Alaska Sea-Land cruise 6-29-16 Review—Y2C

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.

Nice start, excellent photos!

Have never done a land portion w/HAL,so looking forward to your insights. Thanks

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

Ron

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

Great start to your review.

Looked to be a lovely day in Vancouver.

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.

Loving your review.

Great pictures.

Day 2- Sea Day

We did not have a Meet & Greet onboard since the CC Roll Call had only two of us on the thread???? Maybe the reason was the large number of first time cruisers that we met. There were many people we talked to that this was their very first cruise either on the 7 day cruise or our 3 day Sea-Land cruise and they probably did not know about Cruise Critic. We just had a relaxing day on board with attending some of the digital classes, a culinary show and walked around the ship. We also went to the Cupcake tea held at 3:00pm in the upper Main Dining room. Here are a few other pictures of venues around the ship.

Pinnacle Dinning room.

Pinnacle Dinning room.

Piano Bar.

Cupcake tea.

Sea View pool.

Mid-Ship Lido pool.

Day 3- Juneau

The day opened with clouds and some rain. We stopped the ship at the entrance to Tracey Arm so passengers could off-load onto a smaller excursion ship for a trip up Tracey Arm. They would then be brought into Juneau later in the day. We docked around 1:00pm in Juneau and went to purchase tickets on the Blue bus at the sales booths on the dock to go to Mendenhall glacier. The Blue bus would give a $5 discount if we had the Senior US National Parks pass. The price went from $30.00 to $25.00 per person with the park pass. However, when we purchased the passes then walked over to the parking lot to board we found out the last bus back from Mendenhall was at 3:00pm, but it was already 2:00pm yikes! So check to see when the last bus comes back before buying the tickets. That would give us no time at Mendenhall, since we have been there twice before we ran back and got our money back after listening to a sales pitch to go on other excursions he had available. We politely declined and received our money back. In addition, we wanted to walk the trail to the falls but also found out that the ice dam had broken and the trail was flooded and unpassable, this dashed our plans for the day. So we walked around downtown in the rain visiting some shops we had not been to on previous trips. We finally went to the city library, right there on the dock, and got on good free wifi, besides it got us out of the rain. After getting back on the ship we did get to meet the Captain Frank Van Der Hoeven and the Hotel Director Darren David Lewis.

Tracey Arm excursion boat coming to pick up passengers from the Volendam.

Loading passengers on excursion boat.

Coming in to dock in Juneau.

Hotel Director Darren David Lewis (left) and Captain Frank Van Der Hoeven

Rick: Pictures are fantastic! Showed my wife, Flo, pic of your meal in the Pinnacle and she said she now knows what she will order!

We will not be stopping in Juneau, but pick up the ship in Skagway and go to Glacier Bay and Ketchikan before returning Vancouver.

Was there a salmon cookout on the Lido Deck Pool area while you were onboard. I am not sure HAL even does that any more.

Keep 'em coming, Brother!:D

Rick: Pictures are fantastic! Showed my wife, Flo, pic of your meal in the Pinnacle and she said she now knows what she will order!

 

We will not be stopping in Juneau, but pick up the ship in Skagway and go to Glacier Bay and Ketchikan before returning Vancouver.

 

Was there a salmon cookout on the Lido Deck Pool area while you were onboard. I am not sure HAL even does that any more.

 

Keep 'em coming, Brother!:D

Ron,

More coming!

The picture of our meals in the Pinnacle does not do my 16 oz bone-in rib-eye justice. It was a great piece of meat. We asked if the Halibut was fresh and were told as of that day they had a new delivery of fresh halibut! Note of caution, make sure you order your fish how you want it cooked just like a steak. Joyce did not and it came in over cooked and very dry. Some people like it that way but we prefer fish undercooked slightly and not dry. When asked how the dinner was we said the Halibut was over cooked and they promptly provided another piece that was cooked just right with juices dripping from the piece, excellent service.

We did not see any salmon cook out on the Lido while we were there. We have experienced this back in 2007 with salmon and Caesar salad. But the last cruise we did in 2014 for 14 days the only salmon fry we saw was by the inside Lido pool on the 4th of July. They could have done it after we got off the ship after 3 days.

