Planning is Half the Fun

Thanks Marincath. I've tried to read what you said a few times but it's not getting through to me. Can you explain again the risk of cutting the patch? The packaging did instruct against cutting, but I have seen many people mention doing so on these boards so it would be good for everyone to really understand. My purpose had been because my doctor had only prescribed 2 patches (6 days) despite my protests. Since my plans included a lot of activities that tend to make me seasick, I was trying to spread out the coverage.

And you are also good to point out the potential fine - while we assumed we were taking a risk by being kind to strangers, that might not be obvious to someone reading the review.

Appreciate your help.

I really regret that we ran out of steam and didn't maximize our time in Vancouver. My husband did finally confess to becoming severely homesick by day 12 - that is another risk people might want to take into consideration.

We just got back yesterday from a 15 day trip, southbound with time before and after. I know that it's the luck of the draw but we had exactly 5 clear, sunny days total.

We ended our trip with a bang! Early wake up as we had put no effort into packing and were checking out. The prior day we did purchase a box from the post office nearby and mailed home a bit of clothing so we would have less to wrestle with. This ended up costing almost $40 and I'm not sure it was worth it but we did have our hands full as it was. We had one carry on roller suitcase, an over stuffed hiking backpack, and a purse that was almost a duffle bag. And a pillow.

We took a Taxi to the Weston to catch the Prince of Whales whale watching trip to Victoria. The boat did look a bit fragile for that long trip but it was explained that the boat was designed to be quiet underwater and not disturb the wildlife. We rode full speed ahead for almost 2 hours. There were only 41 passengers on the boat (usually up to 100) so there was room for people to spread out. There was a protected indoor space but We seemed to have picked the windiest point on the boat to settle in - a taller seat against a wall. The crew gave us blankets (there were also cartons full of rainjackets but these were not needed!) and there was a pantry where you could buy snacks with the profits going to conservation. There were also 2 bathrooms on board. Two naturalists showed us maps and talked about what we would see. We ended up meeting up with 2 pods of killer whales. You could see their fins above the water most of the time and the naturalists claimed to know the whales apart from each other. We did get very close. There were probably 7 other boats watching with us but they seemed to be behind us. Sometimes a whale or two would come in our direction and we would have to totally cut the boat off until they left on their own. Other than a bald eagle, we didn't see any other animals. Sometimes the boat was rocky, however I did not feel seasick. We got to Victoria at 12:30 as scheduled. We were able to store our luggage in their office and went up the stairs to see the town. We ate at the first places we saw - a hot dog place on the corner and Sam's deli next door. Both of our meals were nothing special but served the purpose. We had a groupon for the Big Bus Hop on Hop off, which picked up right next door. The narration was recorded but the driver supplemented and would sometimes mute it to chat or answer questions. He was personable and this was a great way to see the city, given that we only had a few hours. We only got off one time, at the Fisherman's Warf. This was a wonderful place I highly recommend. At the back half, you can watch the fishermen working after coming back into port. At the front half they have literal houseboats. Not boats that people make a home out of, but rather super cute small houses that have been made to float and tied up onto the warf. I've never seen anything like it. There's a few casual food stands that made me regret my impulsive lunch (although waiting was not an option at that point) - even a happy hour with "a buck a shuck". No alcohol sold at the warf. But the coolest thing I knew in my heart was wrong but loved anyways was that you could feed the wild seals. About 5 seals came right up to the boardwalk and I could have watched them for hours. If I could do this trip again, I would have asked the driver what time the next busses would come by and have been intentional with how long we stayed there. We must have just missed a bus as it was a long wait at the top of the hill, feeling like I was missing out on the party back on the wharf. A few more pieces of advice - big bus and gray line both function out of red busses which make it confusing. Big Bus has a Brittish flag on the grill, that's the best way to know whether it's your ride or not. Gray Line also seemed to have ten times more vehicles running that day than Big Bus. Big bus was also running a trolley that day, which the driver acknowledged was not ideal for photography compared to the open air bus.

There were a few other things in Victoria we would have enjoyed doing, but ran out of time. We were shown a tiny, almost magical alley in China town which apparently had some shops and offshoots. We were told the gardens at the Governor's mansion were free and a nice substitute for Buschart, which we certainly had no time for. And the miniature museum had definitely been on my wish list. But we had a float plane to catch back to Vancouver. We retrieved our luggage and walked 5 minutes to the air terminal. This probably would have been 1 minute except a blues festival was happening on the peer and we had to circumnavigate it. The loud music did make it feel like we were leaving during a fun party. The plane took 15 passengers for half an hour and was very scenic. I was thrilled, once again, to not get sick. I did use a patch and an essential oil for this trip and am very pleased with the results. I did use half a patch and had no negative side effects. If you are going to do this, I suggest you just bring some sharp scissors. Open the package, take the patch out, cut it in half, and then just return the other half to the package. There didn't seem to be any difficulty with the other half being exposed to air or chemicals leaking out into other meds in the carton. I did try to cut through the package with a knife, resulting in very uneven portions.

