Alaska Cruise & DIY Land - Trains, Planes, Automobiles, Cruise Ship & a Monorail!

I started planning our Alaska adventure for DH and me about 1.5 years in advance booking a cruise on the Norwegian Jewel…actually the original ship was the Sun but Norwegian changed that. Thankfully there was no change to the itinerary so no problem, the Jewel was just fine! I had Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier plus a DIY land tour on my list of musts and Norwegian had the perfect itinerary. Our sail date was 7/23/18. I also wanted to visit Seattle and take a train ride. So, the planning began.

The helpful advice of Cruise Critic members was invaluable (thank you all!) as well as some suggestions from friends that had visited Alaska recently.

Our rollcall was very quiet and sadly the meet and greet didn’t happen. I can’t complain, however, because I didn’tstep up and offer to coordinate it.

As I mentioned, I made the cruise reservation 1.5 years in advance. I started planning excursions, hotels and the land portion about 7 months in advance. Someone on Cruise Critic advised that I should get moving on reserving these things so I quickly got it in gear. This was great advice. Many things can be changed with no penalty and things book up quickly so I appreciated this tip. I didn’t book any excursions through Norwegian and saved. I’m sure I would not have been brave enough to go direct without the advice and tips of Cruise Critic members so thanks to all!

We are in our mid-50’s. This was our 5th cruise and our first time to Alaska. We’ve had a balcony for every cruise except our first. I was a little sea sick the first cruise but never since so it must be the balcony staterooms! Seriously, I don’t think we would ever cruise again without a balcony. It was just awesome for this cruise. We were on the starboard (right side) mid-ship. Loved it!

We were offered the ability to bid on an upgrade and I bid on a mini-suite (only) and didn’t win. The minimum bid was $50 each and I bid $145 each. I was not disappointed. Our balcony stateroom was fine.

As I mentioned, we were on the starboard (right side) mid-ship. Someone on the boards mentioned that the port side was good for glacier viewing in Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier. I don’t disagree, those on the port side some times do get the first and maybe longer (?) view of some glaciers but the captain does spin the ship so all balcony cabins get a view. We loved our balcony stateroom but on occasion, if we wanted a different or longer view, we would go to different parts of the ship. So much fun!

We booked through a TA that offered OBC and also received the choice of some amenities from Norwegian and chose the beverage plan and the 3 meal specialty dining plan. We didn’t really need the OBC due to booking excursions independently but used it to take advantage of the social networking internet plan ($14.99 per day) which allowed us to keep in touch with family, ordered room service (once …$7.95 svc fee…yea, we are wild and crazy!) and buy 4 cruise next certificates. We also took advantage of the $19.95 laundry special. As I recall, we fit 32 items into that laundry bag!:p:p:p

I'll finish this up quickly since the 2018 Alaska cruising season is quickly coming to a close.

Thanks for doing a trip report! I enjoy reading them.

I agree that in Alaska there's really no "best" side of ship, although we were on Oceania, not Norwegian. Most ship captains will turn the ship around in the glaciers (or at least ours did in Hubbard) and stay on each side for a while. But a lot of us went outside for the show. (I didn't have a balcony cabin, so there was no choice for me!) It rained for a while but then it cleared up and my pictures improved.

Saturday7/21/2018 – We arrived in Seattle at 9:35 am and basically hit the groundrunning. We called the hotel shuttle forour stay at Hampton Inn & Suites Seattle-Airport/28thAve, SeaTac. Quick note ofcaution – watch the address on the shuttle. There must be a couple Hamptons near the airport. We noticed that there were some people thatwere on our same shuttle that found that they were at the wrong hotel. Not us this time! We grabbed the right one! J Awesomefriendly staff at the Hampton including the shuttle driver! We were quickly picked up, dropped ourluggage to be stored at the Hampton (too early to check in) and jumped on the shuttleagain to get dropped at the Light Rail Angle Lake station to head to citycenter. We got off at the Westlakestation only to find a really long line to buy tickets and get on the monorailto make the rest of the trip to city center. We a plan B but the line moved fairly quickly and we were soon on ourway.

