June 25 - Alaska

[rmmm]

Hi Everyone,

 

I was interested in the June 25 seven day Inside Passage cruise. I was on the Holland America site and notices that all of the catagories were closed with the exception of S and DD. Is this unusual? Does this mean that the cruise is really completely booked six months in advance? Could it be that a group has chartered the ship - if so I really wouldn't want to be on that cruise. Thanks for your help.

 

Rosemary

[localady]

Not at all!

 

Yes there may be some cancellations, but Alaska on a HAL ship is a much sought after itinerary! I attempted to get a veranda room on a Ship in December before the season, and had difficulty! Good luck and btw if you do the cruise on HAL, I think you will love it! Lots of outside uncrowded space for all of that incredible Alaskan twilight!:cool:

[rmmm]

This is our third HAL cruise, we did this same itinerary in 1998 and did the Canada/New England cruise this summer. We love Holland America.

[Roz]

I did my first ever cruise on the HAL Statendam to Alaska. It was with a club I belong to, and we booked a block of rooms over a year in advance. So to answer your question, HAL Alaskan cruises get booked up rather quickly, so it's not surprising that aren't many categories left with only 5 months left to go. I would recommend booking ASAP if you find an open category that you want.

 

Roz

[bellebaby]

I booked the 5/11 sailing of the Volendam in October. When I booked (7 months in advance) the ship was wide open. Shortly thereafter, every category was closed. I, too, feared a group was onboard. Subsequently several categories have reopened. I have observed that Alaska, especially on Holland America, is very much in demand for 2005. If you want to go, book as soon as possible.

[emsachs]

We had the same problem as you. We wanted to go on June 18th sailing (Inside passage), but only S was available and we wanted a balcony. (but couldn't afford the extra $$)

HAL also has Wednesday departures with the same itinarary on the Volendam.

We tried to book that and we were able to get a Cat. A.

We are fortunate that we are able to take a few extra vacation days to do this.

Good luck to you.

[Slsteph]

We are scheduled to be on the Oosterdam the week of June 25th. It has been booked corporately. I'm pretty sure the whole ship has been booked for that week. The trip was announce almost 2 years ago. From what I understand there won't be anyone on the trip other than people from our company.