But back to the wonderful last day. When we got off the floatplane, we asked for the shortest route to walk to the canada line train and were advised to just take their shuttle. We walked up the ramp to a parking garage and a uniformed man easily transported us those 3 blocks. We totally COULD have walked, but this was way better for our condition. I followed the directions on the machine to purchase tickets. Since we were going through 2 zones on the map to get to the airport, we bout $9.50 each day passes. I'm not sure this was necessary - it seemed we could have just bought the single pass as it wasn't checked again. But it was a simple, half hour trip to the airport with no transfers. Upon arrival, we gifted our passes to others waiting to make purchases from the machine. The Vancouver airport is very much sorted into domestic and international flights. This was a little confusing, however, as our connector was in Toronto (domestic) but our final destination was in Florida (international). Staff eventually explained that we were headed for domestic, however CDS had to go collect our luggage from their international booth. They delivered it to us with no problems and I am confident in the end that we made the right decision in not having to deal with these bags during our last few days. Staff helped us check in, took our bags, and the security checkpoint was reasonably efficient. The airport was wonderfully decorated with the first nations art which I loved. I highly recommend the flights we were on - we had a much quicker trip home than anyone else in our group. We took off at 10:30pm, exhausted, on a huge airplane and after just 3 1/2 hours in the air we were on the other side of the continent in Toronto. With the time changes and all it was about 5am. We had a three hour layover, however getting through customs since we were on our way to the states was no joke at all. We had to go to a different annex which was quite a distance away with over a dozen checkpoint stops. We kept having to show our passport and / or boarding card, answer questions on a computer and in person, have pictures taken, and once again go through a security check, even though we'd never left the secure area. Folks had to abandon the drinks they'd purchased upon disembarking. I thought it was interesting to have to take my shoes off for American customs when Canada never made us. By the time we had made it to our gate, it had taken way over an hour. Concessions at this point were minimal compared to what had been available when we disembarked. Scarily, we both fell asleep and almost missed our connector. Despite sitting as close as possible to the loading area, nobody made any effort to wake us and my husband just happened to wake up at last call. We took a smaller plane that was quite empty and flew from Toronto to Jacksonville in just over 2 hours. I am still amazed at this short travel trip.

We've now been home almost 24 hours and spent most of that sleeping. This was certainly an amazing trip and I'm very grateful to everyone contributing to the boards to help me plan it. Hopefully, my experiences will be helpful to someone else. I'm happy to answer questions and invite you to go look at my facebook album for pictures. I'm not a serious photographer so set your expectations low. :) I also apologize for all the typos and rambling thoughts - the posts were all made from my phone and to say I was easily distracted on this trip would be an understatement.

I know there's only one more southbound trip this season, but hopefully this will be helpful to the folks who go in 2017.

And I sure hope someday to make it back again.

We walked in the rain down to the aquarium, which wasn't the best choice for the homesick & hurting person's mood. This was the Friday before Labor Day and we saw more children at any given time here then we'd seen the whole 2 weeks combined, by far. There was a long line to get in and we were told we could bypass it by purchasing tickets at the kiosk (forfeitting our dollar off coupons). The aquarium was large and divided into geographical sections. It was enjoyable and the programs were plentiful, too. Food at the aquarium was limited and expensive and delicious. We had 10% off coupons for the cafe and gift shop from the trolley. We spent about 5 hours there. When we left, we called for a taxi from the first place listed on the sign. There were about 7 other groups that also called for taxis from other places and after waiting half an hour after the last of those left, we jumped into a random taxi that just happened to come by - ours never did come. While I had wanted to explore Stanley Park more, we had hit the wall and needed to rest. We called it a night and got 12 hours of sleep.

This morning we caught the first free shuttle to Capilano Suspension Park. We spent 4 hours at the park and did every component of it. There was even a band playing old timey music. We really enjoyed the ice cream. Actually we loved everything - feeling brave and on top of the world, beautiful scenery, remarkable engineering skill - the whole park was built without taking down a single tree. You can collect embossed stamps around the park and get a certificate for doing all of the activities (including the giftshop!) Our next stop was Granville Island. The clerk at Cap looked up a bus route for us and we took the shuttle and transferred to a city bus. I highly recommend this place, however just keep going past the 3 restaraunts in the front. The food was fine but we misunderstood - once we made it back to the market we all agreed we would have much rather picked up pieces from back there. Fruit, cheese, sausages, lots and lots of ethnic stands. We got one pint of mixed fruit for $7 and shared it between the 4 of us. After the top layer, it was mostly grapes and tiny blueberries, but there were probably 7 different things i had never tried before. I also picked up some olives, spreads, and meats for a picnic tomorrow. We didnt explore the art side of the island at all - ran short on energy again. Our city bus dropped us a few blocks from the library so we did decide to go look at that. Very impressive - they even loan out musical instruments there and have recording studios you can book. I have come to the sad conclusion that 3 days in Vancouver is absolutely not enough. I hope we make it back here some day. It's an expensive town, to be sure, but if we did things thoroughly, we would certainly get our monies' worth. For example, today we totally neglected to use the second day of our trolley ticket. Just ran out of time.

