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D3T Alaskan Cruise Tour on the Statendam 8/28-9/8/2013

RedHeadTexan

By RedHeadTexan,
in Holland America Line

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RedHeadTexan

RedHeadTexan

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Today we were in Juneau and hoped to have decent weather for whale watching. So far this entire trip has been cold, wet, foggy, and nasty winds in recent days. Thankfully, today was simply overcast and cool.

 

Back in April I booked a whale watching tour with Harv & Marv after recommendations from one of my friends. We had Captain Liz and only two other passengers on the small boat. The seas were calm and the rain stayed away, so we were able to see 8 humpback whales, 1 calf, sea lions, and bald eagles. It was absolutely awesome!

 

 

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The mini-bus driver for Harv & Marv does a 15 minute stop at Mendenhall Glacier on the return trip. We opted and informed the driver that we would not be returning to the bus. We hiked to Nugget Falls which took about an hour round trip with photos. The sun came out while we were hiking and it was spectacular seeing the glacier and icebergs sparkle. There was also a small wedding going on out there...very neat.

 

 

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We caught the white bus back and just gave the driver the $8 per person fee to get back to town. I highly recommend staying at the glacier and spending the money to take the bus back. When we got back to Juneau around 2pm, we were starving. We had a good and colorful lunch at the Red Dog Saloon near the ship. They had decent live music, and once again we drank Alaskan Beer.

 

After lunch we stumbled upon the gift shop for the Alaskan Brewing Company. Since we had enjoyed so many of their beers on this trip, we decided that a few souvenir shirts were in order.

 

Tonight we ate dinner in Lido for their Taste of Alaska buffet. The food was good and there was a sizable crowd up there. The dessert extravaganza was by the Lido pool at 10:30pm. The desserts were delicious and the ice carvings were amazing.

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RedHeadTexan

RedHeadTexan

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Finally, the clouds, rain, fog, and wind left us and we had an absolutely perfect weather day in Ketchikan. I started off with the 5 Step Treatment in the spa that included a back, foot, and scalp massage, body brush, and a facial. It was very relaxing and ended with the usual sales pitch...which I politely turned down.

 

Months ago I booked a Misty Fjords seaplane trip with SeaWind Aviation. We got off the ship and wandered to the meeting point, then took a short ride to the float base. The 2 hour trip was spectacular! I got to sit in the back of the plane, so I did not have much to obstruct my photography. We landed on an alpine lake and were able to walk around on the pontoon dock for a bit. The pilot was awesome and took our picture. I am still amazed that after all of the bad weather that we had a perfect flight. Sunshine and no turbulence at all.

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The van driver recommended the Halibut patio on Creek Street for a good lunch. We both had the halibut and chips and enjoyed it a bunch. The fried halibut was not greasy at all. The patio is outside of a bar, so if you want anything other than bottled water then you buy that at the bar and pay for the drinks in there. The restaurant is only on the patio and it cash only. There is an ATM in the bar in case you don't have cash. (restaurant is the patio at the building on the right of this picture)

 

 

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Since we were already on Creek Street, we walked up to the Salmon Ladder and watched the fish leaping up stream. Our trip timing was perfect to see it. We finished the afternoon by shopping and getting some ice cream.

 

 

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At all aboard I decided to hang out on the Lower Promenade to watch for late arrivals. 5 minutes before sail away the missing couple showed up getting off of a charter boat. Security and the port person were walking towards them and these two just sauntered on up to the gangway. If it were me, I would have been in a full out sprint and saying "I'm sorry." Wow.

 

Tonight was formal night, so we went to Canaletto once again. The service was stellar and we finished off the bottle of Chianti from the first formal night.

 

At 2am the clocks moved forward one hour.

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RedHeadTexan

RedHeadTexan

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Today was the final sea day and due to the time change, we overslept. We managed to get up to the buffet at 10am for breakfast, and decided to skip the Mariner's Brunch at 11am (we picked up our tiles at the front desk later in the day). That would have been way too much food. After breakfast we went back to the cabin and started packing. Finished that up pretty quickly, so we found a cozy spot in the Explorer's Lounge to read our Kindles. The weather was back to being the typical Alaskan weather we had been experiencing this trip: Cold and Foggy.

 

We ate lunch with a nice elderly couple from Boston in the Rotterdam dining room. And did the final tea at 3pm of cupcakes and teas. Since the fog was so thick and we could not see any of the inside passage, we spent the day indoors. We went one last time to the final happy hour at the Ocean Bar with our great bartenders, Ed and Raul. They seemed very appreciative of the extra cash tip I gave them for a week of excellent service.

 

We did our final dinner in the Lido and had a little difficulty finding bar staff to take our drink order. I managed to find our wine steward from Canaletto and he took care of us.

 

Probably one of the most spectacular things I have ever witnessed happened after dinner. We went outside on the Lower Promenade to see if the fog would lift and perhaps we could see a bit of the Inside Passage. Well, it lifted and then about 50 dolphins swam along the port side of the ship...right where we were! DH took video and I took tons of photos. Just an awe inspiring sight and a nice way to end this trip.

