Alaska Land and Sea Tour Volendam - Blog

[Alaskafitzway]

The morning of the day that we would meet our cruise ship had arrived. We were anxious to see the ship. None of the 4 of us had every been on a cruise before. We had some beautiful things to see first.

We left Whitehorse aboard a coach, headed for Fraser BC where we would board the White Pass train.

 

The scenery was really beautiful again.

 

The bus stopped by Emerald Lake. When the sun is shining on the water, it's really green, hence the name. We were a little bit too early in the morning for sun to have cleared the mountains so the lake was still in the shadows, but it was still beautiful.

 

 

Before we got to the train we stopped for a while in a little town called Car Cross (short for Caribou Crossing). Right near the town is the smallest desert in the world. It's about 1 square mile.

 

The little town of Car Cross is very nice. There are buildings painted with native art. There is a great little coffee and tea shop that had all kinds of tea combinations, and very good coffee, and some really nice pastries.

Also for sale inside the coffee shop was art from a local young artist that was wonderful. Here's what the outside of the shop looked like.

 

There was also a really neat general store in Car Cross. It was packed wall to wall with souvenirs, local carvings, local art and all kinds of unique gifts. Also outside was a place where you could get your passport stamped. We enjoyed this little town. It was right on the river and was surrounded by mountains.

We left Car Cross to head into Fraser BC where we would board the train.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I love reviews with pictures.

Wonderful.

[Alaskafitzway]

We arrived at the train station. We left our tour guide and our luggage on the bus. They would travel by bus down into Skagway, and our luggage would pass through customers on the bus. We would pass through customs on the train.

The train had roomy bench seats with large windows. There are also viewing platforms between cars. If you're not taking pictures, and are not worried about the glare on the windows, you are find to stay inside the car. If you want pictures, I'd advise heading out to the viewing platform as soon as you're allowed. The scenery is spectacular. when going from Fraser to Skagway, you want to be on the right side of the train. There is a little bit of scenery to the left, but almost all of it is on the right.

The scenery was spectacular. My pictures can't really do it justice.

 

 

You're traveling down the mountains to Skagway. There are several curves where you can get a good view of the train curving in front of you.

 

You travel through a number of different types of terrain, and you pass rivers and streams where the colors vary greatly. Here's a view of some mountains off in the distance partially covered by fog.

 

Part way through the train ride, you pass across the Canada/US border. The customers agents actually board the train part way through the ride and look at passports, and then get off again, and the train continues. Here's the border.

 

Here's the old railroad bridge over one of the rivers.

 

To be continues on the next post

[Alaskafitzway]

At some places the train travels very close to the edge as it makes it's way down the mountains.

 

The fireweed covered the hills here too, adding a little bit of color.

As we were reaching the bottom of the trip, we looked back up and saw the bridge that we had crossed. You are really high up when you start.

 

If you get a chance to take this train ride, it's really beautiful. Even if you're not taking the land portion, you can take the ride from Skagway up to Fraser (stay on the left side of the train in this direction).

 

 

When we arrived in Skagway, we left the train at the train station in town. It was very crowded, and our tour guide had been delayed at customs because another HAL bus had broken down and they had loaded their luggage in with ours to get it to the ship. We all did eventually find the shuttle that was at the train station to take us to the ship. We were met by Hal representatives who gave us information about how we would board the ship etc... Some customers officials also came onto the bus. We eventually went to the ship, boarded and found our room. It was very organized and we had no trouble getting onto the ship and getting to our rooms. I'll post more pictures of this in the next post.

[Alaskafitzway]

We boarded the ship and went through a security checkpoint, and then into one of the lounges to get our cabin keys. We headed to our cabins, which were Verandah Suites 6192 and 6194. They were ready for us, and we were surprised at how roomy they were. We also found someone and asked if the divider between the verandah's could be opened, and they took care of that quickly.

