mathed101

We will be staying in the following towns and would like to know if you have any favorite places to dine? We love eating like a local and we also like to get fresh seafood to prepare at our rental cabins. Please feel free to tell me what you like to order too!! Seward, Palmer, Glacier View, Fairbanks, Denali area, Talkeetna, Anchorage, Whittier

Thanks so much! I found it!

How do you check to see if you were awarded the bonus Cruise Day credits?

We had a fabulous tour with Jayleen! After the tour she dropped us off at Mendenhall about a half mile from the visitor's center due to her lack of permitting at the Mendenhall glacier. She gave us taxi information and even called one for us to schedule a pick up time to take us back to our ship.

I totally agree with you! We rented a jeep in 2019 for 4 of us. The jeep company actually had a sightseeing tour book with information about each stop that you could read or listen to a CD. We were able to get out of town before all of the tour buses so we were ahead of them at each of the popular photo stops and we could stay as long we wanted. We drove up past Emerald Lake too and found Lewes Lake. It was an adventure and well worth the trip to see the beauty of both lakes. It was relaxing to go at our own pace and all by ourselves. In 2019 the rental, including taxes and fees, was only $303 but now it is $478!! Still a decent deal but quite the jump in price.

At first I was centered around Denali, as you are, since we had booked the Triple Denali tour giving us 3 days there. After some further research and review I decided that the 5 days on the itinerary spent on land with an emphasis on Denali, given the road closure, was not the best use of our time or money. There was so much more that we could be seeing and doing for less money! It is still the plan to go up to Fairbanks and see Denali because I just want to get up and travel as far North as possible to see the beautiful area/aurora (🙏🏻), stay in a hand built log cabin on a homestead and just spend some time relaxing in the outdoors with my family. I am undecided as to what to do with the trip to/past Denali so we may or may not do the bus transit in the park. I need to do some more research! We are very excited to do just about anything in Alaska and glaciers are going to be a big part of that as is wildlife. We want to have a good mix overall with land and water tours.

Thanks for link.🙂 I originally had the 26 glacier cruise and considered/liked to idea of moving it to the cruise embarkation day but then I saw the Hubbard Glacier Excursion! We have a credit from HAL to use so I booked that one. I was still going to do the 26 glaciers but someone suggested the Kenai Fjords which adds a bunch of other stuff too. So I am thinking, as you pointed out that, we may be sick of glaciers before we even go on the ship! LOL Also, we want to do a whale watching tour in Juneau with Jayleen. We had such a great experience with her and the whales in 2019 that we want to do it again with our family!

Here's a revision based on input and further research!! Many thanks to those of you who have posted a response to me and to others that are seeking information. 😊 Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions on this new version. Day Date Plan Saturday 9/2 Arrive ANC, Pickup Rental, Drive to Seward, Stay in Seward Sunday 9/3 Exit Glacier Hike, Scenic Places around Seward, Stay in Seward Monday 9/4 Kenai Fjords w/Major Marine, Stay in Seward Tuesday 9/5 Portage Lake, Byron Glacier Trail hike, Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center, Stay in Palmer Wednesday 9/6 Matanuska Glacier Tour, Stay in Palmer Thursday 9/7 TBA Fairbanks Activities, Stay in Fairbanks Friday 9/8 Drive to Denali/transit bus tour, Stay in Talkeetna Saturday 9/9 Drive to Reindeer Farm, Hatcher Pass, Independence Mine State Park, Return Rental, Stay in Anchorage Sunday 9/10 Train to Whittier, Embark Noordam Monday 9/11 Cruising Hubbard Glacier, Hubbard Glacier Excursion from ship Tuesday 9/12 Cruising Glacier Bay Wednesday 9/13 Skagway, Self-guided Jeep Tour to Yukon Thursday 9/14 Juneau, Whale Watching Tour, Mendenhall Glacier Friday 9/15 Ketchikan, TBA Activities Saturday 9/16 Scenic Cruising Inside Passage Sunday 9/17 Disembark Vancouver, BC, CA, Fly home ☹

Very interesting and again a small world up there even though the population is pretty good size. I am looking forward to going so far north! Thank you for your opinion on staying there too. It helps to know about these things from people that live and breath in the area that one is visiting!

