Alaska 2012: Already Newsworthy

The 2011 Alaska cruise season hasn’t even kicked off yet, and already there’s been two fairly major announcements regarding 2012 deployment.

Holland America's Zuiderdam returns to Alaska and Skagway in 2012. Photo © Aaron Saunders

On an extremely positive note, industry leader Holland America Line’s commitment to the region remains as strong as ever.  In 2012, it will deploy Amsterdam, Oosterdam, Statendam, Volendam, Westerdam, Zaandam and Zuiderdam to the region, an increase of one ship over the same period this year.

Oosterdam and Westerdam return to Seattle, where they will operate the popular weeklong Alaskan Explorer voyages.  These call on Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria, British Columbia and a glacier experience in either Glacier Bay or Tracy Arm Fjord.

Amsterdam, meanwhile, resumes Holland America’s extremely popular 14-night Alaskan Explorer cruises,

Vancouverites aren’t left out in the cold either.  Volendam, Zaandam and Zuiderdam both operate the quintessential Alaskan voyage: a weeklong Inside Passage cruise, sailing roundtrip from Vancouver’s Canada Place cruise ship terminal.  These sailings call on Tracy Arm, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, and Skagway, Alaska.

Fans of the one-way North-and-Southbound voyages won’t be disappointed either.  Statendam and Zaandam will sail alternating Northbound and Southbound voyages, departing from either Vancouver or Seward.  They remain the only mid-size ships to offer the Gulf of Alaska experience.

Holland America has been a major driving force in the Alaskan cruise market, and it’s nice to see the line continue to deploy a healthy number of ships to the region, which is one of the most scenic cruises a passenger can take from North America.

Unfortunately, Holland America’s announcement was tempered with some double-edged news from Disney Cruise Line.  The line confirmed yesterday what was widely rumoured on Tuesday: Disney Wonder will indeed return to Alaska next year, though the line will abandon its Vancouver homeport in favour of Seattle.

While this is excellent news for the people of Seattle, and their truly fantastic cruise port, it’s the latest in a long line of disappointments for Port Metro Vancouver, which has been struggling for the past five years to keep ships sailing from the iconic Canada Place.

Disney didn’t rule out a possible return to Vancouver but for now it seems, Disney Wonder’s Canadian adventure is over before it even had a chance to start.

More information on these new 2012 Alaskan deployments can be found on either line’s respective websites.

To learn more about Disney Cruise Line and Holland America Line, check out the detailed overviews on our sister-site, The Avid Cruiser.