Whales & Waves

By: Samie

Travel Dates: July 13th-25th, 2025

That’s right! It’s the post I know many of you have been waiting for! I will be starting in on the absolutely stunning Alaskan cruise we took this summer.

The adventure is split into our time on the water and on land, so the subheadings will note accordingly. Our sea journey will be Whales & Waves and our land excursion will be Peaks & Parks.

Since the cruise at sea came first chronologically in our trip, the Whales & Waves part of this epic journey will be the first read.

Departure

(Night before in Fargo, Early Flight, Boarding the Cruise Ship in Vancouver)

Saturday, July 12th. From having plenty of time to plan cruise outfits and booking any excursions during times in port to the time to take off on our big adventure upon us. Luke and I did the final checks and official packing of our suitcases that we had planned and practiced several times before this time where it really mattered.

We made sure things in our house were in order for our very generous friends that would be coming out to take care of our pets and said goodbye to our fur babies for the next two weeks. Our sweet old lady Luna had just recently been diagnosed with diabetes and would need two shots of insulin a day, which was a new development from when our friends had originally agreed to helping out, but fortunately, they were still willing to do it. Knowing our pets were in good hands, while still tough, made saying goodbye a little easier.

We left our lovely little home at around 2:30 to make the drive up to Fargo, where our travel party would be convening. We were picked up by Luke’s parents to make the drive together, and Annie lived in the area. We would be spending the night at her place before departing for our extremely early flight from the Fargo airport in the morning.

After a very nice and easy drive, we arrived in Fargo just after 5:00. We made a stop at Annie’s house first to drop off our luggage and settle in a little bit before making a plan for supper. Fortunately, Annie has the in on some of the best places in the area, so she helped us decide on making our way to Brewhalla.

The Brewhalla Market has a large lineup of vendors that include places to shop, eat, and drink. There is also an attached hotel and event space if you’re looking for a place to crash or host. There was a wedding reception going on when we arrived, and they would just make their way out to the bard just outside the event space when they needed a drink!

Our first objective was food! After walking the space and taking in everything we had to choose from, we settled on a place called Unicorn Park, a fast casual dining place. Luke ordered a chicken sandwich, and I went with an order of hot wings. Luke also got a beer called Big Lump-O-Knobs and a Forbidden Spicy Pig pizza from The Bird.

After eating, we walked off some of our food by walking through some of the shopping vendors. There was a cute little plant stall in the middle that was very tempting, but it wouldn’t make sense to purchase a plant that I would then need to neglect for the next two weeks. Plus, I had plenty of great plants at home. We also found an adorable little stall that’s specialty was tiny novelty items. Mary treated us each to a surprise ball that we would get to open up later.

Finally, it was time for some dessert. Luke and I got in line at Gelato from Duchessa Gelato. Luke got cookies and cream in a waffle cone, and I got peanut butter cup in a cup. At around 7:30, we made our way back to car so that we could return to Annie’s.

For the remainder of the evening, we opening up our tiny surprise balls to reveal our new collection of tiny collectibles, including candies, gemstones, temporary tattoos, and novelty dolls or items. We watched a little bit of TV before heading to bed at around 8:30. We knew we would need as much time to rest as possible because we would need to wake up around 3:00 in order to get to the airport and go through all the TSA motions before our flight.

It was a very short and restless sleep for all of us, and our 3:00am alarms were going off before we knew it. After dressing quickly, brushing our teeth, and making sure our bags were packed and ready, we were able to be in the van and leaving for the airport around 3:20.

Upon arrival, we discovered that the check in line was LONG! Luke and I had packed extremely light, a habit we had picked up over the years of our travel, so we only had carry-ons. This allowed us to just check in at a kiosk instead and skip the line.

We took seats at the gate and waited for the rest of our group to check their luggage and make their way through security. During our time waiting, there was an announcement of a 30 minute delay in our flight and that the gate we would be boarding was changed as well. Many people that were also waiting at the gate gathered up all their belongings and moved the small distance over to be closer to the new gate. We were already seated in the middle, and it isn’t a large airport, so we stayed put because we could see both our old gate and new gate from where we were posted up.

After a few difficulties getting through security, the rest of our family joined us as we waited to board our now-delayed flight. Fortunately, it is a short pop over to where our connecting flight was in Minneapolis, so we didn’t have to worry about time constraints. We arrived at the Minneapolis airport around 6:00, and our next flight to Vancouver wasn’t taking off until just after 9:00.

Since we had some time and the Minneapolis airport is large and well-equipped with all kinds of stuff, Luke and I got some McDonalds for breakfast and some Starbucks per our airport tradition. While we were eating our breakfast and drinking our coffee at our gate, they made an announcement asking a few more people to check their bags. Since the rest of our group already had bags checked, and we would need to go to the carousel anyway, Luke and I met the desk attendant and offered to have our bags checked.

