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Trip Report: Millennium to Alaska (north), 8/5-8/12/16, 1st timer + w/2 kids


pdxsteeler
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Brief synopsis of our 7 day voyage on the Millennium. Myself, wife, 3.5 yr old, 1 yr. old.

 

Pre-Cruise: Vancouver

- Hotel: Hotel Le Soleil. Location is excellent. Walking distance to most of central Vancouver. Suite worked well with the kids. We slept in the bedroom. Older kid on the bed rolled out from the couch in the sitting room. Plus had the crib for the baby in that room. Took the train from the airport to downtown. Walked from the station to the hotel with all our gear without too much problem.

 

- Day 0: Arrive. Dinner @ Cactus Club Cafe. Good food, no problem with the kids, especially sitting outdoors.

- Day 1: Granville Island. Fun market to explore. Older kid loved the water park. Kids market is to be avoided. Only causes consternation.

- Day 2: Capilano Suspension Bridge: Took the free shuttle from downtown. Easy to get on. Awesome weather. Fun activity for the family to get out and do some walking. Older kid liked the scavenger hunt they had for kids. Did not bring the stroller with us for this adventure (which was the right decision). Dinner @ Forage downtown. Best meal we have had all year.

- Day 3: Time to get on the boat. Planned on walking to the cruise terminal but got a little late and decided to take a taxi from the hotel. Taxi took a LONG time to show up and multiple calls from the hotel. But once it showed up, easy transit to the terminal. Check-in/boarding was a breeze with no major delays or issues.

 

On-board:

Accommodations: Sky Suite (6127). Baby in a crib. Older kid again on the bed rolled out from the sofa. Little crowded when it was opened so would immediately fold out when he woke up.

 

Day 0: Once onboard immediately headed to Luminae for initial lunch and met their wait staff (more on this excellent staff later on). As we finished, rooms were already ready so no real wait for them to be ready. Signed up the older one @ the Fun Factory (more on that later as well).

 

Day 1: At sea.

 

Day 2: Ketchikan. Just toured the town on our own. Weather was surprisingly awesome. Clear blue skies and warm, which is exceptional for Ketchikan. Followed the walking tour outlined in the map provided by the visitor center. Lady there said only do the eastern half which is what we did. More dead salmon than alive salmon in the water. Stopped at the grocery store to stock up on supplies (mainly for the baby). Lunch at the dock.

 

Main lessons: 1) With multiple (3) cruise ships in port, the dock area was crowded and everyone was going for lunch at the same time, leading to very long lines. we should have either: a) Had lunch away from the dock when we were walking in town, or b) Had lunch earlier before the crowds all wanted to do the same thing. 2) 1st port so we were just getting used to the shopping. Should have completely avoided the dock shopping area. Not interesting in retrospect vs. what else we could find.

 

Day 3: Icy Strait Point: Much better stop than Ketchikan given that it is a one ship only port and the stores are much more authentic. Walked to Hoonah. Nice walk, saw a bald eagle.

 

Day 4: Juneau. Once off the ship bought a combo ticket for the Mt. Roberts tram + bus to Mendenhall Glacier. Both activities worked out well with the kids. Older one enjoyed meeting the bald eagle at Mt. Roberts. Mendenhall Glacier also worked out well. Immediately saw a bear cub as we walked to the visitor's center from where the bus dropped us off. Overall was a very good combo and use of time with the kids. Still had time to do a quick walk of the city. Walked to the capitol building which is currently under construction and not available for touring.

 

Day 5: Skagway. Our 1st excursion booked through Celebrity. Did the train from Skagway to Fraser, B.C. with the bus back down. Bus guide was awesome. Train provided good views. Kids were free and fell asleep. Concierge had been recommending that we look at the variations that included gold panning (Liarsville) or dog sledding but we were concerned that the older kid would either be asleep or not interested and it turned out we were right, so happy with that choice. Before the train, we got a late start off the ship so had limited time to explore Skagway. Walked into town from the dock. Spent the majority of time at the Junior Ranger station so that the older kid could earn his junior ranger pin (very cool from each national park).

 

Day 6: At sea. Hubbard Glacier. Got an unbelievable view as the captain was able to do multiple 360s instead of just the planned single one.

 

Day 7: Disembark @ Seward. We signed up for the train from Seward to Anchorage so an early start to the day. We rushed to make the 6:15 boarding only to then see a lot of people sauntering up to the train late so we didn't leave for another half hour. Again had an awesome guide on the train. Only disappointment was not seeing any wildlife of note.

 

Anchorage:

Hotel: Hilton Anchorage. Upon arrival (noon-ish) was told that our room was not ready. I asked if they could call us when ready, they said no since they were so busy (never had that been told to me before). But about 5 minutes later, was summoned to the checkin desk and told that they are making a different (and better -- junior suite) room available to us right now. Not sure if that is because they realized we had the baby or because I have status with Hilton or what. But we were happy.

 

Day 0: Lots of walking in the city looking for grocery stores to restock on baby items. Logged about 4.5 miles. Dinner @ Ginger.

Day 1: Lunch @ Fat Ptarmigan. Good walkthrough of the Saturday markert.

Day 2-3: Still to come :) But planning on the zoo and the native heritage center.

