Dawn Princess, Part 2

[lavdh]

Glacier Bay was spectacular! If you want a front deck view, you need to go up front about two hours prior to arriving at Margerie Glacier. The glacier was especially active that day, although as one poster already stated, the biggest piece calved as we were pulling away.

 

My one real complaint came during College Fjords. We traveled through most of the fjords during dinner time (I had the early seating). In retrospect, I would have skipped dinner and gone outside. As it was, I was probably rude, because I kept leaving dinner to go look at scenery. The baked Alaska almost soothed me.

 

Debarkation in Whittier was relatively easy. Princess stuck within 5 minutes of their schedule so we had no problems.

 

After we disembarked, my husband and I took a transfer to Anchorage to pick up a car. From there, we drove to Talkeetna. On the way, we stopped at the Iditarod Headquarters where we got a five-minute dog cart ride for $10. We also saw a video about the Iditarod.

 

When we got to Talkeetna, we stayed at the Roadhouse, which was a unique experience. At the Roadhouse, we had the best blueberry pie that we've ever eaten! We are still talking about it. The next morning, we took the Summit flight to Mt. McKinley. We were blessed with another clear day. Three ladies on our flight said they'd been waiting three days to get a clear day for the flight. My husband has a fear of heights, but he thanked me for talking him into going (two for one toursaver). He said it was one of the most spectacular things he has ever done.

 

After we left Talkeetna, we drove to Healy, right outside of Denali. We stayed at A Touch of Wilderness B & B. I highly recommend this place! It was a beautiful bed and breakfast with a fantastic view. My husband and I loved it. That evening we went to the Denali visitor's center. We saw three moose on the way which really pumped me up for our tour the following day. Unfortunately, though, our tour of Denali was just so-so. We saw the big five, but it most of them were so far away that we couldn't get a picture even with a zoom lens. Even the bus driver, who provided us with a lot of interesting information, said it was a slow day. We did see a wolf chasing a moose, though, which was pretty cool.

 

After Denali, we were supposed to go to Anchorage and stay for two days, but after reading about the Kenai Fjords boat ride on cruise critic, I just had to do it. So, yes, we drove from Denali to Seward in one day. It only took us about 7 hours, but it was in the middle of the week and there wasn't much traffic. We stayed at The Sea Treasures Inn, which was clean and okay. Don't stay downstairs, because the walls are thin and you can hear the people walking above you. The following morning, we took the Kenai Fjords tour (two for one toursaver), which we both enjoyed. We got right up close to Northwestern glacier and saw it calve. It was very active in the time we were there. We also saw harbor seals, sea lions, whales, puffins, several species of birds, and otters.

We ate at Rays that evening, which was very good.

 

The following morning, we went to the Sea Life Center (two for one toursaver), which we weren't too interested in. There weren't a lot of sea creatures, but if you are interested in the research it is a good place to go. Then we drove up to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center,outside of Anchorage, which we enjoyed ( once again two for one toursaver). No, it is not the same as seeing the animals in the wild, but since they rehabilitate the animals, it is a nice place to see the animals up close.

After that, we stopped at Beluga Point and then walked through Anchorage before catching our flight home.

 

Overall, it was a great trip!!

[jaspertl]

Great trip report.!! glad you had such a good time! It sounds like you and I did a lot of the same things.

 

I thought one of the hardest things to plan was how long it would take to get from point A to point B!