rajkr74

We booked a B category Vista Suite cabin with this cruise and were upgraded to an A category, with a very nice cabin just aft of mid-ship. By going with a Vista suite it got us double Mariner points and that pushed us into the 4 Star Mariner status, yeahhhhhh. This will be great for our next cruise in March 2017. We found the Volendam to be in great condition with carpets, chairs and tables showing very little wear and tear. It was very similar to the Amsterdam which we have been on twice before. The staff was great, food good, the passengers happy & cheery, all the good things that keep us sailing with HAL cruises. We ate the first night in the Pinnacle and really enjoyed the ribeye steak and the fresh halibut which we found out was brought on board fresh that day.

Cabin 6190

Main Dinning room.

Frans Hal Lounge.

Lido Buffet seating.

Pinnacle dinner.

You know how anxious I am to see the rest of your review!!!!!! Nice pics too!

 

Ron

Yes, I am sure you are. :p I will have another one posted later tonight and Joyce is working on pictures to add to this review. We had a great time even if the weather was not perfect. HAL did a good job on the cruise. It is a lot different then staying on ship for 14 days having to live out of the suitcases. Sure hope we can give you some information for your tour. More to follow.

Rick

We just completed a 14 day HAL Sea-Land cruise that started on the Volendam out of Vancouver BC Canada. Our cruise was techniquely a R2C cruise but once we got on in Vancouver it became a Y2C cruise, the difference being the transportation from Seattle to Vancouver. In doing research prior to this cruise we found very little information on the CC boards directly discussing these type of cruises. There was a lot of information on the Alaska CC threads discussing specific aspects of Alaska but no in depth review of the cruises nor any pictures related to any of HAL’s Land-Sea cruise. So, I am going to try and put together a review that covers the 14 days of our cruise here on this thread which will include some great pictures we took of Alaska including a grizzly sow bear and her two yearling cubs in Denali National Park. My emphasis will be on the land portion of the cruise.

We found there are 26 different Land-Sea cruise combinations that HAL offers. Some that do Denali only and others that do Denali plus Yukon sites. You can spend as little as 3 days on ship to a maximum of 7 days on ship plus the land portion. Also, you can pick being on the ship first or the land portion first. We noticed that the land first cruises tended to be more expensive than sea first which was the case for our cruise. The cruises range from 10 days to a maximum of 20 days of sea and land combined. All Denali and Yukon 1 cruises have 7 days at sea and the balance of the rest of the Yukon have only 3 to 4 days at sea. There are too many combinations to go into detail on this thread so I will discuss our cruise which was for a total of 14 days with the first 3 days on ship starting in Vancouver BC. We got off ship in Skagway to start the land portion. There were a number of fellow cruisers that found their own transportation to Vancouver to start the cruise. We chose to take HALs transportation from Sea-Tac airport (Seattle) by bus to Vancouver. We drove to Seattle from Oregon and stayed overnight on the 28th of June with some friends near Sea-Tac who drove us over to the airport on the 29th and picked us up when the whole cruise ended in Seattle on the 13th of July. They took us over to Sea-Tac airport early on the 29th hoping that we could get on the first bus to Vancouver rather than wait until the last boarding time of 10:00am. But that day there was only one bus going to Vancouver so our hopes of getting on board before 3:00pm were dashed. The prior week HAL had 3 buses going to Vancouver so if you had gotten there early they would have sent a full bus up early rather than wait until 10:00am for the finally boarding time.

The HAL instructions told us to meet the HAL Reps. at baggage carousel #1 on the Arrivals level of the terminal who then tagged the bags to go on the bus. (see photo below) Having gotten there at 8:00am we had a 2 hour wait until we boarded the bus…yuck. There were about 40 people on the bus who were taking a number of different HAL Sea-Land cruises on the Volendam originating in Vancouver.

