July 4, 2014 Radiance Southbound/DIY Land Tour Review

[mollanjake]

Crow Creek Mine

 

We paid for 2 sets of gold panning, but they still charged us full price from my DH to walk around. $50 " a rip off" according to my DH. They give you a small bag of seeded dirt, pans and then demonstrate how to pan. There are a few barrels of water, my DD and I were able to pan out a few flakes each. we then walked thru the "town" up a hill to the creek. On the path we saw what we believe to be bear poo.... The area was pretty, but there were quite a few people there. We had some fun digging and panning, but no gold, maybe with time and patience.

 

Not sure I can recommend this stop, but if you want to pan for gold and won't have the opportunity else where, go for it.

 

back on the road we make the turn for Girdwood and the Hotel Aleyska.

[mollanjake]

In my notes I had a bakery to stop at for lunch, but didn't have a good address and by my best guess we needed to make a right instead of a left so we parked at the Hotel Alyeska and headed in. We asked the door guy for a place to eat and he sent to us a sit down restaurant of the 3rd floor. We ordered salads and a pizza. They were good, but took a bit longer than I would have liked.

 

Turns out there were 2 deli type places one on the 2nd floor and one at the top of the tram....

 

After eating lunch went to the tram, bought tickets using a coupon from Northern lights(saved about $25). the tram was a nice quick ride to the top. Once at the top there was a steep path heading up to a peak, we walked a bit but frankly heights bother me and I was scared.

 

We took pictures in all directions. DD spotted a patch of snow we could get to, by going down a bit instead of up, so we went! of course there's a Gift shop. We bought a moose poop ornament! Then down we went, on our way again.

 

The Hotel Alyeska Tram was a nice stop, we all enjoyed the tram and the bit of walking we did at the top. The resort looked very nice and I wished we had stayed there at least one night!

 

Next stop Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. You pay at a toll booth of sorts. we used a Northern Lights Coupon. There is a wildlife loop, I guess you could park at the beginning and walk the whole loop, but we drove around parking and getting out of the car and walking back and forth. I think all of the animals there are rescues. many have signs telling stories as to how they got there, who found them etc. The only animal we missed: the porcupine. The brown bears were neat as that had been fed recently. One was napping, but the other one was still chewing on a blood bone. There were sea gulls scavenging around picking up scrapes.

 

 

we actually got closer to the baby moose that we should have. The gate had double doors, but for some reason the outer door was open. A woman was in there taking pictures, so DD and I went in as well. When we came back by, we stopped as there were some employees with the moose. When I mentioned that we had been in there she looked surprised and whispered to the other girl. When they were packing up they locked the outer door. I said to her, we shouldn't have been in there, should we...she smiled at me. I apologized.

 

 

We enjoyed the WildLife Conservation Center and highly recommend stopping here!

 

Must have been about 6pm by the time we were done there. At this point we decided to forgo any further stops and head down to Seward. We were still closer to Anchorage!

 

Things that we missed: Byron Glacier Trail- was on my to-do list. Things that I had on my if we have time list: Winner Creek Trail, Portage Glacier, Begich Boggs visitor center and Summitt Lake

 

If we had spent the night at Alyeska we could have done something the next day, but both of the next days we have 8-9 am excursions...

 

There's just so much to see and do!

[mollanjake]

Great photo of your daughter feeding the reindeer !

Bet she has some wonderful stories to share with her friends. What a great family adventure! Thx for sharing.

 

Thanks! DH and I say that this will make a great Christmas Card picture!

 

I really got a tremendous amount of help on this board while planning, so I feel writing my review is the least I can do. I hope it helps somebody!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Loved the details in your review.

And your pictures are great -- thanks for sharing.

[mollanjake]

Loved the details in your review.

And your pictures are great -- thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks so much! Nice to know someone is out there and reading.

