Trip Journal: Alaska - Adventures on Land and Sea
UnCruise Tours of the Alaskan Interior and Inside Passage Waterways
Saturday, June 8, through Sunday, June 23, 2019
Saturday, June 8, through Sunday, June 23, 2019
WOW! Just…WOW! Our tour of Alaska was a long time in the making but it turned out to be so very worthwhile. Sure, we got a lot of great breaks including phenomenal weather and amazing wildlife sightings, and our experience with the outstanding tours arranged through UnCruise was top-shelf every step of the way. All that just enhanced all that Alaska has to offer. This trip had all the elements that I like to fit into our vacations: time to explore, time to relax, good food and good beer. We got all of that and more! And the bonus was that I did not have to do the detailed planning. Lynn and I did the research to select the time of year for the trip and the specific land tour and cruise itineraries but the rest we left to UnCruise. While that did cause me a little concern as I like to have control of the plan, there was no need for worry. The trip was excellent. And both the land tour and the cruise used a key feature that Lynn and I have found to be so important when traveling, that being flexibility. But I'll get to all of that.
This will be another long and detailed accounting of our adventures. Actually longer than normal since it is a two-plus-week trip and there was so much crammed into that time. I've broken it up into smaller parts over multiple pages:
This will be another long and detailed accounting of our adventures. Actually longer than normal since it is a two-plus-week trip and there was so much crammed into that time. I've broken it up into smaller parts over multiple pages:
Introduction, Planning and Preparation
|
Day 1: Travel to Anchorage and Walking Around the City
Day 2: Alaska Railroad to Talkeetna and Talkeetna Lakes Hike |
Day 3: Hiking and Kayaking in Denali State Park
Day 4: Riding the Rails to Denali National Park |
Day 5: Bus Tour through Denali National Park
|
Day 6: Back to Anchorage on the Motor Coach
Day 7: Anchorage to Juneau then walking around Town |
Day 8: Touring Juneau & The UnCruise Begins!
|
Day 9: Birds and Brews in Haines
Day 10: Cruising to then kayaking in Crab Bay |
Day 11: Neka Bay
Day 12: Dundas Bay (Glacier Bay National Park) |
Day 13: Glacier Bay, Glacier Bay National Park
Day 14: Glacier Bay, Glacier Bay National Park |
Day 15: Juneau to Anchorage to Home...
Day 16: Back to Medina Final Thoughts.... |
The really short version. Before getting into all the details, here’s the short story of the trip (which is two pages long; the rest of the story is about 220 pages!)
Day 1 - Saturday, June 8 - Travel to Alaska. Long day but no snags. Cleveland to Chicago to Anchorage, arriving early afternoon. Once we were checked in at the Hilton Anchorage we had a few hours to explore the city. We started with the weekend outdoor art show just across from the hotel, followed by lunch and our first beer in Alaska at Matanuska Brewing then a nice lap around the town. We just walked through a couple of park areas and took in the natural and historical sites. The first official event of the trip was the mixer for the tour group at 7:00 PM, where we met our tour guide, Annie, our motor coach driver, Jerry, and several of our follow tourists.
Day 2 - Sunday, June 9 - Train Ride to Talkeetna. We rode the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Talkeenta this morning, arriving in Talkeenta in time for lunch at Denali Brewing. Then we took a hike around Talkeetna Lakes before checking in at the Talkeetna Lodge. The view from the back of the lodge looks out over the Alaska Range but Denali is hiding this evening.
Day 3 - Monday, June 10 - Denali State Park. This morning we awoke to the splendor of Denali; The High One was out in all her glory. We spent the day exploring in Denali State Park. First we took a hike up to Curry Ridge with more spectacular views of the Alaska Range. After lunch we kayaked on Byers Lake again with Denali looming over us.
Day 4 - Tuesday, June 11 - Gold Star Train to McKinley Park. We were back on the train for a wonderful ride to Denali National Park. Great views and wonderful service. We had dinner at Denali Park Salmon Bake and stayed the night at Denali Bluffs Lodge.
Day 1 - Saturday, June 8 - Travel to Alaska. Long day but no snags. Cleveland to Chicago to Anchorage, arriving early afternoon. Once we were checked in at the Hilton Anchorage we had a few hours to explore the city. We started with the weekend outdoor art show just across from the hotel, followed by lunch and our first beer in Alaska at Matanuska Brewing then a nice lap around the town. We just walked through a couple of park areas and took in the natural and historical sites. The first official event of the trip was the mixer for the tour group at 7:00 PM, where we met our tour guide, Annie, our motor coach driver, Jerry, and several of our follow tourists.
Day 2 - Sunday, June 9 - Train Ride to Talkeetna. We rode the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Talkeenta this morning, arriving in Talkeenta in time for lunch at Denali Brewing. Then we took a hike around Talkeetna Lakes before checking in at the Talkeetna Lodge. The view from the back of the lodge looks out over the Alaska Range but Denali is hiding this evening.
Day 3 - Monday, June 10 - Denali State Park. This morning we awoke to the splendor of Denali; The High One was out in all her glory. We spent the day exploring in Denali State Park. First we took a hike up to Curry Ridge with more spectacular views of the Alaska Range. After lunch we kayaked on Byers Lake again with Denali looming over us.
Day 4 - Tuesday, June 11 - Gold Star Train to McKinley Park. We were back on the train for a wonderful ride to Denali National Park. Great views and wonderful service. We had dinner at Denali Park Salmon Bake and stayed the night at Denali Bluffs Lodge.
Day 5 - Wednesday, June 12 - Denali National Park. An all-day bus tour along the park road through Denali National Park, traveling 65 miles into the park. The High One was hiding today, but we still saw magnificent views and plenty of wildlife, including four of the big five (Dall Sheep, Caribou, Moose, Grizzly Bear).
Day 6 - Thursday, June 13 - Back To Anchorage. We took the motor coach back to Anchorage with stops at the Alaska Veterans Memorial in Denali State Park where we got our last view of Denali, then at the Palmer Museum of History and Art, and finally the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Farewell dinner in Anchorage at Pangea was a great way to end the land tour. We finished the evening at Matanuska for a final drink with some of our friends from the tour. |
Day 7 - Friday, June 14 - Transfer to Juneau. This morning we flew direct from sunny Anchorage to overcast Juneau. We were all settled in at our Juneau hotel by mid-afternoon and had the rest of the day to explore. Due to the weather, we opted to stick to a walking tour of the city. We toured along the waterfront, through the downtown shops and tried some local craft beers (Devil's Club was excellent but we did not care for Barnaby). Dinner at Tracy's King Crab Shack (just across the road from the hotel); excellent food. More walking after dinner including checking out the huge humpback whale sculpture at the Whale Project then back along the waterfront boardwalk.
Day 8 - Saturday, June 15 - The Cruise Begins. More time to explore Juneau in the morning. Breakfast at the Sandpiper Café was outstanding. Covered more of Juneau by foot, including the Alaska State Museum which was very educational. We met out group at the convention center at 4:00 so we were in plenty of time for the pre-boarding briefing, where we learned that the order of our stops was being shuffled to have a better shot at the best weather throughout the trip. At 5:00 we were heading to the boat and shortly underway. We spotted our first humpback whale of the trip!
Day 9 - Sunday, June 16 - Haines, Alaska. A chilly, misty, overcast morning. We took the float trip through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. The conditions improved after lunch when we walked through Haines, visiting the old fort, the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Haines Brewing (good beer!) and the Sheldon Museum, plus did a little shopping in town. As we cruised through the inside passage that evening, we saw a sea lion haul out and later a humpback whale as we passed Davidson Glacier.
