Delayed review, Sapphire Princess northbound and independent Denali tour last month

[midwestsolo]

I am sorry it has taken me so long to post my review. My son and I cruised northbound on the Sapphire Princess and then did an independent trip to Denali after the cruise last month.

 

We drove into Minnesota on Thursday, May 15, flying out of MSP the next day.Stayed at the Holiday Inn in Owatanna MN that night. The hotel was attached to a not very busy waterpark but my 24 year old son enjoyed the slides at the waterpark while I relaxed. They gave us discounts on both our dinner and lunch. I liked this hotel.

 

The next day, one hour later,we were at our auto's destination for the next 14 days, EZ Park in Egan MN. Another good experience, with AAA discounts, it only cost $92.00 to park for the entire time, and the shuttle to the Sun Country terminal at the MSP airport was waiting for us. They loaded all our luggage on to their vans and we were at the airport in about 15 minutes. Sun Country gave us a meal on the flight to Seattle(didn't taste too great, but did tide us over til we got to our hotel, Holiday Inn Express Citycenter in Seattle.) This hotel was good, We walked to Buca di Beppo for dinner. Good service, good food, just thought their prices were a little high. Keep in mind, they don't open until 5PM.

 

The next day we used a shuttle(not free) provided by the hotel to the Kings Street Amtrak station. We were told that the cost would be anywhere between $10-$15 dollars, but ended up free, due to the driver on the shuttle leaving before I was completely in the car. No major damage, I just supported a massive bruise on my arm for a few weeks. I really liked the train trip. We had picked up our tickets before leaving Iowa, so in a matter of minutes, our luggage was checked and we were waiting for seating to be assigned. I did ask the gentleman assigning seats for a window seat and he gave it to us, so I recommend you ask when seats are being assigned. I cannot believe how scenic the northbound trip to Vancouver was. The time just flew.

 

We chose to get a cab at the Vancouver train station. There was a line, but we were enroute to Canada Place within about 20 minutes-cost about $8 CD. A long line to check in at the Princess terminal(we got there about noon), but actually got to our inside cabin on the Aloha deck within 1 hour. Like Swabbie, our steward was also Jerry and he is great. My son is a night person and I get up at the crack of dawn, but after I apologized several days to Jerry about how long he had to wait to fix our cabin, he politely reminded me that this was OUR vacation. I forgot the combination to the safe in our room and within 15 minutes, there was someone there to reset it. The whole cruise there was always some staff person being great. I saw that someone on the Princess board mentioned Yawtah, one of the waitresses in the Pacific Moon dining room and I can only agree she was the very best. My son and I had anytime dining and had decided we would check out each of the free dining rooms After the 3rd day, there was no question, we ate in the Pacific Moon every night after 8PM and requested her. The only bad experience I had with anytime dining was the day we had lunch in the International Dining Room with some people we had met previously. The waiter there seemed to think it was an imposition for me to ask for ice tea. Told me I needed to wait unpleasantly. Didn't effect me too badly, we just never went back there. The Sapphire is a beautiful ship. My favorite spot ended up being Skywalkers. Read, watched the ocean,and had our cruise critic get together there. Really enjoyed playing trivia with our cruise critic friends. I also had a Swedish massage at the Lotus Spa, cannot remember his name, but to steal a phrase, mm good!)

 

Our first stop was Ketchikan. This crazy 50+ year old went ziplining on a challenge from my boss with Alaska Canopy Adventures. I loved it. I have always been afraid of heights, but this really helped me get over it. The guides were great.I sort of feel sorry for them. I don't know how many times I rammed them because I didn't brake in time. We did this tour through Princess. I highly recommend this tour. I saw someone was afraid they would rock the bridges, they didn't with us. My son had more trouble here as he was not wearing rubber soled shoes. The van driver dropped us off at Creek Street after the tour. It was a nice walk back, and of course I purchased a book at Parnassas while on Creek St. Enjoyed teasing one of the women at Dolly's House also, but didn't take their tour. Also stopped at Scanlon Gallery(purchased Christmas ornaments there last year) but they didn't have the sketch I was looking from. The salesladies were very helpful. I am keeping a watch on their website for when it comes in(done by local artist)

 

Our next stop was Juneau. Last year I went with Alaska Marine Adventures which I enjoyed. Due to hearing about Eileen's famous cookies on Harv and Marv, we went with them this year. The greatest. They weren't having cookies this year, but we had the great fortune to be with Jay Beedle, and he is truly an Alaskan advocate. Just listening to him for a few minutes and you feel his love for the state of Alaska. And it seemed nature knew it. We had a baby humpback put on a show for us. Also one of the sea lions did the same. And we saw so much nature. At one point we had whales in a ring around us. After being onboard, Jay's father in law, Sandy took us for a short time to Mendenhall for pictures. My son and I went almost all the way out,but no other of our group did. The only negative to this privately booked excursion was that Sandy was unable to pick us up where the Sapphire docked. We had to walk to the tramway building. I also enjoyed shopping(this time for my friends) at Glacier Smoothie's. The other downside of being in Juneau on Tuesday was that due to the loss of power, the library was closed.

