This was a back to back cruise May 6-20,2001 on the HAL Statendam
Vancouver-Seward-Vancouver. Overall this was my 14th and 15th cruises, and
5th and 6th to Alaska. This was also my first trip on Holland America. after
others on Princess, Celebrity, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean.
Pre Cruise
As is my normal policy I flew up to Vancouver from my home in the San
Francisco Bay area early, in this case to visit with some Internet friends
over in Victoria. I arrived late Friday night and took a free shuttle over to
the Travelodge Hotel in Richmond near the Vancouver airport. Standard room
but all I was looking for was a place to sleep for the night. In the morning
I flew over on the the very short flight to Victoria and met up with my
friends for a nice personal tour. After a short stop to drop off the luggage
we were off to explore. First stop was the beautiful Butchart Gardens and a
nice stroll through the flowers. After this we drove downtown for a nice
lunch and a walk around the downtown. This area has lots to see with the
Empress Hotel, numerous museums and Government buildings. After a nice dinner
and evening I went to sleep with my my bed turned down and a chocolate on the
pillow. Very nice way to get into the cruise life! In the morning we all took
the ferry ride across to Vancouver and I was driven directly to Canada Place
to meet the Statendam.
Article continues below
Embarkation
On all my documents this was listed as 3pm with a sailing time of 5pm. From
experience I knew this had to start earlier and we arrived a little after
noon. Bags were given to the porters at curbside and I walked directly in
with no wait. Check-in line was very short with numerous booths open and
after maybe a 5 minute wait it was my turn for processing. This paperwork
check lasted another 5 minutes and I was done. Actual boarding started about
1/2 hour later prompty at 1pm and I was aboard. Overall a fairly quick and
painless process.
Cabin
I was in cabin A760, an outside on the lowest passenger deck, left side
midship. Pretty standard cabin layout with one queen size bed and a small
couch. Two end tables, a desk and bureau with 6 drawers. 4 closets with one
containing shelves and the safe. One thing I did not like was that you had to
carry your HAL ID card, the cabin key card and another key card for the safe.
Most of the newer ships combine all three into one unit. Bathroom was decent
size with a bathub instead of just a shower. Personally I would have
preferred just the shower as the sides of the tub were very high and hard to
climb over. I'm sure that some people found this very hard to get in and out
of. Cabin was adequate but not anyhing huge, and not noticeably larger than
other lines.
Food
I was assigned to late seating and upon boarding went to the desk set up to
handle changes. I made my request and was told they would check into it but
that they were full. The next morning I did receive the change to early
seating which I had requested. On one of the later nights of the first week I
was asked my preference for the second week and was assigned early seating
right from the start. Because of tours and my schedule I actually never ate
in the main dining room the second week, instead eating at the casual Lido
dinner nightly. I found the food overall to be OK but below that on both
Celebrity and Princess. No real complaints but nothing exceptional. I did
like the convenience of the causal dining but this was only open a relatively
short time each night, generally 6:15pm-7:45pm. I also found the setup a
little ackward. Food was set up in a buffet line where you picked you items
and the tables were set with tableclothes and full silverware/glassware. This
looked nice but when you went to your seat with a full tray you could not set
it down on the table immediately but had to unload each item onto the table.
I like the Princess setup better where you actually order and they serve the
different courses just like the dining room, but will admit this way was much
faster. Really just a buffer with fancy tableclothes.
There was a hamburger/ hot dog bar setup daily for lunch. along with a taco
bar. I did like this but they must not eat many tacos in Holland as the
individual items were never set up in the correct order to make your taco
easily. Much confusion resulted as you moved back and forth along the items
and really slowed down the line. Pizza was available daily but I was not very
impressed and skipped it most days. On Princess this is one of my favorite
items so I was a little disappointed.
Breakfast was pretty standard fare, I did enjoy the omlet bar and the french
toast almost every day. One thing that was very popular was the free Ice
Cream bar daily. Several flavors were offered along with different toppings
and cookies. I will admit to visiting this more often that I should have. LOL
Ports
As this was my 5th time up to Alaska I had a pretty good idea of what I
wanted to do in each port. I did not book any tours through HAL but the ones
offered were pretty standard for the industry. Pricing was average but can generally be beat on
your own. Although I did not do it this trip I highly recommend either a
helicopter or floatplane trip somewhere along the line, preferably out of
Juneau.
Ketchican
On both visits I just wandered around town, taking the walking tour available
from the visitor center on then dock. Creek Street is a very nice area to
wander around but other than shops there is really not much to do in the
downtown area. personally this is not one of my favorite ports.
Juneau
Now this is a port that offers numerous things to see and do and usually you
have a lot of time to use. First stop we had a pretty rainy day and I'm sure
that most flightseeing tours were cancelled. I took a tour to the Mendenhall
Glacier for $20 purchased on the dock from Mendehall Glacier Transport. Our
driver Stewart was great and we stopped at the Chapel by the Lake along with
the Glacier. His commentary along the way was hilarious, he gave opinions on
almost every subject. Highly recommended and about 1/2 the price as the same
tour aboard the ship. Rest of the day was spent wandering around town trying
to stay dry. On the trip back southbound we had much better weather and now
wish that I had tried to take a flighseeing tour as it woould have been a
great day for it. Instead I took the local bus for $1.25 down to the local
shopping area for a nice ride. This can be taken to the Mendenhall but drops
you off appox 1 1/4 miles from the visitor center. This would bea cheap
option and the way to go on a nice day to see the Glacier at your own pace.
