HAL CruiseTour Report - Dawson/Denali Plus (Y4T) - June 26 to July 14, 2013

[Shmoo here]

shrimpboat, I can just about manage to download my photos onto my computer and get them all turned the right direction! I can even add captions. Haven't figured out how to post here ... I've seen posts explaining what to do, and they may as well be written in ancient Greek! If I can get one of my sons over maybe I'll figure it out!

 

We took a glacier landing flight in Denali, so we also flew right by Mt. Denali and got some amazing pictures ... and walking around on a nearby glacier was awesome (and fun!)

 

We saw lots of bears & moose ... we even saw a Mama Moose & calf being chased by a grizzly bear! That was horrible & wonderful at the same time ... we didn't see how it ended but that was a ferocious big bear! I'm sure he got his lunch. I've got one picture of the bear; very few people got any pictures because it happened so fast. Scary fast ... as I said, we were all thrilled to have seen it, but horrified for the poor little moose.

 

Same experience in Tok ... disappointed with lunch. Loved Chicken, however!

 

We did not see many animals on any of the train rides, but the scenery was gorgeous and we really enjoyed the time spent riding the rails.

 

Will post some more later ...

 

To post photos, you need to download your photos to a photo hosting site, like PhotoBucket, Flikr (I use tinypic). Copy the IMG code and paste it in your post.

[shrimpboat123]

shrimpboat, I can just about manage to download my photos onto my computer and get them all turned the right direction! I can even add captions. Haven't figured out how to post here ... I've seen posts explaining what to do, and they may as well be written in ancient Greek! If I can get one of my sons over maybe I'll figure it out!

We took a glacier landing flight in Denali, so we also flew right by Mt. Denali and got some amazing pictures ... and walking around on a nearby glacier was awesome (and fun!)

We saw lots of bears & moose ... we even saw a Mama Moose & calf being chased by a grizzly bear! That was horrible & wonderful at the same time ... we didn't see how it ended but that was a ferocious big bear! I'm sure he got his lunch. I've got one picture of the bear; very few people got any pictures because it happened so fast. Scary fast ... as I said, we were all thrilled to have seen it, but horrified for the poor little moose.

Same experience in Tok ... disappointed with lunch. Loved Chicken, however!

We did not see many animals on any of the train rides, but the scenery was gorgeous and we really enjoyed the time spent riding the rails.

Will post some more later ...

 

You saw a lot more animals than we did. Too bad you saw the real Nature of Things.

 

As Shmoo indicated, you first have to upload all your photos that you want to post on CC to a Photo Hosting site. I used Photobucket. It's quite easy to set up. Get one of your sons to give you a hand.

 

Once I had all the photos I wanted to talk about on Photobucket, I used a Text Edit program to compose my report. When I wanted to include a photo, I signed into Photobucket and copied the IMG code for the picture into the text editor. I continued to do that until I had all the text written. Keep in mind, I think you can only include up to six pictures in each of your posts. So as I composed my report I grouped it into sections like Day1, Day1 continued, etc etc. Then I just signed into CC and began coping and pasting. Not to difficult if you take your time and stay organized.

 

Now that you've had the tutorial, we'll expect to see your review in the near future.

 

Good Luck.

[Shmoo here]

Glen - I want to say thanks for the great review. We did this same cruisetour last May/June. We also did the Dezadeash Float trip. Did you only have the 2 of you? That would be awesome! We had 12 people on ours (two rafts).

 

Our cruisetour was the first one that they eliminated the Yukon Queen trip to Eagle on. :( I was bummed about that.

 

We stopped in Tok (overnight) between Dawson City & Fairbanks.

 

Again, thanks for the great review. I could relive our trip (I got some of the same pictures).

[shrimpboat123]

Glen - I want to say thanks for the great review. We did this same cruisetour last May/June. We also did the Dezadeash Float trip. Did you only have the 2 of you? That would be awesome! We had 12 people on ours (two rafts).

 

Our cruisetour was the first one that they eliminated the Yukon Queen trip to Eagle on. :( I was bummed about that.

 

We stopped in Tok (overnight) between Dawson City & Fairbanks.

 

Again, thanks for the great review. I could relive our trip (I got some of the same pictures).

 

I'm glad you liked the review.

 

I was pleasantly surprised when we found out we were the only two people on the river float. I didn't know until we reached the pickup point. He told us that he's had 8 people in the raft but they were not big people. It was so peaceful floating down the river.

