Oosterdam Aug 10th followed by Canadian Rockies

I will do that. I hope after that long bus ride I won't be too scared to get out there. I'm afraid if heights but I'm usually ok if I'm closed in. It will be nice to get away for the weekend.

Those are nice buses though if you are taking Brewster. Comfy. Verrry comfy. I do understand about the "heights" thing. Good luck, I think you can do it! Unlike me, who has wimped out on a trip to Katmai, because I don't think I would be able to get on the little plane (one of my big fears).

It'll be fine. You won't be alone, there will be other people. I think that will help a LOT.

Those are nice buses though if you are taking Brewster. Comfy. Verrry comfy. I do understand about the "heights" thing. Good luck, I think you can do it! Unlike me, who has wimped out on a trip to Katmai, because I don't think I would be able to get on the little plane (one of my big fears).

 

It'll be fine. You won't be alone, there will be other people. I think that will help a LOT.

Yes Brewster. That's good to know. I was on an excursion in Costa Rica for about 10 hours on a bus with a bad hangover and no bathroom. That's the last road trip I've done. I was hoping it wouldn't be like that. That's true about having people around and it helping. A few years ago I was in Quebec at St. Anne's canyon. It's seriously beautiful. I needed to cross a bridge with a ton of rushing water underneath it. I was freaking out saying I couldn't do it. A guy told me to just look straight ahead and don't look down. I did it but it was scary. I appreciated his help.

Just reporting back from the glacier skywalk. It was really cool. I enjoyed it but I am scared of heights. I got there quite early in the morning and I'm glad I did because it would be brutal with a lot of people. The rest of the trip was not great but I'm glad I did it.

That Skywalk looks terrible. What a horrible thing to do to what was once a beautiful viewpoint on the Icefields Parkway. Jasper is National Park, not a theme park.

Like to see some pictures, bring a camera.

OP, how was your cruise and the tour of the Rockies?

Cruz Chic - thanks for reporting back. Great picture but too bad about the low cloud/fog.

Well I’m finally back as promised - a little late but ready to write a short review. We did a Holland cruise tour on 8/10/14 Seward to Vancouver on the Oosterdam. We did an overnite in Vancouver at the Pan Pacific and then our tour continued north east thru Canada into Banff National Park. We ended up in Calgary and flew home on 8/22/14.

Just basic info on the trip… I book our flights myself. Holland was only offering late night flights into Anchorage and I felt you lost a whole day travelling. Since we were flying in a day early and I knew that there were later connecting flights to Anchorage out of Chicago I made all our arrangements. We flew United Cleveland to Anchorange and return Calgary to Cleveland - $950 total.

We were in Anchorage around 1pm and had the whole day to explore.

Left early in the AM on a bus to Seward...we dropped some people off that were doing the Kenai Fijords tour (we had done that the last time - it was included in our price then and now Holland charges extra for it) ….got there too early to get on ship so the driver took us on a 40 minute tour of Seward and surrounding area. We got to the ship at 11 and in 10 minutes time we were on the ship.

The Oosterdam…..I’ve read some not so nice reviews but we really did not have any issues at all. Most of the staff are friendly and the waiters were very nice. Two days before we left the house our Travel Agent emailed me and asked if we were interested in an upgrade from our oceanview Room 1002 to Balcony for only $99 a person. I had her check and she came back with the 4 rooms that they had offered. We took 8134 which is on the aft of the ship...has a balcony twice the size of most of the rooms. We loved that room. By changing to this room we also had a shower/tub combo which made that much nicer also. We contacted our friends from Wisconsin and they were able to upgrade also and were about 15 rooms down the hall from us. It was great. We met our room steward Adi in the afternoon and saw him at least once a day or more. He was very good. If we asked for something extra he took care of it right away. We always leave an envelope every evening with $10 in it on the bed for our steward….I feel that he deserves the extra cash without having to share it with someone that we might not have any contact with. I don’t know if this makes a difference but in our 4 cruises we have always had excellent service. We ate at the Lido for breakfast and lunch if we were on the ship and ate at the Vista for dinner. I can’t remember any food that we did not enjoy. We also ate one day at the Dive-In and the hot dog was tasty. Most of the entertainment was enjoyable...although they should replace the magician. We tried to get a couple things in every night - and the programs they did at the Culinary arts / Queens Lounge were fun. Dancing with the Stars was entertaining except for the night when they had a young crowd that wouldn’t pay attention to the teacher and I felt sorry for her. Since we were staying in Vancouver to continue our land tour we didn’t have to be off the ship until 9:30 and it went very smoothly. All in all - yes the ship could use some updating...but when you have that many people cruising and no down time between the cruises...I think they did a good job.

