ErLee

Absolutely try the Spruce Tip Beer in Skagway!  You can't get it anywhere else, and it's good!

I took but did not use sunscreen or bug spray.  My daily moisturizer includes sunscreen for my face, and I was wearing pants and at least partial sleeves the whole trip for the most part, so nothing else was necessary.  We had no issues with bugs during our 2 weeks in June 2019.  Neither on the cruise excursions or the land tour.  

What we took that we really did need was every layer possible to be warm enough to be outside on Glacier Bay day.  It is windy, it is very cold, but it is amazing, so you want to be able to be bundled up enough to stay outside.  I had on a long sleeve athletic shirt, cuddle duds long sleeve fleece shirt and leggings, knit yoga pants, fleece vest, fleece jacket, light wind breaker/rain jacket, gloves, and a scarf to cover my ears.  I needed every single piece i had on.  I barely used most of that stuff the rest of the trip because the weather was fantastic for our whole trip, but that day I was glad I had packed all those layers.

The most important thing I took for the whole trip was a really good pair of binoculars.  There were so many things I would not have been able to see without them, and I took them everywhere with me except to dinner and a show!

June 19th - First day of our Land Tour

Because we were on a cruisetour, we were in the first group of the day to leave the ship - this meant a VERY early morning, but there's no way around that.  We got off the ship and walked through a series of covered walkways directly to the train that would take us to Talkeetna.  Our group for the rest of the trip was in a train car together with the other group going on the same tour.  We were seated in one half of the car and they were in the other half.  The guides for both groups met us as we boarded the train and along the way gave us a lot of info we would need about the days ahead.  The main piece of advice I have for you about the train is that the seating is booth style like in a restaurant.  You definitely want to try and get on the side of the booth that is facing forward for the best views during your trip.  To me it's just easier if you can see where you're going instead of where you've been.  We were sitting at a booth with our friends and we were in the rear facing seats, so it wasn't ideal.  Despite that, it was a comfortable and enjoyable half day trip through some beautiful scenery.  On the Connoisseur tour, lunch is included on the train that day, and it was brought to our table sometime late morning.  There were also cocktails and other drinks available for purchase.   We got a view of one part of Anchorage as we traveled past, but did not make a stop until we reached Talkeetna.   

Our tour guide handed out folders that had our room keys and meal vouchers for the McKinley Lodge where we would be spending our first two nights.  He got information from us about our dining preferences so he could make dinner reservations for us at the lodge.  Each morning of the trip he would leave a letter taped to our door that told us anything we needed to know for that day - dining reservations, bag pull times if we were leaving, meeting place and time if we were going on a group tour, etc.  It was so handy to have someone else deal with all the details and schlep our bags from place to place!  It left us free to just relax and enjoy ourselves.

Once we got to Talkeetna there were two choices - get on a motorcoach and complete the trip to the lodge or stay in town to do whatever you felt like doing.  We had booked a 2:30pm flightseeing tour of Denali through K2 Aviation and were practically holding our breath in anticipation and hope that we would be able to see the mountain.  This excursion was a fairly last minute decision compared to all the plans I made months in advance.  I think I booked this one in May just a few weeks before we left on our trip.  It was expensive, but when all was said and done, we decided that this was one thing we would look back and regret not doing!  And boy oh boy, did we make the right decision!

At K2 we found out that we had to switch to a different flight because the wind on one side of the mountain was not going to allow us to fly all the way around and see all sides.  We were disappointed, but they promised we'd still have an amazing flight, and we got a $100 refund for the change to a less expensive option.  It did not turn out to matter one little bit; we had an incredible experience that day. 

We went up in a de Havilland Otter, a 10 seater that was a larger version of the Beaver we flew over the Misty Fjords out of Ketchikan. 

As we headed out over the Alaskan Range the view was incredible.  One beautiful sight after another....

But then as we ascended up through the clouds our pilot told us to get ready because we were going to join the lucky ones that get to see Denali in all her glory....and suddenly there she was!!  

There is no way to describe it....all those months of hoping, and she was RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF US!!  I would not trade that moment for anything.  We were truly blessed, and I will never forget that sight.  If you are going to be in Talkeetna, I can't urge you enough - do not miss the chance to experience this!!!  

