Copper10-8

Day 4 - 08/07/2023; Scenic cruising Hubbard Glacier Woke up to pretty smooth seas (just a bit of gentle motion) as we’re making our way southeast in the Gulf of Alaska. The rain from last night was outtahere! After Nieuw Amsterdam left Whittier on Wednesday, a south-easterly course was set in the Prince William Sound, after which we entered the Gulf of Alaska proper from in between Montaque Island and Hinchinbrook Island. Nieuw A has a nice gym up top and we took advantage of it, as dis several other pax One of the perks of a Neptune Suite is the ability to have breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill Restaurant on Deck 2 midships, so that’s what we did. On sea days, the PG is open for breakfast until 0930 hours. The new manager in there is Omar from Turkey. One of our waiters from our May cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam, Edy, is still here. Maria had scrambled eggs, while I had Eggs Benedict. After breakfast, we walked over to the Music Walk where there was a 11;00 AM suite welcome gathering. There, we ran into Twinkle, the asst. beverage manager, a former shipmate of mine when I was working for a living, and a real nice lady. Lunch was inside the Lido Market where they were serving an Indonesian lunch of, among other items, fried rice, beef Sumatra, chicken sate with peanut sauce, krupuk (shrimp crackers), etc. Around 2:00 pm today (Monday), we picked up our pilot, Captain Gary, from his boat “Ocean Cape” at the, believe it or not, Ocean Cape pilot station inside Yakutat Bay. We then proceeded into Disenchantment Bay at Point Latouche, sailed another ten nautical miles up the Bay of Disenchantment, where one reaches the mouth of Russel Fjord and Hubbard Glacier. Hubbard Glacier, a tidewater glacier, is physically located in both Alaska and in the Yukon Territory, Canada, off the coast of Yakutat, some 200 miles northwest of Juneau. Hubbard is certainly gigantic: it's more than six miles wide where it meets the ocean. It is named after Gardiner Greene Hubbard (August 25, 1822 – December 11, 1897), an American lawyer, financier, and community leader. He was a founder and first president of the National Geographic Society; a founder and the first president of the Bell Telephone Company which later evolved into AT&T, at times the world's largest telephone company; a founder of the journal ‘Science’, and an advocate of oral speech education for the deaf. In 1890, Mount Hubbard (and subsequently Hubbard Glacier) on the Alaska-Yukon border was named in his honor by an expedition co-sponsored by the National Geographic Society while he was president. The longest source for Hubbard Glacier originates 76 miles from its snout and is located at approximately 5 miles west of Mount Walsh with an elevation of around 11,000 feet. A shorter tributary glacier begins at the easternmost summit on the Mount Logan ridge at about 18,300 feet. To be con't

Good eye! Yes, that's a Neptune suite 😉

Hi Sir; yes, Kaptein Jeroen Baijens is back assigned to the dam ships, Nieuw Amsterdam, as we speak however, there are still several HAL captains serving with Seabourn at the moment: Tim Roberts, Joost Eldering, Sijbe de Boer and Bart Vaartjes come to mind. Take care and be safe in beautiful Kiwi land and please say hi to the Mrs. for me!

