LynKev

This is a review of the land portion of our 11-Day Triple Denali cruisetour this past May. We did the land portion first (3 nights in Denali), then the southbound Glacier Discovery cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam. I could not find a lot of details about how the land tour worked, so I am hoping this will be helpful. Tuesday (travel day to Alaska): We decided to fly to Anchorage a day earlier than our cruisetour due to the long travel day to get to Alaska. We wanted to have a cushion in case we had any travel delays as we had three flights to Anchorage from South Carolina. In February, I booked the extra night at the Four Points Sheraton downtown, as it was over $100 cheaper per night than the Westmark. Our travel agent had tried to add the extra night to our package, but was unable to do it through HAL so I researched hotels on my own. The hotel was fine – clean and comfortable, but right on the edge of downtown. I will note there are a lot of homeless downtown, and the city itself felt kind of desolate. About two weeks before our trip, I rented a car with Budget so we could drive outside of the city to see some of the Alaskan scenery since we had a bonus vacation day. It cost us $96 for the rental car, then another $26 to take a taxi to the Westmark after we turned the car back in at the airport. Wednesday (begin cruisetour): We checked out of the Sheraton, and brought our bags to the HAL hotel, the Westmark, to be held until we could check in at 4pm. We left our bags with the front desk clerk. There is a separate room at the Westmark with a dedicated tour desk for HAL. This is where we received our room keys and welcome packet. You are assigned a group number, and on the departure information there is a number for the motorcoach you will be assigned to when heading to Denali. We checked in to the hotel around 4:30, got our luggage delivered, then went to dinner. Dinner tonight was at the Glacier Brewhouse, which was across the street from the hotel. Very convenient, especially since it was raining. I highly recommend making reservations if you plan on eating out in Anchorage. The restaurants were very busy with locals and tourists. I made reservations there about 10 days before we left. We re-packed some of our luggage, and tagged one of our suitcases to be sent to the ship. The other bags were tagged to join us in Denali. A note about the Westmark: We were concerned about the hotel after reading so many negative reports. The hotel is older, but our room was clean and comfortable. We did have some street noise, as we faced the front of the hotel. The front desk staff were very pleasant and friendly. Thursday: We were up early, as our bags had to be outside our door by 6 am for transport. We kept a carry-on tote and our camera bag with us to take on the motorcoach. The bus to the McKinley resort was scheduled to leave at 9, and we were told the drive was about 6 hours. There were three buses that left the hotel that morning. As we boarded our assigned motorcoach, our names were checked off the driver’s manifest. There is a lunch stop included at the Princess McKinley resort. We were given a boxed lunch with a turkey wrap, chips, cookies and water. We had a 45 minute rest stop, which gave us time to use the restrooms and walk around the hotel a bit to enjoy the views. We were still full from breakfast so we saved our lunch to snack on later. Arrival at the McKinley Chalet Resort (Thurs-Saturday): Our bus took us straight to our assigned building, and the driver handed out everyone’s welcome packets with their room keys and information sheet with any tours listed on it. The time and date for which Tundra Wildnerness Tour you are assigned to is on that sheet. The luggage that was picked up at the Westmark tagged “Join me Tonight” was delivered directly to our room. Departure from the McKinley Chalet Resort (Sunday): Departure information for the train to the ship is listed on the sheet from the welcome packet. Luggage has to be tagged and put outside your room by 6 am the day you leave for the ship. The motorcoaches to the Denali Train Depot leave at 7:30 am from the main lobby. Seats on the train are assigned, as is the rail car you will be seated in. There is a breakfast buffet at the hotel at Karsten’s, as well as some grab and go options there. The hotel lobby also has a coffee bar with muffins. The coffee bar in the lobby was very busy most days, as people are in the lobby waiting to depart on various tours. When the motorcoach brings you to the train station, there are flags with the rail car names on them where you will line up to board. Breakfast and lunch are available to purchase on the train, and there was also a bartender in our rail car as well. We left the Denali Depot around 8:30. The train ride is long – it is about a 10 hour trip, but we were glad to relax and enjoy the scenery. We were tired from our travel days and the two busy days we had in Denali. A couple of hours before the train arrived in Whittier, representatives from the cruise line checked everyone’s passports, took their photographs and gave us our boarding pass for the ship. Both the boarding pass and passport had to be shown at security to board the ship. We arrived in Whittier about an hour and a half before the ship was set to sail