After our flight, we retrieved our back packs from the store there by the place where the motor coaches park.  I can't think of the name of it, but they will hold your bags for $1 each.  You are not allowed to take the bags on the plane so it's a great way to keep your things safe until you get back.  I think there may have been a place to store them at K2 as well, but we didn't feel like carrying them over there.  We found the Princess motor coach and took the one hour ride out to the lodge.  

Once at the lodge we went to our assigned rooms to find our luggage waiting for us.  I had heard that the groups on the Connoisseur tours are always given rooms with the best views, and I don't have anything to compare it to, but every room we had on the trip was nice, and they all had great views.  We thought the whole lodge property was beautiful, and we were extra happy because Denali remained in full view the entire time we stayed there.  The main building has a huge deck off the back with a spectacular view of the mountain.  It would have been unbelievable to have a clear view of Denali if we hadn't seen her up close just a few hours earlier, but it was still a huge bonus!

Our tour guide held a cocktail party for our group by a fire pit they have at the lodge before dinner, so we stopped there on our way to dinner and enjoyed a couple of drinks. Afterwards, we ate in the North Fork Restaurant with a view of Denali right out the window by our table. It was amazing!  The food was very good, and because our meals were almost all included with our tour, we didn't need to worry about prices.  All we had to take care of was a glass of wine with our dinner.  

After dinner we hiked up to the treehouse on the property for another incredible view.  It took some effort to get up there, but it was really interesting to see!  We were glad we went.  I didn't get a picture of the treehouse but I did take one of the view from up there.

By then I was exhausted so we headed back to our room for bed.  Once we got there we realized there was no AC - that may sound trivial in Alaska, but it was very warm when we were there, and we are from the south.  We are used to sleeping with AC in summer temps.  We called the front desk and they happily brought us a fan.  Once we had that set up and the window open, it was okay and we slept fine.  As it turned out, that was the only lodge without AC.  

One last tip.....I took clothes pins with me from advice I got from other reviewers.  If you are there like we were when there are 22 hours of daylight, unless you want to only sleep a couple hours a night, I highly recommend bringing some along.  The lodges have blackout curtains, but the clothespins sealed out the light from the cracks and allowed us to get some sleep when our brains were telling us it was the middle of the day.  If you look at that picture I took from the treehouse, that was taken after dinner so I think you get the idea!  

It was a full and fantastic first day of our land tour.  We went to bed very happy!

On 10/7/2019 at 5:37 PM, mexico8 said:

We were also on the ship through Glacier Bay and like ErLee we found it very cold and windy.   We were on the outside deck to get the best views.   The scenery was nice but we were disappointed.   We expected more whales and wildlife and better scenery.   I don't understand people taking multiple trips to Alaska.   We saw it once and don't have the urge to return. 

 

The whole week we were disappointed at every port and especially the lack of Glaciers = especially at Mendenhall.   The shopping at every port seemed to consist of all the same items and none of it interested us at all.   No need to buy any diamonds from the multiple shops at every port.

Wow, I am so sorry you didn't enjoy your trip!  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We may not return to Alaska, but it won't be because we don't think it's worth a return visit, it will be because there are so many other places we've yet to discover.

June 18th - Sea day and College Fjord

This was our last day on the ship.  I started the day in the laundry room washing clothes for the land portion.  If you want to do that, I recommend you go there early, it was really hopping by the time I was finished with our 2 loads.  

After that we relaxed most of the day on our balcony or in various seating areas out and around the ship.  We made early dinner reservations, because I wanted to be done eating before we arrived in College Fjord.  That strategy worked out perfectly.  

We returned to the viewing deck on 10 forward for College Fjord.  I had heard from some other reviewers that many found it to be more beautiful than Glacier Bay, so I was excited!  I was not disappointed - it was really pretty.  We even got to see some blue skies which enhanced the white of the snow and ice.  

That night we got packed up and ready to leave the ship.  Usually the last night of a cruise is so sad....but not this time because we were so excited about the land tour we were about to begin!  This is just one of the reasons I'm still going counter popular opinion and saying cruise first and do your land tour second!

On 11/13/2019 at 11:33 AM, Moonstruck1115 said:

Thank you so much for your trip report!  We are going on a cruisetour in May 2020 and your advice has been great.  In fact, I just booked the Bennet Scenic Journey with Chilkoot Charters because of your review!  Now I'm wondering how the land portion of your cruisetour was.  I don't see any posts on that and I'm just curious of your thoughts.  What did you do while there?  Thanks again!

