Review of our 2013 cruise/land tour with Holland America (Zaandam)

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Thank you so much for your comments. Sorry for the delay. Life is busy right now and I've also been having some technical problems.

 

Here are some more photos of the ship:

 

The Lido:

 

 

 

Lido Pool Area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More areas inside the ship:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ketchikan

7 am – 3 pm. (I wish that we had been there longer).

 

The ship docked in Ketchikan:

 

Today was an early day for us. We had plans to catch the 7:45 am city bus to Totem Bight State Park. (I think the schedule has changed since we were there – so be sure to check on that). We were running a little late so we didn’t have time to go eat in the Lido, but DH ran over there to pick up some juice and pastries and bring them back to the room. We were docked right in the middle of town and getting off the ship was easy. There is a visitor’s center on the dock. DH ran in there to find out exactly where to catch the bus (across the street at Front & Dock Street – in front of the drug store). By catching it that early, the bus was not crowded on the way to the park. Also, we got to enjoy the park with only a few other people there. Big tour crowds started showing up around the time that we were finishing up.

 

We really enjoyed the park. At the entrance is a small visitor center. They have coffee and hot chocolate available (for a donation), which was welcome because it was pretty chilly that morning. But, it was not raining, so that was good. The park itself is free. There is a short trail through the woods which leads to a clearing overlooking the water. In the clearing are a number of totem poles and a clan house. There is a map that you can pick up that gives you a description of each totem pole.

 

Next door is another free park – Potlatch Park. We didn’t have time to fully explore it, however, before catching the bus back to town. (We browsed the gift shop and saw the antique gun museum). The buses only run once an hour and we wanted to have time to see some of the town, as well. (We spent 2 hours there. To fully see everything we would have had to stay another hour for the next bus. However, we are lingerers and like to read all the signs. I’m sure that there are many other people who would go at a faster pace).

 

The bus ride back to town was jam packed – seats and aisles were full. A local woman that I chatted with on the bus said it was one of the fullest buses she had seen. Even though we were full, the bus still continued to pick up people along the way. The woman explained that since it is an hour between buses (on the outskirts of town), the driver hates to pass anyone up.

 

Photos from Totem Bight State Park:

 

 

 

 

 

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Upon arriving back at the ship we went to one of the 3 Tongass Trading Company stores (I think we were in store #2). They have a nice selection of souvenir and regular clothing items. We also redeemed a coupon for a free baseball cap with our purchase.

 

Since our ship was right there, we ran back on board to drop off our packages. We then visited the Ketchicandies store that I had spotted. It is a chocolate store I had read about on CC. They have a big selection of chocolate candies. We each bought a variety which we munched on for the next week. Some pieces were better than others. While it was good, it was not as good as my favorite candy brand – See’s Candy.

 

We then went to Annabelle’s for lunch. I highly recommend them. There was a long wait for a table, but it was worth it. It is a fun little place with good food and a great staff. One funny thing – we both ordered fish sandwiches but when our food arrived, we couldn’t find a top bun anywhere on our plate. We were confused and asked our waitress if it was supposed to have a top bun or not. She looked at our plates and laughed, saying, yes, there should be. She went back to the kitchen and brought back a plate with the bun tops on them. She said she had never seen that happen before. It didn’t bother us - they were really busy that day and everyone there was working really hard. One thing I noticed at lunch – the drinking water in Ketchikan is some of the best water that I have ever tasted.

 

It rained while we were eating, but then eased up when we left. We didn’t have a lot of time left, but I really wanted to go to Creek Street so we headed that direction. Creek Street is a raised boardwalk that runs over and along the creek. Later in the season salmon can be seen in the creek, but they weren’t there yet. The boardwalk used to be the red light district back in the gold rush days, but now the homes have been converted to shops. (Except one – Dolly’s House – that has been turned into a museum, but we didn’t visit it). We only had time to go into one of the shops, but it had some really nice items. We bought a Christmas ornament and some notecards that had some art on them that we liked. Maybe one of these days we will get around to framing some of them.

 

Sadly, we had to rush back to the ship for the 2:30 all aboard time. We would have liked to spend more time in this fun little town.