 

I was looking forward to Eagle and the Yukon Queen trip and was disappointed when I discovered it was removed from the tour. We did a straight run between Dawson and Fairbanks with a stops along the way including Tok at the Westmark for lunch. Terrible lunch.

[shrimpboat123]

I debated whether I would post the link to all the pictures I took on the CruiseTour. But what the heck, I'll leave it to your discretion if you want to look at some or all of them.

 

The following link will take you to the website. From there you can click on each of the sub albums. You can play it as a slideshow or click through them manually. From what I can determine, if you view them as a slideshow, you won't see any of the various videos that I took. If you go through them manually, the videos will play automatically. I'll warn you now, there are over 5200 pictures and videos. Before I started, there was over 7000.

 

 

Here is the link:

 

http://s1291.photobucket.com/user/shrimpboat123/library/Alaska%20CruiseTour%202013

 

 

The 25 sub-albums are as follows:

 

01 Vancouver Day 2 Stanley Park

 

02 Vancouver - Whitehorse

 

03 Whitehorse

 

04 Whitehorse - Dawson

 

05 Dawson

 

06 Dawson - Fairbanks

 

07 Fairbanks

 

08 Fairbanks - Denali

 

09 Denali Day 1 Covered Wagon

 

10 Denali Day 2 Tundra Wilderness Tour

 

11 Denali Day 2 Cabin Night

 

12 Denali 3 Summit McKinley Flightseeing

 

13 Denali Day 3 Jetboat Safari

 

14 Denali - Anchorage

 

15 Anchorage - Seward via Kenai Fjords Cruise

 

16 1st Formal Night

 

17 Glacier Bay

 

18 Haines Skagway

 

19 Juneau - Tracey Arm Fjord

 

20 Ketchican

 

21 Inside Passage

 

22 Vancouver Day 3 Gastown

 

23 Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens

 

24 Victoria

 

25 Butchart Gardens

[Lady Chew]

Glen, I think you explained that so well that I actually understood it!

I'll look into the photo sharing sites this weekend.

thanks!!

[vbmom87]

Glen, thanks for taking the time to prepare your awesome review!!! I enjoyed it so much!!!

 

So sorry your wife was sick on the cruise and had to miss Tracy Arm. Tracy Arm was a true highlight of our time in AK.

 

I must say that Denali looks a lot different on a dreary, rainy day. Hard to believe we visited the same place. You were truly blessed with gorgeous blue skies on your tour. Lucky you!!!!!

 

Would you say Victoria was worth taking a day trip from Vancouver?

[Alphen]

Thoroughly enjoyed your lengthy review, this will help us in planning our own Alaska adventure, we will probably do the same itinerary, so your review is a lot of help to us.

 

Since I understand that you have not done the HAL meal plan, would you mind sharing your opinion on how easy or difficult it was to have dinner in the stopovers in the Land portion, especially after long days on the road?

[shrimpboat123]

Glen, thanks for taking the time to prepare your awesome review!!! I enjoyed it so much!!!

 

So sorry your wife was sick on the cruise and had to miss Tracy Arm. Tracy Arm was a true highlight of our time in AK.

 

I must say that Denali looks a lot different on a dreary, rainy day. Hard to believe we visited the same place. You were truly blessed with gorgeous blue skies on your tour. Lucky you!!!!!

 

Would you say Victoria was worth taking a day trip from Vancouver?

 

Glad you liked the review. We had really good weather for the whole trip. Just a couple of days when it was a little dreary, but was able to stay under cover for the most part. Except Ketchican of course.

 

My wife would have enjoyed Tracy Arm. She loves waterfalls and there were certainly a lot of them. I actually liked Tracy Arm better than Glacier Bay. It reminded me of Western Brook Pond (a land locked fjord) in Western Newfoundland.

 

Denali was truly the best part of the trip. Especially being able to see Mt. McKinley up close and personal.

 

The trip to Victoria was a long day, however, it was broken up quite a bit. We spent a couple hours in Butchart Gardens and about 1 1/2 hours in Victoria at the inner harbour and Empress Hotel. We were on the ferry for a total of 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Not the best use of time but when you only have a day, it was better than not getting to Victoria.

[shrimpboat123]

Thoroughly enjoyed your lengthy review, this will help us in planning our own Alaska adventure, we will probably do the same itinerary, so your review is a lot of help to us.

