Off the Beaten Path Alaskan Cruisetour Review July 5th-18th 2017

Hello, this will be my first review. I found reviews from others so helpful and I want to do my share in return. Here it goes!

Background: Dh and I are both 35 years old. We were married 10 years ago at sea on the Coral Princess in Alaska. We knew that we wanted to return to Alaska for our 10th anniversary. Our marriage cruise was our first cruise. We did a one year anniversary cruise on Carnival and hated it. Too much party for our lame selves. We knew we would certainly return to Princess for all our future cruising. We started researching about 2 years in advance and made plans as soon as we could about a year and a half in advance. On our first trip to Alaska we went all out with excursions (ziplinning, lumberjack show, dog sled on glacier via helicopter, White Pass Railroad, "gold" panning, Liarsville, Red Onion Saloon, wildlife center) and the wedding, so this time around we wanted to do less touristy things and really enjoy Alaska.

Why a cruisetour versus DIY? We knew that if we selected a cruisetour we would be the youngest members. We knew it meant we would be on someone else's timeline. And we were okay with these facts. DH and I both have jobs that require us to micromanage every little detail, so for us, the thought of kicking back and letting someone else carry the luggage, drive, and make detailed arrangements was worth the trade offs. Yes, there were some trade offs which I will get to later.

So what did we do? I'll give a brief overview here and then start into a day by day posting.

July 4th- Flew into Vancouver from Detroit, stayed at Holiday Inn by the airport

July 5th- Boarded the ship, Island Princess. I'll detail the ship in another posting.

July 6th- At sea

July 7th- Ketchikan (funicular, married man's trail, Schoenbar trail, shopping)

July 8th- Juneau (Mendenhall)

July 9th- Skagway (hiked Lower Dewey Lake, Gold Rush Cemetery, Reids Falls)

July 10th- Glacier Bay

July 11th- College Fjord (Ultimate Ship Tour)

July 12th- Disembarked in Whittier, took Catamaran to Valdez (Worthington Glacier, Pipeline), bus to Copper River Princess Lodge

July 13th- Copper River Lodge (hiking and geo caching at lodge)

July 14th- Travel to Denali via bus, stay at Denali Princess Lodge (White Water Rafting Paddle Trip)

July 15th- Denali Lodge (Tundra Wilderness Tour, I'll explain later why this was the better option for us over the shuttle), travel to McKinley Princess Lodge via bus

July 16th- McKinley Lodge

July 17th- Train to Anchorage, Captain Cook Hotel

July 18th- noon transfer to airport, 3pm flight home, arrived home 6am on July 19th

So if you are interested in details, stay tuned! Feel free to ask any questions. I have all my paperwork as well.

Staying tuned ...

Srpilo

The Ship: I know must have put the Island on their personal black list after her renovations. I must say that the ship was okay for me. It was not as convenient flow wise as the Coral, but we were able to handle the changes just fine. We had traditional first seating, so I cannot speak to the ATD situation. We also had no problem getting seats at the shows. There were three shows offered; a 5:45ish, 7:30ish, and 9:45ish. We are early birds and often arrived 30 minutes before show time, that being said- the theater didn't fill up entirely for anything. You could come right before show time and find a few seats here and there. I wouldn't suggest showing up looking for 10 seats together last minute- that won't happen. We had a forward balcony on Baja deck. We found the room, service, and ship in general to be in good condition.

Arrival and Embarkation: We arrived in Vancouver at 10pm so we just wanted to hit the sack. We made it through customs very easily with little wait. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Airport, about a 15 minute shuttle ride. We did have to wait about 25 minutes for the shuttle to arrive. Vancouver is such a cool town, so if possible, spend some time here pre or post cruise.