 

 

Photos from in town:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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That evening we ate dinner in the MDR and then went to the 8 pm show featuring the comedian Mike Robinson. He is a comedian/ventriloquist. Besides being a very talented ventriloquist, he was extremely funny. This was our favorite show of the week. We sat in the balcony this time, which has better seating and a better view. After the comedian, we stayed in the lounge for the Marriage Game, which started at 9 pm. This was also a lot of fun. They do the same game on Royal Caribbean. It is a version of the Newlywed Game, but with 3 couples who have been married for different lengths of time (ex. Newlywed, 25 years, 50 years). We had some good contestants for this one. After the show, we called it a night.

 

[lstrong]

Terrific pictures and review. I am taking notes!

[ChiSloop]

Cactusflower, I love your photos and review. Our cruisetour starts in 16 days. You are making us even more excited. Thank you and keep it up!

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I'm sorry that my posting has been so sporadic. I dont know if there are any followers left! Anway - here is another entry:

 

Juneau

9 am – 10 pm

 

I was really looking forward to this day because I had booked a whale-watching trip. On my first trip to Alaska, I didn’t see any whales (we didn’t take any whale specific excursions), and I was determined to remedy that on this trip! I had booked with Harv & Marv (H&M) after reading about them on CC. This ended up being one of the highlights of our trip.

 

We got to sleep in a little later today since we weren’t meeting up for our tour until 10:20 am. We went to the Lido to eat a big breakfast, since I knew we wouldn’t get another chance to eat for a while that day. A representative from H&M met us on the dock. She walked us across the street to where we met up with some other guests. At this point, H&M seemed surprisingly unorganized. There was quite a bit of confusion as a couple reps and two shuttle drivers figured out who should go where. Also, they give everyone a slip of paper that had the name of who your captain would be written on it. We were supposed to give it to a rep at the marina when we arrived. They kept changing ours. First they told us we would be with Shawn. Then they switched us to Russell. On the drive to the marina, they radioed the driver to tell us we were back to going with Shawn (though, our slip of paper said Russell). Upon arriving at the marina, they still seemed a little confused, but finally, everyone was assigned to a captain and we headed on our way (after a quick restroom break). The ramp down to the floating boat dock was very steep because it was low tide.

 

One of the things that I had liked about H&M was that they had small boats with only 6 passengers (not including crew) on them. My husband had been giving me grief leading up to the trip telling people that I had signed us up to go out in a bathtub and get eaten by Orcas. So, when we were led to a 12 person boat, instead of a 6 person, DH was happy, but I was unhappy. There was not an explanation given as to why we were on the bigger boat. (I think that they may have been having problems with one of their smaller boats so they had to combine two groups into the larger boat – also resulting in the captain assignment confusion).

 

Well, my initial disappointment didn’t last long. I ended up being perfectly happy with the boat we were on. It did not feel crowded. There are open decks on both the bow and the stern, so there was plenty of room for everyone. The seats inside the cabin were hydraulic seats, which made it much more comfortable when we were going fast. There are big windows to look out of, as well, when you are seated inside.

 

In addition to Captain Shawn, whom we liked, there was another crew member – a young woman. She was delightful. She had just received her degree in Marine Biology with an emphasis on large mammals, so she was full of knowledge, which she loved sharing with us. She also had a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

 

The boat goes fast getting to the whale area (and again on the return back to the dock), and then slows down and stops – sometimes maneuvering a little to follow the whales. We spent a long time out on the water and we saw lots of humpback whale activity. We saw numerous instances of bubble-net feeding, as well as a full breach. (Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get pictures of either of these things). We were able to hear the whales, as well. - especially the one that they named Foghorn (because that is what he sounded like)! The only thing that we didn’t see was Orcas, but those sightings are rarer. I was definitely happy with our excursion. We had been blessed with good weather that morning. It was cloudy and cool, but it didn’t rain. We had worn our long johns under our clothes and we were comfortable.

 

Our boat and crew:

 

 

Besides seeing the whales, it was so beautiful out on the bay, but this picture doesn't do it justice:

 

 

 

 

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On the way back to the dock, we went by an island with a cross on top of it and there was a bald eagle sitting on top of the cross. We were told that there are sometimes sea lions on the rocks around the island, but there weren’t any at that time. We also stopped to view a bald eagle’s nest and the two nest owners were sitting in a nearby tree. Additionally, our route back to the dock gave us a view of Mendenhall Glacier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also on the boat ride back to the dock, they passed around a basket of snacks (packages of cookies, nutra-grain bars, etc). I realized later that I think we were supposed to get drinks as well, but we didn’t. Despite the initial confusion, the boat change, and the forgotten drinks, I would not hesitate to book with them again. The crew was great, the boat was comfortable and had plenty of viewing area and we even had a good group of fellow passengers with us. Like I said – it was a highlight of our trip.

