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Just back - Celebrity Millennium Alaska 13 Night Grand Heartland - Day 1


Galaxy2004
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This was a 6 night land tour followed by a 7 night southbound cruise. DH and I (in our 40s and 50s) traveled with his parents and his aunt and uncle (all in their 60s). We are all active and experienced travelers. This was our 10th cruise with Celebrity but our first land tour with them. We all enjoyed the trip but would have liked more time to explore the various stops (both on the land tour and the cruise).

 

We flew into Fairbanks a day early. Our flight was about 2 hours late because Seattle airport was backed up because of smoke from the fires in Canada so we did not get to Fairbanks until around midnight so no time to explore. We stayed at Pikes Waterfront Lodge, which is where we were to stay with the cruise tour and we did not want to move hotels. Rooms were okay, a bit stale and noisy, but had everything we needed (air conditioning,refrigerator, etc.). We were in the Copper Lodge building to the right of the main lodge.Our room was on the first floor and looked out on the side yard area. Not a very scenic area regardless of the pictures on the hotel's website. They hosted the start of the Iditarod in 2003 and had information around the grounds about that.

 

Fairbanks Day 1 of Tour

 

As the tour did not officially start until 3 pm, we rented a Ford Expedition that was large enough for the 6 of us. The weather was beautiful – highs in the 80s and sunny. We drove to North Pole, Alaska and visited the Santa Claus house – Christmas ornaments, t-shirts,and other touristy items. We then visited the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline Visitor Center (about 15 minutes outside of town). You can go right up to the pipeline,which is elevated in this section. There are several interpretive posters explaining the history of the pipeline and the current outflow. We returned to the hotel and had lunch at the nearby Pike’s Landing. Server was nice but it did take a long time to get the food. Food was nothing special and was expensive.

 

We met the tour director (Megan) at 3:30 (was supposed to be there at 3). She was late because her car (named Betty White) had been stolen that morning in Anchorage. She spent about an hour checking us in and then explaining how the tour would work. She also handed out our itinerary and excursions booking information. Note:You cannot book excursions in advance on the land portion. She stayed around another hour or so to answer any questions we had and made herself available (by checking with the front desk) until 9 pm.

 

There were 37 people in our group and I would estimate the average age to be 50-60, younger than we expected and much younger than the participants we saw in 2 other Celebrity tour groups traveling the same itinerary. The group was always on time in the mornings and after tour stops - something Megan said was unusual. We had no stragglers and everyone was extremely friendly. She emphasized that we were a very good group and that often whether you have a good experience with a land tour is dependent on your fellow travelers. In our case, we had a good group and good experience. After meeting the other 2 tour directors, I dare say the tour director could ruin your experience. One we met never stopped talking about himself and the other looked like an 50 year old brownie/girl scout leader and spoke at just over a whisper level.

 

After getting our itinerary for the land tour, we took a shuttle into downtown ($5 per person) and walked around. The city has a nice waterfront area. We bought fudge at the Fudge Pot (too dry and sugary) then came back to the hotel and ate dinner at Pike’s Landing. The restaurant at the Lodge was closed for an all-day wedding event. Again, service was slow and the food was just ok and was pricey.The hotel cost was the only thing included in the tour for day 1.

I'm posting in batches as I get them written up. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

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Fairbanks toDenali – Day 2 of Tour

 

Another beautiful day with sunny, blue skies and highs in the 80s. This is typical weather this time of year for Fairbanks. We had to have bags outside our door for pickup at 7 am and then be ready to board the bus by 8 am. This is why it helps to have only a couple of bags during the land tour - to minimize the packing and unpacking, which you do almost every day.

 

We started the day with an introduction to our bus driver for the tour – Ashley. She was in her late 20s but had been driving for 8 years and proved to be a great driver. Her husband drove for the same company and we saw him on several occasions. She and the tour director are not employed by Celebrity but by the tour company that Celebrity hires to handle pre-cruise tours. We then loaded on a very nice coach that had comfortable seating, plenty of leg room, and sufficient storage overhead for small backpacks.

 

Our first stop was the Riverboat Discovery Tour (9 am - Noon), a cruise in a riverboat along the Chena River where we saw some nice homes and the Susan Butcher - famous female winner of the Iditarod who passed away in 2006 -mushing kennel (you see the kennel from the boat and do not actually visit the kennel) that her husband and daughters have continued in her memory. It also included a stop for a while at a replica of an Athabasan Indian Village where you could see a demonstration from one of the kennel workers, some recreated homes from the period, some hides of various animals (mink, wolf, etc.). On the riverboat they provide blueberry donuts and a sample of salmon spread. At the riverboat visitor center you can step into a room that is supposedly maintained at 40 below to get the feel of Fairbanks in the winter – COLD. There is no cost for the experience but if you want a photo of you in the room you pay $7 and they email it to you (or print it for a bit higher).

 

We left the riverboat and began what the brochure describes as a “Fairbanks City Tour” – This consisted of them taking us to the pipeline visitor center (not normally included, which is why we visited the prior day -Megan said she included this detour because all the group was on time in getting on the coach), then pointing out some buildings in downtown. The coach then stopped in downtown by the waterfront and we had time (about an hour) to grab lunch. We ate at Daddy’s BBQ, which Megan lauded as good as anything she could get in Texas. Our group felt it was good but being from the south(Tennessee and Louisiana) we get lots of great BBQ. By the way, all restaurants in Alaska are expensive by Knoxville, TN standards - $15+ for lunch and $30+ for dinner was typical throughout the land tour.

