Statendam - B2B 14 days in Alaska - September 5 - 19, 2010

We just returned from our wonderful and relaxing 14 days in Alaska sailing on the ms Statendam. As background information, there were four of us traveling together in an inside cabin. Our ages range from 44 to 57. We have cruised before but do not count ourselves as cruise junkies as this was our third cruise. We previously cruised on the ms Amsterdam to Alaska and loved it so much that we decided to do Alaska again via HAL on the ms Statendam. Since we previously visited Alaska and did the real touristy things, we purposefully did a few more independent sight seeings on this trip. We were also on a tighter budget this go around. In an effort to control costs, we flew into Seattle on Saturday the 4th and rented a car to Vancouver.

We drove approximately 80 miles and stayed in Burlington, Washington at the Marriot Fairfield Inn. It was a nice, clean Fairfield Inn with a good breakfast. I had a fantastic experience with this hotel staff that I will share later in the story. We picked up a few bottles of wine, some soda pop and bottled water to carry on board. I really like HAL's policy regarding wine and soda pop. I drink diet Dr. Pepper and like my own wine so it is a big plus to bring my own on. I drink some of the wine in my room and take some of it to the dining room. The corkage fee is reasonable and I have the added benefit of drinking my favorite wines. Read more