Review of our 2013 cruise/land tour with Holland America (Zaandam)

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At 1 pm there was a polar bear plunge in the outdoor pool. I was surprised at how many people participated in that. They lucked out with relatively warm weather for it, however.

 

 

The ship also stopped for a little while at Lamplugh Glacier, which was also spectacular. We were just in awe of the beauty surrounding us this whole day. I was fascinated by all the ice in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Later in the afternoon, we saw some whales playing and jumping near the shoreline. They were pretty far from us, but we could see them with the binoculars. One of them was laying on its side and kept slapping its fin against the water.

 

After our cruisetour meeting we went to the early presentation of the show that night – Rockin’ Roadhouse – featuring the Zaandam singers and dancers. We wanted to sit in the balcony, but there was a sign on the entrance saying that it was closed because they wanted people to sit on the main floor to create an intimate environment, or something like that. Basically, it was a small crowd so they didn’t want it to look empty by having everyone spread out. The show was okay, but nothing great. I preferred the other show they had done. It was supposed to feature country music, but some of the music I would not consider country, even by today’s standards.

 

That evening we ate dinner in the MDR. I was glad to be back there after having eaten in the Lido the last couple of nights. Tonight was our second formal night.

 

After dinner we decided to go back to the cabin and try and do some laundry. There was a self-service laundry not too far away from our cabin. We had to wait a little while for a machine to open up, but not too long. We were able to get a couple of loads done. The machines take quarters, which you can get from the front desk. The washing machines have built in soap. There is a little button that you push to dispense the soap. I had brought a couple of dryer sheets to use in the dryer. There is also an iron and ironing board in the laundry room for people to use.

 

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At sea

 

Today was my birthday!

 

We, again, had breakfast in the Lido. We spent the day mostly relaxing. DH bought me a ring for my birthday that I had admired at a sidewalk sale the day before. Fortunately, it was still being sold at the sale price. It was from a line of jewelry that they had on board called Shablool. It is from Israel and all the pieces were gorgeous! I wasn’t familiar with this brand, but I am now a fan of it. (If you like jewelry, you should check out their website – www.shablool.com). We also went to look at our pictures that the ship had taken and ended up purchasing a few of them.

 

One bummer thing that happened was that I really wanted to eat lunch in the MDR that day. The schedule said that they were open from noon – 1:30 pm. We showed up about 10 or 15 minutes after 1 and the maître de turned us away saying that they didn’t have any more room. He said that the downstairs had been used for a private luncheon and that they had to set up on the other half of the upstairs area for the afternoon tea (which wasn’t until 3). So, they were only using a small portion of the upstairs for the lunch crowd. He said that he had already turned away 18 people before us. I think that this was very poor planning on their part.

 

Another thing we did that day was go to a trivia session. I love trivia - DH doesn’t. However, since it was my birthday, I told him that he had to go with me. J We had a respectable score, but didn’t win. However, everyone got a souvenir pin. We also spent a little bit of time listening to a guitar player, who was very good.

 

At dinner in the MDR tonight, just as we were finishing up with dessert, our waiter brought me a birthday cake and several of the waiters sang to me. We were already pretty full from dinner and dessert, but still managed to eat a big portion of the cake, which was pretty good.

 

After dinner we walked around a little and then reluctantly went back to our cabin to pack. Our suitcases had to be set outside the room by midnight. For our land portion of the trip, we were only allowed to bring one suitcase each (of any size) and a small carry on (like a tote bag or backpack – not like the rolling carry ons that you can take on the plane). Everything else was sent on ahead to meet you at your final tour destination (Fairbanks, in our case). We were given luggage tags to designate which bags were which. We had each brought one big suitcase and one smaller, carry on suitcase. We took the large suitcases with us on the road, and sent the smaller bags ahead (we put items we wouldn’t need anymore, like our formal wear and souvenirs in them). We used a backpack and a tote bag as our carry ons for the week. (Note: you won’t have access to your big bag during the day, so you need to carry any essentials that you may need in your carry on).

