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The first days (Aug. 3-7) are with the cruisetour. It is optional but I highly recommend it if time permits in your schedule and your budget allows. It was about as amazing as the cruise time itself. Our cruisetour guide, Matt was great. As was Bill, our bus driver. They both were very knowledgeable about Alaska. My husband and I are both in a wheelchair and were toting a service dog as well. All the employees in the cruisetour, our fellow passengers on the tour as well as the ship, and the ship employees were all very good at accommodating us as well as the service dog.
I was a bit apprehensive about this portion of the trip since little information is provided to us by the cruiseline as to how it all works. But it went very smoothly. Once you get to the lodge where everyone meets, your cruisetour director will greet you and give you papers with an itinerary for each leg of the trip. He/She will answer questions and from that point on, we were a part of a group that will travel together for the next four days.
Aug 3 Arrived in Fairbanks and our cruisetour bunch stayed at Sophie Station.
Aug 4 Fairbanks City Tour, Cruise on the Riverboat Discovery and to El Dorado Gold mine. We missed the first half of day one due to airline issues causing us to miss our flights. But they were booked through the cruiseline, so the transfer still picked us up at the airport.
Our motorcoach first made a stop to view a portion of the Alaska pipeline. We were able to get off, take pictures and back onto the road. The El Dorado gold mine was kind of interesting. They show you how to pan for gold and then everyone gets to pan for gold. They try to make it where everyone finds some gold. If not, they will give u another bag of dirt to pan through. We missed the first part of the morning due to airline issues caused us to miss our flights.
The lodge is typical lodge type place. It was nice but meals were pricey. The bed was a major issue for me. It was a high pillow top mattress. Being in a wheelchair, I was unable to get in bed by myself.
Aug 5 Traveled thru Denali on a glass domed train. HIGHLY recommend if possible. We stayed overnight at Denali Lodge. We saw a moose within just a few minutes of being on the road. We also saw a grizzly bear, tons of caribou, sheep, and Golden Eagles. This one trip made the whole cruisetour worthwhile. Kept having to remind myself we still had a whole week of the cruise to look forward to after this. The drivers are good about stopping when people spot wildlife. The train is very comfortable. The windows are awesome for seeing out. They started out the ride by everyone going into the dining area to eat breakfast. It was about $8-$12 from what I remember to eat there. Not much on the menu but the food was ok. There was a restroom on the train and it is wheelchair accessible. The crew was all very pleasant and helpful.
Aug 6. The bus left for Talkeetna. We planned a flightseeing tour with Talkeetna Air Taxi, but had to cancel due to weather. They were very nice about giving us a refund and I would go with them again if I ever get the chance. I saw several signs talking about the "30% club" Only 30% of visitors ever get to see Mt. McKinley due to the weather. I guess we can count ourselves in the ""70% club"
Talkeetna was a small town and unfortunately was pretty much shutting down for the evening by the time we got there. We ate at a little pizza place (Painted bright purple) recommended by our tour guide. It was ok, not great but the cheapest place we could find to eat there. The next morning we had cinnamon rolls from the bakery across the street from the pizza place. They were VERY good.
Aug 7 Left early morning. We headed to Anchorage for a few hours to check out the town. Then it was on to Seward to get on the Radiance.
Our motorcoach arrived at Seward mid afternoon and we all proceeded to check in. It all went fairly smooth.
The Radiance is a beautiful ship, although it is showing its age to some degree. It does have tons of glass windows and hardly anywhere on the ship are you unable to see outside.
The staff was very helpful and pleasant during our entire stay. Our cabin steward surprised us each evening with a different towel animal. He attended to everything we needed throughout the week.
We ate at the Windjammer most of the week because my husband does not like to take the time to go change clothes to go into the dining room. I am not a big fan of the Windjammer but could always find something to eat. Loved the fries. The Seaside Grill had great Nathans Hot Dogs. We went to the dining room on the formal nights. The food was good as usual. The staff was all very accommodating. We even caught a glimpse of whales from the windows in sight from our table.
The first full day was spent at Hubbard Glacier. Capt. Claus did an awesome job of getting us just a few hundred feet from the glacier. Everyone was congratulating him on such an awesome job. The glacier is absolutely amazing! Words cannot describe how beautiful it is. That was about the only day it was actually cold. We wore coats and gloves while milling about the outside at the ship that day. They do serve hot chocolate and specialty drinks out on the decks while at the glacier.