Rick

Looking forward to the rest of your posts! We leave on the Y2C on NA soon. I am wondering if you could please give your opinion on how taxing the land portion was? We are a group of ten, two of whom have some acute medical issues that have arisen since booking - they have been cleared to travel by their doctors, but we are trying to convince them to stay on the ship Vancouver to Vancouver (assuming their booking can be changed), rather than disembark in Skagway with the rest of us and do the land portion. Thank you!

Looking forward to the rest of your posts! We leave on the Y2C on NA soon. I am wondering if you could please give your opinion on how taxing the land portion was? We are a group of ten, two of whom have some acute medical issues that have arisen since booking - they have been cleared to travel by their doctors, but we are trying to convince them to stay on the ship Vancouver to Vancouver (assuming their booking can be changed), rather than disembark in Skagway with the rest of us and do the land portion. Thank you!

The trip is not physically taxing. You will not have to handle moving the suitcases to the bus or back, HAL handles all of that. All one will need is a small back pack for meds docs, rain gear and layers to put on or off as need be.

We had a lady in a wheel chair on our trip and she was accommodated every where we went. She could walk up the stairs in the bus if need be and we all helped her do that as needed. Some buses had wheel chair lifts and she would use them if available. At stops that we took on the long bus tours one could get off if need be or stay on board. Long walks are not part of the daily itinerary. We were bussed to all of our departure points so there was no long walks needed. There are restaurants in each of the hotels and feedback from people that used them was good. You don't need to walk blocks to find something to eat. The bus trip from Whitehorse to Dawson was not as long as I anticipated with many stops for photos and restrooms. I would not want to miss the train trip from Denali to Anchorage which was a GREAT trip and very comfortable.

I am not real sure HAL could change their schedule and allow them to stay on the ship back to Vancouver this late. HAL may have their cabins already assigned to cruisers getting on board from other land tours after you get off in Skagway. Do check with HAL to see if this is possible.

I would say have them stick with the land tour it was great.

The trip is not physically taxing. You will not have to handle moving the suitcases to the bus or back, HAL handles all of that. All one will need is a small back pack for meds docs, rain gear and layers to put on or off as need be.

 

We had a lady in a wheel chair on our trip and she was accommodated every where we went. She could walk up the stairs in the bus if need be and we all helped her do that as needed. Some buses had wheel chair lifts and she would use them if available. At stops that we took on the long bus tours one could get off if need be or stay on board. Long walks are not part of the daily itinerary. We were bussed to all of our departure points so there was no long walks needed. There are restaurants in each of the hotels and feedback from people that used them was good. You don't need to walk blocks to find something to eat. The bus trip from Whitehorse to Dawson was not as long as I anticipated with many stops for photos and restrooms. I would not want to miss the train trip from Denali to Anchorage which was a GREAT trip and very comfortable.

 

I am not real sure HAL could change their schedule and allow them to stay on the ship back to Vancouver this late. HAL may have their cabins already assigned to cruisers getting on board from other land tours after you get off in Skagway. Do check with HAL to see if this is possible.

 

I would say have them stick with the land tour it was great.

Thank you so much for this input! Very helpful. :)