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After dinner we walked around a little and then reluctantly went back to our cabin to pack. Our suitcases had to be set outside the room by midnight. For our land portion of the trip, we were only allowed to bring one suitcase each (of any size) and a small carry on (like a tote bag or backpack – not like the rolling carry ons that you can take on the plane). Everything else was sent on ahead to meet you at your final tour destination (Fairbanks, in our case). We were given luggage tags to designate which bags were which. We had each brought one big suitcase and one smaller, carry on suitcase. We took the large suitcases with us on the road, and sent the smaller bags ahead (we put items we wouldn’t need anymore, like our formal wear and souvenirs in them). We used a backpack and a tote bag as our carry ons for the week. (Note: you won’t have access to your big bag during the day, so you need to carry any essentials that you may need in your carry on).

 

 

Very interesting. I'm guessing since we're land then sea that we'll get to send a bag to Skagway where we pick up our ship. Helps to decide how to pack doesn't it.

[margob111]

Thanks for the review. I'm doing a land/cruise on Princess in May so am reading everyone's reviews for my notes - even though the ships are not the same, I get everyone's perspectives on what to do in each port. Love the pictures.

[cactusflower]

Thanks for the comments! Lake_Wannabees - I'm guessing that will be the plan for you, but I think it varies depending on your itinerary, so make sure you check your travel documents before you go.

 

 

Our schedule today was that we needed to be out of our cabin by 9:30 am and we needed to meet up with our tour group in the showroom at 11:30 am. The Lido would open for lunch at 11 am. We had pre-ordered room service for breakfast this morning. It arrived on time and everything was good. When we left our room we went to one of the lounge areas to read. It was interesting being on the ship during this transition time, when most passengers had left, but the new ones had not come on board yet, and the crew was cleaning the ship.

 

Around 10:30 they made an announcement that the elevators would be closed while they did some testing of something or other. Unfortunately, they were still off line when it came time to go to the Lido – 4 levels up. It was probably around 11:15 when they announced that they were back on line.

 

We ate a quick lunch and headed down to the showroom to begin the next portion of our tour. After everyone got checked in, we headed off the ship one last time (in the rain), and boarded a bus. Our tour guide, Rachel, who would be with us the whole trip, introduced herself and went over a few items.

Our tour group had a range of ages in it. There was a family with two young boys (who were, thankfully, very well-behaved), a young newlywed couple, many middle-aged couples and a few older folks (but I don’t think there was anyone older than their 70’s and everyone was very active).

 

Our destination was the Alyeska Resort, in the town of Girdwood. We stayed there for two nights and I wish I could have stayed a week. This is Alaska’s only 5-star resort. The hotel and the grounds are beautiful and the rooms are very comfortable. They give you a free (included in the cost of the room) bottle of water and chocolate square each day. It is a ski lodge in the winter. The resort sits at the base of Alyeska mountain. In the summer, there are trails that you can hike. They have a tram that you can take to the top of the mountain (for a fee), but we never took it up because the weather was so overcast the whole time we were there that we didn’t think it would be worth the cost – even though I had a 2-for-1 coupon from the Northern Lights book. (As we were leaving the hotel, I found someone in the lobby to give the coupon to).

 

There is a shuttle that runs between the hotel and the town. It is free for hotel guests. (Though, we ended up tipping the driver because he was so helpful and friendly). I had a craving for pizza and saw a listing for a place called Coast Pizza. We mentioned it to a clerk in one of the stores at the hotel and she said it was good, so we decided to go. It turned out to be a little disappointing. It was not in the main part of town, it was in a strip mall at the edge of the highway and the turnoff to go to Girdwood. The pizza place was more of a take-out/delivery type place, though they did have a few tables and chairs and sold pizza by the slice, as well as whole pizzas. They even had pizza with salmon on it, but we didn’t try that. The pizza was okay, not great, and the ambiance was not what I would have liked. In the same strip center there was also an ice cream shop with a wide variety of flavors (including some I’d never heard of before made out of native flowers). We got ice cream for dessert and it was good. There was also a little souvenir shop that we looked at while waiting for the shuttle to come back. Some of the other people in our tour group ate at the Double Musky and raved about it. (Fyi – it is closed on Monday nights).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

Beautiful pictures.

That was wonderful that you got to spend your birthday in Alaska.

