Trip Report

Our Time in Juneau, Alaska

Posted on October 30, 2026 by 2btravel

Trip Introduction – Alaska Cruise on Holland America
Lodging Review: Element Seattle Downtown
Our Time in Seattle
Ship Review: Holland America ms Noordam
Our Time in Kodiak, Alaska
Our Time in Anchorage, Alaska
Our Time in Valdez, Alaska
Our Time in Juneau, Alaska
Our Time in Ketchikan, Alaska
Our Time in Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Hullo Ferry Between Nanaimo and Vancouver

Juneau was the only port where we had booked a shore excursion. The ship docks right in the city so you can walk right off the boat and into town. One of the most popular attractions is the Mt. Roberts Tramway which is a cable car that departs from the city street nearly straight up the mountain and offers great views. Unfortunately, the tram was down for repairs during our visit.

We had booked our excursion using the same company we did for our cruise, and snagged a 10% discount on an excursion that included whale watching and a visit to Mendenhall Glacier.
Continue reading →

Categories: Alaska, Cruises, Holland America, North America, Trip Report, United States | Tags: Alaska, Cruise, Glacier, Grey Whale, Holland America, Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier, Ocean Cruise, Trip Report, Whale Watching | Leave a comment

Our Time in Valdez, Alaska

Posted on October 29, 2026 by 2btravel

Valdez was the prettiest port on our cruise. When we arrived, the ship couldn’t even send any tenders out because the fog (or cloud) was so thick. But once the fog burned off, oh my goodness, was it gorgeous. My photos don’t do it justice.

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Categories: Alaska, Cruises, Holland America, North America, Trip Report, United States | Tags: Alaska, Cruise, Holland America, Ocean Cruise, Trip Report, Valdez | Leave a comment

Our Time in Anchorage, Alaska

Posted on October 28, 2026 by 2btravel

Anchorage is a much larger city than Kodiak and we were blessed with great weather for the second day in a row. While we did not have to use the tenders to leave the ship, we were docked in an industrial area so there were motorcoaches waiting to drive us downtown to the convention center.

Our first stop was the visitors’ center which allows you to fill out post cards for free and they’ll mail them for you (within the US). We sent several to friends and family. I loved this Air Crossroads sign outside!

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Categories: Alaska, Cruises, Holland America, North America, Trip Report, United States | Tags: Alaska, Anchorage, Cruise, Holland America, Mushing District, Ocean Cruise, Street Art | Leave a comment

Our Time in Kodiak, Alaska

Posted on October 27, 2026 by 2btravel

Our first port of call was the town of Kodiak, Alaska. It’s a small town of around 5,500 people at the last census and is one of seven communities on Kodiak Island. Our ship anchored out in Saint Paul Harbor and we had to take tenders to reach the town. If you are mobility-challenged and cannot stand long enough to step from the ship’s dock to the tender, you will not be able to visit any port where tenders are required. We saw a number of people with rolling walkers, and that worked fine, but motorized scooters did not make it aboard the tender.

Our first stop was the Kodiak National Wildlife Visitors Center. You can start your visit there with a short film about the area and then visit the exhibits. The lower level has details about the brown bears in the area.

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Categories: Alaska, Cruises, Holland America, North America, Trip Report, United States | Tags: Alaska, Brown Bear, Cruise, Grey Whale, Grizzly Bear, Holland America, Kodiak, North America, Ocean Cruise, Russian Orthodox Church, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Ship Review: Holland America ms Noordam

Posted on October 26, 2026 by 2btravel

This installment took the longest to write because the ship is just so big I hardly know where to start. So feel free to scroll down through the photos if that’s what you want to do.

The Holland America Line (HAL) ms Noordam was originally launched in 2006, making the ship 20 years old. It underwent a significant remodeling in 2024 and, from the parts of the ship I visited, still felt fairly fresh, even two years later. It has 11 decks and a capacity of 1916 passengers and has a crew of about 800. This ship sails Alaska and the Pacific Northwest during the northern hemisphere summers before heading down south to Australia and New Zealand for the northern hemisphere winter.

It has five dining venues, eight bars/lounges, six shopping venues, and 19 activities venues – so there’s always something to do on board! There are eleven passenger-accessible decks as well as Deck A, which is below Deck 1. This is a strictly utilitarian deck. The only time we were ever on it was as we were boarding or leaving the ship as the gangway location varied depending on tides and port facilities.

The ship offers 986 staterooms ranging from inside cabins, ocean view cabins, and balcony cabins to 162 full-on suites.

I’ll have more detail on the individual decks below. Continue reading →

Categories: Cruises, Holland America, Ship Review, Trip Report | Tags: Cruise, Holland America, ms Noordam, Ocean Cruise, Ship Review | Leave a comment

Our Time in Seattle

Posted on October 23, 2026 by 2btravel

I hadn’t done any real planning for things to see in Seattle other than asking AI to give me some suggestions of things to photograph. I knew that we’d be sleeping in since we arrived so late and that proved to be the case.

It was a gloomy morning when we set out and I decided to wear jeans instead of the shorts I’d packed – a decision I came to regret. Later in the day it was sunny and gorgeous and I was hot. Live and learn. Here are some things we saw while exploring the city.

The Troll Under the Bridge

My roomie on this trip loves to find the off-beat tourist things and she read about the Troll Under the Bridge, so naturally we had to hunt it down.