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RedHeadTexan

RedHeadTexan

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Today it was time to go home. Everything went smoothly with the ship transfer to YVR. We did have to wait for 1.5 hours before we could check in, but after that it went great. I really liked going through US Customs and Immigration before the flight. We ended up with a flight delay in Chicago, so we finally got to the house at 2am to the delight of our cats. We both had to go to work in a few hours and in retrospect I should have taken the day off...oh well.

 

Overall Impressions

For the vast majority of the 12 days in Alaska the weather sucked. There is just no sugar coating that fact. We knew that there was a chance of poor weather by going this late in the season, so we just rolled with it. I am glad that I did my homework and brought lots of layers, and we had fun in spite of the weather.

 

This was our 2nd HAL cruise and we were giving them a second shot after a not so good cruise (that’s code for bad and I was shocked that Walt ever agreed to go on another cruise after that) on the Zuiderdam in 2006. I waited to mention this until now, because I did not want this to cloud anyone's opinion of my review. I am happy to say that Walt and I were both very pleased with HAL and they will be considered for future cruises. The service on the ship was next level and the food in the specialty restaurants was excellent.

 

This cruise tour fulfilled my needs perfectly…it relaxed me and recharged my batteries. What more can I ask for? Thanks for reading my lengthy review.

 

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RedHeadTexan

RedHeadTexan

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Wow!!! Awesome photos Lisa. Thank you.

 

Hope you are feeling better.

 

Hugs

 

Marie

Thanks Marie! I am slowly getting over this cold and felt good enough to go out to dinner with Walt...and then made him go to Dillard's with me to look at gowns for the next cruise. :eek:

 

Lisa

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Grammyceej

Grammyceej

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Oh my goodness, here I was thinking it couldn't get any better than those gorgeous photos from the float plane. Then as I continue on I come to the photos of the dolphins. WoW!!!!! What a treat! We hear others getting to see whales and once a couple of dolphins but we are never in the right place at the right time. But I've not heard any of them seeing as many dolphins as you got to see. Amazing!!!! I am glad to see you did manage to get one nice weather day out of your trip.

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RedHeadTexan

RedHeadTexan

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Wonderful report. Love the pictures.

 

I am glad that you decided to give HAL another chance and everything worked out well for you on this cruise.

Thanks! My parents are loyal HAL cruisers and had been trying for years to get us to give them another shot. I am really happy that we did give them another chance. My mother was really relieved when I told her we had a great cruise. :D

 

Lisa

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RedHeadTexan

RedHeadTexan

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Oh my goodness, here I was thinking it couldn't get any better than those gorgeous photos from the float plane. Then as I continue on I come to the photos of the dolphins. WoW!!!!! What a treat! We hear others getting to see whales and once a couple of dolphins but we are never in the right place at the right time. But I've not heard any of them seeing as many dolphins as you got to see. Amazing!!!! I am glad to see you did manage to get one nice weather day out of your trip.

I am so glad I brought my DSLR with me on this trip. I took around 3000 pictures and most of them are up on FB. I tried to pick the best of the best to post here, but it was really tough. The only photography regret I have is that I didn't have my DSLR with zoom lense on the bike ride. All I had was my point and shoot and the grizzly mom and cub were too far away to get a decent shot. So, now I am looking for another camera, of course, that is more portable than my DSLR with at least a 20x zoom. My point and shoot is the Olympus Tough which is fantastic in the rain and other wet conditions, but only has a digital zoom.

 

I guess you are finding out that my 3rd passion behind cruising and fashion is photography. Oh boy, I best get to selling more soap and toilet paper to afford all of this...(I am in janitorial sales) :eek:

 

Lisa

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shrimpboat123

shrimpboat123

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If you're in the market for a Point and Shoot, I recommend you look at the Panasonic DMZ-FZ200. It is F2.8 from 25-600mm. It does 24x with Optical stabilization and 48x without. It also does HD movies with full range autofocus and you can capture images while you are taking the movies.

 

I did a review of our CruiseTour a little while ago. All the pictures were taken with this camera.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1897694

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the2ofus

the2ofus

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Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience and to post your photos. Good to know your experience with late August-early September weather in AK since I'll be doing a 14 day cruise at that time next year.

 

I'm also glad your second time on HAL met your expectations.

 

Now, on to your planning for your next cruise! Always have another one to look forward, that's my motto too.

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RedHeadTexan

RedHeadTexan

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If you're in the market for a Point and Shoot, I recommend you look at the Panasonic DMZ-FZ200. It is F2.8 from 25-600mm. It does 24x with Optical stabilization and 48x without. It also does HD movies with full range autofocus and you can capture images while you are taking the movies.

 

I did a review of our CruiseTour a little while ago. All the pictures were taken with this camera.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1897694

OMG, your pictures are amazing!!! I am heading over to Amazon now to check out the camera. :D

 

Lisa

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