Alphen

Are you boarding in Whittier? You will have no use for VeriFLY there!

Times sound about right, we did this two weeks ago, think it would be a charter, it stops right in front of the terminal in Whittier for embarking.

Which test results probably nobody will ask for, like us and many others experienced.

Sadly, we are not eligible for our second booster yet, since this is selected for age groups here and ours is not up yet.

I agree about the mixing of groups, we had the same experience. We were strict on masks, do not know if this kept us out of harms way, but don't think it did us harm too.

We have not posted our land and cruise tour with ships internet, but used our own travel router in Alaska, which was an experiment, but worked like a charm, will certainly use it on upcoming travels.

Safe and happy travels, indeed, since I sort of got the ball rolling, suddenly more reviews and or reports of land tours are appearing, which is a good thing. Before this, there was not a lot to be found on CC and I know that we were not the only ones that had lots of questions regarding the land tours of HAL. The more info, the better, so other people can decide if they also want to take on an Alaskan Land and cruise tour with HAL, or just enjoy the posting of the day to day review(s) here.

And from what I hear, our group was sadly no exception.

Okay, did not know that, we had airport WiFi in our room.

I am only indicating what the air carriers restrictions on their website are, not how they are implemented in an individual basis.

The checked luggage can be up to two pieces per person, as long as they don’t exceed total weight of 50 pounds or 23 kgs per person, please check Air North website, the carry on is limited at 10 kg or 22 pounds, but nobody checked. https://www.flyairnorth.com/flights/baggage-carry

It is indeed in the Tour Tips documents on the HAL website, but in this document it looks you have to part with some of your luggage, but when we were well underway in our tour, it became clear that it is an option, you can hold on to your luggage all the way. Since everything regarding luggage is handled by staff every stop, we chose to have all our luggage with us, all the way. Weight and size limitations are as per Yukon Air North website, but it turned out they did not check any weight or size of the carry on.

Verifly I keep finding extra information in our travel data and records, that I think may of use to future travelers, so don't be surprised if this thread does get some updates after it looked like to be finished. I do not know if I was clear about the use of Verifly, when boarding a cruise in Whittier after the land tour; you do not have bother to use Verifly! This was in our specific case, but the way the staff worked on the train, it seemed usual business for them. Cruise check in will be done on the cruise train while travelling from Anchorage to Whittier and Verifly is not used at all, so don't bother. After the electronic check in on the train, we were issued a green "security cleared" (if I remember correctly) inlay for our passport, which had you directly enter the security check line at the boarding area for the ship. All of the electronic check in is while on the train, including (currently) proof of vaccination and the negative test result. Photos are taken of your passport and of your face, while on the train for the security access on board. We had pre-loaded our picture ourselves in the Navigator App, but this was apparently on top of that. It turned out that for several people the required photo for security access to the ship did not make it all the way, so we had it re taken on board (again).

In my memory, I seem to recall that it was possible to make a reservation for speciality restaurants on board, with seating time and number of guests. We were on board last week and I was unable to find this in Navigator? Did I remember incorrectly?

Land Tour, Tour Tickets; Another thing that might be useful to know; tours during the land portion, either included in the standard program, but also the ones that are booked extra, do not come with vouchers or tickets. At each location you will receive a package, containing hotel information and also a sheet with listing of (included) tours and their meeting location and times and departure times. We found it helpful to carry this sheet with us, as and extra proof of purchase of the booked tour. In one case (Diamond Tooth Gerties), there were some issues in getting in the venue without proof of booking. Turned out there was some missing communication between HAL Tours and the venue, which a day later was solved, probably start-up problems. Nevertheless, it never hurts to have this sheet with you, as an extra purchase proof of the tour(s).

Planning Land Tour brochures; During the planning of our Land Tour, we asked for and received several brochures ahead of time sent to our home address; · Denali National Park Brochure; https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/park-brochure.htm · Skagway White Pass and Yukon Route Railway; https://wpyr.com/brochures/english/ · Dawson City and Yukon; https://www.travelyukon.com/en/guidebooks

Information at start of Land Tour Working through all of the information we received during our Land Tour and that we all saved and took home, here are two sheets that may give some valuable information;

Likewise, rooting it will go!

In addition to the hotel information, all hotel rooms that we stayed in, had more than enough electric and USB outlets, to use and recharge the usual electronics.

I don’t think we would have done anything different. You always here about other tours that had more luck in wildlife spotting, but that is luck of the draw. Skagway in combination with something active is a wise choice, we did ours with hiking. Only thing a little bit disappointing was a guided hike on our arrival afternoon in Denali, looking back, we might have been better off on one of the self guided hikes out of the Denali Park visitor centre.

Seating is ONLY on upper level, lower level is for dining and you are invited for dining on the lower level in small groups and only for the duration of your meal. For the rest of the journey, you are all seated on the upper dome level.

Wildlife Pictures Bald Eagle

Wildlife Pictures Vancouver Squirrels (for us from Holland, this is wildlife) 🙂 Harbor Seal, Vancouver Whitehorse Beavers in the Yukon river Family of Foxes in Whitehorse Bird-life Tombstone Park Caribou during Fairbanks Riverboat Tour, part of the Chena Indian Village Living Museum Hurd of Caribou in Denali National Park Grizzly Denali National Park Young Moose in Denali National Park Anchorage Moose Sandhill Crane Tony Knowles Coastal Trail Anchorage Black Bear Tony Knowles Coastal Trail Anchorage Coastal Brown Bears Hubbard Glacier

Additional Denali Pictures Because we can't get enough, how lucky we were, weather wise;

I have dropped you an email, with four attachments, which I hope are not too large.