Getting into Canada was no problem. We were off the boat and reunited with our luggage in no time. We had sorted our belongings and were going to live out of a small suitcase and a backpack each for the next 4 days so we didnt have to lug around all our cases. So we found the CDS counter in the terminal and they took our two bags to the airport to wait for us until we leave saturday evening. It was $40 to ship up to 4 bags and then $7 per day per bag, i believe we paid $88 after taxes and all. Remember all prices now are in Canadian money. The line for taxis was super long and didnt seem to be moving at all. I thought i remembered advice from the boards to walk to a nearby hotel and catch a cab from there. We headed in the direction of our hotel and i am not sure how long our hike was but it was grueling, even with our reduced luggage. (My husband is still walking with a cane and i am asthmatic with bronchitis setting in). We never came across an available taxi. We walked all the way to the Listel on Robson St and we are so happy with this choice. We needed something in this area and had two air b&b's back out on us, saying the property manager of most apartments in vancouver was now forbidding their tennants to participate any more. The hotel is on the trolley line, close to the harbour, and allows us to travel without a car. The hotel is very artsy and modern. Large room with a table, comfortable bed, robes in the closet (not plush, but better than the waffle weaves from on board), and a spacious bathroom. One piece of advice to anyone visiting vancouver: study up on composting and recycling. You will be expected to sort your refuse constantly and even when there is a cheat sheet, i have to really think about what goes into which bin. And sometimes you sort into 3 sets, sometimes 4. This hotel is in the West End Neighborhood. There are probably 14 different etnicities of restaraunts within a block each direction, so thats a lot of fun. The diversity missing on the cruise ship is absolutely found here.

I bought a groupon for a Vancouver city passport; another coupon book. I believe it was only about $10. One coupon was for $8 off the vancouver trolley hop on, hop off. There are 2 different lines and the pass is good for 24 hours from when you buy it. That actually appears to mean you get the whole second day free as nothing on the sticker indicates what time you bought it. My friends who bought theirs 4 hours earlier than i did were in the same color sticker. We rode the trolley for about 4 hours (both loops) to get ideas of what we wanted to do the next day. When the trolley got to the starting spot (canada place), there were no further trolleys running to get me back to stop number 4, however the driver made a list of hotels we needed a ride to and gave us each a lift.

There is a drugstore about every 4th block or so. I bought some cough medicine and snacks. The shelves are stocked with Brittish products, which is a lot of fun. Cadbury Eggs are not just for Easter here.

After taking way too long to decide, sushi was brought home for dinner.

Overnight there was a time zone change, stealing an hour from us. We had reserved the ultimate ship tour but were able to cancel at the last minute - again, low energy. My husband had injured himself just prior to the trip and we found the staff very accomodating to his needs for extra care. There were 2 free tours today - the kitchen did a silly cooking demo with a galley walk through afterwards. Think 3 stooges. And then the production team had a q&a with a theatre backstage tour. I enjoyed both. Other than trivia, we didnt participate in any other activities.

There are a lot of programs that we did not participate in. There were scavenger hunte and minute to win it type contests that probably would have been very interesting to me. There was also also an opportunity for passengers to compete like on The Voice. There were nature lectures and shopping opportunities, exercise classes, indoor and outdoor pools, and we missed almost all of those. There were 5 different lounges and theatres and they really made good use of these spaces, better than on other cruises i have been on. There are numerous bands of different styles. I was confused because several different entities are labeled "lotus spa." there is a fitness center (gym) on the 6th floor with no windows, it is easy to miss. They also call the massage/hair/etc place on deck 14 the lotus spa. This is where the heated chairs and saunas are. You can buy a week long pass to these chairs and sauna, which one of my friends was tempted to do, however you can really only stay there for 15 minutes at a time. My friend got very lucky and won the raffle for the week long pass. She still only used it 4 times, as much as she loved it. This area is totally different from the sanctuary. They have cushioned lounge chairs outdoors. Its very pretty. We met some folks who spent $60 to spend Glacier Bay Day in the sanctuary and were thrilled with their pampering experience. I would suggest, however, that you only purchase by the day or half day at a time - the sanctuary was closed when it was bad weather and i believe only open a total of 2 days. So i would not pay for that by the week, either. Also, there wasnt much chaos or noisyness to escape on our trip.

The library was HUGE - probably a dozen full length cases full. This is a comfortable place to look out the windows and see the world go by.