Day 4 - 08/06/2023; Enroute Whittier, AK (con't) Whittier cruise port is located at Passage Canal's entrance in Prince William Sound. The port is approx. 60 miles southeast from Anchorage. Once inside the Whittier terminal building, which is a very short walk from where the train stops, we followed the line for security like a slinky. We were told along the way to remove everything from our pockets, belts, plastic bottles, big watches, and be prepared to remove jackets to go through airport-like screening (metal detector for humans and X-ray machine for carry-ons). Apparently, HAL through their contract security, is now really cracking down on bringing any plastic bottles containing water, soda, or anything else liquid-wise inside. I had purchased a couple of 20 oz. Coke Zero bottles in Denali which were still unopened. The guard manning the X-Ray machine was on his game, spotted them, and advised his colleague by the security table. She had no sense of humor, and out my two bottles went post haste into a large trashcan. Maria had purchased a 16 oz. aluminum bottle of H2O and, imagine that, got to keep it. Note to self; don’t buy anymore plastic bottles of soda for a cruise! The only thing left to do inside that terminal was the obligatory welcome aboard pics by Nieuw A’s photo staff before boarding the younger sister of HAL’s Eurodam via a shoreside gangway to Deck 3 where ship security scanned us on. Our cabin is on Rotterdam deck, port side mid-ships, caddy corner from the Neptune Lounge where concierges Aiko and Mike (her relief) “reside” and do one heck of a job keeping their guests happy. Also met our lead cabin steward, Kus who will be taking care of our home away from home, along with his assistant, Raja. Our valises successfully made the road trip from Denali and were already waiting for us to unpack them which meant no more living out of a suitcase for a week! First order of business was to stroll to our muster station (Boat 08), where we checked in electronically with our boat captain which was followed by a short and sweet safety brief from a crew member consisting of instructions to watch the onboard “Safety at Sea” video and to listen to the captain’s safety speech over the P/A. This is the current post “Covid-style” muster procedure on HAL which eliminates large groups getting together and standing in very close proximity to one another. Btw, your TV channel is set to that safety brief, and one is unable to change channels until after you watch/listen to the entire brief, good idea! At around 7;25 PM, Nieuw Amsterdam let go of her lines and shoved off her berth with Captain Jeroen Baijens taking his big ship out of the Whittier harbor. It was around 8 PM now, so next up was dinner which we chose to partake in inside the Lido Market, as opposed to our table in the main dining room. As expected on embarkation day, the place was pretty packed but we were able to come up with a table where Maria had the New York strip steak, while I chose the salmon. During the dinner, the dreaded “Medical Response” alert was transmitted over the ship’s P/A system. The location was the BB King’s Lounge on Deck 2 midships and we learned later on that the BB King’s horn player was the one experiencing a medical episode. Consequently, the 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 PM sets of the band were cancelled for tonight. All the best to that musician! With that unfortunate event, tonight’s entertainment became limited. Inside the Mainstage was “We are Alaska” however, it had already started at 8:00 PM. The only other live entertainment was the Billboard Onboard piano duo which had two shows left at 9:00 and 10:00 PM. We decided to walk over to the Ocean Bar on Deck 3 where music trivia was just finishing up. The guy who ran it, Simon, returned at 9:30 PM and brought Rose with him for a game of “Majority Rules” which we played only to discover that we were lousy at it, oh well. We decided to call it a night around 10:30 PM since it had been a long day. Tomorrow is scenic cruising of Glacier Bay, see ya then!

Thanks a bunch for the trivia! We liked your Glitter Gulch! 😉

Day 4 - 08/06/2023; Enroute Whittier, AK (con't) Around 4:00 PM, we pulled into the Anchorage Rail Deport after having passed Elmendorf Air Force Base. It would be another short stop before continuing our way for two hours or so, passing Cook Inlet and travelling adjacent Turnagain Arm and the Seward Highway. As stated, we had a new conductor who had joined us in Wasilla and his name was Vern, a funny guy! He paid our car a visit and played his harmonica to “North to Alaska” by Johnny Horton. Also in Wasilla, two to three HAL agents had boarded who would be checking all of us in via their handheld computers. All they needed to accomplish that were your passports and boarding pass. If they didn’t have your most recent photo on file, they would take a new one on the spot. Just like on land, their computer would spit out a paper boarding pass with your name, your ship’s name, sail date, cabin #, etc. on it. It would save us a lot of time inside the Whittier terminal! You get your actual /ship's I.D./room keys from a sealed envelope in the mail slot outside your cabin once on the ship. At one point, the train tracks left the Seward Highway behind because, unlike 2010, we were not going to the port of Seward, our destination today was Whittier, AK and its port, so we began to follow the Portage Glacier Highway/Road. The town of Whittier, AK can only be reached via road by going underneath a tunnel, more specifically, the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, often called the Whittier Tunnel after the town itself. This is a dual-use ("bimodal") highway and railroad tunnel that passes under Maynard Mountain, part of the Chugach Mountain Range. At a length of 13,300 feet, or 2.51 miles, it is the longest highway tunnel and longest combined rail and highway tunnel in North America. The tunnel originated as a rail-only tunnel excavated in 1941–42 during World War II and was upgraded to bimodal use between September 1998 and mid-summer 2000. The tunnel can accommodate either eastbound traffic, westbound traffic, or the Alaska Railroad but only one at any given time. Tunnel traffic is regulated by overhead lights as to how many cars and at which time, can enter at one time. Prior to traversing that tunnel, there is a shorter 0.9 mile tunnel for trains only, called the Portage Lake Tunnel. Upon exiting the second and longer one, the aforementioned Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, our ship, Nieuw Amsterdam, came into view, although it was by now gray, dreary and raining. The entire rail trip from Denali to Whittier had taken nine hours and twenty-six minutes, our second longest rail trip ever. We said our goodbyes to the incredibly efficient and professional crew of the Kobuk rail car and entered the Whittier cruise terminal building for the second part of our vacation. Did I say yet it was raining? Remember; adapt, improvise and overcome!

