Zuiderdam Alaska Inside Passage Cruise 31 May2014 Departure (2nd Post)

[Delbankin]

For those who read my first post cruise report I've answered a few questions at the end of that report that came up in the replies.

 

This post intended to cover the destinations and excursions that we took however having reached the end of the Juneau review it may be necessary to split into two.

 

The itinerary was the main reason for choosing HAL. We researched other cruise lines but as our main aim was to have the full glacier experience we chose Zuiderdam because of the opportunity to take the Tracy Arm small boat trip and also experience Glacier Bay.

 

We were also influenced by the Vancouver round trip as flights via Seattle and back from Alaska or vice versa didn't appeal.

 

The inside passage afforded many opportunities to view the impressive landscape close up, as for a large part of the cruise we were quite close to land. The scenery reminded us of home (Scotland) and also our experience on a previous Baltic cruise which took in part of the Norwegian fjords.

 

Our first stop was Juneau which offered a great many excursions. The one that interested us was the high speed catamaran trip to Tracy Arm. We realised that this was a risky option for a couple of reasons - potentially low uptake and prevailing sea conditions, however we decided to book it early before our cruise and keep our fingers crossed!

 

This trip gave us the opportunity to also visit Juneau after our return. The catamaran took us back to the ship and we then tendered the 600yds from Zuiderdam to shore. We walked around Juneau and felt quite glad we had taken the trip to Tracy Arm, although admittedly it was better than one of our later ports of call.

 

The catamaran picked us up fairly early directly from the Zuiderdam pontoon mid fjord and it was quite a strange feeling to leave our cruise ship in a much smaller boat and see it power up and sail away without us. At the same time it did make us feel a bit like adventurers!

 

We were very lucky with the weather for our trip to Tracy Arm. It was a gloriously sunny day, albeit a bit on the chilly side, particularly when the catamaran picked up speed - it was a fairly powerful small boat and I believe travelled back to Zuiderdam after our trip at some 15 knots.

 

The catamaran was operated by Allen Marine and was very professionally run. They had a guide on board as well as girls working the galley. Complimentary sandwiches were offered later in the trip and hot chocolate and coffee was also available free of charge. They also offered other snacks at a price for those that couldn't survive the trip without real food!

 

Our guide (who I thought sounded a lot like the actor Hugh Grant!) was very knowledgable about the area and offered ongoing commentary during the trip and was also happy to answer any individual questions. He was also very anxious about the state of the water and made us think we weren't going to get too close. The word "crazy" cropped up a couple of times!

 

Apparently the glacier had been shedding a lot of ice in the previous 2-3 days which seemed to surprise him and the ice was moving down the fjord and making sailing quite hazardous. It seems he had only seen conditions like this once before in his time as a guide but perhaps he says that to everyone to build up the thrill of it all.

 

Our captain for the day was clearly very experienced with this type of sea conditions (or very hung ho!) and managed to manoeuvre the vessel amongst the ice and get us much closer to Tracy Arm than we (and I suspect our guide) had originally anticipated. Although we didn't get as close as we did later in Glacier Bay we did get close enough to view the enormity of the Tracy Arm glaciers. Extremely impressive!

 

We encountered another Allen Marine vessel during our trip who had earlier negotiated the same hazardous waters which was apparently some way behind schedule (presumably due to sea conditions) and another vessel operated by National Geographic which had dropped a couple of small dirigibles for an even closer up experience. We also passed a large Celebrity ship which got nowhere near the glacier compared to our visit.

 

The trip back to the ship was fairly long and we stopped a couple of times after whales were sighted to try to get us a close up experience. Unfortunately the whales chose not to play ball and we didn't see any more of them. The trip back was enjoyable and we were able to move from outside to in because the ship was not overly full to get a mix of warmth and fresh air.

 

We returned to Zuiderdam on time and would thoroughly recommend this trip albeit we may have been lucky with weather and being able to get fairly far up the fjord.

 

We did go ashore to Juneau and have to admit there isn't much to it apart from a few streets. The best advice I could give is to take one of the many excursions available from Juneau. Juneau is OK if you like jewellery shops and tourist shops which seems to be the case with most Alaskan stops on our cruise.

 

I will post again about the other ports of call and excursions we took in a separate post as I know that some people (including me) don't like to read screeds of text in any one post.

[PathfinderEss]

Again, really enjoying your reports. Sounds like you had an awesome trip going up to Tracy Arm. Have to agree with you about Juneau.:)

Edited June 8, 2014 by PathfinderEss

[erewhon]

Thanks for continuing your interesting reports.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful report.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Lizzie68]

Thanks again for the reports. A bit disappointed in your comments about Juneau. I'm off there in a week, and have a trip to Mendenhall Glacier booked and then going to Mount Robson. Not into shopping at all.

[Delbankin]

Thanks again for the reports. A bit disappointed in your comments about Juneau. I'm off there in a week' date=' and have a trip to Mendenhall Glacier booked and then going to Mount Robson. Not into shopping at all.[/quote']

 

I don't think you should worry too much if you have plans for Mendenhall and Mount Robson as I'm sure they will fill a large part of your day. Juneau is nice enough but there's just not much of it and there are a fair few bars and shops to lure the tourists.

 

I would advise you try to do some research about Mendenhall as the timing of visits and what you can do there do seem to be quite critical to getting the most from it. We didn't do it but are making the comment based on things I have read and overheard.

[Lizzie68]

I don't think you should worry too much if you have plans for Mendenhall and Mount Robson as I'm sure they will fill a large part of your day. Juneau is nice enough but there's just not much of it and there are a fair few bars and shops to lure the tourists.

 

I would advise you try to do some research about Mendenhall as the timing of visits and what you can do there do seem to be quite critical to getting the most from it. We didn't do it but are making the comment based on things I have read and overheard.

 

Thanks for the tip - much appreciated.:)