 

Main impressions from the cruise:

- Luminae: Staff was beyond awesome. Having the two kids was hard (as expected) and we never knew if we were bothering other guests but we never got any complaints and the guests we interacted with seemed fine with the kids. But a large part of that was the awesome time and care the staff gave to the kids. Singing, dancing, cajoling from under the table, etc. Neven, Nina, Bruno, etc were all great. As for the food, we always ended up ordering from the Luminae menu and never looked at the MDR one, although in retrospect this may have been a mistake. In general the Luminae selection is good, but they need a little more variety as it gets a little tired by the end of the week. Quality of the food was high with only a couple of disappointments (seared scallops and seared tuna both were not as well done as I have had in other restaurants). Breakfast/lunch were also fine. We ate all meals here and didn't dine anywhere else.

 

- Fun Factory: Older kid absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to get back to it each session so they clearly are doing something right.

 

- Room: We probably didn't utilize our butler to the fullest extent possible. We did well though again making sure the kids were taken care of (bringing milk boxes, etc).

 

- Michael's Club: The other place we spent a lot of quality time. We didn't buy a drink package in advance and instead said we would decide after our first day. We realized that, at least for us, it made no sense to buy a package. Instead we were better off just heading to Michael's anytime we needed a coffee/espresso/wine/cocktail/bottled water. No issues taking drinks out so we would always stock up on water for the room/days on shore. We had pre-dinner drinks, took drinks to dinner, post-dinner drinks, etc. Alex was the evening bartender and was great. Lucy was the concierge and was always helpful even though we also probably didn't utilize her fully. Both commented on how the attendance at Michael's on this cruise was much lighter than typical. We loved that because we ended up using it a a place for the baby to do a lot of crawling around since no one else was there and there really is no other good place on the ship to do that.

 

- Internet: Had the unlimited package. Worked just phone. Often switching between devices (phone/ipad/laptop).

 

- Olympics: they had one channel showing the international feed. Depended on the state of the satellite signal. Was good to have something.

 

I think that covers everything :)

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Few other updates:

 

- Day 2 in Anchorage: Alaska Zoo. I would call it a quaint little zoo. Smaller than other "big" cities but has a nice collection of cold weather animals that you don't always see (who has seen a cold weather camel before). Kids liked it.

 

Day 3 in Anchorage: Native Heritage Center. Nice depiction of the housing/lifestyle of the native Alaskans, walking around a lake and seeing the various versions that were built. And finally explaining why there are no igloos in Alaska :) Another one liked by the kids.

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Glad it all worked out for you. We did the same cruise about a month before and did not have the best weather but it was still incredible scenery and wildlife. We opted for one short night in Anchorage and went on to Denali which we really enjoyed. Hubbard Glacier, wow is the only word. We had to sail thru fog and ice to get there so we only had time for one 360 but the view from our balcony as we came in was just perfect and once we were heading back out room service delivered our breakfast.

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Our captain strongly recommended leaving our balcony and going to a deck to get a broader/better view. He was absolutely right. Much better perspective with the wider view. On the flip side, we didn't try the helipad because the weather was somewhat miserable.

 

We didn't do room service that day. Still early enough in the morning to head out to Luminae for the much better breakfast.

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Few other updates:

 

- Day 2 in Anchorage: Alaska Zoo. I would call it a quaint little zoo. Smaller than other "big" cities but has a nice collection of cold weather animals that you don't always see (who has seen a cold weather camel before). Kids liked it.

 

/QUOTE]

 

When we were in Anchorage with our granddaughter, we did this activity at the Zoo -

 

"Keeper for a Day

 

Pre-register

Available September 1 through May 15

Description: Have you ever wanted to see what a zookeeper does all day? Spend a day with our keepers, one on one, from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM. Change to a new zoo keeper ever hour while they show you what they do on a daily basis. You may go behind the scenes at tiger, brown bear, snow leopard, make diets, or feed the wolves. The day is always a surprise but a great experience for all.

$200.00 donation per person

Scheduled Monday through Wednesday

Fees are paid in advance of your scheduled encounter

Runs from 10am to 3pm several times a week

Program is offered to ages 12 and up

Ages 8 to 11 only with a PAID chaperone in attendance

Online reservations open from September 1 to May 15

For questions, contact Shannon Jensen (Curator), sjensen@alaskazoo.org or 907-341-6421"

 

Expensive but worth every cent. We got to go into cages. We helped to feed the animals. We were in with the seals while the keeper was checking them out.

 

The high point was when we went walking with the wolves. They take 2 wolves out of the cage every day on a leash to give them exercise. We did not get to hold the leashes but we did get to pet them.

 

A great time was had both both of us.

 

You should also have allowed yourself time to visit the SeaLife Center while you were in Seward. We did 2 encounters there -

 

"Puffin Encounter

 

Daily: 2:00 p.m.

Duration: 60-minute tour

Maximum of 4 people per tour - Minimum age 10*

 

Summer Availability (May 27-Sep 4):

Daily: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

 

Tour the aviary, meet our birds and their keepers, and learn about our research and breeding programs.

 

Price: $74.95 per person

 

 

Octopus Encounter

 

 

Daily: 3:00 pm

Duration: 60-minute tour

Maximum of 5 people per tour - Minimum age 6*

 

Summer Availability (May 27-Sep 4):

Daily: 1 p.m.

 

Shake “hands” with a giant Pacific octopus and learn more about these mysterious invertebrates.

 

Price: $74.95 per person"

 

DON

Edited by donaldsc
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