It's a nice one Rich, highly recommended for a bit of a different look at Alaska! You just have to get used to early morning wakeups in order to put your valises outside your door 😛

Like Bryan / POA1 said! That's the best way to go! The Neptune concierges have standing orders not to give out their email address to guests/passengers since it's for internal use only

Nice, outgoing young lady and very good at her job!

Day 4 - 08/06/2023; Enroute Whittier, AK (con't) A bit before reaching our stop at Talkeetna, the train slowed as we crossed the 918-foot Hurricane Gulch trestle, towering 296 feet above the creek below. This was followed some 45 minutes after by another stop at “The Wolf’s Sighting” near Willow, AK, the site of a 2019 wildfire, still very evident. Here, we met a northbound McKinley Explorer which also stopped. Apparently, this is a routine thing for the trains which gives the conductors of both trains an opportunity to swap out supplies before each continues on their way. We subsequently met our conductor, David, who came by to chat with his passengers and would be leaving us at our upcoming stop at Wasilla because he was above his federally regulated time limit by that time. Both David and our train’s two engineers would be swapping out in Wasilla sometime after. No, we didn’t see the former Governor and we also couldn’t see Russia from Wasilla, but we tried! 🙃 Lunch for us was around 2:45 and we were seated by ourselves at a booth and resulted in both of us selected a bowl of Reindeer Chili; hearty Alaska-style chili of reindeer meat , diced tomatoes, and a secret blend of spices simmered in an Alaskan Amber Ale base. Topped with cheddar cheese and chives. Very tasty! For dessert, Maria had an Alaska ice cream bar, while I had a chocolate brownie Sunday. Each car has their own galley where meals are prepared by hard working crew. To be con't

Correct on the make and type of the model hanging from the ceiling in the bar of the Westmark Fairbanks! That is in fact a DeHavilland-Canada DHC-2 Beaver with floats. They are tough old ladies and you still see quite a few of them flying in Alaska, especially in places like Anchorage and Ketchikan. Nowadays, you see quite a bit more of the Beaver's younger sister, the DeHavilland-Canada DHC-3 Otter flying around, most having converted to turbo-prop engines I too, was lucky enough to have flown in one - next to the pilot seat "Don't touch anything and keep your feet off the pedals, Yes sir" 😃 - back in 2011. The Beaver on that flight belonged to Promech Air out of Ketchikan with tail # N64393. Great flight with a landing on a lake and the ability to get out of the aircraft and take in scenic Alaska while standing on the floats. Unforgettable experience!

Funny how that happens, eh? 😉

Day 4 - 08/06/2023; Enroute Whittier, AK Sunday, once again, started bright and early! We are used to it by now! 0500 hrs. wakeup call for the child bride and 0545 hours for me. First order of business was to get the luggage positioned outside the door for pickup. The only bag tags that now have to be on it are the HAL ship tags with your room # and ship’s name on them. We decided to go sans breakfast and purchase it on the train. So, the buses taking folks to us to the Denali train depot actually arrived early around 0710 hours and started loading up. The front desk area of the McKinley Chalet was zoo-like with lots of people congregating but everyone seemed to be on their best behavior. The little coffee bar in the lobby was humming like those little birds with spinning wings and was doing one heck of a business this morning selling coffee, muffins and scones. We wound up being the last two on the nus for the very short ride to the depot where our train was already patiently waiting. You are pre-assigned your particular car as well as seating assignment. Ours turned out to be the caboose which today was a car with the name of “Kobuk”. "Kobuk" is an Inupiaq Eskimo word meaning "big river." It is sometimes spelled "Kowak" or "Kowuk." The car in front of us was named "Chena" which in the Tanana Athabascan language Ch'eno', literally translates to “river of something (game).” This is a reference to the importance of the land surrounding the water and how beneficial this location is for large game hunting. These cars are all double-deckers with us passengers sitting on top, and the lower level reserved for dining, the restrooms, the kitchen/galley, a small lounge and an aft viewing platform. Our seats were 1C and 1D all the way up front by the bar. For our particular train, there would be six cars and one big locomotive pulling the parade. Our assigned crew for the Kobuk car was Julia from Alabama, our very energetic guide and an aspiring radio broadcaster at home during the winter, Sam from Ohio, our bartender, and Marco, from Croatia, as well as Genevieve, our restaurant waiters. Seating is comfy on the train, but they don’t recline manually. They appeared to have been pre-positioned at a slight reclining angle but not by much. Each passenger section has side-by-side seating for 88 guests (dining capacity is for 44 seats.) The top portion of the passenger section, except for a center strip with airliner-type lighting and speakers, is “all glass” for exceptional viewing of the exterior scenery. Each car has a covered outdoor viewing platform. There is no overhead luggage compartment because of the glass dome, a nice trade! Your carry-ons/hand luggage has to fit under your seats and, oh yeah, no internet on the train unfortunately! We pulled out of the Denali Depot at 0810 hours to start our trek south. The ride was a comfortable one while seated. Walking felt a bit like too many Wang Wangs due to the back and forth motion of the car, hence the warning by Julia to maintain a “three-point contact” (two feet and one hand) while walking during her safety brief. It didn’t take long to get used to. A bit after departing Denali Park, we passed though Broad Pass, the highest point on the Alaska Railroad at 2,363 feet. The train makes many stops on the way for various reasons; some are to allow another train going the opposite way on a single track; some are for provisions, others are for crew changeover, etc. Most, if not all, turned out to be for short duration. The first such stop was at Cantwell, AK. Right after the Cantwell stop, we were invited down for brekkie. If you are a party of two, you sit opposite someone you’ve probably never seen before with a table in between you. That was the case with us with a nice couple from Wisconsin. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, potatoes, Rudolf the reindeer sausage and toast. Tasty! So, as already stated, this would be a looong ride so what does one do? Well, you read, listen to music on your iPad, work on your travel blog on your laptop, look at the scenery, take a nap, listen to your very good guide tell you about Alaska, get up to stretch your legs and go downstairs where there is a commercial aircraft-type moving map letting you know where in Alaska the train is, you name it! It was a relatively comfy ride with just enough motion to realize you’re on a moving train and, of course, the scenery is intriguing. To be con't