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When we got back to the dock, the ramp was less steep because the tide had started rising. There was a shuttle bus waiting for us. The shuttle bus made a 15 minute stop at Mendenhall Glacier and then went back to the cruise ship docks. However, DH and I wanted to spend more time at Mendenhall so we let the shuttle bus leave without us (we told the driver, of course).

 

We decided to take the hike to Nugget Falls. It is about a mile each way and is a pretty easy hike. The trail is fairly level and smooth. The trail takes you to a little beach area at the base of the giant waterfall next to Mendenhall Glacier. The waterfall is huge and it is awe inspiring to stand at the base of it. On the walk back it started raining. Fortunately, we were dressed for the rain so it wasn’t too bad. After the hike we caught one of the shuttle busses that run between the glacier and the cruise ship docks. Since we had not pre-purchased tickets, we were able to catch whichever one came along first and buy our ticket ($8 pp) from the driver.

 

Note: food and beverages are not allowed on the trail due to bears, so don’t pack food to take along with you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Upon our return to town, we were on a mission to find The Alaskan Fudge Company (do you see a trend here?) I had already read about it, but also our guide on the whale watching trip recommended it to us. Well, this one did not disappoint. The have many varieties of fudge and the fudge that we got (Mendenhall Mud) was excellent!

 

Even though it was raining, and it was getting late, we walked around some and went to some shops that were still open. By the time we went back to the ship, it was already well into dinnertime and we didn’t feel like going back to the cabin to change and get cleaned up so we just went to the Lido for dinner.

 

We did not go to the shows that night which were Sara Lee & the HAL Cats – Music Through the Decades at 10 pm and the Filipino Crew Show at 11 pm. I would have liked to have seen the crew show but we were too tired to stay up that late.

 

 

 

 

 

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(I had the date wrong in some of my previous post headings, but have gotten back on track with this one).

 

 

 

Skagway

7 am – 8:30 pm

 

 

After eating breakfast in the Lido this morning, we got off the ship to go pick up our rental car. When we got off the ship, we saw that there were shuttle buses that you could take into town (for a fee). We went ahead and bought an all-day pass. Their system is to stamp your hand. Well, they need a better system because, by the end of the day, the stamp was no longer visible. We ended up deciding to just walk back to the ship. I don’t know what the shuttle driver would have said if we tried to take it again and told her our situation. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

 

We took the shuttle into town and they dropped us off close to the Avis car rental office, where I had a car reserved. After picking up our car, we made a quick trip to the local grocery store to pick up some drinks and snacks to take with us on our trip. We were planning to drive the Yukon Highway up to Emerald Lake and back (be sure to take your passports with you if you do this because you will need it when you cross into Canada and then back into the US). I had purchased Murray’s Guide for the trip.

 

The drive started out good, we stopped at a couple scenic spots, however, we soon entered a very thick fog. This fog lasted throughout the White Pass area, so we were not able to see any of the scenic outlooks during that part of the drive. It was quite scary driving because of the low visibility combined with the windy mountain roads (and lack of guardrails some of the time). When we stopped at the Canadian border, the agent that checked our passports assured us that it was nice and sunny once you got up higher. We were glad to hear that. And, he was right. By the time we got to the famous “Welcome to the Yukon” sign, the fog had lifted and the sun was out. We were able to enjoy several scenic outlooks on the rest of the drive to Carcross. We also made a brief stop at the suspension bridge. You have to pay to walk over the bridge, which we didn’t do, but you don’t have to pay to go into their gift shop and snack bar. And, most importantly, they have nice bathrooms. (We made a purchase in their snack bar since we used their facilities). Note: if you have Murray’s Guide, you get a discount on the purchase of a ticket to cross the bridge.

 

 

 

 

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Below is Bove Island in Tagish Lake. While different than Emerald Lake, Tagish Lake is very green too (more so than the picture indicates)

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2013 by cactusflower

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In Carcross, we stopped at the Chilkoot Trail Authentic Sourdough Bakery for lunch. This is a nice little place with both indoor and outdoor seating. They have some pre-made sandwiches as well as several bakery items and hot soup. My husband, who had been craving a hot dog was in luck. They had something that they called a sled dog, which was basically a hot dog encased in dough. They heated it up in the microwave for him and he was in heaven. I had one of their giant cinnamon rolls. In hindsight, I should have had them heat that up for me too – I think it would have tasted better that way.

