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Alaska is all about tourism from May to September. All cruise lines will sell you excursions or you can plan your own. Glacier Bay entry is restricted so if you want to see the national park glaciers you would need to choose a cruise line that goes there. Hubbard Glacier is a huge glacier. Whale watching is favorable around Juneau/Icy Strait. Skagway has Gold Rush national park history. Ketchikan has Creek Street and the Bering Sea fisherman’s tour. Sitka is amazingly beautiful and has a Russian influence. There are a couple of books eg. Alaska by Cruise Ship for research.

Does your cruise tour begin on May 17? HAL will have your tour group staying in a hotel, most likely the Westmark or the Captain Cook. There is a special desk at the hotel where you will check in for your tour, get your itinerary packet, your room assignment and room key. Your itinerary will tell you where and when to meet the next morning to begin your journey. Many travelers take the HAL transfer from the airport to the hotel and arrive in groups. If you don’t know where to pick up your packet, just ask the front desk.

Glacier Bay is a sail in, pick up the rangers, stop in front of the glaciers for a few hours while the boat turns for viewing from port and starboard, sail out, drop off the rangers, sail out of the area. It’s pretty much an all day thing. You’ll probably be up and about before the main event of glacier viewing and calving. Not sure what Hubbard Bay experience is, Hubbard glacier is a huge glacier. College Fjord is an experience of viewing glaciers from the ship that covers a lot of the area that the 26 Glacier Cruise covers, Have you considered taking a cruise tour? For people who do a land tour, many prefer the land portion first and then cruise.

Skagway visitor center has a map showing hikes graded as to difficulty. We liked Smuggler’s Cove, There is another map showing sites around town. There is also a nice museum in Skagway. Also National Park exhibits. Juneau is hilly but walkable to visit places like a Russian Church and the Governor’s house. Mt Robert’s Tram is not very expensive and worth going to the top on a clear day. There is also a hiking trail up top. Ketchikan is easily walkable with Creek Street, Married Man’s Trail. etc. You can also take the public bus around town and to a Totem Park. Victoria is beautiful. Walk down to the Inner Harbor and the Parliament building and stop along the way to see the houseboats. Go online to the visitor’s bureau for each location. You will find maps.

I hope you are right. I’m saving them for a cruise without a drink package! Oh no, now I have to check expiration dates on the more recent drink vouchers!

Recently in San Diego a class of elementary school children were allowed onboard with their class. They got a tour of the Koningsdam and did a project in the arts and crafts room off the Crow’s Nest. I saw the report with video on local TV!

I like being near the Neptune Lounge and eating breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill on the older ships.

Yes, there is more than one point where you can see Denali but feel lucky if you are so blessed. I have seen the mountain from Anchorage (very small), Talkeetna at the Princess Lodge, before arriving at the ranger station on the Denali park road, and from way out in the park at Kantishna (today you have to fly in). The mountain has to be “out” and you have to be in the right place to see it!

Is the list current? The Mariner’s society welcome lunch has been in the dining room on boarding day, for whoever shows up. The special Mariner’s Society lunch later in the cruise seems to be coming back. I’m 5* and have not been invited to any Mariner’s Society lunch in my 3 cruises since Covid. The collector’s gift is the tile. The 15% discount is on logo merchandise only. The Mariner cocktail is a very simple offering and for those who have HIA worthless.

It just occurred to me that the steward who was following the dog walking pair could have been making sure they returned the dogs to the room so that they would not be roaming the ship. I can’t imagine how the dogs were allowed on the ship. We had a service dog onboard our Hawaii cruise last year and the owner said she had to fill out all kinds of paperwork for the dog to be allowed off the ship in Hawaii.

The Captain is the Master of the Ship. The person responsible for making important decisions about your voyage. You may have sailed with the Captain on a previous voyage.

. Princess and Holland America have cruise tours that travel to Denali by luxury train cars with a dining car, hotel accommodations at the entrance to Denali, and HAL includes the Tundra wIlderness Tour with transportation into the park beginning at your hotel. You will see animals on this tour. All of your luggage and accommodations will be managed by staff. Also, the train cars have a person who narrates your journey. You will learn a lot about Alaska. Princess cruise tours are more likely to include a shorter tour, the Natural History Tour, it does not go into the park far enough to see the animals. You would have to ask them to include the Tundra Wilderness tour. If you drive, you will need to arrange hotel accommodations for two nights at Denali and purchase tickets in advance for the Tundra Wilderness Tour. You are planning to travel at the busiest time for the park. If you drive you will be able to enjoy a rest stop at Talkeetna. The road will be scenic and you may want to make other stops. Also, it rains a lot in Alaska. Alaska has a lot of tourists from May to September. Make your reservations well in advance. You will enjoy Icy Strait. It is a very scenic and active port.