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Thanks Krazy Kruizers - and it was a good way to spend my birthday. :)

 

 

(Still at Hotel Alyeska)

 

Today people were on their own to spend the day however they chose. I had pre-booked a Prince William Sound boat excursion (the 5 ¼ hour Surprise Glacier tour) with Major Marine Tours. I used a 2-for-1 coupon from the Northern Lights coupon book. I also purchased the on-board lunch and the round-trip transportation package. We were scheduled to be picked up at our hotel at 10:30 am. Before that we grabbed breakfast at the Tramway Café in the hotel. This is just a grab-and-go, counter service venue with Starbucks coffee, deli foods, etc. They advertise breakfast sandwiches, but the clerk said they were all out of them (along with some other breakfast items as well) so we ended up getting oatmeal and muffins, which was good.

 

The shuttle picked us up and delivered us to the dock in Whittier. One interesting experience was going through the Whittier Tunnel. The only road to the small town of Whittier goes through this tunnel (there is a toll to use the tunnel, but I’m not sure what it is because it was included in our total cost). What makes it unique is that the tunnel is also used by the train – they alternate on a schedule because there is only room for one or the other. Also, the car traffic can only go one direction at a time, so they alternate as well. So, if you are driving on your own, and need to be in Whittier by a certain time, you need to look up the schedule and factor that into your timetable. The tunnel is very narrow (cars go single file) and very long (it is the second longest tunnel in North America). Also, the tunnel closes at 11 pm so whichever side you are on, that is where you are staying for the night!

 

One other interesting tidbit about Whittier - there is one high-rise building that stands taller than all the other buildings. We were told that the majority of the town’s residents all live in that one building!

 

When we were waiting for the shuttle to pick us up, we spoke to another tourist who said that they had done the tour the day before and loved it, but he also said that they had had good weather that day. We were not so blessed. It rained and sleeted the entire trip and was also very windy and overcast. We had our rain gear on so we stayed out on deck for the first half of the trip (we stayed inside for the return portion), but the conditions were pretty miserable. I only got a few pictures because I was worried about ruining my camera. The highlight of the trip was that we did get to see a number of sea otters floating around on their backs. One of them had a baby on its belly, as well. They were so cute! I could tell that the scenery would have been more beautiful if the cloud cover hadn’t been so low. Oh, we also saw a lot of commercial fishing boats, which was interesting. When we got to Surprise Glacier the boat stopped and floated for a while so that people could get a good look at it. On the return trip the boat went by a rookery where hundreds of birds were hanging out on the side of a cliff. There was also a couple of pretty waterfalls at that spot.

 

At some point on the trip they served a buffet lunch of salmon and prime rib (there was also rice and bread and I think another item, which I am forgetting). The food was pretty good. Later, they also served dessert (cheesecake and brownies).

 

One fun thing was that they fished out some glacial ice, cleaned it up and chopped it up into smaller chunks and you could buy a drink with it as your ice cube. It was neat to be eating ice that was thousands of years old.

 

The crew was nice and there was a spunky park ranger on board serving as a naturalist, as well. She did a junior park ranger program for the kids. The tour company can’t help the weather, so I don’t fault them at all. We made the best of it and we also enjoyed talking to our tablemates on the boat, but I would not do it again under those same circumstances.

 

One last item - unlike when we were on our cruise ship going through icy waters, in this smaller boat you could hear the ice clunking against the hull of the boat. That was rather interesting.

 

That night we just ate dinner at a restaurant inside the hotel, which was good.

 

Surprise Glacier:

 

 

Those dots on the side of the cliff are birds:

 

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This morning we had to have our suitcases set outside the door (I think the deadline was 8 am). A note about the luggage – each departure morning, we were told to have our luggage sitting outside our door by a certain time (which was always a time earlier than when we would physically depart). Someone would come and collect the luggage and you wouldn’t see it again until you arrived at your next hotel. It would be transported separately (for instance, a truck drove it to the next stop rather than it being on the bus or train that we were on). Except for one time, the luggage was always sitting in our hotel room waiting for us when we arrived. The one exception was when we arrived at the Hotel Alyeska that first day. The truck driving the luggage had gotten delayed and it didn’t show up until several hours after we did.

 

We were to meet up in the lobby around 10 of 11 (there was an exact time, I just don’t remember it). DH and I ate breakfast in their full-service breakfast venue that morning. They have a buffet or you can order off the menu. It was very good. We then walked around the grounds some before meeting up with our group. I hated to leave; it was so beautiful and relaxing there.

