Land package from Fairbanks to Denali to Anchorage to Homer to Whittier. Cruise from Whittier to Vancouver. Photos on SmugMug here.
Lessons learned: Land packages we need to research how much time we spend on a bus/train. How long do we have in each stop is important. We missed Telketna entirely, and were in Anchorage for only 1 night. The trip to Homer for 2 was really a waste and created a long, backtrack to the boarding in Whittier.
The Westmark hotel in Fairbanks is a dump.
The upgrade rooms (building S, for $400) is really a waste. We were luck in that we got it refunded, after they (the hotel manager) explained it was overbooked and were bumped off!
The drink package, 15 drinks per day, per person with a cap of $11/drink charge needs re-evaluation.
Monday, August 4
No hurry in the morning, Alaska 658 from SEA to LAS was delayed and left at 12:55 instead of noon and arrived at 3:30. By the time I was ready, running slow about 9:15am, we just decided to grab breakfast at the airport. The shuttle was timed perfectly, we hopped on and arrived to lines for baggage and security. Everything worked out and the flight was uneventful, luggage arrived and we were on the way home. Dinner in Mesquite at one of the 2 Mexican restaurants in town, on the north side of Mesquite Blvd, past the Casablanca.
We made it home about 9pm, with the hour time change and were both pretty wiped out over the days’s travel!
A nice ending to a 2-week trip! Now … time to get ready for Hawaii! Sunday night in LV, then direct LV to Maui to Kauai on Monday!
Sunday, August 3
Hurry up and wait! We set out our luggage by midnight and kept what we needed for this morning. Met one last time with Bhaki and Juno, after we had some room service coffee and a quick breakfast in the Lido, deck 9. Bhaki timed it just right, so that we could provide their gratuities, interesting. Princess, in the Neptune lounge also received a gratuity from Sandy. These folks really work hard on the cruise ship and they all did a great job. Nightly animals on the bed are a thing of the past. I think we had 2 animals in 7 days.
We were in the Black-2 group for disembarking, 8:15am meetup on the dock for an 8:45 departure of a 3 hour Vancouver tour and direct drop-off to the airport. Pandemonium. Well, the 8:45 departure was more like 9:30 and the driver and guide promised the group that we would be at the airport around noon. The bus was overpacked and behind us in line, got sent over to another tour bus. Sandy and I were the last to board and luckily the tour guide gave us his seat right up front. Well, noon became 12:15 or 12:20 or so. Sandy was little wound up, but our Seattle flight slipped from 1:48 to about 2:20 and then even further, so we had plenty of time for a quick lunch bite. We were at gate E81 for flight 926, then E82.Then, we missed our slot for takeoff because of broken tug pull and an airshow in the Seattle airspace. We did make it to Seattle about 4pm and to the Marriott SEATAC hotel room about 5pm. Room 573 was a considerable walk, the direct elevator to it was broken. Quick dinner in the hotel and ready for tomorrow’s flight back to LV.
Saturday, August 2
Our last day aboard, nice and mellow. Breakfast at the Pinnacle Grille and we wrapped up our photo package selections. 5 photos for $100, including the digital download versions. Nowadays, the digital download is a scan code, using your phone device, on the receipt. Very quick and nice!
A quick 9 game BINGO for an upcoming trip on Holland America, we didn’t score, but fun! Lunch snacks in the Lido deck, ready for the Seafood Boil tonight.
Dinner at the Lido Seafood Boil! Interesting fixed menu, Ivar’s clam chowder and then a pot of salmon, crab, scallops and mussels. We were at the 5:30 seating, there are 2 tonight, 7pm is the other. I tried it, not impressed, too much work. But, a nice gimmick and worth the upgrade meal price.
Tracking the voyage down to Vancouver, we are going through some interesting straits, pretty narrow, I thought we’d be sailing on the outside (west) side of Vancouver island, but no. Way cool. Chatham Point, Browns Bay and the Seymour Narrows are the challenges, but we will be sailing tonight for a 7am arrival. We won’t be able to see much of the excitement. They bring a pilot on board, to help the crew with the navigation.
We are checked in on Alaska for flight 926 from Vancouver to Seattle. We are doing a Vancouver city tour and airport drop-off, we disembark the ship about 8:15am.