Day 4 & 5- Skagway

This is the day we get off ship and start our Land portion of the cruise. We were required to meet in the Vista lounge at 7:30am. Luckily the Lido Buffet opened at 6:00am so we could get a “Last Meal” on board. We received a packet of information in our cabin the day before which had luggage tags and instructions on where to meet along with the schedule for the disembarkment day. We tagged our luggage and placed it in the hallway the night before. We would not see our luggage until we booked into the WestMark hotel in Skagway later that day. So it was important to make sure you carried all your medications and documents with you in a small backpack or something similar. There were enough people on this 14 day Sea-Land cruise that we were split up into two groups of about 26 people each, Y2C-A and Y2C-B. Our group (Y2C-A) of 26 boarded the bus and then were given a driving tour of Skagway with a stop at the old cemetery for a walking tour. We were then taken to the hotel were we could leave our carry-ons prior to getting into our rooms. We could not get into our rooms until 2:00pm so we were on our own until that time. We haven’t been to Skagway since 2007 on our first cruise so it was like being there for the first time. We would spend two nights in Skagway. We went over to the National park headquarters a block away and signed up for a free walking tour of Skagway which is given by a Ranger. They have these free tours starting from 9:00am thru the day. But it is first come first served with tickets so it is wise, depending on how many ships are in, to get your ticket early. The tours have about 16 people max per tour which is a nice group to deal with and each tour gets a different guide. We also walked over to the Yakutania Point west of the harbor. There is a bridge at the end of the airport runway that you cross to get to the trail. We then got photos of the Volendam across the harbor.

After the tour and walking around town we went to the Westmark Hotel and obtained our daily packet which had keys and an agenda that listed any excursions or events for the next two days. It also listed travel times, times to put our bags out in the hallway for pickup and times to meet for the bus ride in two days for travel to the next location. We got one of these packets at each hotel with all the info we needed for that location. There was a fact sheet in our Skagway packet from our host with Ben’s phone number so if we had any questions we could call him. He also would let us know what hours he would be available in the lobby of the hotel at the HAL activities desk for any help we needed and he was regularly available. Our luggage was in our room by the time we got our keys after 3:00pm.

On the HAL website it shows a luggage program called “Meet me in Anchorage/Skagway” were you can send forward a suitcase loaded with “cruise” relate clothes and items that you do not plan to use during the land portion of the trip. However, when we inquired at Skagway with our host as to when we could forward this suitcase Ben got a puzzled look and said that it would not happen until Fairbanks. Our suitcase with cruise clothes would continue with us for the full land portion. We saw no reason to forward the suitcase to Anchorage from Fairbanks when we got there since at that point it was nearly the end of the tour. It did not really bother us that much keeping the suitcase because all the luggage was handled/loaded by HAL and we did not have to carry it that much. It allowed us to add additional items to it that we did not need during the land portion. This is specific to our cruise and it may be handled differently with other HAL Land-Sea cruises.

Docking in Skagway.

Bus used for tour of Skagway and delivery to WestMark hotel.

Skagway entry signs.

Klondike Gold National Park building-Skagway

Volendam from Yakutania Point Trail.

Downtown Skagway.

Day 4 & 5 Skagway Continued

We booked, thru HAL, the Haines Eagle Preserve Float Adventure for the 2nd day in Skagway. The hotel took us over to the railroad dock for a 7:30am trip on a boat to Haines. It was about a 45 minutes with great early morning sights. The rafting company was on the dock and directed us to a bus for a 15 min. drive to the raft launching point on the Chilkat River. There were 5 rafts with about 6 people in each raft. The river is a broad glacier feed silty river with many shallow gravel bars. Bald Eagles inhabit this area for the salmon runs. We saw some eagles during the float down the river but they were viewed from a distance and not real close. We had fun since our raft got hung up on at least 4 gravel bars which gave us a lot of exercise bouncing up and down on the raft to try and free it. The guide had to get out and push us off at least 3 of the gravel bars. It was not very deep so he was only in water up to his mid calves. They supplied a nice sandwich lunch at the end with hot coffee and chocolate. We bussed back to the harbor and took the 45 min cruise back to Skagway. The sun was out and we had some good photo opportunities of water falls in the mountains. That night (3rd of July) Skagway put on a Fourth of July fireworks display over the harbor after 11:30pm since it was still light at 11:00pm. It was a nice display and ran about a half hour.

Boat that travels between Skagway and Haines docked in Haines.

Getting pushed off gravel bar by guide on Chilkat River.

Bald Eagle

Water fall on boat trip back to Skagway.

Scenery on Lynn Canal coming into Skagway.

Fireworks in Skagway harbor.