The laundromat on deck 12 and 11 was 5 washing machines and 5 driers stacked on top of each other. There were no chairs - it was clear they did not expect you to sit and wait. Swipe your card for a $3 token. A token each is needed for the washer, the dryer, and each product. The dryer is set for 60 minutes but i had to pull our clothes early at 35 minutes and everything was dry. Only one pair of jeans and the rest cottons, but still it was enough time. The laundromat was open 8am until 10pm.

Communicating: the doors are just barely magnetic. We werent able to attach any of the magnetic signs or clips we had brought. The princess at sea was pretty good, but not perfect. The messeges sometimes freeze up and sometimes the delivery is delayed, but generally we found it very helpful. There is also a list of the patter events and you can mark the events you are interested in. You can also check your charges. We bought the internet package but never did figure out how to split it between different devices.

Afternoon tea: at 3:30 every day there is a fancy high tea in the provence dining room. White gloves, scones, finger sandwiches, and sometimes a live classical quartet. Several people in our group loved this.

Movies under the stars looked amazing. They face all the lounge chairs toward the screen and there's popcorn and lots of blankets to use. But also it was super cold. All of the muts are played the next day on loop on tv and in some theaters so you have a second chance if you cant handle the cold.

The ship was definitely small enough that you could feel it moving. I wore half a patch and never got nauseus. Lots of people aroumd wearing patches.

One more thing, i was very impressed with how the staff were able to take advantage of the same amenities we were. It was very common to see uniformed crew watching shows and eating late at night in the buffet. I had not experienced that on other lines.

And random other things that have been of interest on the boards. We were able to bring cases of soda and water aboard without problem. We did get patters delivered daily. We didnt notice an excess of flyers, perhaps one per day. Individual pictures are $20 each. Ten plus the digital copies for $149, or else unlimited plus digital for $199.

Rainy and dreary. Our floatplane to misty fjords was cancelled and we ended up on the Sourdough tour - 2 hours for $60 each but it was a low energy option which we needed. We stopped at the fish ladder (saw lots of fish but not many of them were trying to get upstream), a cove where bears sometimes go (today it was seals and birds), to saxman park for a short stay, and then to be dropped off Dolly's museum, which was mostly a house of antiques. Not that much tawdry, there. We went down the creek st shops. I do not really recommend this tour. You could do all these things via city bus for a total of $17 instead of $60 and the brochure was a bit misleading. It listed the same site under different names so it seemed you went to more places than you did. Also, at some stops you had enough time to do only one of the options the brochure mentioned. And finally, it listed saxman native village and also the clanhouse. We werent on a qualifying tour to go into the clanhouse and the only village could have been looking through the glass at carvers - a premium tour was in there with them hearing what was said but we could only watch.

At this point we pretty much gave up on our day at port about 4 hours before the ship left. We came back onboard for the buffet lunch and then went to high tea with our gang. We took a nap until our specialty dining at Sabatini's. Not sure how we got that comped to us - apparently it was a bonus on our purchase package but i never heard of that prior to getting on board. This was a super slow meal considering how tired we were. It was 20 minutes before our order was taken and then another 20 minutes between each course. The food tasted fine but the portions were a bit big.

I then watched On The Bayou, a show with songs from the 60s and 70s arranged to tell a story. I think it was a story. I was drowsy and as beautiful as it was, i realized I didnt really understand what was going on so i left early to go to bed. While I did enjoy the music, the song choices did reinforce the nostalgia of the line's target audience - folks in their 60s and 70s. The singers and dancers are a diverse group, which i appreciated. Looking at all of the pictures available for sale, it is obvious that this is not true of the passengers. There were perhaps a dozen folks total who were not white and /or retirement age. For a grand total our group has counted 6 children on board, however we arent confident whether any of the sightings are of the same kiddos. It is possible that they remain isolated in their programs the entire time, but they certainly arent hanging out with their families. One more possibility is the timing of our cruise. Perhaps there are way more children on board when it's summer break and now they are back in school.

If you like historical story telling you definitely want to catch Steve Hites - a Skagway native who walks a great line between melodramatic and college professor while he plays a guitar.

Our patter predicted that Juneau was going to be 50 - 61 degrees and rainy. WRONG! Not a drip of rain and everyone was in short sleeves by noon.

