HAL CruiseTour Report - Dawson/Denali Plus (Y4T) - June 26 to July 14, 2013

[northernphoenix]

Wonderful info. We are doing this itinerary in reverse August/2014, and I do have some questions: what did you use for a daypack? Were there any laundry facilities available on the land portion ? We are planning to purchase the meal plan, did anyone comment on this option? We enjoy wine in our rooms, were there opportunities to purchase bottles in stores? Sounds like you enjoyed this holiday Oh, as well, would you be shrimp fishermen from the Cape Breton coast? My DSIL was a Louisburg girl, and we travel back regularly from Ontario to visit her gravesite, and sister, who lives in Sydney.

Marilyn

 

 

 

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[RuthC]

I loved the commentary about the land tour; brought back many memories from 2 decades ago! And it even made me want to open some of the links and see a few of the pictures (something that doesn't often happen). Beautiful.

[kazu]

Wonderful info. We are doing this itinerary in reverse August/2014, and I do have some questions: what did you use for a daypack? Were there any laundry facilities available on the land portion ? We are planning to purchase the meal plan, did anyone comment on this option? We enjoy wine in our rooms, were there opportunities to purchase bottles in stores? Sounds like you enjoyed this holiday Oh, as well, would you be shrimp fishermen from the Cape Breton coast? My DSIL was a Louisburg girl, and we travel back regularly from Ontario to visit her gravesite, and sister, who lives in Sydney.

Marilyn

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

I'm not the OP - but I can tell you safely that they are not shrimp fishermen from the Cape Breton Coast:D

[shrimpboat123]

Wonderful info. We are doing this itinerary in reverse August/2014, and I do have some questions: what did you use for a daypack? Were there any laundry facilities available on the land portion ? We are planning to purchase the meal plan, did anyone comment on this option? We enjoy wine in our rooms, were there opportunities to purchase bottles in stores? Sounds like you enjoyed this holiday Oh, as well, would you be shrimp fishermen from the Cape Breton coast? My DSIL was a Louisburg girl, and we travel back regularly from Ontario to visit her gravesite, and sister, who lives in Sydney.

Marilyn

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

 

For a daypack I purchased "The North Face Main Frame" since I took along my MAC so I could download all the pictures each day. The pack had a padded compartment for the PC and a separate area for a hoody, or waterproof jacket. It also had numerous other compartments to store stuff in. Nice padded straps.

 

There were laundry facilities in all the Westmark hotels. We did laundry in Dawson and in Denali.

 

I didn't look for any liquor stores. I'm sure you can find them by looking up each location on the internet and finding their business directory. It should tell what is close to each hotel.

 

I didn't purchase the meal plan. It didn't cover all the meals that weren't provided on the tour. I haven't added up what I spent on meals so I don't know yet whether it was a good idea or not to purchase the meal plan.

 

My neighbour Kazu answered your shrimp question. But I do love shrimp!

 

Any particular reason why you are doing the cruise first? The land tour is very intensive. I was glad we did the land tour first.

[shrimpboat123]

Day 16 (July 11th)

 

Today we docked in Juneau at 8:00AM. Unfortunately my DW is not feeling well and because we didn't cancel the excursion in advance, I wasn't able to get any refund. Seems she has come done with a touch of pneumonia and can't go with me on the Tracey Arm Fjords Small Boat Excursion. Too bad, because this is a beautiful trip into the fjord. She would have enjoyed all the icebergs, waterfalls, whales, Sea Otters and Harbor Seals. This was the only day I felt really cold. At the South Sawyer Glacier, it was 45F and I had to break down and buy a pair of gloves because my hands got so cold that I couldn't operate the camera. At the glacier it also started to rain, but we were able to stay under cover.

 

 

Iceberg on way into Tracey Arm Fjord

 

 

Playfull Whale

 

 

Tracey Arm Fjord

 

 

Water Fall Tracey Arm Fjord

 

 

Water Fall Tracey Arm Fjord

 

 

South Sawyer Glacier Tracey Arm Fjord

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 16 continued

 

Harbor Seal Tracey Arm

 

 

South Sawyer Glacier Tracey Arm Fjord

 

 

Tracey Arm Fjord

 

 

North Sawyer Glacier

 

 

North Sawyer Glacier

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 16 continued

 

Hole in the Rock Waterfall Tracey Arm

 

 

Iceberg Tracey Arm

 

 

Juneau Panorama

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 16 (July 12th)

 

We docked in Ketchican at 11:00AM. My DW is still not feeling well, but this time I did inform the excursions desk that she would not be able to attend and we did get a 90% refund. Today, as it normally does in Ketchican, it poured most of the day. Fortunately I was dressed for the occasion. Today I planned to do the "Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary, Raptor Centre & Totems" excursion. we left on the tour at 12:30PM. Unfortunately we didn't see any Black Bears. The group that went out ahead of did see one bear but it was gone by the time we got to the creek where it was seen.

 

 

Eagle in Rain Forest Ketchican

 

 

Reindeer in Ketchican Rain Forest Sanctuary

 

 

Great Horned Owl Ketchican Sanctuary

 

 

Bald Eagle in Ketchican Sanctuary

 

 

Carving of Salmon in Ketchican

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 16 continued

 

Won't post correctly. Will try again later.

[Irish Eyes Are Sailing]

Wonderful pictures and review........!!:) Good job!! Loved all the pictures of the wildlife and you got great shots of Mt. McKinley (Denali)!

 

PS - I got a chuckle out of the seagull in Glacier Bay....we had one on our cruise that used to sit on the balcony railing and stare at us......he (or she) was so cute!

