Entry 8 - Alaska Inside Passage Cruise

Entry 8 - Sept 13^th – 20^th for our Canada adventure 2017 

Wednesday 13^th was our cruise ship boarding day with our ship one of three docked at the Vancouver cruise ship terminal for the day, (you can go on line to view the ‘cruise ship terminal’ data showing how many vessels to expect on any given day at the terminal). The cruise ship terminal was rather busy with people and there seemed to be someone posted at each entry / bend directing us in the right direction. There were large queues at the various check in points and as we were entering the USA during the cruise we were directed to a seat in a very large hall waiting for our turn to be placed in another long, very long queue to clear American Customs. From entry into the terminal to boarding the Volendam took about 2 ½ hours. 

At about 1.30 pm we boarded our ship, making our way directly to our cabin and we were instantly delighted. This was our first cruise where in the build-up we had been provided with many diverse interpretations from varying people on what to expect. Initially we had booked an internal lower level room seeking stability. We had been bombarded with upgrade invitations, (which turned out to be standard procedure throughout the trip with an assault of pressure sales tactics on ship and off ship during our trip) “naturally at a further cost” and on this occasion, we relented and moved to a window view room located on the deck level, at an additional cost of $120.

On board with a picture of our ship

Our room entry

After a brief perusal of our room we were off to explore the ship which initially felt quite large (over time diminished in size) and found the casual dining area packed with people who had plates full of food. Whilst soaking in the setting and view in the comfortable setting of the top front bar / lounge we watched our departure from the port of Vancouver at 5 pm.

We're on our way

Whilst watching our departure from our seats in the front lounge we struck up our first onboard conversation with a lovely Canadian couple (Ernie & Taylor) who within a short time (15 minutes or so) invited us to stay at their home for a couple of days when we are on our planned trip through the Canadian Rockies in a few weeks. We watched the sun setting as we cruised out of Vancouver, dined in the dining room and spent the evening in our room going over the copious amounts of information about the cruise, provided for our attention.

We didn't obtain a photo of Ernie & Taylor till later in the cruise - this one typical of our time together

Day two a was a cruising day through the inside passage where we watched the beautiful rugged green coastline go by. We participated in onboard activities including, learning about shore excursions, how to use your digital camera, dressed up for gala night sharing an evening meal at a table with two other couples, one couple Americans with the other Canadians. Then we all continued together to view the captains address, watched a live stage performance “Rock Legends” and listened to a solo piano player singing Neil Diamond songs late into the night.

Getting ready for the evening act before it got packed

Friday, day 3 at 1 pm we docked at Juneau, the capital of Alaska and spent 4 hours walking around town, acclimatising ourselves with Alaska townships and people. At one stage, we had a delightful conversation with a couple who were utilizing the Alaska Marine Highway system (ferries, container ships and other forms of ship transports) which is the main transport system for getting around Alaska as there are no connecting roads and they were spending as much time as they required exploring the different areas they accessed.

Our closest view of bald eagles

As it turned out we were bombarded at each town we docked, with a saturation of high pressure sales tactics and the Alaskan capital, “Juneau” was typical with 28 jewellery shops along a 300-metre section on the main street. For our evening meals’ we had been selecting to be seated with different people randomly selected by the dining room manager. Ironically one of our evening table companions was Paul from Perth whom Steve had bumped into several times during the day whilst moving about on ship looking for that special photo shoot and we didn’t know one another’s names until we introduced ourselves at the dining room table.

Our ship travelling sideways leaving port

Day 4 we were woken at 6.20 am by the noise of the boarding gangway being attached to the ship at our next port of call within a few metres of our room. We were up early and knew we were in for a long day. We initially stayed onboard as it was wet outside and we participated in a computer photo enhancing lesson. Once the rain slowed to a light drizzle we took a walk around the town for several hours. Skagway was a quaint small town and obviously relying heavily on tourist trade for survival. It was more low key, with a smaller population than Juneau. We did relent and venture into a jewellery store and yes, we did purchase a nice necklace for Mary. There was an Aussie night for drinks but we created our own, chatting with other Aussies at dinner long after we finished eating. We watched BBC documentary on Alaska accompanied by live performing musicians providing dramatic music.

