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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Holding sled dog puppies at the Husky Homestead - do they look happy? |
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| Me and my puppy |
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| 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.
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| We saw our first moose in the park only a few minutes after the tour started - and he was a big one! |
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| This caribou ran right past our bus! |
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| Our bus rode around these curves on some pretty steep slopes - note the beautiful colors! |
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| Brett and Erica at the edge of a glacial river running through the park |
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| The tour bus in Denali |
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| One of the magnificent views in Denali National Park - the smoky haze was due to forest fires in the state. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The view of our hotel from the top of the tram. |
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| Stunning view of the glaciers in the mountains next to us. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Mother and baby moose in the pond at the Hotel Alyeska |
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| The Hubbard and Valerie Glaciers are advancing from the mountains and join together. |
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| 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!
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| Our guide explaining how the tunnel was formed. |
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| Deep crevasse in the glacier. |
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| Brett takes a drink of glacier water. |
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| 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.
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| The Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau. |
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| We hiked to near the top of Mount Roberts after riding up the tram from Juneau. |
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| Bald eagle at the Nature Center on Mount Robers |
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| 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.
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| We saw a lot of humpback whales - very impressive, especially when they dive. |
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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| On the pontoon of the plane in the middle of a gorgeous remote lake. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The Vancouver skyline taken from Stanley Park |
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| 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.
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| Our selfie on the suspension bridge. |
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| This is the Cliffwalk - a narrow walkway curving out over the riverbed below. |
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| 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.
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The lumberjack show was very entertaining.
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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.
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| 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.
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| 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 25th 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.
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. 