So sorry, I've been distracted by life and haven't finished my review.  Thanks for the reminder!  I'll get on it.

I'm so glad you booked the Bennet trip, I loved every single minute of that day and hope you do too!

June 17th - Glacier Bay

In looking back through my pictures, I don’t have amazing pictures from Glacier Bay day, but it was a fantastic day!  

I woke up early, excited to see the scenery! Going out on my balcony I found out it was an overcast, cloudy morning,  and  I couldn’t see much. I was a little disappointed, but undeterred, and assumed that our luck would hold and the view would improve.  While it stayed mostly a cloudy day, the clouds did lift so we were able to enjoy our glacier viewing.

Bruce was sleeping in a bit, so I met up with our traveling companions and went to their cabin to view the early part of Glacier  Bay from their balcony. Above all else, I recommend that you do not sleep in on this day! We saw a lot of great wildlife that morning as we were coming in to the bay.  There were a lot of otters and seals easily visible from the ship, and perfect with a good pair of binoculars. I even got my one and only sighting on the trip of a puffin! It was brief, but I had my binoculars trained on him and got a good look which made me very happy. We saw some whales in the distance, but mostly just the spray from their blowholes. I think during that viewing period If you were someone that had a high-powered camera and knew how to use it, that would be the only way to get really good pictures of the wildlife out there in the water. There was no way for things like that to show up on a phone so I didn’t bother to try to get pictures.

Being able to listen to the naturalist over the TV in the cabin while we were out on the balcony made it very easy to tell what we were looking at and help us find things to train our binoculars on. The glaciers were magnificent, and all the scenery that day surrounding us was just beautiful despite the cloudy weather! I was so glad we picked an itinerary that included it.

We spent most of that day either in our cabin out on the balcony or on that front viewing deck on Caribe that I had chosen my cabin specifically to be near. There were probably only ever about 20 or 30 people out there at the most at one time throughout the day, so it was very uncrowded and a friendly group. I cannot say enough about how great it was to know about that little area! It was a perfect location to get great views of the glaciers as we approached.  When the ship was turned so the glaciers were on the starboard side, we went to our cabin, when the glaciers were on the port side we went back out on the front and had a great view still.  We did see some seals and otters down there as well around the floating ice, but not as many as we had seen coming into the bay. 

The main thing you have to know about that day is that it is very cold and windy in Glacier Bay!  Both on our balcony and out there on that front deck, the wind was biting , but I would not have wanted to be inside. In order to be able to stand outside I had on every layer of clothing that I had brought with me, including gloves and a winter scarf over my head. If I had not brought the one pair of fleece leggings to wear under my pants and the multiple layers of shirts and jackets with the rain jacket/windbreaker for the top layer, I would not of been able to stand out there all day.  I did not end up bringing my puffer jacket, but I had a bunch of layers that I was able to pile on that day. The rest of the trip most of that was unnecessary, but that day if you don’t  have warm layers, it will certainly impact your experience!  

Though not not the typical Glacier pics, here are a couple I like from that day...

On 8/2/2019 at 9:41 AM, puppymama1 said:

One more question... how long did you spend at Mendenhall Glacier?  You said the trail to Nugget Falls wasn't too bad... so we might try to do that one... We are planning on renting a car from Avis also, so I'm trying to figure out if we would have enough time to do the whale watch trip since it takes 3 hours.. The ship leaves at 5:00 pm... so if we picked up the rental car at 8:30 am, would we have enough time to drive to Mendenhall, do the Nugget Falls trail, get over to the whale watch, return the car and get back to the ship in time?  I don't want to be cutting it too close... LOL.   Thanks!

I would say all together we were over there at Mendenhall for maybe two hours. So it all depends on what time your whale watch is. Since our ship was there late that day, I had plenty of time to do what we wanted to do  which is why I rented the car. But it also depends on which dock your ship will be at, because the walk to Avis can be far from some of them and you have to factor in time to walk back after you return the car. I do think they have Uber there, but I didn’t try using it since it was only about a half a mile from our ship, and I walk every day at home so I knew it wouldn’t be an issue. 