Here's a picture of one of the rooms - looking from the verandah into the room

 

We grabbed a quick lunch in the Lido where we loved the different stations where everyone could pick up what they wanted. It was crowded, but the tables moved quickly so we just found a table first before we went for food, and then one person would sit at the table until someone else came back. There were always stations where you could get pasta, some sort of asian meal, breads, some sort of burger or other grill kind of food, and there was always a dessert bar, and ice cream. You could get coffee, tea, water, iced tea or lemonade with your meal. You could also order soda or drinks for an additional fee from the waiters that were roaming through.

We headed into Skagway for a little while. There was a nice liquor store that had a large selection of wine so we picked up a couple of bottles for our rooms. Here's a shot of the main street in town.

 

 

We walked form the ship to town and back on a well marked path. It was a little bit of a walk but not bad. We didn't stay in town long. Here's a view of the Volendam as we approached the cruise ship docks -

 

We had a 5:45 seating time. We were assigned table 27 which was by the window and was very nice. We ordered wine by the glass which was tasty and cold. We had a good dinner, which we all enjoyed very much. The Salmon was good and our waiters were attentive. Our food was served quickly every night, but we didn't feel rushed. We had seen posts of people waiting a long time or feeling like they were going to run into the later seating time, but we never experienced that. We always arrived on time, and had excellent service and good food. Here's a picture of the table as we were finishing, I forgot to take it when the food arrived.

 

We went back to our rooms before the ship left the Skagway Harbor. Here's a view from the Verandah

 

It was getting dark as we pulled out, and we passed another ship on the way out.

 

We had chocolate on our pillows when we came in from the verandah and we also had our first towel animals which we enjoyed very much.

We were all tired, so we headed to bed early. The beds were very comfortable, although a little bit small for my husband who is 6'2". The ship was quiet and there was not a lot of movement. We didn't experience any motion sickness, but the gentle rocking was detectable as you drifted off to sleep. Glacier Bay in the morning.

[Alaskafitzway]

We got up very early because we had been told that the best place to see Whales was at the entrance to Glacier Bay and that was going to be at around 6 AM. We took a few pictures from the Verandah as the sun was coming up -

 

The sun came up as we were still on the verandah.

 

It was very cold in Glacier Bay and so we bundled up and made our way to the Bow of the ship which you can get by going all the way forward on the Promenade Deck and then going through a door labeled Bow - that sort of looked like you shouldn't go through it, but it was fine. The door was very heavy and you had to climb some stairs and the through a doorway with a high threshold and out onto the bow you arrived.

Here is a picture looking back up at the bridge

 

It was pretty empty when we first arrived bu there was a young woman set up with a scope at the very front looking out at the water. She was also taking notes. We went up to talk to her and she was a grad student from the University of Montana who was doing research on Humpback Whales. That was a good sign. It got quite foggy as we approached Glacier bay, but cleared quickly and pretty soon we saw some Hump Back Whales in the water.

 

Glacier bay had scenery everywhere. The Captain would also come on the intercom frequently to tell you what you were seeing. Some rangers from the park came alongside in a smaller boat and boarded, and spoke through the day as well.

 

The first glacier we came to was Reid Glacier. There was a boat in front of the glacier. It's not a cruise ship, but if a fairly large passenger tour ship. It's at the lower right of rhe Glacier in the water. It gives you an idea of the scale of the glacier. Our ship stopped at each glacier and also turned so that no matter where you were on the ship, you could have a long look.

[Alaskafitzway]

It was very peaceful in Glacier bay. The water was like glass in some places as you can see by this picture where the mountain is reflected in the water.

 

Next we came alongside Marjorie Glacier which is a mile wide and 200 feet high. There were pieces of ice calving off of the glacier as we sat there. Again the ship was turned so that everyone got pictures.

 

We had time to head back to the room and sit on our verandah and get some pictures of the ice calving off. We could also hear the ranger from the verandah as he talked about the glaciers.

We also saw the Johns Hopkins Glacier

 

We also saw this sea otter floating by the ship. This was actually a pretty common sight. They didn't seem to be the least bit phased by the huge cruise ship passing within a very short distance.

 

We also saw a few more whales as we headed back towards the mouth of Glacier Bay.

[Alaskafitzway]

As we left the Glacier bay, a ship came again alongside to pick up the park rangers who had been with us.

