Cruising Alaska with Holland America

It's been a year since our Alaska Cruise with Holland America. I don't know if I have the words to describe the trip. The months leading up to it were stressful. The stay at the hotel the night before we left was horrible. Then, when we got into the shuttle that took us to Pier 91, the stress had started to melt away. We were finally on our way.

We had invited my parents to come with us as they had always wanted to see Alaska. My parents drove up with their Airstream and Simon and I flew in. I was so happy that they came with us and it was a wonderful experience to have shared with them. As the shuttle pulled in, the area was packed with taxis, buses, and cars picking up the passengers that were leaving the ships. I say ships, because Holland America and Princess Cruises were sharing the pier. It looked like it was chaos but the Port Authority and the workers for both cruise lines kept everything moving and organized.
  
When taking a cruise, I strongly recommend that you check your luggage and just carry the small bags. When we got off of the shuttle, we handed over our luggage and were told that it would be delivered to our cabin. We were then directed into the building to go through security and to check in. Because we had checked our luggage, we didn't have to wait in the main line for security, we whizzed right through to the Holland America reps. Everyone was so friendly! They took our pictures and handed us our card. This card was our key card, ID Card and Credit Card. You can't get on/off the ship without it.

This was a seven day cruise that left and returned to Seattle and we sailed on the Amsterdam. We were one of the last ones on as we waited for my parents to arrive to board. Due to the wait, we were able to get right on the ship without a line. Holland did a wonderful job of getting everyone on board with going deck by deck.

We got to our cabin and found our luggage was there waiting for us. We're so happy that we got a balcony room. My parents' cabin was a couple of doors down and we could wave to them from the balcony. The Amsterdam was the last to leave the pier for the day. It was fun seeing the line of ships sailing out of Puget Sound.

Sailing into the sunset.

Our first day was mainly at sea with a trip through Tracy's Arm. This was actually my favorite part of the trip. Simon and my Dad went to see RoboCop in the theater and my Mom and I spent time in one of the lounges enjoying the view, sipping my Chai Tea from their coffee bar. At some point we saw what is in these pictures outside and decided to move to our balcony to take in the view.

When Simon and Dad came out of the theater they looked out of a window and saw mountains and had no clue where we were. They found us on our balcony and then went out to go on the upper decks to get more views. My Dad was so tickled, he accidentally ditched Simon to go to the other side of the ship to get pictures.

One of the pictures my Dad took.

My Dad had learned that Alaska was thinking of closing this part of Tracy's Arm to cruise ships due to environmental concerns. We were going to be the last ship to see this at least for the 2014 season. It was so peaceful and the fresh air mixed with the smell of Pine and the Ocean was wonderful.

Our second day we woke up already docked in Juneau. We were able to get tickets to go with my parents to Mendenhall Glacier. On the way we got to see Bald Eagles sitting on top of street lights and on platforms that were placed on the electric towers to keep them from getting shocked. When we got to the park, it was crowed with other groups from our ship and the other cruise lines.

The park was really nice and it was easy for my Mom to get around with her walker. My Dad and Simon took a hike down to the waterfall that was near the glacier and my Mom and I stayed behind to enjoy the view.

We had a limited amount of time before we had to be back to the bus. That meant that Simon and Dad had to make the trip down the waterfall pretty quickly. When they got there, it was worth it!

The next stop was Sitka, AK. My Dad and Simon went ashore. I stayed on the ship to keep my Mom company. A Tender was used to shuttle passengers to and from the ship since Sitka didn't have a port large enough to dock at. I only asked Simon to come back with some fun pictures and he didn't fail me.

Sitka is home to St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral. The original building was built in 1844-46. It was destroyed by fire in 1966. Many of the relics were salvaged and placed in the rebuilt Cathedral that is there now. St. Michael's was the first Orthodox Cathedral established in North America. 

Simon and my Dad were able to walk here from the dock and they got some wonderful pictures of the relics.

 

They were also able to make a few stops at the local gift stores. Simon wanted to get me a set of Russian Stacking Dolls but they were to expensive. And of course there was a silly moment.

