Semi live review Y1L Holland America’s Alaska Land and Sea CruiseTour, June 1 – June 19, 2022

[eggemon]

Indeed, thank you for sharing your trip with all of us! It has been a great way for DW and I to prepare for our Y1L journey in a couple of weeks (assuming it isn't canceled).

 

[Alphen]

1 hour ago, eggemon said:

Indeed, thank you for sharing your trip with all of us! It has been a great way for DW and I to prepare for our Y1L journey in a couple of weeks (assuming it isn't canceled).

 

Again, I sincerely hope that everyone gets to do this amazing land tour.

[Alphen]

Currently at YVR airport, awaiting our check in, only 5 hours after leaving the ship and we already received our survey! We will take our time, since this time it includes also the land portion.

[Lalof]

2 minutes ago, Alphen said:

Currently at YVR airport, awaiting our check in, only 5 hours after leaving the ship and we already received our survey! We will take our time, since this time it includes also the land portion.

Thank you so much for all the information and pictures! I am hopeful that we will get some of the beautiful weather that you had.

[Alphen]

Just went through check-in and security after that, don’t think security lasted more than 10 minutes!

[Gray Lady]

1 hour ago, Alphen said:

Just went through check-in and security after that, don’t think security lasted more than 10 minutes!

Was the airport really crowded? San Francisco was jam packed yesterday beyond belief! I know many others are too. Any advice for travelers leaving through YVR?

[Alphen]

3 minutes ago, Gray Lady said:

Was the airport really crowded? San Francisco was jam packed yesterday beyond belief! I know many others are too. Any advice for travelers leaving through YVR?

We arrived amid several bus loads, there were 3 ships in port, my guess the vast majority was US flights, we were in international and this was not crowded, but we checked in around 2 PM, maybe after most of the crowds 

[Mary229]

Did you hear anything more about future land and sea tours being cancelled.  After seeing the staffing issues do you have any thoughts ?

[Alphen]

Just now, Mary229 said:

Did you hear anything more about future land and sea tours being cancelled.  After seeing the staffing issues do you have any thoughts ?

Did not hear anything, other than problems with one or two cancelled excursions, did not notice any relevant shortages that had an effect on our trip.

[Copper10-8]

Hey Jeroen; you did one awesome job on this travel log and pics! Really enjoyed following you two along! Hope you got to meet your namesake in the captain! He's a great guy to work for! Have a save journey home, take care and be safe!! Het beste!!

[KSPlum74]

On 6/15/2022 at 8:01 AM, Alphen said:

Got our test in Anchorage, not done very professional, ArriveCAN no issues.

I also didn't think testing was very professional and wouldn't be surprised if some of those positive results were cross contamination as the test 'boards" were set up touching each other.

[KSPlum74]

Loved your reporting as it added to my experience on this same trip.  I think I now know who you are and am sorry we didn't properly get introduced despite several conversations over the 18 days.  If you are who I think you are, I gave you my card so hope to hear from you.

[Alphen]

13 hours ago, Copper10-8 said:

Hey Jeroen; you did one awesome job on this travel log and pics! Really enjoyed following you two along! Hope you got to meet your namesake in the captain! He's a great guy to work for! Have a save journey home, take care and be safe!! Het beste!!

Thank you John, we have returned home safely and healthy.

 

We indeed meat our Captain and I found out that it is very easy to give your first name on board to especially staff members, when you have a first name that is not common in North America, when you also have a Captain with that name!

 

We met him personally at a small Mariners event (26 people) that we were invited to, maybe because we were the only two people from Holland on board! We talked to him and he gave a tip that his wife uses to have his name pronounced in the US, the name spelled the same as "raccoon", just substitute the "R" by a "J". Really had me laughing when he told this!

[Alphen]

4 hours ago, KSPlum74 said:

Loved your reporting as it added to my experience on this same trip.  I think I now know who you are and am sorry we didn't properly get introduced despite several conversations over the 18 days.  If you are who I think you are, I gave you my card so hope to hear from you.

Aha, yes I got your card and you will be hearing from me shortly. Nice to have met you!

[Alphen]

Round-Up and conclusions

 

Preparation

We think that research and preparation is not only very useful, but also a large part of the fun, leading up to a cruise. We started shortly after booking this land and cruise tour, about one year before our departure.

In this case, we had some difficulty in locating reviews of previous land and cruise tours. Especially the Cruise Critic website, sadly does not have a user friendly search option and it is difficult finding information.

