helicopter to take one of them to the hospital when they couldn't get out because of a winter storm.  There on their website is a picture of their home in the winter with snow to the shore line.  They are off the grid completely!Eileen and their 12 year old son have wanted to start Geocaching for awhile now and Vince spoke to them at length about it when we booked.  So we decided to take them some ready to place caches and one to camouflage themselves to get them started.  I gave Jay the package of 6 cache containers and said, "Have fun!"The next thing I knew he said we were stopping by the house so I could give Eileen the package myself!  I was thrilled!!!!!  We pulled up to the shore which was low tide and showed the rocky beach full of barnacles.  Eileen and Jay's other brother Joe came down to meet us.I handed Eileen the package we took a couple of quick pictures and Joe handed us a plate of barbequed chicken he had just made to pass around on the boat!  What an amazing family!We continued on our way and watched Jay snap pictures of wildlife including one he captured of a sea bird lifting off from the water with a fish in his claws!  Jay is a professional photographer and has matted pictures for sale on the boat as well as on their website.  His daughter is also a photographer and they have friendly competitions of who will get the best shot!  He has once in a lifetime shots that he knows will never happen again and has not seen before, and he has lived here all his life.  You must check out his pictures on their website.  His work is unbelievably beautiful!  http://www.harvandmarv.com/We were picked up by Jack to go back to the cruise ship dock and he took us to see Mendenhall Glacier.  We didn't have much time there because we had to get back, but we did have time for a few pictures.  The locals are very sad because the Glacier is receding at such a fast pace that in 2 to 3 years there will be no ice to the water, meaning no icebergs floating.  It was a spectacular sight to see!  Skagway - We took the White Pass & Yukon Railroad tour this morning.  The train took us to Fraser and the motor coach took us back down with a stop at Liarsville for a salmon bake.Train Seats, Water & Restrooms - the seats are more comfortable than we thought; the seats and backs are well padded, they do have water on the train as well as a restroom on each car. There are large windows at each seat to view the scenery.   Clear Day Only - we had beautiful weather, but the motor coach driver that has been doing this for 4 years said that it is hard to see anything when it is rainy or foggy.  We were given this tour complementary from our TA and would have not booked it otherwise.  Like everything else in Alaska, things are very expensive.  I believe this tour with the lunch normally would have been $200.00 per person.  Way too high for what you get unless you are a "Train Addict J ".Motion Sick? - if you are at all sensitive to motion sickness I would suggest you do not take the train OR motor coach.  The train sways side to side all the way up and the motor coach travels on very winding turns all the way down.  Sensitive Ears! - This is an OLD train with high pitched very loud squeaking of brakess often throughout the journey.  I really wished I had ear plugs.Liarsville - I don't know about others that have done this and can only speak for ourselves and what others were saying on the motor coach after lunch.......the salmon was very dry and lunch in general was akin to cookout food.....nearly not worth eating but we were very hungry by noon having left the dock at 7:30 am.  You might want to bring a snack with you.This might be interesting for children or those enamored with the wild west kind of thing.  As everything else seems to be in these ports, there is a "Disney-Esque" feeling to all of it.  At Liarsville we expected to see mechanical bears singing, dancing and playing the banjo.   "To all Cruise Lines....PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THAT AS A SUGGESTION!"Coming into Liarsville the motor coach turned off the highway onto a dirt road that made its way into a very wooded area.....(don't take that as romantic because it is not)  Very near the camp where lunch was prepared there were broken down vehicles, a shack or two off the dirt road and it appeared to us that this would be a perfect place for a Meth Lab!  (We live in Oregon and have traveled through areas like this while hiking and exploring the deep woods and this is just where one would do some sort of cooking, but not Salmon) The area was set up with covered areas with tables, several very large barbeques, bathroom facilities, and a place to buy beer and souvenirs.   As you can tell, we found it all very HOKEY!Biking down the hwy from Fraser - our motor coach driver has been doing this run for 4 years.  There are tours that take you up to Fraser and you ride a bicycle down.  He is in his early 30's and said that he would not do that in a million years!  It is so dangerous.  