cruisin'mama

Thanks to you I went back through all my HAL emails and found the bonus $ was in the emails. I was expecting physical gift cards too so thank you!

I got physical gift cards in the mail…,

Hi! I purchased HAL gift cards to pay for our cruise ($7000) during the 10% extra bonus period and I just received the $7000 in cards but no bonus cards. Has anyone else dealt with this?

Unfortunately Holland America decided to use the ship we were booked on to house their employees who got COVID. So they canceled our cruise a couple of weeks before we were to leave and we never got to go. 😩😩

I have a son who has Down Syndrome who LOVES galley tours!! ( his brother is an executive chef ). I’m hoping on our cruise in June that he will be able to go on a tour. We will be in a Neptune Suite so maybe the concierge can arrange it 🤞🏻

Wow you are just a fountain of knowledge!! How impressive!!! You must have such wonderful memories, thank you for sharing some of them!! Our only time on the Glacier Discovery, we got off at Spencer Glacier and had a fabulous day with Ascending Path. We have never been all the way to Grandview so it is a new experience I’m looking forward to!!!

I think I’m in the minority of people who actually enjoy Whittier! We’ve stayed at the Inn at Whittier twice and have gone out with Lazy Otter (5* rating from me!) and have taken the ferry from Whittier to Valdez also. But with limited time from disembarkation to getting on the train, staying on the ship I think is our best option then maybe grabbing lunch in Whittier before the train. This will be my 5th or 6th trip on ARR, mostly on the Coastal Classic. We are big fans! I’m looking forward to being back onboard!

I just got off the phone with ARR. I was able to book Whittier -Grandview-Anchorage for $130.50pp They will take our luggage and put it in the baggage car so now issue there. Pick up is a little after noon and arrive in Anchorage around 9:15pm. We’ll just try to get off the ship as late as possible. Thanks for your knowledge…,

When I tried to book it online, maybe I wasn’t doing it correctly but it looked like it was only allowing me to purchase the 6:45pm leg back to Anchorage. As far as luggage, we will have all of our luggage with us from the cruise as we start our independent land portion.

I just bought my $7000 in gift cards and my husband will get the $700 bonus cards for the casino!

Has anyone been on a cruise that ended in Whittier and was successful in joining the Glacier Discovery train in the morning, along with your luggage? I know we can catch it in the evening on the way back to Anchorage, but I’d like to be able to spend the day on the train. I plan to call ARR tomorrow but thought someone might have some first hand experience doing this.

We just booked our 5th corner aft for Alaska in June 2023. We love those rooms plus the veranda usually does not get windy where forward facing verandas would definitely have to deal with the wind.

We are currently booked on Nieuw Amsterdam for Alaska next June in Neptune Suite 8169. We were hoping for an aft corner on Deck 7 but none were available so we went with one on Deck 8. Now our friends want to join us and want us to be on the same deck, us on one corner and they would take the opposite corner. The only decks with both corners available are 6, 5, and 4. Which one would you choose? Would you definitely stay away from one? Thanks for any input!

My husband just got another casino offer but unfortunately we still can’t take advantage of it. Next month my friend and I leave for a 3 week hiking trip to Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton. Then my brother and I are doing a military trip to Wake Island in Micronesia where our father was captured at the start of WWII then spent 44 months as a Japanese POW. And then we are visiting grandkids in Texas for Christmas. But I did book an Alaska June 2023 cruise today! 😁 ( paying for that one, not a freebie)