Excursions - Since we had done this cruise 6 years ago and at that time did the helicopter landing on glacier, float plane, etc….this year we picked one Holland excursion per port and I have to say we were not disappointed in any of them.

Haines: Glacier Point Wilderness Safari

Juneau: Best of Juneau / Whale Watching Quest, Mendenhall Glacier and Orca point Lodge for buffet lunch

Ketchikan: Bering Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour

I forgot to mention that from the first day in Anchorage to the last day in Calgary we had rain every single day…...Maybe just a quick sprinkle ….sometimes a long downpour….but rain everyday. We decided that we would not let it stop us from having fun and it didn’t.

I will continue on in my next post with our land tour section…..

Sorry no pictures - I’m just not that computer smart…...

After a land-cruise sailing southbound we did our own travel booking for the following:

We'd booked the Rocky Mountaineer (leaving 2 days after our cruise arrived in Vancouver) for the 2 days to Jasper via Kamloops.

In Jasper we had a rental car waiting where we spent 2 nights so we had time to tour around the National Parks.

We took 3 days driving south on the Ice Parkway with a lot of stops for nature's beauty.

We did the glacier

Spent the night at Lake Louise

Spent the night in Banff (high tea at the Fairmont is fabulous!)

Flew home from Calgary

It was so beautiful it took your breath away :)

Well I’m finally back as promised - a little late but ready to write a short review. We did a Holland cruise tour on 8/10/14 Seward to Vancouver on the Oosterdam. We did an overnite in Vancouver at the Pan Pacific and then our tour continued north east thru Canada into Banff National Park. We ended up in Calgary and flew home on 8/22/14.

 

Just basic info on the trip… I book our flights myself. Holland was only offering late night flights into Anchorage and I felt you lost a whole day travelling. Since we were flying in a day early and I knew that there were later connecting flights to Anchorage out of Chicago I made all our arrangements. We flew United Cleveland to Anchorange and return Calgary to Cleveland - $950 total.

We were in Anchorage around 1pm and had the whole day to explore.

Left early in the AM on a bus to Seward...we dropped some people off that were doing the Kenai Fijords tour (we had done that the last time - it was included in our price then and now Holland charges extra for it) ….got there too early to get on ship so the driver took us on a 40 minute tour of Seward and surrounding area. We got to the ship at 11 and in 10 minutes time we were on the ship.

 

The Oosterdam…..I’ve read some not so nice reviews but we really did not have any issues at all. Most of the staff are friendly and the waiters were very nice. Two days before we left the house our Travel Agent emailed me and asked if we were interested in an upgrade from our oceanview Room 1002 to Balcony for only $99 a person. I had her check and she came back with the 4 rooms that they had offered. We took 8134 which is on the aft of the ship...has a balcony twice the size of most of the rooms. We loved that room. By changing to this room we also had a shower/tub combo which made that much nicer also. We contacted our friends from Wisconsin and they were able to upgrade also and were about 15 rooms down the hall from us. It was great. We met our room steward Adi in the afternoon and saw him at least once a day or more. He was very good. If we asked for something extra he took care of it right away. We always leave an envelope every evening with $10 in it on the bed for our steward….I feel that he deserves the extra cash without having to share it with someone that we might not have any contact with. I don’t know if this makes a difference but in our 4 cruises we have always had excellent service. We ate at the Lido for breakfast and lunch if we were on the ship and ate at the Vista for dinner. I can’t remember any food that we did not enjoy. We also ate one day at the Dive-In and the hot dog was tasty. Most of the entertainment was enjoyable...although they should replace the magician. We tried to get a couple things in every night - and the programs they did at the Culinary arts / Queens Lounge were fun. Dancing with the Stars was entertaining except for the night when they had a young crowd that wouldn’t pay attention to the teacher and I felt sorry for her. Since we were staying in Vancouver to continue our land tour we didn’t have to be off the ship until 9:30 and it went very smoothly. All in all - yes the ship could use some updating...but when you have that many people cruising and no down time between the cruises...I think they did a good job.

