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.