Alaska Southbound on the NCL Sun - August 2017 Trip Report!

I’m excited to share my recent Alaskan cruise with everyone here on Cruise Critic! These boards have been a valuable resource as we planned our first Alaska cruise. I’ll have to post this in installments, but please feel free to jump in at any point with questions or comments!

A little bit about us - My name is Jessica and my wife is Justine. We are in our late twenties and this was our third cruise with Norwegian. We live right outside of Boston with our two kitties. 2017 has been a pretty special year for us - we celebrated 10 years together in the spring, and we will both turn 30 (eeek!) this fall. Alaska has been a bucket list trip for us, and this summer was the perfect time to celebrate all of those milestones.

Planning & Packing

I love planning vacations! So last summer, when we picked Alaska, I was glad to have a year to research and plan, as it was initially overwhelming! After looking at different cruise lines and itineraries, we finally settled on the Southbound cruise on the Norwegian Sun. The cruise was Monday-Monday, which allowed us to fly to Anchorage a couple of days early. For our cruise in August, we had booked all of the major stuff (flights, hotel, car rentals and cruise) by December. When we booked the flights to Anchorage, it was only a couple hundred dollars more for first class so we even splurged a little! We’ve never booked a trip that early, but found that the prices increased as the trip got closer so I was glad to have booked everything way in advance.

Our itinerary:

August 4th: Fly to Anchorage & Sightseeing

August 5th: Matanuska Glacier Hike

August 6th: Talkeetna for Flightseeing

August 7th: Travel to Seward / Board NCL Sun

August 8th: Day at Sea / Hubbard Glacier

August 9th: Icy Strait Point

August 10th: Juneau / Tracy Arm

August 11th: Skagway

August 12th: Ketchikan

August 13th: Day at Sea

August 14th: Disembark / Day in Vancouver

August 15th: Land in Boston

For our excursions, we booked all of those by April so that they wouldn’t sell out. We didn’t book any through the cruise ship, and most of them were small group tours and activities. We booked almost everything through Viator, since they have a 10% discount when you create an account with them. For those that haven’t used it, Viator is a website affiliated with Trip Advisor that sells tours and activities. All of the tours were operated by local companies, and I will get into specifics for each of them later.

And then there was packing. This was tough. Most of our trips are to warmer weather, so it’s usually pretty easy to toss some shorts/tops, dresses and bathing suits in the suitcase. I read any information that I could find about what to wear in Alaska and how you should wear layers. Based on that, I knew I was packing a light rain jacket and two fleeces. Then, I found it helpful to plan by what we were doing by each day. I packed hiking boots and hiking pants for our more active excursions, and jeans or leggings for the rest of the days. I also packed a few nice outfits for evenings on the cruise ship. Planning each outfit by day helped me figure out where I could wear things more than once, and helped me not to overpack.

Now let’s get to the trip!

Friday, August 4th: Traveling to Anchorage & Sightseeing

Vacation was finally here! We had set our alarms bright and early, as our flight was supposed to leave at 7:00am, and we would arrive in Anchorage around 2:30pm with a connection in Seattle. However, at 4:00am, right when we were getting up, I received an email that our flight was delayed two hours, which meant we would miss our connecting flight in Seattle. Delta automatically changed the flight, and gave us a 6 hour layover in Seattle with an arrival in Anchorage at 9:30pm. After a mini freakout, we checked the website ourselves and found an earlier flight that would get us into Anchorage around 6:30pm. The downside was that we would lose our first class seats on the second flight, and would not receive any credit or refund for having seats in the main cabin. However, we didn’t want to spend our first day of vacation sitting in the Seattle Airport, so we changed to that flight.

We took a Lyft to the airport, checked-in, and went through security. Since our first flight was still first class, we were able use priority check-in and security, which were significantly shorter than the other lines. If anyone ever plans on flying out of Boston, you should definitely plan for at least an hour for the security line. Once we got to our gate, we learned that our flight had been delayed due to an air conditioning hose that needed to be fixed.

We always take a pre-flight picture at the airport!

Finally, we were able to start boarding. The blue lights were pretty cool!

Right after we were seated, the stewardess asked if we wanted a pre-flight drink. We’re on vacation, so why not?

The flight itself was pretty uneventful. It included breakfast, which was fine, and they also had tv’s in the seat backs that were playing recent movies. We had a nice view approaching Seattle.

Once we landed, we had about a three hour layover. We found a place to have lunch that served a lot of local beers.

I think it was called the Tap Room but I could be wrong. Lunch was good, and the bartender was nice.