The morning of embarkation we walked to the McDonald's right across the parking lot of the hotel. DH and I are not foodies. In fact, I eat similar to that of a 7 year old child. After breakfast we called for a taxi at 9am. We arrived at Canada Place around 9:30am and the taxi was approximately $34 Cad before tip. We zipped through check in and security. The waiting wasn't too bad. We were in the first row of non-preferred. There was clear communication and organization throughout the entire embarkation process. Boarding started at 11:30 and we were on board just before noon. We went straight to Passenger Services once onboard and signed up for the Ultimate Ship Tour. We were the first two people on the list. After that we headed to our room and dropped off items. We had lunch in the main dining room, although they did attempt to send us to the buffet. I knew better from Cruise Critic and we enjoyed a very calm lunch in the dining room.

We explored the ship and settled in. The safety briefing was easy and then we enjoyed sail away. Our luggage arrived shortly after and once we were under the Lion's Gate bridge we had to get ready for dinner. We had a table for two. It was so fantastic to be in and out of traditional dinning within and hour each night! We didn't go to the welcome aboard show, just enjoyed our balcony and the views.

Sea day: Weather partly cloudy and 57 degrees. We were officially celebrating our anniversary today. Our room door was decorated with a sign and some balloons. In addition, we had lots of anniversary offers from the shops, Effy, art auction, etc. We started our day with a presentation from the naturalist, Mark Harris. He was not as good as the naturalist we had on the Coral, maybe my expectations were too high? He was funny, but I didn't feel like it was as good as last time in regards to information and later animal sightings. I know he cannot control animal sightings, but they were happening and he wasn't coming on to tell us as the Coral naturalist did on our last cruise. Oh well. It was still a fun talk. After lunch we went to the art auction. Yep. We like the auctions. We buy what we like and we have done our research prior to cruising. Later we wasted some time in the casino on a slot machine. I had a lucky streak going! That night was formal night, and I use that term loosely. We saw the show On the Bayou. The singers and dancers did a great job and the set was also well done.

Ketchikan: We were only in port from 6am-2pm so we hit the ground running pretty early. We only ate at the buffet for breakfast and always found it tricky to get a table if we were up there just before docking. We strolled off the ship around 8am. The weather was great! Sunny and low 60s. We walked to Creek Street and it was pretty dead, which made for some good pictures. We rode the funicular up to the Fox Lodge and checked out the views and items around the lodge. We walked down Married Man's Trail and then over to Schoenbar. Both trails were paved, easy walks. I wish we would have done Deer Mountain instead, but we knew we wanted to hit some stores and pick up my $29.99 reversible Alaska jacket.

Once back on board we went to a seminar on Thomas Kinkade, as we really like his work. Next up was wildlife spotting. We didn't see much during the commentary, but after we spotted some orcas. I few solo ones and then a mother/young combo which was fun to watch. We stopped into Effy to collect my free gift for our anniversary. It was a necklace with a blue stone and matching earrings. I was pleasantly surprised as I expected some cheap charm. I will actually wear the free gift! We went to the comedian, Rollin Jay Moore- just okay for me. I laughed, so I guess he did his job.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review. We love Alaska.

Juneau: We got off the ship and purchased shuttle bus tickets to Mendenhall. It was $70 for the two of us and we caught the first shuttle at 9am. It was on/off light rain so we took our rain coats and rain pants with us, the temp was high 50's. We checked out the visitor center and then started hiking some trails. We did Nugget Falls, Photo Point, Trail of Time, the Moraine Ecology Trail, and Steep Creek Trail. My favorite was the Moraine Ecology Trail. It was not busy (we saw one other couple) and really felt like we were out in the middle of no where. We even questioned if we were still on the trail at some points! We found a little cut off that went down to a small sandy beach area. It was so beautiful! You could see the glacier, the falls, the lake, and none of the people. There was even a chunk of ice that had washed ashore that we were able to examine. No bears for us. We did see some humpback whales as we came into Juneau from the ship.

We headed back to the ship around 2pm. That evening we heard Libby Riddles speak while the ship was still in port. She was great! Later that night we saw the show Motor City. The songs were good, but we felt the Bayou show was better. Could be because we are actually from Motown??? I stared at some alexandrite jewelry that I'll never own and then we went to bed.

