Alaska by Land and Sea - Awesome!

After 25 years of cruising, Esther and I just completed our first trip to Alaska, a land/sea cruise tour combining four days on land with a seven-night cruise from Seward to Vancouver on the Celebrity Millennium.

Wow!  This may have been one of my favorite trips ever.  Alaska is truly awesome, a place of unbelievable beauty and majesty.   By far the largest state in the US, Alaska has a population of less than 800,000 people.  We have more than that in Fairfax County, Virginia.  Everywhere we went, whether by land or by sea, we were surrounded by mountains and forests and lakes and glaciers – and not many buildings or people. 

Esther, Erica and Brett in front of a gift shop in Anchorage

We flew to Anchorage and spent our first night there.  Anchorage, with a population less than 300,000, is the largest city in Alaska.  It has an interesting vibe – few high-rise buildings and lots of parking lots.  You get the feeling that it hasn’t changed much in the last 40 or 50 years.   Food carts sell reindeer sausage, and it has an abundance of souvenir stores. 

The next morning we boarded the Wilderness Express, the Alaska Railroad train with private cars that have a full-length curved glass dome that provides a spectacular 360 degree view. All guests have forward-facing seats in the upper level dome.  The cars have reclining leather seats and fold down trays, and were very comfortable. A host guide pointed out highlights along the way, and a bartender offers full bar service for purchase. The Bloody Marys were excellent!

Aboard the Wilderness Express

This is a long train ride up to Denali National Park – a full eight hours, but it was a very enjoyable experience.  The scenery is beautiful, passing lots of lakes and mountains and crossing some high bridges.  The lower level of the train car is a restaurant, all window tables, where the four of us had lunch.   As you might expect, it was a bit overpriced, but then, like Brett said, you don’t get a dining experience like that very often.  One of his favorite parts about the train was the little outdoor platform at the back of the car, where he spent more than an hour watching the scenery go by – and he spotted a porcupine!  All in all, the Wilderness Express train ride was a great way to start the trip, and begin to get a feel for Alaska.   We first started to meet the rest of the people in our combined group of about 50 people formed by Esther and her best travel agent friend, Michelle, who booked a group of over 40 people on the cruise.  Not all of them opted for the land portion, but a majority did.  If you are going all the way to Alaska, it would be a shame to miss the interior.

Alaska as seen from the Wilderness Express train

 Upon arrival in Denali, we boarded buses to the lodge and checked in.   Brett, Erica and I had signed up for the Husky Homestead tour (Esther is allergic), which is at the home of Jeff King, a four-time winner of the  1,049-mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race.  We loved this – we got to hold Husky puppies, meet and pet the actual sled dogs, learned how they are trained, and watched them pull a four-wheel ATV.  We also heard a presentation from Jeff King about what it’s like to run the Iditarod.   Erica bought his book, which he signed, and read it on the trip.  Brett settled for a picture with him.  This was definitely a highlight for us, on a trip full of highlights.

Holding sled dog puppies at the Husky Homestead - do they look happy? 

Me and my puppy

Brett with 4-time Iditarod champion Jeff King

The following day was our tour into Denali National Park, on a modified school bus with about 40 people.  Our bus driver and guide, Jen, was outstanding.   The spectacular scenery and views alone were worth the trip, but we were lucky to see moose, caribou, Dall sheep, a coyote, a marmot, eagles, ground squirrels and ravens along the way.  Jen provide great commentary and had a video camera on board that she used to zoom in on the wildlife so we could see close-ups of the animals on the video monitors on the bus.  The tour included several stops to walk around, and a couple of nerve-wracking curves in the road at the cliff’s edge with no guardrail.   We also had a beautiful sunny warm day, and our views would have been even more spectacular if not for a number of forest fires in the state that resulted in some smoky haze.    

We saw our first moose in the park only a few minutes after the tour started - and he was a big one!

This caribou ran right past our bus!

Our bus rode around these curves on some pretty steep slopes - note the beautiful colors!