Day 10 - Monday, June 17 - Cruising to and then Kayaking in Crab Bay. Overcast again this morning, but not raining. We had an amazing display this morning of a pair of humpback whales breaching. That's what we hoped to see! We later saw a grizzly bear on the beach. We spent the afternoon anchored in Crab Bay where we learned how to kayak then paddled around the bay. We had our first evening lecture and Jacob, one of the guides, gave us a talk on cetaceans in Alaska, focusing on humpback whales.
Day 11 - Tuesday, June 18 - Neka Bay. Overnight we continued our cruise through straits and channels of the inside passage to reach our destination for today, Neka Bay. We had two excursions today. In the morning we took a skiff tour and learned about the variety of animal life in Alaska. I had no idea that we would see sea stars, urchins and anemones. The afternoon bushwhack introduced us to more of the flora of Alaska, particularly the colorful wildflowers. And one banana slug.
Day 12 - Wednesday, June 19 - Dundas Bay. Today we reached Glacier Bay National Park, and anchored in Dundas Bay to explore. The overcast is starting to break up and more blue sky and sun was coming through. This morning we bushwhacked our way up a hill overlooking the bay, finding boggy muskegs with carnivorous plants along the way. During the afternoon we walked through a meadow finding flowers, and birds and fresh grizzly bear tracks. We also saw harbor porpoises and sea otters on the skiff rides between the Wilderness Adventurer and the beach in the morning and meadow walk in the afternoon.
Day 13 - Thursday, June 20 - Glacier Bay National Park. We spent the morning at the developed area of the National Park, anchored at the dock at the mouth of Glacier Bay. Hiked the trails around the visitor center before cruising up Glacier Bay. The weather was ideal; blue skies and pleasant. We spent the time on the sun deck enjoying the views and looking for wildlife. We passed close to South Marble Island where we saw another sea lion haul out and many types of birds, including both Tufted and Horned Puffins! Later we made a slow pass by Gloomy Knob where we spotted a mountain goat nanny and kid. After dinner we reached our objective and sat at the end the bay and the terminus of two huge tidewater glaciers, Margerie and Grand Pacific. Such an impressive site. We anchored for the night near Johns Hopkins Inlet.
Day 14 - Friday, June 21 - Glacier Bay National Park. Another beautiful day in the making, just perfect for exploring in Glacier Bay. This morning we moved into Johns Hopkins Inlet and anchored about a mile away from Lamplugh Glacier. The views here were spectacular. We took a skiff tour in the morning that brought us fairly close to the face of Lamplugh Glacier where we admired the wonderful blue color of the ice. After lunch we cruised out of Glacier Bay and started the trip back to Juneau. We had one last humpback whale sighting this evening, meaning that we saw a whale each day of the cruise.
Day 15 - Saturday, June 22 - Return to Juneau. The Wilderness Adventurer had us back in Juneau early this morning. After breakfast we left the boat then walked around Juneau before heading to the airport for the hop back to Anchorage. We left the overcast in Juneau and had a lovely day to walk around Anchorage before our red-eye flight back to Ohio.
Day 16 - Back home.
That's the really short version. Now here come all the details....
Day 8 - Saturday, June 15 - The Cruise Begins. More time to explore Juneau in the morning. Breakfast at the Sandpiper Café was outstanding. Covered more of Juneau by foot, including the Alaska State Museum which was very educational. We met out group at the convention center at 4:00 so we were in plenty of time for the pre-boarding briefing, where we learned that the order of our stops was being shuffled to have a better shot at the best weather throughout the trip. At 5:00 we were heading to the boat and shortly underway. We spotted our first humpback whale of the trip!
Day 9 - Sunday, June 16 - Haines, Alaska. A chilly, misty, overcast morning. We took the float trip through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. The conditions improved after lunch when we walked through Haines, visiting the old fort, the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Haines Brewing (good beer!) and the Sheldon Museum, plus did a little shopping in town. As we cruised through the inside passage that evening, we saw a sea lion haul out and later a humpback whale as we passed Davidson Glacier.
Day 10 - Monday, June 17 - Cruising to and then Kayaking in Crab Bay. Overcast again this morning, but not raining. We had an amazing display this morning of a pair of humpback whales breaching. That's what we hoped to see! We later saw a grizzly bear on the beach. We spent the afternoon anchored in Crab Bay where we learned how to kayak then paddled around the bay. We had our first evening lecture and Jacob, one of the guides, gave us a talk on cetaceans in Alaska, focusing on humpback whales.
Day 11 - Tuesday, June 18 - Neka Bay. Overnight we continued our cruise through straits and channels of the inside passage to reach our destination for today, Neka Bay. We had two excursions today. In the morning we took a skiff tour and learned about the variety of animal life in Alaska. I had no idea that we would see sea stars, urchins and anemones. The afternoon bushwhack introduced us to more of the flora of Alaska, particularly the colorful wildflowers. And one banana slug.
Day 12 - Wednesday, June 19 - Dundas Bay. Today we reached Glacier Bay National Park, and anchored in Dundas Bay to explore. The overcast is starting to break up and more blue sky and sun was coming through. This morning we bushwhacked our way up a hill overlooking the bay, finding boggy muskegs with carnivorous plants along the way. During the afternoon we walked through a meadow finding flowers, and birds and fresh grizzly bear tracks. We also saw harbor porpoises and sea otters on the skiff rides between the Wilderness Adventurer and the beach in the morning and meadow walk in the afternoon.
Day 13 - Thursday, June 20 - Glacier Bay National Park. We spent the morning at the developed area of the National Park, anchored at the dock at the mouth of Glacier Bay. Hiked the trails around the visitor center before cruising up Glacier Bay. The weather was ideal; blue skies and pleasant. We spent the time on the sun deck enjoying the views and looking for wildlife. We passed close to South Marble Island where we saw another sea lion haul out and many types of birds, including both Tufted and Horned Puffins! Later we made a slow pass by Gloomy Knob where we spotted a mountain goat nanny and kid. After dinner we reached our objective and sat at the end the bay and the terminus of two huge tidewater glaciers, Margerie and Grand Pacific. Such an impressive site. We anchored for the night near Johns Hopkins Inlet.
Day 14 - Friday, June 21 - Glacier Bay National Park. Another beautiful day in the making, just perfect for exploring in Glacier Bay. This morning we moved into Johns Hopkins Inlet and anchored about a mile away from Lamplugh Glacier. The views here were spectacular. We took a skiff tour in the morning that brought us fairly close to the face of Lamplugh Glacier where we admired the wonderful blue color of the ice. After lunch we cruised out of Glacier Bay and started the trip back to Juneau. We had one last humpback whale sighting this evening, meaning that we saw a whale each day of the cruise.
Day 15 - Saturday, June 22 - Return to Juneau. The Wilderness Adventurer had us back in Juneau early this morning. After breakfast we left the boat then walked around Juneau before heading to the airport for the hop back to Anchorage. We left the overcast in Juneau and had a lovely day to walk around Anchorage before our red-eye flight back to Ohio.
Day 16 - Back home.
That's the really short version. Now here come all the details....
Introduction. The trip was everything we hoped it would be and much more. UnCruise is a first rate outfit and they really did a great job for us from the first time we called them all the through to getting us back to the airport after our cruise. They had every detail covered. They answered our scores of questions. Simply put, they provided outstanding customer service. They made this a wonderful experience. We got to see everything on our wish. Both the land tour and the cruise were amazing. The guides were friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and really worked to ensure that all us tourists had a great time. The accommodations were first rate, the food was superb and plentiful (maybe too plentiful!) and the excursions were beyond words (holy socks, I’m only half a page into this journal and I am already running out of superlatives!). This two-week land and sea tour provided a perfect introduction to our 49th state.
