July 11-23 self land / Celebrity Milli Great Alaskan Adventure

So, as a pay back to all the great the information I researched here on cruise critic for 18 months to celebrate my hubby's 50th bucket list trip, I'll do my best to hit on all the highlights of our trip without getting too long winded.

First, profile... hubby (turning 50 soon), me (45), Cajuns from Louisiana. Avid lovers of art, music, food and local cultures.

We decided early on to opt for a self guided 5 days in Alaska. This was totally the correct decision for us, as hubby is a photographer/designer and we were able to pull off on the side of the road at our pace and take photos and simply stare out the beauty that is Alaska. We are not fond of big group tours at all.

Flights in were smooth and on time. Picked up our vehicle from Hertz and off we went. I would like to say that I have read people having to pay a drop off fee at Seward for one way rental, but we did not have this fee. Not sure if because I booked a year in advance? but all the same, we did NOT have a fee.

First night was spent in Anchorage and we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Suite 100... best Halibut fish and chips! This is where I first fell in love with the locals of Alaska.

Our next morning was an early rise to drive out to the Mantuska glacier to have an Adventure Hike with Nova Charters! Amazing day, amazing guide Robin. I will warn this was physically advanced but well worth it. They do offer other levels of activity.

After we drove to Talkeetna to our B&B, nice stay over night, great location, I however didn't find the owner very warm and fuzzy, but place and view were great, so no worries.

We went into town for dinner and I think I left my heart there with the little town. The next day we went back to spend the day, visit with locals, drink the fabulous beers of Denali brewing co. and eat great pizza! The local crafts were fabulous and I simply just loved the creative people of Talkeetna.

But sigh, we needed to head out towards Denali to check into our cabin home for the next two days. McKinley Creekside Cabins was simply amazing... warning, you must have your own vehicle to stay here as there is no shuttle service here. I loved the location as it was away from touristy area close to the park.

We grabbed a chair by the creek, opened a bottle of wine and settled in for a peaceful night... but an early start to our day was ahead.

More to come...

We were up early on Thursday morning for much anticipated Shuttle day into Denali Park all the way to Wonder Lake. Side note... we ordered bagged lunches from McKinley Creekside Cabins and they were fabulous and fresh, worth every penny.

I will take this opportunity to say how fortunate we were that from Wednesday through Friday (3 days!) we had clear views of Miss Denali herself! Insane when you think only 30% of the people who visit get to see her!

We were just taking off when a Momma Moose and her baby jumped on the road right by our bus... GREAT start, right? Our bus driver for the day (Chandra) was wonderful. We did stay on the same bus for the whole trip, but by no means was this required. You may step off and hike at any time and jump on any other bus.

If anyone else is like me and suffers from motion sickness, I will warn this is a curvy road that hugs mountain sides (add fear of heights and wowza, it can be intense at times), I wore my motion sickness patches and was very grateful I had.

At one point we had this amazing view of Denali and then OMG, a grizzly crosses right in front of the bus and BAM, my hubby catches a grizzly in the foreground with Denali in background. Our driver told us this is a once in a lifetime shot. That one will be framed for sure.

All in all, during the day, we saw 9 bears (including 1 momma with triplets!), 3 caribou, 3 moose. Keep in mind, many were from a great distance, but still very exciting to witness in their natural habitat. Honestly, even without wildlife sightings, the views would have been just as worth the day on the bus.

On the shuttle bus service you can pick your final destination, so no need to worry if you do not want to spend an 11 hour day on the bus, you can pick what fits your wishes.

After the long day, we headed towards Healy to eat at 49th state, this was the most touristy place we visited to eat, but food was good and again, Alaskan beers are top notch!

We headed back to our cabin to repack (OMG, we leave on a cruise the next day!) and rest up for a long, but the most beautiful drive I could ever imagine the next day!

