Hllb

I am glad to hear they took relative care of the passengers. I am very surprised at the lack of compensation. Am I to understand that he missed the panama canal? Likely the MAIN reason for someone to take that cruise? I would be very upset by that as well, and would have expected better.

My first question would be, are you sure the flight prices are the same? I found that the open jaw flights (starting and ending in different places) are considerably more expensive. If you found good pricing for them, great! Most people, in that case, would recommend a one way cruise over a round trip. I haven't been on an AK cruise yet (June 2023), but that's what I found while researching for my trip. For the HIA fare, I would just caution you to do the math. We aren't big drinkers, so if I had two drinks a day, that would be plenty. The shore excursion credit is fairly small. You can buy the specialty dining separately too. And, I learned this, if you book through a travel agent, they may been that on board credit amount, or at least likely match it. For my family (family of 5, two cabins, including a balcony and an inside), I got a slightly better rate and a lot more OBC through a travel agent.

Thanks, there is a good picture of a boat on their site. I'd say it probably holds 50ish if it were crowded.

That first one looks like you could touch it! You guys are really selling me on this tour LOL. I'll have to show the family tonight. I did book it today, just in case it sells out. If there's only room for 30 on a ship of 2,000, I'm surprised it wasn't already sold out.

Beautiful pictures! What was the ship like? How many people does it hold? Were the seas rough when you went?

I'm pretty sure that site is a reseller for the tour, and not the originator. They sell tours at many cities.

I'm normally much more decisive than this LOL. I think the problem is that my initial desire of kayaking at Mendenhall was dashed as there are only 4 spots left and we need 5. Then I saw amazing video of the Liquid Alaska tour and was really excited. But reading reviews from last year, it seems like they do not venture onto the glacier at all anymore, though I've reached out to them via email and waiting to hear. I can certainly understand, with the current climate issues, but given the cost of that tour is over $1700, I don't know that it's worth it to simply step on the shore near the glacier. I did go ahead and book the Tracy Arm excursion, since they're both refundable, while I decide. I keep trying to determine the tour operator of the kayaking tour to see if we could possibly squeeze a 5th person in, but can't figure out who actually runs that tour. Anyone know?

Our ship is doing glacier bay but they have an excursion out of Juneau (7hrs) that is supposed to do Tracy Arm with Endicot as a back up.

How rough was the water when you went?

I’ve been reading that too and that is so disappointing. I can’t believe the price is still that high. I’ve emailed them to ask about it. It still gets good reviews but for the cost for our family, I’m not sure it’s worth it. That will be super disappointing!

I did plan on talking to her, thanks for the reminder!

The tours are the same day so I have to pick. Thanks for the YouTube recommendation though. I’m now thinking I definitely want to walk on the glacier. The video I found explored an ice cave too - that’s not guaranteed of course but would be awesome! And good point on the length of time on a small boat. Given my son’s potential sea sickness (I saw your tips on my other thread, thanks!), that could end up pretty miserable.

I have one booked that canoes in front of Mendenhall, then lands and allows you to hike around Mendenhall: https://liquidalaskatours.com/tours/mendenhall-glacier-ice-adventure-tour/ But I have this tour available through HAL and it also looks fantastic. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/shore-excursions/TAC/83701.html Thoughts between the two? I like the idea of getting up close to Mendenhall, but I also have read it's not that impressive since it's retreating. On the other hand, you might not get in to Tracy Arm on any given day.

You guys gave me a lot to think about. I seriously considered flying into Seattle and driving to Vancouver. Ultimately, I decided that would add a little too much stress to my trip. I talked with my son about potential sea sickness, and he thinks he'll be fine. He's even said he would try whale watching again as long as he had medication first. Ultimately, I booked the HAL cruise, with forward cabins, out of Seattle and canceled Celebrity. I can keep one excursion I had booked, I moved another, and canceled the Skagway one. I plan on picking up two additional ones - one in Sitka (I'm trying to get my family to agree to snorkeling, but I may lose that battle), and one in Icy Strait Point (we'll do whale watching here). Thanks for all the responses and food for thought.

