Review of Alaskan Land/Sea Cruise in process

[jmc27]

Thanks so much for all this information - I am thinking of booking this for next year and I am going to show this to my hubby to help him decide!

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for spending the time to write and post such a thoughtful report. Have enjoyed reading it from begining to end. Glad you had such a goot time on your Land/Cruise vacation.

[jmc27]

I have been looking at the info for next year's tour - can you explain what meals (if any) are included in the land part o the tour?

[cruisinjudy]

Thanks for your very helpful review. I will finish reading it later as we have been away and I have much to do! So here I am on the computer. Anyway I did try to access the pictures but it said they weren't available.

[KNOT2L82SAIL]

 

 

This is the only way that I could figure out how to post them on to Cruise Critic. This is my facebook account so please be aware of others feelings regarding any entries. Thank you.

 

There are comments with each photo.

 

I hope you enjoy them. Please let me know what you think.

 

Okie

 

I have tried several ways to see the photos and it says the content is unavailable.

Just a thought.... perhaps you can go into your FB file and make that album a PUBLIC one so all can see???

 

And... you did such an awesome review. What a trip! You and your DH are so lucky to have been able to do that. Thank you for posting. :)

[Okie1946]

I have been looking at the info for next year's tour - can you explain what meals (if any) are included in the land part o the tour?

 

Sorry for the delay in replying - we have been visiting friends out of state and just returned.

 

Several of the people on the trip purchased a meal voucher plan that allowed for two meals a day at the hotels that we stayed at during the land portion. We chose not to go that route as it restricted us to just eating at the hotels.

 

If you are not big eaters, I really don't recommend the meal plan. One gentleman who was with one of the other groups had the meal plan and he was really indulging himself with a diet that he was not used to and was really overeating. He made himself quite ill and had to be transported to a local hospital. So they missed out on a good portion of their trip.

 

However, a word of warning - food is expensive in Alaska because most of it is shipped in from the lower 48 states. We allowed a budget for food and was able to stay within it. But we were forewarned about the prices by our Goddaughter and knew what to expect.

 

Denali was the only hotel that we did eat breakfast and dinner at. The DH would go across the street and pick up a sandwich or something at one of the shops that were there. Subway had a location just right across the road - if we weren't in the mood for that - the Coffee Shop had wraps that you could purchase - we shared one (they were huge) and a bag of chips and was quite content.

 

Anchorage had a number of restaurants really close to the hotel, so we ate at one of those the evening that we flew in and at breakfast at the hotel, as we didn't want to miss the bus that took us to the train. Then we shared a sandwich at lunch time on the train.

 

Fairbanks also had several places close to the hotel and we ventured out side of there, but we did eat breakfast there. At Dawson City, we found another hotel that had meals a little less expensive that what was at Dawson City, so we ate dinner there, but did do breakfast at a small place up on the main street. There are a couple of restaurants - they were ok - but personally nothing I would write home about. To be honest - the food at the hotel was better.

 

Whitehorse - we were so tired by the time we got to the hotel - we went into the bar and had a couple of drinks with a basket of chicken tenders and fries and then went to the Frolics show and turned in. Breakfast in Whitehorse was better, but the restaurant in the hotel is rather small so expect it to be packed.

 

We left Whitehorse heading for Skagway - that lunch was provided by HAL on the road - think I mentioned the stop in an earlier review. The first night in Skagway we had dinner at a restaurant around the corner called the BONANZA. DH found out that the cook was from Minneapolis and he fixed a "JUICY LUCY". Now for those of you who are from this area - a juicy lucy is one of the premier hamburgers. It is a real delicacy hamburger. We went over to get one - but found out that it is only served on MONDAY'S. That's ok - we had something else but were really disappointed. We had dinner the next night in the hotel.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Barbara

[Okie1946]

I have tried several ways to see the photos and it says the content is unavailable.

Just a thought.... perhaps you can go into your FB file and make that album a PUBLIC one so all can see???

 

And... you did such an awesome review. What a trip! You and your DH are so lucky to have been able to do that. Thank you for posting. :)

 

Thank you for the hint about making the link a PUBLIC one. I have done so and hopefully you will be able to view them now. If not - please let me know and I will try to figure out another way to move them from PHOTOBUCKET to the thread.