I am really enjoying ur review. I will be going on my first HAL cruise / land tour leaving July 31.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Day 6 Whitehorse

This day started with a train trip on the White Pass Train heading toward Whitehorse in Canada stopping in Fraser Canada. At 7:30am we bussed over to the train depot and boarded by 8:00am. This was an enjoyable trip that took about 2 + hours to Fraser were we got off and onto a HAL bus for the remaining drive into Whitehorse. We stopped off in Carcross and spent about 30 mins there going thru the shops and railroad depot and taking pictures of the steel railroad bridge. We had a couple of scenic stops for photos and got into Whitehorse about 2:30pm. We got our room packet at the WestMark hotel and our rooms were ready. Luggage showed up very quickly. We then took off and walked over to the Klondike paddle wheeler a few blocks away on the banks of the Yukon river, that is a Canadian Parks exhibit. The ship was open and it is free to walk around inside the ship. Very nicely displayed ship with a video in a tent a few yards away. We then took some time to go to the Super Store and buy some fruit and pop. That evening at the hotel we celebrated with a small 4th of July party for both groups on this tour, and in all places, Canada!

White Pass rail depot.

Train trip up White Pass.

Our busses at Carcross.

Emerald Lake on the way to Whitehorse.

Klondike paddle wheeler in Whitehorse.

Fourth of July party with Ben our host.

Enjoying your post. I have done the Y2L version a few times and have been very interested in the reverse itinerary that you are describing, Y2C. I loved the overnights in Skagway. To see the fireworks in Skagway would have been a real treat! Maybe we'll do the cruise first next time...and try to be in Skagway for the fireworks! No two trips to Alaska are ever exactly the same.

Rick,

Great review so far and Joyce's pictures are fantastic as usual! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip and seeing more pictures!!

Utahtea

Day 7 & 8 Dawson

This is the long 9 hr. bus trip day I was worried about. However, when we got on the bus at 8:00am I was pleasantly and happily surprised that there was ample leg room. See, I am 6’ 9’’ and knee room on busses and planes are normally lacking. HAL took some rows of seats out on these buses and gave all seats extra leg room, I was a happy camper! In addition, the bus was not full so many people could have two seats to themselves. It made the trip very relaxing and comfortable. During the drive we had numerous rest stops and scenic photo stops and in addition there was a rest room on the bus. The 9-hour drive seemed to go very quickly and was not tiring. We stopped at Minto Landing for lunch along the Yukon river which was part of the bus tour. We did see bald eagles, moose and one quick sighting of a bear that crossed the road in front of us. We arrived in Dawson at 5:30pm and our rooms were ready with our luggage arriving within 15 minutes. Walking around Dawson is easy and the buildings are very interesting with not much changing in their style since the Klondike gold rush days in the early 1900’s. The second day we were bused down to the Yukon river for a HAL sponsored cruise on the paddle wheeler Klondike for about an hour and half boat ride. The rest of the day was on our own touring the town. Canada Parks have free guided walking tours of the town that you can sign up for in their visitor center on Front Street down across from the paddle wheeler Keno that is on land.

That evening, 8:30pm, we took the HAL excursion Top of The Dome ride to view the surrounding area and town from the hill top above the town. The guided provided a talk on the surrounding areas where the gold rush occurred and the history behind it. Great views.

Braeburn Road House on bus ride to Dawson, first stop.

Minto Landing lunch stop.

Photo stop as we are getting closer to Dawson.

Buildings in Dawson.

Shops on Front street in Dawson.

Paddle wheeler, Klondike Spirit, used on our river trip in Dawson.

Hi Rick and Joyce,

Thanks for doing this. I'm loving the pictures and the commentary. Looking forward to following along.

Karen

Rick,

 

Great review so far and Joyce's pictures are fantastic as usual! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip and seeing more pictures!!

 

Utahtea

Hey, give me credit for a few photos. :D Trying to get this done in the next day or so. Will have a link to our OneDrive photos we will send to you later.

Day 7 & 8 Dawson-Continued

Bank building visited on Canada Park walking tour.

Inside Bank building with tour guide.

Red Feather Saloon visited on walking tour.

Inside saloon.

Additional buildings in Dawson.

Old Post Office and Palace Theater across the street.