Our review of the 14 day Alaska Amsterdam cruise--6-22-14

[rajkr74]

Rick,

 

We enjoyed meeting you on the cruise. Congratulations on your anniversary. Your pictures are great. Can't wait to receive your link for all your photos.

 

Thanks Bob, it was a pleasure meeting you. Joyce has gotten thru most of her photos and culled out a number of bad photos. She picked a few for this review but has more work to do on the remaining ones. Hopefully she will post them soon.

[rajkr74]

Thanks for taking the time to write and post your review. You photos are simply outstanding. What deep colors and clarity. You must have a great camera to go along with fantastic photography skills.

 

Did you take the photo excursion in Juneau through the ship or did you book it independently. How long was the tour? Seems like you had a great time.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks.

Joyce uses a Nikon 7000 and I use the "backup" camera a Nikon 510. Surprising some of the whale shots were taken at a little distance but the zooms worked pretty good for great shots. Joyce is the better photographer in our family. :D

We booked this excursion thru the ship since it had great reviews and was limited to 14 people in the boat. It was about a 5 hour tour. The boat setup was also great with foldup windows that gave you unobstructed views out.

[JimAOk1945]

I have a question. You say you went on nature walk on the "Trail of Time" at the Mendenhall Glacier. Is the nature walk part of the ship sponsored photo excursion in Juneau?

 

Thanks for your review. I'm enjoying it very much.

[rajkr74]

I have a question. You say you went on nature walk on the "Trail of Time" at the Mendenhall Glacier. Is the nature walk part of the ship sponsored photo excursion in Juneau?

 

Thanks for your review. I'm enjoying it very much.

 

Yes it was. Once we got back to the boat harbor where we started the photo boat tour we were taken by bus back near the Mendenhall Glacier where we took a small hike thru the rain forest ending up at the visitor's center. It was a very easy hike and the guide took her time to answer questions and set the pace so we all could shoot photos. She was very helpful being a good naturalist and profession photographer. The forest was very pretty and WET. It started raining again when we started this small hike.

 

If I may ask....Were you a WWII veteran?

Edited July 12, 2014 by RAJKR74

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report! Glad to hear things went well.

[rajkr74]

WOW...you did have a great tour in Juneau!

Hi Utahtea,

Yes, it was a pretty good one. Hope you did not mind the M&G photo of you? Joyce picked it out...:D

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

Thanks for doing this great review & including pictures! It's making me even more excited for our cruise in August. You sure lucked out with whale watching!

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[mort&fran]

Great pictures. And your commentaries are providing very useful info for our forthcoming cruise. Thank you!

[rajkr74]

Tracy Arm. Well this turned out to be much better day than the previous two days. Woke up to clear sunny skies but very windy as we headed into Tracy Arm. Darn, I so wanted to put my rain gear on for a third day in a row. Saw some whales in the distance as we headed into the Arm. As we progressed up the fiord the wind started dying down and it warmed up…just a little. Tracy Arm has been one of the best sights we have done on our previous Alaska cruises, absolutely beautiful. We have seen it both in sunny weather and misty rainy weather, they both have their charm. As we progressed further up the fiord we started running into more ice in the water and could no longer see the glacier on the left (North Sawyer Glacier?), as we neared Sawyer Glacier. We have seen this glacier in the past but it now has receded out of view. We started seeing numerous harbor seals on the ice flows and they did not seem to be disturbed too much with the ship slowing passing them. The Captain worked hard to get the ship as close to Sawyer Glacier as possible. You could hear the small ice bergs bumping the sides of the ship but no harm as we were moving very slowly up the channel.

 

Morning starting into Tracy Arm.

 

Another pic of beautiful Tracy Arm.

 

Sawyer Glacier

 

Closer to Sawyer Glacier.

 

Heading out of Tracy Arm.

 

We did some of these pictures out of order. So...the next page.... Ice and seals.

[jaspersmycat]

Thanks for letting us know about your photo excursion in Juneau. It helped me decide to do it in August.

[rajkr74]

Thanks for letting us know about your photo excursion in Juneau. It helped me decide to do it in August.

Can't guarantee the sights we saw but the setup of the boat was pretty nice and I think you will like it. It goes down as one of the best HAL excursions we have done.

[travgurl]

Thanks for sharing your review! Love your pictures! Trying to decide on the excursion you took in Juneau or Harv and Marv? I have a power shot canon 20 zoom. I am wondering if this is enough or should I purchase another camera with more zoom like 50? Opinion appreciated!

[geocruiser]

Beautiful pictures. Thank you for the review.

[cruz chic]

The pics are outstanding. I just love Tracy arm.

[localady]

Your pictures and descriptions just whet my appetite even further for our impending trip..... ;):D

Thank you for taking the time to post such skillful images!!:D:D:D

[rajkr74]

Thanks for sharing your review! Love your pictures! Trying to decide on the excursion you took in Juneau or Harv and Marv? I have a power shot canon 20 zoom. I am wondering if this is enough or should I purchase another camera with more zoom like 50? Opinion appreciated!