I think that taking the land tour first was the way to go for us, particularly since this would be our first time taking a cruise. This way we got to focus on Alaska while dealing with the type of travel we were used to, then we got a whole new experience with the cruise plus seeing a completely different side of Alaska from the boat. And while I now have exactly one cruise under my belt, let me tell you that the small boat is the way to go. The service is very personal. We got to go places that the floating cities cannot get to. It was a more intimate setting and I’m guessing more relaxed as well. I think I got to meet everyone on both the land tour and the cruise (there were 30 on the former and 49 on the latter), and that’s saying something for an introvert like me.
We checked a lot of boxes on this trip. We saw a lot of wildlife. We marveled at the amazing vistas from both land and at sea. We learned about the history of the region, the culture of the people, the geology, the flora and fauna. We tried new beers, ate great food, met wonderful people. Every day brought a new adventure. While the trip pricey but in the end it was well worth it.
We've been looking into a trip to Alaska for several years, maybe as long as a decade. In fact, a few months after we got back from Alaska Lynn and I were going through old photos and travel paperwork and found a travel brochure about touring Alaska date 2012, and I'm sure that was not the first one we received. The genesis of the idea of us taking a small boat cruise is lost to history, but we probably saw something on the Travel or History channels about ways to tour National Parks, maybe the train ride to Denali. That was how we found out about the chalets in Glacier National Park in Montana. However we first learned about the small boat cruises does not really matter, as our interest has been piqued. We started studying the small boat cruises when Cruise West was still an option. We read through their website and ordered the brochures with the detailed itineraries and costs. OK, this looks great, but it is expensive. Unfortunately, Cruise West went out of business, which put our planning on hold for a while. But Lynn is persistent and would occasionally check the internet for cruise options in Alaska. During one such attempt she found the UnCruise website. That looks a really good option. We started following UnCruise, just keeping track of their cruise options and itineraries and it appeared that they have a really good operation. They constantly update their offerings and consistently get rave reviews. They offer land tours to Denali as well, so we added the land excursion to our Alaska wishlist. Over the time that we have been looking at this trip, the land tour options have grown from 3-day to 5-day to 7-day adventures (of course the cost as grown as well). Also, a couple years ago these seemed to be all post-cruise adventures, but now there are more pre-cruise add-ons. We figure that either will work for us. So a week on land and a week-long cruise. Hey, go big or go home!
By the fall of 2017 the timing was finally coming together and we started to get serious about this trip and studied the options over Christmas. I did a little comparison work from the UnCruise website, looking at the 7-night cruises, particularly the itineraries that included Glacier Bay National Park. All of the cruise options that we considered included time in Glacier Bay National Park and each offered excellent wildlife viewing opportunities including the possibility of seeing whales. But given all the options, we still zeroed in on the Glacier Bay National Park Adventure Cruise since it offered three days in the park.
I think that taking the land tour first was the way to go for us, particularly since this would be our first time taking a cruise. This way we got to focus on Alaska while dealing with the type of travel we were used to, then we got a whole new experience with the cruise plus seeing a completely different side of Alaska from the boat. And while I now have exactly one cruise under my belt, let me tell you that the small boat is the way to go. The service is very personal. We got to go places that the floating cities cannot get to. It was a more intimate setting and I’m guessing more relaxed as well. I think I got to meet everyone on both the land tour and the cruise (there were 30 on the former and 49 on the latter), and that’s saying something for an introvert like me.
We checked a lot of boxes on this trip. We saw a lot of wildlife. We marveled at the amazing vistas from both land and at sea. We learned about the history of the region, the culture of the people, the geology, the flora and fauna. We tried new beers, ate great food, met wonderful people. Every day brought a new adventure. While the trip pricey but in the end it was well worth it.
We've been looking into a trip to Alaska for several years, maybe as long as a decade. In fact, a few months after we got back from Alaska Lynn and I were going through old photos and travel paperwork and found a travel brochure about touring Alaska date 2012, and I'm sure that was not the first one we received. The genesis of the idea of us taking a small boat cruise is lost to history, but we probably saw something on the Travel or History channels about ways to tour National Parks, maybe the train ride to Denali. That was how we found out about the chalets in Glacier National Park in Montana. However we first learned about the small boat cruises does not really matter, as our interest has been piqued. We started studying the small boat cruises when Cruise West was still an option. We read through their website and ordered the brochures with the detailed itineraries and costs. OK, this looks great, but it is expensive. Unfortunately, Cruise West went out of business, which put our planning on hold for a while. But Lynn is persistent and would occasionally check the internet for cruise options in Alaska. During one such attempt she found the UnCruise website. That looks a really good option. We started following UnCruise, just keeping track of their cruise options and itineraries and it appeared that they have a really good operation. They constantly update their offerings and consistently get rave reviews. They offer land tours to Denali as well, so we added the land excursion to our Alaska wishlist. Over the time that we have been looking at this trip, the land tour options have grown from 3-day to 5-day to 7-day adventures (of course the cost as grown as well). Also, a couple years ago these seemed to be all post-cruise adventures, but now there are more pre-cruise add-ons. We figure that either will work for us. So a week on land and a week-long cruise. Hey, go big or go home!
By the fall of 2017 the timing was finally coming together and we started to get serious about this trip and studied the options over Christmas. I did a little comparison work from the UnCruise website, looking at the 7-night cruises, particularly the itineraries that included Glacier Bay National Park. All of the cruise options that we considered included time in Glacier Bay National Park and each offered excellent wildlife viewing opportunities including the possibility of seeing whales. But given all the options, we still zeroed in on the Glacier Bay National Park Adventure Cruise since it offered three days in the park.
We figured this might make an excellent excursion for our 30th anniversary. The only problem was that late October did not seem like the perfect timing for what we wanted to get out of our trip to Alaska (actually, cruise season is over by then). I had found a handy chart on the UnCruise website that provided some guidance on the best time to visit based on what you are most interested in. That was a very helpful visual. June seems like the optimal time for us based on weather (driest and sunniest days) and the highest probability of whale sightings and bear sightings plus pretty high rating for birding as well. The downside is this is the wrong time of year for the northern lights, but that's just the way it works. So we pushed the Alaska adventure out several months to June 2019 (so roughly our 30.6 year anniversary) to optimize for the things most important to us (and then we went to San Diego over our 30th anniversary, so sort of a two-trip event!).
Planning and Preparation. I'm generally the planner for our trips. Lynn typically comes up with ideas on places to go then I'll do most of the leg work. Hey, I like a good plan and I know if we are doing the research and working out the details then we'll have everything covered (well, most of the time anyway). For this really big trip, Lynn jumped in on the planning as well. She's actually been doing that a little more on recent trips. Hey, we're both engineers so we have that detail oriented nature about us. Having the help makes my life easier plus it is fun working together on developing the ideas and itineraries for our trips. But it was particularly important to be on the same page for this Alaska adventure as this is a really big investment in both time and money. We want to do the trip right and we want to have a great experience. That's sort of a long lead-in to say that planning is important and I have included a lot of the planning details for our Alaska trip in this journal. If you don't want to read about that stuff then just skip to the start of the trip and read about all the amazing things that we did and saw in the incredible frontier that is our 49th state.
As mentioned, we really started looking at the details of the trip in the fall of 2017 and by early 2018 we had or first cut at the cruise itinerary and rough dates selected. Then it was time to contact UnCruise, get all the details and the answers to our hundreds of questions, and really get moving with planning this trip. I kept the notes from those phone calls for our reference during the planning process so I'm just going to include all that nitty-gritty detail in the journal (someone may find it useful as they plan their trip). This will also be a reminder for me to see how the trip evolved in terms of changes to the dates and itinerary from the time we started planning until we finally reached Alaska (and there were a lot of changes of the course of several months).