 

We were a bit delayed leaving after lunch because the door to the wheelchair lift would not close properly. They called a technician who was there in 15 minutes and had us underway in less than 20 minutes. We found out that the tour company has bus centers in Fairbanks and Anchorage, which is why we had such a fast response time.

 

We were then driven to our home for the next 2 nights –Denali Park Village. We arrived around 5 pm. Megan had warned us that this would be rustic accommodations. To our delight, we were placed in the newest building (700s) with air conditioning, large bathrooms, large showers, and balconies. One couple in our party had river views, but the other 2 couples had parking lot views. It was much nicer than Pikes Waterfront Lodge. The only problem was that the hot water ran out by 7 or 7.30 both mornings and that was true for everyone in ourgroup.

 

We had dinner at the lodge's main restaurant. I got salad and soup ($12)since lunch had been so filling. Again, nothing special. Not impressed with the food opportunities at that point in the trip, but that didn’t keep any of us from eatingJ.

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Denali - Day 3 of the Tour

 

Another impossibly beautiful day with sunny skies and highs in the 70s. The tour included the Denali Natural History Tour but, following advice on this board and our tour director, we upgraded to Tundra Wilderness Tour ($70/person). The upgraded tour takes you 62 miles into the park versus 30 on the other tour. Our tour started at 9:50 so we didn’t have to be ready until 8.55. The tour is on converted school buses that are fairly comfortable and have room for storing a small backpack. Our tour director recommended buying 1 hotel offered sack lunch ($16.95) for each couple, which we did and that ended up being plenty – a sandwich, a bottle of water, a package of chips, a granola bar, and an apple. The tour included a snack pack that contained a granola bar,a can of water, beef jerky stick, a cookie, and sun flower seeds. You could bring whatever food you wanted and I would recommend that over the overpriced-lunch.

 

Upon entering the park we saw snow-covered Denali (“the mountain”) almost immediately. Only 1/3 of visitors see Denali and only 10% see the top. We got to see the top!! This was at the first viewing area and the bus driver told us with the clouds moving it that it would be unlikely we would see it later in the driver and this turned out to the be the case.

 

The tour is 4 hours into the park and about that coming out.You stop for all wildlife (even Alaska’s state bird and a raven perched in a tree) sightings and have 2 stops each way for bathroom breaks. Lots of picture taking opportunities and the views were endless. We had a very good guide –Bryan Burnett – who cares a lot about the environment and the park. He collected all the trash from our box lunches and recycled almost everything, even though no one could follow his instructions about which material went in which bags. The guide had us do the lookouts for the wildlife while he kept his eyes on the road – since there are lots of turns, no guardrails, and 100+ foot drops into the canyon on one side throughout some parts of the ride. We had good watchers on our bus and saw a grizzly bear mother and her juvenile cub, who were chasing a caribou at one point and saw several more caribou and various birds. We saw a dall ship at a very far distance and did not see a moose, a wolf, or a black bear.

 

My take on the Tundra Wilderness Tour is that it is the onlyway to see the park if you have only one day. If you want to see more, you needto take a shuttle and get off and walk parts of the road and then stay at oneof the lodges deep in the park.

 

After the tour, we could return to the Denali Park Villageor be dropped off “in town,” which is called the Glitter Gulch and consists of a small strip of souvenir shops and a few restaurants. We opted for the Glitter Gulch and had dinner at Prospector’s Pizza. I had an arugula and honey pizza that was very good. Others in our group enjoyed reindeer sausage pizza. They also had a good beer selection, though the selection was more limited than normal as they started winding down for the season. We went through the various sourvenir shops and bought some Denali Park t-shirts.

 

We headed back to the Denali Park Village via a shuttle that charged $5 per person and picked up regularly at the Salmon Bake restaurant. We visited the on-premises ice cream shop and had a homemade waffle cone with what we think was Blue Bunny ice cream. It was 10 pm and the sun was finally going down. The days were long on this part of the tour as it’s hard to tell that it’s getting late when the sun is still up.

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Denali andTalkeetna (rail) – Day 4

 

We had to have our bags outside our door by 8:00 am and be ready to board the bus by 9:00 am. This is the steady theme for traveling as part of a tour – you are tied to the tour’s timetable. Again, the weather was beautiful with sunny skies and highs in the 70s. After boarding the bus we were offered additional time in Glitter Gulch (aka Denali Canyon) but everyone on the bus elected to bypass that after seeing it the night before. Instead, we were taken to Denali Park Visitor center and given almost 3 hours to explore on our own.

 

We had time to look through the visitor center and book store then DH and I walked the Horseshoe Lake loop trail. This trail is steep in spots but does offer some nice views. We boarded the Wilderness Express train around Noon. Lunch was available on the train and I had a delicious seafood pasta salad. The ride to Talkeetna train depot was about 4 hours. It was interesting to see all the “flag stops” – where residents, who for the most part live off the grid, put a flag out when they want the train to stop. We didn’t see any wildlife but the views were amazing.

 

We arrived in Talkeetna about 5 pm and were taken by bus to the Talkeetna Alaskan lodge. Ashley, our driver, had already delivered our luggage to our rooms. We were stuck with another parking lot view but one couple did luck out and get a view of the Alaska Mountain Range and bits and pits of Denali. As part of the tour group, you room is assigned and you do not have away to upgrade or select the location. The room here was fine and had a refrigerator and hair dryer. There was no air conditioning but leaving the room open at night kept the room cool enough. The views from the back of the lodge were amazing. We could see the lower portion of Denali but cloud cover blocked the rest.

 

The bus driver offered a free shuttle into downtown and we accepted. We walked around the small downtown area and down to the river to see how much of the mountain we could see (still lower part). There is a fast-moving river along a portion of the town and this river is where some of the rafting and jet boat excursions go. 2 of our couples took the slow rafting excursion and enjoyed it. Others in our group did the jet boat excursion and said they saw lots of grizzlies.