 

Since I understand that you have not done the HAL meal plan, would you mind sharing your opinion on how easy or difficult it was to have dinner in the stopovers in the Land portion, especially after long days on the road?

 

We didn't do the HAL meal plan. I think for us it was the right decision.

 

In Whitehorse, the first dinner was the Group Dinner at the hotel. The next night we went to the Klondike Rib & Salmon BBQ restaurant that we discovered while we walked around Whitehorse the previous afternoon. It cost us $67 for drinks and dinner.

 

In Dawson (arrived at 5:30PM) we walked to the main street area of town (a few blocks away and ate dinner at Sourdough Joe's for $40. The next evening we ate in the hotel restaurant called Belinda's. They had a great special of Prime Rib. Dinner and drinks were $82.50 (incl tip).

 

In Fairbanks (arrived at 6:30PM) we just ate at the hotel for $51. The next night a bunch of us took the local transportation system to "Brewster's Pub" where we had a great meal with drinks for $48.

 

While we were in Denali we did two excursions that included a wonderful dinner. One was called Cabin Nite (like dinner theatre) and the other was the Covered Wagon - Back Country Dining. I figured we needed to eat and why not enjoy the scenery.

 

Our final night was in Anchorage. We arrived around 8:30PM. I had previously discovered the Glacier Brewhouse through Trip Advisor. It was right across from the Westmark Hotel. We made a reservation before we arrived and went there for 9PM with a group of 12 people. The meal was fantastic and cost us (with drinks) $84.

 

Overall I didn't have any trouble finding places to eat within a reasonable distance of the hotels. The Tour Director also had recommendations for breakfast and dinner in each location.

 

I looked through the Alaska 2014 itineraries and see that the trip we took is called the Y1 CruiseTour. The only difference is an extra night in Anchorage (which I wish we had) and now you fly between Fairbanks and Dawson. In my opinion that is unfortunate. Despite the long day, it is very scenic going along the Top of the World Highway. Looks like you also get a bus ride between Fairbanks and Denali rather than a train ride (also unfortunate).

[Alphen]

We didn't do the HAL meal plan. I think for us it was the right decision.

 

In Whitehorse, the first dinner was the Group Dinner at the hotel. The next night we went to the Klondike Rib & Salmon BBQ restaurant that we discovered while we walked around Whitehorse the previous afternoon. It cost us $67 for drinks and dinner.

 

In Dawson (arrived at 5:30PM) we walked to the main street area of town (a few blocks away and ate dinner at Sourdough Joe's for $40. The next evening we ate in the hotel restaurant called Belinda's. They had a great special of Prime Rib. Dinner and drinks were $82.50 (incl tip).

 

In Fairbanks (arrived at 6:30PM) we just ate at the hotel for $51. The next night a bunch of us took the local transportation system to "Brewster's Pub" where we had a great meal with drinks for $48.

 

While we were in Denali we did two excursions that included a wonderful dinner. One was called Cabin Nite (like dinner theatre) and the other was the Covered Wagon - Back Country Dining. I figured we needed to eat and why not enjoy the scenery.

 

Our final night was in Anchorage. We arrived around 8:30PM. I had previously discovered the Glacier Brewhouse through Trip Advisor. It was right across from the Westmark Hotel. We made a reservation before we arrived and went there for 9PM with a group of 12 people. The meal was fantastic and cost us (with drinks) $84.

 

Overall I didn't have any trouble finding places to eat within a reasonable distance of the hotels. The Tour Director also had recommendations for breakfast and dinner in each location.

 

I looked through the Alaska 2014 itineraries and see that the trip we took is called the Y1 CruiseTour. The only difference is an extra night in Anchorage (which I wish we had) and now you fly between Fairbanks and Dawson. In my opinion that is unfortunate. Despite the long day, it is very scenic going along the Top of the World Highway. Looks like you also get a bus ride between Fairbanks and Denali rather than a train ride (also unfortunate).

 

Thank you for the valluable info.

[jormot]

I have a question regarding your trip to Victoria. Was that a day trip or overnight? And if it was a day trip was it too much for one day?

[shrimpboat123]

I have a question regarding your trip to Victoria. Was that a day trip or overnight? And if it was a day trip was it too much for one day?