We started with the Mendenhall float trip. They suggest that you not bring anything with you as it might get damaged or dropped. I am not sure that is the best option. We rode a minibus out to the river. The driver was informative but also jaded. Upon arrival we were given fisherman pants and traded our shoes for rubber boots. Staff took all our belongings and transported them in a trck to the end point. After we got into the raft and pushed out a bit, then we were able to see the glacier, which was 3 miles away. If we had kept our cameras that would have been great photo opportunities as we just floated and chatted in a big lake for about half an hour without really being pushed anywhere. Once we went into the river there was maybe 5 minutes tops of splashes, which were extremely cold. You get plenty of notice. If i was doing this over again, i would bring my phone and put it in a ziploc bag and tuck it away for that short portion. One fellow had a gopro on a stick, so i know its not against the rules. The ride did go through a residential community but i found that to be interesting. One passenger on our boat kept asking if she could get back on for a second ride - we all found it relaxing. The snack afterwards was crackers, cut sausage, carrot sticks, and salmon spread. it was in styrofoam take our containers which was not that appealing. A photographer had taken our picture which we could buy, along with shirts and better snacks. Some people had followed the directions to not vring any personal items and they were frustrated about not having money for these purchases or for tips. The total trip was 3 1/2 hours and we used the ats bogo on that as well.

City Trolley Tour

This was $25 and we probably would have gotten more out of it if we had taken our time at the two optional stops to experience the fish hatcheries. The path seemed to skip a lot of parts of town that would have been interesting, but we did certainly see much more than we would have on foot. There was another stop where we could either look down on the city or else hear a talk on plants. The trip lasted 45 minutes.

Mt Roberts Tram

Again, i think i would have gotten more out of this is i hadnt been in a rush to get down to the shops for a few minutes (had to be on board by 3:30.) Every 7 minutes a tram arrives and transported a group up. We had to wait for 3 trams. There was a native with a handdrum singing poetry to us - welcoming us. I really enjoyed him. At the top, one of our folks who was interested in bald eagles spent over an hour looking at one there. Several others hit the trails and were quite pleased with their choice.

It was formal dinner night with lobster and afterwards we took so many pictures we were delayed hitting the deck to look for wildlife. The naturalist was helping us look from 7 to 8pm. We saw probably a dozen whales off in the distance.

We didnt do any of the entertainment things in the evening.

True. Or at least Thats how it worked for me!

ATS: i am trying to be careful to not break the board rules about advertising, but i would suggest googling the book and looking carefully at what all is offered. For me, i got lots of inspiration from the book. A few tips: for big ticket items like flightseeing, its usually one coupon per tour or even one per day. So actually my planning obsession and early commitments to book got me those coveted slots. Also, while i was considering whether or not to purchase the book for a few weeks, it suddenly went on Sale for half price, itself. So maybe keep an eye on that- i will check back to when i bought it after i get back home. Everything said above seems accurate. And when i get off the cruiseship, i also intend to leave the book behind in the library.

Luggage: on the princess website after you pay your balance you can print out luggage tags and your boarding pass. Princess had nothing to do with my train arrangements, but as we were waiting to load the train, porters were looking for those tags and just took the liggage and put it in another car. We didnt have to ask, it was delivered to our room. I had other friends who did the princess sponsored bus transfer and their luggage took much longerto be delivered to their rooms.

Air arrangements: i dont have any tips, princess air offered comparable rates to travelocity.

I appreciate knowing that i am giving back to the community that made this trip happen for me. Thanks for all the feedback.

Day 7: Skagway, another sunny day!

I had expected to wander the town for an hour and a half before the excursions, but that did not work out. The gangplank opened 20 minutes late and it was a 15 minute walk to downtown. I just walked a lap back and forth and then boarded the Skagway city car tour. There is a minibus shuttle bus to town that might be a good choice if you are short on time, energy, or mobility.

Skagway City Car Tour

The busses are cute and the drivers are in fun costumes. First thing we noticed are the bench seats are small. Make sure everyone wears deoderant. The busses convoy and the drivers cooperate to tell and reenact stories. This was a wonderful tour with stops at a scenic overlook and the cemetary. They do a good job describing the town's history as well as current conditions. I booked this tour through my cruise line for $45 and it lasted about an hour and 40 minutes. I really enjoyed this.

Ranger walk

In the past this was free but you had to rush off the boat because there were only so many slots and they were first come first served, but i was able to reservev the time slot i wanted online for a 75 cent processing fee. The ranger took us to several places, usually yards or alleys, and would explain history to us. We never went into any of those buildings; she just told us about them. The tour lasted about 55 minutes and i also recommend it if you are interested in history and culture. Aftetwards i turned in a junior ranger packet i had also downloaded from the web and she deputized me with a badge. So i think now i can come give tours every summer. I forgot to ask her if i was on the payroll now.

Red Onion Quickie Tour

$10 for 20 minutes. The guide was uncomfortably tawdry, as advertised. There was also quite a bit of general history and artifacts shown, it was interesting to learn what the culture was really like. I think, as typical for a brothel, the experience seemed to last less time than promised. I did enjoy the history but was embarrassed by how raunchy the character was.