Skagway: Cloudy, high of 56 degrees, a steady light rain in the morning. We were set to do our big hikes in Skagway. We are not crazy fit people, but we aren't totally out of shape either. Today really pushed us to our limits lol! We headed off the ship around 8am and walked the short distance to the start of the Lower Dewey Lake Trail head. For us, it was a pretty intense vertical climb of, according to the sign, over 500 vertical feet in elevation change. It was switchbacks, but they were steep and rocky. There were caution and danger signs and I felt like a real Alaskan hiker! Never mind the fact that we had to stop a ton to catch our breath. We happily moved aside to let other hikers continue the trail with clearly more ease than we could accomplish. Several of these hikers had their dogs, LARGE dogs, unleashed, and tramping through the woods charging out, and running up alongside us from behind. Scared.the.crap.out.of.me! I was sure each time it was a bear. I guess I spook easily. The hike was a lot of fun and we felt very accomplished by the end.

So much so we thought we would just pop over to the Gold Rush Cemetery and Reids Falls for a quick pic. It turns out our map was very deceptive. We knew it wasn't to scale, but we figured how bad could it be to walk? Well, it was bad. We walked...and walked...and walked. Apparently, we walked two miles there. I am glad we did because it was neat to see the cemetery and the falls were pretty. We planned to take the shuttle back, but we aren't good at waiting. So we ended up just walking back into town.

By the time we got back on the ship around 2:30pm, our Fitbits said we had climbed 85 flights of stairs. DH took the opportunity to go for his 100 flights badge and walked the stairs on the ship. I read. I don't need a badge that says I am crazy.

That night was wear pink into Effy and get a, you guessed it, free prize! So I through on my pink hoodie and went to Effy expecting the charm that I didn't get last time. I got another necklace, red this time. Score! After that my hot streak continued on my lucky slot machine.

We were excited to sleep in tomorrow, but the non-stop daylight didn't really help. I brought a sleeping mask just for this trip and I am glad I did! Next up, Glacier Bay!

Glacier Bay: Partly cloudy and a high of 48 degrees. Today I had on a long sleeve shirt, hoodie, my Alaska Reversible Fleece Lined Jacket (only $29.99), gloves, and a hat. We had some good calving at the Marjorie Glacier. Such a beautiful area! We saw an eagle on an iceberg as well as seals on icebergs. We also saw some orange jellyfish! Spent hours scanning the shore for bears, but alas, none were to be seen by us. An enjoyable day, indeed!

Forgot to mention the Gold Member's Party. This was earlier in the cruise. DH wanted to go because someone is going to win elite benefits and it can't be us if we don' go. Sigh. Okay. We go. There are three drawings. I actually win the first one! Nope, not elite benefits, but an Alaska destination crystal. DH wins the third drawing! Nope, a bottle of champagne, not the elite benefits. That would be the winner of the second drawing. Oh well, two outta three ain't bad!

Thanks for your review.

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College Fjord and the Ultimate Ship Tour:

So I actually prefer College Fjord over Glacier Bay, just my personal preference and it didn't disappoint this time either.