Friday, August 1
We woke up to liquid sunshine!, cool and drizzly for Ketchikan, normal weather. Breakfast at Pinnacle, I think. We decided to take a lazy day and just putt around Juneau at our speed. We have been here before, not too much but sightsee through the quaint town. We walked over Creek Street in the mining red light district back in the day and we managed to find 2 fabric stores! I think they scored some merchandise. The drizzle/rain and me not feeling the best (I have Jamie and Patie’s cold now) put a damper on things and we head back to the ship for lunch.
We caught up with them for dinner at the Dining Room and they put us on deck 3. The perk of walking up is pretty nice and convenient. The meal was actually pretty good tonight and the service was on top of things, interesting how things can change if the wait-staff changes!
Thursday, July 31
Juneau visit today! Found my Alaska Brewery baseball hat, halleluia! A nice relaxing day, breakfast in the Pinnacle, most folks gone off for excursions, we passed on our Mendenhall glacier and garden tour.
Shopped in town for a bit, had lunch at the Alaska Brewery Public House in town. it is really hard to have bad halibut anywhere up here!
Beautiful town, lots of seaplanes and 4 cruise ships, our included, in port! Busy, busy, Dinner in the main dining room, 6pm walk-ins.
Ketchikan tomorrow!
Wednesday, July 30
On a schedule, off the boat at 7:30 for an 8:15 Science Kitchen Alaska adventure. It really was quite good, sourdough, pH and build your-own Baked Alaska to wrap up. Jamie stayed behind and we met up at the Skagway Fish House on the wharf for lunch. Good meals!
We all boarded the 2pm White Pass Yukon Railway (WPYR) Summit Excursion scenic railroad adventure. It too was pretty cool, tough those gold miners in the early 1900s! A narrow gauge track and a great narration along the route. Back on board by 6pm or so. The boat is leaving at 8:30 for Juneau, last tender at 8:15.
Dinner at the Dining Room, level 2, Orange Class about 6:30pm (a perk of the 7th deck). Neptune suite folks just walk up in front of the line and are seated without a waiting list. Good stuff. Dinner was ok, I had some halibut chunks in a cream sauce and Sandy had the rigatoni and chicken meatballs.
Tuesday, July 29
Glacier Bay adventure begins. The pilot captains were augmented by the Alaska Glacier Bay vendors and NP rangers for their onboard narration for today.
Breakfast at the Pinnacle Lounge, a perk for those in the suites. Not crowded and not open to the general public.
A nice day cruising Glacier Bay. Lots of glacier to see, great narration by the NP staff. Lots of lookie-loos all over the decks. We saw the John Hopkins and the Margerie glaciers at the end of the Tarr Inlet. We heard the calving of the glaciers when it was quiet.
About 3:30, we found out that there was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Kamchatka in eastern Russia. Tsunami.gov showed the tsunami warnings, advisories and watches. We in the southeast peninsula were a watch … which was then cancelled. It affected the Hawaiian islands and mainland US more than Alaska.
Canaletto for dinner, it is a roped off area of the Lido dining area and they make it “special”. Dinner, for Italian was underwhelming.
Monday, July 28
1st day at sea traveling to the Hubbard Glacier. Experienced breakfast room service to make it easy. It is difficult to eat in your room, even though we have 2 sitting areas. Tomorrow, a sit-down somewhere.
Staff brought an apology note and a sweet treat delivered to each of our staterooms. Patie and Jaime recuperating from their colds/flu.
Beautiful, calm and sunny day for cruising. Lunch at the Lido dining area, they were advertising you-build fish tacos. They were cold to lukewarm, again disappointing.
Guests crowding the deck 10 Crow’s Nest (interior coffee/cocktail bar forward for best viewing) and the same was true for the deck 4 outside viewing area. The ship rotated twice for viewing from port and starboard stateroom. We didn’t approach as close as we did in 2011, or so we think. The photos will tell.
Dinner at 7:30pm at the main dining area. It was much better than the night before, but that is a little late for us to eat. I had the crusted salmon, Sandy had the 2-way lobster and Patie and Jaime had the filet. A good meal.
Sunday, July 27
Left at 8:50 from the hotel and headed down to Whittier. We took a quick stop at Tern Lake for a potty break, but there were bathrooms in the rest area/turnout!