 

Reviews and information we have used, in our preparation were;

 

Holland America's Alaska Cruisetour #Y4C, 11 Night Yukon & Double Denali in 2019.

https://www.icruise.com/blog/holland-america-cruisetour-review-day-1.html

 

Holland America’s Alaska Cruise Land and Sea by The Insatiable Traveler in 2018

https://theinsatiabletraveler.com/holland-america-alaska-land-sea/#Holland-America-Cruise-to-Alaska-Via-the-McKinley-Explorer

 

Alaska Sea-Land cruise 6-29-16 Review—Y2C by Rick and Joyce in 2016

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2295567-alaska-sea-land-cruise-6-29-16-review%E2%80%94y2c/

 

Alaska Cruise Tour Review 7 Nights - 8 Days Anchorage to Fairbanks plus a 7 day Voyage of the Glaciers Cruise (Princess) 2015

https://www.alaskacruisesdirect.com/alaska-2020/alaska-2020/alaska-cruise-tour-review.html

 

Alaska & Yukon Territory Cruise Tour ALASKA & YUKON TERRITORY CRUISE & TOUR FEATURING DENALI, THE YUKON & GLACIER BAY 2014?

http://ultimatecruiseandvacation.com/cruises/holland-america-lines/alaska-yukon-cruise-tour-review

Review of Alaskan Land/Sea Cruise in process in 2014

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1980423-review-of-alaskan-landsea-cruise-in-process/

 

HAL CruiseTour Report - Dawson/Denali Plus (Y4T) - June 26 to July 14, 2013

(Had copied text, probably from cruise critic, pictures and info, but could not find the link anymore)

 

Alaska cruise: touring in a state of awe 2013

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/alaska/articles/Alaska-cruise-touring-in-a-state-of-awe/

 

May 23-Jun 10 Alaska CruiseTour review 2012

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1611370-may-23-jun-10-alaska-cruisetour-review/

 

Canada and Alaska on Holland America Volendam 2010

submitted by Stacy- agent at Pegasus Travel Omaha NE

https://burschtravelblog.*****.com/bursch_travel_blog/2010/07/canada-and-alaska-on-holland-america-volendam.html

 

Princess Alaska Cruisetour review by an Alaskan 2010

http://cruisesource.us/2011/01/princess-alaska-cruise-tour/

 

Review of 6-night Alaska Land Vacation featuring the Princess Alaska Wilderness Lodges (Princess) 2006

*****/Page/ALASKAFAM1

[Alphen]

Round-Up and conclusions

 

 

Hotels

All hotels used during the land tour, were of good quality, with the exception of Anchorage. All had large rooms, which we did not spent much time, but had more than adequate facilities.

 

 

Pre tour/cruise stay:

SureStay Hotel by Best Western North Vancouver Capilano

https://www.bestwesterncapilano.com/

 

Land Tour

The Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel

https://www.fairmont.com/vancouver-airport-richmond/

 

Whitehorse Sternwheeler Hotel & Conference Centre

https://www.sternwheelerhotel.ca/

 

Westmark Inn Dawson

https://www.westmarkhotels.com/destinations/dawson-city-hotel/

 

Westmark Fairbanks Hotel

https://www.westmarkhotels.com/destinations/fairbanks-hotel/

 

Mckinley Chalet Resort

https://www.westmarkhotels.com/destinations/denali-hotel/

 

Westmark Anchorage

https://www.westmarkhotels.com/destinations/anchorage-hotel/

[Alphen]

Round-Up and conclusions

 

Land Tour Transportation

 

In the itinerary, brochure and Land Tour information (https://www.hollandamerica.com/content/dam/hal/marketing-assets/manage-my-cruise-already-booked/faqs/Tour_Tips.pdf)  PDF file (issued per year), is a valuable source for planning information before going, with information regarding transportation, luggage, meal plans and other information.

 

All of the transportation was handled perfectly. No need to carry your luggage, each day we were handed an information package when arriving at the new location, containing:

·         Hotel information

·         Transportation times, including time to put luggage outside your room for transportation

·         Hotel key and Wi-Fi codes

·         Daily program, including information for booked extra tours with departure time and location

·         Suggestions for dining options

·         Tour suggestions

 

HAL used Yukon Air North for our flights;

Vancouver – Whitehorse – regular flight, B737 about 1 hour

Whitehorse - Dawson – charter flight, B737, only our group of 33 about 45 minutes

Dawson – Fairbanks - charter flight, B737, only our group of 33 about 1 hour

 

Fairbanks – Denali – HAL tour coach about 3 hours, including stop of at least 30 minutes

Denali – Anchorage – McKinley Explorer

Anchorage – Whittier – Cruise Train

[Alphen]

 

Round-Up and conclusions

 

Tour Composition

 

About a year in advance, we received an initial booking confirmation, that included a day to day program, including listing of approximate times.  With the help of this day to day program, we were already able to find the standard tour parts with their name and with the help of these names, we were able to find websites of most of the vendors that HAL used for these tour parts. In this way, we had a 90% idea, what the standard tour items were about.