But first thing this morning at 8:30 am we met in the Wheelhouse Bar with 12 other passengers, the assistant cruise director, and a security officer. I was at very much looking forward to this activity ever since I learned about it here on CC. Our first stop was the medical area. We met with the head doctor and he spoke to us for a bit and showed us all around the medical area. As we were getting ready to move to the bridge my DH grabs me and he doesn't look good. I should have seen this coming. He has no medical issues and wasn't sick, but he has some type of physical reaction to hospitals. He claims it was all the people packed in the hot, small room. He almost fainted on our hospital tour for our first child. He is fine with blood, barf, urine, etc., but something about being in a small hospital room makes him dizzy. We had to sit down and let him have some water. The doc was great and ran us up to the bridge just in time to shake the captain's hand and hear the bridge info. The officer was a little difficult to understand as he spoke quickly, and English was not his first language. We still were able to keep up with what he was saying. We did a photo on the bridge. Bring your cell phone as they let us take pics, we just couldn't have our large cameras. Next stop was the mooring deck. This was my DH's favorite stop. It was neat to see and learn about the anchors and lines. We also did a photo here. Next we went to the theater and learned about the stage and the lifts, lightening, and effects that make the shows so great. After talking with the stage manager we went to the dressing room and met with a dancer who is also the head of the dancers on board. We learned all about how they prepare and secrets of stage life. We sis a photo here with two dancers. Next stop was the cold storage. We met with the man in charge of ordering and learned so much. I didn't know that the ships stocks up for a 14 day run when in Vancouver and has to keep everything fresh for two weeks, not just one week. Makes sense though as things are so costly in Whittier. We were able to go into two of the different storage coolers/freezers. Amazing. We then saw the full galley, had a drink, snacks, and did a photo here. After the galley we went to the control room. There were two men there on duty, again, difficult to understand but you got the drift. It was actually pretty funny because the man said, "If the bridge is the ship's eyes, then we are..." a woman jumped in and said, "The ship's heart?" And he says, "Um, no more like the brain." Group photo time. After the control room we went to the printing room and the photo room. We got delayed a few minutes because they were doing a test of the water tight doors- glad to know they are working! Our last stop was the laundry. It was hot, loud, and hard to understand over the noise. I feel for the men and women who work in that area. That said, wow! So interesting. We headed back up and were able to ask any questions we had to the guide. She was great. It was interesting to see the behind the scenes and crew only areas. Later that evening we had two bags delivered to our stateroom each one contained a Princess robe, an 8X10 nice black picture frame, an 8x10 group shot from the bridge signed by the captain, and then four 5x7 group shots from the galley, dancers, mooring deck, and galley, personalized notepad, and a Princess apron. The cost was $150 pp. Well worth it in my opinion.

College Fjord was overcast, but still made for some great pics. It was mid 50s, so chilly. We had on similar cold weather gear as Glacier Bay. We cashed out in the casino and hit the final art auction before calling it a night.

Disembarkation and off to Copper River:

We came on the ship with our large, medium, and small suitcases. We checked two bags and used a backpack and small suitcase as our carry-ons. We packed up all formal attire, hats, gloves, souvenirs, etc. that we wouldn't need over the next week and had that bag meet us in Anchorage after the land portion. We then split our items between the medium and small suitcases and had them become our Join Me Tonight bags. Our backpack was our hand carry luggage. We disembarked at 7:30am and went straight to a catamaran that was dockside. Over the next four hours we had wonderful wildlife sightings Dall porpoise, sea otters, sea lions at close range to the boat, beautiful scenery and good narration. We arrived in Valdez and were greeted by our driver, the group from the Catamaran was split into three different buses. We pulled around town and our driver, Haley, pointed out the different food options. We had 45 minutes for lunch. DH and I hit up the Subway. Our drive to Copper River was approximately 5 hours. This included lunch, stops at two roadside waterfalls, a stop at Worthington Glacier, and a 10 minute construction hold up. The drive was scenic and comfortable. Just before arriving at the lodge we stopped at a section of the Alaskan pipeline and were able to walk around and take pictures. We arrived to Copper River Lodge and were greeted on the bus by the general manager, David, and given a packet that contained our room keys, itinerary for Copper River, a dining guide, and activities sheet of things happening around the lodge.

I'll pick this back up tomorrow...

Thanks for sharing. I will keep checking back.:D

Tony

Enjoying this very much. I'll be following along, thank you [emoji4]

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Fantastic review... See you tomorrow :)

Nice review. Will be following along.

Oh, I forgot something that happened on Glacier Bay day that I wanted to mention. We received a call from the shop onboard telling us we had a $25 and a $50 gift card waiting for us. Apparently the gift cards were mistakenly delivered to the wrong stateroom. Someone tried to use them even though the card clearly said our name, stateroom number, and that it was for our anniversary. Some people are just so low! They were busted by the store gals who then called us to collect our gift cards. We did use the $25 for the shop, the $50 was for the spa (port days only) so we missed out on that one, but it was just a promotional thing.