  

Brett and Erica at the edge of a glacial river running through the park

The tour bus in Denali

One of the magnificent views in Denali National Park - the smoky haze was due to forest fires in the state.

This picture is worth a thousand words.....

                       
A comment on the weather – everyone we talked to before we left advised dressing in layers, that even in June, it could be cold and rainy.  We were blessed with almost perfect weather the entire trip, and were quite comfortable in jeans and t-shirts, and even shorts, almost everywhere except on the glacier.  

Esther loved her selfie stick!

After Denali, we boarded large motor coaches for the trip back to the coast.  We had overnight stops in Talkeetna and Alyeska.   Both were small towns, but Alyeska was the far more interesting place, tucked into the base of the Chugach Mountains, in the town of Girdwood.  Our tour included tram tickets to the top of the mountain, where the views were spectacular, with three glaciers visible in the neighboring mountains.  We hiked from the tram stop further up the mountain, and Brett and Erica hiked even further up a narrow trail along the edge of the mountain that made Esther and I nervous.  Brett declared it to be the coolest place he had ever been.  

The view of  our hotel from the top of the tram.

Stunning view of the glaciers in the mountains next to us.

Brett and Erica kept climbing higher and higher.

The evening at the Hotel Alyeska was also memorable.  We gathered with our friends Pat and Diane Standiford at the outdoor fire pit and made drinks (which apparently was against hotel policy, we later found out) and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  That time of year, it doesn’t get dark until nearly midnight, and even then it isn’t really black.  

Pretty cool picture taken by a cell phone, around 11:00 PM

All of a sudden, we heard a commotion and saw people running towards the large pond next to the hotel.  We got up to see a large mother and baby moose walk into the pond and start swimming around!   Very cool.

Mother and baby moose in the pond at the Hotel Alyeska

Sea lion at the SeaLife Center in Seward

The next morning was a relatively short bus ride to Seward, where we were taken to the Alaska SeaLife Center, for a couple of hours before boarding the ship.  Since it was a cold and rainy morning (one of the only ones of the trip), this was a good way to spend the time.  The aquarium had a lot to see and was worth the visit.  Of course, the largest part of the Center was the gift shop.  

We boarded the ship on Friday, June 26 around noon.  One of the nice things about the land portion of the trip was that our luggage was collected outside our rooms every morning and delivered to our room at the next lodge so we didn’t have to lug it around.  Same thing at the ship – our luggage went straight to our staterooms.  

This is luggage Celebrity moved from our last hotel on land directly to our staterooms on the ship.  Only half of it belonged to our family.

The Celebrity Millennium is a nice ship that carries just under 2,200 passengers.  The ship has been "Solsticized" with Solstice-class features including the ice-topped  Martini Bar, Café al Bacio specialty coffee shop, a gelateria, a Cellar Masters Wine Bar, and the Qsine specialty restaurant.   The ship was very similar to the Celebrity Century that we were on for our Asian cruise in March of this year, so we felt right at home (see my blog from April on that trip).

The Celebrity Millennium

Erica is 24 and Brett is 21 (this was his college graduation trip), and we had selected the beverage package as our perk when booking the cruise.   This is a great perk which we highly recommend on any cruise, unless you really don’t drink much at all.  In addition to beer, wine, and spirits, the beverage package also includes bottled water, specialty coffees, and soft drinks, all of which you would pay for individually without the package.   Esther and I typically had a couple of cappuccinos every day, which alone would have cost us $20 without the package, and we had free-flowing wine with dinner every night.   We also liked to meet up with the kids and others in our group for a couple of cocktails before dinner, and might have had a drink or two (or three or four) after dinner at the shows or in the casino.   Pretty sure our twenty-somethings got their money’s worth, as well.