Sockeye Train and Bicycle Tour

This was $199 and lasted 4 1/2 hours. We rode the train up the mountain which was very relaxing. Definitely sit on the left. Towards the top, the train no longer hugs the mountain and there is a view on both sides, but that is a short portion of the ride. There is a narrator who occasionally points out interesting things. One thing i wish i had known is that there was no last call on the bathrooms. As the train approaches customs (where we disembarked) they declared the bathrooms closed and then the 400 people on the train all lined up for the station bathroom as we were all headed out into the wilderness. So i suggest that when the narrator announces she is putting down the microphone to come meet the passengers (amd collect tips) that is when you should use the facilities so you dont have to use the facilitrees later on. We took a van ride up to the summit and then after a few lessons we rode our bikes 15 miles down the mountain - the same road that tour busses and semis are also traveling. We rode single file and it was mostly riding the brakes downhill for an hour and a half. There were about 6 scenic stops and a few patches where you had to peddle on flat land with one upward hill. It was less than a minute but i did have to use my inhaler. At one of the stops we were able to watch 2 black bears play way off in the distance. I wore just a tshirt and light hoody today and it was enough. 4 of us went on this trip and we all loved it.

So I did alot of organized tours today but didnt really get to explore downtown. Some observations about coming at the end of august: the flowers are mostly gone, most of the museum sites werent open on the weekends, and the shops that were still open had everything marked half off.

One unfortunate situation was that while we are in port until 8pm, everything really closes up around 5. And its crab night so the ship sort of pulls you back in.

We sat on the promenade and watched the sail away, then watched Steve Hites sing Alaska folk songs.

The sun finally broke through and we had our first ever clear day. There were many options for where tobwatch and we really had a hard time deciding. Deck 15 proved to be scary windy, although it is nice to be able to see big sky as well. On deck 11 there is a front deck and you can see where you are going. My favorite place was on deck 7, where we were able to see straight out without the blue glass barrier. It was hard to hear- the speakers were just muffled. The rangers sell a $30 jump drive of photos so i decided those would be better than my own pictures, anyways. i do highly recommend binoculars. The photograpers make laps and take your pictures. They are $20 each or for $200 you can have all your pictures and also a jump drive of them, so that's what i got. For luch the buffet had "taste of alaska" - with several fish and shrimp options. The grill served a halibut sandwhich, which was declared by some to be their favorite thing they had eaten so far. We saw some more goats or sheep but no other animals. We did see some calving, however i dont think we were very close as we never heard anything from the glaciers. Also, today was actually warm. We had seen pictures of people really bundled up on other threads, but today if you found a place out of the wind, you wouldnt even need a hoody. Also, if you want to stay indoors there are plenty of chairs in windows throughout the ship. Once again dinner took us almost 2 hours so be sure to allow that much time in your plans. We then went to see a comedian who definitely was a hit. I had intended to stay out for the Klondike party, however when i walked up to the atrium they were dancing with the audience to "friends in low places" and then patsy's "crazy" ... i realized this was not the high energy party i had been expecting. just as well, i needed to go rest up because tomorrow is our first port day and i am ready to go see something new.

Unfortunately our weather was not desirable. It rained nonstop and was so foggy we could only see maybe a yard away from the ship. The boat did have a lot of fun indoor activities planned. I took the ship orientation tour, watched the fruit carvers, took a very interesting art history lecture, and played trivia. We spent the afternoon in the horizon court buffet on deck 14, we got a table near the window and were able to see as good as everyone else. The windows seemed pretty fogged up, but that might have been outdoors. This was a formal night and while we were dressing for our 5:15 meal (which i dont recommend) the fog lifted a little and we could see and hear the glacier but had to head in to eat. Afterwards we went to the motor city show, a song/dance number on the r&b movement which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Getting onboard was no trouble at all. Our interior room was much more spacious than we have experienced with other cruise lines. There is a full length cabinet with shelving and 3 sets of drawers. After dinner we went to the welcome aboard show with a few song and dance numbers, and a ventriloquist who sang and did impressions. He was funny, but every single impression he did was of someone long passed from this earth. He definitely knew his audience. We have since seen a grand total of 5 children total on board. Other than the staff, i would estimate that less than 5% of the passengers i see are in their 30s or less. I am very comfortable with that, but know that some other folks here have wondered about that. One other thing we noticed was that staff in all different areas seemed to be pushing a premium wine tasting experience. After our 6th offer for it, we asked more specific questions and learned that the staff get points for selling those and also coffee cards, etc.

Phillips Glacier Quest Tour.

$113, lasted 3.5 hours. Today was a dreary day and it was hard to see the shore most of the time. The boat travels counterclockwise so the starboard seats had better views of the shoreline. The route passes numerous waterfalls, stops at 2 glaciers, and passes by several more. Our boat was only about a third full - everyone had plenty of room to spread out and you could also go outdoors on one of the 3 decks. They pull up close three times, stay about 10 minutes, and rotate around. If you go on this trip, definitely dress warmly and raincoat. You sit in booths and they deliver a hot lunch - meat, cole slaw, and chips. The chicken nuggets was fine but the fishsticks didnt taste like fish at all. We saw just one animal swimming in the distance but it wasnt clear what it was. This cruise was certainly child friendly. The ranger gives them things to do such as bringing manipulatives and pictures table to table. At the end they are pinned junior rangers, which they seemed to love. I think my final suggestion on this would be to wait and only buy a ticket upon arrival if there is visibility.

