HAL Cruise Train - Anchorage to Seward

I will be arriving in Anchorage a few days ahead of time and have made my own hotel reservations. I have booked the HAL Cruise train from Anchorage to Seward where I will board the Noordam.

According to HAL, I am to get myself to the Hospitality Center (Egan Convention Center) in Anchorage where there should be a HAL representative who will check me in and then board a bus that will take me to the train station located just a few blocks away.

Has anyone done this as I find that sometimes the HAL representative on the phone at their call center is not always correct.

I just did the reverse as I did the northbound cruise, train and then stayed a night in Anchorage.

It seemed that HAL had all the details in order and there was someone to guide you through each transition.

The convention center is easy to find and the Anchorage Visitor's Center is just "out the back door".

If you have time, the trolley tour around Anchorage was a good way to get an overview of the city. It's an hour long and costs $20. It leaves from the Visitor's Center.

Enjoy your trip!

Patti

Thanks. When you were on the train, did you have the option to pick your seat as I want to make sure I would be sitting facing forward.

Our train car and seat were assigned and that information was in our packet we received on Friday before departing on Sunday morning. There were 4 people to a table.

You are allowed to walk to other cars and there is a dining car where you can have more room and different food options. Food is available for purchase. I found the portion to be rather small and a bit pricey.

I'm assuming there are assigned seats on the southbound. Hopefully someone can confirm that for you.

I don't see anywhere on my cruise reservation to book a transfer (I booked via an online agency). If I wanted to book the train thru HAL, would I need to have the agency do it?

Does HAL charge more than booking directly w/ the RR? The only reason I was thinking of booking thru HAL is so we could take a later train.