We used two cameras, one a big Nikon D7000 with changeable lenses. We were shooting with 300ml lens on this one, slightly less than the max zoom on the P510. The second camera was Nikon Coolpix P510 a few years old that shoots 42X optical zoom. It is a single lens and has proved to be a very good camera. The equivalent to this camera that Nikon has out now is the P600 that now has 60X optical...pretty good. If you want a GOOD overall camera is one of the best we have used over the years get the P600. We were not right next to these whales and I had the zoom full out on the P510 and got the 2nd shot of feeding whales that we posted above. Very pleased with it's results.

 

If the description of your 20 zoom is correct you may not get a decent shot with that little zoom if you are a distance away. There are rules the guides must follow on how close they can get to the whales. If the whales come toward them that is OK but they are not allowed to cruise right up to them. They did not come towards us for any close shots.

 

If you buy a camera like the P610 you will need extra batteries. Zooming uses us battery power.

[rajkr74]

Now for some ICE and SEAL pictures in Tracy Arm.

 

Harbor seals.

 

Ice formations in Tracy Arm.

 

Seals on the ice flows, mother and pup.

 

Nice reflection of ice.

 

More seals.

 

Another piece of ice with two different colors, natures beauty.

[JimAOk1945]

I'm eagerly looking forward to more pictures and the rest of your review. It's off to a great start.

[rajkr74]

Icy Straight Point. This stop is a native Alaskan village. Look no rain again! We tendered into the former salmon cannery which is now a museum and shops. It also has a VERY long Zipline of which we did not participate…..not because of being afraid of it but more that the price is too high for us (pun intended). We walked around the shops then down to the beach for a nice stroll as it was low tide. Low tide allowed us to view many forms of sea life in the crystal clear water. We then took a leisurely stroll on the nature trail on site. We took an easy walk into the town of Hoonah about a mile on flat sidewalks, it was an easy walk. The town is low key and simple with a few small shops and one eagles nest that we could see. I think the population doubled with the cruise ship in town.

 

Downtown there is a metal pole building that contains a large wooden sculpture that artists are carving that will be placed in the lodge in Glacier Bay National Park (picture below). The entrance is around the back side of the building and you are welcome to go in and view the carving. Walking into town as the road angles to the left about one block ahead on the left side is the building. It is right across the street from a small gift shop. There are two carved totem benches sitting in front of this the pole building, sorry I did not get an address but you can ask anyone of the locals you run into where building is. We also got lucky early that morning before tendering and noticed a bear on the beach. I spotted it with binoculars but could not get a decent picture to post since it was so far off.

 

Never could find out why the ship anchors so far away from the dock. We have seen photos of other ships anchored much closer. But it did give us the ability to scope the beach out for the bear.

 

Icy Straight Point, on the deck surrounding the building.

 

The dock and building.

 

Sea Star on beach. (formally Star Fish to us baby boomers)

 

Sunflower Sea Star.

 

Cemetery downtown Hoonah.

 

Carving which will go into the new(?) lodge in Glacier National Park.

 

[cruisingagain2011]

Your pictures are amazing! Loving your review.

[Typhoon1]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to share your thoughts.

[rajkr74]

Sea Day on the way to Anchorage. We usually got up early and went to the Lido for breakfast and enjoyed sitting next to the windows watching the ocean go by. There are less people eating and it is not so busy that early in the morning. I don’t think we have gone to the MDR for breakfast since our first cruise. They have everything you would want for breakfast. The omelet station is the best as you can have an omelet made just the way you want. Toward the end of the cruise we would split an omelet between the two of us since they were so large and our stomachs had “shrunk”???? We went to one of the Digital Classes and then to the Kitchen tour. There were a ton of other cruisers taking the tour so there was no individual staff for our group to tell us what went on, so it was kind of a self-tour. Still amazing how the food is prepped.

 

We stopped by the Culinary Center and picked up recipe cards for those days we did not or could not attend. This is the first time I have seen HAL do this. Pretty nice, since joyce is a good cook and likes recipes. We had a lazy day with a nap or two during the day. We usually went up to the late night snack at 10:30pm in the Lido just to see what they had to eat and to get my ice cream and cookies….love ice cream…yum. Walked out on the stern Lido pool area to see how light it still was outside. Really weird how late the sun sets as we cruised to Anchorage. I think the latest time for sunset was after 11:00pm. Noticed while out there that the ship was turning towards Homer??? Turns out they were picking up boat Pilots we think for going into Anchorage. Once they were on board (2 men climbed the ladder into the boat) we swung back toward Anchorage. Also spotted numerous sea otters in the waters around the ship…and there were very few people to point them out to. Probably they were all tuckered out and in bed from the trivia contests in the Crows nest????

The HAL singers and dancers were also out by the Lido pool all dressed for the formal night and they asked joyce to take pictures for them. Nice young people and it fun to talk to them.

 

Osterdam heading for Seward while we headed toward Anchorage. We passed them.

 

Kitchen tour.

 

Kitchen staff.

 

More staff.

 

Sunset the night before Anchorage near Homer.

 

Sunset picture taken at 11:33pm--amazing!

 

Edited July 13, 2014 by RAJKR74

[Keith1010]

Nice photos.

 

Keith

[SF49erfan]

Thanks for posting the review and pictures. We are doing this cruise in August and your pictures are adding to the anticipation! Can't wait to see otters.

 

Terry

[SunLakesBob]

Thanks for posting the review and pictures. We are doing this cruise in August and your pictures are adding to the anticipation! Can't wait to see otters.

 

Terry

 

You should see them in Homer!