Thanks so much! I have visited the nps site but only did a cursory look so this link really helped figure some things out. We will drive to the Denali Bus Depot from Fairbanks the morning of the 8th. I am checking into the reservation system now. Do you have any words of wisdom, advice, or tips that you would like to share regarding the transit buses or time of day to visit or etc...?

How about that!! Small world up there in Fairbanks! Lol We are booked there because we thought that it was as good of a chance as any to see the aurora there and it looks like a pretty nice place to stay. We are staying in The Spruce House which is the one that Kory built. Have you ever been out there? Does the cousin live on the property somewhere? What do you think about staying there?

We are staying at A Taste of Alaska Lodge. Do you know of it?

Thanks so much for your thoughts! During my research I did notice that there were very few touristy things to do which is a plus for us. We picked lodging on a homestead in part for the aurora viewing but also for some time just being up north. Since we have lived in Florida for over a decade and miss our northern home states, Alaska will fill this void for a little bit!!

Wow! I was expecting about 6 hours from Glacier View to Fairbanks since we will be going up there after the Matanuska Glacier Tour.

Thanks! It doesn't seem to be an issue as you have said. I just checked again on the Phillips website, this time I looked at the PDFs and this is what I found there: I also found under the Cruise Ship tab:

Question... If we did the train/26 Glacier Tour on Sunday, 9/10 booked directly with Phillips cruises, where would we store our luggage until we checked in for embarkation?

So very true! We took a RT Alaska cruise in 2019 and definitely loved it and Alaska. This time we really want to spend even more time exploring away from the cruise ports.

I hear ya! I am already wondering about what after the trip hindsight thoughts I will have!! LOL Either way, it will be an interesting and fun adventure in Alaska! 😊

Well I feel like I should rethink putting 3 nights in Fairbanks on my list however we will have to go for at least one night due to a nonrefundable deposit! Going back to the drawing board...

Thanks for the response! Would you please elaborate on why you would skip Fairbanks? We were trying to figure out what to do at Denali NP. Would you recommend the Tundra Wilderness Tour or something else?

Thank you for your response! I originally had this tour on the 9/10 but changed it to 9/4 to avoid the cruise ship crowds. I will give it a bit more thought to see if there's something else we might want to do on the 4th.

We decided to ditch the land tour portion of our cruise tour in favor of a DIY tour. Our rental car, lodging, and cruise have already been booked. Based on what we like to do, the many recommendations from CC, and various other sources, we are trying to do a bit of a "highlights" land tour and hope to see the northern lights. Any suggestions regarding activities in Fairbanks, Ketchikan, and what to do in Denali, given the road issue, would be much appreciated. Here are the basics of our plan. Day Date Plan Saturday 9/2 Arrive ANC, Pickup Rental, Drive to Seward Sunday 9/3 Exit Glacier Hike, Scenic Places around Seward Monday 9/4 Drive to Whittier, 26 Glacier Tour, Drive to Palmer Tuesday 9/5 Matanuska Glacier Tour, Drive to Fairbanks Wednesday 9/6 TBA Fairbanks Activities Thursday 9/7 TBA Fairbanks Activities Friday 9/8 Drive to Denali, Talkeetna Saturday 9/9 Drive to Reindeer Farm, Hatcher Pass, Independence Mine State Park, Return Rental Sunday 9/10 Train to Whittier, Embark Noordam Monday 9/11 Cruising Hubbard Glacier Tuesday 9/12 Cruising Glacier Bay Wednesday 9/13 Skagway, Self-guided Jeep Tour Thursday 9/14 Juneau, Whale Watching Tour Friday 9/15 Ketchikan, TBA Activities Saturday 9/16 Scenic Cruising Inside Passage Sunday 9/17 Disembark Vancouver, BC, CA, Fly home ☹

Thanks for the lounge info. I don't know how much we're going to be in the lounge but I am excited to find out!! BTW, I appreciate all of your past posts about upgrades as they have been very helpful to me when figuring out what dollar value would be considered to be a good deal.j

Sounds like you enjoyed your upgrade!! I chose a cabin a bit down the way from the lounge though. I wasn't sure about being so close to the door of the lounge etc...but I sure can see how convenient it could be!