Celebrity Alaska Tour 10 review (long)

[alolewis]

We had booked a land tour with Celebrity, Summit Tour 10 and were operated by Royal Celebrity Tours (RCT). Upon leaving the ship we met our tour guide Pat and bus driver Kevin, and both were very personable and stayed with us throughout the tour. The buses in use were very clean and comfortable, looked brand new but our driver told me they were actually a couple of years old. This was his third year driving for RCT and he said one of the reasons he likes RCT is the good equipment they operate. This was Pat?s first year working with RCT. She grew-up in Alaska and has lived there most of her life. Pat often gave us stories about living in Alaska; she grew up in Delta Junction but now lives near Anchorage. The bus took us from Seward to Anchorage and dropped us off downtown for a lunch break. Susan and I did a short walking tour of downtown and had a Raindeer sausage sandwich from a hotdog cart along the street. Then back on the bus for travel to the Native Heritage Center, which was interesting with examples of different native lifeways, I particularly liked the dancers, amateur high school students learning the old Indian dances.

 

Then the bus took us to the Anchorage Marriott for overnight, we had dinner at Phyllis café, a spartan restaurant with a deck and picnic tables, The special was King Crab dinner for $20 or a crab leg dinner for $30, I asked the difference, the Crab leg dinners was the full legs, the crab dinner used culls and broken legs but the taste was the same. Dinner came with a pound of crab legs (we didn?t weight them but the pile look like it was more than a pound) melted butter, tossed salad, steamed vegetables, boiled red potatoes and rolls. The crab and other sides were very good; the vegetables had been on the steam table too long and were soggy.

 

The next morning the bus picked us up and took us to Denali. It was very clear that day and we had views of Mt McKinley almost the entire way. RCT provided a box lunch, which we ate at Denali State Park (Memorial) overlooking Mt McKinley. Lunch was a turkey sandwich, carrot sticks, chips and Oreo?s. Bottle water was also provided. The next stop was the Grand Denali hotel, which is a nice hotel, up on the hill overlooking the park. Kevin managed to get the bus up the steep, twisting dirt road to the hotel with no problem. The hotel is clean and comfortable with spectacular views if you happen to have a room facing west and the park as we did. Grand Denali Hotel also ran their own shuttle to the Park visitor?s center and other hotels every half-hour. We used the shuttle a few times, the only problem is that sometimes the shuttle would be full and we would have to wait for the next shuttle. The only complaint I have about the Grande Denali is that it seems all the guests wanted to shower at the same time (Park tours, people leaving by bus, etc all at the same time) and hot water was limited, our shower was not even lukewarm. We ate one dinner and breakfast at the restaurant the Grande and it was quite good.

 

The next day was the Tundra Wilderness Tour operated by the National Park Contractor, Aramark. Our driver/guide was Nancy who also grew up in Alaska. She did an excellent job, spotting and pointing our wild life, etc. The 7 hour tour is on a school bus type vehicle, not the luxury coach of RCT. The tour included a box lunch (raindeer and cheese sandwich, pretzels, bottled water) plus they served hot beverages and cold water at one of the rest stops. The bus stops at a rest area about every hour or so plus Nancy stopped the bus numerous times so we could see wild life (Caribou, sheep, moose and an Arctic Greenling in one small creek). Nancy discussed extensively how the park was there to preserve wild life and the open wilderness, the Park Service restricts the number of vehicles that can enter the park, the number of campers and even the number of day hikes in any given area. We had great visibility and the tour was extended a few miles so we could have a great view of Mt McKinley.

 

The last full day of the tour Susan and I played golf at Black Diamond Golf Course in Healy, about 10 miles north of Denali. The Black Diamond Van was right on time to pick us up. The golf course is a 9 hole course laid out on the tundra. The course was interesting as the grasses are not the same you typically find on a golf course, I think my back yard has a better putting surface then the greens, but we had a fun anyway. I had booked the golf Excursion with Celebrity, Black Diamond provided everything we needed, clubs, balls, tees, etc.

 

Visibility started to decrease due to smoke from some fires and continued to decrease until we were in Fairbanks, visibility was maybe a block or so. We were lucky in that we did the Denali tour prior to the smoke.

 

In the afternoon we boarded the train. The railroad is operated by the state owned Alaska Railroad, the first 10 cars or so were Alaska Railroad, then the tour companies have their cars, RCT, Holland America, Princess. We boarded the first RCT car, a double decker, passengers on the domed top deck, the dining car on the bottom deck. The train car was luxuries compared to the Amtrak trains I have ridden. There is a guide on the train providing commentary about the scenery we passed. Dinner was a choice of salmon, prime rib, chicken, and a few others, dinner was very good. Dessert was a fruit pie (strawberries, rhubarb, blackberries) served ala mode, very good. The train averages less than 30 mph so it took over 4 hours to travel from Denali to Fairbanks, a distance of about 120 miles. Kevin was waiting for us with the RCT coach at the Fairbanks station for transfer to our hotel, Sophie?s Station. The hotel provided suites (Living room, kitchen, bedroom) and seemed to be nice but since we arrived at 8:45 PM and left the next morning at 6:30, all we did was sleep and shower.

 

Transfer to the airport was uneventful and then the flight back to San Jose and to reality. One thing I liked about the trip was after we checked in our luggage at San Jose airport, we never had to carry the luggage until checkin at Fairbanks airport. Celebrity and RCT always delivered the luggage to our stateroom/hotel rooms and picked it up there in the morning.

[Shirley and Les]

Bumping this since there is so much information in it.

Les