We found our gate, only to find out that the plane had not arrived so there would be a slight delay. Once it arrived, we were able to board but then had to wait longer since the luggage had to be loaded onto the plane. All in all, we left about 45 minutes later than planned.

As we started flying over Alaska, we had amazing views of glaciers and mountains.

Finally, we were approaching Anchorage!

Even with the delay, we still landed in Anchorage around 6:30pm. This guy greeted us at the Anchorage airport.

We had booked the Comfort Inn Ship Creek for the weekend, and had originally planned to use the hotel’s airport shuttle. However, we decided to take a cab. It was about a 15 minute ride, and cost $25, including the tip.

Check-in was easy. In addition to the airport shuttle, the hotel includes railroad depot shuttle, free breakfast, free wi-fi and an indoor pool. When we were looking at hotels, we found this one to be a bit more affordable than others but still had a good reviews. The lobby was really cute; it had a fireplace with some couches, and a large stuffed bear. Our room was great - it was very spacious and clean.

We dropped our suitcases off in the room, and were ready to head out. We had booked the Anchorage Trolley Tour in advance through Viator, and were nervous that we had missed the last one due to our delayed flights. We decided to just walk there and see if anyone was around at the Visitor’s Center, which is where the trolley left from. It was an uphill walk, but it only took about 10 minutes or so to reach downtown. Since it was about 7:30pm when we made it downtown, the visitor center was closed but there a gentleman in a trolley conductor outfit on the sidewalk! We signed up for the 8:00pm tour, and he told us to be back by 7:45pm. We popped into the gift store across the street, and had to take some pictures with the bear out front.

There was also this directional sign outside of the visitor's center. I love seeing how far away other cities are!

After browsing the store a bit, we went back for the Trolley Tour.

The woman driving the trolley was hilarious. She mixed in humor with interesting facts about Alaska. There were no stops so it was a bit difficulty to take pictures. The tour itself was about 50 minutes, and it drove by Earthquake Park, Lake Hood, the Railroad, and some residential areas. This was perfect, as we were able to see some places that we otherwise would not have seen.

We had a dinner reservation at Glacier Brewhouse at 9:15pm. It was originally earlier, but we pushed it back once we had figured out the flights. Even at 9:15pm, there was still an hour wait for those without reservations. I strongly recommend reservations for this place!

We started with beers and pineapple chicken wings. We love trying local beers wherever we go, and this was a common theme throughout the trip! For our meals, we had a hard time deciding what we each wanted so we ended up splitting the salmon BLT salad and the seafood fettuccine. The waitress was nice enough to bring us a couple extra plates. The entire meal was great, as was the service. It was the perfect first meal in Alaska!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Even though it was nearly 11:00pm, the sun was setting and it was still bright out.

Even with all of the delays, we it was a great start to vacation!

Fabulous pictures! Thanks so much for doing this. We are doing the NCL Southbound next year and will be staying a couple of days in Anchorage so your tripe has been really helpful already. Looking forward to the next instalment : )

Wonderful trip report so far! Can't wait for more. You and your wife adorable couple!!

Fabulous pictures! Thanks so much for doing this. We are doing the NCL Southbound next year and will be staying a couple of days in Anchorage so your tripe has been really helpful already. Looking forward to the next instalment : )

Thank you! I found that trip reports really helped us over the last year while we were planning. It's always nice to see what others did, and how it worked for them. I wanted to do more today, but unfortunately I have to work tonight :(

Wonderful trip report so far! Can't wait for more. You and your wife adorable couple!!

Thank you!! :D:D

Great start! I love the Sun and Alaska is just a wonderful place!

Great start! I love the Sun and Alaska is just a wonderful place!

Thank you! We loved the Sun, it's a great ship. And of course Alaska was gorgeous!

At the risk of sounding like a creep, I have to say that your review from your trip last summer was so helpful while we were planning our own vacation!

Thank you! We loved the Sun, it's a great ship. And of course Alaska was gorgeous!

 

 

 

At the risk of sounding like a creep, I have to say that your review from your trip last summer was so helpful while we were planning our own vacation!

Don't worry about it! I do my reviews to help other travelers, that is why I am taking the time to redo the review from last year. If I help someone out, then it's time well spent!

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So happy to see your review! We leave Thursday for Anchorage for to begin our pre-cruise adventures; then on Monday we board the Sun. Your review comes at a perfect time! Can't wait to read the rest.

So happy to see your review! We leave Thursday for Anchorage for to begin our pre-cruise adventures; then on Monday we board the Sun. Your review comes at a perfect time! Can't wait to read the rest.

