Gray Lady

We are leaving Anchorage on Tuesday to fly home. We are on our own to get to the airport, and the hotel we are staying at cannot tell us anything about transportation options ( we are in quarantine). We are about 8 miles away from the airport, and have never been to Anchorage before. Does anyone have any suggestions for how we could get there -car service, airporter, etc? We have 3 suitcases and there are two of us. Just thought someone could point me in a direction for something they have used before.

We have an on-site Beacon health care representative here at our hotel. They have a 24 hour doctor available with a phone call. They are monitoring us each day. I feel better now that if he doesn’t improve, they have someone to call immediately. Thank you!

Thank you for the tip. His symptoms so far are fairly mild. Double vaxxed and boosted, so hope that helps. We will see how he is once we arrive in Anchorage and then may have to call a doctor. Our physician is in California, and I doubt he would be able to prescribe it for us up here.

CafeBruno, I hope you get home safely soon. I have had a bad feeling about this since we started our land tour, and sure enough last night hubby started feeling poorly. Pulled out the trusty test kits, and sure enough positive for him. Luckily, I am negative. He is stuffed up and feels generally blah…sleeps a lot. I contacted the front desk and Beacon came to the room to verify (we are in Denali). They have brought us food to the room and are transporting us to Anchorage where we will isolate. They have a liaison here who works with positive COVID cases and trip interruption. We have to pay upfront for our hotel room in Anchorage, but the platinum plan will reimburse us. They will also give us a $100 per dime per person to cover our meals. We are not to leave the hotel until after our 5 days, then we can fly home. Not the vacation we wanted. We were only on day 4 of our land tour. Hopefully we can make the cruise another year. You should be able to submit your hotel bill for reimbursement and also get money for food. I know the difficulty is getting hold of HAL. Let us know how things go with you.

Yes, very helpful. Thank you. We were in Fairbanks from Saturday until this morning. How awful for y Yes, this is very helpful. I am so sorry for what you have had to go through. We just left Fairbanks this morning. I gather you are done with cruising and the rest of the land tour??? I will keep you updated, CafeBruno, on what happens with us. We are not optimistic with everything we are reading and all the coughing/sneezing (could be colds, too, but still contagious). Our test will be given by HAL, so I will pay attention to what they do after. Hope you and your wife are now okay.

Appreciate the info. Can you add anything additional as far as what they didn’t do?

Because we are on a land tour with HAL right now, they use a testing service for everyone going on the cruise post-land. We brought tests, and will use them for our own info before their mandatory testing. We are just disappointed in the odds of us making it to the cruise with so many people on their properties who have already been on their cruise portion and have no regard for the pre-cruisers.

Mary, they have buses here in Alaska that say Holland America on them. I assumed they were their contracts agents. I know that restaurants and bars are potluck, and we just avoid them if possible. Just want to make it to our first ever cruise! In hindsight, we should have done it in reverse order. Too late, just trying to make the best of it!

We are in Denali now on our pre-cruise land tour. We were emailed, more than once, that masks are mandated on HAL transportation. Only 10% complying, and no one asking to please mask up. We were willing to travel and wear masks, but I am afraid that we will test positive before boarding because of people packed into bars, restaurants, and tours with no masks. We knew the risk before leaving, but thought these measures would help us stay safe. I really don’t think we stand a chance now. No one seems to care. Don’t know where HAL will test us…guessing it will be Seward. From what I have read, they will take care of us if we test negative. We are just trying to enjoy the land portion while we can.

Yes, it could. Meanwhile, I think we are going to be screwed out of our vacation that we have saved for. But they aren’t enforcing it on their property or that of their contracted agent. At least if we test positive, I guess we are their problem and they should refund us all of our money for the cruise. Too many mixed messages out there.

Today we went to the Chalet. Even though we received the email about masks, only 7 people wearing masks on the coach. No one asked for our negative COVID results when we were in Fairbanks. I now know why so many people are testing positive before their cruise. At least half the people here, and also in Fairbanks, are on the tail end of their trip. They are all inside eating and drinking packed person to person. They had their fun so they really don’t care about the rest of us who haven’t had our trip. We have been wearing masks all the time, but I am afraid that we will test positive because of everyone else not caring. If HAL issues these mandates, and doesn’t enforce them on their coaches, do we have any recourse? They did NOT keep us safe! We are doing our part, but no one else is doing theirs.

Went today to the Discovery Paddle Wheeler and gold dredge. On our motor coach, only a few people wearing masks. We sat by ourselves for lunch, and only slipped our masks down to eat. We will see tomorrow if they state mandatory masks to go to Denali. I have a feeling a lot of people won’t be taking their cruise south next week.

Freckles, have you done your cruise part yet or have you only been on land?

We are going to. Too much at stake. Thank you, we are going to have a good time while being safe and controlling what we can.

We arrived in Fairbanks yesterday for our cruise tour. The bus that took us to the hotel DID NOT enforce the required mask rule. Is it just a suggestion? We want to be able to enjoy our land tour, but also test negative for our actual cruise. The numbers reported here are not encouraging.

Was the airport really crowded? San Francisco was jam packed yesterday beyond belief! I know many others are too. Any advice for travelers leaving through YVR?

This morning we did a proctored test with Total Testing Solutions using our free government rapid tests. Out proctor was so friendly, patient, and polite. My husband and I were able to test at the same time. She walked us through everything, even though we had used these tests before. She even waits on the web-based video call until your email arrives. It was easy, inexpensive ($15 or your insurance), and quick. Great experience! https://www.totaltestingsolutions.com/virtual-travel-testing/

We are doing the exact same cruise on the NA in two weeks. Being our first cruise ever, your pictures and information are SO helpful! Thank you!

Please let us know how your trip goes! We leave Saturday for Fairbanks. Looks like we will be masking up the entire way so we can make our actual cruise.

Thank you. Yes, so sad. This helps inform us….and is my biggest fear!

We are leaving out of Whittier sailing south, but have a land tour before our cruise. Sometimes my HAL emails go into my spam folder.

Curiosity question: Do you know if there are any people who tested positive and couldn’t board the ship tomorrow? We are starting our land tour next week and our greatest fear is testing positive and not being able to do our cruise part of our trip.

We also received the email where masks are required indoors with the exception of eating and drinking. Also required on all HAL transportation, such as motor coaches and rail. They also “strongly recommend” that they are worn when on shore. Looks to me like positive cases are on the rise, and they are trying for some mitigation. It would be interesting to know the statistics for those on land tours ore-cruise who were not allowed to sail because of a positive test.

Yes, it came this morning to both me and our TA.

There are many proctored services out there that one can use with the free government FDA approved tests. They cost between $15 to $20 each. Each one operates on a different system for internet use. Emed uses an app. OnPoint uses Zoom. Total Testing Solutions uses a web-based video call. You need to decide who you are going with and then you can connect that way. Many of these services require an appointment, but they are easy to get. I know Total Testing offers 24 hour appointments and you schedule according to your time zone. Very easy to do.