sherryf

In my experience, "accompanied by adult" is very loosely followed, ie there is an adult somewhere in the pool area, sitting on a lounge chair and not paying any attention to their children, which kind of defeats the purpose of the rule. 🙄

Isn't one pool (usually aft) supposed to be adults only on all/most HAL ships? That was my understanding on my first HAL cruise (Alaska, Westerdam 2016) and although it was stated in the daily schedule at least once, it was not enforced. We had unsupervised kids in the hot tub with us, and when I commented that it was supposed to be adults only, the mother came over and berated me. 🙁 Our second HAL cruise (Nieuw Statendam Caribbean Christmas 2021) was during the pandemic, at a time when vaccinations were required but not yet available for young children. We had a few very well behaved teens on board, but no children. We never had issues with pools/hot tubs on that cruise! 😃 We leave Sunday for our next cruise (Nieuw Amsterdam Alaska) and wonder what the pool/hot tub situation will be like. We are from the Seattle area, so we do like to use the pool or hot tub even at times when others are huddled on deck with blankets. 🤣

No winter coats, just layers. Your ship does visit glaciers, and it can be cold out on deck those days, so you will want to be prepared. Hat and gloves are a good idea.

I dislike the color orange and do not own any orange clothing, so I will just pass. I don't remember there being an Orange Party on my last HAL cruise, but it was Christmas week, so either they didn't have it or I was just too busy to notice.

Have you seen moose??? We've done that drive several times, and we've seen bears, but never moose.

You don't need anything bulky. I have occasionally taken a lightweight, packable down jacket if the forecast is for very cool weather, but usually I just take layers. You don't want to take anything that will take up a lot of space in your luggage.

New Statendam Eastern Caribbean Christmas 2021 with the whole family for my son's wedding. I don't know if anything will ever beat that cruise! 😁

To be clear, this program is for "educators" so you do not necessarily need to be a teacher. I am a paraprofessional, and I qualified for it. I think anyone who works for a school should be able to get it, since you only need to show proof that you work there, not what position you hold.

Do you remember what was on it? I've tried some variations, like florentine (spinach) but not others like crab (not my thing.)

It really depends on your personal situation. We live in the Seattle area. We have mostly done round-trip Seattle cruises, but have done one each north and south bound, and are doing northbound this year. For us, the easiest way to get to/from Vancouver is using the ship transfer from SeaTac. (I know there are nicer options, but I did say "easiest".) That bus ride is about 4 hours, including the border crossing into Canada, and then we have to deal with going through customs/immigration at the port. The flight home from Anchorage is about 3.5 hours, but without the hassle of a border stop, no customs/immigration. Honestly, I find the flight to be easier than the bus ride, so I'd rather do that at the end. Of course, there are other factors, such as whether you are adding land days, etc. Many people who do a land tour prefer to do it first and then relax on the ship. Some people like to sail northbound so the scenery builds and glacier days are near the end. All a matter of personal preference.

We did this tour about 10 years ago. My husband is into history things, and he really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too, mostly because the guide was really good and made it interesting.

I love being able to eat eggs benedict EVERY DAY! 😁

Funny story... on my first Alaska cruise, my oldest son was 8 years old and obsessed with whales. He had a good guidebook that he'd been studying and he knew his stuff. One afternoon we were at the pool and there were people sitting near the windows who spotted some marine mammals. They started yelling that there were orcas. My son wandered over, took one look, and told them, "Those aren't orcas, they are Dall's porpoises." Then he proceeded to tell them the differences and how you could tell them apart. These people were just standing there staring at my little boy, not sure what to think. So I told them, "If he says they are Dall's porpoises, that's what they are. He knows what he's talking about!" 😁

I guess not everyone has the same taste. I enjoyed the Saxman Village tour (through Princess) but have absolutely no interest in the Deadliest Catch tour, especially at the price they charge. My favorite excursion so far in Ketchikan was flight seeing over Misty Fjords with Island Wings.

My first trip to Alaska was when my children were 2, 5, and 8 years old. They are now all adults. The youngest remembers *nothing* about the trip. The middle child remembers a few things here and there, but mostly getting lost in Valdez because they got distracted by a polar bear mural on a wall and didn't cross the street with us. (No worries, small town and lots of people from our ship who recognized the ship wrist band and kept track of our little wanderer until we realized we'd lost them and went back, only minutes later.) The oldest has many fond memories, mostly whale watching (he was obsessed with whales at the time) and kayaking with his dad. The littles were bored on every excursion we did. All of the kids enjoyed the kids club and the pool when it was warm enough. My point? Your younger kids may be bored and not remember much of the trip later on. The oldest will remember much more. Gear your excursions based on what the adults and oldest child will enjoy, but won't bore the little ones completely.

I've cruise to Alaska 12 times and have seen orcas, but definitely not on every trip, and they are often at a distance. I've been on 3 whale watching trips from Juneau and have never seen orcas on those tours.

N Amsterdam - 13-Aug-23 - 7 day Glacier Discovery Northbound sherryf and dh, celebrating 14th Anniversary and empty nest