Review: To Denali and Back, July 22 - Aug. 12, 2018

[cruisin'teach]

Love your review!

[RetiredMustang]

July 28 (Cont.)

 

Amidships against the bulkhead, about where the magazines were in older Vista ship iterations, is a large display screen and an interactive table.

 

 

 

 

The table display asks a daily question, and (sometimes I think) the large display matches the question.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also see answers from previous questions.

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 28 (Cont.)

 

In the center of the bow are two lucite-type screens that are called the interactive bridge. The screens have a few changing displays that show direction and rotations of the azipods, weather and sea data, time, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 28 (Cont.)

 

Around most of the rest of the bow area are various types of seating, from loungers to table and chair groupings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 28 (Cont.)

 

The bar itself has been morphed into a combined coffee and alcohol drinks bar. Behind the bar in October were two tables with computer screens that displayed Sunday New York Times content, but the content did not change, and in any case the NYT was available for free from one’s device via the Navigator, so I suppose not many people at all used them. In July, the tables were just open tables that people presumably could sit at with a latte and check email or something, like in a shoreside coffee establishment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 28 (Cont.)

 

On the port side aft, in what used to be called the Captain’s Corner, are rows of chairs set up theater-style for EXC presentations. Also in this area is the paperback book exchange.

 

 

 

 

Although it is not in the EXC/Crow’s Nest, Westerdam has kept one carrel of computers with a printer, for people who need to print paper boarding passes or other items. The carrell is on the third deck, by the Merabella shop and meeting rooms:

 

 

 

 

 

 

My take on the new EXC: I was pretty uncomplimentary in October, and I still did not much like it overall in July. It seems to me that HAL is trying to do too much in the space; it seems a bit schizophrenic. Does HAL want to sell excursions? Make it a Starbucks clone? Still have a cosy place for pre-dinner drinks or to curl up with a book?

 

Personally, I think too much space is devoted to the interactive screens and tables. If you noticed, only 40 people had answered the one day’s question – about 2% of the passengers. I rarely saw anyone using the tables, but then I didn’t spend all that much time in the space, since I don’t find it all that inviting anymore. I think a lot of those interactive things could be put on the Navigator app and free up physical space by removing the displays for more seating, which the area needs. Some of the existing seating is not to my taste or comfort, but the main thing is there isn’t enough, especially during scenic cruising. More table and chair sets would do better. Also, the daily question area could be better used as a coffee bar, allowing the current bar to revert to an alcohol drinks one.

 

The virtual bridge is pretty cool and even useful, but the location I think is woefully unfortunate – it blocks the view. The library is harmless, and there may be some who want to look at the books.

 

The FCC office and EXC desk are fine in my opinion, and the functions are needed and useful and need to be somewhere. The theater seating for presentations is also useful and needed, I suppose, for smaller talks not held in the show lounge.

 

I think what will happen with the EXC will probably be driven by revenue. I heard rumors that the new EXC bars are not making as much money as the old ones. I don’t know if this is offset by increased sales in new venues like the Gallery Bar or Billboard. Is HAL selling more alcohol or coffee drinks overall or less of them? Are they selling more excursions? I don’t know, but the answers will probably drive what happens next.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 28 (Cont.)

 

Here are the first four pages of today’s When and Where:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 28 (Cont.)

 

Here are the other two pages of the When and Where:

 

 

 

 

And here is the MDR dinner menu:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29, Seward to Denali

 

To finish the Westerdam cruise, here is the Voyage Log:

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Seward in the early morning, with mostly typical weather:

 

 

 

 

Early in the cruise, we received a letter from the Land Journey Specialist with some information, and invitations to presentations wherein we could learn some more about how the land portion would work:

 

 

 

 

Instead of a normal disembarkation package, we received our luggage tags and this sheet:

 

 

 

 

We had tagged one large suitcase to join us in Anchorage and the other to join us in Denali. We took with us a backpack (DW) and a CPAP machine, with a few other small things like a Kindle tucked inside the carry case as well (me).