14 January, 2018. Lynn had done some research while I was on travel last week (in Orlando for AIAA Sci-Tech). Once I was home, we connected my laptop to our big screen TV so that we could both see the information she had collected. Lynn had already whittled her cruise choices down to the same two that I had, Northern Passage or Glacier Bay. We also reviewed dates, costs and the best-time-to-go table on the UnCruise website. Early June looks like an optimal time and also gives us a break in terms of the cost. If we go with the June 1 cruise, then we can step up a tier on the cabin for less cost than the bottom rung cabin for the later dates. That's a no-brainer.
In addition to the information from the UnCruise website, I found I very nice summary on TripAdvisor from blue_gal4011 who had gone with UnCruise in late June/early July 2017 and had a grand time. She included some very helpful details in her trip report, sort of an overview of various aspects of the cruise rather than a day-by-day recounting of the trip. I found it helpful and it corroborated much of the information that I was finding during my research. She and her family did not travel on the same itinerary that we are looking at, but her comments still provided great insight. Now that we have completed our trip, I definitely concur with blue-gal's main points.
8 February, 2018 - Getting serious. Our first of many calls to UnCruise to get some details. I spoke with Betty. She was very friendly and extremely helpful. Here's what we found out:
That was just the first of several calls and other contacts with the folks at UnCruise. Everyone we interacted with during the process was friendly and extremely helpful, form the beginning of the planning process, through making the reservations and for the entire time we were on the cruise. This is an outfit that has its act together, has all the details covered and is extraordinarily customer focused. It was a pleasure dealing with UnCruise.
17 February, 2018 - More questions for UnCruise. I called about 5:00 PM today and again spoke with Betty. We're going to be best friends by the time we have all the details worked out. Here were the points covered today:
Planning and Preparation. I'm generally the planner for our trips. Lynn typically comes up with ideas on places to go then I'll do most of the leg work. Hey, I like a good plan and I know if we are doing the research and working out the details then we'll have everything covered (well, most of the time anyway). For this really big trip, Lynn jumped in on the planning as well. She's actually been doing that a little more on recent trips. Hey, we're both engineers so we have that detail oriented nature about us. Having the help makes my life easier plus it is fun working together on developing the ideas and itineraries for our trips. But it was particularly important to be on the same page for this Alaska adventure as this is a really big investment in both time and money. We want to do the trip right and we want to have a great experience. That's sort of a long lead-in to say that planning is important and I have included a lot of the planning details for our Alaska trip in this journal. If you don't want to read about that stuff then just skip to the start of the trip and read about all the amazing things that we did and saw in the incredible frontier that is our 49th state.
As mentioned, we really started looking at the details of the trip in the fall of 2017 and by early 2018 we had or first cut at the cruise itinerary and rough dates selected. Then it was time to contact UnCruise, get all the details and the answers to our hundreds of questions, and really get moving with planning this trip. I kept the notes from those phone calls for our reference during the planning process so I'm just going to include all that nitty-gritty detail in the journal (someone may find it useful as they plan their trip). This will also be a reminder for me to see how the trip evolved in terms of changes to the dates and itinerary from the time we started planning until we finally reached Alaska (and there were a lot of changes of the course of several months).
14 January, 2018. Lynn had done some research while I was on travel last week (in Orlando for AIAA Sci-Tech). Once I was home, we connected my laptop to our big screen TV so that we could both see the information she had collected. Lynn had already whittled her cruise choices down to the same two that I had, Northern Passage or Glacier Bay. We also reviewed dates, costs and the best-time-to-go table on the UnCruise website. Early June looks like an optimal time and also gives us a break in terms of the cost. If we go with the June 1 cruise, then we can step up a tier on the cabin for less cost than the bottom rung cabin for the later dates. That's a no-brainer.
In addition to the information from the UnCruise website, I found I very nice summary on TripAdvisor from blue_gal4011 who had gone with UnCruise in late June/early July 2017 and had a grand time. She included some very helpful details in her trip report, sort of an overview of various aspects of the cruise rather than a day-by-day recounting of the trip. I found it helpful and it corroborated much of the information that I was finding during my research. She and her family did not travel on the same itinerary that we are looking at, but her comments still provided great insight. Now that we have completed our trip, I definitely concur with blue-gal's main points.
8 February, 2018 - Getting serious. Our first of many calls to UnCruise to get some details. I spoke with Betty. She was very friendly and extremely helpful. Here's what we found out:
- Bad news is that they don't start the Denali pre-cruise add-on tour until 2 June, so our plan of going to Denali then taking the 1 June cruise will not work. Looks like we could do the land tour then the 8 June cruise (8 - 15).
- That might impact my work travel schedule depending on when the AIAA Aviation Forum falls in 2019 (17-21, June, in Dallas; if the Council meeting is later in the week then the 8 June will work) .
- Also means that we cannot take advantage of the lower cost of 1 June cruise. Oh, well, that was worth a shot.
- Boats, er, ships: The Wilderness Explorer is the nicest of the three ships that would have the cruise routes we are interested in (Glacier Bay National Park Adventure or the Northern Passage and Glacier Bay). But all are very similar. Based on Betty's description, Lynn referred the Adventurer and the Discoverer "rustic."
- Whales: Glacier Bay is great for whales. Basically a guarantee that we'll see Humpbacks.
- Sounds like we are leaning to the Glacier Bay National Park Adventure, departing on either 8, 15 or 22 June, with the Denali add-on tour prior to the cruise. We'll go with the low rent cabin on the boat (Navigator).
- The 2019 land tours are not priced yet, but we'll be added to the wait list and will get first dibs on the tour we request when we book the cruise. Betty stated that is it best to book the cruise sooner rather than later. They will hold the cruise for 3-days at no cost.
- The land tour is six nights; we are looking at the tour departing on June 2nd trip and returning on June 8th. That means that the last day of the land tour is the first day of the cruise. That seems kind of tight.
That was just the first of several calls and other contacts with the folks at UnCruise. Everyone we interacted with during the process was friendly and extremely helpful, form the beginning of the planning process, through making the reservations and for the entire time we were on the cruise. This is an outfit that has its act together, has all the details covered and is extraordinarily customer focused. It was a pleasure dealing with UnCruise.
17 February, 2018 - More questions for UnCruise. I called about 5:00 PM today and again spoke with Betty. We're going to be best friends by the time we have all the details worked out. Here were the points covered today:
- Payment schedule:
- Once we make the reservation, they will put everything on a complimentary 3-day hold just in case we have second thoughts or last minute changes. After that, to ensure the reservation we need to pay $750 per person; 50% of this amount is non-refundable (so they highly recommend trip insurance, but we'll have that through the credit card).
- Final payment is due 60 days prior to the trip.
- Gratuities: the recommendation is $25 to $35 per day for each traveler.
- Land tours: still nothing set for 2019, but she is expecting this to be settled shortly.
- If we go ahead and book the cruise and get on the waitlist for the land tours, what are our options if the land tours do not start in time for our cruise date? I'm looking at the 8 June 2019 cruise (in order to avoid conflicting with AIAA Aviation), so we would want the 2 June Denali land package. She said that should work, but it is a little on the early side (if it was 5 or 6 June, then no issue, but 2 June, while probably the first tour date, is not a sure thing yet). She said that she will check with her manager to see if we can have some flexibility to either move to a later cruise or get a refund if the land tour is not available in 2 June.
- Schedule is therefore:
- I'm guessing that we'll want to be in Alaska a day before the land tour, so Friday travel and Saturday open in Alaska. This could adjust depending on travel itinerary.
- Land tour starts on Sunday and runs through Saturday.
- Cruise starts Saturday and runs through Saturday.
- We will fly home (or at least start of journey home) on Sunday, the day after the cruise, I think.
