kpd21880

Wonderful trip report! Certainly a memorable family adventure.

Thx for taking the time to share your experiences.

And please be sure to add this to the trip report list as it will be very helpful for future travelers.

Hey there mapleleaves! A big thank you for all of your wise advice as we planned. It was invaluable. I'd be happy to add it to the 2017 trip report list, but I don't know how. Can you explain the steps? I took me a solid hour just to figure out how to add pictures yesterday. :)

Thank you all for the kind comments. This is my first trip report :) I'll be back later tonight with more days.

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Cruising: Hubbard Glacier

Our first and only day of bad weather, start to finish. It rained pretty hard all day long, which made glacier viewing sub-optimal. Our son enjoyed lots of activities in the kids club and the hubs and I enjoyed relaxing and reading at the indoor pool until we got close to the glacier. From 2-3pm, we were about 3 miles out from the glacier face. It was rainy and foggy and difficult to see, but we huddled up outdoors with the provided blankets, as many layers as we had brought, some spiked hot coco and made the best of it and absolutely enjoyed ourselves. We did hear one very loud calving, but didn’t actually SEE it because of the weather. Still thrilling!

Day 6:

Cruise Check in: Celebrity Millennium, Southbound. For sure the quickest and easiest check in we’ve ever experienced. We took the hotel shuttle at 10am to the port, arrived around 10:20 and found out we couldn’t check our bags or selves in until 11am. No problem! We walked around the marina a bit and they promptly began taking bags at 11am. Bag drop off took all of 1 minute, and we headed indoors to check in. No lines, no wait, we were on board by 11:10am. We grabbed some lunch at the buffet and then headed back off the boat to spend the afternoon in Seward. Tip: When we walked off the boat a little after noon, there were lots of people and lines. The train arrives at 11:30 and brings lots of people. Arrive before 11:30.

Sea Life Center:We took the free Seward shuttle (green school bus) from the port to the SeaLife Center. Major Marines had given us 50% off coupons the day before, which was great, because we were planning ongoing anyhow. We liked this aquarium a lot –the puffin exhibit in particular. The exhibits were fun and interactive and our son was engaged the whole time (about 2 hours). FFF: 9

We headed back to the ship on the same free shuttle and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the indoor pool (family hours 3pm-6pm) and doing some family activities at the Fun Factory (ship’s kids club).

Day 5

Morning: Goldstar Dome Train from Anchorage to Seward on Alaska Railroad: a splurge for our family, but an experience we really wanted. Train departs Anchorage very early (6:45am) and arrives Seward at 11:30am. The good: The Dome cars were fantastic. The views were beautiful out of the walls/ceilings of windows and the train attendants were great at spotting wildlife and narrating. The open air viewing platforms off the back of the cars are spectacular and the kid loved being outside. The bad: breakfast is included in the ticket price, so we didn’t eat beforehand (plus, you are arriving at the Depot at 6am to check bags and board the train!). But, the dining cars are small and can only handle about 1/3 of the Dome car passengers at a time and breakfast service is sloooooooow. We were in the last 1/3 to eat, which was around 10:15am. Had we known this ahead of time, we could have eaten a light breakfast at the hotel or brought snacks and not had to deal with a hangry 6 year old for 3 hours. (To be honest, there were a multitude of hangry, unhappy adult passengers as well….) I diplomatically documented this issue on the post-train survey and was contacted by a member of the management team. To their credit, they gave us a partial refund of our ticket price. Kudos,Alaska Railroad, you have great customer service recovery. FFF: 7

Afternoon: Major Marines 6 hour Kenai Fjords Tour Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Seward on the train, it was raining pretty hard and Major Marines picked us up from the Seward Train Depot and brought us to their marina. They told us on the bus ride over that the seas outside Resurrection Bay were quite rough and the captain was unsure if we’d be able to cross the open sea to get to the glaciers. They gave us a few options: cancel outright for a refund, switch to the 4 hour Resurrection Bay tour or continue on the 6 hour tour and hope for the best with some recommended seasickness medications. We opted to give the 6 hour tour a try, and while we skipped the meds, we did give the kiddo Dramamine, just in case. The Bay was beautiful and relatively calm (to us) – we saw whales, bald eagles, puffins, lots of birds, sea otters and sea lions. Before we even attempted to cross the open sea, though, many passengers were getting sea sick in the calm Bay. The captain did attempt the crossing, and we made it about 10 minutes (1/3 the way) and then he turned us around to go back, as the swells were about 15 feet and increasing. Safety first! While we didn’t get sea sick at all, I will say, the boat felt like a roller coaster in the open Sea. Many, many people did get ill. After getting back into the Bay, they served lunch, and while it looked really good, with the amount of people getting sick, it wasn’t very appetizing with the stench. We cruised around the Bay a bit more and found a pod of transient Orcas and got to watch them play in the Bay. Once back on land, Major Marines refunded the difference between the 4 and 6 hour tours, as well as the price of lunch for anyone who didn’t eat. While we may have been in the minority of the people on the boat, we had a great time! We stayed outside in the open air, covered decks and enjoyed all of the marine life, despite the rain. If you are prone to sea sickness, this is not the tourfor you. If you’re not, it’s an awesome experience. FFF: 8