I just booked today as I got a good deal from a TA. One of my cabins is refundable so if there’s a good deal I may be able to change. But I need two cabins close to each other and my cruise is filling so I went ahead and grabbed what I wanted.

Yes, I figured it would be. T-Mobile’s map looked pretty spotty and indicated it was a partner network.

Perfect, thank you!

Just wondering if anyone can speak to how well t-mobile will work at ports in AK. Specifically around the dock itself - just enough to check email, etc. Perhaps there’s WiFi at the port? Just curious. We may end up with a plan on the ship, but just in case

Why wouldn’t it? I don’t think it’s higher powered than a regular hair dryer. I have one though hadn’t thought about taking it.

Honestly, the flight prices are super annoying these days. I’m leaving for Dublin in two weeks and the flights were $100 pp less than to Seattle

Thanks. I had looked at Vancouver originally but the flights are double the price and for 5 of us…ouch. I’ll lose $400 of a cruise credit to cancel Celebrity, but no actual cash so I’m not too concerned about it. I didn’t think I’d ever use that credit anyway so had mentally written it off already. It was only $500 from a cancelled Mediterranean cruise in 2020.

Good point about the private tour companies. I guess the exception would be ones that don’t provide transportation from the dock. The kayaking we have booked at Ketchikan doesn’t pick you up at the dock so I think that one is out. But I can look at others that do pick you up.

Thanks for the thoughtful response! The one port day that is shorter than expected is the Ketchikan stop (comparing to the Celebrity cruise I already have booked). And while longer would be better, the one time we cruised we just did excursions, and not much else. We did them through the cruise line since we were new to cruising. In the instance of a shorter than desirable port time, I'd be more likely to book through the cruise line again, and independent on the longer port days. As long as we still have adequate time for an excursion, I think it will be OK. We are limited as well due to schedules - my work is quite flexible, but my husband is a professor. He's teaching this summer and the kids have plans we have to work around, so late June to mid-July is really our only window. I do like the idea of more port stops on the HAL cruise, even though X's are longer. Skagway would be a great stop, and it would be a bummer to miss it, but I'm such a planner that the uncertainty of that stop (even though it's looking more positive at the moment - we wouldn't know until after final payment), coupled with no Glacier Bay makes me think moving cruises is the best choice. I also have to contend with moving flights around, which adds a bit to the cost as well. I may try to go for a whale watching excursion in ISP, even though that is a very short port stop. My youngest has not fared well on a prior WW trip in Australia, but we also were not prepared with meds, so lesson learned. I feel like it would be better in AK as in Australia we had to go quite far out. They did warn everyone that it was very rough that day - and they were not kidding. I'd say 2/3 of the boat had issues that day. I could move the interior cabin (for 2) to midship for no increase in money. It would be on the same deck as the balcony, but not very close. Might be worth it as we could just put him in that cabin if the seas were rough. Moving the balcony is considerably more expensive. That seems like a good compromise to me - not ideal, and the adult children really don't like not being near the rest of us, but it's not a huge ship, so it might be OK with them as long as its the same deck. I do really appreciate everyone's view points and suggestions. I used to be concerned on trips that 'it may be the only time we go' and I no longer feel that way, so some compromises are likely OK. We've had the luxury of taking some really nice vacations over the last 5 or so years. I was quite sad when the pandemic hit and I had to face not being able to take some epic vacations in the last 2 years with my older kids at home. Lucky for me, they've stayed at home for college (since hubby is a prof, and they got scholarships, their college is covered at his university) and still enjoy vacationing with us.

Got it, thanks. Some of the port times aren’t ideal, but most are ok with me. We can do a nice excursion at most of the ports. I’ll just likely book through HAL on the shorter port days. With a family of 5, open jaw tickets are quite pricey and Vancouver was surprisingly expensive too so I settled on Seattle as we can do direct on our preferred airline.

I don’t know if any did but those other ports do have ships already planned so they may not be options. I would be ok with another port but not a sea day