- If we stick with the June 8 cruise then our dates are:
- Friday, May 31: Travel to Alaska
- Saturday, June 1: Open day in Alaska (rest day prior to land tour).
- Sunday, June 2: Land Tour starts (6 nights).
- Saturday, June 8: Land Tour is over and transfer to cruise; Cruise starts (7 nights).
- Saturday, June 15: Cruise complete.
- Sunday, June 16: Travel Home
25 February, 2018. A very nice day here in north-central Ohio, sunny but cool, so we had a porch beer (Hop JuJu). Part of the conversation was Alaska planning. Finally got Lynn to commit to everything. June 8th cruise to Glacier Bay on the Wilderness Adventurer, with the June 2nd land tour to Denali. We also decided to move up to the second tier room based on the earlier discussions with the folks at UnCruise; it just seems that it will just add a bit to the overall experience. Hey, this trip ain't going to be cheap, but the extra bucks is not going to break the bank and besides it sounds like it will be worth the extra cost. We'll call Betty on Monday.
26 February, 2018. We made the plunge and called for reservations at around 9:00 PM. Talked to Kate this evening. Here's what we signed up for:
27 February, 2018. I received and email from Kate confirming items from our phone call on 26 February. 2 June land tour is likely but not confirmed. She highly recommended that we push back a week to the 15 June cruise and start the land tour on 9 June. OK, I'm in (the business trip for AIAA Aviation will take a back seat). We'll kick this around and confirm with UnCruise on the tomorrow.
28 February, 2018. We called in the evening to update dates and finalize the reservation. Spoke with Tara tonight (we'll know all of the UnCruise staff before this is done). We are locked in for the 15 June 2019 cruise plus we get first dibs on the pre-cruise land tour to Denali (which starts Sunday, 9 June). We still have cabin 309, with two twin beds. Paid the deposit but declined travel insurance. She expects that the land packages will be set in the next couple of months; they will call us so no need to fret about getting back in touch with them.
So we're locked-in. Our land tour is expected to run from Sunday to Saturday then the cruise will be Saturday to Saturday. We'll go out on Friday, have Saturday open in Fairbanks then the tour on Sunday. We've done all we can do for planning at this point. Now we just wait for the land tour details
9 July, 2018. We heard from UnCruise today and finally got the land tour details. Lynn had been looking for the 2019 land tour information since we booked the cruise. The tours offered in 2019 are quite different from the 2018 tours but still look great and are better timed. Rather than going to Fairbanks, this tour starts and ends in Anchorage and includes two nights in Denali and two in Talkeetna, plus has a night between the land tour and the cruise back in Anchorage. That is a much better paced itinerary. The downside is that the original tour included staying at a lodge in the interior of Denali, while the new itinerary we stay outside the park and take a guided tour. Well, it is what is it and still looks like a great way to see Denali and other sights in Alaska. We thought about it for a day and decided to book. I replied to Kate to let her know we were in and would call in the next day or two.
11 July, 2018. I called UnCruise this evening at about 8:40 and spoke with Kate. Locked in the date for the land tour: June 8 - 14, Friday to Saturday (cruise departs on Sunday).
29 July, 2018 - Looking at flights. Lynn had done some earlier study on this, focusing on CLE - ANC (anchorage) - JUN (Juneau) - CLE packages. Those all came back at $2K for the complete loop for one person. We had a porch beer conversation about this on Saturday (28 July) and a quick look at the phone showed that CLE - ANC roundtrip was $1K per person. Perhaps we can do that then add an internal flight ANC - JUN roundtrip (those have to be a dime a dozen). So this morning I looked on the laptop. Yep, the CLE-ANC-JUN-CLE route is still $2K. CLE-ANC-CLE is $1K and the ANC-JUN roundtrip is about $500.
21 September, 2018. I received an email from Kate with the hotel information for the night between the land tour and cruise; Four Points Sheraton in Juneau just like she had mentioned. I replied and asked her to reserve that night for us. Lynn and I also looked at air schedules while at dinner at Thyme 2. The land tour is June 8 through 14 and the cruise is June 15 through 22. Also in the reply email we asked Kate about the actual start and end times so that we could determine when we need to be there. Do we fly in on June 7? Can we just start the flights home on June 22 right after getting off the ship or should we stay another night and where (Juneau or back to Anchorage)?
Lynn and I also decided to blow our United miles and go first class. These are long flights so a lot of time stuck in the flying tube. We've got the miles so we might as well use them and with the cost and the travel time this seems to make sense. Shoot, I've even got a United voucher to cover the handling fees that they charge when using miles, so getting to and from Alaska is going to be basically zero dollars.
1 October, 2018. I finally connected with Kate via email (never did get through on the phone), and called Betty to confirm the Juneau lodging. All taken care of. Kate confirmed that the flight schedule proposed will work. Time to book the airfare. I locked in the CLE-ANC flights on United, connecting through Chicago O'Hare, and the ANC-JUN direct flights with Alaska Air. OK, the cruise, land tour, extra night of lodging and now airfare are all reserved. I think that my work here is done. Now we can just start looking into the fun stuff and monitoring updates regarding the travel.
10 March, 2019. And this is what I meant about monitoring the travel details. I received an email update from United with tweaks to the flight itinerary to ANC. Not unusual; they will often update departure and arrival times or even change flight numbers and those were part of the changes, the parts that really did not have a significant impact. But this time they swapped out some aircraft. That did have an impact. In our original itinerary we had first class seats on three of the four legs, just the final jump from Chicago back to Cleveland was in a small regional jet that did not have a first class cabin. For whatever reason, when United reshuffled their aircraft, we lost a second first class seating on the initial flight to Chicago. And to add insult to injury, they put us in the back of the bus which will make getting off the plane more time consuming, and furthering constricting an already tight connection time. Hats-off to Lynn to catching this. I looked into this through the United website but since miles are in the mix I will have to call customer support to get this sorted out.
12 March, 2019. I called United to get seats adjusted back to original configuration, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. After "talking" with the automated system for a couple minutes, "he" decided that I should chat with another human. That's a step in the right direction. I was on hold a while but eventually got through and spoke with Ranli; she was very helpful and worked out the seating better than I could have hoped. She moved us back into first class for the final leg of the trip (ORD to CLE) and also moved forward in economy for the initial jump to Chicago (from row 24 to row 11). That move will save us a lot of time in getting off the plane in Chicago so we'll have a much easier time in making our connection. The bonus in all of this is that now we have legroom on all of our flight segments and get the additional room for the homestretch whereas we were originally in economy for the return flight into CLE. In the end it all worked out. This whole ordeal took almost an hour due to the long hold time, but the service once I was put in contact with a rep was stellar.
23 March, 2019 - Saturday, 3:55 PM. I called UnCruise to make our final payment and ask a few logistics questions. We spoke with Liz this afternoon. It took two calls to get the payment figured out, plus a call to my credit card company in between as the first attempt at payment was rejected. Turns out it must have been an input error by Liz or I went dyslexic on giving her the credit card number, but we soon had it all resolved. But before we got the payment figured out we went through the latest set of questions. While Lynn and I are fine with being flexible when it comes to moving activities around within a trip, adjusting for the weather, etc., we don't like to be surprised when it comes to the logistics and how things work.
That pretty much took care of the questions for UnCruise. We just had a couple more miscellaneous thoughts that we cleared up via email by mid-April, like confirming that we did not need our passports since this itinerary kept us entirely within Alaska (I guess some of the other routes did touch Canada), and determining that there was not guest laundry available in the hotels in Anchorage or Juneau (the hotels offered a service but at a high cost). Fortunately the hotels in Talkeetna and Denali did have laundry rooms available for use so that worked out for us on during the land tour.