I hadpurchased the CityPass in advance through Expedia (a little cheaper thanothers) and with it, we went to the Space Needle, Museum of PopCulture, Chihuly GlassMuseum, Argosy Harbor Cruise & the Seattle Aquarium. There were other choices as well. Those were the ones we chose. The Space Needle, Museum of Pop Culture and Chihuly Glass Museum are all in the sameproximity so we did them all fairly quickly but not rushed. We hopped back on the monorail to theWestlake Station then we headed toward the harbor on foot and checked out the PikeStreet Market on the way and then went to the Seattle Aquarium and then went onthe Argosy Harbor cruise. The cruise wasvery nice and we had a beautiful view of Mount Rainier…awesome! At this point it was getting late and we’dbeen up since 3 am central time. Wefound an easier route up from the harbor…quite the incline no matter the routebut doable! We found our way back toWestlake Station. Keeping in mind wedidn’t see any places for dinner near the Hampton, we started looking for foodnear Westlake Station. I rememberedShadowmeboy’s (thanks!) review thatmentioned the Nordstrom Grill. Is thatin the Westlake Station area? Yes! It’s right there. We found it after a few minutes of searchingand had a very nice dinner before catching the light rail back to theHampton. We had a great and full firstday.

Sunday 7/22/2018– Our must do plan for the day was to take the train from Seattle King StStation at 7 pm and arrive in Vancouver at 11 pm. We slept in a bit and had a leisurely okbreakfast at the Hampton. We took theHampton free shuttle again to Angle Lake Station along with our bags. We each had a large roller bag and a backpack. We had repacked our back packs tomake them as light as possible keeping only necessities. There’s a place on the light rail for luggageand if you are lucky, which we were, you can sit right next to it. You load ityourself. Lucky we got on at Angle LakeStation because the train filled up right after that. It was game day at the stadium and lots offans were headed that way. We got offthe light rail at the International District/China Town which is the stationafter the Stadium Station. We found alocal person right away that was able to provide us “up and over” directions toSeattle King St Station. We headed thereto check our luggage until departure at 7 pm. This trek was doable with the bags that we had. If you had much more luggage or mobilityissues, you would probably want to cab or Uber if staying at an airporthotel. Our plan was to arrive an hourearly back at the station to get in line to get our seats assigned. We wanted to be seated on the left side(water side) so we could see the sunset etc on the way to Vancouver. Per the advice of various Cruise Criticmembers of course.…thanks! Afterchecking our bags, we walked toward Pioneer Square and then on down to the pierand had lunch at Ivar’s Acres of Clams. Yum! We did some moresight-seeing along the pier and shopping and then eventually headed back toKing Street Station. We had plenty oftime this day and could have saved one of the many things we did on Saturdaysuch as the Harbor Cruise or the aquarium. I’m sure we could have found other things to do or could have headedback to the Pike Street Market but when not in familiar territory, I tend tolike to arrive early.

We were ableto get our left side train seats. Thetrain ride was nice with some great scenery and sunset. We had supper on the train which was fine. I was able to get Ivar’s chowder so I washappy! The train was on time. I wished some of the sights along the way hadbeen pointed out. We went by some prettybeaches and cities but I have no idea their names.

We had areservation at Ramada Limited Vancouver Downtown. I chose the Ramada because itwas close to Canada Place and because I was using points. We took a cab from the train station toRamada. I think the cab fare was lessthan $10. It was a quick ride. The Ramada was fine although it might havebeen on the very edge of a questionable part of town. No insult meant to Vancouver residents…weweren’t there long and that was just my quick observation. The room was small but clean and the peopleat the desk at night and in the morning were nice and helpful.

Breakfast was fine but not memorable. After talking to the person at the desk inthe morning we decided to walk to Canada Place. Our initial thought was to drop our luggage and then sight see abit. However, Canada Place is nothinglike the Port of Miami where you drop your luggage outside and can takeoff. We found ourselves pretty deepinside Canada Place before we could drop our luggage. Given this and the fact that we should beable to board within the hour, we didn’t do the hike back out to go sightsee. Next time we’ll plan to see more ofVancouver! This is another walk where ifyou have more than a large roller bag and backpack or mobility issues, you willprobably want to take a cab. It was finefor us although it took about 20 minutes before we reached the luggage porter.There were quite a few making the walk to the port.

We were onthe ship by 11:30 I believe and had lunch at O’Sheehans. It was fine but not memorable. They were open but not excited to seatus. They suggested we might want to goto the buffet instead! No, we didn’twant to go to the buffet! We only ate atthe buffet one time and that was for a quick snack.

We were todepart Vancouver at 4 pm and I believe we departed pretty close to on time. We went to the Welcome Aboard Show and it wasgood. The remainder of the day we spentexploring the ship and unpacking and just enjoying the sights and the beverageplan!

Tuesday wasa sea day and it was very foggy much of the day as I recall. We ate at Cagney’s for dinner and it was verygood. We went to the show in theStardust Theatre called Band on the Run. It was good.

Enjoying your review. I've always wanted to go to Pikes Market, so I hope to go there on my Alaska trip. Not sure I want to lug luggage very far like you did, but I'll remember that it is doable., Thanks for taking the time.

