not many 14 day cruises by HAL in Alaska?

[irishjim]

:confused:Is it just me or has HAL cut back on their 14 day cruises Van to Van,am I missing something,I seem to remember on our last cruise to Alaska in May a few yrs back we did 14 days on the Veendam with only one engine in operation for most of the cruise,we loved it.Was hoping for another in May 2010 but cant see any.?:confused: [ but not with one engine] LOL.

[NMLady]

:confused:Is it just me or has HAL cut back on their 14 day cruises Van to Van,am I missing something,I seem to remember on our last cruise to Alaska in May a few yrs back we did 14 days on the Veendam with only one engine in operation for most of the cruise,we loved it.Was hoping for another in May 2010 but cant see any.?:confused: [ but not with one engine] LOL.

 

If you are willing to do Seattle to Seattle instead, then look at the Amsterdam. There are EIGHT of their 14 day itineraries. I am on the one departing Seattle May 17 which is the first of the 8 cruises.

It has an awesome itinerary including both Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier, Home, Kodiak, and actually goes into Anchorage. It also has Sitka, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria as ports.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

I may be wrong but I don't think HAL had 14 day cruises to Alaska last year which is why we were so pleased to see the one out of Seattle this year and we are on the June 14th sailing. Looking forward to going up to Kodiak and Homer, and Seattle is easier for us to fly to than Vancouver. I know Princess did a 14 day ALaska last year from Seattle so I expect this is HAL competing and I am glad for that.

 

Barbara

[Love the beach]

I may be wrong but I don't think HAL had 14 day cruises to Alaska last year which is why we were so pleased to see the one out of Seattle this year and we are on the June 14th sailing. Looking forward to going up to Kodiak and Homer, and Seattle is easier for us to fly to than Vancouver. I know Princess did a 14 day ALaska last year from Seattle so I expect this is HAL competing and I am glad for that.

 

Barbara

They did have 14 day roundtrip cruises from Vancouver (we were on one!). It was onboard Statendam and it was wonderful!

[liketraveling]

Ryndamn and Stadendamn due Northbound and Southbound Inside Passage. You could do a B2B on either of these ships doing Northbound out of Vancover and than SB out Seward returning to Vancouver.

 

They might be holding a 14 day cruise up because of the Cruise Tours.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have done 14 day cruises out of Vancouver -- they are called back-to-back cruises -- 7 days north to Seward and 7 days back.

About 2 or 3 years ago they began to offer them as a 14 day cruise instead of having to back each one separately.

[wander]

As I understand it, the difference between the 14 day Seattle-Seattle cruise this year is that it stops at different ports each way and adds two new ones near Anchorage. For Back-2-backs, if is usually are repeat but reversed itinerary each way. The current one, Seattle-Seattle was introduced this year as a new option per HAL.

[Assateague Island Princes]

You're absolutely right, Wander - and we're on the May 31st sailing of the new 14 day itinerary - yahoo! Love the new ports (plus, we haven't been to Skagway on our two previous AK cruises) and also love the fact that this itinerary includes both Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. Gonna be a good one!:D

[barrywpg]

:confused:Is it just me or has HAL cut back on their 14 day cruises Van to Van,am I missing something,I seem to remember on our last cruise to Alaska in May a few yrs back we did 14 days on the Veendam with only one engine in operation for most of the cruise,we loved it.Was hoping for another in May 2010 but cant see any.?:confused: [ but not with one engine] LOL.

 

I think you might have just missed out on a really good sale. I noticed an

ad in the Globe and Mail last week for a 14 day out of Vancouver in early

May for $1000 or 1100 (US) per person (plus the usual fees) but only until

Feb 17. It really tempted me but I never checked it out further.

[bob brown]

Ryndamn and Stadendamn due Northbound and Southbound Inside Passage. You could do a B2B on either of these ships doing Northbound out of Vancover and than SB out Seward returning to Vancouver.

 

They might be holding a 14 day cruise up because of the Cruise Tours.

Am I reading something into this post that is only my imagination?

That is, is HAL restricting folks from making back to back cruises in order to have suffficient space to accomodate those wishing to book profitable cruise-tours?

 

The reason I am wondering is, this would kind of be in line with the practice of restricting singles even willing to pay the 200% fare.

[janmcn]

We did the Veendam from Vancouver to Seward, spent 2 nights on our own there (Great idea!...got to explore a bit more than otherwise)...then took the Volendam back to Vancouver on a different itinerary. We loved doing it this way. Highly recommend looking into it. Had we done a B t B we would have had a rainy day to experience Kenai Fjords, whereas by hanging out for 3 days, we chose a gorgeous day to do it.

[Kay240]

You're absolutely right, Wander - and we're on the May 31st sailing of the new 14 day itinerary - yahoo! Love the new ports (plus, we haven't been to Skagway on our two previous AK cruises) and also love the fact that this itinerary includes both Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. Gonna be a good one!:D

We are planning to be on "your" cruise with our friends, who have never been to Alaska. We did a "V to V" 7 years ago with our children. Although I would have prefered a CruiseTour, I am looking forward to this itinerary.

[Assateague Island Princes]

Hey Kay240 - we'll be seein' ya;)!

[Himself]

HAL has always run three ships between Vancouver and Seward. Some of the people stayed at Seward and did a round trip. Last year it was the Veendam, the Statendam and the Ryndam. One ship left on Friday and the other two on alternate Sundays. This year they took off the Friday run and they have a fourteen day round trip out of Seattle which I believes goes every other Monday.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Am I reading something into this post that is only my imagination?

That is, is HAL restricting folks from making back to back cruises in order to have suffficient space to accomodate those wishing to book profitable cruise-tours?

 

The reason I am wondering is, this would kind of be in line with the practice of restricting singles even willing to pay the 200% fare.

 

In a way HAL is restricting all of their balcony and verandah cabins to people who wish to do the Vancouver to Seward and back to Vancouver cruises. For our 2003 and 2006 Alaskan cruises our TA started over a year in advance fighting with Seattle to let us book a Deluxe Suite. Seattle closes off those categoies right away as they claim that the people on the land tours will want to have those cabins -- which is not true. We have already decided that if we want to do any future cruises like that -- we will book Princess and not put our TA through all that hassle for months on end just to get a cabin we want.

[bob brown]

In a way HAL is restricting all of their balcony and verandah cabins to people who wish to do the Vancouver to Seward and back to Vancouver cruises. For our 2003 and 2006 Alaskan cruises our TA started over a year in advance fighting with Seattle to let us book a Deluxe Suite. Seattle closes off those categoies right away as they claim that the people on the land tours will want to have those cabins -- which is not true. We have already decided that if we want to do any future cruises like that -- we will book Princess and not put our TA through all that hassle for months on end just to get a cabin we want.

What is interesting to me about that, is the fact that Princess and HAL, both under Carnival Corp. ownership, could have such different booking stategies. You would think that the corporate finance people would dictate these policies to a standard.

On the other hand, it could be affected by the relatively limited number of balconies available on the pre-Vista HAL ships.....