With the major elements of the trip all set, I looked into the little bit of free time that we had available in Anchorage and Juneau, basically the layover time. We don't really have that much time on arrival day into Anchorage, so we'll just play that by ear. However we have the afternoon after and most of the following day in Juneau before the cruise plus a 6-hour layover back in Anchorage after the cruise. So we'll have plenty of time to walk around both cities, particularly Juneau, and see some of the local sites. I did a little searching on the web and found some ideas, from museums and local parks to serious excursions to see glaciers and sled dog exhibitions. I figured that we would focus on the former rather than the latter options just based on the time investment. What I knew we would have time to explore was the local craft beer scene in each city. The options in Juneau were limited as I only found two small, local breweries, Devil's Club and Barnaby, along with Alaskan Brewing Company. I was not that interested in Alaskan Brewing as I can get their beer in Ohio. All three options were just a short walk from the hotel so we should be able to check these out easy enough. There were more options in Anchorage but they were also more widely distributed geographically. I was figuring that we might just want to find a nice place to hang-out in Anchorage on that last travel day; get some food and have a couple last beers in Alaska and not be stuck in the airport for hours and hours. Between the web and a question I posted on the TripAdvisor Anchorage forum I had plenty of options. The top pick from the locals on TripAdvisor was Moose's Tooth Pub which serves Broken Tooth Brewery beers. This place just got rave reviews from the folks on the forum, so I put it at the top or my list. The other beer-centric options included Midnight Sun, Anchorage Brewing, King Street Brewing, 49th State and Matanuska.
The last piece of the puzzle was what to do with our bags once we arrive in Anchorage after the cruise. United won't let us check the bags that far in advance and besides I really don't want to lug around my carry-on bag. So we needed a bag storage option. Fortunately there were not one but two options in the Anchorage airport (Huntleigh USA and Alaska Luggage and Seafood Shipping Services). Both seemed convenient and inexpensive so we should be covered on the bag storage. Cool, that takes care of that detail. Now we just have to pack.
26 February, 2018. We made the plunge and called for reservations at around 9:00 PM. Talked to Kate this evening. Here's what we signed up for:
- Glacier Bay Park Adventure Cruise departing on June 8, 2019.
- The detailed itinerary is linked here.
- We will be cruising on the Wilderness Adventurer.
- Trailblazer cabin level.
- We even got to select our cabin. After talking the pros and cons of cabin location with Kate, we picked cabin 309. This cabin is midway down the hall so maybe a little less traffic and is on the starboard side which might be a little better for views.
- Land package is not yet firm but the current package is the Alaska Rail, Denali and Knik River starting on June 2, 2019. This tour originates in Fairbanks, rolls to Denali then heads south and ends in Anchorage. We will then transfer to Juneau for the start of the cruise.
- We'll be on the first call list since the land packages are not locked in.
- Asked about the possibility of moving the cruise dates (or getting a refund) if the land package is not offered on 2 June (as we discussed with Betty previously). Kate will check on this tomorrow morning and call or email with the update. Once we have that locked in we'll work on the deposit (she's holding the cabin for now anyway).
27 February, 2018. I received and email from Kate confirming items from our phone call on 26 February. 2 June land tour is likely but not confirmed. She highly recommended that we push back a week to the 15 June cruise and start the land tour on 9 June. OK, I'm in (the business trip for AIAA Aviation will take a back seat). We'll kick this around and confirm with UnCruise on the tomorrow.
28 February, 2018. We called in the evening to update dates and finalize the reservation. Spoke with Tara tonight (we'll know all of the UnCruise staff before this is done). We are locked in for the 15 June 2019 cruise plus we get first dibs on the pre-cruise land tour to Denali (which starts Sunday, 9 June). We still have cabin 309, with two twin beds. Paid the deposit but declined travel insurance. She expects that the land packages will be set in the next couple of months; they will call us so no need to fret about getting back in touch with them.
So we're locked-in. Our land tour is expected to run from Sunday to Saturday then the cruise will be Saturday to Saturday. We'll go out on Friday, have Saturday open in Fairbanks then the tour on Sunday. We've done all we can do for planning at this point. Now we just wait for the land tour details
9 July, 2018. We heard from UnCruise today and finally got the land tour details. Lynn had been looking for the 2019 land tour information since we booked the cruise. The tours offered in 2019 are quite different from the 2018 tours but still look great and are better timed. Rather than going to Fairbanks, this tour starts and ends in Anchorage and includes two nights in Denali and two in Talkeetna, plus has a night between the land tour and the cruise back in Anchorage. That is a much better paced itinerary. The downside is that the original tour included staying at a lodge in the interior of Denali, while the new itinerary we stay outside the park and take a guided tour. Well, it is what is it and still looks like a great way to see Denali and other sights in Alaska. We thought about it for a day and decided to book. I replied to Kate to let her know we were in and would call in the next day or two.
11 July, 2018. I called UnCruise this evening at about 8:40 and spoke with Kate. Locked in the date for the land tour: June 8 - 14, Friday to Saturday (cruise departs on Sunday).
- Paid 50%, non-refundable deposit today.
- The detailed description of the land tour from UnCruise is listed here.
- Asked about a hotel recommendation for the night in Juneau between the land tour and cruise. They use the Four-Points Sheraton right across from the dock. This can be built into the trip. That works for me (more expensive but very convenient). She made a reminder note so that she can add this later.
- So plan is fly to Anchorage on 6/8 arriving anytime; Anchorage to Juneau on 6/14, arriving anytime; home on 6/22 (or stay an extra day on our own).
29 July, 2018 - Looking at flights. Lynn had done some earlier study on this, focusing on CLE - ANC (anchorage) - JUN (Juneau) - CLE packages. Those all came back at $2K for the complete loop for one person. We had a porch beer conversation about this on Saturday (28 July) and a quick look at the phone showed that CLE - ANC roundtrip was $1K per person. Perhaps we can do that then add an internal flight ANC - JUN roundtrip (those have to be a dime a dozen). So this morning I looked on the laptop. Yep, the CLE-ANC-JUN-CLE route is still $2K. CLE-ANC-CLE is $1K and the ANC-JUN roundtrip is about $500.
- Interestingly, the complete route loop had the ANC-JUN flights as two stops, but there are several direct flights available on Alaska Air.
- Seems like we should be able to save some money by booking two sets of round-trip tickets (CLE-ANC roundtrip and ANC-JUN roundtrip).
- We have to work out the timing but it looks like we can get back to ANC from JUN in the afternoon after getting off the boat, then take the red-eye from ANC back to CLE (with 2 stops in between) that same day.
- Seems that the flights from CLE to ANC all get in late (11:30 PM) except for one (through Chicago but a tight connection), so maybe we want to go out a day early to ensure we are there in time and not rushing around prior to the tour. We save a grand on total airfare by doing two round-trip ticket sets and maybe give up $200-$300 for an extra night of lodging at the start of the trip. Still coming out way ahead with that plan.
- The red-eye return, while not ideal, will work out from a schedule perspective it appears.
- While it is still way too early to work the details, this is looking doable.
21 September, 2018. I received an email from Kate with the hotel information for the night between the land tour and cruise; Four Points Sheraton in Juneau just like she had mentioned. I replied and asked her to reserve that night for us. Lynn and I also looked at air schedules while at dinner at Thyme 2. The land tour is June 8 through 14 and the cruise is June 15 through 22. Also in the reply email we asked Kate about the actual start and end times so that we could determine when we need to be there. Do we fly in on June 7? Can we just start the flights home on June 22 right after getting off the ship or should we stay another night and where (Juneau or back to Anchorage)?
Lynn and I also decided to blow our United miles and go first class. These are long flights so a lot of time stuck in the flying tube. We've got the miles so we might as well use them and with the cost and the travel time this seems to make sense. Shoot, I've even got a United voucher to cover the handling fees that they charge when using miles, so getting to and from Alaska is going to be basically zero dollars.