On 8/2/2019 at 8:54 AM, puppymama1 said:

The pictures and report are great!  We are on Coral Southbound next June so this is a preview of what we will be doing, and I love it!  On the whale watch in Juneau, how much motion was there on the boat?  I would love to do a whale watch trip, but I am VERY prone to seasickness - I have to wear my sea bands on the cruise ships when they are moving - so I am afraid I wouldn't be able to do it... Thanks!

 There was definitely some motion on the boat, particularly because it was a small craft,  I was so enthralled with what I was watching that I didn’t find it to be overwhelming. Although I do sometimes suffer from motion sickness, when I’m cruising or flying, I now start taking meclizine the day before I leave and I just take one every day the whole time I’m traveling to avoid any problems. It doesn’t make me sleepy, has no side effects for me which is surprising since I’m very sensitive to medication, and it has taken care of that issue for me altogether. My husband used to always get seasick on the first day of a cruise before he would take anything or do anything about it; this trip for the first time I convinced him to start taking it before our trip started and take it the whole way through. He never got sick either.

On 7/28/2019 at 9:31 PM, cruises42 said:

Wow, they are great! You zoomed in for some, right? My phone has awful zoom.

Thank you! Yes I did zoom in for some and that works better on some pictures than others. I read on another thread someone saying that taking pictures with the phone is fine if you’re just using them for viewing on social media, but the quality is not good enough for some other uses. That’s probably true, but for the most part I’m just looking at my pictures on my iPad and used them for posting on Facebook or on here, so it worked for me!

We were on the Coral to Alaska in June, and I had the same question! I wore the same things in the dining room that I would wear on a Caribbean cruise and I was never cold anywhere inside the ship.  Also, I had heard that formal nights were a little less formal on an Alaskan cruise but I found that to be absolutely untrue.  I’m glad we were planning to dress up anyway, because people were very dressed up both formal nights. Maybe not all the way back to the days of tuxes and sequins, but   the most dressed up I’ve seen in awhile. It was our first Princess cruise,  but we’ve been on quite a few other lines, most recently HAL. I think Princess people must just dress better for dinner 😄

We’ll be on the Sky in January, so I’ll be able to test that theory!

8 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

So fill the cup a little bit to get rid of the leftover soda in the tip.  Then pour it out and refill the cup with the pure stuff.  Simple solution.

 

DON

Don, it would seem like that wouldn't it?  But for whatever reason that just doesn't work. To me soda just doesn't good taste out of those machines.... not a problem for me on a cruise at all though, I don't even buy the beverage package! 😂

Really any incentive to choose extra water over a soda is a good thing, so bring on the freestyle machines!

20 hours ago, Pierlesscruisers said:

 

Do you really believe that the minuscule amount of the particular flavor that will remain on the spigot will really be tasteable?  Doubt it.

 

Tom

Yes, really it does affect the taste...I hate the freestyle machines and just order water or iced tea if I'm in a fast food restaurant that has them!

4 minutes ago, cruises42 said:

Great pictures! What kind of camera did you use?

Actually after agonizing over whether to try to learn how to use a fancy camera before our trip and deciding not to do it, I ended up taking all my pictures with my Android phone!  I’m pleased with how they turned out!

2 hours ago, luvteaching said:

I second the recommendation for Chilkoot Tours. We did the Bennett Lake excursion with them and it was very good. We did the train first and bus back to Skagway. The guide/driver was excellent and we saw bears a couple of times. She could spot them! 

 

Karen

That’s what we did, the Bennett Scenic Journey with Chilkoot,  van up and train back and it was amazing!

We are also mid 50s and were in Alaska in June, and we booked all of our excursions during the cruise portion of our trip privately. We had nothing but great experiences! I absolutely love the more personal experience you get with an independent operator.

I’m in the process of writing my trip report, but I’ve already finished writing about our experiences in those cities as well as Ketchikan. Here’s the link to my review, Juneau and Skagway are on page 2....not trying to drum up readers for my review 😂, but my answers to your questions are in those posts....

We rented a car with Avis in June, and we had a fantastic day!  We had a whale watch in the afternoon so we didn’t even need the car for the whole day, but it was still worth every penny to be on our own and able to do whatever we wanted to.

 I’m in the middle of writing my trip report and posting  day by day and I’ve already written about our day in Juneau. If you want to skip right to it, it’s on page 2!