Resumed the journey and finally stopped at Portage Lake sundries store for another break, but we stopped because our Whittier window in the tunnel was for 1:30 and we didn’t want to miss that. All were back on board by 1pm and we were the first bus in line! Busses go first.
The fun begins! We were on board by 2pm. Luggage followed later. Except for Patie, we all had our luggage on board. At dinner, at the Pinnacle Steak House, staff informed her that it had been found. It had be confiscated in security because of a gift knife that she brought on board! All good now.
Meals not piping hot, we mentioned it to the wait staff, and they didn’t seem to concerned. The manager came by at the end of the meal and … he brought the chef. They both listened, while our waiter was standing by. Not impressed.
Saturday, July 26
Checked the window, looking out at Kachemak Bay and the weather is a go! 6:30 trek (0.3 mile walk) to the Alaska Bear Safaris (Adventure Airways, N180AE) for a 6:45 check-in and 7:00 am flight out to Katmai NP and the Brooks Falls. The DeHavilland Beaver is an amazing airplane, the radial sound is really comforting. The flight was about 1:45 there, cruising about 115 knots and about 6,500 ft cruise to the Falls. The return gathering time was 11:20 am, giving us about 3 hours in the NP. Didn’t even get our shoes wet, docked right on the shoreline!
We earned our Bear School pin, listening to the ranger give her talk, and took off for 1.2 miles to the falls. Yes, there were bears on the way and bears on the way back, they have the right-of-way and we have to get off the trail to let them pass. Unless, they decide to play/flight/nap on the trail, then … the humans wait for them. We had 5 encounters, 3 on the way and 2 on the return, that mades me nervous and time was going tick-tock.
Our pilot, Trent, told us to make a bee-line to the falls, because the wait at the platform can get to over 2 hours. 40 people on the platform, 30 minutes to enjoy, because of the summer crowds. July is the peak bear feeding season. Everything is very well organized and we had a blast, no waiting for us! The 2 bear trail encounters on the way back, made us nervous about our 11:20 departure, but the 3 couples made it back safely and on time.
We left the Brooks Camp at 11:38 and were back on Beluga Lake by 1:15pm. Again, low and slow, about 115 knots and 4,500 ft cruise.
Holland America is having a shuttle down to the Homer Spit from 5-8 pm, we’ll see what we do. Sandy is craving Mexican, so we are walking over to the Mermaid Cafe for dinner.
Tomorrow, 7:30am luggage out and 8:30 departure from the lobby for direct drive to Whittler, where we finally board the Noordham! Since we are isolated from any food place and we have a suite with a microwave, we picked up some Jimmy Dean type frozen eggs dishes for breakfast AND freeze-drived COFFEE! from the Safeway across the street. Yummy!
Friday, July 25
A long bus ride from Anchorage to Homer. We walked over to the Biscuit Club down the street, but found a line. Bus leaving at 10am, but still in a rush, argh. We ran into Jamie and Patie coming back from the Crimson restaurant down the street, highly recommended, so we went. A little slow, but it didn’t disappoint.
The room, 301, in the Anchorage Hilton was really not to standard, avoid that place.
We stopped at the Princess Lodge in Kenai for lunch, wrap sandwiches, just below average. A little shopping to in the nick-nack shop. Soldatna was our next stop at the Safeway complex. I ducked into Sportsman’s Warehouse for socks and Sandy and Patie into a quilting shop that she remembered! We picked up some energy bars for tomorrow’s adventures!
We arrived in Homer right on time, about 5pm. The Aspen Suites hotel is about a mile from any restaurant, so we found a taxi to Fat Olive. It was pretty good, just as we remembered it. Meatballs and pasta and a nice apple-pecan salad and vino!
A long day that really could be shortened!
Thursday, July 24
Bags out by 7am and we ready at 8:30 am this morning. We met Jamie and Patie accidently on the hotel complex shuttle bus as we were headed to the main lodge and they corrected us that the pickup was at their Canyon Lodge, not the main lodge, location!
Bus ride to the train depot and transfer to the train was very smooth. We were on the Princess Wrangell train coach, in seats 9c and 9d. Our coach director, Peter, kept us in factoids throughout the 8 hour train ride. We arrived in Anchorage at 6pm, the exact planned time.