 

It was a day trip. It was part of our 2 day post cruise stay at the Pan Pacific Hotel through HAL. I had looked at a separate day trip via a different tour operator and it turned out to be about $70 cheaper to book the post cruise stay through HAL (including 2 nights at the Pan).

 

It was a 12-13 hour day. We left Vancouver around 9AM to get the ferry. We arrived at Butchart Gardens at approximately 1PM. We toured the gardens for 2 hours and then headed to Victoria (inner harbour). Unfortunately we only had about 1 hour at the inner harbour. We saw the Empress Hotel and walked around the harbour and bought a few keep sakes.

 

It was a long day, however, it didn't seem that long because it was broken up by the 90 minute ferry crossing each way. We also had a perfect day weather wise. If you are time constrained and want to see a glimpse of Victoria and the Butchart Gardens, it's one option.

[Lovely other]

Scoozis for Breakfast

 

 

 

thanks so much for sharing the photo of Scoozis, brought back some wonderful memories of eating there with my late partner on a wonderful vancouver trip.

[Grammyceej]

Thank you for this wonderful review and the fantastic photos. Stunning landscapes and the camera really brought out the true beauty of it all. Of course it also helps to have a good photographer behind the lens. Well done.

[Grammyceej]

It was a day trip. It was part of our 2 day post cruise stay at the Pan Pacific Hotel through HAL. I had looked at a separate day trip via a different tour operator and it turned out to be about $70 cheaper to book the post cruise stay through HAL (including 2 nights at the Pan).

 

It was a 12-13 hour day. We left Vancouver around 9AM to get the ferry. We arrived at Butchart Gardens at approximately 1PM. We toured the gardens for 2 hours and then headed to Victoria (inner harbour). Unfortunately we only had about 1 hour at the inner harbour. We saw the Empress Hotel and walked around the harbour and bought a few keep sakes.

 

It was a long day, however, it didn't seem that long because it was broken up by the 90 minute ferry crossing each way. We also had a perfect day weather wise. If you are time constrained and want to see a glimpse of Victoria and the Butchart Gardens, it's one option.

 

You picked the perfect year for this journey! I live in Vancouver, this has been the best summer we've had in the 13 summers I've been here. Typically June and July we have nothing but rain, where this year we had no rain at all in July and little in June. Aug was quite dry as well. So you couldn't have had better timing weather wise that's for sure.

[shrimpboat123]

Thank you for this wonderful review and the fantastic photos. Stunning landscapes and the camera really brought out the true beauty of it all. Of course it also helps to have a good photographer behind the lens. Well done.

 

Thank you very much. I have to give most of the credit to the camera. All I did was compose the shot. The camera did all the hard work.

[shrimpboat123]

You picked the perfect year for this journey! I live in Vancouver, this has been the best summer we've had in the 13 summers I've been here. Typically June and July we have nothing but rain, where this year we had no rain at all in July and little in June. Aug was quite dry as well. So you couldn't have had better timing weather wise that's for sure.

 

Before I booked this trip, I looked at the weather statistics for the Yukon and Alaska cities. Historically the end of June and to the middle of July was the least amount of rain. It turned out to be true. Of course it poured in Ketchican, but that was a given. As for Vancouver and Victoria, we really lucked out. The weather was perfect.

[TheEmerson]

If people are looking at booking tours like this, you may want to look at this news report. http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/09/09/holland-america-halts-dawson-city-bus-tours/

 

Westmark Hotels in Tok and Beaver Creek are also closing.

[marysb]

Loved your review and photos. What a great itinerary!

 

Thanks for taking the time to share.

[shrimpboat123]

Loved your review and photos. What a great itinerary!

 

Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

Thank you. It was a great trip. Too bad HAL has decided to now fly between Dawson and Fairbanks rather than do the "Top of the World Highway". I believe they are also not doing the train on one of the sections as well next year. Too bad.

[Sunshine State Native]

Thank you. It was a great trip. Too bad HAL has decided to now fly between Dawson and Fairbanks rather than do the "Top of the World Highway". I believe they are also not doing the train on one of the sections as well next year. Too bad.

Thanks Glen,

I felt I had relived the cruise tour we took with you and Jane. I would not do it again, but did enjoy it. We like the 14 day SEA ANC SEA on HAL. We try to get up that way once

or twice a year. We like the YUL/YQB to or from FLL too.

We love Canada, AK and SEA. It is nice to get away from the FL heat.