I am so glad we didn't believe the negative reviews we read about the Statendam. We went with an open mind. We are a wife and husband of 68 and 72 but active people. We have cruised on 3 other cruise lines besides Holland America for a total of 8 previous cruises.

We did an 11 day land/sea cruise tour. We flew into Anchorage and were met by the Holland America people with a bus to take us to our hotel. We were part of a land tour group of 20 people and luckily, all were nice and friendly. Our tour guide was the greatest. The time on land was absolutely wonderful. The weather was great and the fall colors were extremely beautiful. The time spent on the train was a wonderful experience. This was our second trip to Alaska; the first being in the month of July 2007 (on a different cruse line) so seeing the difference was beautiful. The first night in Denali we did the tour of Jeff King's musher camp. It was a lot of fun...especially holding the puppies. He really educated us on the Iditarod, etc. We took the Tundra Wilderness tour in Denali...what an experience!! We are now part of the 30% Club. We were able to see "Mt. McKinley" in full glory with the sun shining on it. In Fairbanks we did the Riverboat Cruise, the gold mine tour and panned for gold. Even though we had done this before, it was still enjoyable a second time. Our cruise tour included a flight from Fairbanks back to Anchorage. While flying, the Pilot advised that those sitting on the right side of the plane would get to see Mt. McKinley. As luck would have it, we got to take pictures looking down at the mountain without having to take a special plane tour. What a treat.

We boarded the ship in Seward on a Sunday; boarding went so smooth we were in our cabin before we knew it; it was raining but we weren't concerned until the Captain said we couldn't leave port because of gale force winds and 32 foot waves in the Gulf of Alaska. He said he would keep us advised. Monday we were told we couldn't leave port again. They did have shuttle bus service to take us into town if anyone wanted to get off and on the ship. Tuesday morning we left port but were advised the ship would be "rocking and rolling" due to the storm and the ship would be moving at a slower pace. Because of all this, we missed the glaciers and then also missed going to Haines. Thursday we were able to dock in Juneau and had a wonderful day. We did another musher camp tour and rode in a cart being pulled by the dogs. That was fun. I would recommend it. Again we were going into rough waters off and on and were told we could not dock in Ketchikan. The inside passage part of the cruise was fine. Read more