Mary standing - with our window the second to the right

The black in the water is salmon swimming up stream to spawn

No scruples with tactics used to ply peoples money 

Our ship at the other end of the street.

Day 5, Sunday was a day spent on board cruising along Glacier Bay viewing the promotional scenery utilized by all the cruise ship companies promoting the Alaskan Inside Passage Cruise. The maximum temperature was forecast at 2 C with the day starting at 6.30 am for a quick breakfast followed by an introduction presentation to our day in Glacier Bay, presented by The Glacier Bay Park Rangers, who boarded from a smallish vessel at about 6.45 am. 

We were rugged up in our thermals, wearing all the jackets we had with us and it was still bitterly cold outside. From the ships upper decks’, we were mesmerised by a landscape of steep mountains rising out of the ocean with peaks covered in ice. There were areas of bright white fresh snow, deposited in the last week signalling the approach of winter.

We spent several hours outside not wanting to break our gaze away from the magnificent scenery, we even saw a bear moving about in a bay, white mountain goats scampering across some steep terrain, otters playing in the water, seals lying on a chunk of floating ice and a constant change of cloud covering.

This is the location we saw the bears and goats with great views via binoculars but too far away for a good photograph

The highlight of the day where the ship remained stationary nearby the “Margerie Glacier,” for about an hour and we even saw some ice walls breaking away from the glacier crashing into the waters below.

More good company whilst watching the scenery

Once we had executed a U turn everyone streamed inside to the meal room for hot food and drink. 

Evening entertainment was provided by a magician show and the Indonesian component of our crew.

Monday day 6 we docked at 10 am at Ketchikan where we hopped onto a bus, travelling to a rainforest location where we paddled a 37-foot native style canoe around a lake. We had samples of smoked salmon, fish chowder and hot chocolate before a short rainforest walk. Then into the canoe to row back to the bus. We were seated at the front of the canoe, everyone had to follow our paddle strokes. That was a bit daunting – we had to try and keep a nice steady rhythm. A bit of a workout for Mary’s hand, but she pulled up pretty good. The room stewards had been topping up the ice bucket for us twice a day for us to utilized for ice packs on her hand. The service was fantastic.

During happy hour, we reacquainted ourselves with Ernie and Taylor whom we met at the very beginning of our cruise. During our first meeting, we only managed a short period together during which we found out they lived not far from the Rocky Mountains, regularly travelled with their own caravan, (rv – trailer) and within 15 minutes of meeting they had invited for us to visit them during our Canadian Rocky Mountains trip. We had been very busy since, not crossing paths until our second to last night. Our first encounter with Ernie and Taylor lasted about 15 minutes and with a second get together we got to know one another much better over a 5-hour period.

Day 7 was spent cruising through the inside passage. We experienced a while in thick fog with the sound of the ships fog horn broadcasting our presence in the background. We participated in a couple of cooking presentations. Once the fog lifted all eyes were on the beautiful green treed nearby coastline. We were regularly entertained by the breaching and water spouts of whales in the distance. We saw a couple of orca whales and humpback whales close by. It was another exceptionally good day.

Ernie assisting with advise for our Rocky Mountain trip 

Orca Whale fin

Humpback whale spouts

The evenings live entertainment wasn’t till late and we were struggling to stay awake. It was a very comfortable environment inside the ship and the only solution to stay awake was to go outside onto the deck and do several laps circumnavigating around the ships deck. It was dark and cold. Initially no one else was silly enough to go out in the cold night air until Taylor and Ernie decided to join us. We did seem to have similar thoughts, including those occasional or was that regular silly moments. The nights live entertainment consisted of a magician show and a comedian which were both fabulous and a great way to finish off our cruise.

Cruise Summary – we were happy with our choice of obtaining a window cabin providing natural light and able to view some of the scenery and movement outside, thus we possibly spent more time in our room than we might had without a window. The Alaskan Inside Passage and glacier bay scenery was fantastic which we would gladly love to experience again. We cruised on the near 20-year-old Volendam ship, part of the Holland America group with a potential of 1400 passengers. It was slightly dated and didn’t have some of the features of the current larger ships. We did have a terrific time, the food, service and entertainment was all good and we met plenty of nice people and some very special ones.

We have left our ship for the final time.