 

We all boarded another bus to drive to Anchorage. On the way there, however, we had a couple of excursions. The first was a Portage Glacier boat ride. This boat ride lasted about an hour. Once again, we had rainy weather, though it was not as bad as the day before. Because we had our rain gear, we stayed out on deck the whole trip. They also fished out a piece of glacial ice which people could touch. If this was your only chance to see a glacier up close, then it would be a good trip, but if you have already had other opportunities to see glaciers, then I would not necessarily recommend doing this trip (if you are on your own – this was included in our trip).

 

 

 

After the boat ride, we got back on the bus and were driven over to their restaurant/gift shop, so that people could eat lunch. This was one time where being on a tour was frustrating. The restaurant just had counter service, so as we filed off the bus we stood in line while 1 person at a time placed their order and got their food. Because DH and I had been at the back of the bus, we were one of the last people to get our food. Well, our allotted time at this stop was up about the time we sat down to eat. We had to wolf down our food if we wanted to eat anything. (On a side note – they had a nice restroom there).

 

Our next stop was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. This is a place that takes in injured or orphaned animals and rehabilitates them. If they are not able to go back into the wild, then they are given a permanent home here. They have a number of different species – Wood Bison, musk ox, caribou, moose, lynx, a bald eagle and, of course, bears. The bears were a highlight. You are able to get really close to them (there is an electric fence in between you and the bears). They are used to having people around and they were so much fun to watch! Here, again, we wished that we would have had more time to spend looking at the animals.

 

 

 

 

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We arrived in Anchorage around 3:30 or so. We stayed at the Westmark, which is owned by Holland America. This was the worst of our accommodations on this trip. It was basically like a Motel 6. Our room was clean, but that was about it. Also, we were disturbed by some weird noises during the night. We never figured out what it was but there would be a whooshing noise, followed by the sound of seagulls. From our room we didn’t hear traffic, but other people complained about traffic noise keeping them awake.

 

I had read a good review of Glacier Brewhouse and since it was directly across the street from our hotel, we decided to go there for dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant around 5pm, there was an hour wait. Not too much later, we heard that it had become a 2 hour wait. Since being back, I have read other people mention making reservations ahead of time – that wouldn’t be a bad idea. We decided that we were willing to wait an hour so we put our name in and they gave us a buzzer. In the building where the restaurant is there are 3 or 4 shops, so we spent our time looking at them. One of them is a gallery with some amazing photographs and sculptures. We actually ended up purchasing a triptych of a charging momma bear.

 

Finally our buzzer went off and it was definitely worth the wait. The food and the service were both great. After dinner we just went back to the room since we were going to have to get up early the next morning.

 

Side note: When we left the next morning, I left behind my Northern lights coupon book in the room with a note to the housekeeper that she could have it. It has a lot of coupons for Anchorage businesses in it (many are the type of place that a resident would go to, rather than a tourist). Since I knew I wouldn’t use any more coupons from the book, I wanted someone else to get some use out of it. Before leaving Alyeska the other day, I tore out any Girdwood coupons in the book that I didn’t use and gave them away, as well. (There are a few coupons for activities in Denali, which was still coming up on our trip, but they weren’t things that we were going to use).

 

 

 

 

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Today we had to have our bags out at 6 am and we had to meet in the hotel lobby at 7:30 am. We got onto a bus that took us to the train station where we boarded one of Holland America’s glass-domed, double-decker rail cars, which would take us to Denali. The train ride was approximately 8 hours.

 

The train is very nice. On the upper level are the regular passenger seats and on the lower level there is a restaurant, 2 restrooms and a small outside platform. You are assigned a seat on the upper level of the train. All the seats are forward facing. There is lots of legroom at your seat. I wish that airplanes were that roomy!

 

Upstairs there is a tour guide who tells you about what you are seeing as you go along on your journey (we weren’t able to hear her when we were downstairs). There is also a bartender who serves drinks (for a fee). The train is cashless, so you have to pay your tab with a credit or debit card.

 

Downstairs there is a restaurant. They take people in shifts, since not everyone will fit at the same time. The tables seat 4 people, so if you are a party of 2, you will share your table with other people. On this trip they served both breakfast and lunch. My breakfast (blueberry pancakes) was excellent. I did not enjoy my lunch item as well (a veggie burger), but I do recommend the brownie sundae for dessert. :D Here, again, you have to pay for your meals with a credit/debit card.