Once again, made this choice because of the ats bogo, which got us both here for $80. We sat at tables with half the folks facing backwords. We had the princess tags on our luggage and were told we didnt need to think about them - the depot would get them delivered to our room. The ride was slow and pleasant. A narrator with a microphone points out sights but we only saw a few eagles en route. There is a concession stand but they had no tions to us bringing on our own snacks. I had hoped to take a gander at the 2 tall buildings of the city while waiting for our glacier cruise,but it was foggy and chilly and i wasnt sure even which direction to walk. So we just waited the half hour for the glacier quest boat to load up.

Thank you Maple.

I'll tell you about our great hotel now. The staff are super friendly and make you feel very important. They are quick to jump up whenever you come near put a big smile on their face and meet your needs very quickly. There is a separate bedroom which is great for some people having jet lag. They can sleep in peace. There is a kitchenette and everything is comfortable. We really wanted to have space to spread out before we got in to the small Cruise Room. It's also very conveniently relocated. It's just up the hill from the railroad and just down the hill from the Anchorage fair and Market. You can see both through your windows. It is also just a few blocks from downtown. It's certainly dated but clean. A continental breakfast is delivered to your door every morning if you put out a door hanger requesting it. Granola bar, oatmeal, muffin, Juicebox. Perfect for snacking throughout the day while on the Run. The biggest complaint someone might have is not wanting to be woken up by the 5:30 a.m. train everyday. For me this was perfect; it helped me get started with my day since there was so much I wanted to do here. I have no regrets about this hotel. We paid $188 per night using Travelocity.

https://www.facebook.com/brandi.gonzales/media_set?set=a.10209883620675991.1073741833.1497772606&type=3&__nodl

Can anyone tell me if this link gets you to my Facebook page where I have put my pictures In a public album called team flamingo?

Today 3 couples headed south in a minivan. Learned a lot that I hope may help you.

I appreciate the encouragement that it is of interest to anyone - my travel companions are always intrigued by how much knowledge I glean from these treasure troves. Glad to give back a little.

Well we knew that the ride to Seward would be 5 hours round trip and that we wouldn't be able to add in the 5 hour day cruise there. We had just wanted to stop and look and hike and play without any real plans.

AWCC was $12.50 each and there was a ATS bogo. We spent about an hour there. It was a good opportunity to see some moose, bison, bears, caribou, and such up close.We had some low mobility folks in the group so we drove up to each habitat and got out for a closer look when we were interested. It felt more like their natural environment then the zoo had. They had an hourly program where they would feature a different animal, telling us stories while feeding the animals. I bought post cards and they asked if I needed stamps. Come to find out, they print their own stamps and they have their actual animals as the image, which I was really impressed with. Several people in my group had been resistant to going and balked at how everyone in the car was expected to pay admission - there was no option to just sit in the parking lot and abstain. At the end,however,2 of the 3 of them put it in their top 5 favorite experiences of the day.

The intermittent drizzle was back and we decided to head straight to Seward and stop along the way back if we were still interested. We did stop once to stretch at a pull off. We quickly counted 9 different types of mushrooms growing _ many we had never seen before. Since we had no expertise in the types of fungi,we just took pictures, but I bet some of them would have been terrific sauteed. A swarm of mosquitoes abruptly herded us back into our van and the drizzle increased to a solid rain but temps were in the 60s. The views are really scenic, even in the fog.

Exit Glacier

We chose the 1.3 mile path to the glacier's edge instead of the 8 mile one to the glacier's field. We didn't understand the difference and we had two with injuries and one with severe sickness and a z PAC that hadnt kicked in yet.for a while it is a clear rubber mulched trail through the woods. There is a clearing where you can look up at the glacier and see the rushing river coming down hill. Some chunks of ice have broken off and are floating down hill and sometimes they get bounced so hard they end up on land. We posed with a few chunks which is good because that's the only contact we had with the ice. There are signs with dates throughout the trail telling you if it was 1916 the glacier would be this far down. The signs show dates getting more and more current and sometimes there are actual pictures showing visitors at that time on the glacier yet the rest of the landscape matches exactly; it is clear this glacier is retreating. Towards the end, you leave the woods and the terrain is more steep and mountainous. Which is when I remembered my asthma inhaler was back in the car. The sick one and I definitely were sucking air and taking pit stops but we finally got to the top of the trail with 2 observations. One we were confident we had walked way further than posted and 2, we weren't even close to the edge of the glacier.I believe the sign telling us how far was probably installed several decades ago and did getto the edge, but they couldnt safely extend the trail any further. None the less,it was like nothing we had ever seen and an amazing photo opportunity. In all we were here about 2.5 hours. After returning to the ranger station I asked for details of where in Seward we could see the puffins and otters and such and was extremely disappointed to hear these were only accessible on those 5 hour boat tours.

