brookeinmn

. Thanks for the response, RSLeesburg. I'll look into some of those. I was a travel agent for a long time, so I'm comfortable planning a big trip. I've just been out of the cruising loop for a while. 

We're planning a Christmas 2020 cruise for 13-15 people in 7-8 cabins. There are mostly couples, my family of 4 (kids 16, 12), and one grandmother (78). Other ages of couples are 20's, 50's, 60's.

 

We all went to Alaska on Hal Oosterdam a few years back and had a great time. Unfortunately HAL has no good family cabin options and my youngest slept on a cot the whole trip. He's older now so that won't work.

 

I'm really stumped on which line/ship to consider. Are the new megaships overwhelmed with people? This is mostly an older group so I'm not sure something like RCCL would be good. 

 

Any recommendations for newish ship with good activities that doesn't feel like an amusement park? 

 

We're probably just looking at the Caribbean out of Florida.

I'm seriously considering this cruise for our anniversary trip next summer. Would love to hear any other opinions on the ship and Bermuda.

Thanks so much. I really enjoyed reliving our wonderful vacation. I hope others will find this helpful in the future.

Ok..wrapping this up now!

After we visited the Wildlife Conservation Center we headed back to Seward to turn in the minivan and catch the train.

We loved the Gold Star train car. The seat and legroom were very comfy and the windows all around were great. We decided to just eat on the train. We had no trouble being seated and enjoyed the scenery. The food was ok. We had the pot roast and it was very very salty.

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The scenery between Seward and Girdwood was really beautiful. I would definitely recommend the train ride to/from Anchorage.

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We stayed in the Embassy Suites, which had terrible service. They failed to tell us what time breakfast would be served (and we were too tired to remember to ask.) My husband went downstairs at 8:45am to check on breakfast and they only served till 9:00. My poor DH played dining steward and made 2 big trays of food for all 6 of us and brought them up.

We had a good flight home and got lots of hugs and kisses from our kitty and dog when we got home.

------------------------------

Final thoughts on the cruise:

We loved it. Alaska was great, our cabin was great, HAL was great. As you've read we had a few little things go wrong, but nothing that kept us from enjoying the trip. The staff on the cruise were really great.

My favorite moment from the trip was as we were disembarking. They had staff from numerous areas of the ship (entertainers, CD, chef, stewards) and they all stood in a line by the gangway to send you on your way. They were so appreciative of our thanks. My kids were laughing and saying they would be back soon and the staff just ate it up. Even though we were leaving, we were happy and smiling and looking forward to the next time we could board another HAL ship.

Yea, I have tags still in my underwear, they definitely dont come off.

 

They didn't put the labels in any of our underwear. They also kept a tiny bit of the label unattached so that you could pull it off more easily later. But yes, those things have some industrial strength adhesion!

I haven't read all the posts, but just wanted to chime in. Our reasons for doing laundry on board were because 1. we didn't want to pay for extra luggage, and 2. we didn't want to haul extra luggage. Case in point: Our family of 4 packed the same number of bags as my MIL and FIL.

 

We did (well, sent out) a ton of laundry on board. Everything came through the laundry really well. The only exception were some cheap t-shirts for my boys that came back pilly. Not really the laundry's fault...they were made with thin cotton fabric.

 

I had one shirt that said dry on low. I wrote this on the laundry sheet and it came back just as vibrant and with the correct fit. The only problem we had was getting our last bag of laundry back in a timely manner. My husband had his dress shirt in the laundry and we did not get it back in time for him to wear it to the Pinnacle Grill. He was a little underdressed in just a polo.

I forgot to post this picture of the eagle at the wildlife center. He had been shot and had to have a wing amputated.

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I can't believe I got things out of order...oh no! Early on Tuesday my two boys and I went to Seavey's Ididaride in Seward. We had a great time. The way they raise dogs is very different from your average domesticated dog. Some may find the conditions of living outside, chained up with a barrel for a shelter to be on the cruel side. But rest assured these dogs are cared for by a team of loving people who dedicate their lives to the dogs. These dogs are bred for just one thing: to RUN

The first thing we did was go on the dog sled ride. That was soo fun and exhilarating. You can easily see how people get addicted to this sport. In most of the videos we were giggling and screaming like school girls...so I posted the one where we were quiet...haha.

[YOUTUBE]GpBJKV1VO2A[/YOUTUBE]


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After the ride we went to a room where they have a retired dog to demonstrate a few things as well as a sled and winter gear. It was very interesting learning about everything.

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Most of the dogs are a little leery of strangers and children..except for this guy. He was so sweet. He quickly showed submissiveness by rolling on his back. I had to reassure my son that him showing his teeth was just a big smile.

