We're Going On Our First Cruise......

[ekuhlman]

Congrats on your upcoming vow renewal. Did you see the one on Holland America's Westerdam? It looks tasteful and as if it was very meaningful to the couple.

 

Thank you very much for the link. That was a great article and the ceremony does look quite nice. I think my wife will really enjoy doing this on our cruise.

 

Thanks again,

Ed

[rebeccalouise]

First of all- hi neighbor!:) I live in Timonium.

 

It sounds like you are doing the land portion first and I think that is wise. It is nice to relax the last seven days on the ship.

 

I did the reverse in 1996 and while we really enjoyed the whole experience- the land portion is long days, luggage in the hall by 5AM back on the bus by 8AM. You'll see what I mean.

 

Alaska is beautiful. I fell in love with Alaska in 1996 and have been back three times since then. The time I went in early July it was very nice. We had rain one day in Skagway I believe.

 

Have a fantastic voyage.

[ekuhlman]

First of all- hi neighbor!:) I live in Timonium.

 

It sounds like you are doing the land portion first and I think that is wise. It is nice to relax the last seven days on the ship.

 

I did the reverse in 1996 and while we really enjoyed the whole experience- the land portion is long days, luggage in the hall by 5AM back on the bus by 8AM. You'll see what I mean.

 

Alaska is beautiful. I fell in love with Alaska in 1996 and have been back three times since then. The time I went in early July it was very nice. We had rain one day in Skagway I believe.

 

Have a fantastic voyage.

 

Well, Hi neighbor...

We actually live in Manchester, just north of Hampstead. My wife and I worked at Black & Decker

for 37 / 35 years respectively before retiring.

We have both worked at the Towson, Hampstead, and Hunt Valley offices.

 

Our land experience will hopefully not be as exhausting as yours.

We'll spend two days in Fairbanks, actually 3 since we will arrive a day early. Our first day will be just recuperating from the loooong plane trip and trying to adjust to the time change. The first tour day is the Sternwheeler Discovery cruise & a visit to the historic Gold Dredge #8.

The next morning we embark on the McKinley explorer train at 7:15 am and go to Denali via HAL's domed railcars. We spend two nights at Denali. The first afternoon there we are going on a Flight seeing tour. The second day at Denali, we are going on their packaged Tundra Wilderness Tour into the park. I have seen films and documentaries of this, and it looks like it could be a bit tiring. It is a long ride on what appears to be not much more than a school bus.

The next day we can look around the visitors center a bit because the train for Anchorage doesn't leave until 11 am. We hop back on the domed railcard and arrive in Anchorage around 8 pm, so I suspect we may just east dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse and call it a night.

The next morning we will go into town and take a local tour bus around Anchorage. We leave Anchorage at 11:30 am so we won't have a lot of time to spend there. We then jump on a Motor Coach, make a tour stop at Portage Glacier for lunch and arrive in Seward around 5 pm and go right to the ship for our cruise.

 

Interestingly enough, one of the two large pieces of luggage per passenger is trucked (or railed) down to the ship directly from the airport when we arrive in Fairbanks. We won't see that peice of luggage from the time we land at Fairbanks until we board the ship in Seward. So we won't have to lug it around with us. The other piece of luggage will travel with us on the train and we will get it delivered at each stop along the way.

 

Hopefully, the luggage, the ship, and us will all be at the right place at the right time.:)