In the afternoon I rode the Mt Roberts tram as I wanted to see the snow up
top. People that had visited on my northbound stop said they had a full blown
blizzard at the top that day. I had a beautiful sunny day and hiked for a
short distance through the snow for some nice views. This is a nice short
excursion but would not recommend purchasing this thru the ship. Price is the
same dockside and you can wait to see if you actually have a sunny day and
will be able to see anything before spending the money.
Sitka
Both days here I had so-so weather, periods of sun and rain. Heard some good
things about the wildlife tours but just walked around myself. Be sure and
head down to the Totem Park to the right of the dock area, this is about a 1
1/2 mile walk one-way. There is a nice trail thru the woods with some good
views of your ship anchored in the harbor. About another 1/2 mile away is the
Raptor center, another nice place to visit. On the way back there is a small
grocery store which is a good place to stock up on beverages.
Glacier Bay
On both visits I had perfect weather, gorgeous blue skies and no rain. On all
my previous visits it had rained here and while still very nice was not
nearly as impressive. On the first visit we saw lots of calving with one huge
section coming down, VERY impressive, created a nice wave headed towards the
ship which really got us rocking. Several Officers said they had never seen
such a large piece fall before. This was a very nice day but I was always
amazed at how everone would disappear as soon as the ship turned around. Both
visits I relaxed on a lounge chair on the stern deck out of the wind and
watched us sail back down the bay ALONE on the rear deck. Very nice way to
spend some time.
College Fjord
This is one of my favorite spots and it was veryimpressive. What was not so
nice was that the bay was still clogged with ice and we could not approach
the Glacier face closer than about 8 miles. On previous visits I had sailed
right up to the face but could see why we could not get closer this time.
Even one of the smaller expedition ships only went in a little past where we
were. Trip northbound we stopped about 6-9pm and had the sun behind us.On the
southbound trip we arrived around 6-9am and were looking directly into the
sun which made a very bad photo opportunity. Again still a nice stop.
Seward
As I was sailing back to back this was a port day for me not disembarkation
as for most of the other passengers. I had booked a tour over the Internet
with www.kenaifjords.com and it turned out to be perfect day weather wise. I
took the Kenai Fjords Fox Island tour and cost was $119 for an 8/12 tour with
a Salmon Bake on Fox Island. This was a fantastic day with about 20 of us on
a tour boat that would hold appox 150. Visibilty was almost unlimited as we
could see the mountain range on the other side of the Gulf clearly 80+ miles
away. We visited many different bays in search of wildlife and saw whales,
seals, moutain goats and bears. While stopped at a glaicer to watch calving
we heard a rumble behind us and turned around to see an avalanche coming down
the mountain side into the bay. Awesome! This is also highly recommended but
most people don't get a chance to see any of Seward at all.
Back to Back
This was my first time sailing two cruises back to back and was an
interesting experience. It sure gives you a feeling of power at the end of
the first week to ignore the disembarkation talk and packing and just enjoy
the day. Even better was the turnaround day when I just ignored waiting for a
group to get called to disembark and just walked off the ship! Also fun was
during the second week to get invited to the repeaters party and get some
free goodies. The second week was very relaxing and was spend on my schedule,
catching up on the shows and movies that I had missed the first week. I was a
little surprised at how few passengers there were with lots of time aboard
HAL as it was my impression that there would be many more. There were 4
couples that had 300+ days and 8 with 100+ days aboard the second week. While
this was my first cruise with HAL I've got almost 150 total, most with
Princess. Other cruises I've been on the passengers with the most sea days
have been in the thousands and there have ben many more in the 100+ group.
Not sure if it ws the itineary or the time of year that caused the, at least
to me, low total of repeaters.
Disembarkation
This turned out to also be a fairly well organized process. The night before
I had requested to move into a lower group from my assigned #22 to get to the
airport and try and switch to an earlier flight home. My new group was #12
and of course the next morning they called #22 about 15 minutes before #12!
In any case I was off the ship by 9:30am and to the airport by 10:00am. No
complaints here.
Weather
This turned out about what I had expected. The first couple of days were
rainy, the middle week sunny and the last couple rain again. Temps were
mostly on the mid 40's with the high about 50 in Seward. Dress in layers if
you plan on being on deck as it can get pretty cold with the wind. I bring a
ski type cap, gloves and a scarf.
Misc thoughts
I thought that the Statendam was a very well laid out ship, with lots of
outside viewing areas both in the bow and stern. Numerous lounges to sit
quietly and read or just enjoy the scenery. The dining room was very
impressive with a great view through large windows from my second floor stern
location. Was not real impressed with the entertainment, in this matter I
prefer the quality and choice on Princess.
Internet Access
On the ship Internet access was .75 cents a minute with the first 5 minutes
free, In Ketchican I found a place called Soapy's Stations that offered a 50
minute card for $5. They are located to the far left of the ship dock in
Ketchican, past Tongass Trading and at the far side of the next small shop
area. In Juneau they are downtown, just past the Alaska Fudge store in the
small mall on the second floor. Very easy to use a and a pretty good deal.
Final thoughts
Overall a nice cruise, 14 days away from work can be very relaxing. Alaska is
one of my favorite places to cruise as 6 trips will attest. I find the
scenery just awesome to look at and it looks different each trip depending on
weather conditions. Personally I recommed sailing Northbound as the scenery
gets more impressive as you go.
I did like Holland America but think I still prefer Princess first followed
by Celebrity. In any case make sure to put a trip up here on your list of
things to do.