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Still to come...the train ride!

Check out my Oosterdam review thread. We took our 6 and 10 year old and they had a blast. They both loved cruising and loved Club Hal. There are lots of fun activities to do in Alaska.

Great review! Can't wait to read more.

Thanks Glen. Yes, I am so pleased with the camera. We had a huge scare when we went through security in the cruise terminal. I had the camera out and placed it in a basket to go through the x-ray. The security person needed to rescan something and pushed the basket holding my camera all the way off the table. I was not a happy camper. But, obviously the camera worked just fine!


[B]Visiting the Wildlife Conservation Center[/B]

On Tuesday morning we decided to go for a drive to the Wildlife Conservation Center. We checked out of our cabins and drove about an hour and a half north to the Center. The drive was very scenic. The little valley where the Conservation Center was located was simply gorgeous. I highly recommend a stop here if it happens to cross your path.

A few pics:

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It was a warm day and these brown bears were enjoying the water:

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I found this cute litte mama bird protecting her babies from all the cameras! Do you see the baby between her legs?

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Then we visited more sea lions:

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I didnt take any pictures of the whales that we encountered, but we saw and followed several humpbacks throughout the day. The most exciting view came on the way back to Seward. A group of Dall's porpoises must have been hogging the herring because this whale made a very loud sound, then he did a partial breach. I didn't have my camera ready...bummer. It was still amazing to watch these giant creatures move like that.

We had a lazy and sleepy ride after that back to Seward. So, was the 9 hr trip worth it? Yes. Is it long? Yes! Did the kids get bored? Yes, a little. They had their electronic devices to play on if they wished, but were warned that they may miss out on something good. My 10 yr old missed the partial breach of the whale. Boy was he mad. After looking at these pictures again, I realize just what a great trip this was. The scenery was just outstanding. If I had the chance to do it all on a slightly less crowded boat I would be ALL IN.

Thanks so much for the kind comments!

[B]Kenai Fjord Tour continued:[/B]

After we left the glacier area, deep in Northwestern Fjord, we explored a few more areas. This little cove was really beautiful with sheer cliffs hundreds of feet up and waterfalls coming down. There was a sailboat exploring the area all the way from New Zealand.

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One thing the this captain did that was cool was pull right up to the rock face next to these waterfalls. If you didn't know it, you would think these pictures were from Hawaii.

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Next we visited some of the bird areas. These puffins were really cute:

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The gardener in me loved the gardens way up high on the cliffs that the birds has so efficiently seeded and fertilized.

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[quote name='ktraveler2']Great Post!! I'll be going NB Vancouver to Seward in just a couple of days. Your photographs are inspirational. I was nervous about the trip but you healed me and made me excited. Thank YOU![/QUOTE]

I'm a nervous traveler too, so I understand that completely. You will have a great time. Enjoy!

Thanks! I posted videos from Northwestern Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park

[quote name='Himself']Awesome pictures and memories to last a lifetime.[/QUOTE]

No doubt about it!

[quote name='JimAOk1945'][COLOR="Black"]Your pictures are amazing! What type of camera and lens did you use?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Thanks so much! It's the Panasonic Lumix FZ200. No special lenses used. It has a range of 24-600mm. I did a little editing with Photoshop afterwards.

Here is another video of the first glacier calving from above us. What looks like water is actually tons of ice flowing down the side. (There is a regular waterfall to the left). You can hear the captain speaking in the beginning.

[YOUTUBE]Vb_iX1PFrnw[/YOUTUBE]

Here's a video of what we saw. The captain estimated that the chunk of ice that fell was as big as the empire state building. Your sense of scale is all off when you are surrounded by these giant glaciers...so who knows. But that was a lot of ice coming down that mountain.

[YOUTUBE]cnyNXQcwt4w[/YOUTUBE]

And the glacier calving:

[YOUTUBE]vXRC7CiGEn4[/YOUTUBE]

Here is a view showing some of the right hand side of the glacier..although some of it is obscured from view:

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The right side close up:

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We all heard a loud crack and boom and were startled to see a piece of a glacier waaay up high above us breaking off:

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The glaciers put on a great show for us. We all got to see some calving and the really dramatic one from way up high.

We continued down towards the Northwestern Fjord and sometimes the Dall's porpoises would come and play by the boat. These guys are lightning fast and just barely poke their bodies up out of the water. I made it my mission to get a picture of them. I turned up the shutter speed, turned on burst mode and just took pictures whenever they got close. They are the fastest of all small cetaceans, so I felt really lucky when I was going through my pictures and found these:

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I love how they look like little mini killer whales. They were quite fun to watch darting around the boat.

