Holland America Alaska Cruise Review
When we got married in May 2016, we decided to go to Alaska and go on a cruise for our honeymoon. Picking a honeymoon destination seems like a big deal, with numerous destinations to go to, as well as options on how to get there. In the end, after numerous brochures, and research, we booked a Holland America Alaska Cruise with Holland America Cruises.
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It’s not our first time to go on a cruise. We actually went on a smaller one to the Bahamas from Cape Canaveral on Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas in preparation for this longer cruise. We figured most people on honeymoon prefer to feel luxury a bit: taking an all-inclusive resort in a sunny beach. We’ve done that before, so why not see nature with the all-inclusive benefit from a cruise?
Before we booked this, we attended 2 AAA events with Holland America featuring Alaska cruises. During travel fairs (AAA sponsored as well), we collected brochures from various cruise companies that go to Alaska. Heck, we even researched smaller cruise ships! Here were the cruise lines that went to our short list and why we didn’t choose them:
Aside from the price, the Holland America southbound cruise that we were eyeing had a stop in Glacier Bay National Park. While we wouldn’t physically go down in Glacier Bay, there’s a park ranger who will be going up on the ship and explaining the various wildlife and providing a commentary about the glaciers.
Not many ships actually include Glacier Bay National Park on their routes. In fact, to preserve the site, the National Park Service limits only two cruises per day in the park. Most other ships include the Hubbard Glacier if they can’t get to Glacier Bay, so if you find a cruise that actually suits your schedule AND stops by Glacier Bay, it’s a shoe in.
The price of Holland America’s verandah is also comparable to the other cruise lines. However, they gave us a deal when we booked through Costco: we got $250 in shore credit to use on the ship. We could use it for anything we would want: drink packages (NOT), shopping, shore excursions, even tips!
In summary, we mostly chose the Holland America cruise because it fit our dates and budget. Oh, and also because Glacier Bay National Park was part of the itinerary, of course.
Holland America attracts certain types of clientele. As our host in one excursion said: newlyweds, nearly dead, and overfed. It was a bit funny, but it’s actually true.
While we didn’t meet a lot of newlyweds, we would say that majority of the cruisers (like 70% +) are.. err… from the baby boomer era. Most of them are pretty cool, but you can’t expect a cruise to be the same level and energy as Royal Caribbean in terms of entertainment.
The cruise that we chose was a 7 Day Southbound from Seward, Alaska and disembarks in Vancouver, British Columbia. I silently complained to Peter – “Why do we have to disembark in Vancouver? Why not Seattle?” But it is what it is.
The 7 Day Alaska cruise itinerary is as follows:
You can read more on what we did and on which dates in our 2 week itinerary post. You can also read more about our first impressions of Alaska.
In a nutshell though, here are our comments:
I wish we went to Skagway instead of Haines. Seems like there’s plenty more to do in Skagway than in Haines itself. Good thing I managed to find a local Haines company to book a tour with. And we were in our own group when we went to see the bald eagles up close (not to mention we didn’t pay the exorbitant amount the cruise ships were asking for).
I wish the ship spent more time in Juneau. There’s so many things to do there. Also, a good friend of mine lives in Juneau, so we definitely had options and activities. Also saw a humpback whale near the ship, so that was a plus.
Ketchikan was a good stop. It was rainy when we were there, but we made the most of it nonetheless.
Almost every cruise line overcharges you on their shore excursions. They must make such a big markup on every tour that they sell. After talking to one of the local Haines operators, the cruise lines dictate how much you should sell the tour to, and will forbid you to sell activities outside of the cruise lines. The cruise lines take up around 40% of the cut!
We did our research beforehand and we ran the numbers. We won’t be a finance and travel blog if we didn’t do our due diligence, right? Our verdict? Avoid these shore excursions with a ten foot pole. Some of them are crazy expensive like $200+ to go to Kenai Fjords National Park, $400+ on a helicopter tour + something that lasts only 4 hours. That’s like $100/hour… per person. It’s crazy!
We did, however, book one shore excursion… an extended Mendelhall Glacier experience. For almost 3 hours (2 hours exploring, and the other hour just getting to the glacier and back), you get a bus to the Glacier. Granted, you can do it yourself or book in another company outside the cruise line but the difference was only $5-10 per person and we didn’t bother.