Day 3 - 08/05/2023; Denali National Park (con't) Back at the Chalet, we both had a craving for, believe it or not, a sandwich from Subway, since we had seen a Subway Restaurant across the street. Took a little bit of an uphill hike but we made it for a tasty lunch of a six-inch turkey on multi-grain bread which hit the spot, thank you very much! The 3-month old pups, Raven and Chickadee, from the DogGoneIt Kennel in nearby Cantwell, AK were out at the Chalet once again inside their little pen, ready to be held. We love puppies! Our evening excursion was something called Black Diamond wagon adventure and dinner which left by black painted school bus from the Chalet at 6:15 PM. An approx. 15-minute ride took us to their property near the community of Healy where the option was an ATV ride of “follow the leader” (we did that in Puerto Vallarta once which was very cool, but we also got very dirty) so tonite we chose the other option which was to ride along with nine other pax in a pioneer-style covered wagon pulled by two very big draft horses, Rex and Turbo for our wagon. Our “teamster”, the person that “drove” the wagon and guided those two big boys was Sophia and our guide Isabella, who hailed from Oxford, England. We learned that there are lots of European college students here in Alaska for the summer season from countries like Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Poland, etc. There were two other wagons in our group and our destination, after an approx. 50-minute ride, was a rustic pavilion at Dry Creek riverbed where we had a family-style/home-cooked dinner of macaroni salad, potato salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, corn on the cob, vegetarian chili, salmon, chicken, ribs, followed by a desert of a berry cake. After dinner, there was time to meet and pet the big horses, and/or take a pic with them Here's the kicker! On our particular wagon, there were three wagons in total for our group from the Chalet, was a retired police dispatcher from my former department, Chelly, along with her husband Steve, also a former city employee. So, counting my lovely wife, here are four retired employees from the same city in L.A. County, meeting up in Denali, Alaska! What are the chances of that happening? Too funny! Chelly and Steve arrived in Fairbanks on Friday, took the bus ride to Denali, will take the train to Whittier tomorrow with us, and will also embark Nieuw Amsterdam there to take her to Vancouver! Again, what are the chances? Upon our return to the McKinley Chalet around 9:00 PM., we got ready for our big day tomorrow which was the 8–9-hour train ride on the McKinley Explorer domed train to Whittier, Ak. So, tonight, we had to repack our three valises to have them ready to be placed outside our cabin at 0600 hours Sunday morning. They, and all the other Nieuw Amsterdam luggage then be collected and will make their own way south to Whittier in cargo trucks, to be delivered to our staterooms onboard. We will see you tomorrow (Sunday) for a report on that journey!