 

We decided to go and check out the Cupcake tea. They served several kinds of cupcakes, and also some tea sandwiches.

 

It was formal night, so we didn't eat too many cupcakes. We went back to the rooms and relaxed until it was time to head to dinner. The Verandah's were well worth the extra cost, we spent a lot of time watching the scenery go by. It was really lovely.

 

We headed to the dining room which was all decorated for formal night. We had surf and turf, which was good. Here's a look at the lower level of the dining room. . We enjoyed formal night. Most of the men were dressed in suit and tie or jacket and tie, the ladies were in dresses. We were at the early seating so it wasn't overly formal.

After dinner the captain announced that we were passing another large pod of hump back whales, so we went out on the verandah for more pictures.

 

 

Back inside the rooms we had more towel surprises to meet us before bed.

 

 

We were headed to Ketchikan in the morning and a flight trip to Misty Fjords. I'll post more on that as I have time.

[Mtn2Sea]

Really enjoying your review! Hopefully, DW and I can make such a trip next year.

[Alaskafitzway]

We arrived in Ketchikan at about 9:30 am so we had breakfast in the Lido first. Typical breakfast included eggs, omelets, muffins and sweet breads, some kind of eggs benedict, potatos, meats, and hot and cold cereal. You could really get anything that you could want. The coffee here was OK. If you are a coffee lover, you can also stop at the Explorer Cafe. They had fantastic coffee, and they also had lots of different snacks and baked goods that varied based on the time of day. The coffee was an extra charge, the snacks were free. The chairs in the Explorer were comfortable and you could sit and look out the windows and have your coffee. It was a really nice quiet place to get away.

 

As we pulled into Ketchikan it was foggy/cloudy. This was the first day that we didn't have perfect weather since our very first day in Seward. We took this picture from the ship, we docked right in the center of town.

 

We had passed quite a few float planes on the way into the harbor.

Ketchikan is on an island, you can't drive here, and all of the cars have either come in by ferry or cargo ship. It was a big bustling town with lots of cars though.

Here are some of the float planes that we passed on the way in.

 

We got off the ship and headed up to creek street. There were some stores on creek street, and we saw the salmon ladder but not a lot of salmon.

 

Creek Street -

 

Here's the Salmon Ladder -

 

By the way Creek Street is an easy walk from the cruise ship. When you get off the ship there are a lot of tour companies inside and outside of the visitors center that want to sell you walking tours or excursions. We found a desk inside that supplied a free map of the town and the walking tour. We did not walk to the Totem pole park, but it didn't look to be too far if you have time.

 

We saw this Totem pole just by creek street.

 

We did some shopping in town. We also saw a number of cafes and coffee places that were advertising free wifi for anyone that might need to connect.

We headed back to the ship for some lunch at the Lido before our flight trip to Misty Fjords. Here's a picture of the statue near the cruise ship docks.

 

We met a transfer bus just off the cruise ship for our transfer to Taquan Air where we would take a float trip out into Misty Fjords National Monument. Pictures in the next post.

[Alaskafitzway]

We had booked an excursion to Misty Fjords on board a flight trip. It was still cloudy and foggy in town, so we were worried that it would be too hard to see anything, but our trip was spectacular. We arrived at Taquan and met our pilot Jim. He boarded the 4 of us into his float plane and we headed out.

He asked what ship we had come on, and then did a fly by of our ship on the way out of town.

 

Jim told us about the areas that we passed when it was important, but most of the time he just played music and let us enjoy the beauty. It is hard to describe how beautiful it was. We flew between the mountains, down by the water, and back up. It was hard to really grasp the size of the mountains until I looked down at one point and a plane flying below us looked like a speck in the distance. It was one of our favorite parts of the trip, and with so many great memories, that's saying a lot.

Here are some of the pictures from our flight.

 

 

 

At one point we landed on a secluded lake which was a beautiful green color. We got out of the plane and walked on the pontoons. It was peaceful and really beautiful.

 

We flew by Eddystone on our way out of the Monument.