Wednesday –Ketchikan – In port 7 am to 4 pm – We made an independent reservation for theBering Sea Crab Tour that started at 11 am and lasted about 3 hours. We took our time getting around this day, didsome shopping in Ketchikan and then made our way down the pier to the AleutianBallad. This was an easy walk from wherethe Jewel was docked. It was a 5-10minute walk. There was a crew membernear the gangway of the Jewel giving directions. The Bering Sea Crab Tour was lots offun. The crew had great stories toshare, we saw lots of sea life and bald eagles. We attempted to eat at the Fish House after the tour. We really should have had time but the personat the counter was making mistake after mistake on orders and people keptcoming back to complain so we gave up and went back to the ship and had a snacknear the pool. Later in the evening wewent to the dining room for dinner and then to the show at the Stardust, Duo Elegia,and it was very good.

Thursday –Juneau – In port 11 am to 9 pm – We had an independent reservation with Harv& Marv’s Whale Watch from 12-3pm. This is no longer owned by Harv & Marv, by the way. As we walked away from the ship there were people with signs for the various tours and it was easy to find ours. We were taken by large van to the location of Harv & Marv’s tours. There were 6 of us and the captain on our boat. We were able to see several whales and sea lions while on the tour as well as some mountain glaciers. It was a fun tour. On the way back we stopped at the Brotherhood Bridge photo view point for 15 minutes to view Mendenhall Glacier from a distance. The Fireweed was in full bloom and it made a beautiful photo op. We had the driver drop us in town versus back at the port. We had a late lunch in town. After that we attempted to catch one of the buses to Mendenhall Glacier since we still had plenty of time in port. However, we soon learned that their last trip is around 5 pm. What??? There are still hours of daylight! We considered a cab at that point but instead decided to take the Mount Robert’s Tram up the mountain. The view from the top was awesome and we also saw the bald eagle, an Alaska film which was very interesting and did a little shopping in the gift shop. There are free buses that shuttle you back from town to the pier. It looks like a close walk but it’s not a straight shot from town to the pier so I recommend taking the bus. The buses park in the lot right near the Robert’s Tram building. I was sad not to get closer to the Mendenhall Glacier but was consoled by the fact that we had many other glaciers on our itinerary. And, now we have a reason to go back! The show in the Stardust on this night was the Comedy of Julie Barr. She was funny. We enjoyed the 7:30 pm show.

Friday – Skagway Alaska – 8 am to 8 pm– For this port we had independently booked the Chilkoot Yukon Rail& Bus Excursion at 8:30 am for the 7.5 hour tour. All of the tour operators were waiting at the end of the pier and were easy to locate. Our bus (small bus/van) driver (Brian?) did an ice job. I think we saw about fivebears on the ride up and he stopped for all of them. He also played photographer at the welcome signs (Alaska & Yukon) and told some pretty good stories on the way. Lunch was included and was fine. Emerald Lake was beautiful! The views from the train ride back were awesome as well. Upon our return we walked back through town and ate at the Skagway Brewing Company. It was very good. After that we did a little shopping and headed back to the ship. The show in the Stardust on this night was a comedy and magic show. It was so slow….people were walking out….I hated to do it but we walked out as well. It just didn’t hold our interest.

Interesting to note that all of the bathrooms we encountered in Alaska generally had a clean fresh smell whether they had flushing toilets or otherwise. However, on the excursion out of Skagway we encountered one that wasn’t so nice at a roadside stop. I know this is odd information to share but I really was pleasantly surprised by the bathrooms in Alaska!

Saturday– Cruise Glacier Bay – We woke up to fog….lots of fog! Oh no! But, lo and behold, it cleared and we had a wonderful day of glacier viewing. We also saw a bear on the“beach” and we were moving slow enough and close enough that we heard it growl as it disappeared into the water. We probably never would have seen this had we not had a balcony. The glaciers were amazing. We ordered several things from room service on this day so that we could stay in our cabin, for the most part, and enjoy the beautiful views. I can’t say enough about it. It was wonderful! Beauty everywhere you turned! On this night we ate in Moderno. It was ok but not my favorite. The salad bar was good. I’m more of a seafood person. The show on this night was Le Cirque Bijou and it was very good.

Sunday– Hubbard Glacier – We were so lucky to once again, get a day of decent weather to view Hubbard Glacier. It is huge and beautiful. It’s amazing how close the ship was able to get. We took every opportunity to view it from our balcony, to the decks both sides and aft. On this night we ate at Teppanyaki and it was good. The show in the Stardust on this night was Jewels in Concert. I think we watched for a while and then went back to our cabin to begin packing.

