Seattle-based Holland America Line will sail more cruises to Alaska in 2017 than any other cruise line, basing half of its 14-ship fleet along the west coast of the USA between late April and late September next year.
Available cabins in this part of the world have been boosted this week with the line making the decision to relocate MS Oosterdam from Europe to Alaska next year. Demand for cruising in this part of the world will see this 1,848-passenger vessel join six others – MS Eurodam, MS Amsterdam, MS Nieuw Amsterdam, MS Noordam, MS Volendam and MS Zaandam – setting sail from Seward, Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco.
In total, Holland America Line will offer 135 separate cruises over the five-month season. These will consist of 126 seven-day sailings and nine two-week voyages, dubbed “Great Alaskan Explorer” itineraries.
Four ships will run 46 round-trip cruises from Vancouver, Canada with a further 18 operating as one-way sailings which will allow guests to explore Alaska in greater depth through one of the line’s Land + Sea Journeys, which include a post-cruise land tour to the state’s Denali National Park and further into the Yukon Territory and far interior of the country’s north such as Dawson City in Klondike Gold Rush Country.
If you’re beginning your cruise slightly further south in Seattle, you can join MS Oosterdam on 21 individual sailings, each seven-days in duration and visiting Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria, British Columbia along with scenic cruising in Puget Sound, Stephens Passage and the Hubbard Glacier.
MS Eurodam will run 22 week-long itineraries of its own from the Pacific northwest city. MS Amsterdam has been set aside for the longer 14-day voyages, which venture deeper into Alaska and visit more ports.
Regardless of the port from which you set sail, all cruises include a visit to the Inside Passage and at least one glacier, whether that being Glacier National Park, the Hubbard Glacier, Tracy Arm or the Twin Sawyer Glaciers.
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