 The next stop was Ketchikan, AK. 
We sailed into Ketchikan on a beautiful partly cloudy morning. Once we got docked we let the other passengers get off first and then we made our way down. The one thing that I noticed was all of the tourist stores that are right on the pier. I had noticed them in Juneau. And here we were with the same stores. There were some local stores that had stuff from the local artists and craftsmen. But the majority of them were jewelry stores.
My parents went off on their own while Simon and I went off to find some more souvenirs. We wanted to find some Salmon to send to his parents. We found a side street filled with different fish vendors. We decided to have some smoked salmon shipped to his family from Salmon Etc. Their store, like many others had samples. The store was small, with products stacked to the ceiling. They also had the best deal with shipping to the lower 48. You would think that we learned our lesson on not sending pineapple home from Hawaii and would have sent some Salmon to ourselves but we didn't. What's nice is, we can order from them on line. 

After we had purchased the fish, we went looking to see if we could find a set of Russian Stacking Dolls that we could afford but everything that I liked was out of our price range. We settled with getting some Christmas ornaments to add to our collection from past trips. We also got some for family members as Christmas gifts. By the time we were done, it was time for lunch. All of the restaurants were packed so we headed back to the ship to have lunch there with my parents.
After Ketchikan, we were then headed to Victoria, BC.

The next morning we awoke with ship's horn going at set intervals. I looked out to find a wall of fog. It was slow going as the fog hung around for most of the day and we got into Victoria late. We didn't leave the pier as there wouldn't be much time to head into Victoria. It was a little disappointing as we hoped to take my parents to a Irish Pub that we had found the last time we were there. So we just wondered around the pier taking in the huge ships from other cruise lines that were also docked there. Ours was the smallest of the ships there. The one parked next to us was from Princess and they had music booming from their decks with club lights going. 

The next morning we were back in Seattle and it was time to fly home. Our flight was for 10:30ish and we were marked as VIP to be one of the first off of the ship. Holland had a taxi cab waiting for us and we made it the airport in no time.



Not all days were spent in ports. Holland had fun activities through out the days we were at sea. I went with my mom to an origami class and made cranes, went to a seminar about the local gems and one extensive detail on color diamonds. We also went to see movies about the next port, learning about the local history and the people that live there. 

Of course, there was the Crew Talent Show that was fun to see. Most of the crew were from the Philippines and South Asia so we got to hear songs and stories from their countries. 

One of the pictures that my Dad took of the ship.

Holland also had a wonderful comedian that had us crying from laughing so hard. There was also a local family, out of Juneau, that performed folk songs about Alaska. One of the songs was about people dying and a sinking ship. Simon whispered to me asking if that was such a wise song to be signing on a ship. At the time of their performance, we were in the middle of some really rough weather with the ship pitching up and down. So much so, one of the group members was sea sick and didn't make the performance. We had to hold onto the rails in the halls to make it back to our cabin for the night. 

The crew was wonderful and so nice. The ship didn't have many children and the children that were on the ship were well behaved. Most of the passengers were older than us and we were fine with that. We aren't party people so I can't imagine what it would have been like on the one of the Princess or Carnival ships for us. We were able to find quite places to curl up with a book from the ship's library and just stare out at sea trying to see whales.

Picture taken by my Dad. I never had my camera when the whales showed up.

   
The Alaskan cruise with Holland was wonderful and I feel the best way to see Alaska. I'm so happy that I was able to share this trip with my parents.

 

Trip to see a Friend- Alamosa, CO.

So a few weeks ago we went to see a friend of ours, named Jason, that lives in Alamosa, CO.  It was just a three day get away but one that was much needed. We rented a car as my car wouldn't have made it, it's almost 16 years old and it just doesn't handle long trips anymore. When renting a car, make sure you read the fine print on using Debit Cards instead of a Credit Card. Again, as I had said in my Cash Vacations blog, it just proved that we're going have to get a credit card to use for our trips. Anymore, we just can't reserve or pay for vacation stuff with cash. It was annoying as hell and my dad saved the day by putting the car on his card.

The morning after getting the car, we loaded up the car with our luggage and the dog and headed south to Alamosa. It was about a 4-5 hour drive to Alamosa from Denver. We had to stop at Petco to get a harness for the dog and didn't get on the road until about 11. We were making good time until we hit Walsenburg, CO. There was a train blocking the road that we needed to take to Alamosa. So we sat in the Safeway parking lot waiting to go for an hour.  We have no clue what the problem was. But once the train cleared out, the traffic got going and we were on our way again.

