dfilpus

We saw sea otters in Resurrection Bay, just outside of Seward harbor and puffins in Kenai Fjords National Park; both on an excursion.

Before the closure, the TWT went to Stoney Hill overlook, mile 62. The park transit buses went farther into park to Eielson Visitor Center, mile 66, Wonder Lake, mile 85, and Kantishna, mile 92.

If you are interested in Denali either before or after the cruise, the tour into the park does not run far into the park until June. This was our main timing issue when we were scheduling a May cruise. We cruised the last week of May and then went to Denali.

We were in Glacier Bay the last week of May 2019. The ship did a full turn at both Margery and John Hopkins. 

Anchorage.

My wife collects ornaments. We found some at Grizzly’s on 5th Ave in Skagway. We also got some at the Christmas store on the dock in Ketchikan and Grizzly’s on 4th Ave in Anchorage.

In addition to the stops along the North Highway, we took the bridge over to Douglas Island. There is a nice view of Mendenhall from the North Douglas highway. The town is different, not as touristy. The beach with remnants of mining activity is interesting.

2 hours ago, AKStafford said:

AvisAlaska has a downtown location: https://www.avisalaska.com/locations/juneau-downtown/

Avis Alaska has not reopened that office since the pandemic. 

19 minutes ago, avic77 said:

 

I have both a Seattle departure and a Vancouver departure on hold and have no idea which to choose. everything is the same except Seattle one stops in Victoria and the Vancouver does not, and they are different ships. The maps for the ship path even looks the same going slightly outside the islands off the coast. So is it 100% that all Vancouver cruises stay to the inside of the islands?

The Inside Passage has a shallow tight passage. There are cruise ships that are too big to make that passage, so they have to go outside of Vancouver Island.

58 minutes ago, stavy said:

Where did you rent your car?  Thinking about doing that while we’re there

We rented from Avis from their office on Mill Street near the AJ Dock. According to other posters, Avis is not going to have that office open this year. 

53 minutes ago, petuniaflower said:

Not to hijack, but I am on a Mendenhall tour, I just read in addition to the Nugget falls hike there is another trail- Steep Creek, I havent heard anyone mention this one..anyone know how long it is, hoping we could fit both in.

The Steep Creek trail is a short boardwalk that overlooks the creek for salmon viewing during runs. It is just off the parking lot. If the salmon are not running, it is just a walk from the parking lot to the glacier views.

1 hour ago, mpk said:

 

Did you rent a car to get there?   A cab ride is about $25 from the cruise dock to Sandbar.

We rented a car for the day in Juneau. We went to Mendenhall before the tour buses got there, the shrine of Sainte Therese, Eagle Beach, Douglas Island etc.

2 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Welcome new member Vagabond51 to our community!

 

This is a suggestion that has never been made before on CC.  Thanks for posting this.  

 

We learned about the Sandbar on CC before our 2019 cruise. We parked around back where there is an entrance to the dining area. There was a group of locals having lunch and talking local town issues. There was a commercial fisherman who got a phone call and left saying that this was his last warm meal for a month on his way to the boat. It really was a taste of local Juneau and the fish and chips were great.

2 minutes ago, llarsen said:

Wow your 4th trip to Alaska!

I'm a warm weather and warm water person so we have done the Caribbean since 1989. First time to Alaska. 

The Blue Bus you mentioned. Is it a local bus? Do you purchase tickets online in advance or at the pier?

The walk out to Nugget Falls...is that walk accessible from taking the Blue Bus or a trail from town and how far/hard of a walk is it? My brother in law has been undergoing treatments for cancer and I don't want to exhaust him.

Sorry for all the questions, but I don't have a clue about Alaska. 

Thank you!

 

 

Two local tour companies run shuttle buses from the cruise docks to the Mendenhall Visitor Center. One company has blue buses and the other has white buses. At the Visitor Center, there are distant views of the glacier, with accessible trails to lookouts for slightly different views. The trail to Nugget Falls gets you close to the falls and closer to the glacier. It is paved part way, but becomes a little rocky as you approach the falls. It is about a mile each way from the Visitor Center. There is also an accessible boardwalk above a salmon stream near the Visitor Center. If your timing is right, there may be salmon running. Bears have been seen in the area. After you are done, you catch the next shuttle of the appropriate color back to the cruise docks. 

