Exploring Alaska Coastline Aboard the Holland America Koningsdam

Friends, this isn't Dori so don't wait for me to do any wavy paws. This is Kim (aka The Momanager) who along with Ray (aka Dadders) managed to escape the Wonderpurr Gang for ten glorious days to cruise the Alaska coastline aboard Holland America's Koningsdam ship.

Being away for ten days was both fun and worrisome. My fur babies mean the world to me, and because they are sliding into their golden years, being away is rough, especially when I'm on the other coast, plus aboard a ship without a way for anyone to get a hold of me. I deliberately didn't buy the WiFi package for the ship as I could check in with our kitty sitter when we stepped on land, and I felt secure in that my almost-nineteen-year-old super senior ChauncieMarie was in good shape to not need any close monitoring. And in all honestly I needed a break from both cats and my social media life. I've heard it's good to take a break, and after this past long hot summer, I was truly ready for one. I told Ray I wanted to go someplace where my melting brain could solidify, so he chose to take us back to Alaska.

We had already enjoyed a cruise to Alaska during the Summer Solstice 2015, and while it had been cold in June, I wanted COLD so Ray chose one of the final cruises for the season in September aboard the Holland America Koningsdam. With me being overwhelmed trying to write Rabbit's book (still a work in progress) and juggle umpteen cat social meowdia accounts, I had no brain juice left to plan a huge vacation. And since Ray is retired and constantly complaining he's bored, I let him take the reigns.

He truly hit one out of the park. He booked us first class on Alaska Airlines out of Tampa. We flew to Seattle, and the next day took an Amtrak train to Vancouver, Canada. The next day we boarded the Holland America Koningsdam ship with early boarding access as Ray booked us in the Neptune Suite that came with a private concierge lounge with coffee and yummies right across the hall from our room - I had to stop Ray from popping across the hall barefoot and in his robe for morning coffee - plus access to Club Orange private dining room.

PS - Orange is the color of the Dutch royal family - the House of Orange-Nassau - and has thus been considered the national color of the region for hundreds of years. The Holland America line has splashes of Orange everywhere, and therefore so do my videos. I've created short video highlights of each day, so please enjoy at your leisure. Thanks so much. 

Aboard the Holland America Koningsdam - Neptune Suite

Exploring the Koningsdam.

The Lido Market Buffet Dining

Booking the Neptune Suite comes with privileges to

dine in the Club Orange Private Dining Room.

Whale Watching in Juneau, Alaska

Skagway is an old gold mining town.

Glacier Bay National Park

This was the highlight of our trip.

Final Look Aboard the Holland America Koningsdam

We have now been home a little over a month, and frankly I'm still recovering. Jumping on and off trains, buses, people movers, and ships, plus dragging fifty pounds of luggage behind us took it's toll on my writer body. I slept until nine for a week after returning home, much to my cat's shock. And because we filmed this vacation using both of our iPhones, plus my Nikon and another digital camera I bought for Ray to use, it's taken me this long to upload all the footage, change the format from MOV to MP4 and then find the highlights to splice into short videos for each day.

At this point I'm pretty darn sick of Alaska, but I hope you enjoyed the highlights of our trip.

Thank you for taking time to watch.  Love you all. Kim