Copper River Lodge to Denali:

Okay, back to Copper River Lodge. We really liked this lodge. Yes, this lodge is isolated and that is what we liked about it. We had a second floor room that had air conditioning. We found the beds (2 queens) to be the most comfortable we would encounter until we reached Captain Cook. The cruise bed was actually very comfortable too. If you opted to not have your room serviced then you received a $5 voucher for the onsite restaurants. The room was bright, spacious, and had a heat lamp in the bathroom. Our room had a Happy Anniversary balloon and a cute anniversary word search that came with a nice letter from the manager. There was also a Copper River post card that included all the things you could do around the lodge and get them hole punched by the front desk as you completed them.

We ate dinner at the Whistle Stop Bar on property. I had a burger that was good. We had great views of Mt. Drum. Mosquitos were an issue. There was a trail that was closed due to a second year cub that had been kicked out of the den roaming the trail and trying to raid the garbage dumpster. It was opened the next day. We did 4 of the 6 trails on property. We enjoyed the North 40 Trail loop as they had 4 geocaches hidden on this trail. We have never done geocaching before but it was fun. We saw lots of evidence of moose, but no actual moose. We did find a family of ptarmigan. This lodge has a nightly ranger walk, ranger display table, and a ranger program inside a presentation room. They do a nice flag ceremony each night honoring veterans. They also have nightly s'mores. There was a shuttle bus that ran a loop from the lodge to the Wrangle-St. Elias National Park Visitor Center, Copper Center, the pipeline, and then back to the lodge for $5 all day. There were also numerous excursions available.

We had to have our luggage in the hall by 6am on the morning of our departure. We were the first bus to leave at 7:30am. The other two buses were staggered about 30 minutes each after us. We loaded the bus and began our long haul across the Denali Highway. Our driver, still Haley, gave a map that showed the different points of interest for our journey. We watched a video about the Alaska Pipeline that was very interesting. We stopped at a beautiful look out that did have some bathrooms (hole in the ground). We were given bottles of water and were able to make a snack selection. Soon we were on the dirt/unpaved section of the Denali Hwy. It was actually a welcome reprieve from the paved section. The paved portion was lots of ups and downs. There was a two mile section of the dirt that was bad, but other than that it was a smooth ride. We stopped at McLaren Lodge for lunch. This place can only accommodate one bus at a time. We arrived at 11:15 am and stayed for 45 minutes. There are about 8 large tables that seat 6 people each. The options were all you can eat soup and bread with a drink for $10 or a sandwich, chips or coleslaw, and a drink for $10. The sandwiches are basic; white or wheat bread, turkey/ham/tuna options for meat, cheese, lettuce/tomato/onion. The cooler was broken so we had ice for our canned sodas. There was a few different pie/ice cream options for dessert. When we got back on the bus our driver had us each take a crayon and an index card. We were told we were going to play a game...um, okay? Do we have to? Well, it was actually fun. We had to draw a random part of a moose per Haley's command, and then pass our card. We would then draw a different body part on the next card. We continued this process until we had completed moose. Haley picked her top three moose and then we all voted on our favorite at the next bathroom/picture break. It was a good luck charm because we finally saw a moose! It was a female in some tall brush, got a few quick shots. We took another break down the road before pulling into the Denali Princess Lodge at 3:30pm.

The Denali Lodge was busy! Quite the different atmosphere from Copper River. We got our welcome envelopes and headed to the room. We were in building F, not too far from the main lodge. We were on the second floor. The room was dark and hot, no air conditioning. We had a king size bed with three pillows, the bed was hard and the pillows were flat. Again you could skip service for a $5 food voucher. We also only had one towel in the bathroom...odd. We called the number for housekeeping, which was the front desk, to request two additional towels. It rang and rang. We never got a reply. Tried again 10 minutes later, same outcome. So we walked up to the front desk and asked for them to send towels. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Subway across the street. It was over $30 for two sandwiches, chips, and drinks. We later learned in our journey that this is the second highest grossing Subway store (remember it is only open 6 months a year).

