oaktreerb

There are photos of PS7045 and 7046 on Halfacts.com. Vista Class ship.

Adding to above, fleece and/or puffy jacket but not heavy. Top layer rainproof. I have a light weight waterproof rain jacket with hood and matching rain pants which each roll up into a pouch so I can easily carry them with me on outings. They protect me from rain and wind when necessary. I also take gloves and a warm hat to cover my ears. They are most useful in Glacier Bay when I want to be out on the bow of the ship. At least one pair of weather proof hiking shoes if you plan to be active.

There is an option for upgraded accommodations in a newer building at Denali. That is the only upgraded accommodations on the tour and you pay extra for it. This is Alaska and the hotels are not fancy. They are clean and centrally located and if you don’t like the room you can ask for a change but most likely they are fully booked. Rooms are assigned at random.

@SusiejaneUK If you only have 4 days on the ship you are probably on one of the Yukon itineraries with land first? You may have an overnight in Skagway before boarding the ship. The Yukon itineraries are wonderful. With only four days on the ship you could save a lot of money with an ocean view cabin. The ship is smaller than most HAL ships and you will be out and about. There are plenty of viewing areas inside and out. You want to be able to peek out the window when you wake up in the morning.

We have been to Kodiak at least twice and have never tendered. Can you find out why HAL tendered in Kodiak. Maybe the school busses are needed for school kids? April seemed to have such nice weather. I hope things improve. We are also going to Valdez.

Maybe.

@BaileyMJ Your reply to my question re: Anchorage was very helpful. Thanks for posting the ship communication re: the Anchorage shuttle. I hope the Westerdam is better organized for our visit in June. Were you able to get the car you rented for the day? Since we will be arriving later than predicted we’ll have to tell Avis about our later than intended arrival and hope they have a car for us! Your comment that everyone with a reservation may not get their rental car has me worried! and thanks for posting Kodiak info for going ashore.

@Crew News Can you give us a description of the disembarking process in Anchorage? Was there any priority for getting off the ship? Were the busses that took people out of the port area prompt or did people have to wait? We’ll be in Anchorage on June 26-27 on the Westerdam and our port time on the 26th was pushed back to 11 a.m. and some of us have rental cars and other plans we made for earlier in the day (when we expected to arrive around 8 a.m.) Sorry about the Kenai Fjords weather and rough seas. Have you done that excursion before? We did it several years ago on a beautiful, sunny day. It was amazing. We’ve booked it again for June but I will watch the weather reports in case we want to cancel. HAL gave us very few excursion options for Seward which is such a wonderful tourist area.

Our experience at Tracy arm was like @RuthC. This year we plan to take the Hubbard Glacier excursion direct from the ship.

If you do this excursion from the ship you will transfer to a smaller vessel (catamaran) and there will be enough indoor window seating for everyone. You may get wet transferring to the smaller vessel if it is raining and the transfer does require sure footing. The crew will guide people from the ship to the boat. (similar to a tendering process) We really enjoyed the close up views of the ice that breaks off from the glacier, and the close up views of the shore and the wildlife. We were able to see a couple of bears on the shore. I can’t imagine anybody being disappointed. People can go outside to take pictures or just hang out. Take a bag or something to leave at your seat if you move round the boat.

If HAL will give you a 3 person guarantee stateroom with Club Orange and you don’t care where your stateroom is, why not do the guarantee? You will have a stateroom and CO. When HAL begins assigning guarantees they will give you a 3 person stateroom in your category or higher. If you ask for a Personal Cruise Consultant to book your cruise, you can keep in touch with that person and better control your choice of upgrade throughout the pre cruise process.

We have been sailing on the Koningsdam (Mexico, Hawaii, Pac Coast) and HAL allows smoking in the casino. No non-smoking nights that I am aware of. I think the K probably offers free and special rates for casino patrons. Got to keep those ships full!

The ship usually arrives early and is tied up at the dock at the arrival time posted. Your excursion instructions will tell you where to meet as CCJack indicated above. Just be there at the meeting time which may be 15 minutes before your excursion time.

We do our best to avoid the casino area because of the smoke.

@cccole The casinos are run by another company. HAL benefits from onboard spending of the gamblers in the shops, bars, upscale dining venues. The best * benefit is 4*, free laundry on every cruise for 4* cruisers….a goal worth achieving for many!