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By John Hinnen – I have just completed my seventh, or from my perspective eighth, cruise on Holland America. This time my wife and I sailed on the “Ryndam” from Vancouver to Alaska. 

For photos, click here.

For me this was a very special cruise. See, in 1960 my family immigrated to Canada from Holland. We did so by sailing from Holland to Halifax on the Ryndam II. My wife would say that we’ve done Holland America seven times, but I like to count the trip in 1960 as a cruise as well.

I told the Captain and others with Holland America about the significance of being on this ship, but truth is I’m sure they’ve heard stories like this before and didn’t seem all that interested.  

Overall we’ve now sailed over 60 days on Holland America ships, but that’s nothing compared to one woman on this ship who had completed 20 World cruises with Holland America. She’s sailed over 2,000 days with them - that’s over five years of cruising. As the captain mentioned during the Mariner lunch, she’s sailed more than most crew members.

Overall, my wife and I have now completed over 20 cruises, but this was our first to Alaska. Truth be known, I was never a big fan of going there, but since I could tie it in with a trip to Vancouver, I figured why not?

As it turned out we were going on the last ship sailing to Alaska this summer.

We’d heard that the weather this summer for most sailings had been very poor with lots of rain. I can tell you that we lucked out.  

One reason Alaska did intrigue me a little more this year was the appointment of by John McCain of Sarah Palin, Alaska’s Governor as his running mate. 

Our first stop was Juneau, the state’s capitol. I made it a point of asking people at each stop what they thought of her, anticipating that they’d all think this was great, that one of theirs was running for one of the most powerful positions in the world. Polls apparently say she has an 80 per cent approval rating in the state, but I couldn’t find one supporter at any of the stops. In Juneau where Palin’s governor mansion sits, I could find little support for her. “Apparently Palin believes the capitol should be in Anchorage,” said one woman. “As far as the mansion goes, she’s only been there for three days since she’s been governor. She doesn’t like us.”

Second stop was in Skagway. Skagway is a very small town. It only exists because this is where those searching for gold would go to wind their way up to Dawson City. Here some locals also made comments about Palin saying she spent time there, but never acknowledges it. 

Our third land stop was in Ketchikan, the place where they were supposed to build this “Bridge to nowhere.” We sailed in between the mainland and the airport where the bridge was to be built. The locals here didn’t have much use for her either saying that she didn’t live up to her promise to have the bridge built. So all-in-all, not a lot of support from what I could see.  

I did see one tee-shirt with a slogan that could be interpreted as being supportive, but that was all I saw. The tee-shirt read, “Our mama beats your Obama.” But outside of that, no bumper stickers, no election signs, nothing. 

Getting back to the cruise, it was probably one of the best I’ve ever taken. I have spent considerable time in Vancouver over the last decade, so mountains are not a big deal. But what I saw in Alaska was much more than mountains. The glaciers we saw were awe-inspiring.  

Let me tell you what we did at each stop.

I’d been in touch with Holland America’s Sarah Scoltock. She handles PR for HAL’s Alaska tours.  I asked her which tours she would recommend. She told me that in Juneau I should consider taking a helicopter ride that lands on glaciers. We took a tour called the “Pilots Choice” because the pilot decides where he’s going to land based on weather and views.

The day was overcast and by the time we booked it, we could only get on the late flight. So we left the dock around 4 p.m. A bus took us to the heliport at the airport. After undergoing a quick briefing on the equipment and safety features, we boarded the chopper. The choppers they use supposedly sit seven people, three in the front (including the pilot) and four in the back. They try to arrange you so that the weight on the chopper is equally spread out. Still, it was very cramped in the back. But that aside, what a tour! We flew over a couple of glaciers including the Mendenhall Glacier which is located just outside Juneau. As part of this tour we made two landings on the glaciers. Our pilot Chip was magnificent. You could tell he was pumped. One of the reasons might have been that this was his last flight for the season.  

If you ever get a chance to take this tour, take it. To stand on a glacier with ice cracks all around you, in the middle of nowhere, was one of the most incredible feelings I’ve ever experienced.  It was as if you stepped out of society. It was so peaceful. Chip actually had us all stand there in meditation to grasp the beauty and serenity of the occasion. This was one tour I’ll never forget.  

Our second stop was Skagway. Here Scoltock suggested we take the White Pass Yukon Railway. There are a number of ways you can take this tour. You can take the train to a certain point and come back. Or you can take a two-hour bus ride that takes you into the Yukon and then you return to the ship by this train. We opted for this all-day tour.