 

We took a taxi back to the hotel. There is one taxi service in the area and you call that number and the taxi will be there in 15 minutes or so. We had dinner at the hotel.Dinner was cruise main dining room level. I had steamed mussels and we shared a good brussel sprouts appetizer then off to bed.

 

Highlights of the day: Views on the train ride and from the back of Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge.

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Talkeetna to Anchorage(by rail) – Day 5

 

Bags out by 11 am, so everyone got some extra sleep. The weather remaining beautiful with highs in the low 70s and sunny skies. We had until 4:15 pm to explore Talkeetna on our own. DH and I walked into town from the lodge. This was an easy 2 mile mostly downhill walk with a wide walking area. We saw a dozen or so others doing the same walk. We stopped at Roadhouse Bakery for a razzy, frosty, and darby (check out their menu on-line). This place is swarmed by cruisers but we were still able to get our order in 15 mins or so and set outside in rocking chairs enjoying the food. One of our couples had purchased a lot of souvenirs at this point and found a local shop that was willing to ship a large box of dirty laundry home for them if they would spend $10 in the shop, which they did. Cheaper than buying another suitcase or paying an overweight fee to the airlines.

 

We then walked again to the river to check the Denali view(still hidden) and went through all the gifts shops. There’s a nice quilt shop in town with a lot of Alaska scheme material. We had lunch at Mountain High Pizza Pie. DH had a reindeer pizza and I had the spinach salad with Asian dressing.The salad was very good. We walked by to the lodge with the return walk being more uphill but not difficult.

 

Everyone boarded the coach around 4.30. The coach took us to Talkeetna’s railroad depot (about a 15 minute drive). The train was late but we finally boarded around 5.30. We had dinner on the train. Since the dining cars are smaller than the passenger area, the dining had to be staged in several groupings. They took the passengers from the back of the train and then moved forward. We were not rushed through the dinner, but were encouraged to remember that others were waiting to eat. I had the primavera pasta and DH had the halibut the we had the brownie for dessert. All was fine but nothing special. Others had the birch syrup covered vanilla ice cream and raved about it. We did see a moose and her calf on the drive. The ride is not as scenic as the route to Talkeetna but you do pass through a few towns giving a look at some more typical living styles than the flag stoppers.

 

We got into Anchorage after 8:00 pm and were taken by coach to the downtown Marriott. This hotel is conveniently located within walking distance of many attractions and restaurants. Nice clean business hotel with wonderful beds and pillows. By the time everyone was settled it was 10 pm so we called it a night.

 

Highlight of the day: The town of Talkeetna (inspiration for“Northern Exposure”).

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Anchorage to Seward (via motorcoach) –Day 6

Bags out by 8 am. For the first day of the trip, we had steady rain in the morning and temperatures in the 60s. DH and others in our group had the buffet breakfast at the hotel ($19.50). Waitress said anything ordered off the menu would take an extra 20 minutes.

 

We were on the bus by 9.30. Included in the tour was an “Anchorage City Tour”that, again, consisted of a drive around the city with Megan pointing out buildings, not really a “tour”. The bus dropped us at the Anchorage Museum and we spent about an hour going through some of the artic exhibits with the most interesting part being the clothing that used to be worn. Some in our group then walked a few blocks to the earthquake experience and said the video was corny but an overall good experience. Lots of facts given about the 1964 earthquake, which devastated the area and sent tidal waves down the entire US west coast. We then walked to Glacier Brew House for lunch. It was delicious. I had the chile lime shrimp salad. DH had a wonderful seafood chowder. 3 in our group got the fish and chips and loved them. It was extremely busy but our waitress was fast and efficient and recognized that many of us had tour time constraints.

 

We loaded on the bus at 1:00 pm and headed for Seward. We had one restroom break that allowed for some photos at a bird point overlook. The ride was scenic and our tour director gave commentary at various points. Wish there had been more chances to stop and take photographs.

 

We arrived at the Seward Windsong Lodge a bit after 4pm. We went to our rooms.Extremely “rustic” with a freezer setting outside with ice for guests. Very basic furnishings. Very noisy. We were in a floor level room and could hear all the movement and talking upstairs. Water flowing and flushes were loud. This is a basic travel lodge. The main lobby is nice and the staff were friendly and helpful.

 

They had a shuttle that ran every hour to downtown and various stops throughout downtown including the local grocery store. The shuttle driver, Mike, was friendly and said he returned to do the shuttle for 8 years now and drives ski shuttles in the western US when the season ends here. We have heard this from other drivers. He also told us about the many Serbian workers in the service industry here, including the local Safeway. We noticed many of them on the late shuttle going home.

 

We had dinner at Thorn’s Showcase Lounge, which I would not recommend. The waitress was extremely slow and not particularly friendly. Felt much like they did not care because they would not see us again. Also it cost$100 for 2 people. The raved about “halibut butts” were not very good. Just fried chunks of fish. I had the sautéed seafood dinner, which was no better than Red Lobster. The seafood chowder was good, but nowhere near as good as at Glacier Brewhouse in Anchorage. Would not eat here again or recommend it to others.

 

Walked back to the shuttle pickup point and Mike picked us and others from our hotel up and returned us safe and sound.

 

Not for sure why there is one overnight in Anchorage. You get in too late to enjoy the town in the evening and leave too early the next day to really fit in much touring. I would prefer to spend 2 nights in Anchorage or 2 nights in Seward,not 1 in each. This would be more restful also. After staying at the hotel in Seward (described below), my preference would be to spend an extra night in Anchorage, then get up and out of the hotel before lunch and be taken straight to the cruise dock in Seward. We could then get checked in and go back off the boat and walk around Seward if we wanted to, or just settle in on the ship.