This train to Anchorage is just for Princess and Holland America and is geared that way. Our non-existent stop in Talketna was disappointing, just to unload Princess passengers, we could not get off. Sandy wanted to show Patie a fabric shop in town, but it was not to be.
The service on the train was really impeccable, the bartender made sure you were topped off and Peter kept the services flowing, both sharing history and organizing the lunch in the lower lever of our observation deck coach. Lunch, a shared cheeseburger was so-so, but the scenery flowing past was amazing. The trip was just a little long, 2 hours shorter would have been perfect.
The 5 minute transfer to the hotel from the train station turned into a mini-tour and history lesson of downtown Anchorage (per Edgar’s request of the driver), we really didn’t need that after a long day, oh well.
The Hilton Hotel in Anchorage is average and tired, room 601 for us. We ‘lyfted’ to the Glacier Brewhouse, it dd not disappoint. Sandy made an Open Table reservation for 7:45, we arrived about 7pm and before we could reach the bar, our table was ready. It was just as good as in 2021, the noise level is a little loud, just as before. I had the pesto crusted halibut and Sandy had the BBQ ribs. The appetizer fondue pretzel was spot on too. A great meal! The 49th State Brewery is good too (from our trip for lunch in 2021), but it had a crazy waiting line out the restaurant door.
9am luggage out and 10am at the door tomorrow for our 7 hour bus ride to Homer, groan. Let’s hope the bus is a little more roomy!
Wednesday, July 23
Nice leisure day in Denali. Breakfast for the 2 of us at the Canyon Lodge, it was nice to have a sit down breakfast. Jamie and Patie left, after the late-night return, to meet at 4:50 in the morning for the Denali Tundra tour. We did it from Teklanika in 2021 from the campground and went all the way to the Eilson Center. Now, with the road washed out, you can only go to mile 43. We skipped this trip’s ride! This morning is dirizzly and foggy, not really a day to be a passenger in an old rickety school bus.
Cleaned ourselves up and went across the street to shop. Came back to the Princess complex and had lunch at Fanny Q’s, it too was pretty good. A little more shopping at the Princess and Patie joined Sandy to hit the quilt shop across the street, again.
I took the Visitor’s Center park shuttle, jumped off at Horseshoe Lake and did a quick 1/2 mile walk to the lake overview.
Took the shuttle up to the Visitor’s Center and back to the Holland America complex. We all met up at the Canyon Lodge bar, relaxed and had pizza dinner at the Prospector’s Pizzaria and Alehouse. It too was pretty good.
7am luggage out the door and 8:30 am meet at the Main Lodge for our train ride to Anchorage!
Tuesday, July 22
Luggage out the door by 6:30 and bus leaving at 9:15 this morning. Walked over to Forget Me Not espresso coffee shop for breakfast. Extra shot coffee and a split breakfast burrito, one of our better breakfasts.
Bus ride to Denali most of the morning. We stopped in Nenana for a quick potty break and enjoyed the beautiful drive to the park.
All rooms were dialed in, luggage in our rooms, but the rooms, not quite ready. We were dropped off at the Ridge View complex, ALL the others headed to Canyon Lodge. Our room, 304, we find out was occupied! The staff clerk thought her scheduled showed that room occupied for a while this week AND this was not the S-Building that Darnell promised, the one with the river view. The complex is so large, as is its sister Princess hotel, that we had to take the shuttle back to the front desk. After working through the issue, calmly actually, the clerk had us correctly dialed into Building S, room 106. River view and we can hear the Nanana river flowing out the window. A nice room, dated, but very cabin-y feel. Life is good, the luggage was in the room and even a couple of killer chocolate chip cookies.
We met up with Jamie and Patie for a quick lunch snack at Karsten’s Public House and a meet and greet with Edgar at the Pubic House at 3pm.
Dinner was across the complex at the King Salmon in the Princess complex and did not disappoint. Our 4:30 reservation was followed up with our Denali Jeep Expeditions on the gravel Denali Highway. It was fun, we chose to use 1 Jeep instead of the assigned 2 we had. 100 mile round trip and we made it back to the room about midnight. It was an OK tour, the geologic ‘esker’ we drove on was pretty cool.
Monday, July 21
Bus left for the paddlewheeler at 7:55 am. This will be the first time we meet our informal group travelling to Whittier.
