trip report cruise and land aug '14 ( bear + harding icefield and crowcreek info)

Celebrity aug '15-22 millenium vancouver->anchorage + self planned 3 nights in seward and 3 nights in anchorage. Went with my family of 8 ages 4-60. I'm in my mid 30s. I have bolded what I think is the newest or most relevant info. Thanks to all from this forum, 90% of the below is based on your recommendations!

Food: Ate every night in the main dining room. I have only been on carnival and norwegian before and enjoyed their food better. I don't think I'm a picky eater, but the fish was way oversalted one night and our group couldn't eat it. Steaks ordered medium were consistently sent back well done. Molten lava cake was offered one night and had no liquid chocolate inside, it was just a dry piece of cake. Some meals were better then others, these are just the ones we were the least impressed with.

Entertainment on cruise: During the days @ port, very basic i.e. bingo, art auction, sales demonstrations. evenings - juggler, comedians, dancing, broadway. not excellent, but good. 1-2 nights very basic i.e. band played songs 1 night and that was it. This was the last night of the cruise and I felt it should have been called "we fed you, now leave".

Internet: almost unusable throughout cruise secondary to extremely slow speeds. took almost 3-5 minutes just to connect to yahoo mail. They charge you regardless of how slow it is. Ruined my day in Icy Strait as I really had to connect and therefore had to use the restaurant there for their free wifi

Ports:

Ketchikan-snorkelling through the boat, loved it - saw starfish and jelly fish and a regular sized crab (you are protected from the jellys in your wet suit), but was tiring.

Juneau-rented car on own, very enjoyable. saw mendenhall, the hatchery (a close up look at how fish are killed can be seen on entrance... maybe a bit too much for some but I appreciated the honesty of the hatchery), beer factory (great samples), perseverence mine museum (did not go in, but walked around area and saw the mine shaft, which was interesting), douglas island was ok, never did find the mine ruins that people talked about on this forum (told it was 30-60 minute walk once we got to the beach at the end of the road?). saw the ski house on douglas road going west past the bridge 2-3 miles).

Skagway: 1/2 day train/bus combo, enough is posted on this by others so nothing much to add and the name of the outfit escapes me @ this time. Was good.

Icy Strait Point: Went with Teckk Outfitters on their 3 hour bear search. This was very different from how it was described on this forum (at least on our experience). We were not taken by the owner, but by his son and cousin. Saw no bears, couple of times sat in van or in one place where the tour guides would look and come back with a report of no bears seen and then we would move on. Scheduled 11-2pm, but started at 1130 as one couple didn't show, maybe the couple didn't realize you have to leave the port and walk right up to the road to find TECKK, this was confusing for us as well. The late start resulted in a shorter trip and was disappointing, we only got out of the car to look for bears once, walked up a trail, stayed put for about 15-20 minutes, saw nothing and got back in the car. total time felt like about 30-40 minutes, but i did not actually time it on my watch. I am not a hunter or wilderness expert, but if there is a way to track bears, none of this was observed on our trip i.e. the car stopped in front of a stream and then another tour bus would arrive, we would move on and that was it. I felt like I should've taken the flightplane/bear in ketchikan were bears were seen by our entire group. Even when our family in Ketchikan walked back to their car on that tour a bear walked in front of them (however, that tour is much more pricey because it involves plane). I realize bears are not guaranteed with TECKK, but thought even if we didn't see them maybe we would track their foot prints/broken branches or something (again, perhaps this is impossible except in the movies), so this was a disappointing tour for us coupled with the late start.

Seward:

day 1 (leaving cruise ship): Exit Glacier+Sea Life Centre. Took the free 2 hour ranger tour of exit glacier offered three times/day and it was interesting.

day 2: Harding Icefield 8 hour trail from exit glacier. Very enjoyable, climbed above the clouds and looked down on the glacier/icefield, went with ranger @ 9 am on saturday (they go out 2 days/week), no charge. Fast paced walk, lots of uphill, felt very tired during walk and considered turning back at 30 minutes, actually took 3 hours to get to top and 3 hours return. there was a second ranger with a slower group, maybe would have been less challenging doing walk with her. No bears seen :( (our ranger told us he sees a bear every time except once doing this trail)

day 3: Kenai Fjords tour through Kenai Fjords company. 9 hour tour booked with northern lights coupon. Rainy prior and waters very rough that day, tour was changed to 6.5 hours in the middle of our experience (i.e. we were not told prior), my understanding from this forum is with the shorter tours you see very little and we only saw one whale once from quite a distance blowing water and a bit of his back. very disappointing, lots of nauseated people. Got a $30 refund/person.