1 October, 2018. I finally connected with Kate via email (never did get through on the phone), and called Betty to confirm the Juneau lodging. All taken care of. Kate confirmed that the flight schedule proposed will work. Time to book the airfare. I locked in the CLE-ANC flights on United, connecting through Chicago O'Hare, and the ANC-JUN direct flights with Alaska Air. OK, the cruise, land tour, extra night of lodging and now airfare are all reserved. I think that my work here is done. Now we can just start looking into the fun stuff and monitoring updates regarding the travel.
10 March, 2019. And this is what I meant about monitoring the travel details. I received an email update from United with tweaks to the flight itinerary to ANC. Not unusual; they will often update departure and arrival times or even change flight numbers and those were part of the changes, the parts that really did not have a significant impact. But this time they swapped out some aircraft. That did have an impact. In our original itinerary we had first class seats on three of the four legs, just the final jump from Chicago back to Cleveland was in a small regional jet that did not have a first class cabin. For whatever reason, when United reshuffled their aircraft, we lost a second first class seating on the initial flight to Chicago. And to add insult to injury, they put us in the back of the bus which will make getting off the plane more time consuming, and furthering constricting an already tight connection time. Hats-off to Lynn to catching this. I looked into this through the United website but since miles are in the mix I will have to call customer support to get this sorted out.
12 March, 2019. I called United to get seats adjusted back to original configuration, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. After "talking" with the automated system for a couple minutes, "he" decided that I should chat with another human. That's a step in the right direction. I was on hold a while but eventually got through and spoke with Ranli; she was very helpful and worked out the seating better than I could have hoped. She moved us back into first class for the final leg of the trip (ORD to CLE) and also moved forward in economy for the initial jump to Chicago (from row 24 to row 11). That move will save us a lot of time in getting off the plane in Chicago so we'll have a much easier time in making our connection. The bonus in all of this is that now we have legroom on all of our flight segments and get the additional room for the homestretch whereas we were originally in economy for the return flight into CLE. In the end it all worked out. This whole ordeal took almost an hour due to the long hold time, but the service once I was put in contact with a rep was stellar.
23 March, 2019 - Saturday, 3:55 PM. I called UnCruise to make our final payment and ask a few logistics questions. We spoke with Liz this afternoon. It took two calls to get the payment figured out, plus a call to my credit card company in between as the first attempt at payment was rejected. Turns out it must have been an input error by Liz or I went dyslexic on giving her the credit card number, but we soon had it all resolved. But before we got the payment figured out we went through the latest set of questions. While Lynn and I are fine with being flexible when it comes to moving activities around within a trip, adjusting for the weather, etc., we don't like to be surprised when it comes to the logistics and how things work.
- Tipping by credit card, how does that work?
- Simply pay a lump sum at the end of the cruise. Tips are split between the crew. Generally figure on $250 per week per person for the tip.
- How does tipping work cruise versus the land tour?
- The land tour folks will provide instructions for tipping, but they do not have the credit card lump sum option. They also do not split the tips between everyone since there is not a single crew throughout. Best to bring cash and tip individually.
- Airport pick up, does UnCruise coordinate this at both Anchorage and Juneau? Where is the muster point?
- Yes. We need in put our air itinerary into the guest portal (I guess we missed that there was a guest portal). Transfers to/from the airport are included provided we are arriving/departing on the tour schedule (which we are).
- The link to the guest portal will be on the email Liz will send with the receipt from today's transaction.
- Who is the point-of-contact for the land tour?
- We will get this with the final itinerary.
- Do we get a detailed itinerary with contacts, etc.?
- Yes. 45 days before the trip we will get an email with the detailed itinerary that will have all the logistical information (including the airport transfer, land tour POC, etc.).
- Seasickness pills: will these be available or should we bring our own?
- There will be motion sickness meds on the cruise, but it is advised that we check with our doctor to see what is best for us and bring that along as well (should we choose to do so).
- Are there electrical outlets on the boat to charge batteries?
- Yes, there are outlets in each cabin, so charging batteries, phones (not there will be signal) is not an issue.
- We also reconfirmed that our air itinerary will still work with cruise schedule.
That pretty much took care of the questions for UnCruise. We just had a couple more miscellaneous thoughts that we cleared up via email by mid-April, like confirming that we did not need our passports since this itinerary kept us entirely within Alaska (I guess some of the other routes did touch Canada), and determining that there was not guest laundry available in the hotels in Anchorage or Juneau (the hotels offered a service but at a high cost). Fortunately the hotels in Talkeetna and Denali did have laundry rooms available for use so that worked out for us on during the land tour.
With the major elements of the trip all set, I looked into the little bit of free time that we had available in Anchorage and Juneau, basically the layover time. We don't really have that much time on arrival day into Anchorage, so we'll just play that by ear. However we have the afternoon after and most of the following day in Juneau before the cruise plus a 6-hour layover back in Anchorage after the cruise. So we'll have plenty of time to walk around both cities, particularly Juneau, and see some of the local sites. I did a little searching on the web and found some ideas, from museums and local parks to serious excursions to see glaciers and sled dog exhibitions. I figured that we would focus on the former rather than the latter options just based on the time investment. What I knew we would have time to explore was the local craft beer scene in each city. The options in Juneau were limited as I only found two small, local breweries, Devil's Club and Barnaby, along with Alaskan Brewing Company. I was not that interested in Alaskan Brewing as I can get their beer in Ohio. All three options were just a short walk from the hotel so we should be able to check these out easy enough. There were more options in Anchorage but they were also more widely distributed geographically. I was figuring that we might just want to find a nice place to hang-out in Anchorage on that last travel day; get some food and have a couple last beers in Alaska and not be stuck in the airport for hours and hours. Between the web and a question I posted on the TripAdvisor Anchorage forum I had plenty of options. The top pick from the locals on TripAdvisor was Moose's Tooth Pub which serves Broken Tooth Brewery beers. This place just got rave reviews from the folks on the forum, so I put it at the top or my list. The other beer-centric options included Midnight Sun, Anchorage Brewing, King Street Brewing, 49th State and Matanuska.
The last piece of the puzzle was what to do with our bags once we arrive in Anchorage after the cruise. United won't let us check the bags that far in advance and besides I really don't want to lug around my carry-on bag. So we needed a bag storage option. Fortunately there were not one but two options in the Anchorage airport (Huntleigh USA and Alaska Luggage and Seafood Shipping Services). Both seemed convenient and inexpensive so we should be covered on the bag storage. Cool, that takes care of that detail. Now we just have to pack.
2 June, 2019. It is Sunday and we leave for Alaska next Saturday. Time to get our gear together. I started by getting the cameras in order, charging batteries and formatting the memory cards. What about hiking gear? That's the downside to this trip, as there won't be a lot of options for serious hiking. The itineraries only list a couple opportunities during the land tour and a few "bushwhack" excursions during the cruise. No need to take the trekking poles but we did take the hydration packs. And I ended up with a huge pile of clothes staged on the guestroom bed (that's where we do our packing in since we can lock the cats out and start layout out our stuff early rather than rushing right before the trip). That's just too much stuff so some culling will be needed. Lynn and I chatted about packing and travel plans over a porch beer this afternoon then again during our evening walk along the Chippewa Inlet Trail. We're actually in pretty good shape with packing and chores. We're both going to take Friday off from work as a prelude to vacation so that we have more time to finish off the final details.
6 June, 2019, Thursday - Last day of work for nearly three weeks. This was actually a fairly productive day in the office. The bonus was that I was not trying to cram in last minute actions, although a couple did pop up in the afternoon. But I knocked those out and still had time to clear out most of my email inbox before we hung it up for the day. I left work with 56 emails remaining in the inbox. We'll see how high the pile is when I get back.