We did the Bennett scenic journey in June, van up, train back, booked through Chilkoot charters. It was a day I’ll never forget. No one in our car was much interested in being outside on the chilly platform so I was able to stand out there for the entire four hours on the way back down to Skagway, and it was absolutely incredible!  I definitely moved back when anyone wanted to come out there and take a picture, but hardly anyone did and no one stayed out there more than five minutes. Bring appropriate clothes to allow yourself to stand outside in the wind, it is absolutely worth it!

We bought some delicious canned salmon on the river boat in Fairbanks. If you’re doing the river boat, the sample it on the boat for you and give you the opportunity to buy it - what they don’t tell you is that if you wait until you get back to the store at the dock where you got on the river boat, it costs more.   We paid  $24.99 on the ship for three cans, it was $34.99 in the shop  🤨

 After two weeks of not being able to logon to cruisecritic, I finally fix the problem and I’m ready to continue the review....

June 16 - Skagway

For Skagway we had booked the Bennett scenic journey directly with Chilkoot Charters.  We chose the van up and train back option so that we could start a little bit later in the morning,  which my husband certainly appreciated since it allowed him to sleep in an extra hour!  It turned out to be a good choice because the day started out foggy and overcast, but later turned into another absolutely beautiful day.

We were picked up near the ship by our driver, Mike, and started off with a little drive through Skagway where he told us the history and showed us around the town a little bit. He mentioned one thing that we kept in mind for the end of the day, which I’ll get to later.   

We were in a van of 21 people, and we appreciated the smaller group as it made for faster on and off when we made our stops for sightseeing and pictures.  We got seats on the right side of the van as we had been told to do for the trip up into the Yukon, probably a tip I got here on Cruise critic.  We later were also able to get seats on the right side of the train for the trip back. Those are certainly the seats you want!  

What I liked about Mike was that he didn’t just make the typical stops that everyone makes, he threw in a few stops along the way that were just beautiful sites that he knew about where there weren’t three buses sitting there also trying to take pictures. He was very personable and told us interesting facts and history about the area all along the time that we were with him.  Here’s one place we pulled down a little dirt road right down by where someone was camping just to take pictures of this lovely lake.

To everyone’s excitement, at one point we saw a black bear right by the side of the road and stopped to watch as it walked along beside our van and then crossed the road right behind us....our first bear sighting of the trip!

We were nearing the town where we were to meet the train, and he said he didn’t know if we were still going to have time to go up to Emerald Lake, but everyone on the van really wanted to get there so we opted for less time in the town so we could see it, and I sure am glad we did - it was gorgeous!

And as a bonus, if we hadn’t driven up there we would not have had the chance to see this on the way back!

 Our second bear sighting of the trip! This time it was a mama bear and her two cubs, one of whom is in this picture, the other one was off playing a little further away. Once again they were fairly close to the side of the road and in clear view, so we were able to spend a little time taking pictures while they foraged. 

We then pulled into town for a short break and tried the ice cream which was supposed to be so delicious, but was really only average in our opinion.  We boarded the train for our trip to Bennett and then all the way back down into Skagway.  

Bennett, BC is an abandoned historic town at the end of the Chilkoot Trail that was used by the gold miners as they made their way to the gold fields in the Yukon. It sits on the shore of beautiful Bennett Lake is only accessible by the train or on foot. We walked around the old buildings there, read about the history, and then hiked up to the top of the trail and were rewarded with this view!

 From there we were on the train for maybe four hours riding back down to Skagway,  and this was an afternoon that I wished never had to end. The weather was kind of chilly, so no one in our car was much interested in standing out on the platform in between the cars, which meant I had it mainly to myself.  I spent the entire time riding down through those mountains outside on the platform taking pictures and experiencing the beauty of the area without the barrier of a window.  It’s an experience that I will never forget and can’t adequately describe; it was thrilling, it was exhilarating, it was a glorious solitude that refreshed my soul. The noise of the train and the chill of the wind did nothing to diminish my complete immersion in the moment - on the contrary it probably enhanced it!  The scenery on that trip was indescribably beautiful.  I took photo after photo with my camera and thousands more in my mind that will be etched in my memory forever. All I can say is, if you ever find yourself on that train, get up and go outside and stand on the platform!!  Here are just a few of the pictures from that day.