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Sail date fromSeward – Day 7 of land tour

 

Bags out by 10 am. Would have been nice to sleep in but the bed was very uncomfortable and the room was noisy. Was up by 7 or 7.30. Nice hot shower with plenty of hot water and good water pressure. Hair dryer and fridge in the room. Sink and makeup mirror in the room area instead of the bathroom allowing one to get dressed while the other showered.

 

Met in the lobby at 9.15. Bus took us to the small boat marina area where we boarded a boat for the Resurrection Bay Wildlife Cruise.It was cold and rainy. Our first bad weather day of the trip. The boat took us to Fox Island where we were served a buffet of prime rib, salmon, beans, mashed potatoes, salad, and rolls. Food was nothing special – typical banquet food.You have only an hour at the island so by the time you eat you have almost no time to explore. The weather was bad so that really didn’t matter but if you had planned to see anything there it would not be possible if you were going to eat. We the returned to the boat and the captain took us around the area where we saw bald eagles nesting, puffins, some other birds that nest in the rocks,and 2 groups of sea lions. Finally the boat returned to the marina around 4.30.Way to long a trip. This is a $107 excursion that is part of the package. I would have preferred to have slept in and then had the bus take us straight to the ship, which we could see parked in the harbor. I wanted to skip the excursion and board the ship early but DH was hopeful of seeing more wildlife.This excursion should be offered as an option and not included in the package.

 

We said goodbye to Megan at the end of the excursion and then loaded the bus one more time. Ashley took us to the drop off for the Celebrity Millennium and we said goodbye to her there. The recommended tip for the tour director was $5/pp /day. The recommended tip for the driver was $4/pp/day.We thought both were excellent and we were able to see other drivers and guides in operation and couldn’t imagine suffering through them.

 

That was the end of the land tour. For us, the land tour was a perfect glance at various areas of Alaska and left us wanting to see more. We would not do another land tour in Alaska as we discovered that it is extremely easy to get around and would prefer to set our own itinerary. The constant moving from hotel to hotel is disruptive and a lot of time is spent packing,unpacking, and loading and unloading. I now see why so many recommend this as a DIY and would recommend doing it that way.

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Embarkation and first night

 

We were through check-in in a breeze as we are Elite and staying in Concierge this trip. 1 of our bags was already there so we started unpacking it. Our travel agent had sent a bottle of champagne and a vase of flowers. Later in the evening we also received a cheese tray from her. Within another 30 minutes we had our remaining 2 bags. By 6.30 we were unpacked and had met our room attendant. We also prepared a bag of clothes to be laundered.We got 20 pieces per person (1 bag up to 20 pieces) laundered for free as an Elite perk. We walked around with for a few minutes then headed to our designated area for the muster drill, which was at 7.45. The muster drill took almost 20 minutes as people were slow to get in place. After the drill we went straight to dinner.

 

This was the first night so we forgave the disorganization we faced in the main dining room. We were quickly met by our assistant waiter, Wilmex, who brought us waters but disappeared. Our waiter, Sumantra, came by and introduced himself but you could tell things were a bit off. I ordered escargot and it was ok but not as good as I remembered.You know how that goes. I had salmon for dinner and it was good. For dessert I had a banana-blueberry crepe and it was fine. We had to have our waiter track down a wine sommelier and a bartender for us as it was 30 minutes in and no one had checked in with us. By then we also had also not seen Wilmex. We ended up asking our waiter for teas and more waters. By the end of the night things had gotten better.

 

On the dress code - With it being the first night many diners, including us, wore jeans, t-shirts and sandals to dinner. We had heard that Alaska is super casual and we experienced that during this cruise.

 

Walked around the ship after dinner checking out the other evening snack offerings – pizza (not much out), pasta (fairly busy), and sandwiches (mostly crew). Also walked through the cosmo lounge, which was playing disco music and had maybe 50 people in there with a few dancing.

 

Grabbed a cup of hot chocolate from the café area and achocolate macaroon and headed back to the room.

 

It had been a busy week and a long day so we decided to turn in around 11.

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Day 2 of the Cruise (Saturday, 8/12/17) - Hubbard Glacier (cruising) 2p - 6p

 

First day was at sea and cruising in to see the Hubbard Glacier. We slept in late then headed to the Oceanview Café for the breakfast buffet. We had forgotten how crazy it can be the first full day and it being at sea. People everywhere but we found seating for 6 fairly quickly. Celebrity also had personnel helping with finding seating.

 

I started with my favorite – the Celebrity waffle. Sadly, it was cold. Tasted good, but it needed to be hot. Ends up the bacon was cold and the ham was cold. Also had a soft boiled egg from the eggs benedict station.This and the other to-order egg stations were busy the entire cruise with waits of 10 minutes or so for to-order eggs. As usual, the cantaloupe and pineapple were delicious. We do not eat in the dining room for breakfast or lunch as we like the variety available from the buffet and have never had a problem finding something good.

 

After breakfast we walked around the ship. We’ve been on the Millennium before and on each of the other Millennium class ships. We felt the ship was in great condition and saw only small signs of wear. Our cabin was in great shape. The bedding was good and the pillow selections (another Elite perk) were great. We had reserved an aft balcony for this cruise mainly for the views. We had 2 loungers, 2 upright chairs, and a small table on our extra-large balcony. It was windy, cold, and rainy during much of our cruising time so we didn’t venture outside much but we did enjoy the covered deck a couple of times each day.