We were late leaving the terminal and pulled onto I-5 heading north to Vancouver at 10:45am, then the slow down because of the notorious downtown Seattle I-5 traffic. We had a 15-minute rest stop near Bellingham, WA. After the rest stop we got to the Canadian border thru the bus/ truck border crossing. The driver told us (if we were lucky) we would only be 5-10 minutes….wrong. We got the short straw and we all had to get off the bus and go thru Canadian customs who checked all of our passports. Luckily we did not have to pull all the luggage out. This took another 45 mins which put us further behind getting on board in a timely manner. The good thing that resulted from these delays, there were no lines at the embarkation counters.....YES. This put us on board at 3:00pm and our luggage, that came with the bus, were in our cabins within 30 minutes, pretty good time. The safety drill was held at 4:00pm with a sailing of 5:00pm and it surprised us when your cabin number was yelled out for attendance. The Volendam did not have the handheld card scanners. The cruise out of Vancouver was beautiful as always having done it once before.

Check-in counter at Sea-Tac

Carousel #1 Sea-Tac airport.

Bus that took us to Vancouver.

Sail away from Canada Place Vancouver.

Sailing under Lions Gate Bridge Vancouver.

Do they have small cups for dressing on the side?

We were on the Osterdam in Feb. this year and had the new salad bar set up with the "new" larger salad bowls....of which I am not fond of. They are too large for a small side salad which I usually like with my main course for lunch. I had to make sure I told the server how much quantity of items I wanted because the first time I ended up with a salad that filed the full bowl and was way too much. Make sure you tell them that you want a small salad. They also tend to toss the salad after the dressing is placed on it which I don't like.

Here is a picture of the salad bowl and dressing on the side....:eek: :D They did provide smaller containers for dressing on the side after showing the Lido manager this picture and having a good laugh over it. After getting the "system" down with how the servers made the salads I was pleased with salads and they were very good.

So many cruises that highlight these various areas. Which do you prefer and why? Any pictures?

 

I'm taking my mother and aunt...both are elderly and have health issues, so most likely this is the one and only trip they will do. For ease and cost, we will most likely do a RT Seattle or Vancouver.

 

Any suggestions, help, insight? Thanks.

 

ETA...we are looking at either late May or early to mid June for next year.

We have been to Glacier Bay and viewed Margerie glacier. It was fine but did not compare to Hubbard glacier. We have visited Hubbard twice and have always been amazed at the beauty of that glacier. It is a very wide and tall glacier with many calving events.

A panorama view of Hubbard glacier sailing into it.

A calving event at Hubbard.

rajkr74:

 

I just read in my Mariner Newsletter that "Denali Square" is now open. This is a new phase of building in the McKinley Chalet area. You can google "Denali Square" to get the info on it. :)

Ron,

Not sure if you saw the CC thread with pictures on Denali Square now open? Looks pretty nice:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2363388

Rick

We have been to Hubbard glacier twice and feel it is one of the best tidewater glaciers.

Cruising up to Hubbard Glacier

Many Calving events.

We purchased a pair of Nikon Monarch 10x42 binoculars that I really like. It is a little larger in size but not huge and I have no problems with stability with the 10x magnification. We have been very happy with Nikon optics since we use their cameras also.

My wife wanted a smaller more compact size so we went with Alpen 10x25 as a second set. She wanted a more portable pair that could easily be put in a pocket of a jacket. We purchased them on-line thru the "big box" store.

We spent a lot of time "trying them on" at outdoors stores to see how large the field of view was and the clarity of the lens before we purchased them. So far we have been very happy with both purchases.

We are doing a 14 night Sea-Land cruise with Holland America the end of June. We normally are not effected by sea-sickness but we have always brought Bonine along as a sea sickness remedy just in case. I used Dramamine years ago and it left me very drowsy. Looks like Dramamine has a new "Less Drowsy" formula out. Check the web under Bonine vs Dramamine for comparison studies.