[mollanjake]

We arrive safely in Seward no animal sitings:mad:

 

We stayed at Millane's Serentity by the Sea Cabins. They are located on Lowell Point outside of Seward proper. I chose to stay there b/c I thought it would be nice to have a little more space and b/c my DD loved staying in a cabin last summer in SD. It definitely had a rustic feel. My DD loved it especially the loft are where she slept. The cabin was quite small, so I'm not sure we had the extra space I was looking for.

 

 

This is what I was looking, but only small pieces of the area look like this. The small patch of land the cabins were on looked like this picture, but it was strategically taken so the trailers and tents on the surrounding properties aren't seen. The area had more of a campground feel and felt like some of the residents were full-time.

They do not offer daily making up either. No clean dry towels every day. The first morning we ran into one of the owners and she was happy to give me extra bath towels, but only gave me 2 towels when she could see there were 3 of us.

 

 

I'm not trying to give the place a bad review just want people to know how I felt. I'm more Ritz Carlton and less Campground. I told my DD that was the last time we were staying Rustic!

 

Also would be nice to be right in towel as opposed to 10 mins outside of town. we were able to walk to the "beach" on Lowell Point one evening. As we were walking back the cabin we heard screaming and looked up to see an eagle soar past us.

[July4]

Great review and pictures. We are doing cruise tour with Royal end of August.

so I am doing some cutting and pasting to my notes. Thanks again for the great info. Waiting to read the rest

[mollanjake]

Thanks!

[mollanjake]

After getting 2 suitcases and other assorted bags into the cabin we headed in Seward to have dinner.

 

We went to Seward Brewing Company as it was on my list and it was located on our side of the town. Everything we ordered was good, but I can't remember what anyone ordered. Just remembered something weird. My DD ordered a Kale Caesar salad, we said for it to come with our entrees. It came out early, but a 2nd one came out with our entrees. We told the person delivering the food we already had one, but she left it anyway. our server came by a short time later, we explained about the 2nd salad and he asked if we touched it, we said no....we THINK he gave it to another table.....I sure hope we were wrong! DH the beer drinker said he liked the beer, but didn't love it.

 

A note about Seward: the town seems to have 2 commercial sections. The first section is where the boat harbor is the second further down is where the Sea Life Center is. I think the total length is about a mile or so. There is a free shuttle to take those without cars back and forth. I think there are lodgings in both areas. the middle area seemed to be more residential.

 

 

This was taken at about 10pm after dinner about a block from Seward Brewing Company. Mainly took it as I had gotten a FB question about the Northern Lights.

 

We headed back to the cabin, showered and went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day!

Edited July 17, 2014 by mollanjake

[mollanjake]

Glacier dog sledding was the one thing I REALLY wanted to do on this trip, but it so expensive! Originally my DH said no he felt it was just a bit over the top. Took some time, but he eventually came around, must have been our DD's begging!

 

Things I learned about Glacier Dog Sled on the Alaska forum: it is the MOST Cancelled excursion on the Inside Passage. I guess b/c helicopters are used to get onto the glacier, and because weather can be very different in towns then they are on the glacier. Who wants to get some cruise passengers stranded on a glacier! I also learned that the trips out of Girdwood and Seward are cancelled less often that the Juneau and Skagway ones.

 

There are 2 companies that do dogsledding out of Seward. One company, who seems to have been around longer isn't on trip advisor but got good reviews on this forum. This was the last excursion I booked and I booked in February. Honestly I had trouble getting in tough with both of them. I did finally get a call back from Turning Heads Kennel/Seward Helicopter, so I booked. I even asked about the possibility of a Groupon. No Groupon at that time and she was not sure if one would be offered, but if they did, I could call back and get that pricing.

 

They did ultimately offer a Groupon, in mid March(while I was out-of-town), but my dates were excluded anyway. So if you really want to do it...keep your eyes open!

