First Time Cruise to Alaska

I just returned from a beautiful cruise to Alaska with Holland America.  This was actually my very first ocean cruise!  I have worked with many clients to send them on cruises but I have never gone myself.  As a first time cruiser, I think that Alaska was the ideal cruise itinerary!

We started out the cruise flying into Seattle.  I always advise my clients to travel one day before their cruise just in case there are any airport delays.  I unfortunately did not take my own advice and our flight ended up being delayed by about 3 hours.  Luckily I did booked an early morning flight so I arrived in time for our transfer to the cruise but I would not do this again!  Lesson learned, always fly out the day before your cruise!

We cruised with Holland America which was a wonderful choice!  When we arrived at the pier there were absolutely no lines to check in and after speaking with other passengers we found that this was their experience as well.  We never had lines returning to the ship either when we were in port.  This was a concern of my husbands because we have seen long lines for boarding when we have been on vacation in other destinations.  

The Holland America cruise ship was also the perfect size for us.  It is not considered a mega ship so we did not have zip lines or go kart tracks which was perfectly fine with us.  We did have a beautiful teak deck that we walked daily. There was a naturalist on board that gave lectures and did some nature spotting on deck. The ship also had two pools with jacuzzis, a wonderful spa and workout area.  All of the staff on the ship went out of there way to make our cruise a great experience!

Our ports of call were Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan with an afternoon spent at the Hubbard Glacier.  I will review the ports in another post but let me say that we enjoyed them all … so stay tuned!  As a first time cruiser I was able to test if I liked being at sea, but also get lots of breaks from sailing with these beautiful stops along the way.

If your thinking about a first time cruise or would just like to experience Alaska please contact me and I would be happy to help you plan the perfect vacation experience!