Gray Lady

I can answer that question from experience. On the information HAL gives you, there is a list of phone numbers in the Alaskan cities as contacts. We were taken to Anchorage from Denali to quarantine, so I called the number listed as a contact in Anchorage. I explained the situation, and the lady made out a report. Our luggage was delivered to our hotel room that afternoon. They just want a description of it and the color of your tags. I think they store the luggage in Anchorage. The woman who helped us was very polite and, obviously, efficient. It took less than five hours from when I contacted her to having the luggage delivered. I would say you won’t have to worry about that at all. Just stay safe so you can make it to your cruise!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Before booking, I will look at other lines, especially Celebrity. I know many people like Princess, but their ships seem very large to me. To me, if a ship is too large you may “get lost in the crowd.” We have saved 10 years for a cruise and want to have a good experience. We are not overly fussy and particular; we just want value for the money. Maybe a bonus is not having cruised pre-COVID, so we wouldn’t know the difference.

We only did the riverboat cruise, too. The hotel was jammed with people not wearing masks or social distancing. On our motor coaches there were only 4 of us who even masked. We tried to stay away from others, but it was just impossible.

That means you should be protected the entire trip. I almost wish we had caught it a few months before our trip. Would have been an added layer of protection.

Yes, that is true. We were casualties of that. Made it only from Fairbanks to Denali, and we wore masks the entire time (I only counted 8 people in Fairbanks who even wore masks). I believe DH caught it there. Too many people converging from too many tours taking no precautions. Half the folks already had their cruise and have no testing to fly home so don’t care about the people who need to test to do their cruise. Also, testing before starting the land tours makes people over-confident. We self-reported so as not to infect anyone else and spoil their trip. Did get to spend five days in Anchorage…in quarantine..lol! I do enjoy your pictures. It allows me to see what we missed. We will try another year and meanwhile cruise through your eyes!

I have a few questions for you, if you don’t mind. I assume that you have been on other cruises…maybe other ships and other cruise lines. How was the experience on the Nieuw Amsterdam? We had booked a Signature Suite on the 6th deck for this cruise with Have It All. Do you think that is a decent location/room? How was the food? We are thinking of maybe taking a cruise through the Panama Canal now instead of going back to Alaska next year. Is this a good ship to go on a 17 day cruise? Should we look at other ships/lines? We liked the idea of a more sedate cruise versus party time. Any insights, thoughts, or suggestions would be much appreciated. I bet you are glad to get back home! Thank you!

I wish you a safe, and on-time, flight home!

From our experience, they won’t even mention masks on any part of the land tour. Just know that between a third to three fourths people on every tour are testing positive and missing their cruise.

Thank you. I have so enjoyed your pictures, but it is also bittersweet. You are on the cruise that we missed.

Which ship are you on, if I may ask?

I will have to do that. I am going to start submitting paperwork this next week for our trip insurance. My TA said he would walk us through it. I didn’t know if the trip insurance would pay us our per diem (without receipts as stated) or whether HAL will reimburse. We shouldn’t, hopefully, have FCC as we never made it to the ship, and our land tour was interrupted.

Yes, sadly we missed our cruise due to positive tests on land tour. Too many people, not enough masks, no social distancing. Thank you for the pictures so we can enjoy the cruise through your eyes.

We self tested before Beacon tested us, so knew what the result would be. We also told them DH had a positive test so as not infect anyone else (though from what we saw, no one else seemed to care about catching it). We did this two days before mandatory testing before boarding the ship out of an abundance of caution. We were in Denali and they had a special black bus (Black Death plague come to mind…lol) that transported people to isolate in Anchorage. Our bus transported both HAL and Princess passengers. There were 7 cases on our bus. I believe the mandatory COVID test before starting the land tour (which no one checks) gives a false sense of security to many travelers who have to navigate planes, airports, etc. before even beginning their land tour.

In our case, I called the Flight Ease number given to us on our sheet, and they changed our flights for us. Very nice man…just took over an hour to get an agent.

They said they would give us $100 per person per day with no receipts needed.

You are so correct! This is what happened to us. We started land tour and with all of the people mingling we caught COVID. I can say that the people who cruised first don’t really care because they have no testing to do before they go home. The land tour first people are paying the price for this. Too many people jammed together in Denali and Fairbanks.

Just wondering if anyone has done this and I am curious how it works. We finished our quarantine and were told we would get a $100 per person per diem for food while we quarantined. All our paper said was that HAL would reimburse us once we finished our isolation period. Do they do this automatically? Do you get it with your refund for your hotel room? Do you contact them directly? Just wanted to learn from someone else who had done it so we know what to expect and do. Thank you!

Yes, we had our second booster at the very end of March. Should have waited until later.

We were strict on our mask wearing, too. Sadly, we were in an extreme minority as the virus found us anyway. Airport crowding is also a contributing factor.

I have really enjoyed your posts and pictures, especially since DH and I tested positive after four days on our land tour. There are just too many people on the land tours co-mingling. You have folks pre-cruise and post-cruise mixing for all events at maximum capacity. Our biggest regret is we tested positive before our cruise. Thank you for letting me enjoy it vicariously through your posts!

Just my two cents on airfare. We booked through our cruise line, and are eternally grateful that we did. Caught COVID on land tour, and had to quarantine, missing our cruise. Our cruise line arranged our tickets back home because we booked with them. Saved us a HUGE headache!

I brought some of the suggested items mention in the above posts, and am so glad! We were on a land tour before cruising and DH came down with COVID. How we contracted it is another story, but suffice to say it was from too many people close together, not social distancing, and no masks. Anyway, we are doing our 5 days quarantine on land as per the cruise company. We can order things delivered to us. The only COVID related things we ordered (which we didn’t bring), are some Robitussin (plastic bottles will travel well) and chamomile tea. Mucinex, DayQuil, and Nightquil worked wonders. Also having Vicks and Vapo-style cough drops are a must. The worst is no cruise for us!!

Positive cases of COVID also contribute to staffing shortages. Even though illness is mild, too many cases contribute to staff having to isolate for 5 days. Too many people coming on tours, and not enough people to accommodate them. Also, they have a lot of staff having to deal with positive cases from passengers. They have at least three hotels filled with quarantined people in Anchorage.

Yes, cruising first is much better. The land tours are packed with people crammed into tight spaces with almost no masks or social distancing. We never made it to our cruise. Pretty sure my hubby, who always wore his mask, caught it in Fairbanks. Thank you for the information. We are a little beyond downtown, but that gives us a good idea of what it will cost and hopefully can prearrange one. Enjoy your cruise….hopefully next year we can do our first cruise-and we will try for Alaska again!

We are leaving Anchorage on Tuesday to fly home. We are on our own to get to the airport, and the hotel we are staying at cannot tell us anything about transportation options ( we are in quarantine). We are about 8 miles away from the airport, and have never been to Anchorage before. Does anyone have any suggestions for how we could get there -car service, airporter, etc? We have 3 suitcases and there are two of us. Just thought someone could point me in a direction for something they have used before.