 

We had a 9am tour booked(I figured we'd be up anyway) Seward Helicopters is located in the first building, but was not well marked. Eventually we saw a sign on their truck parked out front. it was a bit confusing as the building/helicopter had another name on it. We arrived early at about 8:40am and unfortunately they ended up running about 30 minutes late. They gave all 3 of us boots. The girl in the office gave us a safety spiel--I stressed to my 9yo DD that she HAD to LISTEN to these people like she listens at school not like she listens to me.

 

When they take you from the office to the helicopter the helicopter is running! We were allowed to choose our seats, so my DD chose the front! The sky was clear and blue like I have never seen! When we got up to the glacier the musher were in long sleeves pulled up with no jackets and said it was the best day of the year!

 

The helicopter/pilot stayed on the glacier with us.

 

Words can not express how beautiful it was up there! Pictures just can't do it justice!

 

Dogs on a warm-up, as we were flying in.

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I took this one when I was sitting in the basket. They let us rotate thru the positions. I never rode all the way in the back.

 

 

 

Not sure if this was taken before or after our ride.

 

 

 

 

I wished we had sledded longer, but the dogs are carrying about 4 times the weight they would during a race! The musher described it as strength training. Unfortunately, their were no puppies on the glacier, but the guys said we could also visit the kennel. We spent some time petting the dogs and asking questions. My DD made great friends with 2 10month old dogs who like pulling off her gloves!

 

I will try to post a video of my DD on the back of the sled.

Edited July 17, 2014 by mollanjake

[mapleleaves]

love the photo of the dogs and the sled as your helicopter is approaching. It really captures how vast the glaciers are.

What an amazing experience that must have been!

[JosieRhodes]

First time I have personally known the reviewer:)

 

Great job with review

 

I am still trying to re-adjust time zone wise

[mollanjake]

First time I have personally known the reviewer:)

 

Great job with review

 

I am still trying to re-adjust time zone wise

 

The week has been a bit rough. I feel very disorganized!

 

The review is taking a lot longer than I thought, maybe I should be so long winded!

[mollanjake]

DD and her dog friends!

 

 

 

 

Since there was 3 of us, they had a second sled attached in the back. One of us sat in the basket, one stood behind the musher and the 3rd person on the second sled.

 

As yu can see the weather was beautiful and quite warm. We all were wearing thermal, but honestly we didn't need them.

Edited July 17, 2014 by mollanjake

[mollanjake]

After our dog sled adventure, we were hungry so we had an early lunch at the SeaBean. we each had a Panini, DD's had mac & cheese on it! We also had coffee drinks and smoothies everything was good! The Sea Bean also has free internet.

 

We returned on 7/4 for breakfast!

 

We visited a few shops before returning to the cabin to change our clothes. Without a doubt we needed to take off the thermals it was warm! several people at the Sea Bean were wearing shorts.

 

 

Next we would head out to Exit Glacier, I pushed to do this as we had missed Byron Glacier. Exit Glacier was easy to find and had standard National Park bathrooms. There is a small visitor center with info on glaciers. My DD, likes to read all the signs(gets that from her dad). Remember this b/c it will come at at Mendenhall.

 

 

 

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At one point of the trail you go up over a hill and it gets super windy!.

 

We took a different route down and went down onto the creek bed which is glacier silt. we had a great time! We crossed a few creeks, testing our water proof shoes. Both DH and I stepped in water that came over the top of our shoes! Once we were in the creek bed area, we walked away from the glacier. If we had walked toward the glacier, we MAY have been able to get to the toe, but Im not really sure. We did see some rangers in the toe area, but even they weren't at the glacier. The water is glacier run off so its cold and has pieces of ice, some small enough to pick up.

 

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Not an awesome picture, but you can see our ice bergs!

 

No animal siting, but we did see moose poop. There was a sign about animal safety. There are bear and moose in the area

[mollanjake]

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We had a GREAT time at Exit Glacier.

 

next stop: Cooper landing for a float on the Kenai River, and an unexpected visit to prospector John's.

Edited July 17, 2014 by mollanjake

[mollanjake]

We headed out of Seward for Cooper Landing and Alaska River Adventures for a 3 hour float of the upper Kenai River.

 

We made a quick stop In Moose Pass, the first place we tried was closed, but the owner had coffee and some sort of nuts out. We went a bit further and found a convince store ice cream shop. We picked-up a few cold drinks and a bag chips. It was interested to look at the cost of stuff. Stuff wasn't as expensive as I would have expected, but pricey. There were items that had been purchased in bulk from Costco, that they broke down and were being sold as individuals.

 

We arrived at Alaska River Adventures about an hour early, DH wanted to nap in the car, but that seemed just weird to me. In the same area was a small building: Prospector John's. I had it on my list as in the area, but didn't know they were together. We checked in for a float trip, with George the owner, he said the trip that was currently out would likely not return early so it would be a while.

 

We decided to check out Prospector John's. The shop is small and has the typical stuff, rocks, fossils, jewelry. The panning was $29 for a bucket of dirt. Yes, I thought it was pricey, but we were there and had nothing else to do. You dig from a pile into a good sized bucket. it was not a small household bucket!

 

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Prospector John himself was there and explained to us how to use the sluice Box and as luck would have it we got a flake of gold in our first shovelful! it took us a while, but we got thru our entire bucket and found a lot more gold that we had during our first panning experience. We must have been really lucky and got a good bucket of dirt, b/c it sure seemed like we were saying "there's some" a lot more then the boys around us. (After we started a troop of boy scouts arrived.)

 

John's helper, helped my DD to clean all the gold we had already found and pan the dirt that had been caught in the sluice box. This part took some time and DH and I got antsy as it looked like our raft guide was ready for us. John's helper said they all worked for the same people, so not to worry. prospector John stepped in to help as well. John told his helper to make sure everyone got a garnet with their gold!

 

 

When we were talking on the raft trip i said the dirt was seeded. Our guide, a college kid in Alaska for the summer, said he thought Prospector John was the "real deal" and wasn't sure the dirt was seeded.

[mollanjake]

Once we realized the raft people were ready for us, I got a little crazy trying to combine our backpacks, so we didn't have 3 of them. While our guide was getting us boots, rain gear and life jackets, I decided we shouldn't take have backpack.....

 

Problem with this...I didn't realize until we were in the raft that I didn't have the telephoto lens of the camera!

 

We walked a very short distance to the river. The guide gave us a safety briefing, Mostly what to do if we stopped and encountered a bear or moose. After a little while we were on our way. The poor guide had to row against the current for a short time.

 

As I mentioned in my last post, our guide was a young college kid in Alaska for the summer. Despite that he seemed knowledgeable about the area and identifying the many birds we saw and clearly he loved his job!

 

Bald Eagle Nest

 

It was a nice peaceful float, with nobody around for most of the trip. My DD did get bored for period of time, therefore ruining the "peaceful" She was tired and hungry, no snack b/c they were you guessed it...in the car. Once we floated to our end point, the guide had to walk to the overflow parking to get the van/trailer, load the raft on the trailer and then drive us back to the office.

 

It was a nice trip and I would recommend using Alaska River Adventures.

 

We had discussed with the guide places to eat. One place he mentioned was the Princess Lodge. After getting into our car we decided to just drive back to Seward and eat there...BIG MISTAKE. By the time we got back 10-10:30, every restaurant was CLOSED! One looked open but when we went in they said sorry!

 

We went to Safeway and bought cold chicken strips and ate at the cabin!

 

I think I was still up at 1am, and it was till light out. Problem we had an 8am boat trip and were suppose to check in at 7am...

 

In hindsight we just did too much this day. I think we would have been a lot happier and less tired the next day had we not done the float trip. I think for us one locked in/pre booked activity a day is enough. We could have easily spent more time at Exit Glacier and gone to the kennel as suggested by the guys on the glacier.

[gymnast46]

My recap:

 

This was an incredible experience for us. We traveled with a group of 51 and the consensus among all of us was overwhelmingly positive.

 

Warmer than expected weather and only one truly rainy day made for memorable land and sea adventures.

 

Most of the shows were good - the ventriloquist was incredible.

 

I've already posted my

but here are a few photos.

 

 

The forum restricts us to six images at a time. If you'd like to see more, visit this album.

Edited July 18, 2014 by gymnast46

[mollanjake]

My recap:

 

This was an incredible experience for us. We traveled with a group of 51 and the consensus among all of us was overwhelmingly positive.

 

Warmer than expected weather and only one truly rainy day made for memorable land and sea adventures.

 

Most of the shows were good - the ventriloquist was incredible.

 

I've already posted my

but here are a few photos.

 

 

The forum restricts us to six images at a time. If you'd like to see more, visit this album.

 

Thanks for sharing! Your pictures are far superior to mine!

 

For anyone reading, the video can be found on our roll call.

Edited July 18, 2014 by mollanjake

[mollanjake]

The Kenai Fjords trips are highly recommended on the forum, with most recommending "the longer the better" and get out of the bay. We decided early on that the 9 hr tour would be too long for our DD. That meant the 6 hr tour was for us.

 

I was nervous about this trip because of the reports of high incidences of seasickness. Seems like everyone needs to take some sort of precaution.... Normally I would avoid this type of situation, but with risk vs benefit I felt that this trip was worth the risk. Our precautions: Got Seabands for DH. Got Queasy beads DD and I. (they work on the same principal as Seabands only cuter) My DH got the patch. I was especially concerned about my DD as if she's miserable, I'm miserable. I spoke with her pediatrician, kids can not have the patch, so OTC meds were our option. Our plan: anti nausea bracelets for all, patch for DH, OTC meds for DD and myself.

 

DISCLAIMER: All parents should speak with a medical professional familiar with their child prior to medicating them. I am a medical professional and both times I have medicated my DD for travel purposes I discussed drug/dosage with her pediatrician.

 

Funny parenting moment: the morning of our tour, when we were premeditating, I realized my DD had never swallowed pills!. Fortunately the pills were small and she was only taking half. Success-she was a trooper!

 

There are 2 tour companies in Seward that offer the tours. We went with Kenai Fjords because they had a CYBER MONDAY sale and we got a deal.

 

Kenai Fjords- if you have your own car, the lot at the office is 2or 3 hour parking only. MY DH had to park elsewhere and shuttle back. They have a gift ship with souvenir type items, but have hats and gloves as well. I asked in the gift shop how much cooler we would be on the water and the girl told me not much, therefore we did not buy gloves for my DD(hers smelled like dog)The boat was nice and clean. there was a lot of outdoor viewing spaces and we never had trouble seeing. Some body ALWAYS allowed my daughter to get up to the "rail". I pretty much always was at the "rail" as well, but Im only 5'1" and lots of people can see over me. the chicken Caesar Wrap they made on board was good. They also baked and served cookies on board. There were 5 or 6 bathrooms. They serve a variety of drinks on board. We each bought a souvenir mug that had unlimited soft drinks/coffee.

 

You can book this tour with Kenai Fjords without hesitation.

 

The day was warm with beautiful, clear blue skies and CALM seas! We never felt anything. Not sure if it was the late night/early morning or the motion sickness meds, but my DD did sleep about the first hour of the trip. MY DH slept way more than that. I noticed a lot of people dosing in the cabin especially on the way out. Tons of kids/teens were on electronic devices as well.

 

On the way back in they opened the area of the boat near the captain, so we talked to a capt(I think there 2 capts on our cruise, at least 2 guys who could drive the boat)/ he said the weather was as good as it gets and their loop out was further than they usually go as seas aren't normally this calm. HE was TAKING PICTURES!

 

What did we see: whales-not breaching or talils, but they were there. Dall porpoise- theses guys move so fast and like playing in the ships wake. Seal-I didn't see it. Sea Otter, Sea lions and a bunch of different birds PUFFINS! We also saw an out of the ordinary... SWIMMING bear!! Oh yea we saw glaciers too! This really is a fabulous tour and I highly recommend it. Mother Nature really was smiling on us.

 

Some pictures that don't do the trip justice!

 

DD at Holgate Glacier

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[mollanjake]

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There were, 2 (I think) islands that looked like this. they called them hive islands. Those are birds "swarming" around the top. There are tons of Puffins, but there are other birds as well

 

Its a little hard to remember what we saw going and what we saw coming back. But for the most part they cruise out to the glacier slowing for animals likes whales and porpoises. Then route back to the little island for sea lions and birds.

 

Bottom line is they just don't know when they will see whales etc, so they have to allow time....

 

This really was an awesome trip!

[mollanjake]

Back in Seward we walked around the small boat harbor a bit. I wanted to see a few places I had seen in so many pictures. we were a bit early for the big halls of fish, but we did see a few boat come in with wheel barrels of fish.

 

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DD though this was gross!

 

We wondered around both ends of town for a while looking in shops etc then had dinner at Chinooks. I had been following them on FB. DH and salmon. DD had a Halibut BLT and I had Halibut Fish and chips everything was Yummy! i recommend eating there! DH and I shared a beer sampler then we each ordered a beer...all alaskan of course!

 

After dinner we headed back to our cabin. We had just had 2 wonderful days and frankly I was exhausted.

 

it was 7/3 and in Alaska fireworks are at midnight 7/3 into 7/4 which we had talked about watching. I had even message with someone from the roll call about getting our kids together for the fireworks. During dinner I messaged her and said I don't think we would make it. this was unfortunately as even though we messaged the next day as well we never did meet! I was thinking we should skip the fireworks and DH totally agreed! DD really wanted to go, so we kept saying we will see. We had asked if we would be able to see them from Lowell Point and were told yes. Before showering, we walked out to the "beach" partly so that we would know where we were going should we decide to go for the fireworks, partly b/c it was on my list and it was too early to call it a night. It was a short walk, the beach is small and there is a trail that I had read about, but not sure where it goes anymore. (the trail was also on my if we have time list) we found some neat rocks and some partial starfishes. we even found into the husband and son on one of my Roll call friends who were heading out on a kayak trip. I got a pic to send to her

 

 

Back at our cabin, my DH decided no fireworks. Our DD was disappointed and complained a bit, she ultimately was okay with it. I think maybe I would have given in if she had put up more of a fight. I wished at this point we had been in a hotel in Seward with a water view that way we could have seen the fireworks from the comfort of our room.

Edited July 18, 2014 by mollanjake

[JosieRhodes]

You guys are making me feel disorganized as haven't even started to go thru my pics yet, maybe this weekend. Laura, I see a bit of myself near the bow/background of one of your pics:). We really did luck out with very calm seas that day and wonderful visibility. I thought all the small boat operators that we went with really skillful and all very enjoyable tours.

 

And, while we didn't watch the production shows, we did go to all the guest entertainer shows. We thought they were all very good/high quality and really enjoyable shows. I give Royal Caribbean credit for bringing them all onboard. I also really liked the Aurora theater on the Radiance of the Seas as didn't think it had a bad seat, and felt close to the stage. Having this ongoing discussion with my family as they all liked the lay-out of Freedom class a bit better (our previous cruise) but I personally really liked the Radiance lay out as felt could always see the outside scenery, loved the more intimate feel of theater, and liked seeing The Quest game in a smaller venue.

 

ps. my daughter keeps telling me will you please stop telling people you saw a bear swimming :-) (but again, that was very cool)

Edited July 18, 2014 by JosieRhodes

[mollanjake]

sorry there are a few typos in the last post!

 

Tomorrow July 4th:

 

Alaska Sealife Center, our octopus Encounter and we board the ship!

 

Question for those who are reading: should I continue with our ship excursions? I'm afraid I'm a longwinded and posting too many pictures...