 

We didn’t see any wildlife from the train, but we did see lots of pretty scenery. The train makes a brief stop in Wasilla, but you don’t get off the train. I loved riding the train and spent the whole time looking out the window (and eating!).

 

 

 

 

 

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We arrived at the train station in Denali and boarded a bus that took us to our hotel for the next two nights – the McKinley Chalet Resort. This hotel is also owned by Holland America, but this one was much nicer than the hotel in Anchorage. Fortunately, our room was in one of the buildings on the upper level of the resort, close to the main lodge. (They have more accommodations on a lower level that require taking a shuttle to get anywhere. I don’t know if tour groups are always on the upper level or if we were just fortunate).

 

Our room had a living room that was separate from the bedroom. The bed configuration was a little odd in that it was a full-size bed and a twin bed. I slept in the twin bed and gave DH the full-size. The sink is in the bedroom and the huge walk-in shower (no tub) and toilet are in a separate room. We quickly discovered that our bathroom door would not stay shut (I don’t just mean that it wouldn’t shut completely – it immediately swung wide-open). We called the front desk and they sent someone to repair it. The guy showed up in about 10 minutes and apologized for having taken so long! Fortunately, he was able to fix it.

 

We discovered that there was a coin operated laundry room nearby, so we did some laundry. We also went to the main lodge and ordered a box lunch to take on our Tundra Wilderness Tour the next day. You place your order and pay and they have it ready for you to pick up the next morning. There is a little trail that goes around the upper portion of the resort, which we walked while waiting for our laundry.

 

The main lodge is very nice and lodgy. ;) Inside the lodge there is a full-service restaurant, a bar, a coffee/snack bar and a nice gift shop (that also has some snack foods). There is a big stone fire-place and comfortable leather chairs and couches. There is a big relief map of the park in the center of the lodge that shows the different routes that the shuttle buses take and also has information about some of the animals most commonly seen in the park.

 

In that same area, but in a separate building, there is another restaurant that has a breakfast buffet in the morning (including an omelet bar), as well as food service throughout the day.

 

Across the street is the Glitter Gulch area that has a number of shops and restaurants.

 

That night we decided to eat in the restaurant that is in the lodge. They told us it would be about a 45 minute wait, but they didn’t give us a buzzer. We went and browsed the gift shop. When we finally went back, it had emptied out a lot from the original large crowd of people. I think that we could have come back sooner and gotten a table. We weren’t real hungry so we split a pizza and a salad. The pizza was okay, but the salad was really good.

We wanted to turn in early that night since we had a very early morning awaiting us the next day.

 

An interesting item: This summer was the 100th anniversary of the first the summit of Mt. McKinley. A group of descendants from that original summit group climbed the mountain this summer and also successfully reached the summit. They had just returned from the mountain trek and spent the night at the McKinley Chalet Resort the night before we did. Shortly after we arrived at the resort, they left on a bus to Talkeetna. When I saw a picture of them, I recognized that we had seen them out in front of the resort when we were exploring after having arrived. (One of them had been very memorable because he had been walking around barefoot wearing board shorts and a t-shirt like he belonged in Southern California rather than Alaska).

 

 

 

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Denali National Park

 

Today we had to get up bright and early to meet our tour group in the main lodge at 5:50 am for the Tundra Wilderness Tour. Before meeting our group, we picked up our box lunch that we had ordered the day before. The Tundra Wilderness Tour includes a boxed snack, but the general consensus is that the included snack is not enough food for 8 hours, so most people order a box lunch, as well. The boxed lunch was pretty good.

 

As we were boarding our shuttle bus for the tour, we saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky.

 

 

The shuttle buses are refurbished school buses. They have individual seats with seatbelts, rather than the bench seats usually found in a school bus. There is not a bathroom on the bus. Not all seats are created equal, however – there are some seats that are located over a wheel well, so they do not have any legroom.

 

 

When we were boarding the bus, we noticed that several rows of prime seating toward the front of the bus were roped off with yellow tape. We were frustrated by this, but went farther back into the bus and found seats. As people continued to get on, it got to the point where the only seats left were wheel well rows, or the roped off seats. When the driver explained that the roped off seats were for some people that she was going to be picking up at the Princess lodge, there was a rebellion among those still standing and they tore off the yellow tape and sat in those seats.