Hotel: Best Western Edgewater Plus, Seward ($129/night, via booking.com, booked August 2016) Clean and serviceable. Completely fine for one night at $129/night. However, we overheard a group at breakfast who had paid the more standard rates of $300/night and this is not a $300/night hotel! Rooms are older, dark, outdated, but clean. Breakfast is included, but the area is small and very cramped in the mornings. There is coin-op laundry, and a free shuttle to the cruise port. FFF: 6

Day 4:

Drive back from Denali to Anchorage, with a few stops. Again, it’s one road, the whole way, about 4 hours without stops. We had purchased the Milepost book and it was helpful to identify scenic stops along the way, as well as bathroom breaks.

Stop 1: Talkeetna– we stopped for lunch at the Talkeetna Roadhouse and intended to walk around the town a bit. Lunch was delicious (reindeer chili and Rudy in a Parka), service was friendly and fast, seating is family style and we met other interesting travelers and locals. FFF 10. Unfortunately, the little dude didn’t feel so well after lunch, so instead of walking around, we got back into the truck and let him sleep in the car while we drove to Wasilla. We’d have loved to explore more here – there were tons of shops in town, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

Stop 2: Iditarod Museum, Wasilla –about an hour and a half later we arrived in Wasilla at the museum and little man was good to go. Everyone needs a nap sometimes! This experience was night and day from the Sled Dog Kennels at Denali. I would recommend this free museum over the kennels for sure. There is the “museum” part,which is a few small buildings with artifacts and a nice gentleman who talks with visitors one on one about sled dog history in Alaska. He also had one week old puppies that we got to cuddle and play with! Next, we each paid for the sled dog cart ride and did a lap with the dogs and driver – fun! Lastly, we watched the little movie they have about the Iditarod history and visited the gift shop. We maybe spent an hour here and we all enjoyed it. FFF: 10.

Hotel overnight in Anchorage: Hilton Home2 Suites, Anchorage (booked, January 2017 with Hilton Honors points). Clean, new, all suite hotel with a pool and a free shuttle to the Railroad Depot. Great room set upfor families. FFF: 10

Day 3:

Denali National Park EielsonShuttle (8 hours round trip): Prebooked tickets, December 2016 for the 8am departure. Our driver did a great job narrating the bus ride (although it’s no tone of the official “tours”) and spotting wildlife, as many others have reported. I can’t compare the commentary to the TWT, since we didn’t do it, but we were pleased with the amount of narration, information and commentary for the cost-savings shuttle. We brought a backpack full of activities for our son, along with his camera and binoculars, and enough snacks to feed the whole bus. I can see how this can go either way for kids – either they love it or they get restless. Thankfully, ours loved it – the weather was beautiful and we saw lots of wildlife (moose, Dall sheep, Grizzilies and cubs,caribou and wolves), as well as Mt. Denali fully “out” multiple times throughout the day. He loved peering through the binoculars and taking pictures with “his” camera. We also picked up a Jr Ranger pack at the Eielson visitors center at the turn-around and he was fully engaged in completing those activities on the way back. FFF: 7

Things I wish I’d understood ahead of time: Yes, you can get off the bus to hike and get on another subsequent one. BUT, what I didn’t understand is that the buses are really FULL. We would have liked to hike a few times though out the day, but we didn’t risk it, as we didn’t feel we’d be able to get seats together on the next buses. People arrive early to get good seats, and reasonably so, they are not going to move to accommodate a family getting on after hiking. The only place I can see that this is a good option isat Eielson where many people get off, and again, you can line up to get seatson a bus heading back.