53 minutes ago, don't-use-real-name said:

Google Map for reference:

 

Google Maps

 

Zooom the map in or out for more or less detail - - - - -

 

Yakutania Point is centered in image - cruise ship docks at bottom - - -

The trek back into Skagway is a long one - back to the Klondike Highway and then into town -

 

BUT HEY WAIT - there appears to be a pedestrian bridge crossing to the airport grounds and

a couple block walk to the WPYRR ticket office about 1500 meters to the furthest dock

position on the Railroad dock.

Any readers done this to comment ? 

We took the pedestrian bridge out to Yakatunia Point in 2019. It’s a nice short walk.

In Seward, look at Kenai Fjords National Park tours. There are multiple vendors that offer boat tours. Get the longest duration tour into the park to see the most glaciers and wildlife. Vendors include Kenai Fjords Tours and Major Marine.

Norwegian is removing Saint Petersburg from its Baltic cruises in 2023. They’ve replaced it with Visby Sweden and Kotka Finland on our cruise in August 2023.

The city bus runs once an hour. It takes 45 minutes to an hour. You pick it up either the westbound Red line or Blue line downtown and get off at Mendenhall Loop Road stop at Dredge Lake Rd. It's one and a half mile walk on a wide sidewalk to the Visitor Center. You get glimpses of the glacier along this walk. From the visitor center, the Nugget Falls trail will get you closer to the glacier. You should check out the creek boardwalk which may or may not have bear activity. There is the more rugged East Glacier trail which has higher level views of the glacier. 

Most excursions only get you to the Visitor Center, some with a restricted time frame. There are more adventurous excursions that include the West Glacier Trail or kayaks or helicopters. 

From our Denali cruisetour in June 2019, pre-pandemic:

1. The meal plan is expensive, but food in Alaska is expensive. We found plenty of restaurants around all of our hotels. In Denali, the McKinley Chalet had two main restaurants, which will take your meal plan. The Princess Lodge, which is right next door, has more restaurants, including a pizza restaurant. Across the highway is a strip of gift shops, restaurants and other retail. We liked Prospectors Pizza. It wasn't open last season. Hopefully it will be open this season. There is a dining shuttle that runs between the resorts and restaurants along the highway.

On the tour day, we ate the buffet breakfast at Karstens. The snack box on the tour was sufficient for us. The meal box would have been a waste for us.

The meal on the train is ala carte. 

2. There are two guided bus tours into Denali: the Natural History Tour and the Tundra Wilderness Tour. The NHT is a short tour which is included in a cruise tour when the TWT is not running. The TWT tour normally runs to mile 56 of the Park road. However, part of the road on the side of a mountain has become unstable and is being bypassed. For 2022 and perhaps 2023, the TWT is ending at mile 43. This turns the eight hour tour into a six hour tour, with the lost two hours being the most scenic part of the tour. You will still see wildlife, mountains and Denali. When we got to the hotel, along with our room key and coupons, we were given tickets for the TWT. There were tours leaving every twenty minutes, starting early, before 7 am. Our tour left at 9:20, leaving time for breakfast.

There is a snack box and water included with the Tundra Wilderness Tour. We found it adequate. You can order the box lunch the night before the tour. 

You'll probably get more answers if you post this in the Royal Carribbean board.

Some cruise ships are too big to sail the narrow passage between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland. They then enter the inside passage in Queen Charlotte Sound. The inside passage continues north to Juneau and Skagway.

Laundry service on the ship is available at a price. It is charged by the piece or by the bag ($20) or unlimited ($7/day for the entire cruise). The turnaround can be as long as 36 hours, so the last laundry pickup is the morning of the day that is two days before debarkation. When we did an 11 day cruise/land tour, we did laundry on the ship and had enough clean clothes for the land tour, so we didn't look for laundry facilities in the hotels. 

HAL uses the Westmark or the Captain Cook, which are downtown.

When we had a free day in Fairbanks, we rode the city bus to the Museum of the North, the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum and Pioneer Park. The museums are highly recommended. 

Our hotel was near downtown; we walked around downtown. 

Your hotel is out near the airport. There is a city bus stop on University Ave in front of the hotel.