 

After lunch we walked over to Matthew Watson’s General Store, where we bought some ice cream. The sun was out in full force by now and the ice cream was very refreshing. While we sat outside and ate it, the train pulled into the station, which was fun to see. We walked around some and then headed back to our car, which was parked at the bakery. We went back into the bakery so that I could use their restroom (which is very clean, by the way) and buy a soda for the road. While we were there, my husband was telling them how much he had enjoyed the sled dog and they gave him another one for free!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We drove the short distance remaining to Emerald Lake (with a brief stop at the Carcross Desert, which is technically not a dessert, but it sure looks like one). Emerald Lake was indeed beautiful, with varying shades of emerald green. We didn’t stay long because it was quite windy and we wanted to start heading back.

 

 

 

 

 

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On the return trip, I had hoped that the fog through the pass would have lifted, but if anything, it was worse. Again, this part of the drive was rather treacherous. We drove very slow because of the extremely low visibility. My husband’s main concern was that someone would come along behind us and run into us (which could be disastrous when you are driving on the side of a mountain ledge).

On the way back down, you go through the US border crossing. The US border guard was considerably more gruff than his Canadian counterpart!

 

Before returning the car, we drove out to the scenic overlook on Dyea road. We were able to see a nice view of the town of Skagway and the ships in the harbor.

 

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We then returned the car and walked up and down Broadway Street and did some shopping. We decided to just walk back to the ship, rather than taking the shuttle. (The walk ended up being longer than I thought it was going to be). Along the way we passed Centennial Park, which has a statue commemorating the gold rush packers. Sadly, on the base of the statue someone had placed a little memorial – the artist and his son had been killed in a plane crash just a week prior to our being there.

 

 

 

 

 

This is fireweed, which you see all over. One interesting thing I learned about it - the flowers start blooming at the base and work their way up as the summer progresses. You can tell that summer is coming to an end when they reach the top.

 

 

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Once again, we didn’t feel like getting as spruced up as we would need to be for the MDR so we just went to the Lido for dinner. After eating, we planned to go to the show – a magician by the name of Joseph Gabriel. We had about ½ hour until the show started and I sat by a window to look for whales, which we had heard some people say they saw, while DH ran a quick errand. We planned to meet back up at the showroom. I didn’t see any whales, but the scenery was amazing that night. There were a bunch of little islands out in the water with a fog surrounding them. It looked otherworldly. I was so tempted to skip the show and keep watching, but couldn’t desert my hubby. Well, I should have just gone and gotten him and come back, because neither of us were terribly impressed with the show (though, I did hear other people say that they liked it). After the show, we did sit and enjoy the view for a little while before turning in for the night.

 

[BrusselsGirl07]

Enjoying your review and photos! Thanks for taking the time to do it. Yvette

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Thanks Yvette- glad to know someone is still out there! :)

 

 

Scenic Cruising: Glacier Bay

 

Today was another highlight of our trip. And, thankfully, we were blessed with good weather on this day. After eating breakfast in the Lido, we headed out to the aft deck, where we ended up spending the majority of the day. When we first went out, it was pretty chilly and I was feeling concerned about how I would last the day. We pulled a couple of chairs up next to a railing and I wrapped up in a blanket. We had not been there long before the park guide on board made an announcement that the captain had spotted a bear on the shoreline. Everyone rushed over to that side of the ship to try and see it. With the naked eye, it didn’t look like much more than a brown spot, but with our binoculars, we were able to see it. There ended up being two bears in that same area.

 

 

At 10:30 am, they served hot Dutch Pea Soup out on deck, which I enjoyed.

 

We just stayed out on deck until 5pm (we only left then because we had to go to a meeting regarding the upcoming land portion of our tour). As the day progressed, it got much warmer and we were able to take off some of our layers. In fact, at one point, there were even a few people sunbathing.

 

We stopped for an hour at Margerie Glacier. The captain rotated the ship after ½ an hour so that people on the other side could see. Since we were out on an open deck, we just moved to the other side to keep viewing. It was spectacular. Right when we first got there, we saw one fairly sizeable episode of calving, but didn’t see anymore after that. We would hear the glacier making noise, but it didn’t have any more activity while we were there. One cool thing that we could see was water gushing out of a couple places along the lower portion of the glacier. There were a flock of birds constantly flying around this area. I guess that it churned up fish for them to eat. We also spotted a lone seal laying on a piece of ice in front of the glacier.