Did I mention yet that it never really gets "dark" in the summer in Alaska? Kind of messed with this Southern girls sleeping pattern... and it was hot, which is when I discovered Alaskans do NOT have air conditioning... just gave us better stories to tell :)

Since the sun was up at 4:30, we said what the heck, let's roll! We packed up the car and headed out on the most pleasurable 7-8 hour drive of my life. Locals had told us the drive from Anchorage to Seward was gorgeous...THEY WERE NOT EXAGGERATING!

I'll side note here... if I would change anything this trip, I would have planned to spend some time south of Anchorage as the coastal area is just the most beautiful scenery I have ever laid my eyes on...

Funny Story... we are cruising along when my crazy photographer husband locks up the brakes, screaming like a giddy teenager "MOOSE!" He stops in the middle of the road, runs out to grab his camera, to shoot a big male moose on the side of the road, who proceeds to look at him like he was crazy! (he kinda of was)... Yes, he got the shot, no I do not recommend doing this...

I will advise anyone taking this route, leave lots of time to pull off on the many opportunities to photograph, admire the beauty.

If anyone is on the fence about driving yourself around Alaska, let me put your mind at ease... IT IS SO SIMPLE... road systems are extremely simple and straight forward and roads are well maintained. Go for it

We arrived in Seward at around 12:30, tanked up the car and dropped it off right by the ship. We walked to the ship to stretch out, but if mobility is an issue, no worries, they will shuttle you. I do advise you go drop off your luggage first.

The port is quite small and industrial, so it is not the most beautiful locations, but very simple to get around.

Following along, as I would love to do self-guided! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Great review, we are planning a tour on our own next year but concentrating our time in Seward with 2 nights first in Anchorage to get over the time difference and to take the train to Seward. This will be our 3rd trip to Alaska.

Check in literally took us 15 minutes at the most and we were boarding the classic Miss Milli and greeted with champagne to toast our arrival.

So let me take this time to tackle the opinionated portion of ship, cabin, etc.

This is our 19th cruise (all on RCCL or Celebrity), we have seen many ships, new, old, big and small. I will tell you, I thought Miss Milli was just a classic beauty. Fresh paint on her haul was gorgeous. Her style is classic liner which we totally appreciated and enjoyed for our 7 days. I kind of laugh when I read reviews about worn carpet and chipped paint... like come on people, you are on vacation, focus on the beauty.

So here will be the crazy thing for most and I get it, but hear me out and remember this worked for us and our trip, others will have a totally different experience...

Cabin choice... we originally booked an Aqua Class cabin with all 4 perks. About 3 months after booking Celebrity was running a special... for the same perks, if we "downgraded" to an Oceanview cabin we saved $2000... this was an extremely tough decision as we had not cruised without a balcony for probably 10 years. After reading one particular review on cruisecritic, I approached my hubby with a proposal.

This cruise is heavy on ports (and long times in those ports) and we had plans to be gone on day trips for most of our cruise. He wanted to do some very expensive tours (Anan creek alone was $1000)... with those savings, we could apply the money elsewhere. In a leap of faith, we did just that... I will tell you FOR US, it was a perfect decision. I have NO regrets on cabin choice.

We are Elite members, so we receive many perks anyway, we already had 4 perks... we were giving up Blu, but we dined in private dining on 4 nights anyway and one night on shore... no big deal there. As far as balcony... honestly we were on shore most of the time or on the day of Hubbard, we wanted to be on the top deck for pictures, so overall, it was great call on our part. For others, maybe not... choose for yourself and the type of trip you are expecting...

Our cabin was very nice, good views and we had a great steward. Location on the 3rd deck was very handy actually as it was close to the martini bar and cafe which we visited often.

I'll cover drink package... we had the premium package, for us great perk as we are wine snobs and bourbon and vodka drinkers. It was nice to not worry about cost, etc. and simply order to our hearts content. Warning, the first day upselling of drink packages is completely annoying and probably my biggest complaint on this whole vacation (not bad really considering).

The internet package is quite simply a joke, do not rely on being connected with the system. On board credit was great for booking private dining and reservations are really easy to come by, so no need to worry about waiting to book until you get on board to use your credit.