What we would do differently next time: Get off the bus at Eielson and do the more strenuous hike. We did the “stroll” hike that takes maybe 30 minutes and then explored the visitor’s center for the other 30,and then boarded our same original bus back. We wanted to be able to get back to see the Sled Dog Demonstration and so we didn’t do the longer hike – it’s the one thing we wish we had done.

Sled Dog Demonstration @ the Park Kennels: ask us? This was a hugedisappointment. Ask the 6 year old? He loved it. We arrived at the kennels (got off our Eielson shuttle) 30 minutes prior to the program beginning and the “stands” where you watch the show were already 95% full. We elbowed our way into standing on the steps and waited for the show to begin – didn’t visit/ pet the dogs ahead of the show, as it was so full. A ranger spoke for 30 minutes about the history of sled dogs in the park and then the dogs ran one lap around the small circle track pulling a cart. After it was over, we spent a little time petting the dogs and chatting with the rangers before boarding a bus back to the Denali Visitor’s Center and then transferring buses to the Wilderness Access Center,where the shuttle buses originate from and our car was parked. (Park employees were super helpful in figuring out how to get back) For us, this was a loooong end to the day, but the kid loved it, so que sera sera. Parent Fun Factor: 1,Kid Fun Factor: 9. J

Dinner: Take out from McKinleyCreekside Café, enjoyed again on the deck, in pajamas, with copious amounts of wine. Food was delicious and hearty after a busy day.

Day 2

Drive from Anchorage to Matanuska Glacier (about 2.5 hours).Beautiful and easy drive. It is literally one road the entire way and almost impossible to get lost. Tip: once we were a little ways outside of Anchorage, we didn’t have any cell, wifi or even radio station service. We should have downloaded music or podcasts instead of relying on streaming. Whoops.

Matanuska Glacier trek with Matanuska Glacier Adventures (3 hours: $100/ adult, $60/ kid,private trek) Absolute highlight of our trip! MGA fitted us with crampons, poles and helmets and we set out to hike on the glacier with our funny and informative guide. Ahead of time, we were worried about our son’s ability to do this hike, but the guides could not have been more professional and caring about his safety and at no point did he struggle with any of the physical aspects. Being a private trek, we could set the pace, and really, we were all trying to keep up with the 6 year old. We loved every single minute! FFF: 10++

Lunch: Rifle RangeLodge – recommended by our MGA guide for lunch after the glacier hike – we were famished. Good, casual place for standard American fare: burgers, tacos and fried seafood. They had a cool wrap around deck with stunning views of the glacier we just hiked. FFF: 8

After lunch we drove from Matanuska to our cabin rental near Denali National Park. If you drove straight through, I think it would probably take about 4 hours. But, we stopped abunch for look-out views highlighted in our Milepost Book. We arrived at McKinley Creekside Cabins pretty late and check in was a breeze. We rented the Carlo House property with another family we traveled with and it was wonderful. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, comfy living room, well stocked kitchen, laundry room, a huge yard with lots of lawn games and outdoor seating, a sauna, and a fire pit. Highly recommend! FFF: 10

Late Dinner: take out from Panorama Pizza, enjoyed in our pajamas on the sofas of our rentalhouse. First major sticker shock of the trip - $33 for a pizza J The pizza was actually really good and hit the spot after a long day of hiking and traveling.

Day 1:

Travel CLE – ANC via Delta, one stop in Minneapolis. Easy flights, great seat back entertainment, which was all included in our regular economy ticket. Arrived in Anchorage around noon, local time.

Hotel (Microtel,Anchorage airport): clean, basic accommodations and an airport shuttle. Very friendly and helpful front desk staff. Staff upgraded our room to a suite, complimentary, based on availability when we checked in. Booked August 2016 via Orbitz for $90/ night.

Car Rental (Enterprise,downtown Anchorage location: 5th Ave). Normally, they pick you up and we had pre-arranged pick up from our hotel. But, being down an agent that day, they asked us to call Lyft for a ride and comped the expense off our rental rate. We booked a standard car for 4 days for a total of $160 (booked via USAA, August 2016) and when we arrived, they only had pickup trucks with a full cab and back seat. Second complimentary upgrade of the day! The pickup ended up being wonderful – it was so high up, we had great views during our drive. Tip: renting from the downtown location, instead of the airport, saved us about $200.