[northernphoenix]

The cruise first itinerary appealed to us for a few reasons. We had a 7 day Interior Passage cruise on the Volendam a few years ago, and enjoyed it so much that a landtour added at the end of the cruise worked with our schedule. We are retired, so returning home in a tired state is not the worse thing that could happen.

Marilyn

 

 

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[shrimpboat123]

Day 16 continued

 

Creek Street Ketchican

 

 

Creek Street Ketchican

 

 

Creek Street Ketchican

 

 

Welcome to Ketchican

 

 

Ketchican Rain Gauge

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 17 (July 13th) Inside passage Cruising

 

 

Dessert Extravaganza

 

 

Dessert Extravaganza

 

 

Dessert Extravaganza

 

 

Dessert Extravaganza

 

 

Dessert Extravaganza

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 17 continued

 

 

Inside Passage

 

 

Inside Passage

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 18 (July 14th)

 

As another cruiser mentioned in their review, they missed sailing under the Lion's Gate Bridge. Well I did exactly the same thing. I used the alarm on my iPhone and missed the sail in by 1 hour. Oh well I got some pictures of the bridge.

 

 

Lion's Gate Bridge from Seaview Pool

 

 

Lion's Gate Bridge

 

 

Coming into Canada Place

 

 

Canada Place

 

 

View from Pan Pacific Room

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 18 continued

 

So far everything has gone very smooth. There have been no problems. When we dis-embarked the ship today, all the people who said they were staying at the Pan Pacific post-cruise were instructed to identify their luggage and leave it for deliver to their room in the Pan Pacific. We were then instructed to stand aside until the last scragglier came off the ship. They arrived at the designated time, however, the de-bark process was a little ahead of time and we had to wait for about 30 minutes before we could be escorted through Customs and into the Pan Pacific. This is the first time I have gone through customs and didn't have to take our passports out and show the customs officer. We just handed in our declaration form and that was it.

 

The escort also asked if anybody might have difficulties walking up the ramp from the Cruise area to the Pan Pacific. She said we were to wait by the elevator and she would be back to escort us to the lobby to check-in. She said it would take her a little time before she was able to get back to us, but she never re-appeared after an hour. So I gave up and we went up the elevator by ourselves and found a HAL rep upstairs at the HAL desk. She could tell I was a little angry and said she would see about getting our keys ASAP. After about 30 minutes we got our keys before anybody else returned to get theirs. Problem solved and we were in our room well before the published check-in timne of 4PM. So not too bad. At least we didn't have to check our carry-on before we started to explore Vancouver.

 

So off we go and walk to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens

 

 

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden

 

 

Double Sided Silk Embroidery

 

 

Double Sided Silk Embroidery

 

 

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden

 

 

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 19 (July 15th)

 

Part of the post cruise package from HAL included a day trip to Victoria. So today we were up and ready to go by 9:00AM

 

 

View from BC Ferry to Victoria

 

 

Getting off BC Ferry

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

 

Butterfly in Butchart Gardens

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 19 continued

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

 

Arch of Roses Butchart Gardens

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 19 continued

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

 

Butchart Gardens

 

 

Victoria Inner Harbour

 

[shrimpboat123]

Day 19 continued

 

 

Victoria Inner Harbour

 

 

Empress Hotel Victoria

 

 

Olympic Cauldron Vancouver

 

 

Canada Place at Night

 

 

 

 

Well that concludes our Alaska CruiseTour. We found this trip to be well with it. Would I do it again? Probably not. But I don't regret doing this extensive tour. I just wouldn't do another CruiseTour. If we go to Alaska again, I would do the 14 day cruise out of Seattle, despite that it may not do the inside passage between Vancouver Island and the mainland. We found the land tour very hectic. Up early every day. Long travel times on the bus and train.

 

Constant packing and un-packing and trying to remember which suitcase you packed the item in. HAL changed the rules for luggage on this tour. Initially you were supposed to only take one checked bag and 2 carry-on's per person on the land tour. All other luggage was supposed to be tagged for delivery to the ship and you wouldn't have to worry about it. For some reason all the luggage followed us to each hotel room. Not a big problem, just more luggage to keep track of.

 

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did taking the pictures. My wife always says I see everything through the lens of a camera when we go on vacation. She's right. I took over 7000 pictures (camera takes multiple shots so you don't miss anything). After deleting most of the duplicates, I ended up with 5200 pictures and videos. I don't consider that too excessive. That's less that 300 pictures per day.

[kazu]

Great review Glen - the pics are beautiful and your report was very interesting.

 

Pretty sure many of us were spell bound:)

 

Thanks for taking the time to do all of this and share:D

[1of4]

Oh Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review and all the photos....I don't know what it is but I just love the northern landscapes. DH and I want to retire (in the summers) to the Yukon. I can't get enough!

 

Beautiful, stunning, just wonderful.

 

Okay, I have now missed my bedtime as I just couldn't stop reading and looking!

[AlohaPride]

Day 5 continued

 

 

Panorama of Downtown Dawson

 

 

May I ask what type of camera you have? I am looking for one that takes panoramic shots like this!

[shrimpboat123]

May I ask what type of camera you have? I am looking for one that takes panoramic shots like this!

 

I used a Panasonic DMC-FZ200. It is a very nice point and shoot camera.

 

Constant F2.8 from 25-600mm. Takes full HD movies with continuous autofocus and zoom. You can take a snapshot while you are taking videos.

 

Panoramas are very easy to take. The camera does all the work. No more stitching multiple shots together after the fact.

[jrose529]

Fabulous pictures! Thanks for your wonderful review as well. We are taking a HAL cruisetour on the Oosterdam next May - June. We are only doing a 3 day land tour with 2 nights in Denali, but we are flying into Anchorage a day early and staying in Vancouver an extra night after the cruise. I am so looking forward to this trip, especially after seeing your beautiful pictures!