Which cruise line? With Icy Strait on your itinerary it must be NCL? There’s a website www.travelalaska.com that has a lot of information about Alaska. You need more information about the area so that you can narrow down your choices. Seeing animals in the wild is not guaranteed. You will see animals at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. There is a lot to see in the Seward/Anchorage/Turnagain Arm area. I would skip Denali. It’s a long drive to and from and in order to get into the park itself you would need to take a tour like the Tundra Wilderness Tour. Read about it on nps.gov (select Denali National Park). Have you considered using a travel agent to help you plan your trip?

Unless you have priority dining, the first night in open dining can be a total mess with everybody wanting to eat early. You have a large group and I assume that you do not all plan to eat together every night. My advice would be to arrange to eat together in the Pinnacle on the first night. Otherwise, choose a sea day or a day when you have an early “all aboard”

The restrooms in the park are roomy, well maintained, upscale outhouses. Easily accessible for most people. When you get on the bus, make sure you are not sitting in a wheel-well row (limited legroom, and ok for children). The bus will be full. You don’t want to wait to board last. The Tundra Wilderness Tour is the best transportation into the park.

I have. It was a long and expensive trip and I wanted it set up properly. I would get about 10% rebate if I transferred the booking. The PCC said he would still get credit for the booking if I transferred the booking to a TA so I transferred it, but I miss the personal attention and ease of contacting my PCC. Nothing else changed, I got all that the HAL promo offered plus what the agency offered. I’m not happy that I have to make final payment through the agency two weeks prior to HAL’s final payment date.

Snow City Cafe for breakfast/lunch. Glacier Brewhouse for dinner. Captain Cook Hotel is a nice centrally located hotel. Check out the Ulu Factory. If you have a car you can head down Turnagain Arm. The Alyeska Resort and hotel is very nice. Stop by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center for a close-up of Alaska native wildlife. Portage Glacier area is interesting. Go online and order a brochure from the Anchorage Visitor’s Center. It will have maps and ideas of places to visit.

What’s NC?

He got the fresh OJ from room service as part of the Orange Club room service upgrade menu, not HIA.

The two non-US ports are not far distant ports. You can sail from San Diego to Vancouver but not San Diego to Seattle. You need advance permission from HAL to disembark a day early. We boarded in Vancouver for a round trip Alaska cruise and HAL cleared us to disembark a day early in Victoria since we planned to spend a week on Vancouver Island.

Some ships will list a service call at Tracy Arm. The ship will stop just outside Tracy Arm so that passengers who sign up for an excursion can transfer to a smaller ship which will then go into the Tracy Arm Fjord for viewing before rejoining the ship in Juneau. If it says Tracy Arm Inlet the cruise ship probably doesn’t sail into the Fjord.

One of the special offerings in Club Orange is fresh squeezed orange juice. If everybody got fresh squeezed it wouldn’t be “special”. I remember several years before the shut down and before Club Orange when this was discussed. At that point the discussion was that HAL no longer served fresh squeezes OJ. in the Lido.

The temperatures may be in the 70’s in San Diego but it’s always cooler on the ocean with the ocean breezes. Hawaii is wonderful. It’s warm even when it rains! Have a wonderful cruise.

We took this cruise last February. The weather is cool as you sail from/to San Diego for a couple of days which is typical of this area in the winter. The blanket in your stateroom will be welcome if you have a balcony. No bowl game again this year for Big Red. 🌽. Looking for improvement in the future. 🙏

I’m guessing that the ship didn’t sail on time. A Holland America ship was still at the dock at 4:45 (local newscast background shot). Sorry about the cool weather in San Diego, we’re waiting for rain tonight around midnight. Have a wonderful cruise. Maybe that was the Volendam I saw on the news. They were supposed to sail at 5;00. San Diego port is a mess with two ships coming and going. Somehow the ships manage to get on their way!