That night we had a 6pm pick up for the Nenana Paddle Rafting trips. This trips features class III &IV rapids. We were greeted by Jeremy, our driver on a large white school bus. We had to sign waivers. The trip was a short two minute ride. Jeremy was pretty sarcastic, as were all the guides. Not an issue for us, but could be a turn off for some. We were fitted into dry suits, booties, and helmets. Be sure to wear socks! Some people didn't have any and they needed to purchase socks on the spot. They require socks for sanitation purposes. We brought extra socks for afterwards with us in case we needed to change. There was a safety speech and we had the opportunity to put our shoes, extra socks, and other items into bins that would meet us at the end. We grabbed our paddles and got on the bus. We drove across the street to the launch spot. Our raft consisted of DH, myself, 6 women who were military medics, and our guide, Jody. Our raft all paddled. The other three rafts were oar rafts and the guide did the work while everyone else just rode. This was my favorite thing we did! The water was cold, but refreshing. We hit great rapids, got wet, and learned some about the area, enjoyed the scenery, and took in the beauty of the glacial silt river. One girl in our raft was hitting on the guide to the point of nauseam. He didn't shut her down, and I believe they made plans to meet up at the local bar, the Totem. I felt safe the entire ride and was pretty dry afterwards, some wet areas on my shirt front and the top of my shorts. I consider this a win as I was soaked on the outside from hitting so many waves. DH didn't fare as well. He was very wet along the front. His zipper needs to be better sealed apparently. I had heard you could jump in to the river at one point and was looking forward to doing so. When we got to the calm section our guide said this was the swimming section, but he wouldn't advise it. I stayed in the boat since it didn't seem like we could actually go in the water. I did see others on different rafts dipping their feet in. Afterwards you had the opportunity to purchase pictures. They were very cool, but very pricey- $20 a piece, or $40 for a jump drive that had some mini-videos and the other two or three pictures of your raft. We were dropped back off at the lodge after a quick 15 minute ride. We were on the river for about an hour and a half.

The next morning we had an 8:40am pick up for the Tundra Wilderness Tour. We decided to go with the tour over the shuttle bus. DH wanted to ensure we had seats and wouldn't get left behind, he liked the idea of the narration and video screens. Yes, we know it is the same road, and we could have saved money. But it was a great trip and the right decision for us. We didn't want to risk having a shuttle driver who just drove. Also I want to point out that while we saw shuttle buses stopped for wildlife as we went into the park, once we were heading out of the park every shuttle bus passed us as we were stopped at wildlife and continued driving. This included prime grizzly and moose viewings. The bus was not uncomfortable. Our snack packs had about 8 different snack items in them, a 16 oz bottle of water, and we were given a nice color booklet of wildlife and information about Denali. Our guide, Sarah, has been at it for 16 years and is a trainer for other guides and drivers. She was so knowledgeable. We were the second pickup and a front section of the bus had been roped off, which was nice so we still were able to get good seats. It was a drizzly and overcast day. While we didn't see the mountain, we did see a lot of wildlife. The rain also helped clear the area of wildfire smoke that Sarah said had been in the area for the last two days. We ended up seeing two different sets of mother grizzly and two cubs at a fairly close distance, Dall sheep not too high up on the mountainside, lots of caribou (some far, others right by the road), many small ground critters, and the best was a mother moose with her two babies eating fireweed right next to our bus for about 20 minutes. What an amazing experience! We were hopeful to see the mountain, a bull moose, and a wolf, but you can't have it all!