Day 3 - 08/05/2023; Denali National Park Saturday morning for us started with a 0600 (Maria) and 0700 (moi) alarm clock to get ready for breakfast at the Canyon Steakhouse with a 0800 reservation. Reservations were recommended by our waiter last night and it was good advice since the place was hopping! We were whisked to our table for two right away were Maria ordered eggs, toast, yoghurt with berries, and I had oatmeal with yoghurt. We then got ready for our 0910 hours Tundra Wilderness tour which would take us into Denali National Park and Preserve proper. We met our driver/guide Chris who took roll while 51 of us boarded his Blue Bird bus. We would be with Chris for a total of almost five and a half hours. Waiting on our, and everyone else’s seat, was a snack pack containing a bag of cheese curls, a bag of trail mix, a jerky stick, a bag of brownie brittle and a nutrition bar. The word "Denali" means "the high one" in the native Athabaskan language and refers to Mount McKinley itself. The mountain was named after U.S. President William McKinley in 1897 by local prospector William A. Dickey, even though McKinley had absolutely no connection with the region. The name, however, is only used by those outside of the State of Alaska. How did the National Park get its name? Sheep! Charles Alexander Sheldon took an interest in the Dall sheep native to the region and became concerned that human encroachment might threaten the species. After his 1907-1908 visit, he petitioned the people of Alaska as well as Congress to create a preserve for the sheep.). The park was established as Mount McKinley National Park on 26 February 1917. However, only a portion of Mount McKinley (not even including the summit) was within the original park boundary. The park was designated an international biosphere reserve in 1976. A separate Denali National Monument was proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter on December 1, 1978. Mount McKinley National Park and Denali National Monument were incorporated and established into Denali National Park and Preserve by the Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act of 2 December 1980. At that time, the Alaska Board of Geographic Names changed the name of the mountain back to "Denali," even though the U.S. Board of Geographic Names maintains "McKinley". Alaskans tend to use "Denali" and rely on context to distinguish between the park and the mountain. The size of the national park is over 6 million acres! Chris was soon off (the bus came with seat belts because it’s federal law that they shall be worn on all federal property!) chugging down the George Parks Highway aka Alaska State Highway 3, until turning down Park Road and past the Denali Visitor Center where we disembarked yesterday. Today, we kept on going until the road changed from paved to a hardened dirt road with permafrost underneath. The only traffic you really see on that road are tour buses like ours, park service transit buses dropping off, as well as picking up, hikers at the various trails, and park services vehicles. Oh yeah, on the way back, we saw one person on a bicycle peddling away. Gotta admire that guy! We made a quick stop at the end of the bridge crossing the Savage River where there is a park ranger checkpoint that keeps track of all vehicles traveling on from that point. A female ranger named Tina came onboard and, after welcoming us, gave a short speech about the park and their number one rule “Leave no Trace.” Our first wildlife spotting was a huge bull moose about 75-100 yards away doing his own thing up an embankment. Further down our trek, we were able to see caribou, dahl sheep, arctic ground squirrels (almost hit one, but he got away), and willow ptarmigan. Unfortunately, no grizzly bear and no bald eagles today. The appropriately named Park Road that services the park is 91-miles long and runs from the George Parks Highway to the mining camp of Kantishna. It runs east to west, north of and roughly parallel to the Alaska Range. Only a small fraction of the road is paved because permafrost and the freeze-thaw cycle create an enormous cost for maintaining the road. Only the first 15 miles of the road are available to private vehicles, and beyond this point visitors must access the interior of the park through concessionary buses of the type we found ourselves on. We did get a great look today at Mount Denali (Mount McKinley until 2016) which is most definitely not a given on this tour since the mountain and its peak is often covered in clouds. Just an awesome sight! About half-way down Park Road, there was a restroom stop which had an overlook down a valley. Our trek then continued westbound past places in the park with names like Sanctuary, Igloo, Sable Pass, Polychrome Pass until we got to a place called Toklat, where we made a U-turn and retraced our route. A stop at the same restroom stop and we once again reached the park ranger checkpoint. The entire trip in the park lasted about three and a half hours! Definitely worth it in our opinion, especially if you’ve never been to Denali! This was our second trip here but on the first one, we never saw then Mount McKinley, unlike this one. To be con't

Goeie avond Ineke I liked it - the Polenta - on the aircraft, just never heard of it before! I don't remember "griesmeel" at all while growing up in Holland! Did they make pudding out of it?