 And here’s a fun one of the Canadian US border!

We got back to Skagway around 4 PM and had a couple more hours before we had to be back on the ship. Remembering Mike’s tip, we went to the Skagway Brewing company to try the spruce tip beer. It’s only made there, and it has a fun history in that it was supposedly brewed originally to keep the scurvy away for the gold miners. It had been discovered that the abundant spruce growing in the area was an excellent source of vitamin C and people were drinking tea made out of it. Some enterprising soul realize that beer would be a lot more fun to drink than tea, and hence the birth of the spruce tip beer!  What is the story is exactly accurate or not, we drank and enjoyed the beer and have the T-shirts to prove it 😁

To those considering what to do when they’re in Skagway, I know a seven or eight hour excursion on a van and/or train seems like a really long trip, but I can not recommend this trip highly enough! I think you can tell from my description it was one of my favorite days of the entire trip,  and that’s saying a lot because it was one great day after another on this trip!

On 7/5/2019 at 4:34 PM, Coral said:

Look at Coral Princess. Also, a much smaller ship - Pacific Princess will be in Alaska next summer and people love that ship.f

 

Oddly - I have spoken to 2 people in the past 2 weeks who stayed at McKinley Lodge and absolutely loved it. They loved staying there - they liked the trails, the tree house, the fire pit, what Princess offered at the hotel. By no means am I saying skip Denali but I was surprised at how much they liked that hotel for what it offered.

We were just on a two-week Princess Connoisseur Escorted Cruise tour in June, including a week on the Coral Princess, a fantastic ship for Alaska, and two nights each at the McKinley Lodge, the Denali Lodge and the Fairbanks Lodge. We loved every minute of our Land Tour and I'm astounded at the comment that it was boring! 

I also can't say enough good things about the McKinley Lodge. It was beautiful!  It probably helped that Denali was in full clear magnificent view for the whole two days we were there, and it's hard to take your eyes off that beautiful mountain! That Lodge affords a most spectacular view of the mountain. It's not even visible from the Denali Lodge at all and only visible on the tour in to the park at a couple specific spots through a v in the mountains, nothing like the view you can get from down at the McKinley Lodge. Of course that all hinges on being there on a day when the mountain is out. 😍

We actually took a flight with K2 around Denali and saw it up close and personal before we ever even checked into the McKinley lodge, and we were still enamored of the view the whole two days we stayed there. 

Our room was great, the restaurants were good, we had a great time there!

It's a good thing we didn't take people's advice on these boards and decide against this trip, because it was the trip of a lifetime! I'm working on my trip report now and posting as I go, so if anyone is considering a cruise tour, I'll share a lot of great information with you!

We were also out with Jayleen on June 15th, and we talked about her family and growing up in the business, but she did not make any mention that he was back in business. We rode by her parents house and her mom stood out on the bank and waved at us 😍

On 7/5/2019 at 7:23 PM, Dbs944 said:

What kind of cameras do folks bring?  Phone cameras are fine sometimes but aren't always up to snuff.  I always hate waking it up, going to the camera app, looking at my face when it accidentally went into selfie mode, moving the protective case out of the way, etc.  I have a decent DSLR but was wondering if a nice digital camera would work just as well.  Point  and shoot.  Maybe the DSLR is too big and clunky (and intimidating to people you hand it to to take your picture) but do like the lens choices.  I assume you are pretty safe from grab and run crime.

I went back and forth about the camera for our 2 week trip last month, but I ended up taking all my pictures with my Android phone because it was simple, lightweight, and always with me. I don't have mad camera skills, but I think my pictures turned out great! You can check them out if you're interested in my trip report over in the trip reports thread 😃

Medallion net on the Coral worked great in Alaska in June. There was only one morning where it wasn't working and we were in Port and getting off the ship anyway. It was working by the time we re boarded. We did not have any other issues with it whatsoever, it was well worth the $59.99 each we paid for the week.

Lucky you! We booked on the Sky for January 2020 last October at a fantastic price. Since then the price has only gone up, and when I looked to see if we could add the sip & sail it would have increased our fair by $500pp. Now mind you, I do like to drink on a cruise, but even I can't drink that much in a week 😂

We kept our great fare and we'll carry on wine and pay the corkage to save a few dollars on the drinking at dinner!