 

We all grabbed some lunch buffet food around 1 pm then some ice cream. As expected, the buffet was extremely busy but the offerings varied and plenty of good items. The ice cream was also as good as I remember from prior cruises but the stations were always busy.

 

By 1.30 we were heading into the glacier area and the captain announced that with the wind and the rain he didn’t think we were be able to make it all the way in. To our delight 30 minutes later he came on and said the clouds were lifting and the rain slowing down. Next thing we know he says we are 5 miles out and it looked like we were getting a break in the weather. We made it within 1 mile of the glacier and the views were amazing.Felt like we were so close! He said that was the closest the ship had been all season. He did a full 2 rotations of the ship giving us remarkable views. He also exited around a small island giving us a continuous view of the glacier from our wonderful aft cabin. There was no calving while we were there. He said the blue on the face of the glacier indicated there had been recent calving and so it was unlikely there would be more. We also ventured up top during the Hubbard Glacier time and there were many people up there. The captain also opened the helipad for viewing after the wind and rained died down and there were quite a few people that took advantage of that. Chandru, the future cruises director,stopped and talked with our group while we were on the top deck and provided us with a lot of information about the glacier and the changes he has seen in his 10+ years with Celebrity. He was extremely nice and helped us locate a couple of seals on floating icebergs.

 

Around 5 pm our room attendant dropped off the laundry we had sent out the prior night. Less than a 24-hour turnaround. Note that though the items were clean, they were folded in a manner that had things very wrinkled. It was a free bag of laundry and nice to get those done in case we wanted to reuse them or be less laundry to do when we got home. Just be aware that if you want items pressed you must request pressing. An elite perk is one pressed item per cruise but we did not use that perk.

 

That night was the first of 2 “chic” nights. That was defined as designer jeans and a nice top or a nice dress for women and similar for men. My black levis (hey, they didn’t define designer) and a black sweater worked fine. We saw passengers of all dress level – even a couple of tuxedos and evening gowns. We did not see anyone in shorts or t-shirts that night but did see many diners in jeans. I know many members of this forum dislike the loss of the formal nights and the shift to a more casual dress code. I am not one of those. I dress up for work every day and enjoying being casual on vacation. We packed fewer closes for this cruise than prior Caribbean cruises because we reused most of our jeans and because there were no formal nights. With the increased baggage fees from the airlines,I was happy with the change. It was certainly the most casual dress I have experienced on any cruise.

 

We had dinner in the main dining room. We always find something good on the menu and don't normally visit the specialty restaurants, though the staff pushed the restaurant packages quite a few times. Our wait staff issues from the night before had been resolved for the most part but throughout the cruise we experienced problems getting wine and cocktails at dinner. The wine staff (I hesitate to call them all sommeliers as our wine waiter was not that knowledgeable and had difficulty recommending anything other than the selections listed on the menu) and the bar staff seem overwhelmed by the number of passengers ordering drinks, I assume because of the popularity of the drink packages. Our cruise fare included 1 perk and we chose the classic beverage package. We were able to buy any drink we wanted and the difference (if the drink was above the classic limit) was charged to our account. Neither of us drink enough to warrant any package but for us the classic beverage (covering bottled water also) was the perk of the most benefit to us. I do think the service level from the sommeliers and bartenders was better before the packages but it may just be that they have a lot more people filling these positions due to demand and, like many employers, have a hard time finding the right employees. We received 90 minutes each of free internet as another Elite perk. With us being in US ports almost daily, and us having Verizon cell service - which worked throughout most of our land tour also, we found this to be plenty as we could check email every day in port (except Icy Straight Point).

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Day 3 of the Cruise / Sunday, 8/13/17 - Juneau(9a – 9p)

As everyone here has warned, be prepared, it will rain in Juneau. That said, we had good weather until late in the day. It was a bit overcast in the morning but cleared up and then the rain started in earnest around 5 pm. Plenty of time to see things before then.

 

We were out for breakfast around 9.00 and off the boat by 10. We went straight to the Goldbelt Mount Roberts Tramway. You can purchase tickets on the boat or at the tramway, the cost - $33 - being the same either way. The ticket is valid all day and with the late departure in Juneau would have been nice to do again if the weather had cooperated. This was the highlight of our day at Juneau and one of the highlights of our trip. The car rises 1,800 feet from the cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau through the rain forest to the Mountain House, offering expansive views of Juneau and Gastineau Channel. When we got to the top of the tram, a patch of clouds had moved in and you could barely see anything below so we prepared to be disappointed; however, since we were there we decided to go ahead and walk some of the trails and within 15 minutes the wind started moving the clouds out. Before long we had wonderful views down to the cruise terminals and all around. We hiked the trail to Father Brown’s Cross and the loop above it for some amazing views and saw a hoary marmot along the way. This is a steep trail but not that difficult if you take your time. We did not hike the 5 mile roundtrip to Mount Robert’s 3,819 foot summit because we did not know how much time we would need to see the Mendenhall Glacier. There’s also a trail you can take back into town but the signs warn that it is a rough trail and you need to allow a couple of hours to do that. After our Mendenhall Glacier visit, we would have preferred to stay in this area and complete some of the hikes. I haven’t yet mentioned that flowers in Alaska are amazing. They are large and colorful and everywhere!