Now, it's been over 20 years since I was last down in southern Colorado. It was just as pretty as I remembered and everything was still green from all of the monsoon rain we've been getting this summer. We finally checked in at the Super 8 in Alamosa around 5 pm.

Our friend Jason picked us up and took us to a burger joint called Wize Apples. I must say, they have some good burgers. They say their fries are all you can eat but because the size of the burgers, you won't need a refill on the fries. Just letting you all know now, we didn't get any pictures of the food we ate. I know, I'm so fired. There are pictures on Wize Apples facebook site that will give you an idea on the size of their burgers.

After dinner, we headed over to Jason's place and got to see his mules and llamas. His mules are friendly but the llamas didn't want to come and see us. After spending the evening with Jason, we headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.

Our first full day in Alamosa started early. Jason and Kate picked us up and we headed up to Wolf Creek Pass and Creede, CO. We stopped at the top of Wolf Creek Pass. This is 10857 feet above sea level. For those that aren't use to high altitude, I recommend following the tips written by Rachel Walker, to avoid getting Altitude sickness. It's a very real thing and something not to take lightly. Being a Native Coloradoan, I sometimes find myself with headaches. I keep hydrated and eat up on foods with high potassium to avoid getting sick.

We took a little walk with the dog down a hiking path. We couldn't do much as we weren't wearing good shoes for hiking. Again, if you want to go hiking, make sure you have good shoes. Flip flops are not good walking shoes for walking in the mountains.

 

Now some might be wondering what happened to the pine trees, why are they gray? Colorado has been infested with the Mountain Pine Beetle and the Spruce Beetle. I don't know much on them but I see the damage that they do every time I go into the mountains. I saw a report that there are talks of introducing a wasp from China that may help. 

After the stop at the top of Wolf Creek Pass, we headed to a scenic overlook not far down the road. This was a perfect stop to view the valley on the other side of the pass.

Down at the bottom of the pass, we stopped at Treasure Falls. Again, there was a path that takes you up to the falls but you want to make sure that you're wearing at least tennis shoes and not flip flops. We just viewed the falls from the parking area and enjoyed the wild flowers that were close by.

We then headed back up over the pass and went to Creede, CO. We stopped for lunch at Best Little Dog House. It's a cute place that serves hot dogs and hamburgers made to order. They have all of the fixings off to the side for you to put as much or little as you want. The fun part of this place is the outdoor seating. They have a number of picnic tables set up with umbrellas to sit at. We got to sit and have lunch with our dog under the table begging for scraps. My hot dog was good and Simon had a bratwursts. There isn't anything fancy, just a nice place that grills up good dogs and burgers.

After lunch we head up to the Underground Mining Museum and Community Center. This was a fun little stop. The museum is built into the mountain and was nice and cool inside. They offer a self guided CD tour and guided tours with retired miners. Outside you can feed the chipmunks that make the mountain side their home. If you sit quietly, they will come up and eat out of your hand.

After our stop at the museum, we head out to drive the Bachelor Historic route. It's a 17 mile loop that takes you around the silver mining and ghost towns around Creede. The road is not paved but a graded gravel road and does have some steep grades and narrow passage that requires some caution when driving it. There are several mines that you pass. There is one that is being restored that you can stop as, Last Chance Mine. The stop here is well worth it as the view is beautiful and the story behind it is fun to hear from those that are in the process of restoring it.

Last Chance Mine

After spending time at Last Chance mine, we headed to the next stop, the site of where Bachelor use to be. There's a nice hiking path that you can walk. We didn't go far on it but did get to see a collapsed cabin. The view here was also beautiful. The wild flowers were still blooming.

 

After our stop in Bachelor, we head down the mountain and went to Ramon's in South Fork for dinner. I had ordered the beef enchiladas and it was good but nothing that made them stand out from other Mexican places that I've eaten at. Simon had the Beef Carne asada. Now that was very different from other places. This was a full fledged stake. Not thin or pounded down like the other places that we've eaten at. It was a nice popular spot for good food. The only picture I got while at Ramon's was of Simon and Jason. It wasn't very flattering but it made a great meme.