day 4: drove to anchorage, stopped at wildlife refuge (enjoyable) and crow creek mine. Enjoyed the mine and experience, but we should have definitely asked for more demonstration in how to sift for gold prior to the 10 minute walk, saw others getting a really good demonstration where they were sifting in the water basins when you first enter and practicing, we got about a 2 minute demo and no practice and I didn't feel like we knew what to do once we got there, we should have asked to practice and for more demonstartion. The other members of our group who didn't pay the 20 to sift gold paid 10 to get in but there was no guided tour and they said there wasn't much to see (Can't verify myself as I did not join them, i just walked straight to the gold sifting area)

I wanted to do much more this day, but after the gold mine everyone was tired so that was that.

day 5: Alaska state fair (father in law really wanted to do... was ok, but was smaller then most fairs I've been too)

day 6: MICA tours matanuska glacier trek. Was enjoyable, the youtube videos on their site are pretty accurate, nothing new for me to add here.

day 7: tony knowles coastal trail 11 miles each way witth downtown bike rental $16 for 3 hours (which is walkign distance to the trail. some uphill for last mile, I was tired.saw 1 moose and her cub few feet away at about mile 5 and therefore loved the experience. on a side note told moose are dangerous at several times on this trip and therefore just kept riding when i saw the moose. Got on plane that evening

Sorry that you had some disappointments on your Alaskan adventure.

Thanks for posting your trip report. It sounded like you had a couple of good excursions but I couldn't tell if you enjoyed the trip overall.

Which hotels did you use in Seward and Anchorage?

As for TECKK, I know that BQ enjoys this vendor, but the success rate of their BEAR SEARCH is definitely hit or miss according to reviews. If bear viewing is a priority, best to spend the extra $ and visit a blind or viewing platform during peak season.

If bears are really important, you have to go to a salmon stream. Chances there are nearly 100%, as long as you are in season. We went to Anan on 2 trips and saw so many bears that we stopped counting and even stopped taking pictures.

In other places, the bears know that you are around by your scent or sound so they can move off trail if they wish.

Any tour that promises or even suggests that you will see bears is lying.

DON

The day we were MOST looking forward to was in Icy Straight!

Arrived at correct meeting spot on time and was immediately told that bear search was cancelled due to the guide calling in sick.:(

Went on the whale watch with high expectations, but boat broke down and we had to turn back without ever reaching Pt Adolphus. Lucky we saw the same whale back in port that everyone did- just walking along the path or even from the ship!

:(

Sorry you were disappointed . We were, too!

Hope you did enjoy other parts of your trip!

Sorry, maybe it was because I had just returned the day before I wrote the review, but overall we enjoyed the trip!

As for hotels:

1) Northern Nights B+B 3 days in Seward, I would have gone on and on about how fantastic this B+B is in my last review but I think the owners are retiring in a few months and will be going under new ownership, but it was fantastic and hopefully the new owners will be just as great. Two containers full of what tasted like homemade cookies always on the kitchen table alone with several small baggies of chips all the time complimentary, soft drinks and water complimentary, wifi, full access to the living room, breakfast with scrambled eggs and waffles and pancakes, various jams and breads. Really felt like we were at home with the wonderful hospitality of Marilyn and Don the owners of the place who were super friendly. Towels washed nightly, very clean. Had all 4 rooms rented. My wife felt the bed was poor quality, but I slept fine.

2) Historic Anchorage Hotel in Anchorage X 3 nights, I think I read some bad reviews in tripadvisor about odours, but we did not notice any odours. 3 rooms rented, no problems with any. Complimentary breakfast was very basic. good for cereal but bad for waffles (which were not tasty at all) and hard boiled eggs (according to members of our group they were also not tasty, but don't ask me how because I didn't try them). regardless hotel in a convenient location and would definitely stay again because it's only breakfast.