The Fremont Troll

Not only did we find that, we also found the three Billy Goats Gruff!
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Categories: Award Travel, North America, Trip Report, United States, Washington | Tags: Fremont Troll, Photo Essay, Pike Place Market, Seattle, Space Needle, Trip Report, Troll, Washington | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Element Seattle Downtown

Posted on October 22, 2026 by 2btravel

Since I was departing Memphis on a Friday evening and we couldn’t board our ship until Sunday, we needed two nights’ lodging in Seattle. We eventually settled on the Element Seattle Downtown which was about a 30-minute walk from Pike Place Market and other attractions along the waterfront. While it would have been nice to be closer, the hotel offered free breakfast and as it turned out there were loads of other folks there ahead of their own cruises, so it was a popular choice. I had a free night certificate thanks to my Chase Marriott credit card. The free night certificate only covered the first 25K points but I was able to add 9K points to it to cover that first night and then 34K points for the second night.

Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Element, Hotel, Lodging Review, Marriott, North America, Trip Report, United States, Washington | Tags: Element, Hotel, Hotel Review, Lodging Review, Marriott, Seattle, Trip Report, Washington | Leave a comment

Trip Introduction – Alaska Cruise on Holland America

Posted on October 21, 2026 by 2btravel

Welcome to my next trip report where I’ll cover my late-summer cruise, which was round-trip from Seattle to Alaska.

A friend from Australia already had this cruise booked, so when my Los Angeles-based friend – who had never been to Alaska – suggested we join her, it sounded like a great idea. My only visit to Alaska was a cruise in 2005 so I was happy to go back.

Continue reading →

Categories: Alaska, Award Travel, British Columbia, Canada, Cruises, Element, Holland America, Hotel, Marriott, North America, Trip Report, United States, Washington | Tags: Alaska, Anchorage, Award Travel, British Columbia, Canada, Cruise, Element, Ferry, Holland America, Hotel, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Marriott, Nanaimo, Noordam, North America, Prince Rupert, Seattle, Trip Report, Valdez, Vancouver, Washington | Leave a comment

Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD

Posted on June 23, 2026 by 2btravel

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction
Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW
Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow
Our Time in Krakow, Poland
Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest
Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel
Our Time in Budapest, Hungary
Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary
Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia
Our Time in Belgrade, Serbia
Our Time in Golubac, Serbia
Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria
Our Time in Ruse, Bulgaria
Our Time in Bucharest, Romania
Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel
Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD

While I explained in detail what happened with my return flights in the Trip Introduction, I’ll give a quick recap here so you don’t have to click back to that post.

The Plan vs. Reality

The plan had been to use Aeroplan miles to book a flight on SWISS from Bucharest to Chicago via Zurich. From there I’d use the second half of my MEM-ORD-MEM positioning flight on American to fly home, landing in the 6 PM hour. But then, as usual, airline schedule changes happened and it was enough to have to scramble a bit. A few months after I booked my flight SWISS changed the timing of the ZRH-ORD leg such that it landed in Chicago about 10 minutes after the AA flight to Memphis took off. I kept hoping there would be another schedule adjustment but there was not. I eventually canceled the second half of that positioning flight and bought a flight on United (first with miles, then changed to cash when the price dropped) that finally got me home just before 10 PM.

The First Leg

But to get to Zurich I first had to leave Budapest. The flight was at 0630 which meant that we had to have our bags packed and in the hall at 0300 and be in the lobby of our hotel for an 0330 departure. Fortunately Viking provided us with a sack breakfast which was greatly welcomed. The flight departed on time and soon enough we were above the overcast Romanian skies just in time for the sun to peek out.

Zurich Airport

While I did visit a lounge in Zurich it was quite crowded and I didn’t feel comfortable taking photos. But I was glad to have a place to hang out because our flight was delayed. Due to inclement weather in Europe, several of the flights feeding our longhaul flight were running late and we needed to wait for them to arrive before getting underway. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Flight Review, Star Alliance, SWISS, Trip Report | Tags: Award Travel, Business Class, Chicago, Flight Review, ORD, SWISS, Trip Report, ZRH, Zurich | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel

Posted on June 22, 2026 by 2btravel

This will not be a very detailed hotel review simply because we were not there very long and I needed to prioritize sleep over taking photos. Our tour of Bucharest ended after 3 PM and we were taken to the JW Marriott. It’s a massive building and is also a conference center. But it’s gorgeous, the staff were uniformly wonderful, and it was a shame we couldn’t spend more time there.

The hotel opened in 1999, though the building was part of the urbanization plan that saw several other very large buildings being built around the same time. It has 402 rooms and a great location that’s within walking distance of the Old Town and is across the street from the National Cathedral, the Cathedral of the People’s Salvation. Continue reading →

Categories: Cruises, Europe, Hotel, JW Marriott, Lodging Review, Marriott, River Cruise, Romania, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Bucaresti, Bucharest, Europe, Hotel, Hotel Review, JW Marriott, Lodging Review, Marriott, River Cruise, Romania, Trip Report, Viking | Leave a comment

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Trip Report

Our Time in Juneau, Alaska

Our Time in Valdez, Alaska

Our Time in Anchorage, Alaska

Our Time in Kodiak, Alaska

Ship Review: Holland America ms Noordam

Our Time in Seattle

The Troll Under the Bridge

Lodging Review: Element Seattle Downtown

Trip Introduction – Alaska Cruise on Holland America

Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD

The Plan vs. Reality

The First Leg

Zurich Airport

Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel

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