Some tour parts had a last minute change, in Whitehorse, HAL had switched operators at the last minute.

 

Included Tour in Whitehorse was by Caribou Crossing Trading Post; https://cariboucrossing.ca/

 

In Fairbanks, for the included Gold Dredge 8 program; https://www.golddredge8.com/ and for the included Riverboat Discovery Tour; https://www.riverboatdiscovery.com/

 

In Denali, we had the Tundra Wilderness Tour, https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/bus-tours.htm, we new well ahead of time that the tour was shortened, due to the landslide in the park. The tour itself can start at any time, some groups started as early as 05:00 AM, ours was at 09:40 AM, which was not that early, but did leave less time at the remainder of the day, to do something else.

As for extra tours in all of the locations, the program with available tours was issued about one year in advance. We ordered our tours right at that time, some tours were quickly sold out. We only used HAL tours in all of the locations.

[Alphen]

Round-Up and conclusions

 

Meals

 

We decided to opt for the breakfast plan, we wanted to have a good start of the day planned ahead and did not want to search for breakfast options at the last minute every single day. The first breakfast that was included in our plan (with vouchers, issued in the package at each stop) was in Whitehorse, so in Vancouver we ate at the airport, while in the Fairmont. All of the vouchers included all the costs for the breakfast buffet, cold and hot option, including all gratuities. In the hotels the buffets were usually offered for around $16 for the continental and $21 for the hot full buffet.

We did not opt for the full meal plan, because on the one hand, we had several extra excursions that included a dinner and we also found out that in the vicinity of each of the hotels, we could easily find affordable restaurants within walking distance. A bit of a warning, due to all of the personal shortages, not all of the restaurants we located via google ahead of time, were open at the day that we were in the hotel. If you want to prepare ahead of time, locate more than one option!

In all of the locations, we were able to find dining options at reasonable prices, we were never looking for luxury, just affordable and not taking to much time. Even in Denali, you can find several options across the street from the Main lodge, withing walking distance.

[Alphen]

Round-Up and conclusions

 

In all, we had an excellent Land and Cruise Tour. Everything was excellently organised by HAL on the ground during our land portion. The luggage handling, transport and guidance by our Journey host were absolutely worry free in our tour and we were really impressed.

 

We were glad we did the longest option for this land and cruise tour and also glad we did the tour pre-cruise. Several places we would have liked to stay longer, in fact, all of the places!

 

Whitehorse had much more to offer than we were able to see, the quaint little western style village of Dawson was great and we could easily have spent more time there. Fairbanks was a great city, the first one in Alaska on our tour and had also much more to offer. The absolute fabulously organised tours in Fairbanks were amazing,  not in the least because of how perfectly they were both organised.

 

Denali was also a great place to stay, beautifully located, not only the Chalet, but also the Denali park.

 

Anchorage was the only place we had visited before, but was also great to return to, before we, at the end of the tunnel (literally), saw our cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam emerge when we came out of the tunnel on the cruise train from Anchorage to Whittier.

 

During all of the tour, all of the staff in hotels, on board of the transport, journey host and people from the towns we visited, were always helpful and warm in their reception. 

 

we still have a long list of places we want to visit, but if time and money would not be the case, we would do this one again, in a heart beat!

[Alphen]

Round-Up and conclusions

 

You may have noticed that no Covid testing and handling was mentioned in all of the round-up, since I think myself that this a stand alone subject, part of the travelling and every day life at this moment (sadly) and my opinion was that there was no place for that in this review.

 

Part of my conclusions are under scrutiny of the moderators at this moment, so may not be completely visible momentarily.

 

[Alphen]

Round-Up and conclusions

 

Tranportation Remark

 

Always be prepared for time changes of transportation along the way. We had some occur and one was actually much to our benefit when the flight from Dawson to Denali was changed from around 1 PM to a flight at 9 AM, so we ended up with an almost full day in Fairbanks, because this was only a one hour flight, with also gaining one hour, so arriving at 9 AM in Fairbanks, having all of the day to yourself!

[Alphen]

Round-Up and conclusions

 

If you have any question, feel free to ask!

[Alphen]

5 hours ago, KSPlum74 said:

Loved your reporting as it added to my experience on this same trip.  I think I now know who you are and am sorry we didn't properly get introduced despite several conversations over the 18 days.  If you are who I think you are, I gave you my card so hope to hear from you.

I have dropped you an email, with four attachments, which I hope are not too large.

[ljgordon54]

This is fabulous! We have an AK trip scheduled for next year. You have made me seriously consider expanding to the land portion.