I had never been to Canada’s far north and the Yukon is way up there. We took the bus to a very small town called Carcross.  Carcross is just south of Whitehorse. The town has about 400 people living in it. There used to be a hotel there. What made this hotel famous is that it was here that the famous parrot Polly of “Polly wants a cracker” lived.  

We stopped for lunch at an outpost. Here they had a large collection of stuffed animals on display including the world’s largest Polar Bear and Marmot.  

After lunch we toured Carcross. That took about five minutes. But then it was off to Fraser, B.C. where we boarded the White Pass-Yukon train. The train tracks that are still in use today were built in the late 1800s to take thousands of men to the Klondike Gold Rush. The trip back to Skagway was beautiful. Amazing scenery. The trains all have platforms which were wonderful places from which to view and take pictures. 

Back in Skagway we toured the town. Interesting thing about Skagway is that there are no doctors here.If one needs a doctor you have to fly to Juneau which is about an hour and a bit away. They have a school and this year four students will graduate. For the past few years Holland America has made it a point to host the school’s graduation ceremony and prom on a ship. This year’s event was on the Ryndam.

On the next day we spent hours cruising “Glacier Bay National Park.” We sat in front of a glacier known as the John Hopkins glacier. It’s a Tidewater glacier. That is to say it empties into the ocean, where as the Mendenhall Glacier that we saw earlier in Juneau actually flows into a lake. When Glacier Bay was first discovered in 1794, Captain George Vancouver found a bay of ice. By 1879, a naturalist determined that the ice had retreated up the bay by 48 miles and this was before global warming. A hand-out given to us by the U.S. National Parks service says that glaciers and polar ice contain more water than all of the lakes, rivers, ground water and atmosphere combined.  

What was fascinating was to see the thickness of the ice.  When we looked at this glacier, it was about three quarters of a mile wide and probably 600 feet deep. Quite often you’d hear cracks and lo-and-behold more ice would fall in the water. Our ship was surrounded by ice. Moving in and out of this ice flow required us to go very slowly. But what a sight. 

Quite often as we sailed near land we’d see all kinds of sea life from whales to sea lions. It was fascinating to see them so close. 

Our final stop took us to Ketchikan. It’s a very cute little town. One of the attractions we wanted to see was Creek Street. This is where the town was originally erected. This little street has a creek going through it and since it was spawning season we saw thousands upon thousands of salmon trying to make their way past and over a rushing waterfall. The area did have a stench to it as many had already died trying to get up. But I’m told during high tide many do make it up. 

Because this was one of the final cruise ships to go to Alaska in the 2008 season, most stores had sales on their remaining merchandise. It was interesting to note that many of the stores you see in the Caribbean have also opened up locations in Alaska. One store owner told me that he spends six months in Alaska and the other six months at home in St. Maartin.    Others have similar arrangements insofar that they have stores in St. Thomas and other Caribbean islands. 

To give you an idea of the kind of savings we were able to find, I bought a Mont Blanc pen for $237. I’ve seen the same pen in Toronto for $380.   

As far as the ship is concerned, it was put in the water in the mid 90s. Considering as much it’s in amazing shape. Quite frankly if you’d told me it was brand new I would have believed you. The Ryndam is probably one of the smaller ships we’ve sailed at only 54,000 tons. The previous ship we were on, Royal Caribbean’s “Legend of the Seas” is three times larger at 160,000 tons. I didn’t mind the smaller ship. It was easier to get everywhere. 

Food was great (as usual). I find Holland America’s food generally to be very good. We did have dinner at the specialty restaurant one night.  While the food was great I wasn’t overly knocked out by the service.  

The first couple of nights we tried their “anytime” seating dinner. But both nights we had to wait, what I thought was a long time. So we requested to be put on the list for late seating and the ship’s crew was very accommodating.  

The room was an outside room. Ours was on the Promenade deck which meant that people walking by could see in our room. I wasn’t crazy about this lack of privacy and wouldn’t take that kind of room again.  

One of the features of Holland America that I do love is their Explorers Café. This café sponsored by the New York Times is both their library and coffee shop. They have some very relaxing chairs in this area and it’s the perfect place to read or if you want, check the internet. We spent a lot of our time there. 

The shops on board were also clearing out all of their Alaska stuff. So were able to get some tee-shirts and sweaters dirt cheap, like 75 per cent off.  

In the end I must say that my wife was right, I did enjoy this cruise. I think if you’re going on a cruise, it’s one you should make sure you take, but it’s not one I think you need to take more than once. 

Happy Cruising.