At the airport we were met by representatives of both Holland America Line and Princess Cruises because they both operate under the same larger corporate umbrella and on this day, because their ships were right next to each other in the cruise port, they were sharing bus transfers too. We waited until enough people had arrived to fill a newly-arrived bus, then set off for the drive through Vancouver and to the cruise terminals.

We’d been warned before arriving that Vancouver cruise port could be congested and we should expect to wait in queues for a long time. That certainly seemed to be the case for the Princess passengers on our bus who we could see joining a large group in one building still waiting to board their ship, but we were the only two who were actually cruising with Holland America and this was now the middle of the afternoon. Our terminal was completely empty so we were able to check in then pass through security and passport control almost as if they weren’t there.

A note about passport control. It was weird to us at the time, although it makes perfect sense, that we’d had to pass through Canadian passport control at the airport, but then American passport control at the cruise port a few hours later because the cruise was going to American ports. Indeed, during the cruise we’d also be taking an excursion over the border into Canada and back again so we’d need to have passports checked twice more while on it, then another time when returning to Canada at the end of the cruise, and another one when leaving Canada at the airport.

We were on Koningsdam with our luggage and after doing the necessary bits for the muster it was time to actually start to relax. We had also been awake at this point for nearly twenty hours with a fair deal of stress in there to cope with so we were feeling a little frazzled. No photos of the room at this point, then, which I’d normally do, especially when boarding a new ship on a new line. Instead, the view from our balcony of Vancouver cruise port.

And we could see the Princess ship on the other side of the terminal building.

We’re not really people people. We are introverts. We like to simply stay in our cabin for the sail away because the top deck space can get busy and boisterous at this particular time. However, on Koningsdam we decided to make our way to the ship’s aft to have a couple of drinks out among the happy-to-be-cruising crowd just to see whether it would be more refined than that one time we experienced it on a P&O ship and vowed never to do it again.

Not really. In fact we were really surprised by how young and noisy the crowd was, generally. HAL has a reputation for the older, more reserved, slightly wealthier crowd. We didn’t see that so much here and we have to assume that the week-long duration made this cruise more accessible to a younger demographic.

There was music, singing, group dancing, and lots of laughter. We mostly sat and smiled and tried some drinks, but as the ship finally got underway I realised that finding good spots to take photos of the scenery we were passing was going to be more of a challenge than I’d expected.

We took another drink each back to our room for the remainder of the sail away from Vancouver and Canada.

If you cruise often enough then at some point you’ll pass beneath a bridge. We’ve passed beneath quite a few now and we added the Lions Gate Bridge to that list. There will be more information about that structure when I cover our disembarkation tour.

The remaining photos are just a small number of the shots I took from our balcony as Koningsdam twisted and turned past the islands and land masses of Canada on her way out to the ocean. The built-up areas along the shoreline gradually gave way to pleasing views of trees and mountains that hinted at the landscapes to come on this cruise.

We had dinner in the main dining room and it was very good, but there are no photos of it because we were like zombies at this point. We were contacted by friends we knew were on the ship to see about meeting up but declined due to our knackered state. We were in bed and likely fast asleep by ten in the evening after over twenty seven hours being awake.

In the next post in this series there’s a sea day before we visit the ports of Alaska so there’s an opportunity to take a look around Koningsdam. We also meet up with some old friends, make some new ones, and visit a speciality dining venue aboard the ship.

After our usual breakfast we met up with our friends Paul and Carole to head ashore for the tour because they’d booked the same trip as us on this day.

Our excursion in Skagway was to start with the White Pass Scenic Railway trip.

The narrow-gauge railway running from Skagway, Alaska in America to Whitehorse, Yukon in Canada unsurprisingly owes its existence to the gold rush of the very late nineteenth century. Prior to its construction the only way from the port locations for easy shipping to and from the gold fields in Canada was on foot or by pack animal over the border at White Pass but the Canadian authorities insisted on so much winter gear for prospectors (for obvious don’t-die-in-a-snowdrift reasons) that many weren’t permitted to legally pass. The train would make transporting people and goods faster and safer.

Gold prospecting and mining gave way to mining for other minerals but by the 1930s and the Great Depression the train service was barely in use any more. Despite a surge in operation thanks to fears over Japanese attacks during World War II, and more ore-carrying requirements post-war, by 1982 the train route could not operate at anything other than a loss and closed down. Fortunately, the 1980s started to see an increase in Alaskan tourism thanks to the growth of cruise ship travel so by 1988 a pure tourist service had restarted on the White Pass line.

Now, if you book a tour to travel on the White Pass Scenic Railway route while visiting Skagway on a cruise ship then you’ll have a few options for how to do it:

• travel up and down the line and over the USA-Canada border on the train,
• helicopter to the moving train and descend to its roof by rope,
• travel up and over the border by bus, travel back down to Skagway on the train,
• travel up and over the border by train, travel back down to Skagway on the bus.