 

If you are going to visit Mendenhall Glacier you will want to purchase the combo tram/glacier package (available at the tramway ticket office or through Celebrity), which includes a shuttle to the glacier for an additional $30 (sorry, can’t remember exactly). If you purchase the shuttle pass from a vendor separately it will be $45 or so. We opted to take the city bus(only $2) though the locals said it would take an estimated 1 hour to get there, but that was because it included a 1.5 mile walk from the bus stop to the entrance to the park. There’s a paved path the entire way and a couple of good looks at the glacier along the way and some stream crossings where we saw some salmon running, but if you elect to do the city bus you must prepare to walk the final 1.5 miles. Though I had read on this forum that some were uncomfortable with some of the bus passengers, we did not have any issues and were comfortable the entire time. We had great cell coverage and downloaded the Capital Transit bus app to our cell phones and the app gave us all the route sand the real-time location of all the buses. This was great because we timed our visit to the glacier by monitoring the location of the buses scheduled to stop at the glacier bus stop as the last one runs around 4.30.

 

After we made it to the glacier we found that the only fee area is the visitor’s center and one of the trails called the photo trail. The rest of the areas were free so we took pictures at the sandy beach then walked the trail down to the waterfall. It was an easy walk and there were a lot of people there. Maybe because it was Sunday. The glacier was a treat, but certainly nothing compared to our visit to the Hubbard Glacier, though we were much closer. We saw some icebergs floating below the glacier. We spent about 1.5 hours walking around and taking pictures. Others in our group did a whale watching/glacier combo tour ($179 pp) and the bus gave them only 1 hour at the glacier so not enough time to walk any of the trails, which was fine for them. They said they say some water spouts and several whale tails but that was about it.

 

We were tired and thinking of taking a shuttle or taxi back but when we got to the stands none of the shuttles were scheduled to leave immediately and no taxis were there. We checked the transit app and realized a bus would be at the stop in 30 minutes so decided to hoof it to the stop. The app indicated we would need to get off around the Museum and do a 10 minute walk back into downtown as it would not run all the way to the harbor. We did that and then it started raining. We lucked up on the weather as we got in about 6 miles of walking without getting wet!

 

We decided to stop at Tracy’s Crab Shack. This placed lived up to its good reviews. We got a king crab combo, which consisted of 1 very large crab leg, 4 small crab cakes with a very taste dip, a cup of crab bisque,and 2 rolls. The cost was $40. It was plenty for the 2 of us and the food was great. The restaurant has large picnic tables and you eat with others. It was bustling but comfortable. The ship was parked in front of this restaurant and since it was really raining by that time we passed on shopping and went back to the ship to get ready for dinner. Others in our group shopped around the terminal area but said the shops offered typical tourist fare - t-shirts, canned salmon, etc.

 

Dinner that night was very good. The starter – short ribs ragout with gnocci was the best first course we had on the trip. Then I had the seafood pasta. For dessert I had chocolate lava cake with caramelized banana and vanilla ice cream. It was just the right size and tasty.

 

A trip to the casino after dinner reminded all of us that the house always wins, but the casino staff were friendly and the casino was clean. Our last cruise was a Panama Canal cruise on Holland America and we saved money on that cruise because they still allow smoking in the casino and we were driven out by the smoke several nights. We appreciated that Celebrity is smoke free in the casino. We stopped by Cafe al Bacio for some treats. We miss the shortbread cookies and other offerings we remembered from our Caribbean cruises but we did have a delicious cup of hot chocolate (covered under the classic beverage package).

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Day 4 of theCruise / Monday, 8/14/17 - Skagway (7a – 8.30p)

 

The ship arrived at 7:00 and the other 2 couples in our group had to be downstairs at 7:30 for an excursion that included a ride on the White Pass Train, a salmon bake lunch, gold mining, a trip to Liarsville, and a stop at Red Onion Saloon. The cost for their excursion was $259 pp. They enjoyed the train ride (they stopped around the summit and returned via a coach) and said that the salmon bake was very good and that they had a good time with the “madam” at the Red Onion Saloon. For the price of one excursion, we rented a large SUV for the entire day! DH and I also got to sleep in and have a leisurely non-crowded breakfast in the Oceanview Cafe. We reserved a car through Avis (basically the only game in town) and headed out to pick up the car around 9:30. Avis was in a small office in a hotel located a short walk (a mile or so) into town. We picked a Hyundai SUV for the comfort. Total rental for the day was $254 plus gas to fill back up was $19.

 

We drove to Emerald Lake following Murray’s guide (Murray Lundberg) (available for download on-line for only $5), which was extremely helpful for pointing out all the great photo spots. At many of the lookouts there are interpretive posters explaining the history of the area, including one at Deadhorse Gulch that emphasized how brutal and short-lived the gold rush era was for man and animal.

 

We stopped in Carcross for lunch.This town is maybe 10 miles before you reach Emerald Lake so a good place to stop for lunch either before visiting the lake or after. We ate at Chilkoot Trail Authentic Sourdough Bakery and had sandwiches put together by grandpa in the back. Literally, I could see the elderly gentlemen take out 2 pieces of bread and slather them with mayo and add some ham. Somehow that made it taste great. This shop did not take credit cards and that was true of most in the town. The owner explained that internet was not available so no way to process the cards. There was a family there at the same time we were and they had to rethink their order because they had limited cash. Be aware of this if you venture outside of Skagway. We got ketchup flavored potato chips (something not found in Tennessee), a yummy cinnamon bun, a chocolate chip cookie, and a rootbeer to go with our sandwich and enjoyed the lunch on their outdoor patio. We drove through town and took pictures along the beach and at the railroad. Also saw a family with a son wearing shorts and no shoes then we saw his shoes floating down the river. Not for sure on the story behind that one.

 

After lunch we stopped at the Carcross Desert, yes a desert surrounded by lots of water. There were several people hiking in the area.

 

We then finished the drive to Emerald Lake, which produced some amazing emerald shades, especially as the sun came out and really lit up the lake. We did not think the lake itself was as beautiful as the rest of the drive and the lake is hurt by a power line running along the road side of the lake that is hard to keep out of pictures. There’s a private home on the edge of the lake and another built on a hill a bit up from the lake. Both appear to have awesome views.