Bicyclists have been hit by cars (because they cross the road to viewpoints and don't look for busy bus and vehicle traffic.  The roads are very narrow and winding.  Just after he told us this we were looking out the window and a woman was trying to cross the road as our driver was stopping for the cyclists to get across and she slipped on the gravel at the side of the road and went down.  Not in front of the bus, but very well could have been.  She was ok, and managed to get up and get across the road. When we returned to town we found some geocaches and then headed back to the ship.  Skagway is really like a section of Disneyland.  Let's just call it "Alaska Country presented by the Cruise Lines".  There are all sorts of actors dressed in period costume to entertain you and remove the money from your pockets if you let them.  We have seen poor high school productions that were better than this tourist trap.  Luckily for us, this isn't what we came to Alaska for and only had to put up with it for short periods of time. Ketchikan - Our tour was with Southeast Sea Kayaks and was going to Orcas Cove for 4 hours.  We will have to check their website again as we are pretty sure they are misrepresenting who and what they are.  Even so, we did have a good time being out on the water and away from the cruise ship hordes in town.  This tour was a lot of work paddling in very choppy water most of the time.  Unless you are in reasonably good shape and have experience you are guaranteed to have sore shoulders and elbows.We were led to believe they were a local family business and were looking forward to the possibilities of seeing orcas nearby.  We know this is highly dependent on where the orcas might be, but after talking to our guide it sounds like where they took us isn't the place to even have a chance to see orcas.  Our "local" guide has been a native here since late May and is from Kansas City.  She was just here doing a summer job thingy and wasn't too enthusiastic about what she was showing us.  We asked her about her training and she said they sent her some information and told her she might want to read it over if she felt like it.  Her knowledge of the local trees and sea life is minimal.  A couple of times Vince had to tell her what trees she was looking at.  We definitely would not book another tour with this group of "locals".Glacier Bay - This is the big day of this trip.  Glacier Bay!  It is a glorious day weather wise.  The high should be around 70 degrees and there is no fog.  It is very unusual for this time of year to have it clear enough to see the tops of the mountains.We were up early to take it all in.  Vince's plan is to spend all day on the veranda viewing the scenery and the glaciers.  Just before we got to the entrance to the park where we would pick up the naturalists and native speakers we began seeing Humpback whales in the distance along the shoreline.  There were arctic terns   everywhere, eagles in the distance, and other seabirds that we weren't able to identify.  Out of nowhere appeared two large dorsal fins about 1000 yards off the stern of the ship (where our veranda is) and we had our first spotting of a couple of Killer Whales.  The only people who could have seen them were people who were lucky enough to be looking off of the stern of the ship for the 20 seconds that they were visible.  We love sailing in the aft cabins and one of the reasons is that wildlife seem to be attracted and like to play in the wake of the ship after it passes them.  We have found this to be true on this cruise.  Everything that is seen off the bow of the ship always comes into view in the stern and the wildlife seems to get energized by the passing of the ship.We met the boat carrying the naturalists and native representatives and watched them board the ship and we headed toward Margerie Glacier which is at the extreme north end of Tarr Inlet.  All the way there, through Sitakaday Narrows, Whidbey Passage, and past Composite Island the scenery was breathtaking.  The water changed colors the closer we got to the glaciers due to the minerals that are suspended in the water.We picked up the naturalists at 7:00 am and it took us until 10:15 to get alongside Margerie Glacier.  Just to the north of Margerie is Grand Pacific Glacier which is a very dirty glacier because it doesn't reach the water and calf like Margerie does so all the dirt that it scrapes away on its way down to where it terminates stays on the glacier itself.  While at Margerie Glacier we were able to clearly see Mount Fairweather behind it rising to 15,300 feet and Mount Quincy Adams rising to 13,650 feet.  This was exceptionally unusual.  The naturalists and other passengers who have been here before said that you could usually only see the face of Margerie Glacier due to fog or overcast so we were really lucky.Margerie Glacier rises 250 feet above the water and is 100 feet below the water level and is 1 mile wide.  Being there so close your perception is way off.  