Denali to McKinley:

Luggage was out by 8am and we had a 10am departure to McKinley. So this was the point in the trip that being on a cruise tour had its downside. We were stuck on a bus with tons of coughing people. DH and I made it without getting sick fortunately. Most of the people on the bus were north of 60, maybe a few couples in their 70s. Our driver, not Haley anymore, started the trip off with a song on her ukulele... no thanks. She told us it was her first season working in Alaska and she did seem very young. So one older man up towards the front took it upon himself to try to help her out (sigh). He informed her of the bins being open (yup, she needed to put her sign away prior to departure), he let her know about the clicking sound he hears coming from her dashboard (yes, those are the flashers on for the upcoming railroad tracks, on and on! Just let her drive! We arrive at the McKinley Princess Lodge at noon. No mountain here either. We had lunch and then went to our room. We were in building 18, not too far of a walk. We cut through building 17 and that avoided an uphill section of our walk. We were on the second floor, again a King with three flat pillows, no ac, but the heat lamp had returned and the room wasn't so dark as at Denali. The doors though! Ugh! Our neighbors felt the need to let their doors just slam shut. It was so loud and would shake the walls. We went to the 4:30pm ranger talk and it turned out to be part of their mountain climber series. We heard a presentation from the Mt. Denali basecamp manager. She had just returned about a week before after spending three months up on a glacier at the base of Denali/Foraker. She had a slideshow with good pics and explained to us her role and task on the mountain. It was very interesting. At this point in our trip we were pretty ready to head home. We had a wonderful time but missed our kids and regular schedule.

McKinley to Anchorage:

We had luggage out by 10am for our 12:30pm departure. We had a fun driver, Zachary, who made the infamous bus safety speech interesting by giving to us in Portuguese at the speed of the micro machine man. He then drove us to Talkeetna, gave some good info and jokes of the region, and blew kisses at each vehicle/person he encountered. We arrived at the train station at 1:30pm and the train rolled in just after 2pm. We were in the car Kobuk and it was all forward facing seats of 2 on each side of an aisle. We had a lot of room! The top of the car was domed and the bottom level had dining. We had a great bartender and guide who kept everyone well fed, informed, and hydrated. We saw several condor nests and a black bear. We missed the moose on the other side of the train, and hope it wasn't our elusive bull moose. We pulled into Anchorage just after 5pm and headed by bus on a very short ride to the Captain Cook Hotel.

Anchorage to Detroit:

We lucked out at the Captain Cook. We had a corner suite in tower 3 that overlooked the water. It was a huge room with a King sized bed, lots of fluffy pillows ;) and a separate living room area. The thought of walking and searching for food was not appealing but watching the recently released premier of Game of Thrones before someone spoiled it was appealing and the Captain Cook had HBO! We ordered in Pizza Hut and they delivered. It did take an hour but it was worth the wait and we had a mini-fridge so we saved the leftovers for our lunch the next day. Remember- were are not foodies. The next morning we watched as the local airbase was running different drills over the water. We had our luggage picked up at 11am and then went down for our 12:15pm airport transfer. It was a great drive due to some of the moose stories our driver told us.

On our airport transfer was Bob. We had been with Bob and his traveling companion for the last two weeks. Bob had won the navigational map signed by all the officers at the art auction on the cruise. He hand carried this thing in a box tube for the next week on our land portion. We noticed Bob going through security a little before us and waved goodbye. Well, as DH and I are getting ready to leave the security area a TSA guy holds up the box tube and says, "Does this belong to anyone?" It's Bob's map! We tell him that we actually do know who it belongs to, but all we know is his first name. We had some time to kill and recall that Bob was flying Alaskan so we checked the monitors to see which terminal Bob was heading to. We then started hunting for Bob. Well a few minutes later we tracked him down and informed him about his map. I am so glad that he didn't lose it on the final day of the trip after carefully carrying it all week. We then headed to our terminal and waited for our 3:30pm flight to Seattle. After that it was an 11:30pm flight to Detroit. We got in at 6am on July 19th. We were very tired.

Final thoughts: We love Alaska. We had a wonderful time and are glad that we set a more relaxing pace of taking in the scenery. I am glad that we went with the cruise tour option, and I know that a week with strangers is pretty much my limit. I am sure I am forgetting a lot of things but I wanted to get as much typed out as I could now. Please let me know if you have any questions! I hope that I can help a future traveler in some way. This website is such a great resource.

Thanks for the review.

Thank you!

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Thanks for sharing your journey. And I hope that Bob thanked you as well! Very nice of you to hunt him down.

He was very grateful, a nice guy!