We enjoy the gentle rocking of the ship at night since it relaxes us and we get a good nights sleep. Have a great sea/land cruise, Alaska is great! :D

We will be in Juneau the 1st of July so I e-mailed each of the Mendenhall tour companies that take you to the glacier and here are the replies I received from each. There is some inconsistency between the two companies. At this time I guess we will be going with M&M Tours because they will give us credit for our Sr. Park Pass.

M&M Tours (blue bus):

We would need a copy of the Sr. parks card to provide to the park to verification of the card holder. The prices listed include the cost of the parks entrance fee. And in the case it would be minus the $5 entrance fee.

Thank you,

Bobby

M & M Tours of Juneau

mmtoursofjuneau@aol.com

907-789-5460

Here is the reply I got from Juneau Tours and Whale Watching, (white bus):

The shuttle is an all-inclusive package. Unfortunately at this time we cannot distinguish between those that have a pass or whether it's the right type of pass for the Mendenhall Glacier Park.

Best regards,

Sue

907.523.6095

Juneau Tours/ Juneau Whale Watch

http://www.facebook.com/juneautoursandwhalewatching

Still hoping for answers to the last questions here about the timing of the train to Seward and day options.

We are doing the R2C with HAL going the other direction. We used a "big box warehouse" TA. When we had questions we would call them get put on hold (that's OK) and they would call HAL with the questions. Use your TA to get those questions answered by HAL. Wish you luck on this deviation.

Like a lot of people on this thread, we have thought the desserts lacked flavor and imagination in the past. However, on the cruise we took to the Caribbean in Feb. of this year we felt there was some improvement in the quality and variety of deserts. Now this maybe just an anomaly but it was a definite improvement over previous cruise dessert fare. This was one of the best desserts we had, a snickers cake, pretty rich but good.

Check on sunset times for the date you will be there. The view is amazing so you will want to get some good pictures. We scheduled this through the excursions desk when we got to the Westmark in Dawson City and managed to get the last two seats. I would say 7 might be better. The days will be getting shorter in August.

We will be there on 7-5-16 a little earlier than Ron. We will check the sunset schedule for that date, thanks.

Dawson City is my favorite. Husky Homestead is a locally owned business and will offer tours. We did Midnight Dome last year. This is a nice town to walk by the river and just wander around.

 

We see that there are two times to do the Midnight Dome excursion. What time did you do your tour, 7:00pm or 8:30pm? Which is the best time in your opinion?

Thanks.

There are charts at Alaska tourism sites that provide information about Salmon runs. There is a fish ladder at the dock in Skagway at the Broadway dock, if I remember correctly. You will probably see salmon at Ketchikan's Creek Street.

 

It may be cool in the evenings as the days are getting shorter so be prepared to wear layers and have rain gear so that you can be out and about.

 

If you have a national park pass (like many seniors) take it to the front desk at the Chalets in Denali along with your proof of taking the TWT and you will receive a refund of the park entry fee. It could also come in handy at Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau if you go independently.

 

Check out the national park website for Denali before you go. The more you know ahead of time, the less time you will waste wondering what to do. Your HAL journey host will be able to assist you but your friend, the park ranger, will be a wonderful resource. Be sure to let her know you are coming!

Thanks Oaktreerb for the information. We are doing the same HAL tour on 6-29-16 as Ron but in the reverse direction. However, all your information would apply to us also including a possible refund of the Denali park entrance fee since we do have senior passes.

 

Rick - We are flying self booked commercial (SWA) from Florida to Seattle. A HAL rep will meet us at SEATAC and get us to Hilton Airport Seattle Hotel for the first night.

 

Through HAL, We are booked on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Anchorage, then on Air North (HAL'S Airline ?) from Fairbanks to Dawson City.

 

One note that has me concerned is regarding baggage from Fairbanks to Dawson City. "For guests traveling by air between Whitehorse and/or Dawson City, passengers are limited to 2 checked bags with a MAXIMUM COMBINED weight of 50 lbs and one carry on under 13 lbs." If we don't get to send one suitcase to the ship, that is going to be hard to maintain.