Lunch: Snow City Café:awesome! Food was delicious, portions were huge, and service was fabulous. Highly recommend! Family Friendly Factor: 10

Our friends who travel frequently advised us to keep our son up until his regular bedtime (on the new local time) on the first day to help fight jet lag in the days to come, despite it being very late on home time. (It worked!) That afternoon, to keep him up and moving, we rented bikes from Pablo’s Bikes and biked the Tony Knowls Coastal Trail. Bikes were in great shape, staff was very helpful in fitting us all to bikes and helmets. Rentals were inexpensive and per hour. We rented one solo bike for me and a tandem bike for the hubs and son. The trail is paved and flat, easy to bike on,with many areas to pull off, rest, have a seat on a bench and enjoy the views. We biked out to the airport (about 4 miles?), watched lots of big planes take off and land over the water, turned around and biked back. Only downside? The mosquitoes were out in force on the trail! While we did use bug spray, we wished we had bathed in Deet. Family Friendly Factor (FFF): 8

Land Trip prep shopping: we hit up both Costco and Walmart on Dimond Blvd in Anchorage after our bike adventure to grab a cooler, snacks,water (also: beer and wine for mom and dad J) and some lunch provisions for the week. Our kiddo is a big snacker. Having lots of snacks to dole out during the week on drives and adventures was super helpful for all of our sanity.

Dinner: 49thState Brewery – we made reservations, still had to wait 20 minutes to be seated, had absolutely terrible service during the meal… but also some great food. We waited 20+ minutes for drinks, another 30+ minutes for food and then they got the order incorrect. That being said, the meal (when it arrived!) was delicious and the atmosphere and views from the restaurant are great. The kiddo fell asleep well before dinner was served. FFF: 3 (unless your kids can wait 1 hour and 15 minutes to eat…..)

Trip Report: DIY 6 day land, Celebrity Millennium SB Seward-Vancouver, 2 adults, 1 child (6 years old)

We planned our trip over a full year with LOTS of help from the Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor communities. We really wanted to DIY our land portion and that would not have been possible without the advice of many, many helpful people! I’m hoping our experiences will help next year’s families as much as we were helped in planning our adventure. In addition to reviews and tips about our experiences, I’m also rating each activity on a “Family Friendly Factor” – my own made-up scale from 1-10 of our personal opinion of how fun, practical and easy each was to do with a very active and adventurous kid.

My #1 tip for Alaska trip planning is to book everything (hotels, cars, tours, etc), as early as possible to make this expensive trip as affordable as possible. We read cancellation policies closely and booked as soon as we reasonably could. I’ve included our booking prices and times when possible.

Hi there! We traveled this summer with our son, here's what he loved:

Juneau: we had a heli tour booked, but due to fog, it was cancelled and we had to make a port-day adjustment. We did the Mendenhall Canoe trip through Alaska Travel Adventures and it ended up being our favorite family activity of the whole two week trip. I know you are not up for high endurance activities, but this is NOT one of those! They are 20 person Tlinget canoes (each person does get a paddle, but it's the guide in the back that does the majority of the rowing!). If some of your family is up for rowing, great. If you're not, no problem. About half of the people in our canoe assisted. The great thing was, you get right up to the face of Mendenhall glacier and right up to Nugget Falls. It was spectacular. In the afternoon, we visited the Salmon Hatchery.

Skagway: we rented a car through Green Jeeps for the day and drove out to Emerald Lake and back with stops at Carcross Desert and the Yukon Suspension Bridge. The scenery was breathtaking. For us, the car rental was a cost savings over the train and we had a relaxing day. Our son watched videos on his ipad :)

Ketchikan: we did the Deadliest Catch crab fishing tour. Hands down our son's favorite day. Super informative, fun and interactive. We booked this ourselves through the vendor and saved about $20pp, compared to booking through the cruise line.

Hope that helps!

Hi there! We did Millennium SB this summer and also the Major Marines 6 hour tour. If you want to do the MM tour the same day as boarding, I don't think you'll have any trouble with getting to the ship in time. So many of the passengers do the same.

That being said, I'll also say that from our experience, we did the train from ANC-Seward and then the Major Marines 6 hour tour right after. We were all exhausted after the Kenai Fjords tour and very glad that we had an overnight in Seward before we boarded Millennium the next day. With the super early morning for the train and then the tour, we were completely wiped out. We stayed at the Best Western (nothing fancy, but clean!) and it was inexpensive because we booked that room very early in our planning.

The next day we checked into Millennium right at 11am, before the train arrived in the Seward station, and our check in and boarding was seriously less than 5 minutes total. After checking in, we had lunch on board and explored the ship a bit before heading off again and taking the free shuttle downtown to the Sea Life Center. We spent the afternoon there, and walking around town, before heading back the the ship in the evening.