 

Excursions - Since we had done this cruise 6 years ago and at that time did the helicopter landing on glacier, float plane, etc….this year we picked one Holland excursion per port and I have to say we were not disappointed in any of them.

Haines: Glacier Point Wilderness Safari

Juneau: Best of Juneau / Whale Watching Quest, Mendenhall Glacier and Orca point Lodge for buffet lunch

Ketchikan: Bering Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour

I forgot to mention that from the first day in Anchorage to the last day in Calgary we had rain every single day…...Maybe just a quick sprinkle ….sometimes a long downpour….but rain everyday. We decided that we would not let it stop us from having fun and it didn’t.

 

I will continue on in my next post with our land tour section…..

Sorry no pictures - I’m just not that computer smart…...

Looking forward to hearing the rest. I'm very happy you weren't in Calgary this week for our super early snow. Thx for coming back.

Here is the land tour part.....

Vancouver 8/17/14. We had the full day to see Vancouver and since we had already done the City Tour in 2008 we decided we wanted to do something fun outside the city. We were booked at the Pan Pacific Hotel which is upstairs from the cruise ship terminal. We met with the Holland Representative and she gave us our travel packets for the rest of the trip. We were no longer traveling with Holland - we were now part of the Brewster Vacation tour. After checking into the hotel and dropping our luggage we went downstairs and talked to the visitor center. We decided on a trip out to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park which is in North Vancouver. Tickets are $37 (you will save $3 if you buy your tickets there). The free shuttle picks you up in front of the hotel and comes by every 15 minutes or so. It was worth every penny of it. Not only do they have the 450’ long suspension bridge they also have the treetop adventure where you are walking on bridges from tree to tree and also the cliff walk which hangs out over the cliff. It was so much fun. We had extra time in Vancouver after eating at a pub and decided to check out the Fly over Canada. I will say that the flying part which makes you feel like you are soaring over Canada with the mist and everything was fun...the movie in the beginning was a complete waste of time. So in the end I would say it was not worth the $18 charge. In walking around we found the underground food court and decided that to save money we would have our breakfast down there the next day. We had choices but we choose McD’s because we are happy with what they offer.

Vancouver 8/18/14 We got up in the morning and had to cross the street to the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. That is where we were to meet the Brewster Representative. After waiting about ½ hour someone comes in and asks us if we were ready…..turns out it was only the 4 of us on the tour from Vancouver to Kelowna and then the next day on to Banff. We were in a 40+ person bus and the 4 of us sat in the front seats. It was like a private tour. We could move around to take pictures….it was great. We asked the driver why she didn’t bring a smaller bus but she said there wasn’t one available and they needed the big buses once we got to Banff. So for 2 days it was just the 4 of us and the driver. I have to say that the country side was just gorgeous. I forgot to mention in my pre post about Alaska part of the trip that I had never seen such beautiful flowers and Canada had the same. We stopped along the way for breaks and pictures on this whole tour of Canada (except the bus from Banff to Calgary). On the first day we stopped at Ft Langley for about an hour to do a self guided tour…..had lunch (included in the tour) in Harrison Hot Springs (Morgan’s Bistro), and then stopped at Little Straw vineyards for a short tour and wine tasting. We stayed at the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort in Kelowna and is on the water. It was gorgeous. Food was expensive in the hotel so we chose to try the food at the casino which was attached to the hotel. I had read somewhere that the food was reasonable and good. I have to say that 3 of us had the liver and onions and it was very good. Contrary to what I had also read on the internet about the casino being boring and not paying out …. we played on the penny slots for a couple hours and came away with some of their money. We had picked up a tourist book earlier in the day and there was a coupon for the casino if you signed up for the players club they would give you $5 free money to play. So we signed up and they gave us each $10 free money and also a $10 coupon each for food. Since we had already had supper we used this coupon before we went back to the room to pick up $10 each in snacks for the rest of the trip. So I have nothing bad to say about this casino…..and our stay in Kelowna.