 

The family in our group that had 2 kids with them did a nice thing – the kids offered to take one of the limited legroom rows, since they didn’t need as much legroom. This freed up one more normal row.

 

Unfortunately for the people that we picked up at the Princess hotel, one of them ended up getting stuck with the other bad seat.

 

Our shuttle bus driver was also our tour guide for the trip. She talked most of the 8 hours telling us about life in Alaska. I found what she had to say to be really interesting, however, the manner in which she said it was a little amusing/annoying – she had a tone of voice like she was talking to a group of 3rd graders.

 

The bus made several stops during the journey, both for restroom breaks and for scenic viewpoints. (The restrooms are like port-a-potties and there is not any running water – though they do provide hand sanitizer). At one of the stops, there is also a little gift-shop set up in a tent.

 

The scenery in Denali is beautiful. We were not able to see all of Mt. McKinley/Denali, due to the cloud coverage, but we did get to see the base of the mountain.

 

 

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We had several wildlife viewings – a couple bears and a cub, a moose, some caribou, a few Dall Sheep (I was surprised that we didn’t see more of them), and a cute artic ground squirrel with its baby. Unfortunately, for me, most of the sightings ended up being on the other side of the bus from where I was sitting, so my views were somewhat limited.

 

 

 

 

The other big bummer that day was the weather. It did not rain, which was good, but it was very cold and windy. It was too uncomfortable to really enjoy the scenic viewpoints when we stopped. A few people braved the elements, but most of us stayed on the bus (or, like me, got off briefly, but then quickly got back on).

 

One good thing, however, was that we got to go further into the park than the traditional Tundra Wilderness Tour. It usually goes to milepost 54, but we got to go all the way to milepost 62.

 

One other item about the tour – the drive over Polychrome Pass can be rather scary. The bus is traveling on a narrow, curvy, dirt road, along a steep drop-off, without any guardrails.

 

Here are some pictures of the park:

 

 

 

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That evening after we got back to the chalet, we went across the street to the Glitter Gulch area. We did a little shopping in a gift store and then we had a wonderful dinner at the Prospector’s Pizzeria & Alehouse. It is a great little place with lots of interesting pictures on the walls. Our waitress was very friendly and it was nice and warm inside. It was the perfect way to relax and enjoy the evening.

 

I missed getting to see fireworks for the 4th of July, but instead we got to see some of our country’s beautiful landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I seem to have lost all my readers and sort of feel like I'm just posting into the ether, but I'll continue on in hopes that someone will find this in the future and be helped by it.

 

 

Denali to Fairbanks

 

Today we had to have our luggage set out by 9 am. We then had the choice of meeting up at the main lodge at 3 pm to take a shuttle to the train depot, or to just meet the group directly at the train depot at 3:30 (we did the latter).

 

We had breakfast at the chalet’s breakfast buffet. One nice thing about the buffet is that they have an omelet station. After breakfast, DH took a shuttle to the post office to mail home some items. We had done a little too much shopping and were worried about our bags being too heavy. So, he took a few items to the post office, put them in one of their boxes and mailed it home. I don’t remember the exact cost, but it was not very much (and was certainly a lot less than the airplane fee for an overweight bag). The box arrived a day or two after we got home – no problem!

 

After hubby came back to the lodge, we took a shuttle to the Visitor’s Center – which is directly across from the train depot. There is a place where you can store your bags (in our case, our carry-ons) for a small fee. The Visitor’s Center has a museum inside which is quite nice. We spent a long time looking at all the exhibits. We then went to their eatery. DH got a hamburger but I wasn’t hungry so I went to look at the bookstore/gift shop. That afternoon, the weather was fabulous. It was warm, sunny & not too windy. Of course, this was when we had to leave!

 

We walked over to the train depot and met up with our group. Today we would be taking the train to Fairbanks. The ride is about 4 hours long. On this leg of the train ride, dinner was served. DH wasn’t very hungry since he had recently eaten, but I was so we chose to go ahead and get dinner. I can’t remember what I had, but I think that I liked it. We were a little disappointed with the service in the dining car this time, however. Our table seemed to be an afterthought to the waiter.

 

A couple times on the trip people spotted a moose from the train, but I always managed to miss them.

 

The rail guide and bartender on this car made up for the lack of service downstairs. They were delightful. They revealed at the end of the train ride that they are married to each other and he gave her a big kiss!