The specks on the front of the island are sea lions.

 

We would definitely do this excursion again. It was really fun.

We headed back to the ship in time to board and get ready for dinner. Ketchikan would be our last stop where we could get off the ship. We had a day in the inside passage and then we would arrive in Vancouver.

More pictures of the Inside Passage in the next post.

[nana51]

I am loving your review. Sounds like a great first cruise.

[Alaskafitzway]

The day that we spent in the inside passage was a relaxing day. We woke up later than we had on other days. We couldn't see any land, but the sky seemed to go on forever.

 

We attended one of the cooking classes. It was supposed to be Cedar Plank Salmon. The culinary theater was a little odd. The chairs were not high enough to see over the row in front of you, so you either needed to sit in the front or the front row of the second section to see. They also didn't use a cedar plank to cook the Salmon. They did cook Salmon but it wasn't cooked according to the recipe. It was just a little odd, and not really worth the time.

 

We did eventually start to see land and some buildings - it was a very pretty trip along the inner passage.

 

We had really enjoyed the towel animals that were left in the room throughout the trip so some of us decided to attend the towel folding class while the others went to the Explorer to print our boarding passes for the next day. The class was very entertaining and we purchased the books, and left some towel creations of our own for our room steward that evening.

 

We took a walk along the promenade deck just in time to see a large pod of white sided pacific dolphins who played in the ships wake for a while.

 

We went up to the Indonesian Tea ceremony, which was fun. They had some different kinds of tea and sweets.

We had a kind of lazy afternoon, and enjoyed our last dinner on the ship. We returned to the rooms to sit on the verandahs and watch the last sunset of our ship. We enjoyed the verandah's very much.

 

Our last towel animals were also our favorites.

 

We reluctantly headed off to bed so that we were ready for our early departure.

[Alaskafitzway]

We had put our suitcases out for a midnight pick up. We woke early and got some last pictures from the verandah. The sunrise was really colorful.

 

We slowly pulled into Vancouver and up to the cruise terminal.

 

Departure was very organized. We had opted for a departure directly to the airport. We went to the Frans Hal Lounge where our passports were checked, and we went through the cruise terminal and right onto a bus. We arrived at the airport and retrieved our luggage there. The ride to the airport was fairly long but we had a later flight so we had a lot of time to sit around.

 

Thoughts on the trip -

We have taken organized tours before, and HAL was very organized. The land portion of the tour was really impressive with how easy it was to check in and out of hotels, and how well organized each and every part of the trip was.

The young people who they employ on the land portion of the tour were exceptional. It was clear that they were well trained and well chosen. They loved what they did, and really wanted to tell you about the places that you visited.

We wouldn't trade either the land or the sea for the other, but we really enjoyed both. It was a wonderful vacation that we would recommend to anyone.

We will be cruising again.

 

Hope you enjoyed the review.

[Mtn2Sea]

Really, really enjoyed your review! Your photos were excellent. Sounds like you'll have memories that'll last a lifetime.

[Alaskafitzway]

Really, really enjoyed your review! Your photos were excellent. Sounds like you'll have memories that'll last a lifetime.

 

Yes we really loved the trip! Thanks for checking out my review.

[Lerin]

WOW! Big Thank you.

This was one of my favorite reviews ever.

[madera1]

I want to say that your blog was wonderful. Your photos were so clear. Did you use special lenses to get all the wildlife photos? So glad that you had a spectacular land and sea vacation. Cruising ends up being quite habit forming.

Thanks again.

[erewhon]

Enjoyed your review, great photos.

Thank you.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful review.

The sea life pictures are fantastic.

[Alaskafitzway]

I want to say that your blog was wonderful. Your photos were so clear. Did you use special lenses to get all the wildlife photos? So glad that you had a spectacular land and sea vacation. Cruising ends up being quite habit forming.

Thanks again.

 

Yes I do use a canon rebel t3i which is nothing special, but I have a canon 100-400 zoom lens that I purchased used. Most of the wildlife photos were taken with that. You can also rent them. They are heavy to carry around, but I love to take pictures so I don't mind.