The benefit of picking one of the latter two options is that the road and the track, while running roughly parallel to each other for the most part do deviate either side of valleys frequently, so if you want to see the largest number of scenic views on your trip then those make more sense. We chose to drive up by bus then come back by train. It seemed the best choice before we went, and having done it we still think it was the best choice to make. The train in both directions might be ideal for those worried about the bus not making it to the station in time. The helicopter option is just to see whether any web scraper ever offers it as a serious suggestion.

We stopped a couple of times on the drive to the border, over the other side of which we’d join the train. You can see the sort of landscape in this part of Alaska in the photos below. The odd waterfall would cascade down rock faces, and you can get a sense of the scale of the Alaskan mountain ranges in the picture that shows our bus where it had stopped to give us all a few minutes to walk around a bend further along the road to take some shots.

Crossing the border into Canada proved to be problematic. A queue of traffic had built up ahead of us. At the border the guards were checking passports of everyone travelling. There were some buses ahead of us but mostly cars, and the time that we were supposed to be boarding the train had come and gone. Our guide assured us, though, that the train knew about the delay and would wait for us. I’m pleased to report that it did, and we were the last to arrive, with the train setting off very soon after we’d all grabbed seats.

I’d told everyone in our group we needed to be sat on the right side of the carriage as it faced forward because that would have the best views heading in this direction towards Skagway. The opposite would apply if we’d taken the train up, of course. However, the reality is that while you can’t move from carriage to carriage – they’re assigned to specific tour groups – you can get out of the front and rear of each carriage onto a small, open-sided section giving you views either way.

I ended up spending almost the entire time outside. I found that it was fairly crowded at the start because the excitement of getting out appealed to everyone, naturally, but that most people decided they’d rather sit inside soon enough and headed in. Only a few of us stood outside most of the time – it wasn’t particularly cold and the train moved at a smooth and sedate pace – and I tried to make way for anyone who’d pop out for a photo or video or two when they did so. Unlike some other passengers. Ah, selfishness, my old travelling companion, I’ve missed you.

Crossing back over the USA-Canada border by train didn’t involve a border guard stopping us there and then but we would have our passports checked again before being allowed off the train at the end of the ride.

It was fascinating and only a little disconcerting to see the partially collapsed remains of one of the original wooden trestle bridges used on the White Pass rail route. These bridges were phased out of use and replacement routes opened as the train engines got larger and heavier to move ore during the twentieth century.

As you can see, at times the train would pass very close to the rocky face of mountains.

At one point we stopped on a spur line to allow a train on the way in the other direction to pass by. We passed slowly enough and close enough that I high-fived a guy passing by on the other train. Should you do this to people in other trains as you pass? You know the answer to that. Of course you should. It’s fun to touch people at speed.

A lot of people who’d cruised to Alaska before had recommended taking the White Pass Scenic Railway trip while in Skagway and we were very happy we followed that advice. And, as I’ve mentioned already, I think heading up by bus then back down by train gives you the best experience. The landscapes along the rail route were tremendous, but then they all are in this part of the world.

In the next post in this series we jump back on our bus and pay a visit to Liarsville to try gold panning and have some lunch.

Koningsdam wasn’t alone at Vancouver’s cruise port when we opened the curtains in our room and looked out for the last time.

Our debark tour started with a drive along some of Vancouver’s streets with some sights pointed out to us. Probably the most interesting and startling one was the sheer number of homeless people and drug addicts we could see, with many passed out on street corners.

Debark tours don’t tend to cover very much and don’t tend to have many stops because the goal is mostly just to get passengers to the airport by midday or shortly thereafter. Our first stop was in Stanley Park to see the totem poles. We’d seen totem poles in Ketchikan and I will say that those in Vancouver looked more detailed and in better overall condition.

As the totem poles were on the west side of Stanley Park we could look across the water to Canada Place and the cruise port, and of course to our ship and the Princess one also berthed there.

One of the nice things about travelling far and wide is that flora and fauna is different from home and it was nice to see some unusual plants and flowers in the park.

The second and final stop on this short debark tour in Vancouver was to the north eastern part of Stanley Park for views of the Lions Gate Bridge looking along its length and also from Prospect Point scenic viewing area. The bridge opened in 1938 and is one of many bridges you can cruise under if you cruise enough. Our ship would have passed under it early in the morning when we were asleep but we had witnessed the experience when we’d started on the cruise a week before.

And that was the debark tour, short and sweet. From there we were taken to the airport and a few more hours to kill before we could even check our bags in for the flight. It’s worth mentioning here that Vancouver’s airport for international travellers is very attractive with lots of water features as you can see below.

We grabbed a bite to eat and something to drink in the airport and made our way to a quiet area where we bumped into Jill and Jerry, the Canadian cruise bloggers we’d met on the ship. That helped to pass a bit more time until it came time for us all to start on our flights home.

That concludes this Alaskan cruise travelogue series. Our first time in Alaska was a great one with some spectacular sights. Our first experience of cruising with Holland America Line was also very good with excellent staff, food, ship, and entertainment. Its price point is a little higher than we really want to spend, though, so it will likely have to be a very good deal and a great itinerary that attracts us back to them in the future.