 

On Wednesday, we went to Skagway. We chose the 7 hour Chilkoot Charter independent excursion with the rail tour. It was beautiful. We went to Carcross Desert, Wonder Lake and Caribou Crossing. I enjoyed all of these. Captain Larry was our guide. Another true Alaska advocate, but totally different from Jay with Harv & Marv. We all got to sit on the left hand side of the train going up. I only have one complaint. On the van, I got stuck on the seat with the tire rise. I got stiff. Did some window shopping in Skagway after our tour, but couldn't find the doll shop. Took the cheap shuttle(think it was $2) back to the ship, as my son was using the internet cafe.

 

The next two days were Glacier Bay and College Fjords. I think everyone has read all the great comments about both these areas on this board. I can just say DITTO!, Great pictures, great time, only sad thing was knowing that our cruise portion was coming to an end.

 

We disembarked in Whittier on Saturday morning. Due to time constraints, we didn't have the time I wanted for getting to Denali via train. So we booked Alaska Leopard Comedy Tours. We got through the tunnel earlier than planned, only to arrive at Begich Boggs center and find it closed, Our driver did get it opened but I don't think it was worth stopping. The cinnamon rolls are good. Our next stop was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Folks, this is a great one. They care for wild animals that are unable to live in the wild. I will go back to see them, and continue to support then(As I feel about the Raptor Center in Sitka that I visited last year)...Then it was on to Anchorage. I was not impressed by this transporter. Seats felt tight to sit in, and I was tired of having to wipe the windows off to see things out the window. Every other tour I was on seemed to have defrosters that worked. Also, I thought that included in the trip was a tour on Anchorage. They took those of us that were renting cars straight to the airport. I did like the information presented on the video while driving there, but it seemed rushed and I didn't retain much. Perhaps that was so you couldn't win the WII offered as a prize if you answered all the questions correctly on the questionaire that was handed out at the beginning of the trip)

 

We picked up our rental car from Hertz early at the airport,headed north to Healy by 1pm. The road is beautiful. My son got a little impatient with me due to having to look at everything(he is under the car rental age limit). Saw our first wildlife near Cantwell(a moose in a field). It took us about 6 hours to get to there. We stayed at the Denali Dome Bed and Breakfast. I would recommend this b& b to everyone. Terry and Ann have a beautiful home, and are so nice. And do they know the area. We had booked the shuttle before their full breakfast was served the next day, but they sent us off with a good feed. Which worked out well, because by the time we got to the access center, our bus was loading. So we had no food on the trip, which took us as far as Toklat(as far as it was open)... All I can say about this trip is that I WILL BE BACK. We saw so many wonderful things, including bears, eagles trying to eat baby Dall sheep, moose, fox, and beautiful scenery. And Mt McKinley was out most of the time.

 

I hated to leave the next day(Monday), but unfortunately I had to be back to work on Wednesday.We drove back to Anchorage, had time to do some shopping, and even see the last Indiana Jones movie, then it was time to fly out on Frontier. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed and so we missed our Denver connection. I was very impressed how Frontier handled it- will fly with them again in spite of the bankruptcy. They got us on another carrier's flight within 4 hours, gave us vouchers for breakfast and also to fly with them again. We arrived back in Minneapolis about 4 hours late, but were at EZ Park within a half hour of boarding,and back in Iowa an hour later. Of course it was quite a bit later when we arrived home.

 

I will go back to Alaska soon. Unsure if it will be flying in to Fairbanks to tour again a longer time in Denali and go to the Artic Circle or to tour the Aleutian Archipelago. The more I go, the more I love this state.

[midwestsolo]

Alaska Comedy Tours prize is not a WII, it's an MP3!

[desperate4vacation]

I really enjoyed your review. We will be on the saphire northbound in August. I was wondering when the formal nights were and what was served. I want to be able to plan which night for Sabatini's. I've read a couple bad reviews about the food. What did you think?

[midwestsolo]

I actually liked the food in the dining rooms. Thought it was better than what I had on HAL last year. I am a fresh fruit freak and both the breakfast and lunch buffets always satisfied me. We never made it to Sabbatini's.