So, Delta Zero Lima 😉 I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, so it was all very confusing to me! Now, the average five-year old would have no probs deciphering it like you just did, except faster! 😛 The bus from Fairbanks to Denali used a similar code; Delta Zero Lima Zero One

Bingo! In addition to the captain's dinner inside the PG when you're hosting a table

The responses to your post/videos, so far, are three (3) Likes and one (1) Thank You

Day 2 - 08/04/2023; Fairbanks to Denali National Park (con't) Right after this, at 2:45 PM, we picked up one of the Chalet’s shuttle buses which took us to the nearby Denali National Park visitor center where we picked up a different shuttle bus to take us to the U.S. National Park Service Park Ranger’s K-9 kennel headquarters where they currently house 39 Alaskan Huskies who are trained, or still in training, as sled dogs. Denali is the only national park facility that houses park ranger sled dog teams and they have been doing it since 1922! something I was not aware off. We were able to tour the kennel on foot and see some of the dogs on top of, inside, or in front of their houses, as well as speak to one of the park rangers/K-9 handlers. So, in the wintertime, they use these dogs to patrol this huge park, as well as perform search and rescue, and medevac for/of i.e., lost hikers, all while operating as sled teams. At 4:00 PM, the park rangers gave a demo of how the dogs operate by hooking them up to a trolley on wheels ridden/led by a ranger standing on the trolley who guided his team of eight dogs around a short track, stopping in front of the spectators stand. Just like my old police K-9 handler days, the same dogs that were sleeping by their houses while off the clock were all energy and raring to go when going to work. After the demo there was time for questions and answers from/by the audience. A very cool event to attend! Back at the Chalet, we had a Cosmopolitan which took us to our 8:15 PM dinner reservation at the Canyon Steakhouse. Maria had a green salad and rock fish, while I had French onion soup and a chicken dish, and we shared a baked Alaska of course! For tomorrow (Saturday) we have a complimentary Tundra Wilderness tour (believe everyone here part of a land/tour package gets that one) that goes into Denali National Park however, we discovered in our welcome package that they had issued us a 0450 hours departure time! Say what? Up to the tour desk we marched to find out that Tundra Wilderness tour #1 at 4:50 AM is the primo/numero uno tour because “the animals are awake and out”. Sorry for the animals, but we requested and received a more civilized 0910 hours departure time for the Denali animal tour! See ya manana (Saturday) for that one!

Day 2 - 08/04/2023; Fairbanks to Denali National Park When you do the land tour, among other things already mentioned, they give you two different colored Holland America Line luggage tags to affix to your baggages; one is blue and green and says, “Join me tonight” and the other blue and orange and says, “Join me onboard”. So, if you have a piece of luggage that does not contain anything you need during your land tour, you can tag it with the “Join my onboard” one and you won’t see that piece again until you board the ship in Whittier, AK. We were not that organized, so we had the join me tonite tags in addition to a CHL (McKinley Chalet) on all three. The instructions provided told us to place that luggage, tagged and ready to go outside out hotel room door at the ungodly hour of 0630, so another early morning reveille! We would get used to that pretty soon! There was a big box truck parked four floors below us where all that Denali luggage would soon find a temporary home and be off before we were. Breakfast for us was once again at the Northern Latitudes which was a buffet-style affair. It wasn’t crowded at all in there because HAL, Princess and the Westmark, bless their hearts, stagger their departures to Denali, Anchorage and Fairbanks Airport. The buffet included reindeer sausage, sorry Rudolf! along with scrambled eggs, home fried potatoes, bacon strips, “regular” sausage links, biscuits, assorted cold cereal, toast, yoghurt, Danish, etc. etc. The food was good and hot except for the scrambled eggs which were of the powdered variety and not that good. Our bus, DOL-01, departure time was scheduled for 0915 hours, and we were told to arrive in the lobby 15 min early, so we did and joined pax for the three HAL coaches soon off for Denali. Our bus driver, Gene, was also our tour guide for this three-hour jaunt down the Alaska Interstate A-4 and was full of information. The George Parks Highway (numbered Interstate A-4 and signed Alaska Route 3), usually called simply the Parks Highway, runs 323 miles from Fairbanks to the Glenn Highway 35 miles north of Anchorage in the Alaska Interior. The highway, originally known as the Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway, was completed in 1971, and given its current name in 1975. The highway, which mostly parallels the Alaska Railroad, is one of the most important roads in Alaska. It is the main route between Anchorage and Fairbanks (Alaska's two largest metropolitan areas), the principal access to Denali National Park and Preserve and Denali State Park, and the main highway in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. The ride was, at time, on the bumpy side due to the perma-frost (permanently frozen soil) underneath the asphalt, but you get used to it. There was one stop about an hour and a half in at the Tatanlika Trading Company, near Clear, AK, which did an absolute killing in selling freshly popped bags of popcorn, sodas, water, candy, chips, etc. and of course had the obligatory gift shop where the female folk went to work big time, while the well-trained, domesticated husbands like myself, held on to their spouse’s purses and tried very hard not to lose the will to live. Luckily for most of us stronger sex guys, the owner of this undeniable tourist trap, had his Alaskan short field performance bush plane, a Maule M5 235c, N5647S, and great big, oversized tundra tires parked outside for all to take a look at and snap some pics. Back on the bus, our arrival time at the McKinley Chalet Resort at Denali National Park, also owned and operated by Holland America Line, was at 12:15 PM, right on the money! Denali National Park is home to North America’s tallest peak, Mount Denali aka Mount McKinley. The park itself consists of six million acres of wildland, bisected by one 92-mile-long road. The McKinley Chalet Resort, open from May through September each year (in the wintertime, Jack Nicholson roams the hallways with a big Rambo knife, yelling “Here’s Johnny”) is situated on a mere 42 acres of land. In and around the main lobby are two full-service restaurants () and several retail outposts. The separated lodging areas are located throughout the resort, connected by a looped route and serviced by complimentary courtesy shuttles. Once again, no front desk check-in necessary because, upon that arrival, a rep hopped on the bus with welcome packages in hand which contained our room keys. This time, our room was in the “I” for Ida building on the second floor. Be aware, no elevators here. The room is smallish with a separate living area, a single bed and a full-size bed, nice and cozy! Also, there is no air conditioning inside – a single portable fan was provided - and it was once again really nice warm weather in the eighties, so both windows were opened. Unlike the Westmark Fairbanks, no small fridges inside the room, which necessitated a trek, ice bucket in hand, to the ice machine at Building “B”. Life is good and we are here to adapt, improvise and overcome! At 2:00 PM, a dog kennel nearby which raises and trains Alaskan Huskies as sled dogs brought over two 3-month-old puppies, Raven and Chickadee and placed them inside a small pen in the field in front of our building. They do this 3-4 times a week where the residents here can pick them up, pet them, and socialize with them as part of their training. Maria and I each got to do just that and be the recipient of lots of puppy kisses in the face, a fun experience! To be con't