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

We reported to the show lounge as directed and waited for our bus to be called. When it was, we went ashore and got on the bus:

 

 

 

 

The instructions and presentations had been pretty clear that we should not bring large bags or even ones as large as normal airline carryons. We were told to bring medical gear. Any wheelchairs, walkers, etc. were stowed in the under compartment of the bus. And, yes, there were a few people who ignored directions and brought wheeled carryons, which our driver put below as well. So, if you insist, you probably could bring larger bags, but I wouldn’t push it or I may end up with it in my lap. Here is a photo of the overhead compartments inside the passenger area of the bus – our backpack and CPAP case fitted easily:

 

 

 

 

We drove out of Seward heading to Anchorage. Before Anchorage, we stopped at a rest area in Turnagain Pass. It had small buildings with primitive toilets, but some pretty scenery:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

We passed through Anchorage, and continued on to Wasilla. We had an arrival time at our lunch place; it was a large place, but they had to stagger the buses to avoid complete chaos. We had made good time on the roads on Sunday, and were quite a bit earlier than our allotted lunch time, so our driver took us to an attraction in Wasilla – the headquarters of the Iditarod Trail. There was a large HQ building with a shop:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a sign on the door that I thought amusing given what the place was:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

Luckily, there were sled dogs there that day, and mushers offering rides on wheeled sleds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, there were cute puppies we could hold:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

We then went to lunch at the Settlers Bay Lodge a few miles away. Lunch consisted of a make-your-own sandwich buffet with salads and sides, and free soft drinks. There was a bar where you could purchase beer or wine. It was actually a pretty good lunch, given how many people they had to move through in a short time.

 

After lunch, we drive north toward Denali, making another rest stop at the Alaska Veterans Memorial:

 

 

 

 

We drove on to Denali, a trip that took about nine hours total, what with stops. As we had been told, we stopped a couple of miles short of the McKinley Resort and were greeted by HAL staffers who gave us our info packets, which included our room assignments and keys. A crucial sheet in the packet gave us needed info about lodging and our schedule. Here is ours (names removed):

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

Also in the packet was a map of the Resort and a When and Where sheet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

The main lodge and buildings A-K were on the upper bluff; the other buildings and Denali Square were on a lower meadow-like setting along the Nenana River. Our bus driver dropped us convenient to our various assigned lodging, and we found that our keys worked and our large bag had already arrived at our room in building R. Here are a couple of shots of the bedroom area of our room. There was also a bathroom with a large shower, and a small sitting area – we entered the room to the sitting area and passed the bath and sink to the bedroom at the back. It was a very nice room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a television in the room, but wifi was not available – wifi was available only at the main lodge or in Denali Square. Here are some photos of the buildings in the lower area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, there was some construction of new lodging being done:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

In the center of the lower level is Denali Square:

 

 

 

 

It includes Karsten’s pub, where we ate dinner the first night, and breakfast in the morning, and where we were able to pre-order box lunches for the Tundra Wilderness Tour. Near Denali Square was a display of an old tour bus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

The main lodge is on the upper level. Here is an exterior and some interior shots. Suddenly the directions of picking up our box lunch for the next day’s Tundra Wildnerness Tour – “In the Main Lodge by the Bear” – made sense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just down the walking path is the Denali Princess Lodge, which also has restaurants and a pizza place within pretty easy walking distance:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 29 (Cont.)

 

Across the road from the two lodges is an area of shops and restaurants called Glitter Gulch. Some guests bought lunch for their Tundra Wilderness Tour from the Subway; others got snacks at the convenience store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[Krazy Kruizers]

Enjoying your reports and pictures.

JMO -- I hate the way HAL has destroyed the Westerdam's Crow's Nest.

[RetiredMustang]

July 30, Tundra Wilderness Tour

 

We were assigned to a 10 a.m. Tundra Wilderness Tour (TWT). A channel on the TV listed various schedule items, and one page listed TWT departures from early morning to mid-afternoon. The TWT vehicles were specially-modified buses; regular motorcoaches were not allowed very far into the national park. Here are photos of the exterior and interior of the special buses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were a little delayed in our tour, as the one before us had a wheelchair-bound passenger, and it took the driver some time to operate the special elevator at the back right side of the bus and get the passenger anchored into his position. It appeared he had as good a view as everyone else, and we did not mind the wait; in fact, we thought it was a positive thing that the tours could accommodate wheelchairs.

