photodoodle
July 4th, 2007, 12:11 PM
My mom and dad have recently gotten into cruising and have been mostly cruising with HAL and mostly loving it. I have done a fair bit of traveling including cruises. My significant other (hereafter DSO) used to be an entertainer on cruise ships, so I went on quite a few trips with him. In fact, we first met on a cruise ship – so you can say we had an honest-to-goodness, real love boat experience. This was all ~10-12 years ago and he has since moved on to other venues. Our travel style, when we are choosing and paying our own way, is more rugged. So I haven't cruised in a while.
But enough ancient history. Back to the recent past. Each time they decided to cruise, my parents would inquire “Where should we go?” And I always said the same thing: Alaska. It was my favorite destination of all the cruises we took by a long shot. And each time my father complained that he didn’t like the cold or mosquitoes – neither of which was a deterrent for my mom. Then about a month ago, my dad called with the most wonderful proposal: “Your mother really wants to go to Alaska, but I know I’d hate it, so I’m sending you. But you have to do all the planning.” How wonderful is that! A return to Alaska – and with my mother who I adore, no less. (I happen to be really blessed to have a fantastic relationship with my mom. I’ve always told people she and I get along so well we could be roommates, and now for a week we will be.) She loves nature and wildlife (as do I) and I know she will love Alaska. We chose the Statendam northbound because we like the idea of a smaller ship and the itinerary really appealed to me. I also like having a naturalist onboard.
So we leave July 15th. We got a good deal on an EE outside window room and are putting a good chunk of the budget toward tours in port which I have booked independently. We wanted nature/wildlife oriented tours that would likely be uncrowded. The Alaska board was very in helping me select the following excursions:
Ketchikan: Anan Bear Observatory with transportation by Family Air. This was a big splurge, but we are going at peak time for this location I am told. So we hope to have a pretty awesome, albeit expensive, bear watching experience. We got the last two Anan permits for that day!
Juneau: Glacier landing with Coastal Helicopters in the morning and whale watching with Harv and Marv in the afternoon.
Skagway: Renting a car with Avis and driving to Emerald Lake
Seward: Kenai Fjords tour with Kenai Fjords. We’re doing the captains choice tour which we hope to emphasize for bird and wildlife viewing and photography. We will have seen plenty of glaciers by then, I expect. As an enthusiastic, but relatively novice birder, I hope to get a closer look at some of those teeming rookeries.
I plan to write a review of the whole thing when we get back.
But enough ancient history. Back to the recent past. Each time they decided to cruise, my parents would inquire “Where should we go?” And I always said the same thing: Alaska. It was my favorite destination of all the cruises we took by a long shot. And each time my father complained that he didn’t like the cold or mosquitoes – neither of which was a deterrent for my mom. Then about a month ago, my dad called with the most wonderful proposal: “Your mother really wants to go to Alaska, but I know I’d hate it, so I’m sending you. But you have to do all the planning.” How wonderful is that! A return to Alaska – and with my mother who I adore, no less. (I happen to be really blessed to have a fantastic relationship with my mom. I’ve always told people she and I get along so well we could be roommates, and now for a week we will be.) She loves nature and wildlife (as do I) and I know she will love Alaska. We chose the Statendam northbound because we like the idea of a smaller ship and the itinerary really appealed to me. I also like having a naturalist onboard.
So we leave July 15th. We got a good deal on an EE outside window room and are putting a good chunk of the budget toward tours in port which I have booked independently. We wanted nature/wildlife oriented tours that would likely be uncrowded. The Alaska board was very in helping me select the following excursions:
Ketchikan: Anan Bear Observatory with transportation by Family Air. This was a big splurge, but we are going at peak time for this location I am told. So we hope to have a pretty awesome, albeit expensive, bear watching experience. We got the last two Anan permits for that day!
Juneau: Glacier landing with Coastal Helicopters in the morning and whale watching with Harv and Marv in the afternoon.
Skagway: Renting a car with Avis and driving to Emerald Lake
Seward: Kenai Fjords tour with Kenai Fjords. We’re doing the captains choice tour which we hope to emphasize for bird and wildlife viewing and photography. We will have seen plenty of glaciers by then, I expect. As an enthusiastic, but relatively novice birder, I hope to get a closer look at some of those teeming rookeries.
I plan to write a review of the whole thing when we get back.