After departing Seward, our next day was a sea day, and Esther and Michelle organized a “poker run”, which consisted of everyone in our group of 50 visiting three bars on the ship.  At the first two bars (the Martini Bar and the poolside bar), each member of the group picked up a sealed envelope with two playing cards inside.  Then at the third bar, the Sunset Bar at the stern of the ship, players opened their envelopes, and picked one more card to go with the four they had collected, and made their best poker hand.  Esther and Michelle had 10 prizes for the ten best hands.  Amazingly, the winning hand was a full house!  This was a lot of fun for everyone, and helped the group get to know each other.

That afternoon, the ship sailed up into Disenchantment Bay for a close-up look at the Hubbard Glacier, which is joined by the Valerie Glacier.   We got to see the glacier calve off icebergs the size of a ten-story building.  Where the glacier meets the bay, most of the ice is below the waterline, and newly calved icebergs can shoot up quite dramatically, so that ships must keep their distance from the edge of the glacier in Disenchantment Bay.  We were told our captain is one of the best at getting in close for the best views.

The Hubbard and Valerie Glaciers are advancing from the mountains and join together.  

Up close and personal - but the pictures don't do the actual sight justice!

The rest of the itinerary included Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan, and day at sea through the inside passage before ending the cruise in Vancouver.   Shore excursions on Alaskan cruises are more expensive than your typical excursions in the Caribbean or Mediterranean, but they are pretty unique.  Since we had never been and didn’t know if or when we would go back, we did them all.  

Our family agreed that the helicopter ride to the Meade Glacier in Skagway was our favorite.  Neither Brett nor Erica had ever been in a helicopter, and they got to sit in the front with the pilot.  

The ride to the glacier provided some amazing views, and the ride itself was a lot of fun.  Once we got to the glacier, we had an excellent guide that walked us around and showed us the crevasses, moraines, streams, and ice, and provided fascinating information about glaciers in general and the Meade Glacier in particular.   After the trip, Brett declared that that was now the coolest place he’d ever been!

Our guide explaining how the tunnel was formed.

Deep crevasse in the glacier.

Brett takes a drink of glacier water.

Brett wanted to learn as much as possible from Carli

In Juneau, we took a shuttle to the Mendenhall Glacier, which required a short hike, and also took the Mount Roberts Tramway, which is right next to the cruise ship dock.  We enjoyed a good hike and tremendous views from Mount Roberts.

The Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau.

We hiked to near the top of Mount Roberts after riding up the tram from Juneau.

Bald eagle at the Nature Center on Mount Robers

Who knew there was a Manila Square in Juneau?

Icy Strait Point – The nearby town is called Hoonah.  We took our whale watching tour from here and saw lots of whales, as well as some sea lions and a dolphin or two.  Weather started out rainy, but cleared up during the tour.

We saw a lot of humpback  whales - very impressive, especially when they dive.

A sea lion pokes his head up.

For our excursion in Ketchikan, we had originally booked a float plane tour with the company that lost a pilot and 8 cruise ship passengers from a Holland America ship in a crash in the mountains the week before we arrived.  Undaunted, we re-booked with another company that gave us the same price.  Fortunately, we had a beautiful day for flying, and we flew over mountains and landed on a beautiful remote mountain lake. 

My favorite picture from the trip, taken by Erica from the float plane.  This is the mountain  lake we landed on, which leads to the incredible waterfall plunging down the mountain. 

On the pontoon of the plane in the middle of a gorgeous remote lake.

Another magnificent view from the float plane.

Some of our group did the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour, aboard one of the crab boats shown on the TV show “Deadliest Catch.”  They absolutely loved it.

The last day on the ship was a sea day through the “Inside Passage”, which provided beautiful scenery on both sides of the ship as we sailed from Ketchikan to Vancouver. 

In addition to the awesome destinations, our Alaskan cruise ranks right near the top for me because we had two of our kids with us, although they are really no longer kids, and it was great family time for all of us.  We also had friends with us, as well as all the people in Michelle’s group, and we always say it’s much more fun to travel with friends.  

More fun to travel with friends!

