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Norwegian Sun northbound Vancouver to Seward, 4 day cruisetour: Denali Alyeska explor


skierjj
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Hi I realize that this review is nearly 2 years old but I just had to write it to get this off of my to do list!

Mike and I, Joyce were 60 and 58 respectively when we took this cruise. This would have been our 10th cruise, we cruise mostly with NCL. This was our 2nd time to Alaska. We had nearly a year after booking the cruise and cruisetour to plan and research our trip. We chose this one due to the longer time in Denali park, the tundra wilderness tour; also I wanted to see the ski resort: Alyeska

We went with our friends, Glenna and Dave. Although we did a lot of stuff on our own.

This review will have tons of pictures and it may take me a while to get it all done.

Her is a picture of the Sun. (This was actually taken in Chile in 2016).b27db9487fd5a8dd7e0a43523ff92949.jpg

 

 

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We flew into Vancouver with heavy baggage because we were going to be experiencing many types of activities and weather possibilities. We took a taxi to Hampton Inn downtown near BC place stadium. It's a nice location with walking distance to most activities in Vancouver.

We went to the casino close by that night. Had dinner there. It was ok.

Next day, (we really only had 1 full day in Vancouver):

We had already had a bus tour of Vancouver from our first trip to Alaska so we had already been to Stanley Park. My goal this trip was to experience Capilano suspension bridge park and then go to Granville island. Then I wanted to have a nice dinner in Gaslamp area.

Capilano suspension bridge park:

We bought our tickets online beforehand. There are many bus stops in the city that will pick you up near your hotel. There are helpful people to advice you where to pick up the bus or even sell you the tickets right there. I think we walked a few blocks to get to the closest bus route.

I would advise you to get there early to do all of the bridges, treehouses, visit the raptor area, get your hot chocolate and leave before all the big crowds come.67bf1b09fb4f24e43d44b1abd7cab59e.jpgf6e111f0348017465431e993bd296daa.jpg71e3977ef8efd03815cd207937f0bb5f.jpg4359235fec2d0a232486ed32d0aaa514.jpg5ea3974fa3ba71d5e0d59a7cbabfc07d.jpg

 

 

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Here are a a couple more from Capilano and some from Granville island:

To get to Granville island, we took a "bathtub ferry" from one of the main streets, (FYI the Sheraton, where Glenna and Dave stayed, was on that street).

Granville island is very cute with beautiful farmers markets, shopping, art galleries and restaurants. I just wanted a nice place where we could eat, drink and watch the seaplanes and boats and yachts and look at the beautiful skyline and buildings of Vancouver. What a pretty city it is!85333d35b4e114fa96ea6dc8cde03192.jpg

See the fish?ce2c68a7f35820ea924d1019b1c8d68c.jpg97bc9faacba945163bcb2ed75d14e50c.jpg07e5a650198a41e59f309770a5e83f0b.jpgfb6e81f03c72cb5a7dc96efc1ed4daa6.jpg

 

 

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We went back to our hotels to rest, get packed up for embarkation the next day, and get ready for dinner. We met at Pourhouse in Gastown for dinner. Great food and music. I don't have any pictures from this dinner.

After dinner, we started walking back to our hotel. I got us all turned around and walked into the bad part of the city. (Yes even Vancouver has a bad part of town). We were kind of in the skid row area, I turned on my cell phone (which I didn't want to do so I wouldn't incur roaming charges), but we had to find our way back to the hotel. Anyway we ended up finding a waiting taxi and hopped in. It was only less than a mile or so.

I get back to the hotel and ATT sent me a notice of roaming charges. They wanted to bill me over $100 for 30 minutes of cell data! I was able to call them and explain the situation and they charged me only $30.

(We now have new phones and are with Verizon now).

Lesson learned.

Next day: Canada place for the start of our cruise portion of the trip! Yay!

 

 

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We took a cab to Canada place around 11:00 a.m. Dropped our big bags off. Huge slow lines, but everyone was happy with anticipation. They sold binoculars here in line, I was glad we brought our good big pair, I used them often to spot wildlife, then Mike took pictures.

We are part of casinos at sea program so we went through that line after that we got through the Canadian part. (Showing your passport etc.).

We were on board, I think we were able to access our room immediately to drop our small bags off.

We did not have the ultimate beverage package on this trip, but we had free drinks in the casino. They were more liberal with what you could order in the casino in those days.

We purchased some wine on wine package. Made restaurant reservations. Bought the gourmet dinner with just 12 people all together, which comes with wine pairings, photos with chefs and dining staff, and a behind scenes kitchen tour a couple of days later. Once in a lifetime experience and we are glad we did it. Met some really nice people and good conversations. We bought the murder mystery lunch which turned out to be bad all the way around.

We had an aft balcony which turned out to be fabulous and awesome for Alaska! We loved it so much, we missed most of the shows that week. Preferring to stay out on our patio looking for wildlife, viewing glaciers etc. We did get some soot on our patio. Noise was not a problem, or the smells that people talk about in the aft of the Sun was not a problem.

Next we go under Lions Gate bridge on our way out of Vancouver.8e15dbf285d8faaae05730c324706701.jpg46d636a45a2908841dcf80ac56079ed6.jpga769a2f6dce2498bda9dfb0db25052e3.jpg9733746a6216b8f56349230759a24a96.jpg52761b50cd7450676afab5f5e7d4f73c.jpg083d34bae9b9da0c4e1cd4a4379dd61e.jpg

 

 

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Next is a tour of the Sun. I took these photos on Hubbard Glacier day ( one of our last days), as sadly the captain chose not to visit the Hubbard because it was too foggy, too many icebergs early in the season. We were so disappointed. Especially since Dave had not seen the massive Hubbard Glacier; (the rest of us saw it on our previous trip to Alaska in 2005).

Anyway here is a tour of the Sun, please disregard our messy aft cabin:06f8ec60ccc7f4a6bc9564c174b61be6.jpg63195e39782a80bc082a7b0e471c0700.jpg0b47e9b995c9845206618dd7ff095978.jpg348236a87ffd1ca1d90ffe737993e834.jpg74ad7646ab990c71c396a8f30288406f.jpg3e9142a8f92870b26d983a12f56c0aee.jpg

 

 

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Next up Ketchikan:

We had a bit of a change in our first excursion: we were supposed to go out fishing with a captain from Northern Lights fishing. I had talked to him at length several times while planning our trip. He was so nice and loved Alaska. About a month before our trip, his wife called and said that he had passed away. Oh no! He was so nice, I was looking forward to meeting him.

Our backup plan was to flight see Misty fjords national monument with Michelle from island wings. We were very late booking this tour and I'm glad that we were able to get two spots.8f950814223146dd772ac3ace265d324.jpg4fd14b0ca4be4826b3ead88e3b1d8585.jpg

More to come from our others camera.

 

 

 

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The best part of this excursion was our pilot Michelle and her classic de haviland "lady ester" plane. What a thrill to fly in this little beauty! We landed in one of the fjords.596366e2b04294331aea85822dd711d0.jpgc3f093a98ce35656a1743c87df87d8e6.jpg24bac9f682ddedd704b9df1a1aa7ea78.jpgfe0e675f1bed3909e1170ce43407b414.jpg399ae2f7e43400dbb72ac8237a4e40d6.jpg216959b4919c6105c9f2635afe9a29e5.jpg

 

 

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