Other ship notes, the new patio area is killer although I never saw the ship viewing any movies the whole trip, but we did enjoy the space with a glass of wine a couple of times.

Our fist night we had dinner at Tuscan Grille and it was fabulous, fillet for hubby and paradelle short ribs for me. Wine choices within our package were quite good. Service was great and friendly.

YES! Dark room to sleep late... after 5 days of no real darkness, this was quite simply HEAVEN!

We enjoyed all the talks by naturalist Milos the whole trip. He guided us through our trip into the glacier field. Hubby caught amazing footage of calving on the most amazing clear day as the clouds parted right on cue!

The scale of everything on this trip is simply mind blowing...

The rest of the day was leisure and quite welcoming...

This was the first of the "chic" nights... this was probably the most casual of all the cruises I have ever been on, but it's just a different vibe than caribbean cruises and different priorities... just an observation and not a complaint at all.

The two nights we ate in the main dining room were really enjoyable, service was good and I have no complaints about the food (oh, I am food scientist and food is my world... if you look for things to complain about where food is concerned, I'm sure you will find it). My advice, if you don't like something, instead of complaining, simply ask for another dish, trust me, your staff will be happy to help out and recommend another option.

Cruise Tip from doing this many years... tip your favorite bartender and steward early on the trip, it makes them light up and trust me, you will be the benefactor of a couple of 5, 10, 20 dollar tips throughout the week.

Headed in early to rest up for a busy day in Juneau!

So our original plan was to take the shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier. A few months back when the 2016 prices came out, I saw the tickets had gone up to $35/person... that would have been $70 total... so on a whim, I checked out car rental options. With Avis, for $110 (taxes included), we could have our own vehicle for the entire day (9am to 9pm), to us well worth the extra $$$.

We left the ship early, picked up our car from the Rivergold Hotel and off we went to Mendenhall! Let me tell you, by doing this ourselves, we were some of the first people to arrive, before big groups. We had the trail to ourselves and great glacier pics without gobs of people. The ranger station was marvelous with a wonderful film. This is a must stop. We stayed there a while, not rushed at all, but as we were leaving the large groups were arriving with fiesty little ones... I'll leave it at that...

Now because we were solo, we continued on the coastal highway and make a stop at the Shrine to St. Therese... quite simply amazing and soul inspiring....something we would have never seen if we weren't in our own vehicle (think on that).

Our next stop was Eagle beach... such a calm, gorgeous and great place to picnic (pick up snacks beforehand, FYI). At one time in the air, we gazed at 20 + eagles...

The rest of the day, we slowly made our way back, stopping for photographs, etc.

We probably returned the car at about 5pm and had plenty of time to walk around downtown. For dinner we opted to splurge on a bucket of king crab legs at Tracy's and local beer, totally worth the expense as from Louisiana fresh seafood is right up our alley (Tracy only buys from local fisherman, very important to us).

We probably boarded back on about 7:30, had a cocktail, watched us pull out and were whipped! Off to bed we went, because another full day lay ahead of us in Skagway (my most anticipated stop of the trip)

Another long day in port (7:30-8:30), I gotta tell you, I loved it, felt more like we were moving our hotel with us to different locations. A different vibe than our Caribbean adventures, nice change of pace (but damn, now I miss the reggae)

Off the ship early to grab our Avis Car Rental for the day (again, ran us $110). Our day adventure was to travel to Emerald Lake. If you are considering this route, JUST DO IT! and download Murray's Guide to Emerald Lake, the best $5 bucks you will spend on this trip.

Let me take this time to advise if you plan on taking a similar trip with road trips, get yourself the old fashion "Milepost" book on Alaska. It makes fun planning and gives you every bit of information needed!

Also! Bring your passports! you are going to drive into Canada and back into the USA, we were checked at both borders.

Let me just sum this up, yes, Emerald Lake is amazing and worth the trip... however along the way you will see many many Emerald Lakes more massive and beautiful that I could ever explain.

Along the Yukon trail, all the pullouts have many information plates with pictures of the gold rush and dead horse trail.

One of our favorite stops was the Yukon suspension bridge... we initially stopped as kind of a joke to do a road side tourist trap thing... but let me tell you, the place is gorgeous with great views and we decided to have a couple of beers and bison poutine which was fabulous! Great surprise visit.

The town of Carcross was a gem... people were proud, quaint and inviting, much like the Cajuns of Louisiana.

We returned our car at around 5:30 and again had plenty of time to walk around skagway...

The images of this day will forever make me smile

So this was our first day to spend most of it apart... Hubby was booked to do whale watching with Glacier Wind Charters (private small groups). I decided with my severe motion sickness to opt out.

The port area was well done (dock system is amazing, if you know anything about docks, being a coastal gal, I was quite impressed at all the dock systems in Alaska and their crazy tides). Hubby got picked up by Captain Shawn's wife, Theresa to shuttle to town and board. He told me I missed out on the little town as it was an awesome local town.

I decided while the ship was vacant to catch up on a well needed distance run (I'm training for my first marathon...yikes! send me some good vibes)... so I can say I ran a 10K in Alaska that day. Bonus, while running on deck, I saw bears, sea lions and whales!... yes I did! Score one for me

Hubs got great pics of whale tails, otters and sea lions, but no breaches unfortunately... such is the gamble with sea life.

Another lovely day... tomorrow Ketchikan to Todd's most anticipated day!

Hubs was up early with anticipation... Once we decided to go on this epic adventure, this was an absolute must for him... In fact, when deciding when to travel to Alaska, he opted to go before his b day so he could catch the running of the salmon so he could witness the Bears feeding in Anan Creek.

We used Island Wings Air Service... Shona and Pilot Michelle were fabulous from the moment we put our names on the waiting list a year in advance (yes, you heard me... if you are interested in this tour, it sells out a year in advance... in the fall, they wait for the lottery to receive permits on the number of people they may take for the season, so planning is a must). I will warn right now, it is not a cheap adventure at 500/person, it should be something you really desire to do.

It is about a 40 minute flight on a float plane. We had a smooth day and great flight, however, I will warn for those like me (severe motion sickness) it was not a wonderful experience, by landing I was quite green... and it was a GREAT flight (Michelle felt terrible, but totally not her fault)

We had 2 guides walk us to through the trail, about 1 mile (high powered riffles in hand). We reached the viewing platforms where rangers were on hand to keep an eye out and answer questions. When I tell you that you are close to bears, I mean, YOU ARE CLOSE TO BEARS! My hubby was in his glory... and then came my moment when a momma bear and cub appeared! We probably spent 2-3 hours there before we started hiking back to get picked up by Michelle...

Michelle moved me up a row, which made my ride back better having a little vent by the window to get cool air on my face. I'll be honest with you, I can check float plane adventure off my bucket list of things to do... now my hubby was in complete HEAVEN! This was the adventure of a lifetime for him.

I'm glad I did it with him for memories, but it probably wasn't the best idea for me in hindsight... but NO REGRETS

Island Wings is amazing and they have different tours available!

The last day at sea was a late morning in bed... well needed. We enjoyed the different venues on the ship. Listened to Milos last talk on the night sky (I found his best by far)

Spent late until we had to go pack up in the Cosmos Lounge with our chairs turned facing the view... going into VanCouver is stunning to say the least... I desperately tried to permanently imprint in my brain what I was looking at... fearful of forgetting one thing I may never see again. (They don't make mountains like that in Louisiana).

I'm gonna take a little moment to talk Quisine and Sushi on 5. Quisine was a fun experience, we hit 50/50 on our choices of dishes, good, not my fav, but good choice none the less.

Sushi on 5... wow, people are passionate about this change. I will tell you for our experience (2 visits). It was very well done. Are we sushi people? Yes, but sushi is only one section of the menu... by far the best dish was the chicken dumplings (amazingly good). Was it the best sushi we ever had, no, but still very well done. If you like Asian food, go try it out before you bash it as a failure. If it's not your thing, then just skip it.

If I have any criticism of the ship, here it is... they hard sell these drink packages, but I found bar service waiters basically non existent. Even at high volume times, major bars would have 1 bartender to service the bar and tables... those poor workers were killing themselves and wait times could get long. Work on that Celebrity...

I am totally missing the coffee bar, one of the best lattes of my life and don't get me started "Aspen"... if you've been there, you feel me...

Disembarking was early and easy for us. We opted to go by taxi to our hotel as we had lots of luggage... Ended up being a good call on our part. I didn't realize our airport hotel was so far from the port. FYI, about $30 bucks to that area via taxi.

We were at the Radisson Airport overnight. Great hotel for overnight stay with shuttle service to the airport in the morning. They even had our room cleaned early to allow us in... crazy appreciated as we were whooped and spent the day chilled out! We walked to a little china town food court for an amazing plate lunch.

We opted to leave a little early, 4am, for our 7am flight and boy were we happy we made that call...

Check in, customs and security took a good portion of 2 hours and when we turned around to see what was behind us... Holy Moley! Let's just say I'd rather be early than stressing over getting through in time!

Flights home were on time and we were happy to be back.

I will never forget what I saw, the people of Alaska, the food we enjoyed, the local beers, oh my! It was everything I hoped it would be and more... I do not regret a dime spent or a choice made.

I hope this helps you on your own adventure... customize it to your interest, your speed, and your desires... Alaska was second to none

If you have any questions, I'll do my best to assist.

Very nice review! Thanks for taking the time to do it. I don't know if I will ever get to return to Alaska, but I would certainly like to and see some things that I missed the first time.

Great review - do you have any pictures available that you can link to or post?

Great review - do you have any pictures available that you can link to or post?

Let me check if my hubby has created an album on his web page yet... he literally had 2000 images, retouched 800, and was trying to dwindle down to 100 to post.

It's in the works, amazing images for sure.

Hi bulldog mommy!

We (myself, husband & son) were on the same cruise with you and your husband. We even were on the same Glacier Wind whale watching tour with your husband. We too had the most amazing time on our trip and thought that there are no words to describe the magical beauty of Alaska! I'm sure your husband has some great pictures and I too would love to view them..keep us posted.

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Sounds like a fantastic trip. I've flown with Michelle and Island Wings and she was fantastic, one day I would love to go see Anan Creek and the bears.

The only mistake I see is wonder why you ran around the ship in Icy Strait rather than just head out on the local roads and enjoy the scenery. I did a bear watch tour here a number of years ago and also saw them up close.

Here you go guys! Hope you enjoy a portion of his pics!

http://www.twoklicks.com/#!alaska/jhvxq

Sounds like a fantastic trip. I've flown with Michelle and Island Wings and she was fantastic, one day I would love to go see Anan Creek and the bears.

 

The only mistake I see is wonder why you ran around the ship in Icy Strait rather than just head out on the local roads and enjoy the scenery. I did a bear watch tour here a number of years ago and also saw them up close.

Hubby told me I missed the chance to run on the road into town... :(

Hi bulldog mommy!

We (myself, husband & son) were on the same cruise with you and your husband. We even were on the same Glacier Wind whale watching tour with your husband. We too had the most amazing time on our trip and thought that there are no words to describe the magical beauty of Alaska! I'm sure your husband has some great pictures and I too would love to view them..keep us posted.

 

 

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I hope you enjoy the pics! Memories for a lifetime

Those pictures are absolutely breathtaking! Thank you so much for sharing them!

Those pictures are absolutely breathtaking! Thank you so much for sharing them!

Glad you enjoyed them, hubs is really talented, what he sees through the lens amazes me

The photos are stunning, among the best I have ever seen here at CC. Maybe the best ;)

Wow, just wow.

I agree, those photos are WOW stunning