I'm going to be out of the office for the better part of three weeks; I think this is the longest time I've been away from work on vacation. The only longer time was for the government shutdown this past winter! I received several well wishes and "safe travels" from the gang at work after I sent my "out of the office email." A couple of the emails struck by funny bone:
6 June, 2019, Thursday - Last day of work for nearly three weeks. This was actually a fairly productive day in the office. The bonus was that I was not trying to cram in last minute actions, although a couple did pop up in the afternoon. But I knocked those out and still had time to clear out most of my email inbox before we hung it up for the day. I left work with 56 emails remaining in the inbox. We'll see how high the pile is when I get back.
I'm going to be out of the office for the better part of three weeks; I think this is the longest time I've been away from work on vacation. The only longer time was for the government shutdown this past winter! I received several well wishes and "safe travels" from the gang at work after I sent my "out of the office email." A couple of the emails struck by funny bone:
From: Allen
Sent: Tuesday, June 4, 2019 2:33 PM Subject: Vacation Hello All: I will be out of the office starting on Friday, June 7th, and returning on Wednesday, June 26th. I will have no access to phone and email during most of this period. Sent: Tuesday, June 4, 2019 3:20 PM
Subject: RE: Vacation No DESIRE to find access! That’s what vacation is all about. #unplugged #49thstate |
From: Smith, Jason
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2019 3:09 PM Subject: RE: Vacation No access, or no ability to find it? #toomanyporchbeersonvacationisagoodthing Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2019 3:21 PM
Subject: RE: Vacation Heck yeah! |
Also a little jocularity from Mike Mills:
Sent: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 10:16 AM
Subject: RE: Vacation Thanks, Mike. We are heading to Alaska, so that will be an adventure. Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2019 11:50 AM
Subject: RE: Vacation I see what you did there. ;-) |
From: MILLS, MICHAEL
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2019 11:04 AM Subject: RE: Vacation Enjoy your time off. Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2019 11:34 AM
Subject: Vacation Sounds cool. |
Friday, June 7, 2019 - Vacation starts but with lots of chores. I had figured to take today off all along knowing that there would be more stuff to do than we could cover in just the evening after work. This is growing season and the yard will need mowed, otherwise we'll be facing a jungle when we get home in two weeks (we will be anyway). So mowing and trimming were high on the list, plus some general house cleaning and of course finishing the trip prep.
I had planned on getting started early this morning but that second ride on the Tire Swing last night meant that I slept in a bit this morning. However I was still up before 0630. By 0700 I was knocking out chores. I started with the normal daily routine cat chores. Lynn was cleaning up the kitchen, including emptying out the few remaining items from the fridge that won’t last until our return. She called down the hall to ask me if she should just toss the little bit of milk left in the jug. Before I could answer in the affirmative our little black cat, Tink, ran passed me to the kitchen, just calling all the way. I’ll take that as a “no” on tossing the milk.
I had planned on getting started early this morning but that second ride on the Tire Swing last night meant that I slept in a bit this morning. However I was still up before 0630. By 0700 I was knocking out chores. I started with the normal daily routine cat chores. Lynn was cleaning up the kitchen, including emptying out the few remaining items from the fridge that won’t last until our return. She called down the hall to ask me if she should just toss the little bit of milk left in the jug. Before I could answer in the affirmative our little black cat, Tink, ran passed me to the kitchen, just calling all the way. I’ll take that as a “no” on tossing the milk.
Most of the big stuff was done by 11:20. It is 5 o'clock somewhere! We tried a few of the odd ball beers we had in the fridge. Nothing great in that batch. We went through the departure time for tomorrow morning. Seems we always have to work through this a number of times. Ok, working backwards:
We also discussed the final trip prep and packing. The only things we are missing from the packing checklist provided by UnCruise are a dry bag, rain pants and glasses straps. I don't think a dry bag is really needed since I will take the little waterproof camera. We can probably skip the glasses straps since we're not doing any white water activities. The waterproof pants are another story. I have waterproof pants but Lynn does not. Weight is becoming an issue. I checked for sporting goods stores in Anchorage and found a couple close to our hotel (REI and B & J's). There should be time to pick up any extra needed equipment once we get to Alaska. So we’ll roll the dice and not worry about the rain pants for now.
We finished off some leftover pizza for lunch. The cupboard is really getting bare. After lunch, I finished with the push mower and the string trimmer. As I was finishing up along the east edge of the property, I got the opportunity to meet our new neighbor who had moved in just about a week ago; Wayne Good. Hey, I always wanted to have “good” neighbors! Sorry, I just had to do that!
Once that trimming was complete it was time to get clean as I was pretty much covered with grass and mud from trimming along the ditches. We had a dump of rain Wednesday evening so it was quite wet. The yardwork is one reason that we typically do not plan our big trips in May and June. The grass just grows like mad this time of year. I think the last big June trip was our 2013 tour of Ireland. Interestingly, that was also one of our longest trips in terms of distance from home (Hawaii holds that record) and the furthest north we have been. We’ll be going just about as far away but Alaska will get the nod for being further north.
Lynn got on the big mower while I was showering. She knocked out a lot of the mowing and I finished it up (after a nap!). I was done by 6:40. Only thing really left to do is the final packing and travel prep items that we'll knock out in the morning. However now it is time for a porch beer. By 9:20 and we are settled for the evening with the last of our beer. We had finished the mowing, the errands and the packing other than the final details that will be checked-off the list in the morning. I think we are ready to go to Alaska.
- Our flight departs CLE at 8:15 AM.
- Boarding starts at 7:45 AM.
- We should be at the airport an hour prior to boarding, so 6:45 AM.
- That means we could leave at 6:00 AM which will allow us have plenty of time to park at Park Place and transfer to the airport.
- However, Lynn thinks this is not enough time, so maybe we shoot for 5:45 AM to be on the road.
- OK, we'll shoot for getting up about 0430 to get showered and ready to roll.
We also discussed the final trip prep and packing. The only things we are missing from the packing checklist provided by UnCruise are a dry bag, rain pants and glasses straps. I don't think a dry bag is really needed since I will take the little waterproof camera. We can probably skip the glasses straps since we're not doing any white water activities. The waterproof pants are another story. I have waterproof pants but Lynn does not. Weight is becoming an issue. I checked for sporting goods stores in Anchorage and found a couple close to our hotel (REI and B & J's). There should be time to pick up any extra needed equipment once we get to Alaska. So we’ll roll the dice and not worry about the rain pants for now.
We finished off some leftover pizza for lunch. The cupboard is really getting bare. After lunch, I finished with the push mower and the string trimmer. As I was finishing up along the east edge of the property, I got the opportunity to meet our new neighbor who had moved in just about a week ago; Wayne Good. Hey, I always wanted to have “good” neighbors! Sorry, I just had to do that!
Once that trimming was complete it was time to get clean as I was pretty much covered with grass and mud from trimming along the ditches. We had a dump of rain Wednesday evening so it was quite wet. The yardwork is one reason that we typically do not plan our big trips in May and June. The grass just grows like mad this time of year. I think the last big June trip was our 2013 tour of Ireland. Interestingly, that was also one of our longest trips in terms of distance from home (Hawaii holds that record) and the furthest north we have been. We’ll be going just about as far away but Alaska will get the nod for being further north.
Lynn got on the big mower while I was showering. She knocked out a lot of the mowing and I finished it up (after a nap!). I was done by 6:40. Only thing really left to do is the final packing and travel prep items that we'll knock out in the morning. However now it is time for a porch beer. By 9:20 and we are settled for the evening with the last of our beer. We had finished the mowing, the errands and the packing other than the final details that will be checked-off the list in the morning. I think we are ready to go to Alaska.