Next we arrived into glacier country.

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As we got closer to Northwestern Glacier more ice appeared in the water. It was covered with brown stuff. My husband thought it was just dirt, but I was convinced it was seals. This picture is really zoomed in. It was very hard to tell from the boat, but these are harbor seals that like to rest on the ice chunks.

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Then finally we could see Northwestern glacier. This is the left side:

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Check out this link on the HAL board.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2079955

 

I have loads of pictures and information there on my Alaska cruise on the Oosterdam.

[B]Seward Alaska: Kenai Fjords Cruise- Northwestern Fjord[/B]

So on Monday we decided to split up again. My family of 4 chose to go on the 9 hr Northwestern Fjord tour and in-laws and newly arrived brother decided to just do the 6 hr. We chose the Kenai Fjords tour company. Overall, I'd say we were happy with their service, but not blown away. I might try a different company next time.

The good: The boat was a good size with plenty of room for people to spread out in the main cabins.

The itinerary was really amazing. The glacier action, the animals, etc. were really great.

The bad: Moving around outside the boat was really difficult. People would crowd around the rails and the space to move behind them and down the "corridor" was minimal. Some people chose to sit down on the benches on the bow and then complain when you stood at the rail in front of them take pictures. Really? If you are able-bodied enough to get to the bow, you can probably stand as well. Most people were polite in giving people a chance to get a shot, or a look, but some were downright rude. This, of course, could happen on any tour operator. But overall it felt very crowded on the outside decks and moving about wasn't very easy. Another reason why is because the captain did not give a heads up that he was about to leave an area and speed up. There were numerous times I would worry about the grannies on board navigating the stairs down to the main interior cabin on an accelerating boat.

Nevertheless, these were overall minor annoyances. The captain did a good (not great) job of making sure every side of the boat got a good shot or view of an area. So as long as you can handle some elbows, jostling, and a suddenly accelerating boat, I'd say you will be ok. The scenery was more than worth it!!!

Headed out from Seward. Another gorgeous start to the day:

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First wildlife..this cute little otter enjoying the morning sunshine.

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The tide was low. Perfect for finding starfish.

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It's a shame I didn't book the week earlier. It would have been fun meeting you. And yes, I would love to do a back to back in Alaska next time.

I still have more to post!! I hope to wrap things up this afternoon. Still to come: our Kenai Fjords Tour, Ididaride, and the train to Anchorage.

[B]Day Seven: At Sea[/B]

I can't deny that I woke up in a very melancholy mood on Saturday morning. Our last full day on the ship had snuck up on us. I decided I would try to do some things I hadn't gotten around to yet. After breakfast, the kids headed to Club Hal and hubby and I agreed to meet for lunch. I explored new areas, went to trivia, shopping, etc. We had an enjoyable day and repacking went much faster than I expected. We were looking forward to our date night. Finally..dinner for just the two of us. Since I already wrote about this before in my live from thread..I will just do a cut and paste.

[QUOTE]... The kids went to the MDR with the extended family, then to club Hal. We had 7:00 reservations for Pinnacle. Unfortunately something was wrong in the kitchen and an hour and 20 minutes later we had only been served an amuse-bouche and an appetizer. We just got up and left. The service was terrible. They brought out a shrimp cocktail, that we had not ordered, to make up for the slow service. I said I dont eat shrimp and the waiter just shrugged. The wonderful staff of the MDR saved the day. A quick visit to the front desk assured us we would not be charged. They also had a bottle of wine waiting in the piano bar for us. [/QUOTE]

We really did a good job of just laughing it off and not letting it ruin our evening. After some time at the piano bar, we spent the rest of the evening enjoying the fabulous sunset. What a wonderful way to end the cruise.

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Disembarkation was very simple. Since we were spending two days in Seward, we were one of the last groups off the ship. We had a big room service breakfast and just relaxed.

I had spent so much time planning the cruise and excursions, I realized I hadn't effectively talked to the MIL about my plans for Seward. We had all decided to do the Kenai Fjords cruise on Monday. On Sunday, there was a bit of confusion and aggravation. My DH's other brother and girlfriend were waiting for us in Seward. MIL wanted everyone to pow-wow together...but my children were begging to go to the aquarium.

So, the kids got their way and the 3 of us visited the Sea Life Aquarium. What a fun place. I reallly recommend it if you have kids with you, but even adults are likely to enjoy it. Part of the difficulty was not being able to check into our cabins till 3:00pm. We also only had 1 car for 8 people and all that luggage. So, needless to say, my poor husband played taxi most of the day. We had 2 cabins booked at Alaska Creekside Cabins and they were nice enough to let us drop our bags wo we could explore town.