Volendam land excursions -report

[mindy]

Land Excursions

Volendam, Holland America Lines
Inside Passage, Alaska
September, 2001

This was our first cruise. Prior to the cruise we ordered a video, which described the land excursions, which HAL offered. We spent many hours reading the HAL brochure as well as talking with neighbors and checking online message boards.

We pre-booked the helio trip to Mendenhall Glacier. The morning that we were take this excursion, we watched the weather and kept wondering if the flight would go, as it was foggy and rainy. My DH, who has his private pilot’s license, said he would not fly in that weather. About 11AM, it was announced that this excursion was cancelled and our money would be refunded. When the ship docked in Juneau, we bundled up and walked through the town with a long stop at the Red Dog Saloon. Non-air excursions were a “go”. Passengers who took a wild life excursion said it was very cold and wet, but they saw many whales and one baby whale played around their boat.

We had not pre-booked the White Pass Railroad, but decided to book that when we were on the ship. The scenery was fabulous! Brochure said snacks and drinks are available on board the train – snack was a bag of chips and a soda. If we had waited and booked this excursion when we stepped off the ship, we could have saved about $10. We boarded this train very near the ship. At the end of the trip, those cars reserved for Volendam passengers were taken back to the ship. The train has wooden seats, can be heated. I spent much of the time between cars enjoying the fresh air along with the scenery. We were delighted that we had chosen this excursion.

We pre-booked a floatplane/boat trip to Misty Fjords. We had decided that we wanted to see Misty Fjords from the air and from the land. The shuttle bus took us from the ship to the floatplane dock with a brief city tour. Our floatplane had 12 passengers. Others floatplanes held 6 passengers. There were many floatplanes taking off about the same time. The flight was smooth and so much to see. We would like to have had a longer flight. The boat trip back was memorable. This was one of the few sunny days in Ketchikan, so the boat took an hour extra hour getting back to Ketchikan. Many times the boat would pull into a “cove” and let us sit quietly and enjoy nature. The onboard guide was very knowledgeable about the area and could answer almost all the questions posed. The guide had seen bears and other wild life on previous trips, so she worked hard so that we could see wildlife. But there was a definite absence of wildlife that day. The only other boat we saw was a small fishing boat just as we came back into Ketchikan. This excursion was one of the highlights of the trip. I definitely would recommend taking the floatplane with the boat trip rather than roundtrip by boat or roundtrip by air.

Shopping –The only place I purchased items was at a gallery Ketchikan. After seeing shops in Juneau, my DH refused to do any shopping in the other ports. We are not big on jewelry or souvenirs, which seem to make up the majority of the shopping in these ports.

After we disembarked the ship in Vancouver and checked into our hotel, we took a floatplane through the mountains. Plane left from a dock within walking distance of hotel, Fairmont Waterfront Centre. This plane landed on a quiet mountain lake. This was a fabulous experience.

While in Vancouver, we purchased 2-day ticket on the Grayline doubledecker bus, which lets you get off at any of 22 stops. This is a narrated tour. We were on and off the bus many times and each time had a different driver/guide. The guides varied from entertaining but not informative to quite informative. We spent a half-day in Stanley Park and 2 half days Granville Island. We chose not to get off at China Town as the drivers indicated this is not the safest area of town. Other days we explored Gastown and the area surrounding the pier as well as walking to Stanley Park. We did not go to Whistler or Grouse Mountain as we had been there on previous trip.

In retrospect, I would not pre-book land excursions via HAL only because one never knows what the weather is going to be like. I can deal with some rain, but rain and cold would not make for a fun outdoors excursion for me.