 

We loaded our bus and were soon on the way to the National Park entrance. We drove the park road for a total of about 60 miles and then back during the day, with rest stops at Taklenika River rest area at mile 29 going and returning. The snack box provided included a pretty good map on the cover:

 

 

 

 

We drove from the entrance past the Denali Visitor Center at the right of the map to the point called Stony Hill, a few miles short of the Eielson Visitor Center. We stopped often to look at wildlife or views, but only got out of the bus at the rest area, Polychrome Overlook at about mile 48 or so, and at Stony Hill.

 

We stopped almost right away to look at ptarmigan, the Alaska state bird, along the road. Here is a photo I got through the window. As before, my small camera did not get good pictures of wildlife very far away, but the bird was right next to the bus:

 

 

 

 

The bus was also equipped with a great resource - a high-powered scope that could be displayed on screens in the bus, allowing the driver to focus on something and se we could see it on the screen and also orient ourselves to locate it with our own binoculars.

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 30 (Cont.)

 

We passed incredible scenery along the way and saw a lot of wildlife – grizzly bears, caribou, Dall sheep, mountain goats, a wolf, a marmot and eagles. Our guide said we had missed completing the Denali sweep by not seeing what was usually the easiest one to see – we did not see a moose.

 

At one point, one of the grizzlies looked pretty light-colored, almost blonde. Our guide said that all brown bears, grizzlies and Kodiak bears are the same species, just called different names in different places. Kodiak bears are larger because they have a steadier diet of rich food. He also said that polar bears had been known to come south and mate with grizzlies, producing offspring that were lighter. Possibly we had seen such a “pizzly” bear cross of a polar and grizzly. He also said that the offspring, unlike the mule cross of a horse and donkey, were themselves fertile and had bred and produced offspring. I’m no expert, but that seems to be pretty much the definition of the word “species” so I guess the polar bear is just a variant of the brown bear.

 

In any case, here are some photos of the scenery and two shots of caribou I got that were close enough to get not too grainy photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also saw lots of ground squirrels running around. Our guide said the bears in the park don’t eat salmon since the fish don’t come that far, but subsist on such things as blueberries and, being omnivores, whatever else they can get. One thing they get now and then is the ground squirrel. Our guide said a bear would eat up to a couple of dozen of them a season to augment its diet. He also said that someone had done an analysis of the nutritional content of a squirrel and determined it was about 2,000 calories, which was about the amount in a medium-sized cheese pizza. So, the drivers and others who work in the park have taken to calling the squirrels “cheese pizzas.”

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

July 30 (Cont.)

 

The main thing we were all hoping to see, of course, was the mountain itself, Denali or previously Mount McKinley. There were three main chances to view the mountain along the TWT. At the first chance, the mountain was almost completely obscured by clouds. At the second place, though, we were delighted to see the mountain completely clear! We were not allowed to get off the bus, but we stopped and I and everyone else took photos through the windows:

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Stony Hill, the turnaround point, we were able to get off the bus and walk to a viewpoint to see the mountain. Unfortunately, by then clouds had covered the top, but we were able to see glaciers on its slopes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It would seem that the earlier tours may have made it to Stony Hill while we were at the second view, and so had gotten a clear shot of the entire mountain. Lucky them. But, our guide pointed out, lucky us too, because we had seen the mountain unobscured. He said most people weren’t that lucky, since Alaska weather was so changeable and unpredictable. So, all in all, we were glad we had come and gotten to see such a beautiful place.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[POA1]

Excellent report as always! Thanks.

[fatcat04]

Great detail as always.

"Cheese pizzas" I love it!! I am so throwing that factoid out next time we hit up our local pizza joint. :p:D

[RetiredMustang]

July 31, Denali

 

We had a free day in Denali, and since the weather was excellent, we decided to take the free shuttle from the Resort to the National Park Visitor Center.

 

We arrived and were dropped at the bus stop, which was actually quite near the train station as well. We walked to the Visitor Center and got a map that showed walking trails around the area. We decided to take the Taiga Trail from the center to join up with the Horseshoe Lake Trail, which would lead us around a lake. It turns out that there is a bus stop as the park entrance road crosses the railroad tracks; this stop is near the Horseshoe Lake Trail start.

 

We enjoyed walking the Taiga Trail, where on we saw a snowshoe hare in summer color, and also enjoyed the walk down to the lake and around the beaver dam to the Nenana River and then back the other side of the lake to rejoin the path back up to the trailhead.

 

Here are some photos I took along the way:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave