Indy Land Tour/Southbound Cruise Trip Report

My family of three, including myself, my husband and almost 16 year old son recently returned from our 2 week vacation in Alaska. Now, it’s my turn to pay it forward for all those who graciously answered my questions and gave suggestions to make our trip as wonderful and as memorable as it was. I tried, unsuccessfully to add photos to my report, but my files were way too large. I'm so disappointed that I can't include some! I did all the trip planning after hours and hours on Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic. We rented a car and stayed 8 nights on land in 4 different cabins then did a 7 night Princess cruise Southbound to Vancouver on the Coral Princess. I began researching and planning about a year in advance. I did not start actually making reservations until mid fall for the following July. I purchased a Toursaver coupon book and an old used copy of the Milepost ahead of time.

July 25, Friday: We flew from San Jose, CA early Friday morning, changed planes in Portland and landed in the rain in Anchorage by 1:00PM. I never anticipated my first meal in AK would be at a Vietnamese place called PHOnatik, but I had the best Banh mi sandwich ever! After fueling or stomachs, we set out for Walmart. We purchased an inexpensive cooler and some food items for breakfasts and snacks to last us the first 4 days. I was prepared for outrageous prices based, on everything I read, but I guess coming from the Bay Area in Northern Ca, nothing really shocked me. The grocery prices were comparable to ours here. Gas was even quite a bit cheaper, so pleasantly surprised by that. The only price difference I noticed was on produce, especially fruit. I feel for those of you that have to miss out on all the wonderful summer fruit we have here and we all really craved it by the end of our trip. By 3:00 PM we were ready to set out towards Girdwood.

It was still raining and visibility wasn’t great, but we stopped at Potters Marsh. We only saw a few birds, but it looked like it might be a nice spot on a better weather day. The drive along Turnagain Arm was equally disappointing, since we could hardly see anything. I knew we would be coming back through there at the end of our trip, so just hoped for better weather then. There was no road construction along the way and arrived in Girdwood quickly as it is only 35 minutes south of Anchorage.

We stayed at a lovely cabin called Alyeska Hideaway (http://www.alyeskahideaway.com).

The cabin was small, but it had everything we needed. It had an upstairs loft for sleeping, fully equipped kitchen and bathroom and was clean. The owners live right next door and were lovely to chat with. It was set in a wooded area away from the main road. It was a five minute drive up to Alyeska Resort and to the local restaurants. In the backyard they had a ski lift chair as a swing and even a homemade zip line which my son enjoyed. The owner, Lynne, bakes this wonderful blueberry bread, fresh for each guest, which we loved and appreciated. After resting up and showering we chose to have dinner at Chair 5. It was a varied menu and each of us was happy with our selection. They have beautiful flowers surrounding the building, which I kept myself busy photographing while we waited for our food. After dinner we had ice cream at The Ice Cream Shop at the corner of Alyeska Hwy and Seward Hwy. Great selection of both ice cream and sorbet.

July 26, Saturday: Today we hiked the approximately 5 mile round trip winner Creek Trail behind the Alyeska resort. It was wooded most of the way with a mixture of boardwalk and some steep dirt and gravel trails. We took the hand tram across the creek which was the reward for the hike. Unique and fun. Later that afternoon we went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. We were very impressed with the layout and the animals we got to see up so close. They really seem to care for and love these animals that would have likely died had they been left in the wild. They currently have 2 baby moose that were each found orphaned within a few weeks from one another. It’s really a worthwhile visit. We chose to have dinner at the Aurora Grill inside the Alyeska Resort afterwards. I thoroughly enjoyed my Dijon chicken sandwich on a pretzel bun and my husband and son enjoyed their pasta and pizza. The cabin we stayed in did not have WiFi and we each needed to attend to a few things while digitally connected, so we lingered at our table after the meal and used their connection.

July 27, Sunday: Despite our host’s suggestion to take the 11:30 tunnel to Whittier, we were afraid we would be late and took the 10:30 tunnel for our glacier cruise. We should have listened to her! Being underwhelmed with Whittier we checked out the few shops within no time and had time to kill. My son spotted a donut shop and chatted with the owner, who is looking to sell. Anyway, as we waited for the donut, who should walk by but a resident of Whittier who we were told owns one of the shops. In tow, was her pet reindeer! This made for quite a fun few minutes while my son photographed her and posted to Snap Chat and Instagram.

I had agonized over choosing the “best” glacier cruise. In the end, I chose the one that we had a 2 for 1 coupon for from Toursaver. We went with Major Marine on the Blackstone Glacier Cruise. It was wonderful. The captain, the crew and the park ranger all worked to make everyone’s day enjoyable, informative and safe. They were also very helpful with regards to food allergy and ingredient lists prior to the cruise. We chose the all-you-can-eat buffet with prime rib and salmon. I read that some people thought the price was high for such a meal, but considering the prices in all the restaurants in AK, I thought this was reasonable, especially with a hungry teenager. They had plenty of food for multiple return trips to the buffet. The glaciers were beautiful and awe inspiring. We also saw our first 2 whales of our trip. However, it was with mixed feelings. The mother was entangled in a shrimp pot and was dragging it and a buoy approx. 40 feet behind her while her youngster swam nearby. The captain called the situation into the authorities and hopefully they were able to free her. Otherwise, it was a very enjoyable afternoon.

From Whittier we headed further south towards Cooper Landing along the Kenai River. We stayed at the River Haven Cabins which were literally less than 50’ from the banks of the river. This cabin was very nice. It was fully equipped and had great WiFi this time. Dining options in Cooper Landing are rather limited, but we found Sacketts BBQ quite good. Very casual. In fact, we were in jeans and sweatshirts and felt over dressed, as everyone else was dressed in their dirty fishing attire after having just stepped out of the Kenai!

July 28, Monday: Today was a very rainy day. I had a 3 hour river float and my husband and son had a half day guided salmon fishing trip planned. We booked through Drifter’s Lodge with another 2 for 1 coupon for the fishing. Overall the report from my husband was they did a good job. The guide spent some time teaching the technique and then they fished. My husband caught 2 out of the 3 limit on the Sockeyes. My son caught none. He was pretty disappointed, seeing the sheer numbers of fish in the river. Not having been with them myself, I can’t help but wonder if the guide could have done a bit more to help my son be successful. Even if he snagged one and had my son reel it in I think it would have been nice. After all, the guide was fishing and just throwing them back in. My river float was nice, but dampened (literally) by the pouring rain. We saw a few eagles and lots and lots of combat fishermen! Still no moose or bear sightings. With the Sockeye salmon my husband caught, we took one large filet to grill that night for dinner and then sent some as a surprise to my father in NJ. Let me just say, it’s likely the most expensive salmon ever, given the guide fee and the freezing/packaging/shipping fees. However, we absolutely loved the fresh taste of something pulled from the river only 2 hours before and my father really got a thrill when he got his salmon in an overnight delivery.

July 29, Tuesday: We left Cooper Landing and headed towards Seward. Beautiful scenery along the way and no long delays. Only one spot of road work kept us waiting for about 5 minutes. We spotted a pull out which had a sign that read “fish viewing”. We stopped and took the 3-4 minute long trail into the woods and came upon a small viewing platform above a small creek loaded with bright red salmon heading home to spawn. We were fascinated and lingered there for almost an hour. The stream was only 3-4 inches deep in parts and we marveled over the fish being half way out of water and leaping upstream with all their remaining strength. This was such a great stop along the way!

We continued on and took the turn off for Exit Glacier. It was extremely warm and sunny. Armed with water and bug spray we hiked up to the glacier. Although we had been on the glacier cruise a few days earlier, this was the closest to a glacier we had come. Afterwards, we had a little tail gate party for our lunch and then drove south again.

Our destination was Seward Helicopter Tours (ww.sewardhelicpoters.com). This was our big splurge, however were very lucky to have gotten a Groupon which saved us a bundle. I signed up for the Anchorage Groupon email list. We booked a trip up to Godwin Glacier and dog sledding. After being fitted with boots, we were given the safety speech and were ready to go. The 8 minute ride up to the glacier was over way too soon. It was a crystal clear, 72 degree day. The flight was so smooth and the pilot was great about pointing out areas of interest and items we might have missed otherwise in our excited euphoria. Landing on the glacier we could see the Ididarod dogs pulling a sled across the snowy glacier with the party that went up just before us. We had plenty of time to chat with both the owner and his assistant who stay up there on the glacier during the summer to train the dogs and to do the tours. They have special permits form the state to allow this operation during the summer. Tents, kennels, sleds and even the port-a-potty were all flown up there in the helicopter at the beginning of the summer and will all go down the same way once summer ends. There were 2 puppies that we played with and met each and every dog and learned of their personalities and quirks. We got to ride on the sleds and enjoyed every moment of that experience. I really find it difficult to express just how much we enjoyed this experience. If you can make it work, I highly recommend this. It was easily the highlight of our trip.

Following our Godwin Glacier experience, we went to check in at our third cabin of the trip, Moosewood Cabin, owned by Jackie Marshall (www.moosewoodcabin.net). This was the most delightfully decorated cabin! It was spotless. This was the only cabin we stayed in without a full kitchen. However, it had a small fridge, microwave and coffee maker. We just had instant oatmeal and some sweet rolls for breakfast. Jackie is the most gracious host and delightful to chat with. We had dinner at Eureka Pizza in Seward that evening. I’m originally form N.Y. and a pretty harsh critic when it comes to pizza. Surprisingly, this pizza was fantastic. I also had a Greek salad that was very good too. This place was empty when we arrived, but within a few minutes was packed and the line to order was out the door. It was well worth the wait! Today was a very busy, exciting day and we were exhausted.

July 30, Wednesday: We planned a bit of a slower day today. We took our time getting up and out the door. Toured the Alaska Sea Life Center and then walked thru the old part of Seward. We had a great lunch at the Seward Brewing Company. Later in the day we just walked around the boat harbor and checked out some of the shops. Dinner was at a good Thai restaurant called Woody’s. All 3 of our meals in Seward were probably some of the best food we had on this trip. We stopped at Safeway and stocked up on groceries for our trip over to Matanuska the next day.

July 31, Thursday: Today we were under a bit of a time crunch. We had to make our way back up north and head over towards the Matanuska Glacier area, but first had a 2:00 PM Knik Glacier Tour. We were fortunate enough to have beautiful weather for this drive up Turnagain Arm, so we got to see what we missed due to the bad weather earlier in the week. Again we encountered only minimal road work and easily made the drive with time to spare for lunch in Palmer. After some mediocre Mexican food we headed over to Knik Glacier.

Knik Glacier Tours (www.knikglacier.com) is run by a man named Tom, who actually owns one of the few properties with river access to this tucked away glacier. We were taken on extreme 4X4’s across his property, thru streams and back country as bumpy as it gets to the jet boat and the air boat he has waiting to take us up the river to the glacier. It was a fun, also bumpy, but beautiful ride up to the face of the glacier on the river. We exited the boats and walked up the hillside to get a beautiful vantage point overlooking the water with the large chunks of ice that have calved off and then the larger glacier behind it. It was very peaceful and beautiful. Tom served some trial mix and hot cocoa, had a spotting scope and located a large bear far on a hillside and answered questions about the region. We were probably at the glacier for about an hour and a half. There is very limited access to this glacier and we certainly enjoyed our visit.

From Knik Glacier we headed towards our final cabin of the trip in Glacier View, near the Matanuska Glacier. We stayed at Homestead Guest cabins owned by Sandy and Dan Lee (www.homesteadguestcabinsak.com). They have 3 cabins to choose from and we selected the largest one which contained a washer and dryer. After 8 days we knew we would need to do laundry before boarding our cruise. Dan built these cabins and Sandy decorated them. They were lovely. Tastefully decorated and fully equipped. They were delightful to chat with. Sandy graciously shared the beautiful flowers around her home as well as the spectacular view from her back deck with me. We were pretty tired and cooked a simple spaghetti dinner in the cabin that night. They do not have WiFi but there is a large church camp just up the hill from their home that is happy to have Homestead Guest cabins use theirs. We headed up the hill and finally, we saw our first moose! There she was, just a minute from the cabin in a marsh below the road, happily eating away. I finally got the photo of her head coming up from the water dripping that I had hoped for.

August 1, Friday: We took the short 10 minute drive to Matanuska Glacier following breakfast. We had scheduled a 3 hour guided glacier trek for me and a full day ice climbing for my husband and son with MICA guides. We were each outfitted with the necessary crampons and helmets and we were off. Both of our guides were very personable and informative. This was truly a unique experience and so different from our other glacier encounters so far. Once out on the glacier it looked almost other-wordly. It was fantastic. I was quite tired afterwards but it was so worthwhile. My husband and son happened to be the only ones in their group, so they had a lot of climbing time in and were exhausted too and chose to finish a little early. Having no previous ice climbing experience, they both managed to scale a 60’-70’ foot wall of ice by the time they were done. They even have the photos to prove it!

Wiped out, we went back to the cabin to rest and clean up. At 6:30, we had scheduled a zip line ride, also with MICA guides which everyone loved. It was ¼ mile in length. They have a nearly finished ½ mile zip line that isn’t quite ready for guests, but it will really be amazing once it’s open. Dinner was at Grandview Café about 10 miles further up the road.

Our independent time on land was coming to a close. Four loads of laundry and packing were next on the agenda.

August 2, Saturday: We left Glacier View for Anchorage. We happened upon a lovely outdoor market with artisans and great food options for lunch down town, found a few souvenirs and returned our rental car to the airport. At 2:00 we boarded a Princess transfer bus to take us to Whittier to begin the cruise traveling southbound to Vancouver on the Coral Princess

.

I selected this particular cruise for several reasons. First it fit perfectly within our dates, it was a smaller ship than some and because it spent a day cruising thru Glacier Bay National Park. The day in Glacier Bay was spectacular. It’s a very special place that must not be missed. We had lovely clear skies and warm weather. We only needed sweatshirts on deck. Beautiful scenery, glaciers and vistas were around every corner. We spent a good amount of time at the glaciers and saw many episodes of dramatic calving.

We stopped in Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. Personally, I did not care for any of the ports themselves. The towns were so terribly touristy and essentially had two kinds of shops – jewelry shops and tacky magnet/t-shirt shops. I just can’t seem to wrap my brain around the fact that there is that much jewelry buying by people who come to Alaska, but there must be enough to support these stores. I guess a piece of jewelry bought while traveling does last longer than a t-shirt! It was difficult to find any locally owned shops with local art work. I did find one in Ketchikan named Scanlon Gallery, which is worth a visit.

In Skagway, we rented a car from Avis and drove up to Emerald Lake with a stop in Carcross. The scenery and the lake were beautiful. We had lunch at a Filipino place in town, which my husband who is from the PI got a kick out of. In Juneau we booked a whale watching tour on our own with Harv and Marv. We had only 5 of us on our boat with Captain Liz. She was very sweet and knowledgeable. We saw plenty of Humpbacks and enjoyed every minute. Finally in Ketchikan, we had some on board ship credits from our travel agent to be used towards excursions so we booked through Princess. I did a zodiac boat ride to an island and a rain forest hike (in the pouring rain) and the guys did a kayaking trip. Both activities were just ok. It’s quite likely the weather colored our feelings about these two outings, but it was better than roaming the streets of Ketchikan with more jewelry shops!

A few final thoughts…We made the difficult decision to skip Denali on this trip. We were so busy in the region that we traveled, we didn’t think the extra time driving to and from the park would work for us on this visit. My husband and I fully intend to return to Alaska one day and visit the park and possibly rent an RV. We were armed and ready for mosquitos, but only encountered them a few times and they were not too bad. The people we met along the way were lovely. We enjoyed chatting with residents who lived there permanently as well as many of the summer workers and guides who come from all over the country. If I had it to do again, I might have gone to the Matanuska Glacier area first and then worked my way back and down the Seward Highway. The way we did it made for a very long day driving from Seward to our final destination of Glacier View that night.

Prior to my trip, I heard many people say the “best” way to see Alaska is on a cruise. I disagree. I enjoyed the time on land, on our own, much more. I felt we got a much more in depth, more relaxed view of Alaska. The cruise did offer travel to places, such as Glacier Bay, that I would have otherwise missed and it offered us an opportunity to relax a bit before the end of our vacation, so no regrets there.

The ship itself was quite nice. Having been our 1st cruise, I don’t have a basis of comparison. It was very clean and the crew was wonderful. They each worked quite hard to make our experience a positive one. We enjoyed most of the entertainment, with the exception of the magician, Alexander Great. While some of his illusions were good, much of what he said was either disrespectful to women or just inappropriate in general. I think they could do much better than hiring him again. There were very few laughs when this guy tried to joke. Otherwise the mentalist, the singers, dancers, musicians and even the staff talent show were all very enjoyable. We thought the food was just average. There was certainly no shortage of food, but massive amounts of ”just ok” food still doesn’t improve the taste. I would have to say they do a wonderful job with the baking of their breads of all kinds. Their pizza on Deck 14 was also quite good. We chose anytime dining and had rather lengthy waits to be seated. We were willing to share a table, but sometimes we still waited up to an hour for a table. When we tried to call and make a reservation, which is only taken on the day of the meal, we were offered choices like 5:30 or 8:45. The servers and head waiter were excellent and very accommodating for our son’s food allergies. They even offered us the next night’s menu to select what he wanted to be specially made if need be. The naturalist who gave running commentary on board was easy to listen to and very informative. My son visited the teen lounge each night from around 9PM to midnight. Mostly he played video games with the other kids. I did see teen activities during the day such as dodge ball on the basketball court, but he did not join in until night time. We selected a cabin with a window, but no balcony based on the cost. I felt like there was always plenty of room on the outdoor public decks for glacier viewing, but the size of our room for 3 people with 2 week’s worth of stuff, was very tight. Overall, we liked the cruise, but didn’t love it. I think we are better suited for DIY vacations in general, but still happy and thankful for the experience.

I hope this trip report will help others plan their own special trip to Alaska. I also wanted to thank those of you who are well traveled and those of you who live in AK for taking the time to help and eagerly share your knowledge and expertise. It’s greatly appreciated. Happy travels to all and I can’t wait for our next adventure!

Thank you for your trip report!! I loved reading about all the different places you visited. Hoping maybe our next trip to Alaska we can do the DIY also!

Thanx so much for your trip report! I too agree wholeheartedly that a self-planned land trip to AK can offer so much more than a cruise, and for us anyway, it is a preference. Each adventure you posted about your land trip was right up our alley, and we'd have done the same. Appreciate you sharing your review and your thoughts on your first cruise.

We too stayed at Homestead Cabins with gracious hosts Sandy and Dan in May of 2013 for three glorious nights (in the middle cabin), and LOVED the area. We were fortunate enough to have daily visits from a moose mama and her offspring walking right past our cabin every single day. Also spent an enjoyable morning speaking with Dan's 82 year old father about his experiences in Alaska - so interesting and so much fun! BTW - Dan's Dad has published a book about his experiences which I have since read; it is enlightening and a joyous, uplifting read.

Again, thank you for your posting and welcome home!

Thank you for the trip report. I'm sailing next July and the trip reports help me a lot.

What a fun family vacation! Thanks for posting your report.

Congrats on doing the research and putting together such a nice itinerary. So many folks worry about driving and finding their way around? Didn't you find it pretty easy ?

Too bad you can't post any photos. Please try again !!!!

Yes, Mapleleaves, we did find it rather easy to get around. All of the cabins sent us detailed directions to find them. I had originally told my husband we didn't need to bring the GPS. I had it covered. Good thing he didn't listen to me though! It was very helpful to have in Anchorage, Palmer, Knik and Glacier View. From Anchorage to Seward, you can hardly get lost!

My tech support, aka my husband, is trying to compress my photo sizes so that I can add them. I "only" took around 9,000, but I'm sure I can find a few favorites to post.