 

Ron

 

Yes, the 50lb weight limit per person on the flight Fairbanks/Dawson City is going to require some ingenuity. I think the self serve laundries at the hotels will get used by us. I think we have no choice but to use the "Join me at Anchorage/Fairbanks luggage program". The good thing about having the cruise first is we don't need to worry about clothes for the ship since we will have them on the cruise then have them forwarded, not needing them again. With you, it would be praying they show up for your cruise portion at the end of the trip.

 

We are going to start packing now to decide how everything is going to fit. There maybe a number of trial by error packing scenarios on this cruise...:eek:

 

We found out that we fly Delta out of Anchorage to Seattle at the end of the trip. We got times and a booking number for us which allowed us to pick seats. I am 6' 9" and need an isle seat so I can stand every so often to stretch my legs. HAL would only say it was a charter flight from Dawson City to Anchorage, but HAL did not provide our TA with any times or flight number. I finished our on-line booking but there are no boarding docs to print yet, not until 5-10-16 so that did not provide any additional information.

 

All of our flights are part of the paid Cruise package. We are getting to and from Seattle in the beginning and end by driving since it is only 5 hrs travel time from home to Seattle. We have friends that will put us up at the beginning and take us and pick us up from/to the airport...nice.

Rick

 

 

How did you get flight info? That is the one thing that is a black hole for us. We did get a semi detailed itinerary for the land portion but nothing for days in which we fly in or out.

 

You might want to send HAL Guest Services an email regarding your flight info.

 

My TA is the one that provided it for me. The Web site is http://www.hollandflightease.com. However, you need a Flight Ease Confirmation code/PNR and password which was provided by HAL. Hope it works for you.

 

Ron,

I contacted our TA and found the flight from Anchorage to Seattle and our booking number. We also found out that HAL has a charter air plane from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. Nothing about Flight Ease. Are you using HAL to fly from your home to the start of the cruise? We are driving up to Seattle and back on our own so I am wondering if it does not apply to us?

Rick

I have to agree with you that information on the HAL cruise tours is few and far between and sketchy at the most. Like you, I have used the Alaska CC board and Trip Advisor extensively to research restaurants and even to see what the Westmark hotels look like providing a little insight as to what to expect. HAL guest services has told me to expect "standard" hotel rooms.

 

Did you receive a detailed itinerary from HAL? The one they sent me is a day to day offering and does indicate most times as far as arrival and departures however it is not all inclusive. I also have received flight itinerary "Flight Ease" for our flights from Seattle to Anchorage and from Fairbanks to Dawson City.

 

We also have opted not to use the meal voucher system. Too expensive and restrictive, and like you, hope to enjoy some of the local food! Looks like we will need to take out a small loan just for food though!

 

Thanks for the info on excursions. I really haven't even started to research any as of yet. But since HAL's are equivalent to independent tours, will probably make it a little easier in research!

 

I had downloaded the "Land and Sea Tour Tips" for 2015, but noticed a few changes to the 2016 version. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Best of luck to you and if I happen to uncover any "gems" between now and our tour will certainly post them here. Enjoy your cruise/tour!

I have used Google Earth with it's street views to "walk" around the towns to view different sites and buildings. Works pretty good for getting oriented. We are fine with standard hotel quality, we are easy going.

How did you get flight info? That is the one thing that is a black hole for us. We did get a semi detailed itinerary for the land portion but nothing for days in which we fly in or out.

Yes, food costs are going to be a shocker. I do have an equity loan on our house with available funds. :eek:

The packing is going to drive us nuts, what bags to take, do we ship our on board clothes forward???? What day packs do we take and what goes in those. I know we will have to trim down what we normally take on a cruise. Noticed most of the hotels have self-service laundries on site. This is going to be interesting.