Oh, as a disclaimer: we had extra shore credits to spend, so instead of letting it go to waste by buying stuff on the ship or even buying booze/alcohol, we spent it on an experience.
There’s a huge library on the ship, and I think it’s called the New York Times lounge. You can use the computers to read New York Times articles (Peter did, almost daily) or you can also check the ship’s activities in advance. You can borrow a book and take it to your stateroom or you can read in the lounge.
It’s a peaceful place to go to, and some of the other cruisers just sit in there and hang out. There’s also puzzles to be completed which became a communal thing – where anybody can help put the puzzle together.
There are daily trivia contests onboard the ship. You can be in a group with a maximum of 6 people, and if you win, you get Holland America pins. Yay. I think this is one of our most favorite things to do and we ended up trying to join the trivia contests daily. We won two: one from BBC Earth, and another one on our last night of the cruise.
One big event on the ship is the BBC Earth Game Show. This is separate from the BBC Earth trivia show, where three teams of two people compete on stage in front of the other cruisers. The questions were all related to BBC Earth TV shows: nature, animals, maybe even a bit of travel in it (something I am passionate about).
I have to say I got really competitive in the game show. In the end, we won (yay – bragging rights), and everybody got a bottle of champagne as a prize (wish they gave me BBC Earth DVDs or something, but whatever).
The shows are good: except for a comedy show that I had no idea what he was referencing. We decided to leave before it ended and retreated to our room. My favorite shows were the ones with the singers and dancers: they did one with fairy tale themes and I really liked that.
There were onboard talks and presentations like what to expect while cruising, and how to buy stuff on shore. We mostly went to them in the hopes of winning a free item, but sadly we came home empty handed.
My favorite onboard talk was from our shore excursion expert: but I think she did her talk a little bit too late. It was scheduled while we were cruising the inside passage and it was the day before we were set to disembark in Vancouver. The talk highlighted the various animals and places that our director has seen. It would have helped if this was done on the cruise day before we were going to these cities. It may have helped us look for more wildlife.
We were in the MS Noordam – a smaller ship. The shopping options were a bit small – as compared to Royal Caribbean, where the atrium is where everything is happening and makes the ship feel bigger than it is.
The layout of the ship is quite confusing as well. Where you’ll embark/disembark will change depending on your port, and you may need to walk through corridors with rooms just to get to the other side of the ship. I pity those people who stay in those rooms – it must get noisy.
Personally, I prefer the food in Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship. It feels as if the Lido deck is the same as the sit down dinner in Holland America. Like, there’s nothing that will make us want to go have a sit down dinner.
Related Post: Our First Ever Cruise (Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas Review)
They changed our tables so many times in Holland, so we didn’t get to connect with any of the waiters/attendants. In Royal, they made sure to seat us at the same table or area even if we had an open seating plan. In Holland, it is a bit awkward that you’ll end up sitting on a table waiting for other people to join you for dinner as well… until nobody arrives after waiting for a few minutes then you get reassigned to your own private table. Waste of resources, if you ask me.
We did enjoy the choices in the Lido – there were tacos, Asian food, and steak… lots and lots of steak choices everyday. A difference though – you have to wait in a queue for someone to serve you your dinner portions. You can’t just get the food on your own (except maybe for the dessert table).
If so, Holland America may be a good option for you. We would even go so far as to recommend a balcony when you cruise Alaska as the outside scenery is just amazingly beautiful. You don’t want to stay cooped up in an inside room and have nothing to see.
While the activities could have been more entertaining, if you went on the cruise to spend time with your loved ones, or you are happy enough to watch DVDs in your state room, or just to sit and read a book during the cruise down times, then this may be the perfect, quiet cruise for you.
Any tips on cruising in Alaska? Do you think this review helped you out? Please feel free to save this post on your Pinterest for more inspiration!
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Holland America’s food was average to very bad in my opinion. Sushi in the buffet was inedible and Asian food a variation on the Indonesians cooking it with a different sauce only. Meats like any us buffet choice. Desserts dry and hit and miss. Ice cream cheap in quality. Pizza inedible. Dining room just a step above this with excellent service though