I’ll mention here that we ate at Chin Chin (complimentary) a couple times during the week and it was very good. The dining room generally had some decent selections and I love the chocolate lava cake. I am not a cake lover but the chocolate lava cake is awesome!

We played Deal or No Deal once or twice. It was entertaining and fun to watch the person that got chosen to play live.

Monday– Seward – 5 am – We decided to keep our bags and just walk off with them when we were ready. I think the schedule would have had us walking off really early but we didn’t need to meet our shuttle pick up until 8:30 am so we took our time. I was a little nervous not getting off when they called our group but it was a non-issue. No problem at all. We had a leisurely breakfast in the dining room and then went back to our cabin, grabbed our bags and walked off. Very easy. We were still plenty early and could have relaxed a bit before getting off. We found a bench in the luggage terminal and sat and people watched for a bit. Our Major Marine Kenai Fjords Nat’l Park Cruise included cruise ship shuttle pick up to the Seward Boat Harbor. The Kenai Fjords Nat’l Park Cruise was 7.5 hours. We paid for the optional lunch with the cruise and it was wonderful. It included prime rib, salmon, potatoes, salad and dessert. They had a bar with adult beverages as well as coffee and soda. It really was very good. Not your normal tour type food. Yum! On the cruise we saw beautiful glaciers, both tidal and mountain,whales, sea lions, seals, otters, puffins and other birds. We spent a lot of time at a tidal glacier that was calving. What an awesome sight! This was a wonderful excursion. I didn’t realize it before we boarded, but we had an assigned table….everyone did. So,there was no need to hurry and get in line early. The table was just your home base where you could eat and leave your belongings. However, it was fine to be out and about on the decks for viewing at anytime. Binoculars were provided. I highly recommend this cruise. We booked our train from Seward to Anchorage through Major Marine and they took care of getting our luggage to the train which was nice. Once we returned from the cruise, the shuttle was waiting to take us to the train and all we had to do was check in and hop on for the 5:30 pm departure.

The train ride had beautiful views at every turn. The seats were comfortable with a foot rest and plenty of leg room. You could get up and move about at any time as well as move to a dome care for viewing if you like. You could actually go to a dining car and sit and dine but we just went to bistro and grabbed some food to eat at our seats. The train was on time and we arrived in Anchorage at about 10:30 pm I believe. There were plenty of cabs waiting when we arrived and we grabbed one and headed to the Ramada. The Ramada has a free shuttle but I didn’t know how quick they would be at that time of night so we opted for the quick cab ride. Again we were using points fort his overnight stay as well. The people were very nice at the Ramada and it was clean for the most part but we decided we did not want to stay there again. The window type air conditioner was actually draining right onto the floor in the room. It was kind of strange. Since it was late and we’d been on the go all day, we ordered pizza delivery and then headed to bed. The bed and bathroom were clean.

Tuesday 7/31/2018 – We took the Ramada free shuttle to pick up our Avis rental car at the Anchorage Airport at 9 am and then headed north toward Denali. We stopped at both the north and south Denali view points and think we saw parts of Denali but it was not in full view although the views were gorgeous!

I purchased the Milepost in March prior to our trip and did some reading prior to our trip. It was fun to have and know mile by mile what we were passing or places we could stop.

We stopped in Wasilla at Target to get some water and snacks for our drive and for our time in Denali National Park the following day.

We checked in at the Denali Wilderness Access Center and got our tour passes for Wednesday. The Denali Wilderness Access Center is open 7am to 7pm (ticket desk). We had some free time and were right on time to take the shuttle to the free sled dog demonstration and dog viewing in the park so took advantage of that.

We had dinner that night at the 49th State Brewing Company nearby. It was very open and loud but the atmosphere was fun and the food was good.

We had a reservation for Tuesday night at the Denali Lakeview Inn. We stayed in the Alaska Room. The view was beautiful and the suite was very nice with a full kitchen, dining area, private bathroom etc. They had complimentary kayaks and life jackets to use on the lake/pond behind the Inn. Continental breakfast was included and was in the frig when we arrived. Between our snacks we purchased in Wasilla and everything included in the continental breakfast, we had enough food to get us through our day in Denali. We had previously planned to grab sandwiches at Subway outside of Denali. We weren’t sure it would be open at 6:30 am but it appeared to be for those of you considering that.

Wednesday 8/1/2018 – Tour Denali on Eielson Transit Bus 7 am to 4 pm. We chose the transit bus (green bus) option. Our driver was knowledgeable and shared lots of information. Unfortunately it was rainy and foggy this day so we did not see Denali at all however, we did see hundreds of caribou, bears, moose and eagles amongst lots of nice scenery.