After dinner, we headed back to Alamosa. We were tired after a fun day of site seeing and the dog was ready to crash.

Our third day took us to the Sand Dunes and it couldn't have been a better day with it being slightly overcast and cool. When we got to the park, it was already starting to fill up with the weekend campers. 

I was also worried that the river wouldn't be running anymore with it being late July and most of the winter snow having melted. However, thanks to the monsoon rains, the river was still running. I mean, it was fun climbing the dunes when I was little but wading across the river is my favorite part of going to the Sand Dunes. The water temperature was perfect and the deepest parts of the river came up about mid calf. This was the closest to us getting to beach.

Keylala isn't a water dog so we weren't sure how she was going to react to walking in the water. So Simon carried her across the river first and then put her down on a sand bar. She was having fun until she got to the water that deep enough for her chest to get wet. From then on it was pouting and the evil eye from her.

With the wetter and cooler weather, grass was growing on the dunes and wildlife that hasn't been seen in the area for years is returning. 

We were there for about two hours. This is a great camping spot and will always hold a special place in my heart from camping there with my family. It was fun to watch Simon experience Sand Dunes for the first time. 

After the Sand Dunes, Jason took us to Zapata Falls. Now, we didn't get to see the falls. The hiking path is rocky and my ankle screamed nope, nope, hell no. It's a half mile hike that is mildly steep. The view from the camp/picnic area was spectacular. You can see the whole San Luis Valley from here. Great view to the Sand Dunes and the San Luis Lakes. It was nice and quite here. If you want to avoid the crowd at the Sand Dunes, this is a good spot to camp and then drive over to the Sand Dunes for the day.

For lunch we headed back into Alamosa and had lunch at Rubi Slipper after dropping Keylala off at the hotel. The Rubi Slipper is a great bar and grill that is popular with the locals. We didn't want to eat much as we wanted to have dinner again at Wize Apples. Their appetizers are a meal in themselves. I had the loaded fries, Simon had a combo plate that had mini tacos and a few other items and Jason ordered the Bar Trash but subbed the hot wings with chicken strips. The Bar Trash has fried pickles, crisp green beans and fried jalapenos. He also ordered a plate of fried mushrooms. It was all really good and I can see why it's popular with the locals.  

After lunch we headed to the local Amish community. I was tickled pink with being able to get home made strawberry-rhubarb jam and apple butter. I also got a great hand made rug for the kitchen. We then drove through the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. This was the first year in a number of years that there has been water in the refuge. When we got there it was raining pretty good. I would have loved to take a walk on some of the paths but the mosquitoes were out in force and we didn't have any spray. It's something that I'll just have to go back and do when we're in the San Luis Valley again.

Our little trip to the San Luis Valley was fun and relaxing. It was great showing Simon a part of Colorado and spending time with friends. The views were beautiful and the food was great!

Cash Vacations

My husband and I don't have any credit cards. There is a reason for this and we're quickly finding that it's harder to plan and take vacations without one. We enjoy having very little debit and we realize that we tend to spend money when we don't really have it to spend. So we don't own any credit cards.

Once we have our next vacation spot picked out, the saving begins. We eat out a lot less and make lists of must haves vs wants. The wants usually end up waiting until after our vacation and some times some of the must haves also wait.

We get a potential quote of how much a trip would cost by using one of the many Travel Booking sites with Orbitz being my favorite. This has worked well in the past and only works if you know up front all of the potential costs that will be involved.  Why pay cash? It's paid for up front. I have to say, it didn't work that well for our recent trip, an Alaska Cruise.

Back in November of 2013, we decided that we wanted to try a cruise and we wanted to see Alaska. We had always heard that an Alaska Cruise was the best way to see Alaska. After reviewing a number of options on Orbitz, I had an idea of what we wanted to do. We picked Holland America Lines and we figured that we could save up enough to get a veranda room with an estimated cost of $3200.00 for the two of us. We also invited my parents to come with us. We started saving what we could and put all of our 2013 Tax return towards the trip. We planned on going in September of 2014 and I wanted to go through a Travel Agent to make sure that we got everything we wanted, a room next to my parents, shore excursions and what ever else we needed/wanted.