We just did the 11-Day Triple Denali Tour with HAL - we did the land portion first, then the Southbound cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam. This was our first trip to Alaska. We had a wonderful time, and would love to go back. We chose this itinerary as we did not want to go up as far as Fairbanks. Our interest was in seeing nature and beautiful scenery. I would definitely recommend the three nights at Denali National Park. We enjoyed having two full days at the park - the first day we visited the sled dog kennels, visitor's center and did a hike in the afternoon. The second day was the Tundra Wilderness Tour, which was excellent with another short hike in the afternoon. The following morning we were on the train ride from Denali to the cruise ship in Whittier. The train ride was long (10 hrs), but enjoyable and relaxing. This gave us a chance to rest after long travel days to get to Alaska and our two full days at Denali. The train does get to port late, about 1-1/2 hours before the ship sets sail. We also wanted a cruise ship that went to Glacier Bay National Park and was a smaller ship, which is why we chose the Nieuw Amsterdam. We enjoyed the ship - we had a balcony cabin on Deck 5, which is the largest of the three decks they open for scenic cruising in Glacier Bay.

I just wanted to pop in to say have a great trip! I've enjoyed reading all about your plans along the way. You are so organized. I'll look forward to hearing about the trip when you get back. We are about 12 days away from leaving for our HAL cruisetour - I am hoping to get some of my packing done this weekend (at least getting all the clothes laid out to determine what suitcases we'll need). Planning what to take for this trip has certainly been stressful! I also need to finish printing out documents for my travel binder, verifying our travel plans and getting a couple of last-minute answers about the land portion of our tour from our travel agent.

Here's a link about the different bus tour descriptions at Denali: https://www.travelalaska.com/explore-alaska/articles/denali-bus-tours

Do you mind me asking when your Cruisetour is with HAL? We are scheduled in late May with a 3 night Denali stay. I don't find the communication from HAL to be that great.

I wanted to post an update that we were finally assigned our Anchorage hotel for our cruisetour. We will be staying at the Westmark. The only reason I know our hotel assignment is that we asked our travel agent to change our dining time on the cruise. When she sent us an updated booking confirmation, the hotel was listed on the itinerary page. When I sign into our itinerary online, it doesn't show the hotel. Our travel agent wasn't notified of our hotel assignment either, so I'm glad we received the updated confirmation.

Look at a company called DogGoneIt tours - we booked this on a cruisetour with HAL and I see that this company has tours starting in mid-May.

Hi JerseyGirl1007 - We are doing the same thing that you are, flying in a day in advance of our cruise tour. We are travelling in late May as well. Our travel agent had checked with HAL regarding adding an extra night in Anchorage and was told that it would be sold as a package and was sold out for the date we needed. She said the crazy thing is that we still haven't been assigned our hotel in Anchorage. So rather than wait on our cruise hotel, I booked a hotel room for the extra night on our own at the Four Points Sheraton downtown. This option was less in cost than either the Westmark or Hotel Captain Cook. I did not want to be in a position that we would have trouble finding a hotel room for the extra night, and I made sure it can be cancelled if needed. Our agent suggested we cancel the transfer from the airport with HAL, and we will just take a taxi to our hotel. We made our final payment on Friday, so I am hoping our Anchorage hotel assignment will show up soon in our itinerary.

I'm considering the same flight time that you are. I'm finding the flights out of Vancouver to be a challenge because I really don't want to leave so late at night. We have a long way to travel - Vancouver to SC.

I read that HAL mainly uses the Westmark in Anchorage, but we could also possibly be assigned to a different hotel. When you booked your cruisetour, when did you get the information on what hotel you would be staying at in Anchorage? Our final payment is due at the end of February, so I'm assuming it will be after that. I'm currently looking at flights and coming in a day earlier, so we will need to book an extra night in Anchorage if we do that. It would be easier to not change hotels.

Thanks for posting the itinerary, Cruising on a Sunday! I appreciate the feedback, as it helps with planning. Nancy, glad to hear how much you like the Nieuw Amsterdam. This is our first time sailing on HAL.

Our travel agent has us booked for late seating on our Alaska cruise, but I don't see the seating time in our HAL reservations. Any past experience? Trying to see if we should keep late seating or change to anytime dining. Also, what nights on the cruise are typically the dressy nights? I'm assuming it will be the days we are in Glacier Bay, but again I'm not sure where to find this information on the HAL reservation.

Just booked this cruise last month and am surprised at how many of the excursions are booked.

Thank you for the link to the tour tips. I looked on the National Park website for Denali and it showed that tour buses run from May 20th to September.

I will look up your report - thank you.

Holland America is one of the cruise lines we are considering for an Alaska cruise tour (land first, followed by the cruise). I am not sure if it is better to do the Double Denali or Triple Denali tour. We are not interested in going up to the Fairbanks/Yukon area. If you've taken either of these land tours I would appreciate your feedback.