 

The entire drive was beautiful.We had wind and rain the first 15 minutes or so, but then sunny for the rest of the drive to Emerald Lake. It was overcast and raining for the drive back. With all the stops we made for pictures,lunch, and later ice cream, the entire trip took us just over 6 hours. You also pass through Canadian customs going out then US Customs coming back so you must take your passport on this trip. For us, this drive was the highlight of our entire trip and if you come to Skagway I recommend renting a car and driving to Emerald Lake.

 

When we got back into town there were some roads blocked off and the next thing we saw were the Royal Canadian Mounted Police performing in Skagway for the first time since 1995. A surprise treat. We returned the rental car and walked through some of the downtown gift shops. We finally headed back to the ship and walked over the salmon creek and watched some silvers swimming around with quite a few that had already died. Locals said that the town will start smelling of dead fish as the salmon die off over the next few weeks.

 

Cell coverage for Verizon was very good in Skagway but not available during the drive to Emerald Lake.

 

After getting dressed we headedup to the buffet for some snacking and they had “KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken”– as it was labeled on the ‘gourmet food” section. I got a kick out of that having worked at the original Kentucky Fried Chicken in Corbin, Kentucky when I was a teenager. Not for sure how they are getting around the KFC trademark issueJ.

 

We again had dinner in the main dining room. I had a caprese appetizer and a rigatoni entrée, then chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream.

 

After dinner we headed to the casino to contribute more to its upkeep and then turned in for the night around 11:30.

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Day 5 of the Cruise / Tuesday / 8/15/17- Icy Strait Point (6.30a – 3p)

 

After sleeping in and grabbing breakfast around 10 am, we walked into Icy Strait Point village off the pier and visited the warehouse shops and museum. It was nice that the pier leading to the village is mostly covered and is was raining. The shops were a nice break from the very touristy shops in other locations but still had plenty of t-shirts, salmon, and other typical gifts. After spending an hour or so touring the village, as recommended on these boards, we decided to walk to Hoonah even though it was raining. This was an easy walk along the coastline and there’s a large paved walking path the entire way. There is a shuttle available that runs constantly. I think it was $5.

 

Hoonah is an extremely small fishing village so the onlything to do was maybe grab a bit to eat for lunch, which we passed on as wewere not yet hungry. We did stop in the local grocery store and checked out theprices - $6.69 for a gallon of milk, $3.99 for a dozen eggs, $4.59 for 8 oz. ofcream cheese, and $10.55 for 1.75 quarts of Tillamook ice cream.

 

We talked to several people later in the day who had gone on a whale and bear watching tour and were extremely disappointed as they did not see anything except a few seagulls and got very wet during the trip. We also saw several groups doing a canoeing excursion in the rain. Didn’t seem like fun to us. Because of the weather (rainy and cloudy) only a few people did the zip-line, which appears to be the most popular excursion here.

 

We were back on the ship by 1 pm as were many of the other passengers. Lunch in the Oceanview Café was packed as people abandoned the village area and chose to eat on board. We all took naps in the afternoon, a well-needed rest.

 

So, why the stop in Icy Strait Point? Hopefully it helps the local economy and raises awareness about and provides revenue to the Tlingit population. All the shops in the warehouses are supposedly local-owned. Estimates are that since this stop began in 2004,and with the new dock being finished in 2014, the impact of the cruise business has grown and now accounts for half of the Hoonah economy. I’ll leave debate on who benefits the most – the cruise lines (who benefit from selling excursions where the port has limited activities to offer) versus the locals - to others but I will say that as cruisers who like to venture outside of the cruise line offered excursions,we found little to do here.

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Final words on the Cruise

 

Day 6 / Wednesday- 8/16/17 - Ketchikan (9a – 6p)

 

Another rainy day greeted us in Ketchikan. We took our time getting off the ship and wound our way to Creek Street. Because the salmon were not running, it was rather disappointing. The boardwalk area is neat and there were several shops with interesting local art. From there, we walked to the Totem Heritage Center. It was interesting to see the various totem poles that had been retrieved from abandoned villages near Ketchikan but note that other that the few in the main entry area the totem poles are displayed laying flat so the effect is somewhat minimized. There was a local student there to answer questions and provide historical context of the totem poles. I realized how little I knew about totem poles and really enjoyed the visit – except for one moment. This is where the most distressing thing I experienced during the cruise happened. While I was reading some of the information on exhibit, I heard this person ask the student whether it was true that the fish oil in the salmon is what caused the locals to have darker skin. I almost fell on the floor. How can someone be so brazen or ignorant? The student didn’t skip a beat and simply said he did not know the answer to that question and provided the gentlemen with some information on his tribal heritage. I was amazed at how well the student handled this.

 

After visiting the center, we walked a short distance to the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery & Eagle Center. We saw quite a few salmon working their way up a stream and saw several tanks containing small salmon to be released later. It was still raining pretty hard so we decided to return to town.

 

After walking through the various shops, we returned to the ship.

 

The was the second chic night. Again, most people wore jeans or khakis with us seeing only a few suits and a couple of tuxedos and cocktail dresses. The main dining room offered lobster tail and our waiter encouraged us to combine the steak offering with the lobster for a surf and turf. I prefer crab to lobster but the lobster was good but the winner of the night was the very good grand marnier soufflé. Though it had fallen by the time it reached our table it still tasted great.