Hey Brian, the tour designator for the land portion was D01 or DOI or combination of those, but definitely not DUI 😉

Day 1 - 08/03/2023; Getting to Alaska (con't) Prior to take-off from Sea-Tac enroute Fairbanks, the captain came on the P/A but the only thing we could hear was “Blue Angels” in town and “maneuver”. The lead flight attendant repeated the announcement and stated that since the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy’s famous aerial flight demonstration team were in town for Seattle’s annual Seafair celebration. They were practicing that show out of the King County International Airport terminal, their temporary base at the north end of Boeing Field, which put them somewhere inside our normal take-off pattern. So, as a result, the captain would have to perform some kind of “odd maneuver” right after take-off in order to avoid them there blue boys in their six F/A-18 Super Hornets flying weally, weally close to each other! That, my friends, is what they call an attention getter or in this case an “odd maneuver”. This turned out to be a banking climb to the left after wheels up which gave us seated on the left side of the aircraft, a nice view of terra firma. Once crossing 10,000 feet, we continued the climb to 34,000 feet and crossed into Canadian airspace, eh. This route would take us northbound over the British Columbia airspace, leaving big Vancouver Island on our port side, before entering back into U.S./Alaskan airspace. This turned out to be a three hour and 15-minute flight, once again in smooth air over some outstanding Alaskan scenery. There was once again a meal service. I had some combo Polenta dish over pasta which was once again quite good. Being the uncouth, bottom-dwelling non-foody individual that I am, I had no clue what “polenta” was/is, but now I do, oh joy! I watched Woody Harelson’s movie “Champions” on my laptop which turned out to be a funny story. Maria watched a British TV show. We went wheels-down at Fairbanks International Airport and taxied past an entire collection of nineteen fifties and sixties propellor birds, some of which are still flying as cargo aircraft. Fairbanks (FAI) is more or less in the center of Alaska, and the airport there serves as a gateway to much of the interior. There are good paved roads running south to Anchorage (360 miles), and southeast to the rest of North America (2,000ish miles to Vancouver or Calgary), but surface transportation throughout the state is limited, with vast expanses accessible only by air. While there’s no shortage of passenger and cargo operators ferrying tourists and freight, there’s a large number of residents whose link between home and the rest of the world is aviation. On the way out today, we saw one of those old cargo boys, a DC-6A, taking off retracting his/her landing gear while still over the runway huffing and puffing away, a cool sight and sound one doesn’t see too often anymore. Brought back memories of my semi-regular trips to Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport by bus with a little Kodak camera in hand as a youth. OK, so once collecting our luggage off the belt, we strolled down to a HAL agent at a suitably marked tour desk, who gave us a welcome envelop that contained, among other stuff, luggage tags for the Westmark Fairmont, our hotel for one night, directed us to affix them tags to our valises, drop those three bags off with the blue shirted guys in the corner and, and take a seat with some other HAL passengers, and wait to be picked up. There were also Princess and Norwegian Cruise Line reps walking around to collect their pax. The wait was less then fifteen minutes when we were directed to board a coach outside, driven by Dolores, hailing from Alabama via Alaska. That drive for 29 of us took all of 12-13 minutes before arriving at the Westmark. There was no checking in at the hotel’s front desk because our, and everyone else’s, room keys were already in that same envelop, which was a good thing, because we were arriving at our temporary abode, with about 100 other HAL and Princess passengers which caused a little bit of a wait for the elevators. Our room was on the fourth floor with a separate kitchen area with small fridge and microwave, a seating area with desk (free internet) and TV and a sleeping area with another TV and, yes, a king-size bed. We’ve done this combo land tour/cruise once before some 15-20 years ago and stayed in the same hotel. At around seven PM, we went down to the hotel’s Northern Latitudes restaurant for dinner. The place was pretty full, but not overcrowded. Maria chose the salmon and moi the fish & chips, both were good while service was prompt. After dinner, we strolled the neighborhood of the hotel to get some light exercise after having been seated for most of the day. The weather was great in Fairbanks, and it stayed light out until 11 PM. Tomorrow (Friday) is our 3-hour trip by bus from Fairbanks to Denali National Park See you then!

