Question re US cash. Plus tracy arm excursion...

[Raeofsunshinenz]

So our family of 3 (we have a 10 year old) have booked our first alaska cruise for this july (round trip from vancouver on HAL).  I've been pouring over the boards and finding out as much as I can, but it looks like we are doing the salmon bake/gold mining in Juneau, the heli tour with dog sledding in Skagway (fingers crossed for good weather!) and later on the grizzly bear ziplining.  Couple of questions - I'm finding it a bit hard to plan how much US cash to take for on shore - tipping, bites to eat etc.  If we take too much, can we chuck it on our ship tab towards the end (before the rest is charged to our CC)?  As we won't need it anymore once off the ship as are in Canada for the rest of our holiday.  And the Tracy Arm tour that's optional - if we take that, are we likely to get back in time to do the gold panning and salmon thing at 4pm.  (tour says approx 6 hours from 9.15am)  Or could we not really fit in both?  Do many kids do it?  And with stopping at glacier bay - will some stuff be a bit duplicated?  I love the idea of seeing the seals and ice floats and so on....  but just not sure if I can justify the extra money and time on that tour.  It sounds amazing though....

[TwinMamainMN]

As fat as cash goes, every port will have ATMs and so will the ship. Although you will pay hefty fees on the ship especially, it's possible to get more cash if you need it. We paid using our bank card in every port. We had some cash for small things like snacks in port, or places where we were spending small amounts of money at a time. If you do have cash left at the end of the trip, Guest Relations will happily apply it to your onboard balance, just don't wait until the night before you disembark to do it, or be prepared to wait in a long line.

[martincath]

Assuming you plan to use mainly credit card, incidentals like small snacks from cash only vendors should be just that, small $ amounts and only occasionally required. $10pp daily sort of amount. Tipping - if it's with a meal then you just pay it all with credit card at the end; for tour guides on typical port excursions of a few hours we mostly give in the range of $5-10pp depending how informative the guides were; expected tips on the cruise itself are taken care of by the daily service fee/automatic tips on booze and only you know if you are willing to tip above & beyond that so bring whatever you feel is right.

 

You should be able to pay off part of your tab on the ship in cash no problem, and since you'll be in Vancouver at the end you can also easily spend a few USD here (we get so many US tourists that it's very common for shops to accept USD cash, but if you can spend it at it's face value do so as you will always get a worse-than-official exchange rate).

 

Small boat tours are very different compared to just watching from the cruise ship; while I have not personally done a Tracy Arm excursion I've yet to hear anything but extremely positive reviews. Glacier Bay of course has glaciers - many more than in Tracy and each somewhat different in appearance - but Tracy is much narrower so you'll have a very different experience than in GB. In terms of repeating stuff you might as well say there's no point in coming to Alaska because you have glaciers in NZ already - or traveling anywhere to see nature, it's all just water and mountains and trees and people;-) Every glacier has it's own charms (and might not be there when your ten year old is grown up), and ANY time on the water around this neck of the woods means a chance to see whales and seals and wildlife on shore.

[Raeofsunshinenz]

Thanks for your help. Yes I'm guessing we won't need much cash but I'll get more than we need and use the rest on our tab once we've said goodbye to the last port so that will take the pressure off trying to figure out exactly how much we need 😊 ... I don't really want to be going to get more out over there. I'd rather too much than too little. 

 

The Tracy Arm excursion looks amazing. I am worried re timing. Maybe we should do that instead of the salmon bake which is not paid for yet. A few things for us to think about over next day or so before finalising that part of our booking.

[Budget Queen]

Yes,  you can make cash payments.   It is of benefit to have some cash.  

 

If this is Gold Creek Salmon hake,  I actually always recommend  just walking up for this.  Continuous loop buses run frequently.    This is an outside,  covered venue.  Far from ideal if foul weather.  Not good either with cold weather-   food isn't hot, eating  with coats on etc.     Simple to just purchase from a dock vendor.   

 

Tracy  Arm  is a constant raved about tour.   One problem with your itinerary-  (I believe?)   is your ship does NOT transit this area?    Frankly with it available and on the excursion list-   take advantage of it.   A definite highlight.      This is very different from Glacier Bay.   Very little comparison.   

[Raeofsunshinenz]

It's the salmon bake with the gold panning together... And it's the gold panning that our daughter really wants to do... And I've just presented both options and her eyes lit up at both but mostly doesn't want to miss gold panning. 

 

Decisions decisions! 

[Raeofsunshinenz]

Oh and yes to see Tracey Arm properly, we need to do the add on tour. 

[Budget Queen]

1 hour ago, Raeofsunshinenz said:

Oh and yes to see Tracey Arm properly, we need to do the add on tour. 

Ok  I'm confused.  your ship does transit the arm??     On your itinerary it is not listed at a "service stop"   of 1/2 hour?    

 

Do you have time in Skagway?   Put your flight either at the beginning or end of your port day?    Gold panning and salmon bake is available there as well at Liarsville.    

[martincath]

Volendam seems to be doing RTs out of Vancouver, including Tracy Arm, all July BQ - I assume it's this ship that OP is traveling on. Looks like they are in Juneau 1pm-10pm so should be ample time to gold pan unless there's a weirdly restrictive operational time on that.