 

Day 7 / Thursday -8/17/17 - Inside Passage (cruising)

 

This was a typical day at sea.Late breakfast in a crowded Oceanview Café – again, we still found a table for 6 fairly quickly. After breakfast cleared, we found a table and played cards for a couple hours. Lunch was busy and they brought out some of the better food of the trip – namely, cheese. For the first time during the cruise, the buffet had a cheese area that contained offerings beyond cheddar and swiss. It was still not like what we’ve experience on prior cruises, but at least we had a few other choices.

 

The views through the inside passage were amazing. We had not traveled on a ship where land was so close on both sides. The captain even spotted a pod of orcas off the starboard side in the afternoon and alerted us to them. The sunset was also beautiful.

 

We played some more in thecasino, then packed our bags, which were to be outside our doors by 10 pm. Later went to dinner and enjoyed some final moments with the dining room staff.

 

Disembarkation day/ Friday- 8/18/17 - Vancouver (7 a.m.)

 

Our flight was scheduled to leave Vancouver at 2.30 so we were in no hurry on disembarkation day. We went to breakfast at 7:30 and had a final waffle. The Oceanview Café was scheduled to close breakfast at 8:30 a.m. We finished breakfast around 8 and headed to our room to pack our toiletries and clothes from the night before. We checked the disembarkation gangway and saw no line so we went ahead and disembarked. This has always worked for us in the past but this time our bags were still not unloaded. The port had an elevator not working so they were behind in unloading the luggage. We stepped out of the way and watched while some panicked passengers with earlier flights searched desperately for their bags.There were some heated statements from some of the passengers but the port personnel truly appeared to be moving as fast as they could. Even with our flight scheduled for 2.30 we had our bags by 9:30. It took another hour to work our way through Canadian customs and then through US immigration.

 

We grabbed a taxi to the airport. The trip took about 40 minutes and cost $45 for 4 people with 8 bags of luggage. We could not check our bags at the airport until 11:30 but that process went quickly when we did. Our flight departed late as did our connecting flight in Seattle. We finally made it Nashville around 1 am.

 

Overall, it was a wonderful cruise. I thought the ship was in great condition and the food was as good as in the past, though the main dining room service might be hurting some from all the new pay venues, with me assuming those venues are cannibalizing some of the main dining room staff. After the first day, the food in the Oceanview Café was always the appropriate temperature and I feel there was plenty of variety. I still prefer the island style layout on the Solstice class ships as the flow during even busy times is so much better. We are unlikely to do another Alaskan cruise as we would prefer to see much more of the Alaskan frontier but this cruise and the land tour introduced us to the beautiful Alaskan landscape and we are very happy we did both and that we did it with Celebrity.

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Very interesting review. We have done two round trip Seattle to Seattle Alaska inside passage cruises but never into the interior. We plan to. Your review has convinced me that our decision to rent a car and spend up to two weeks there is what we need to do, not get on a bus with a set schedule. We want to pick out where we eat, where we stay, when we stop, and what we do. I know we want 4 days on the Kenai Peninsula, a couple in Anchorage, a couple on the way to Denali and about 4 there, and then down to Anchorage to fly home. Does that sound about right?

 

We did totally different things than you did on our days in Alaska. Interesting to read what others do.

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Very interesting review. We have done two round trip Seattle to Seattle Alaska inside passage cruises but never into the interior. We plan to. Your review has convinced me that our decision to rent a car and spend up to two weeks there is what we need to do, not get on a bus with a set schedule. We want to pick out where we eat, where we stay, when we stop, and what we do. I know we want 4 days on the Kenai Peninsula, a couple in Anchorage, a couple on the way to Denali and about 4 there, and then down to Anchorage to fly home. Does that sound about right?

 

We did totally different things than you did on our days in Alaska. Interesting to read what others do.

 

Claudia B, I'm still happy we did the land tour so that we could get an easy introduction that did not require a lot of planning on our part at the time. But, when we are able to return we will do what you plan to do - rent a car, stay where we want to stay, etc. I know there are wonderful places to eat in Alaska and we felt we did not have time to explore that to any extent. With this being our first visit, I'm certainly not a good one to advise on the time required to visit any area and I think how much time you will need depends on what you want to do and how you travel. We love driving through the varied landscapes, watching wildlife, and day hiking (not backcountry camping style), and we tend to stop at every turn in the road. It takes us a while to get from point A to point B when we do it at our pace. In talking with our coach driver Ashley as well as the shuttle drivers in Denali and Seward, all 3 having spent years working in Alaska, I think you can spend weeks in each area and still have more to see.

 

It is so interesting to read what different cruisers chose to do at each stop. We had such a hard time deciding with such limited time in each port and so many suggestions on this wonderful board. In the end were happy with what we did but we know we barely scratched the surface and it certainly has us planning a return. What would you suggest for the ports we visited if we did another cruise?

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Thank you for such a well-thought out and detailed review. I enjoyed reading it even though it made me realize how much I miss that we are skipping our Alaska trip in favor of the Caribbean this year. Time to start looking at next year's itineraries, I think...

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Thank you for your review. I see you took the local bus in Juneau. I assume it was easy to find and catch? We are thinking of doing that and just heading to Fred Meyer's to pick up some items that we can't get in Canada.

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Thank you for your review. I see you took the local bus in Juneau. I assume it was easy to find and catch? We are thinking of doing that and just heading to Fred Meyer's to pick up some items that we can't get in Canada.

 

Yes, it was very easy to find and catch. https://juneaucapitaltransit.org/ is the website and it shows the various stops and routes or we downloaded the android app to our phones while we were in the city. When we asked anyone close to the ship they kept referring us to the high cost shuttles but we finally asked a crossing guard and he told us how easy the city bus was to use and pointed us to the closest stop.

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