Kelowna 8/19/14 We boarded the bus after a buffet breakfast at the hotel (included) and headed on the road to Revelstoke. We made a stop at a market place - the size of the fresh blackberries was amazing. This place had everything from fresh vegetables, an instore bakery, and I bought 2 used paperback books for $2. We also stopped at Craigellachie which is where the last spike was driven in the Canadian Pacific RR. While there the Rocky Mountaineer train when thru with all the tourist headed on to Banff. Later that evening at our hotel we were on the elevator with a family that had been on that train from Vancouver to Banff and we were talking to them about how long it takes because the freight trains have the right of way and the tourist train has to wait each time the freight trains go thru and their teenage son said they didn’t care how long it took - what a great way to see Canada. Although the mother also said she couldn’t believe how much of the time the train followed along the road with the cars and that was disappointing to her for what they paid for the train…Next stop was in Revelstoke for lunch (included) at the Coast Hillcrest Resort Hotel...Food was very good - I had grilled salmon with a blueberry sauce on it. ..We came thru Roger’s Pass (Glacier National Park) and stopped at the Spiral Tunnels. This was interesting but disappointed that there weren’t any trains going thru at the time we were there to get a real understanding of how the tunnels worked. We stopped at Lake Louise to take a quick break and some photos of the lake (which was a good thing because when we stopped there the next day - it was rainy and foggy). Bus dropped us at Fairmont Banff Springs hotel for 2 nights. This place is gorgeous…...just amazing…..you can’t even take one picture of the whole place it’s so huge. We were on our own for food so we ate in the lounge area and had a wonderful view of the grounds and flowers. Food was good - and it wasn’t too expensive. You really do not get the time to enjoy the hotels as leave early in the morning on the tour and get back early in the evening.

Banff 8/20/14 This is where we no longer have the bus to ourselves. We are now travelling with full bus loads. They picked us up early Wed. morning and we headed towards the Columbia Icefields. We stopped at Lake Louise and a few other places to pick up more people and headed up to Athabasca Glacier. We had a buffet lunch (included) before going across to the glacier and being picked up by one of the Ice Explorers. These are really cool vehicles that travel on the ice. We got to walk on the glacier and some were drinking the glacier water. I have bad knees and didn’t want to take the chance on reaching over to get to the water and slipping on the ice. From here we drove another short distance and walked out on the Glacier Skywalk. This is amazing as they have built this out off the cliff and the floor is all glass so you can see below you. The view is breathtaking and was a really cool stop. If I’m not mistaken I think that Brewster owns both of these attactions….I’m not sure what the charge was for either of these because it was included in our tour. It’s funny because this Skywalk is just like the Cliffwalk in Capilano only about 100 times bigger….. Both were fun experiences. On the way back to Banff we saw goats, eagles, Mama Black bear and baby and also got a site of an elk. Not alot of wildlife but at least we saw some. As I said we had rain most of the week. We had the driver drop us in town after the tour so we could do some shopping. Picked up a few items at the Safeway Grocery store for breakfast and walked in and out of some shops. We took a bus back to the hotel (I think it was only $1) and a lot better than walking all the way.

Banff 8/21/14. Today we had to pack up everything to take with us on the morning tour. Problem is we changed buses three times today at their bus terminal in Banff. My big complaint about Brewster is that they do not have help for their drivers when they get to the terminal. He has to move all the luggage himself. This is so time consuming. Our travelling friend twice took it upon himself to crawl into one of the luggage containers and pull out luggage for people to help out. He told the driver what he thought and the driver just shrugged his shoulders…..I don’t think he even thanked him for helping. All it would take would be a couple of extra workers at the terminal so when a bus comes in with a load they could run out and help load and unload the luggage. We did have some good drivers that were very entertaining…Colin especially was fun. The driver on the last leg of our trip from Banff to Calgary never spoke at all. Before going to Calgary we finished up our tour of the Banff area...Tunnel Mountain Drive, the Hoodoos, Bow Falls, Lake Minnewanka and also we did the Banff Gondola (included). Unfortunately for us - it was raining again and so foggy but since it was included we took the gondola to the top….couldn’t see much while we were up there and decided not to venture out on the boardwalks at the top since we wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway once we got to the end. I’m sure it was very beautiful had it been a clear day. We arrived in Calgary in early evening so we really didn’t have any time to explore the area. We stayed at the Fairmont Palliser so we were close to Stephens Avenue Walkway where there are tons of places to eat. We settled on a small sports bar that was downstairs and I had wings with blueberry/BBQ sauce which were really tasty. Of course my fingertips were blue when we left there. We had walked by the Mc’D’s across the street from where we had supper so we knew where to go to get breakfast in the morning. (On a side note the buffet breakfast at the hotel was $30 - Yikes!!) We were able to print our boarding passes to return home the next day and going thru customs was a breeze.