Hi! I'll share what we did for our SB Alaska cruise this summer.... if you are able to fly Delta from your area, consider this: we opened Delta AmEx credit cards around this time last year. The deal at the time was 50,000 Skymiles when you made $1,000 in purchases in 3 months. My husband and I opened separate accounts and used those cards to pay off a chunk of our cruise, book excursions and buy Christmas gifts (all things we had to do anyway). Easy! The bonus miles deposited into our account as soon as we paid the bill. In January, we used those combined 100,000 miles to book 6 one-way flights (3 travelers -hubby, myself, & our son) into Anchorage and out of Vancouver. All flights were covered by the miles - in total, about a $2700 savings for us. Extra perk? The card waives your checked bag fees at the airport! When we got home from the trip in July, we canceled the cards :) It was a huge cost savings for us!

As for flight times, we too were flying from the East coast, so we spent the night in Vancouver and flew home the next morning. So glad we did! We really enjoyed our day in Vancouver visiting Grouse Mountain and Stanley Park.

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We just stayed at the Marriott Delta Suites two weeks ago. Very short cab ride from the port - and a newly updated, lovely hotel.

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Hi! We DIY'd our 6 days on land at the end of June this year. Amazing!! I had all of our lodging booked by Thanksgiving last year. Prices rise a LOT the closer you get. Also, read the bookings carefully, as most cancelation policies allow you to change your mind between 30 days - 1 week before arrival without penalties. So, if you see a great rate, grab it! Good luck!!

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Hey there! We had the same decision last summer and we love both lines. Both offered similar itineraries for what we were looking for, but when it came to price, there was a big difference. Looking strictly at the cruise price only, Royal was less expensive. But, Celebrity offered 3 perks with theirs, and the combined included value of the drinks package, gratuities and $300 OBC, made them a much better value. We had a fabulous time on Reflection in the Med.

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Karsten's is great. Such a nice setting for drinks. I'd kind of pictured crowds and meeting reservations but everyone goes their own way, always an empty table outside.

 

 

 

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Thanks for the recommendation! I love having dinner and drinks outdoors. Any others you've found that you'd also recommend?

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How wonderful!!! We'll be there in just over 2 weeks. I hope we have the same kind of day!

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We sailed the Med last year during the NBA playoffs, and the bartenders at the Casino bar were able to turn the tv's to the games.

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Hi! We are also traveling this summer with our child - he's 6. Since we haven't been yet, I can only tell you our plans, not recommend. But, much of our planning has come from the helpful reviews and advice of previous family travelers both here and on Trip Advisor. Check out the 2016 trip reports - many are from families.

Ketchikan: Crab fishing tour with Aleutian Ballad Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's tour. Booked direct with company - less than booking with cruise line for the same excursion.

Juneau: helicopter tour with glacier landing with Coastal Helicopters in the morning (booked direct). Rented a car from Juneau Car Rental to drive to Mendenhall Glacier for trail hiking in the afternoon.

Skagway: rented a jeep from Green Jeeps (our son is a Jeep fan!!) to do the drive from Skagway to Emerald Lake through the Yukon. Also purchased Murray's Guide ($5 online) as the road map & "tour guide" of this drive.

Hope that helps!

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Yes! We booked economy seats last year through Choice Air for our Med Cruise to fly from the US to Barcelona and then Athens back to the US. We were able to upgrade both of these legs to Business through the airline.

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I don't cruise Millennium until next June, but I'm hoping to live vicariously through others this summer!

Lol. Gotcha covered then! I'll save the dailies. Exactly one month from today we depart for our DIY land tour pre cruise.

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Not sure how old your child is? We are also traveling with ours - he's 5. I found a great pair of hiking boots for him at Stride Rite on winter clearance for $12 and I sprayed them with waterproof spray. The sneakers he's on the verge of growing out of now, I will also spray before we leave and they will be his second pair of shoes in AK. I would not have bought him the boots at full price - as he grows out of them too quickly as well. But, the clearance deal was worth the price!

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If anyone is sailing Celebrity Millennium (preferably southbound) I would love to read reviews and see the dailies!

When do you cruise? We are 6/30 Millennium southbound. Can't wait!

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Hi! We are traveling with our 5 year old son, so I had that same question! I asked when booking & was told that there are not outlets at the seats. We'll be bringing external battery packs too :)

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