Breakfast buffett was bleak at $24 each. Reviews of this hotel are 2 or 3/5 (food and accomodations) now we know why.
The Riverboat Discovery paddlewheeler adventure was really pretty cool, the trip to the Athabascan village was as well. The Gold Dredge 8 operation tour was also pretty cool, we found gold! It was a long adventure day with a good bus tour guide (a North Pole High history teacher!), the lunch at the paddlewheeler dock was not up to standard. Everyone in a communal dining area on long benches. We had stew, really minimal beef soup, salad and bread and water or tea. Not meeting expectations food here, that may be a good thing for my waistline!
As we departed the last tour, Edgar informed us that our upgraded river-view Denali suite ($400 upgrade) was cancelled. We called the Denali Holland America Denali desk and finally spoke to Darnell who moved us to a river view room, not a deluxe, nor a suite in that river-view building, building S. He will NOT be on duty tomorrow, but his manager Brooke Taylor (907 683-6450, main line) will be. We will see and we will work through our $400 being returned to us, not Holland America cruise credit! Again, he had no courtesy to give us a call directly. Sandy suggested we need to upgrade our cruising lines.
Sunday, July 20
Met up with Patie and Jamie at 9am for breakfast. We drove around downtown Fairbanks and ended up at Fender’s for eats. It was pretty good with an 80’s rock and roll vibe. Downtown is really small.
Headed up to the Aleyska pipeline viewing area. It’s about 6 miles out of town on the Steese Highway. Amazing what commitment can do. 800 miles of pipeline laid in 2 years. Where has that drive gone?
The Fountainhead Antique Auto museum was amazing, definitely worth the visit, highly recommended!
The Great Alaskan Bowl shop was our last stop for the day. We returned the rental by 3pm (a 2 hour extension) and connected with the shuttle driver for our return to the hotel.
The Westmark Hotel is tired and needs an uplift. Munchies in the hotel restaurant before our 4-6pm (window) meet-n-greet with our tour guide, Edgar Serrano. He will be with us for the trip. No cocktail hour, no hors d’oeuvres. Disappointed.
Saturday, July 19
Transfer from the airport Marriott to SeaTac had us there about 8am but lots of people checking in added to the confusion of finding the 1st class checkin. Once we figured that out, it was pretty simple to find gate D4. Jaime and Patie arrived from their early flight from ONT to SEA. They were able to fly all in one day, but the flight left at 6am. We had that option from LAS, but that is just too early for us.
AS174 left on time and we arrived in FAI right on time as well. Met the Holland America cruise agents (I was surprised) who took our bags to be delivered directly to our room, 320. We grabbed the rental car and headed to the North Pole. Wrote postcards to the grandkids, shopped and headed out to the Chena Pump House restaurant. The blackened halibut was really quite good.
After our meal, we headed back to Fairbanks to check into the Westmark Hotel. In room 320, we found our luggage, all was good. Headed to the bar for a nightcap and called it a night about 7:30pm, 9:30 our time in MDT.
Friday, July 18
Had a calm breakfast and left by about 8am. Drove through the long term/reservation turnoff for parking, it’s not there. You read the fine print on the receipt QR code and it tells you to enter the SHORT term reservation area. NO signs at the parking structure until you enter it. Oh well, it worked.
Alaska 629, from gate E15, was right on time and the flight was smooth into Seattle.
Picked up the Marriott shuttle van and .. room 619 isn’t ready until 4pm. We took a Lyft into Pike Place Market, crowded with cool stuff and people. We had early dinner at Ivar’s Acres of Clams down in the Miner’s Landing area. Good stuff and took a Lyft back to the hotel. Very efficient and very quick, this Uber/Lyft stuff. The standard ride price to the Pike was $65.54 and the return priority pickup ride was $79.28. Both were available within minutes of our ride order, I should pay attention. It is cool to see where your driver is too, they can see what you look like, I guess, according to the 2nd driver.
Early AS174 9:57am flight from Seattle to Fairbanks tomorrow!
Thursday, July 17
Drove down to South Point in the afternoon for a quick overnight and flight out tomorrow. It leaves at 10:14am, so we have to check in by 8:30 or so. We have pre-paid reservation parking in the Terminal 3 parking garage. We’ll so how that goes.