 

Hope you enjoy them.

 

Barbara

[Vict0riann]

I've enjoyed your report. When I post a photo from photobucket, I click on the URL line in the box, and then when I have started a post on CC I click "Command V" and it inserts the photo in the post. (You only see the letters and numbers). Then you can go "Preview post" and see what you have done before submitting the post. I have a Mac, though, so yours might not be exactly the same. There is a thread somewhere on CC "How to Post Photos" which is very helpful. Hope this helps.

[RMLincoln]

Wow, what a grand trip and a fabulous report. Thank you for sharing your photos and enticing us to do a cruise-tour. Best wishes for many more Happy anniversaries! Maureen

[Carmic]

What a great review.....we are doing this same sea/land tour in 2 weeks only opposite of what you did. Yours is the first review that I could find that was exactly like the one we are doing. You gave me a lot of good tips on what to see and do. Also, enjoyed looking at your pictures that gave me a good idea of what we can expect to see.

 

How did you manage with only 2 carryon's? Did you not have any luggage that Holland America picked up and delivered to your room?

 

Thanks again,

Carol

[Ichiban Nekko]

Congratulations on your 40th Wedding Anniversary! Loved the story about exchanging (the same) cards! A demonstration of how much you think alike.:D

 

Thank you so much for writing, editing and posting your detailed review. You have a positive outlook and it is infectious. We love Alaska and have taken 4 cruises (so far). We were fortunate enough that one was an Alaskan land/sea journey (on Celebrity) back in 2003. It remains in our memories as one of "the greats." :)

 

Thanks again for taking us all along on your adventure!

[Okie1946]

What a great review.....we are doing this same sea/land tour in 2 weeks only opposite of what you did. Yours is the first review that I could find that was exactly like the one we are doing. You gave me a lot of good tips on what to see and do. Also, enjoyed looking at your pictures that gave me a good idea of what we can expect to see.

 

How did you manage with only 2 carryon's? Did you not have any luggage that Holland America picked up and delivered to your room?

 

Thanks again,

Carol

 

We did one larger suitcase that we packed our heavier clothes (jackets, hats, gloves, etc.), the clothes that we were going to wear on board ship (including the formal wear we wore for the night of our anniversary) plus a few extra shirts and light jeans and shorts. When we had dirty clothes, we put them in the 3 medium sized garbage bags we had carried from home. Because so many of the locations had laundries available to the guests, I did laundry one afternoon (2 loads) the afternoon before we left Denali, 2 loads at Skagway, and 2 loads the day we were heading to Vancouver through the Inside Passage.

 

Yes - the boarding information does tell you that if you pack a suitcase for the ship they will deliver it directly to the ship. THAT IS INCORRECT INFORMATION. That bag is delivered to you each time you stop at a new location. That is why it was easier for us to work out of the smaller carry-ons. I mentioned doing laundry on the road. I do recommend that you invest in the laundry pods - I know quite a few of the various brands have them available. If you don't and have to purchase soap (or dryer sheets) from the hotels - it will COST you. A dry sheet cost another traveler $0.50 a sheet. When a box of 40 costs $3.99 down here, that is a penny a sheet. So their $4.00 box gave them a profit of $20.00. I wish I could make that kind of money down here:D

 

Back to the luggage - You don't have to worry about hauling the luggage all around. There is a crew that travels with the bus and makes sure that the luggage is distributed to all of the assigned rooms. Your tour leader will be sure to tell you what time the bags are to be outside the room for pickup and when you get to the next location the baggage won't be too far behind you.

 

Hope you enjoy your trip as much as we did. We are talking about going back in the year 2017 as we enjoyed it so much.

 

Okie1946

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just catching up.

Wonderful review.

[Carmic]

Thanks, Okie.

[kftw]

Thank you for your wonderful review.

[Foggy Bay]

Loved reading of your wonderful Alaskan journey. We lived up there for 30 years (10 in Fairbanks, 10 in Sitka and 10 in Ketchikan--the last 20 being liveaboards on a 42' boat). I relived all our wonderful times up there through your great review. Thank you for a trip back down memory lane, and so glad you enjoyed "our" magnificent state so much.