Celebrity delivered its usual excellent service and good food.  We ate most of our meals in the main dining room, and were well taken care of by Jesse, our Filipino waiter, and Luis, the maitre’d.   Esther and I got crushed in the casino the first few nights but recovered most of our losses by the end of the trip.  Brett just got crushed (goodbye graduation money!) and Erica only lost a little.   We did the martini tasting again, which has been great on other ships.  Unfortunately, this time they just plopped down the six small martinis in front of us, briefly told us what each one was, and walked away.  We missed the usual interaction with the bartender and the one-at-a-time tasting format we had done before.

Erica and Brett at the martini tasting.   

The entertainment was a little below average, we thought.  But we may have been in the minority, especially regarding the band Savannah Jack, which performed twice to rave reviews around the ship.  We Larsons thought the lead singer was way over the top (lots of pointing at the crowd and funny faces), and their performance reminded us of a Saturday Night Live satire. You decide - here is a link where you can get a quick sample: http://liveonstage.biz/savannah-jack/  
Be sure to play the video at the bottom.

In spite of that, we would never hesitate to cruise with Celebrity – they consistently deliver an outstanding experience.

We disembarked in Vancouver, British Columbia, and spent the morning walking to Gastown for lunch, then along the waterfront before sending Brett and Erica to the airport to go home.   Esther and I spent two more nights in Vancouver, and really enjoyed it.  We stayed at the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle downtown, in a great location, literally walking distance from the cruise port, and almost everything else worth seeing in the downtown area.   We even walked to Stanley Park and back, which was good for the Fitbit readings.

The Vancouver skyline taken from Stanley Park

The Lost Lagoon in Vancouver at sundown - not bad for a cell phone photo.

We spent the next day in North Vancouver visiting the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park and Grouse Mountain, and would recommend both places.  Capilano had the 450-foot-long suspension bridge crosses a gorge 230 feet above the river bed below.  We also braved the Cliffwalk and did the Treetops Adventure, a path from tree to tree on wooden walkways high above the ground.  

Our selfie on the suspension bridge.

This is the Cliffwalk - a narrow walkway curving out over the riverbed below.

One more selfie on the chair lift.

We took the local bus up to Grouse Mountain, the “Peak of Vancouver.”   We rode the Sky Ride to the main activity center and watched a very entertaining lumberjack show.  Then we boarded the ski lift to the peak, where the views of Vancouver and all the surrounding area were magnificent. 

The lumberjack show was very entertaining.

This was also where we finally saw grizzly bears, but in captivity instead of the wild.  Still, they are incredible animals.  

We finished the day by taking the bus back down the mountain, followed by SeaBus, a 400-passenger ferry across the Burrard Inlet back to downtown Vancouver.  

On our last day, we walked from the hotel through town and got on the water taxi to Granville Island, a tourist hot spot that has a large public market, lots of gift shops, street performers, theaters, restaurants, and the Granville Island Brewery.  Worth the trip.   

The Tasting Map lets you sample 9 of the Granville Island Brewery  beers - so we did.

We took the bus back to downtown, arriving about the same time the US women were starting the World Cup championship game with 4 quick goals.   We ate dinner in the plaza next to the Convention Centre, where the Olympic Cauldron from the 2010 Olympics is located.  They had the cauldron lit for the World Cup final, and a huge media platform with a giant screen TV for the broadcast was set up in the plaza.  We watched the post-game interviews and festivities from an outdoor restaurant, where hundreds of US fans draped in American flags and Stars & Stripes apparel gathered to celebrate.  It was a fun way to conclude our trip.

This giant screen TV and studio area for Fox Sports were set up in the plaza next to the Convention Center.  

The Boss suggested I use more and larger pictures in these blogs, which I have tried to do.  I would appreciate your comments and feedback.   Next up for Esther and Tom – our 25^th anniversary trip in late August to Tahiti and Bora Bora, with a Paul Gaugin cruise and a few nights in an overwater bungalow!!  Stay tuned.