We have booked the Eagle Sanctuary trip out of Skagway to Haines thru HAL. Still looking at others.

I will also post this on the Alaska Board, but perhaps can gain some insight here. We are booked on HAL's Cruise Tour R2L: Seattle Gold Rush starting August 16th. Would like some insight from anyone who has previously taken this tour: Seattle, Anchorage, 3 nites Denali, Fairbanks, 2 nites Dawson City, Whitehorse, 2 nites Skagway, embark Volendam in Skagway for four days, arriving in Vancouver and bus back to Seattle.

 

I am specifically looking for any excursions you participated in during the land portion and any other info/pointers/good and bad situations you experienced. I "understand" that we can send one of our bags to the ship from Anchorage. Is that still in effect?

 

Our stateroom is 2561 on Volendam. Is anyone familiar with this stateroom? Also, would like info on Volendam. Only other HAL ship we have sailed on was the Ryndam two years ago.

 

I would also like to hear from anyone that is taking this cruise tour with us!

 

Thank you in advance for any info you can provide. BTW this will be our third trip to Alaska having completed two inside passages previously, and that is why we booked an ocean view this time.

We are doing the same cruise as you are (R2C) but backwards with the cruise first and only 3 days on board on 6-29-16. We are finding little CC postings for these Land & Sea Cruises with HAL. There is no Roll Call for our cruise nor do I see one for your sailing date. We are doing research kind of blindly. We are researching restaurants located near our hotels so we don't waste time trying to decide where to eat. We decided not to use HALs meal plan since we think the vouchers might be for the restaurants in the hotels and we prefer to find locate eateries.

We have never been on the Volendam but it is similar to the Amsterdam, which we have sailed on twice to Alaska. We enjoyed the Amsterdam very much. We booked a guarantee cabin, so we are waiting to see what they will give us.

We understand HAL will take our "ship" clothes and forward them from Skagway to Anchorage. We fly back to Seattle from there. Not so sure about how they get to Anchorage, we are still researching that.

We are doing some HAL excursions on the land portion and after doing research we find the same private companies offer the same excursions as HAL for the same price. So we are going with HAL.

We are still trying to get approximated times we arrive and depart the towns we will be in. There is some gaps there on information that HAL is not providing. But we just need to be flexible. Packing is going to be challenging since the luggage will not always be accessible during traveling. Also we won't "unpack" while on the ship since we will be on board for only 3 days.

HAL puts out a pdf file of Land & Sea tour tips. Here is a link: https://www.hollandamerica.com/assets/cruise-destinations/Tour_Tips.pdf

Hope that gets you to the file? This file discusses the forwarding of "ship" clothes/luggage also.

We were on a 21 day cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale on 2-19-16 that had a 10 segment and a 11 day segment. The day we got back to FLL we received In-Transit documents that had the following information about "Passenger Safety Emergency Drill":

"Current procedure requires guests who are sailing for periods in excess of one month to attend at a minimum, one passenger safety emergency drill each month while on board. For this reason, you are not required to attend the next drill in Fort Lauderdale."

I checked with Front Desk to clarify and were told that the statement was correct, we did not have to attend.

Not sure what happened but the photo I posted previously coming back into Ft. Lauderdale is not showing up. So I will repost it here. It is early morning coming into the harbor.

Interesting, we are booked on the April 30th cruise from Venice on the Ms. Oosterdam and are booked in one of the new rooms on the Observation Deck.

What happens if this refit is not completed and our room is not done?

On our last years cruise right after dry dock on the Zuiderdam those cabins were not available for booking. They showed up for booking on the next 22 day segment.

Barbados. We did a HAL excursion, “Natural Wonders of Barbados” a 3 ¾ hr tour. Very good excursion and the guide appeared to have been doing this excursion for years since he was very good and even had exhibits that were passed around the bus.