It only looked to be about 75-100 feet tall and ¼ mile wide because everything you are comparing it to are absolutely massive in scale.The blue color on the face of the glacier is indescribable.  Watching pieces calve off the glacier was truly awe inspiring.  The sound was as loud as being along side a jet taking off.  Watching the ice crash into the water below was intimidating when you realize that the small pieces (your perception again) were probably the size of 2 or 3 large school buses falling into the water.We stayed at the Glacier for an hour and then came back down Tarr Inlet and turned into John Hopkins Inlet to view John Hopkins Glacier.  We were only allowed to get within 5 miles of the John Hopkins Glacier because of the harbor seals that were giving birth and rearing their young at the glacier, but it only looked about a mile away from where we were.  On the way up the inlet we passed Lumplugh Glacier which has a 30 foot hole in it where the water is bursting out into the inlet.  This has only begun happening this year and may not happen again in the future so we feel very lucky to have seen it.After leaving the John Hopkins Inlet we started back out of Glacier Bay to drop off the naturalists and then proceed out Icy Strait and Cross Sound to the Pacific. It was so warm and beautiful Lin took a nap on the balcony as we sailed away from the glaciers!  Unlike our Hawaii cruise we had rain and cold weather all the time...go figure!During this time we saw lots of Humpback whales swimming along and when we were heading out Icy Strait we had a great view from our veranda of Humpbacks breaching behind us.  We heard over the PA system that there were whales off the port bow or starboard bow swimming but when they got behind the ship several of them decided to breach into the air.  It was awesome to watch.  Unfortunately, they did so just out of the range our video camera was capable of capturing with any detail.  But through our binoculars it was amazing. PORTSVancouver - We walked around the sea wall toward Stanley Park picking up some geocaches as we went.  We rented bikes to bicycle around the Park and see the sights and pick up the caches there around the sea wall that encircles the entire Park.Stanley Park is just beautiful.  It is really designed well to allow everyone to enjoy the Park doing the things they find enjoyable.  We stopped and looked at the Totem Poles they have there.  Most of them are carved to duplicate originals that have deteriorated or been placed in museums.After 4 hours of biking, hiking, and geocaching we returned the bicycles and then walked to town to check out the Pacific Mall to look for some Olympic Hoodies.  The prices they wanted are ridiculously high.  A standard sweatshirt with the Olympic logo on it was $80.00 and up.  These hoodies would sell for around $35 with any other logo on them.  A T-Shirt with the Olympic Logo was $28-$35 and the same T-Shirt with just a Vancouver logo on it was 2 for $20.On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Steamworks Brew Pub and had the best Fish and Chips we have ever had.  They were made with halibut and were much better than the halibut fish and chips that we have had at Newman's Seafood in Eugene.  That is saying a lot.  Lin had an Ipanema Light Lager with a slice of lemon and I had a very good, dark Stout.  Having lunch outside in the sidewalk cafe area and watching the scores of different people going by attending to their business was great.  What a fantastic melting pot there is here in Vancouver.Juneau - Skagway - Ketchikan - We found all of them to be very Disney - esque near the ports.  We did not take this cruise for the ports. If you want to see a theme park type display of past history then you will enjoy the ports. DISEMBARKATIONWe didn't sleep well because we were anxious to make sure we woke up in time to go to the Pinnacle Grill for an early 6 am breakfast.  We had a lovely as usual but quick meal, dropped off Lin's smoking survey and took some pictures of the tiles on the Lido floor of large Koi.We choose to carry off all of our luggage (easy because we only brought carry-ons) so we received Expedited Disembarkation tags and were down at the gangway at 7:05.  We were about the 4th off the ship.  They opened the gate to leave at 7:35 which was right on time from what the ship expected.We caught a cab inside the terminal at 7:40 and were at the airport at 8: 03.  We tried to check in but found out that International flights could not check in till 3 hours prior to your flight.  So we will wait for 2 hours 15 minutes to check in and then another wait till 1: 20 for our flight.We don't mind because we avoided the masses getting off the ship and the larger masses from 3 cruise ships trying to get cabs to the airport.We couldn't check in until 3 hours before our flight so we had couple hour wait before check in.  From the time we lined up to check in until we reached our gate was 1 hour and 45 minutes.  We understand that this is not too bad for here but US Customs slows things WAY down to a crawl.