On April 2 I got a email from my Dad telling me that they've booked the cruise directly with Holland America after talking to some of their friends. At this time we were short around $1000 from what I had planned on paying. After viewing the booking, the cost was going to be $3600, this also included insurance, and this is before any additional costs of the shore excursions and airplane flights. Honestly, I thought that we had to pay for everything at once and was panicked on how we were going to get our trip booked. If we had to pay the full amount, we were going have to down grade our room to one with just a window. I ended up crying and had to tell myself that there would be places that we could sit on a deck and watch the world go by or we could sit on my parent's veranda. Once it came to "check out" there was an option to make payments.

We had enough to pay the minimum payment. A Happy Dance ensued and we upgraded our room to the veranda. Made a payment with the money we had and made plans to make payments for the rest that was due. The full amount had to be paid by July 1.

Then, unforeseen car repair costs and vet bills interfered with our planned payments. We ended up tapping into gift cards that we were saving for the trip and juggling bills but we were able to pay off the cruise before the July 1 deadline. 

Next on the list was to get a airline tickets and to decide when we wanted to fly out. Did we want to fly out the day before to ensure that we were in Seattle for the cruise or did we want to fly out on the day of the cruise? We decided that it would be best if we flew out the day before and stay at a hotel. We got a good deal on our flight via Orbitz with Alaska Airlines. The following week I then started looking for a hotel. I contacted Holland America to see how much a room would be via them and have it include transfers from Airport to hotel to pier. They had three options and all of the hotels were 4-5 Star Hotels and well out of the price range I wanted to stay in and said no thanks. 

Remembering that we stayed at the Quality Inn Sea-Tac hotel a few years ago and knowing that it was a great location and nice place to stay, I checked to see if they had a shuttle that could pick us up and also take us to the pier. I called them and was told yes they did! Great! I quickly booked a room with them for Sept 13. (See what happened with that by reading my review here.) Finally, everything was paid for, we could use the next month to save spending money and I could relax.

Here is where those unforeseen costs come into play. Three weeks before our trip, we get a email from Holland America advising that we need to check in and provide them with our passport information and other documentation they needed. So, I go in and start checking in. Then towards the end they advised that $430 some dollars per person will be held on our card on September 14 when we board the ship. This would be our spending money on board. I flipped out! Now, I had to figure out how much we had to save to make sure that our monthly bills didn't bounce while we were on the trip. We weren't planning on having that much spending money as we don't get much on our trips. The food was already paid for as it was part of the cruise and WHY would I want to buy anything on the ship as I was sure that they would be way overpriced! (This view changed once I was on board with the End of season sales!) I could understand them holding around $400 as we had the same thing happen when we went to Hawaii. The hotel held some money because it was a debit card we reserved the room on and they wanted to make sure there was money to pay for any incidentals.

After reading more on Holland America's site about it, they said that it was because they can't charge credit/debit cards while they're at sea and our room key acts like a credit card. Alcoholic and Soda drinks aren't included with the meals. There is also a casino on board that you can use the money at. And finally, the tip for the staff comes out of that money. Depending on which room you stay in determined how much they were going to charge. We were charged $12 per person per night. 70% went to our porters and the remaining 30% went to those that worked behind the scenes. I wasn't very happy with the tipping but it did take that question of how much to tip off of my mind. We weren't planning on gambling and we weren't big on drinking. If they were going to hold the money that we were going to use it to book the shore excursions, we would just wait until we were on board to book them.  

A few days later we found out that my parents had booked an excursion. Thanks to my in-laws, they sent us money to make sure that we had a wonderful time and had emergency money. I went to book the same excursion as my parents just to find out that we were on a waiting list. It worked out in the end and we were able to go at the same time as my parents and Holland America took the payment from the money they held.

I have to say, as stressful as it was planning for this trip, the cruise itself was wonderful! Everyone was so nice and Holland America delivered. The additional charges are most likely disclosed in the fine print when you book the cruise but who reads that? Not me! Lessons learned. As a traveler that pays for trips with basically cash, it's best to go through a Travel Agent for trips of this size. They know the ins and outs of cruises and knows all of the costs. Now, if you have credit cards, then by all means, feel free to set everything up on your own. Simon and I are planning taking another cruise, we're looking at doing Hawaii. It won't be for a few years but it's on the list. We will have a travel agent help with that.