That's so exciting, I hope you have a wonderful trip!!

Don't worry about it! I do my reviews to help other travelers, that is why I am taking the time to redo the review from last year. If I help someone out, then it's time well spent!

 

 

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It was so helpful, and was what made us make the detour to head up to Independence Mine on our way to Talkeetna :-D

It was so helpful, and was what made us make the detour to head up to Independence Mine on our way to Talkeetna :-D

Can't wait to see your pictures!

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Saturday, August 5th: Matanuska Glacier Hike

Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:00am. Partly from the time difference, but also from the train horn. Our room faced the train station, so it was fairly loud. I had read about the train horn from TripAdvisor reviews, so it wasn’t a surprise. If you’re a light sleeper, you should ask for a room that doesn’t face the station. Fortunately, I was able to fall back asleep for a little while. We got ready and had breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast was included, and it had eggs, sausages, and typical continental breakfast items. There was also a waffle maker. We were ready early, so we went out behind the hotel to Ship Creek to see if anyone was fishing.

We had booked the Matanuska Glacier Walk through Salmon Berry Tours. The tour included transportation from Anchorage, a guided walk on the glacier, and lunch. We were picked up on time at 8:45am by Brandon, and there were 7 other people on the tour with us.

It took about 2 hours to drive up to the glacier. About halfway, there was a stop at a gas station to use a restroom. Brandon talked a lof the time, telling us about the different areas we were driving though and what it was like to live in Alaska. The scenery on the drive to the glacier was great. Brandon pointed out the one spot from the highway that we could see Denali from, since it was such a clear day! We also saw a moose with a calf. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of either of these since we were on the highway and passed them quickly, but it was great to see! I did get some other pictures on the drive up.

We pulled off the highway, and went to the glacier park. It is privately owned, so there is a fee to enter, which was included in our tour. The road in the glacier park was all gravel and very bumpy. There was also a really small wooden bridge that made us all a little nervous, but it was all okay.

We reached the parking area, and could see the glacier below.

In case anyone was wondering who's who, this is Justine.

And this is me!

We walked down to glacier and it was fairly muddy. Some areas has metal slabs to walk on so that you didn’t sink down into the mud.

Once we reached the ice, we put on crampons over our boots, which help us stay upright. We also had walking sticks and helmets.

For about two hours, Brandon guided us all over the ice. He pointed out crevasses and cracks for us to avoid, and was very safety conscious. We even ended up hiking higher on the glacier. The whole experience was amazing!

More glacier pictures!

After the glacier walk, we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant, the Long Rifle Lodge. The restaurant had a great view of the glacier we had just hiked.

Lunch was included in the price of our tour, and it was really good. After lunch, we headed back to Anchorage. No pictures because we fell asleep! All in all, this was an amazing experience and I highly recommend Salmon Berry Tours!

Once we got back into the city, we asked to be dropped off downtown instead of back at our hotel. On Saturdays and Sundays, there is a market on 4th street with local vendors until 6:00pm. It was really cool to walk around, and we bought some blueberry tea to bring home. There was also a large totem pole and bear statue there.

After the market, we went back to our hotel and changed out of our hiking clothes. We headed back downtown, and took some more pictures around the area.

We had dinner reservations at Orso, which is owned by the same folks who own Glacier Brewhouse. However, Orso has more of an Italian feel to it. Our reservation was at 7:30pm, and the wait for those without reservations was 45 minutes. We started our meal with more Glacier Brewhouse beers, and king crab corn dogs as an appetizer.

Justine had seafood mac and cheese as her meal, and I had crab stuffed rockfish.

Everything was delicious, and the service was great!

Day two had set some pretty high standards for the rest of the trip! :D

Sunday, August 6th: Reindeer, Independence Mine & Flightseeing

We picked up our rental car from Avis in downtown Anchorage. Our reservation was for 9:00am, and we were there about 5 minutes early and there was 1 person ahead of us. Right at 9:00am, there was a line out the door! There was only one lady working the desk, and then they had to go get the car from across the street, so it took a little bit. Once we had the car we headed out of the city!

Our first stop was at the Reindeer Farm in Palmer, which took about 45 minutes to get to.

We got there and paid, I believe it was $9.00 per person. The lady said that we were just in time for a tour, and to go meet the group. The guide gave a brief talk about reindeer and then brought everyone into the area. Everyone was given a cup food to feed them. The reindeer came right up to us, expecting food. Once we ran out of food, they wanted nothing more to do with us!