Another note of interest. If you are staying at a Fairmont hotel (we stayed at the Banff Springs 2 nights and the Palliser 1 night) make sure you have them sign you up for their free rewards program. By signing up you get the wifi free in your room which normally costs $14.95/a night which I think is outrageous after paying so much for the room you would think the wifi would be free.

The land tour was great. All of the hotels were first class - very nicely done. The places we ate at that were included in the price were very good and we had no complaints. So other than lack of help with the luggage at the terminal I would say that Brewster Vacation did a good job. It’s too bad the weather didn’t cooperate….but it could have been worse….I saw on the news where Calgary got blasted this week with snow…..and it’s only September…..

Thanks to all the cruise critic members that help people like me make good choices when we travel......

I hope this helps people decide whether this would be a choice or not for them and if I can answer any other questions - I’ll be glad to try.

Happy cruising to all and safe travels...

I'm so glad that your tour went well! Thank you very much for reporting back.

Enjoyed reading the rest of the review. I wish hotels would include free internet. I seem to always have to pay for it. Sorry your weather was so sucky but it sounds like you made the best of it. Thx for taking the time to come back and let folks know about it.

I'm just happy that the snow in Calgary waited a couple weeks before it showed up :) Hard to believe it's already middle of September....and within a couple months we'll also have more snow that I want...

I'm just happy that the snow in Calgary waited a couple weeks before it showed up :) Hard to believe it's already middle of September....and within a couple months we'll also have more snow that I want...

Yes, we have been known to have snow any month of the year. The joys of living just east of the Rockies!:rolleyes:

Glad you missed the snow and even happier that you saw our city prior to thousands of trees being destroyed.

We were disappointed that we didn't have more time to see Calgary when we were there but unfortunately we got there early evening and had to be at the airport for a late morning departure. My sister would have liked going to the Olympic center and doing the luge run.....and she's in her 70's. A little too fast for my liking. Now it's time to try and figure out a new place to cruise as we have done Alaska twice, Hawaii, and Quebec to the New England states during fall foliage. I would love to do Australia (and was really surprised how many people we met on this trip that came from there). But that cruise is probably way out of my price range so I'll have to come up with something more reasonable. Nice chatting with you....I hope you have travel plans also

We were disappointed that we didn't have more time to see Calgary when we were there but unfortunately we got there early evening and had to be at the airport for a late morning departure. My sister would have liked going to the Olympic center and doing the luge run.....and she's in her 70's. A little too fast for my liking. Now it's time to try and figure out a new place to cruise as we have done Alaska twice, Hawaii, and Quebec to the New England states during fall foliage. I would love to do Australia (and was really surprised how many people we met on this trip that came from there). But that cruise is probably way out of my price range so I'll have to come up with something more reasonable. Nice chatting with you....I hope you have travel plans also

Yeah, that's the problem with getting in a little later. Wow, your sister is brave! Also Calgary is so spread apart if makes it difficult to see things quickly. Traffic is also a problem. I want to thank you again for coming back to the thread. I enjoyed reading about your travels.

Well I’m finally back as promised - a little late but ready to write a short review.

Hi M and M

Thanks for your review, which I really enjoyed. I'm just back from a similar trip the other way round and made a few videos which show some of places we both visited (Gondola, Skywalk etc). They can be found here

All the best, Tony