HAL D-4L Land Tour and Oosterdam Southbound Cruise - July 2014

It was an unbelievable vacation and I enjoyed it from start to finish. Would I do anything differently? No, I would not change anything. With never having been to Alaska before, taking the HAL land/cruise package gave me great insight of what I want to do next time I visit Alaska. Would I do the same exact trip again when I return to Alaska? Probably not. When I return (hopefully in July of 2016), I would really like to do just a two week land package and skip the cruise. I would use the Alaskan Railroad as much as possible as I loved traveling by train versus by bus. I want to go back and spend more time in Seward, Alyeska, and Denali, but would skip going back to Fairbanks. I would also really like to visit Talkeetna on my next trip. I would also like to go back to Juneau and Skagway and spend a couple days in each port, but that will be on a latter trip.

I have mixed feelings about taking another Alaska cruise. I almost feel the sea days were lost opportunities to see and do things. I greatly enjoy my Caribbean cruises to relax and enjoy the ship itself, but I just cannot look at an Alaska cruise in the same light. Maybe I am too young and active… Holland America did a fantastic job on the land portion, but I was disappointed with many aspects of the cruise itself (see my previous post with comments on the ship and staff). If you can only do a seven day cruise out Seattle or Vancouver, you will greatly enjoy it. But you will also miss out on so much without going to visit the places on the land tour, so please try and take a land tour as part of your cruise. You will be so glad you did!

It was a very hard trip to pack for, but my thinking to plan for all types of weather proved to be very wise. I dressed in layers, so taking on and off one layer worked very well. I also bought a nice pair of waterproof hiking boots before the trip. These boots not only keep my feet dry, but also warm when I was outside and the temperature was cool. A ski hat and ski gloves were also very useful. Keep in mind that while it may be warm out, one you start moving on a boat over cold water and near Glacier’s, it is no longer warm outside. Many people on our tour did not bring warm clothes and were not able to stay outside long to enjoy the scenery and take lots of pictures. Our tour in Prince William Sound was a perfect example. It was probably close to 60° in the sun while we were standing still. But when we were moving, it was cold on-deck and all my layers, hat, and gloves felt good. I also bought a lightweight waterproof raincoat and pants before I left. This was a great investment as I was not forced inside when it started to rain.

My camera has a rechargeable battery and I should have bought a spare battery as I could not make it a whole day with one charge. I did buy a pocket USB charger before I left and this saved me on the whole trip. I would plug my camera in when I was not going to use it for a bit (like while eating) and it greatly helped keep my camera battery charged. I did bring my laptop with me, so I could download my pictures every night. If not, make sure you have spare cards.

Thank you for letting me share our Alaska adventure with you. I hope that it will inspire those who have not been to Alaska to go while giving others ideas what they may or may not want to do during their trip. There is so much to do, I feel like I hardly starched the surface of all the possibilities to see and do in Alaska. I am happy to answer any question you all may have. Alaska….you have my heart!

Really enjoyed your review and fabulous photos! Thanks

Enjoyed your report and pictures very much!

We did this same cruisetour in June but you did some different excursions than what we did so I really enjoyed seeing what you did.

We hope to return to Alaska in 2016 or 2017 but want to do two weeks of cruising next time.

Enjoyed your review and beautiful pictures. We will be doing the same land and cruise tour in July and I was wondering if you remembered when you recieved your itinerary for the land portion, mainly what hotel you would be staying at and arrival times at the next destination. Would love to do the Fly Denali tour, did you book that through Holland America or on your own, thanks.

Thank you so very much for sharing your wonderful review and amazing pictures. We are going on the Oosterdam next July Fairbanks to Vancouver. Our trip is very similar to the one that you went on.

Reading your review was certainly helpful. Greatly appreciate the time you took to put this review together. I am so excited about our trip in July. I have done lots of research and I have planned and booked the excursions that we will be doing. We have a trip packed full of activities. So glad you had such a fabulous time on your trip!

I believe the hotel info was in the cruise documents that we printed-out when we checked-in. They were after the terms and conditions at the very end, I almost missed the info completely. HAL does not give you much advance on the times, always found out the day before what time we were meeting/leaving the next day.

I did book the FlyDenali through HAL. One more thought: The Alyeska Resort has a lot more tours than HAL offers. Also, the city of Girdwood has a great website that list even more tours. I am glad we did the 26 Glacier cruise, but do some checking to make you spend the day doing what you want.