We decided we better distract ourselves with a meal and try to boost our spirits. We drove a little further into Steward and pulled into a parking lot to check help and travel advisor for suggestions. We eventually decided we couldn't decide (it was 4pm) and just walked into the nearest restaurant which was called Rays. We were seated right in front of a I

Window and enjoyed watching all the boats come in to port. One guy wandered out onto the gangway for an upclose look at fishermen cleaning their huge catches. Our food refreshed and while most of us didn't clear our whole plates, everyone was satisfied. Each couple's bill came to between $90 and $100. Towards the end we started seeing an otter floating right beneath our window. We drove down to the last dock and walked out to watch two otters for quite a while. Up until these guys, the only animals I had seen in the wild were a Dahl sheep and a squirrel like creature, so the otter was nourishing to my soul.

We just headed straight home afterwards - we were out of energy and needed to do laundry since tomorrow is cruise day!!! the sun came out for our ride home and we got to see the same scenes in a totally different light. A conversation arose about Bob Ross,who we had not realized had lived in Anchorage. One friend said "I never liked his paintings because his mountains looked fake. But now I realize that Alaska mountains look nothing like Pennsylvania mountains. His mountains look exactly like these."

So that's it for today. Tomorrow morning we hit the train to Whittier.:D

We met up with friends at Moose's tooth. Waiting an hour outside in the rain wasn't a highlight, but we did enjoy our first restasraunt meal in Alaska. Service was great and the food was yummy. But if we were locals, I am not sure it would go into our regular rotation. 4 of us had our own small salads and shared 2 medium pizzas and desserts. We had 6 slices left over. Everything was great.

Knik River Lodge offers helicopter tours out on to the glacier for $380 and with the ATS bogo, this was definitely well worth the splurge. It was a helicopter for 4 passengers. You negotiate for front seat and someone else gets it on the way back. The route out was more lengthy and scenic. No videos or pictures can prepare you for this. We followed the mountain out and saw some dahl sheep . After about 20 minutes, we landed and it was like landing on a different planet - in all directions all you could see was glacier. After unloading they gave us crampon shoes which were miraculous. I had no concerns at all and I am a bit clumsy. You could wander off wherever you wanted but we all stayed close. Really wish we had remembered to bring the empty bottles to get some water - there were streams and pools but you could walk anywhere you could see ice. He did show us one area where the water fell down a crevice making a man sized hole. He held us tight while we peered in and couldn't see the bottom. I would advise that if you go onto a glacier, wear tall heavy socks as the crampons did start to cut into me just above the talus. After about half an hour we did fly back in and took a direct route. I did get nauseus in flight, it was a windy day and we bumped a bit. Also I am sensitive to fumes. So far this was definitely our highlight. So far the weather has been dreary - in the low 50s with an intermittent drizzle. After the flight, some pretty heavy rain set in so our timing was perfect. I managed to notice some sunburn on my face before the helicopter so the sun had been finding me without me even noticing.

independence mine I loved this place - a state park on the ruins of a goldmine company site. We could have spent hours here. If you are interested, some things you need to know. Do not gps it from the website - thisis the address of a different state park over half an hour away. Also,the phone number isnt helpful, either. Its at mile marker 17 on Hatcher Pass. Second, if possible go on a day when the park is staffed. Wed - Sun, 11 -6. It's $5 per carload on the honor system. Some buildings have fallen, some are being restored. There's trails to look from different angles and lots of signs about the lifestyle of the miners and the science of their work.

Musk Ox Farm. This is a walking tour through a farm. The guide was extremely personable and kept my attention well. You cant touch them but there are a lot of tactile displays inside. Our tour started early and we had to join in. We paid with a groupon. Very informative. At the entrance there are huge cabbages, which made me happy as the garden behind the Palmer Visitor Center did not have the giant veggies i had wanted to see. But they did have a street sign nearby saying "arctic rd" which was a great photo opportunity for me.

Drove back to Hood Lake, still no action.

Hit Alaska Wildberry which has an amazing website. This place is tailor made for tour buses. Giant water fall, giant plush dolls and taxidermy, but mostly candy and souveneirs.

Then we hit the Alaska Zoo. This was $15, we had the ATS bogo, and really enjoyed 3 hours there. Some of the animals seemed to be in pens too small, however there were enrichment things in almost every pen. And some of the pens were luxuriously huge. We watched brown bears wrestle and play with a ball for over half an hour. We thought we saw some concerning behaviors in some of the animals, but let the staff convince us there was a logical reason. So far, the zoo was our highlight.