Cora l/ Alaska very short review

May 27th Voyage of the Glaciers Land Tour Kenai * McKinley*Denali* Fairbanks

SHIP overall very nice.

Cabin E731 AWESOME in my opinion, best balcony location on ship. Side and rear view, step out cabin door to back deck, hardly used.

Food about a 5 out of 10 , just OK, but then that is not why we went.

BEST part of cruise, excluding port stops...

hands down College Fjord. Harvard Glacier. very active glacier calving.

PORT Excursions.

KETCHIKAN, rented a little electric car and cruised all around town, totem poles, shopping, eagles, Alaskan Beer. Good day.

JUNEAU. Adventure Bound Tracy Arm cruise to Sawyer Glacier, awesome trip, but a very long way in and back.

SKAGWAY WPRR trip, 7 hour to Carcross and back. Loved the train incredible mountain scenery. I recommend to take a shorter trip and do something else in addition, some friends used the extra time to go dog sledding on glacier.

Land Tour

KENAI Lodge, very nice, awesome rooms. We missed fishing on Kenai by less than a week, river opened this year June 11th. we did Float trip on river and had planned sailing on Kenai Lake, but it was cancelled... no wind. Without fishing there wasn't too much to do

MCKINLEY Lodge, nice, very short stay. We had booked a flight and glacier landing for 6 pm day of arrival and it was really the only bad weather day we had and it was cancelled. ): We decided to take a chance and try to book an early morning flight next day, got really lucky and got one at 9am. Booked thru lodge with K2 Air. Probably one of the most amazing things I have ever done. No doubt a rare opportunity to be in the mountains up close and the the cherry on top...glacier landing.

Rail trip to Denali lodge. awesome, wished we could do rail all the way.

DENALI Lodge. Main lodge, nice. Rooms OK, beds...old, tired and need replacing.

Excursions - Husky Homestead, very enjoyable, Jeff King is a great speaker and seeing dogs and holding puppies was great.

Was not able to get on Eileson or Wilderness Denali tour.Couldn't get thru to park to make reservation. If this is an important part of trip for you, book before you leave home. Not a big deal to us, we took short shuttle to Savage River. not really worth the time.

Whitewater Rafting, I had to be talked into this, class 4 rapids.... we had a fabulous time, definitely recommend.

FAIRBANKS . as far as I am concerned, they could skip it. Much prefer more time at McKinley. 'they must have two different hotels that they use, we were in the one farthest from downtown. We really found nothing much to do. The

Gold Dredge and Paddle wheel trip were just OK.

Overall it was an amazing trip and the weather could not have been much better, really only one day of rain and it was a travel day. Never even got out the bug spray. Late May seems to be a great time to go to Alaska.

In addition we met many very nice people from US and Australia.

Any questions??

Thanks! Sorry about Denali :( Were you unable to get Tundra Wilderness tour either?

Could not get thru on phone to reserve and when we got there in a.m. early trips all sold out. No problem...entire trip was so amazing it is difficult to dwell on one missed thing.

Nice review

Thanks for sharing

Srpilo

Glad you enjoyed your trip! Thanks for the feedback.

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I'm interested in the little electric car you rented in Ketchikan. Can you describe and provide details? It sounds like fun, and I don't remember seeing that any of the times we've been there.

We rented at Rain Barrel . You can take the FREE shuttle right to the store. I believe they rented by hour or part of after 1 hour. It was fun and a great way to get around town. they are like golf carts with snap off sides and top.

Definitely that looks like fun. We'll be there in early September, and I should keep this in mind. Thanks for the info!

Howdy bidtrips, nice to bump into you again. Glad to hear you guys enjoyed your landtour! :)

Another perk of the Emerald aft observation deck was that you were closer to water level, so it had a great view of the tidewater glaciers and had a better perspective of them rising up out of the ocean than from the top deck, imho.

We rented at Rain Barrel . You can take the FREE shuttle right to the store. I believe they rented by hour or part of after 1 hour. It was fun and a great way to get around town. they are like golf carts with snap off sides and top.

What does it cost to rent one of these.

jb008.... Hi back, hope you all had a good trip. We sure did. Now gotta work, work work for wherever our next adventure takes us. :)

Travelbug.... I am sorry I don't remember, but they have a website, check it out, the folks are very friendly and helpful.

We just did opposite direction, starting in Fairbanks. I agree wth you about Fairbanks, nothing much going on there. Biggest complaint, with the influx first day of several hundred visitors, many arriving between 9-11pm, there was very little to choose from to have a meal before bed. DR closed at 9 and the very small grill (about 10 tables) had a long wait to be seated. This was terribly frustrating after traveling 12+ hrs and unable to find a meal. A staff member recommended a bar/grill about a half mile walk away, food was adequate since it was the only place nearby. Fairbanks Lodge should be able to accommodate all these arrivals with some sort of food after a very long day of travel.

Wonderful review. Thanks for taking the time to post it. I'm looking forward to our return to Alaska in April of next year. Someday, I am hoping to also do another cruise that includes a pre-cruise land trip as well.....:):):)

Bob