Hi, last month (August), Maria and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a 3-day Alaskan land tour, followed by a 7-day Alaskan cruise (Whittier, AK to Vancouver, BC) on HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam. This is our story, better late than never! Day 1 - 08/03/2023; Getting to Alaska So, Thursday’s reveille was early! 0400 for Maria and 0500 for moi! Our yellow cab pickup to LAX was scheduled for 0600 hours. Stiv, our cat knew exactly what was happening and didn’t like it a bit. He had one of his “thunder runs” sprinting from the family room up the steps, down the hallway, and into our bedroom where he jumped on the bed, letting out a howl/growl all the way. He then sulked away in my office until it was our time to leave when Maria put him on top of our bed under his “blankie”. Maria’s mum Carmen is once again cat sitting! Our cabbie was on time, and we wound up having the same Afghani driver as our last hop to the airport, back in May. He’s the guy that proposed to let us off at Arrivals downstairs, as opposed to Departures in order to avoid the morning rush which there always is at LAX. Good idea! Alaska Airlines is located at Terminal 6, we took an elevator up one level to check-in which is at a kiosk. We then saw an agent who checked I.D.’s and took our bags. TSA was a breeze with their pre-check, so we moseyed up to Gate 64A. Boarding started promptly at 0720 hours, and we took our seats, 2A and 2C in one of Mr. Boeing new generation 737-890’s. After taxiing from the south complex to the north complex and stopping at the threshold of Runway 24 Left, the captain gunned his two CFM International 56-7B engines, and we left the surly bounds. A right turn over Santa Monica Bay and feet dry over Santa Barbara. Our route would take us over northbound over central California, northern California into Oregon, over Portland and into Washington state, where we would start our initial descent into Seattle’s Sea-Tac International Airport, our first stop. The two hour and five-minute flight to cover the 954 miles was uneventful in smooth air with the fasten seatbelt sign off all the way until the initial descent. Alaska does not have, or no longer has, entertainment monitors in the seatback in front of you or hanging from the overhead. Instead, they offer their complimentary Wi-Fi option which has plenty, or “plentong”, as our Indonesian friends say, of movies and TV shows to choose from, so bring an iPad or a laptop along and you’re good to go. There was a meal service provided by the flight attendants which was served hot and was good. Once on the ground at Sea-Tac which was very busy today, we took the tram to Terminal N and waited for our next flight to Fairbanks, AK, a distance of 1,528 miles, once again in a Boeing 737-900ER (ER for extended range). We got our seats on that bad boy, 3A and 3C, and once the boarding door was shut, and a power cart connected, start up of the No. 2 engine was at the gate because the aircraft’s APU was having a bad day. To be con't