Martinique. Visited this island on a Sunday so many shops were closed. Same thing happened to us a few years ago on a cruise with this stop on Sunday. We just walked around town and saw the farmers market a few blocks up from the library. We walked down the sea wall to the small beach by the fort. The fort also was not open. When we were here before we took a ferry, right next to the cruise ship dock, south across the bay to Point du Bout which has some nice beaches and shops.

St. Kitts. Again we did a HAL excursion called “Brimstone Fortress UNESCO World Heritage Site & Romney Gardens” for 3 hrs. Great views from the Brimstone fortress. Enjoyed this tour also. We got back into town and walked around the town including going to the farmers market.

Fort Brimstone

St. Thomas. We docked at Crown Point a long ways away from the downtown area. We needed some exercise so we decided to walk. Turns out it is 1.8 miles to the downtown area and we started getting rain about 10 mins. into the walk. It was a cloudy day so our plan to take a taxi over to the Newhaven dock area then walk up to the gondola for views of the harbor and city was axed. We walked around the town and up to Blackbeard's Castle getting caught in a down pouring rain storm. We huddled under the eaves of a government building until it quit. Walked down the street of jewelry stores as we headed back to the ship. And wouldn’t you known it, it started raining again. Well as least I did not need a shower before dinner that night.

Final thoughts and pictures to follow.

Back to Ft. Lauderdale for the next segment.

Early morning cruise into Ft. Lauderdale.

St. Maarten. We have been there many times so we just walked into town from the dock and went around to the stores. We sat around at the beach people watching. We had 4 ships in including the RCC Allure of the Sea (yikes) so down town was crowded after 10:00 am. We got over there earlier in the morning and left after noon.

Four ships in at St. Maarten.

What a crowd!

St. Lucia. HAL does an all day excursion that we had heard about but had not taken the last time we were there. So, we booked it on this cruise, “Exclusive Historical Island Extravaganza” a 7 Hr. excursion and at the end of the day the ship picks us up by tender on the other side of the island from where we docked in the morning. We totally enjoyed this excursion and recommend it to anyone. We saw most of the island, had a nice lunch and were able to watch the Oosterdam from a view point as it come around the island to pick us up, pretty cool.

Pitons

Ship waiting to pick us up in the tenders.

We were on the Zuiderdam last year right after it came out of drydock from Palermo Sicily. We got on the ship in Civitavecchia (Rome). The ship went thru major cabin additions like the Noordam had done previously. New cabins were added on Deck 10 (Observation) right behind the Crows Nest in the area that was open deck with lounge chairs. This addition was suppose to be completed by the time we boarded on 4-14-15.....however that did not happen. The Italian contractors struck for 3 days during dry dock and Easter also caused a delay. When we boarded they were still working to complete the additions so the Explorations Bar and Crows Nest were not available for the first 7 days of our 22 day cruise. Staff moved the coffee making machines down to the Atrium Bar so those coffee drinkers could still get their specialty drinks. We also were compensated with on board credit for this inconvenience. If you did not use up the on board credit it would be applied as a refund to your credit card at the end of the cruise.

We heard of some passengers who had cabin problems that were rectified in short order but we had no problems with our cabin. We saw carpets had been replaced in most of the public areas. We did not see any upgrades to our cabin nor did we hear of any cabins getting upgrades. The cabin was in good condition and we were quite happy with it. The cruise also was very port intensive with only 3 sea days in the 22 day cruise so we were not inconvenienced what so ever and were off ship more than on doing excursions. We consider the cruise one of the best , if not the best cruise we have taken with HAL.

We have heard from postings here on CC that one should never go on a cruise after dry dock. We did not experience that many problems. The staff had their normal happy smiley attitudes and the service was just as good as any ship far from dry dock. Most of the original crew stays on board the ship during dry dock so it not like the ship is getting a whole new crew after dry dock. I would not let it concern you if the itinerary is one that you want to experience, go with the flow and enjoy yourself.