After our day in Denali National Park, we drove to Talkeetna, approximately 143 miles. We stopped at both the North and South Denali viewing points just in case the fog might part and give us a view of Denali but no such luck! We stayed at the Talkeetna Denali View Lodge and Cabins. We were scheduled to stay in the Yukon Room but there was a wedding party staying in the house so they moved us to the Trapper’s cabin. It was nice and comfortable. We enjoyed the hot tub and the beautiful view although we were unable to see Denali. It was a very nice stay and the people were very nice.

Thursday 8/2/2018 – We were scheduled for a flightseeing tour with Talkeetna Air Taxi Mountain Voyager with a glacier landing at 11:30 am. But, alas, the fog still had not lifted and the weather was not good. We stopped into talk with the Talkeetna Air Tax people and they confirmed what we expected. They had to cancel our flight. They promptly issued us a refund of our deposit and we were on our way. We spent about an hour in Talkeetna shopping in the gift shops and then headed toward Anchorage.

I was doing some research as we drove and found that we weren’t that far from Matanuska Glacier so we decided to check it out. The Matanuska Glacier is a large ice flow, 27 miles long and 4 miles wide at the terminus,averaging approximately 2 miles in width. This glacier is a valley glacier; it exists on a valley floor. We chose to do the $30 per person self-guided option. We really enjoyed it. If you have the time, I highly recommend it. Here’s a link to what I think is the official website. Once you get there, the road signs are very confusing. The website addresses this.

http://matanuskaglacieradventures.us/directions-to-matanuska-glacier/

After our glacier adventure we headed to Anchorage where we had a reservation, again using points, at the Microtel near the airport. We ate supper at Gwennie’s which I’ve seen recommended on Cruise Critic. The food was good and the portions were generous.

The missed flightseeing tour and not having seen Denali was nagging at me (both of us actually). We had already had a wonderful trip with great mountain and glacier views but I wasn’t ready to give up. Once back at the hotel, I started looking for flightseeing out of Anchorage. We didn’t have the option of driving back to Talkeetna since we had to fly out of Anchorage the following evening. Oh, it was probably do-able, but I didn’t want to take the chance of driving that far away. So, I bookmarked several flightseeing options out of Anchorage with the plan to begin calling first thing in the morning.

Friday 8/3/3018 – I started calling flightseeing companies first thing in the morning and struck out with several. Then I reached one that had no availability but offered another company name as an option so I gave that number a try. They needed at least 3 to make it worth their while to fly so we gave them our name and number in hopes that someone else might call them. While waiting we visited Earthquake Park in Anchorage. Oh my that must have been a scary day when that earthquake hit so many years ago! So much life and property lost! We were still anxiously waiting to hear from Ellison Air which was close by so we stopped in to see if they had any other takers. They hadn’t so we decided to sit nearby and watch the seaplanes take off…..still close by…we were not ready to give up! A short time later we got the call. They had three other passengers ready to fly around 11 am. Funny thing….these three were headed to Amsterdam. However, one of them had a passport issue so they ended up searching for other available flights for a vacation and ended up in Alaska. Lucky us! The flightseeing was the highlight of our trip. The weather had cleared and we were able to see Denali (not close up), mountains and glaciers and white Beluga Whales. We saw moose and when we landed for a bit to look around we saw a bear. It really wasa n awesome experience to add to the already wonderful time we had throughout our two week adventure.

We still had some time before we needed to have our rental car back so we headed down the Seward Highway. We checked out Portage Glacier and then the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. The Conservation Center is dedicated to preserving Alaska’s wildlife through conservation, education, research and quality animal care. Admission was $15 per person. It was interesting and I felt it was worth the $15 per person.

We needed to return our Avis rental car at the airport by 6 pm. Our flight out was at 7:44 pm. The flight home was uneventful but looooong! We were very happy to get home and see our family and tell them about our wonderful trip. To anyone that has taken the time to read this, have a wonderful trip. Alaska is beautiful!

Sorry about the font. I can't seem to fix it.

Thanks for the review! We are doing Jewel next summer!

We really enjoyed the Jewel. Have a great trip!

Thanks for the review 1stTIMECRUZER (I guess that is an old screen name). We are on the Jewel Southbound next summer. Thanks for mentioning all the shows, I've been scouring reviews, looking for mention of the Jewel's entertainment. Most Alaska reviews are all about the ports. My daughter and I love going to the onboard shows and I was hoping that the Jewel entertainment is as great as NCL's other ships. I know that Jewel is in dry-dock right now but no word on if any of the shows are changing.

Amazing read!