The next day we arrived in Juneau early morning. We did the Whale Quest and Orca Point Lodge excursion. I expected to be bored. It was nothing of the like. We had tons of whales greeting us from the minute we got onto the the water. We were taken to Orca Lodge where a huge salmon feast was waiting for us. It was grilled salmon, cole slaw, corn on the cob. Very good. In fact, that is where I learned I did like salmon after all. They even offer to give you the marinade recipe. It has a small gift shop.
During the whale watch time, we were in a very comfortable catamaran with huge windows. We were able to move about in our wheelchairs with ease. It also has an accessible bathroom.
The next morning we arrived in Skagway. There we did the White Pass Scenic Railway tour. Another highlight and must do on this cruise. We boarded the train and were placed next to huge windows which are great for viewing. We did the roundtrip and at the turn around point, everyone switches seats to give everyone a fair chance for good viewing. Everyone is right when they tell you to sit on the left side of the train. The scenery is amazing. There is nothing you CAN'T take a picture of. I took probably a 100 pictures on this excursion alone. They take you up to the Canadian border and back.
The next day was spent at Icy Strait Point. This is my one regret we had spent more time in this town. It was a tender port but there was a wheelchair lift on the tender boat. It took literally minutes to get on and get whisked across to the port. We did not get into the town but just toured the little museum there and watched whales from the area. I have heard it's a great place for whale watching as well as eagles. I will keep that in mind for next time.
The next day we arrived in Ketchikan. We spent the morning fishing with Tony at Aurora Sportfishing. I would highly recommend him. We caught our limit of Salmon within a couple hours and after some cruising around, we were taken back to the port. We did see a beautiful bald eagle. It was the first I had seen on the cruise so I was happy about that. I got some great pictures of it. We spent the rest of the day milling about the town. It is a small town with lots of shops. Much the same shops are in each port. My favorite meal in the entire cruise probably was eaten here. It was called the "Crab Cracker Seafood Bar. I had a "Appetizer" of Crab Cocktail. It was a huge plate of 1 lb. crab meat. It was already prepared and ready to eat. No cracking or mess to eat. It was only $14.99. It was all I could do to finish the plate of meat. SOOO delicious.
The next morning we arrived at Vancouver to conclude our cruise.
The weather was typical to the area for the week we were there. One day at Talkeetna it was drizzly and yucky. For the most part, it was just foggy a portion of each of the remaining days. Weather does change quickly. The only time we were actually cold was at Hubbard Glacier. The rest of the time we just wore hoodies over our clothes. Much of the time we ended up taking the hoodies off and keeping them in our backpacks.
We did not spend as much time doing activities on the ship as we normally do. We went to one show in the Aurora Theater. It was a comedian who was mediocre at best. Then we returned to the theater for the Farewell show. It was nice and as usual had a parade of all the crew ranging from Capt. Claus to the waitstaff to the room stewards. We went into the casino one night but did not stay long. We went into the Schooner bar once for one man's very cheesey tribute to Elton John and Billy Joel.
Shopping in most all ports is about the same from what we experienced. Much of the same merchandise appears in every town. I was surprised to find scrapbooking sections in almost every store we went to. As a scrapbooker, I loved being able to purchase stuff specific to this trip and each town. Hoodies, fleece vests and gloves are everywhere and at very reasonable prices. I would recommend not packing one if you think you might buy one as a souvenir for yourself.
Being first timers to Alaska, we definitely see things we would do next time we did not know to do this time. Such as spending more time in Icy Strait Point. Also, trying to do more activities in the towns. Being disabled, it is hard to figure out just what is accessible and working with the cruiseline can be frustrating. However, once we were there and could see just how it operated, I think we could have done more on our own picking out land excursions.
My advice would be to: Talk to the locals about places to eat, things to do and see. Take lots of memory cards and batteries for your digital camera (or film). Don't miss the train ride through Denali if possible. Don't miss the White Pass Summit Excursion. Go Whale Watching even if it sounds boring, you won't regret it. Go fishing. Take a flightseeing tour around Mt. McKinley.
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