We boarded our plane around 8:45 and began to see the snow-capped mountains surrounding Vancouver just after noon, our time, which was just after 10 in Vancouver. By the time we actually landed and debarked the plane, it was almost 11:00 Vancouver time.

Because we were traveling with a group, it was very easy to be herded from place to place because the signage was clear and there were Holland America employees posted around methodically to answer questions or steer us to the next place.

We started by making our way through the customs kiosks since we were technically in a different country now. Then we made our way to the carousel to pick up our luggage, only to make our way over to the next counter where we checked our luggage for the ship. After giving our names and room numbers so that our luggage would arrive later that evening in our rooms, we made our way out to get on a bus that would take us to the marine port where we go through the cruise ship security and officially board our ship.

The security process for our cruise ship was surprisingly thorough. We had to go through several different lines and have our photo identification checked several times on tablets based on the initial photo they had taken of us and that they would use when getting on and off the ship at ports. We finally got all the way through, and Luke and I stood off to the side to wait for the others so that we could all board the ship together because we had gotten ahead of them at some point.

It was about 1:00pm as we made our way onto our home at sea for the next few days! We knew the ship would be big, but it was still insane boarding it and seeing it in person and really getting to see how large it actually was!

Our first jobs were to find our rooms. Despite watching videos to prepare beforehand, Luke, Annie, and I had never been on a cruise ship before, so finding our way around was definitely a learning experience. Fortunately, most things are clearly marked, but because of all the loading luggage, many of the elevators were out of commission for passengers, so we had to take the stairs. We were able to get to our neighboring rooms, with Luke and I being in room 6032, and the other three Bergjords being in room 6030.

Our next job was to watch the safety video on our cabin televisions and then locate our muster station. In case you, like us before this journey, have never been on a large ship and are unaware of what a muster station is, it is the place where you gather under a lifeboat in case of an emergency evacuation. The muster stations are numbered so that everyone can get to the right station and safely board a lifeboat without overfilling it causing heightened panic. They scan your room key to confirm that you found your muster station, so it is a requirement. You don’t want to be the groups they address over the announcement intercom saying the ship can’t depart until they find their muster station, so just do it right away.

After checking in at our muster station, we decided to explore the ship and locating the important areas that we would be spending time, including the crow’s nest with great views and tables for provided board games, the Lido Deck where the buffet style dining is offered, the photo gallery, the pools and spa, and the other dining options that are included in our cruise package, including a pizza and hamburger place.

We hadn’t had lunch, so we decided to enjoy our first meal on the Lido Deck. There are two sides that mirror most of the food options to keep lines a little shorter. You just decide what you feel like eating, jump in line, and have the servers put your choice(s) on a plate. Some places are a grab and go option, like dessert and drinks. After thoroughly scouting it out, we found a couple things to try. I wanted to try some of the salmon, a cheesy bread slice, and a sandwich from their bakery station. Luke also tried a sandwich and some sides. Then, for dessert, we grabbed a pecan pie and chocolate cheesecake. It was a very good first experience except for the crowd of people that also had the same idea we did.

We then made our way back to our rooms to relax a little bit after the very busy last few hours we’d had and also enjoy the view of the city. There was also a gift of chocolate covered strawberries from the travel company we had booked with that we got to enjoy while changing. Both rooms were balcony rooms, so we got to sit out on the balconies in our pajamas and soak up the sunshine of the sunny summer Vancouver day before our ship officially embarked.

Because we had balcony rooms, we didn’t have to crowd up on the open viewing deck with many other passengers to enjoy the embarkment horn and celebration. We got to enjoy it from the comfort of our own rooms! We watched the massive ship pull away from the Vancouver marine port and wave back at the people standing on the shore waving us off. We watched the Vancouver skyline shrink and slide away as we officially began our cruise adventure.

Luke and I had purchased our own little decent travel binoculars for our trip that we tested out in this first part of our journey to get a feel of them and check things out on shore. Plus, we had heard that sometimes dolphins would swim along the ship, so we wanted to make sure we were ready if they decided to accompany us. Unfortunately, there were no dolphins with us as we embarked.

Before we knew it, it was time for our next meal, so we made our way back to the Lido Deck for supper. That night’s special was a steak dinner, so both Luke and I decided to try the steak. There were also several delectable sides offered at the same station, including corn on the cob and mashed potatoes and gravy. Luke had also gotten a Mac and cheese that ended up being a table favorite, but I don’t remember if that was at the steak station or another one.

For dessert, we both got some scoops of cookies and cream ice cream and another dessert. I got a caramel de leche flan type dessert, and Luke got a berry tart dessert. Everything was very tasty. I am not sure what I was expecting for cruise food, but this far exceeded any of my expectations.

We got to spend our evening enjoying the comfort of our rooms and balcony space, watching the sun set over the open waters we were now sailing across. It was a very peaceful way to end our first day at sea, and we all slept very well considering our previous night’s sleep. Despite this day already seeming eventful, just wait, because it only gets better from here, and I can’t wait to share every detail with you!