CruiserBruce

You aren't serious, are you? 😉

Well...it CAN be warm. Or it can be cold. We last sailed Alaska in June as well...we wore everything from shorts to heavy coats and gloves. Every combo we brought.

There will be several thousand people on your ship, trying to get to probably several hundred flights, with a similar number of reasons to get off the ship at a given time. We are retired, so usually our need to get off early is less critical. But others have more serious needs. Different strokes for different folks.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! For all the Alaska info you will ever need, do some reading on the Alaska portion of Cruise Critic, located here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/33-alaska/ Similarly, tons of Princess info on the Princess board, here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/119-princess-cruises/

Look at post #30.

The Health protocols are on their website: https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/worry-free-promise/travel-well.html?ICID=HECIV0603221747 Hawaii no longer has different protocols, (only went there 4 times during Covid)and Canada doesn't require testing. Pearl Harbor probably won't have a taxi stand...there may not be any taxis just hanging around. This you might use Uber or have a taxi company phone number.

Gee...3 strikes against ya...

United has been canceling some flights as well. When we booked SFO-BOS for a September cruise, there were 3 non-stop flights that worked...6am, 7am and 8:30am. We booked the 7am. A month later, they cut that to one flight...8:30, and merged everyone into that flight. Some cancelation of flights can easily be caused by slow resumption of service to some places due to lack of demand post Covid. Like China, for example.

Beyond those, scenery is neat all over Alaska. But you will be sailing mostly at night. So, other than arriving or departing a port, you have identified the key times and locations.

They time the Inside Passage sailing so that the best stuff is during the day. Sailing out of Vancouver, under the bridge, is neat. After that, its pretty, but not critical.

The Inside Passage. One of the frequently discussed most important reasons to book starting or ending at Vancouver. The College Fjord is going to most interfere with dinner/scenic viewing. Book Caneletto for that night.

If you look around the Florida Departures board, and assuming you are sailing out of PortMiami, you can make both flights. You just have to move a bit quicker for the first.

Totally agree. The bigger and more diverse the group, the tougher to make every one happy. Splitting up in a couple of ports is NOT a bad thing.

Each and every port you might visit (you don't tell us which ones) is covered quite extensively here for tour vendors and options. Just take a look around.

Asked here quite frequently. First, tipping is not a big thing in Europe...you won't use a lot of cash for that. Second, you will use a credit card for most of your spending. $500 is about 471 euros (at the best ATM rates). We didn't spend that much cash on a 3 week land trip in small towns, eating at cafes twice a day.

Somebody else asked about when specialty dining becomes available about an hour before you...it appears it comes available about 4 or 5 months out. We sail in September. Our excursions have been available for about 3 months. Dining is not yet available.

Have you looked around the board? There are tons of threads on every aspect of your cruise.

You might want to insure your cruise against a last minute cancelation due to a medical emergency that your medical insurance will cover.

I suspect the route will be to the east of the string of islands, but not close enough to see much.

Did you look/ask on the Private Island board? Many discussions there.

There is a blizzard warning for the Grapevine for Thursday and Friday. That hasn't happened in over 20 years. A little...like 2-4 inches of snow, usually will close the Grapevine, at least for a little while.

A quick look at Google maps shows it to be about 7 miles.

Doesn't matter. Most of your sailing will be at night, or away from land.

Yep...discussed quite a bit when they make the adjustments in the March/April schedules to allow for the drydock.

No.