The album is available under ‘Photos’ or by clicking here. Enjoy!

Check-in was a breeze in Anchorage. We deposited our luggage for delivery to the ship even though we hadn’t booked a transfer with HAL. This made the getting from the train station to the port (unlike in Europe) a complete breeze – we need only carry ourselves.

The train was spacious and well maintained, giving us plenty of room to stretch out.

The marvelous scenery and occasional wildlife (moose sightings!) were the best parts. You know the old cliché about a picture being worth a thousand words?

Here’s my essay:

Overall, the ship is nice but not fantastic. It’s public spaces look a little dated and not “elegant” in the way we might have expected.

Our cabin, however, is great! We love aft balconies, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It’s nicely appointed and brand new. Indeed, it still smells new. Love it!

Lido buffet was good. The selections were a bit limited, but the quality was high. It wasn’t self-serve… the staff handed out much of the food. Not bad… but I imagine it will slow things down on busy days / times.

I’ll post more later (probably tomorrow) including a number of pics (assuming that the Internet access is decent).

We’ll be in Anchorage for just two nights before the cruise. We’ve made no firm plans yet on what we’ll do in Anchorage on Saturday yet. But, unlike Barcelona in March, I suspect it will not involve eating tapas.

On Sunday, we’ll head to Seward via the Alaska Railroad to embark on our 7-night Southern Glacier Bay Discovery cruise aboard Holland America’s Veendam. I’ve read that the train trip is very scenic and enjoyable.

This is a map of the ship’s route:

Southern Glacier Bay Discovery aboard HAL's Veendam

And, here’s the planned itinerary:

The itinerary looked pretty good as it’s not overly port intensive. Normally, this would be seen as a negative by us. We mainly cruise as an expedient and economical way to get to a lot of places in a brief amount of time. But, Libby—being pregnant—wanted to do something relaxing (indeed, sans forthcoming baby, we would have likely gone to Asia this summer).

Given that we’re rather experienced travelers, we usually explore destinations (including cruise ports) on our own. I’m not sure what we’ll do in these ports this year, and we might even opt for “easy” activity tours organized by the cruise line.

At the end of our cruise, we’ll leave the ship and head to the airport in Vancouver. We’re a little bummed about not getting to see more of Vancouver, but at least we’ll be able to add Canada to the list of countries visited.

We return home on August 9, which happens to be our 12th wedding anniversary.