 

Worst case OP, if your other ports are full of activities already you can go gold panning out of Vancouver Pre- or Post-cruise without much hassle - and unlike many coastal Alaskan 'totally fake there was never gold here at all we'll just buy a dredge from somewhere else and ship it here' options Britannia Mine did actually extract gold (though mostly copper). The gold panning is of course fake (seeded so that everyone will go home with something) just like in AK, but the mine is a really interesting site with way more to do than just panning - and you might find it a steal of a price too, even with a rental car to make getting there convenient as it's ~US$23 for adults and no extra charge for gold panning... Various tour providers can do you a combo of this and other sites between Vancouver and Whistler if you don't want to drive.

[Raeofsunshinenz]

The gold panning option I saw was only 2pm and 4pm so I'll look further into that to see if there's something later. Or out of Vancouver but our time there is mostly accounted for now. It would be great if there was another option. 

 

We are on the niew Amsterdam and I thought we just get close enough to Tracy Arm to let people onto the smaller boat if they're doing the tour. I'm only assuming... I don't really know how it works and I have no comprehension what this area of Alaska is like.  I'm at work but might browse the itinerary tonight and see what I can figure out.

 

Our helicopter tour will be morning in skagway and we are ziplining all afternoon. That's locked in. So it's really just figuring Juneau out. We are docked 1pm till 10pm. 

 

Thanks for all your help. I might go back and see what other gold mining options there are. 

[phabric]

For Tracy Arms,

the ship stops and let’s the passengers off onto a smaller boat

the ship continues on to Juneau

the small boat drops the passengers off at Juneau

[peety3]

We've done the Tracy Arm tour twice on Princess. First time it was absolutely fantastic, enough to make it our top tour ever. Second time was in a lot of rain, and it wasn't as magical but still great. If HAL is anything like Princess, a couple of logistics to mention:

 

You'll exit the ship via a tendering platform and step onto the tour boat. At the end of the tour, you'll do the opposite. That means that if you have other business in port, you're going to have to at least cross the ship and then exit the gangway to Juneau. There are certain transitory requirements that the ship has to meet, and that's why you don't get to just go straight into Juneau.

 

Do not expect the small boat tour to be exactly on time. I no longer have my notes, but the first time I think the tour was supposed to end at 2 and we did make it back to the ship at 2pm, but we had to reboard the ship through metal detectors and such, so that took 20-25 minutes for all of the tour passengers to do so. Second time, the tour was supposed to end at 12:45, and they were asking before the tour started if anyone had tours before 1:30 as they were making sure everyone with early tours was on the first boat. Our whale watch was at 1:45 and I assumed we were ok on the second boat - I was wrong. We got back to the ship at 1:30ish but there was only one tender platform to reboard. We reboarded the ship at about 1:45, dashed across the ship, and got to the tour boarding area at 1:55 and our bus had already left. We made sure to say "we were on a Princess-sponsored tour and you knew we weren't back yet, and this was a Princess-sponsored tour so you should have waited for us", and they immediately sprung into action to call the bus back.

 

The tour boat is usually two levels - downstairs is 100% enclosed, upstairs is 50% open. Cameras will fog up if you go in/out a lot, so if you want pics, dress to stay outside in 20-25mph boat-generated wind.

[Crew News]

I pay for everything ashore with a credit card with the excaption of $5-10 tips to excursion guides.  In addition, I bring $4/day in dollar bills for Room Service tips to crewmembers who volunteer to make deliveries to earn additional money for their families at home.

 

Gold panning after Tracy Arm might be too tight.  An evening whale watching would be a good thing to do and your daughter will love seeing all of the whales.

 

Make sure to join your CC Nieuw Amsterdam Roll Call on the Holland America Roll Call Forum.

 

I have sailed to Alaska many times as well as cruising on the Nieuw Amsterdam.  Here are some links to help in your planning.

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/photo-reviews/ms-nieuw-amsterdam-on-board-images

 

Typical youth activities:  http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/AL-15-Kids-8-12.pdf

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/place/alaska-2/skagway-2/dog-sledding

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/place/alaska-2/juneau-2/tracy-arm

 

There is so much to see in Alaska.  You just have to choose and then plan on returning to Alaska to see more of what appeals most to you.  Your daughter will meet lots of new friends from all over the world in Club HAL.  Dress in layers.  Enjoy the Tamarind Restaurant (book online to get your preferred time) and the free design-your-own pizza at the NY Pizza on the aft Lido deck.  Bring your bathing suits for the indoor pool and emergency rain ponchos in your excursion backpacks since it rains a LOT in Alaska.

 

Enjoy your cruise planning.

[Raeofsunshinenz]

Yes I think we've come to the conclusion that gold panning after tracey arm won't work.  So we've decided to do the salmon bake and gold panning tour ... and next time (here's hoping!) when it's maybe just hubby and I, then we can do different things.  That plus heli/dog sledding plus ziplining is all locked in.  

 

Love the suggestions just above - I haven't checked all the links yet, but I will later tonight.  I'm trying to soak up as much info as I can as we build up to the excitement of the trip 🙂  

 

thanks for everyone's help.  We've decided we won't have time for whale watching at this stage ... hoping to do a trip back home early next year that might give us a chance to whale spot!  I mean it would be lovely to do in alaska too...but it's trying to get a good mix of activities that give us a taste of a few things special to alaska ...    If our heli tour is cancelled though, one back up option is whale watching for sure.  It would be amazing.