Live from the Shadow- new SS traveler posting from Alaska

Hi FT. Thanks for taking the time to post. Sounds exciting. Lets hope the hellions are not going on Silversea.:eek::D

I am guessing that you aren't coming back to Anchorage before you leave on Thursday but if you do I wanted to recommend you try Sack's café. (Between 3rd and 4th on G street)

I am guessing that you aren't coming back to Anchorage before you leave on Thursday but if you do I wanted to recommend you try Sack's café. (Between 3rd and 4th on G street)

Doing a Kenai Fijords tour tomorrow, spending the night on Fox Island in Ressurection Bay. Then staying down south No point in going back to Anchorage to ride the train again. 🚂🚂🚂🚂

I am guessing that you aren't coming back to Anchorage before you leave on Thursday but if you do I wanted to recommend you try Sack's café. (Between 3rd and 4th on G street)

Not this trip, but we'll put on the list for next visit. Sitting in the Goliath bar each trying a different one of the 18 beers on tap. ZQVOL has returned to the Glacier Brewhouse Blonde and I'm having the Kenai River Oatmeal Stout. We chose a table with a view of the Resurrection River which needs resurrecting. It's almost totally dry. No fishing for me here.

We have a "standard room" - very close to the bar! Rooms are basic but big. No on site store but the shuttle runs on the hour the 2 miles to Seward. staff is very nice and multi functions. A lot more electric outlets than the Sheraton so we recharged. Wireless internet free all over the property and no air conditioning. Window screen had a hole in it and since I am mosquito bait, I improvised and "fixed" with a bandaid. We are each only taking a backpack to Fox Island so the poor bellman had to lug my 50 LB suitcase up a flight of stairs just to bring it back down tomorrow and then to another room on Wednesday when we return!

My first almost killing ZQVOL moment. Made it 60 hrs. Well, this calls for the Kassik Moose Point Porter and a cup of Alaskan seafood chowder (cod, halibut, potato, and dill according to the menu)

More later . . .

After a gosh awful wake up at 5:00 we were at the Anchorage train station at 5:50 for the 6:45 train to Seward. The only good thing about the early time was that we are still adjusting from east coast time. Checked our bags and the next time we saw them we were in our room at the Wind Song Lodge.

Within an hour of leaving Anchorage as we rode along Turnagain Arm we saw Dall Sheep and two small black bears. The ride was nice and smooth and we also got to see beaver, moose, and a bald eagle that used the train as an air cushion to help his ride. The scenery was beautiful and after 4 and a half hours we were in Seward.

We took advantage of the dining facilities on the train and enjoyed bloody Mary's and breakfast sandwiches. The only complaint was that the didn't have any reindeer sausage 😞

When we arrived in Seward , our luggage was taken off the train and whisked to the lodge. We, on the other hand were met by, a guy named Larry who is best referred to as Larey the Cable Guy. He told us that we couldn't check in until 3:00. He of course give us a 10 minute talk about Seward and his personal map of all the places to go to eat and shop, just like the shopping director on a mass market line. . . . More to come, time to eat

Loving your posts.n we have been to Alaska many times, so I am reliving. Wish I could get George to post on my trip reports, but he hates writing since he has to do it so much at work.

Ok, now I am seriously concerned. 3 nights in a row that a restaurant is "out" of Alaskan King Crab legs. Due to increased demand I am told. If I can't get in Alaska what am I eating in lower 48?

Loving your posts! I think we stayed at the Windsong Lodge. We enjoyed Seward but my favorite thing was the Kenai Fjords cruise. Hope yours is as good as the one we did 2 years ago. We saw lots of whales! Get your camera ready!

Your posts are SO much fun to read. Please continue to take us along with you! We will be sailing, again, on The Shadow, next May, so we are taking notes on your Alaskan adventure. Thanks so very much!

Ok, now I am seriously concerned. 3 nights in a row that a restaurant is "out" of Alaskan King Crab legs. Due to increased demand I am told. If I can't get in Alaska what am I eating in lower 48?

I used to transport Tons of crab back to the lower 48 when in season. I will tell you all about it in separate email after your trip. It would be boring and out of place to hijack your thread with "sea stories".:eek::D

30% chance of rain turned into pouring rain which is now hitting the leaves outside our windows. Really really quiet and relaxing - of course trying that third type of beer today along with my third type of chowder and my third type of salmon this week may help (good things always come in 3s plus even better my office left me alone today)

Thank you to those who are enjoying and especially for forgiving/ not commenting on my typos and spelling errors. I HATE the autocorrect and when battery power is draining, skip the proof reading. See you tomorrow:)

Fun

Sounds like a great pre-cruise experience!

Appreciate the live reporting.:)

Absolutely gorgeous sunny day here at the Resurrection River - which in the light of day is a deep gorge reachable after crossing several hundred yards of riverbank. Apparently during the rainy season when glacier run off peaks the River becomes quite a monster up here.

Wildflowers are stunning. Purple, scarlet, white, yellow-ZQVOL has great pictures. Network gets extremely slow when every one is on it but since many have already left maybe we will have some success

Today we are leaving shortly for the Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge on Fox island and a night with no internet or cell phone. Wednesday it's the Resurrection Bay Tour with a visit to the Alaska Maritime National Refuge before we return to the Windsong Lodge.

One suggestion, don't eat the buffet here for breakfast. It's designed to get the masses out the door. My eggs with spinach, Parmesan cheese, crumbled sirloin and herbs was much better than the dried out eggs on the buffet. Fresh fruit bowl contained nice big chunks of melon and tri-colored potatoes(included sweet and purple potatoes) much more appetizing than plain old Idaho potatoes on buffet. Staff seems to work split shift so you will see familiar faces.

Ready for the next adventure.

Eagerly awaiting your return from deepest, darkest Alaska where there is no wifi. How did you do it? Hope the bears and mosquitoes were behaving.

J & L

Just back from Fox Island and our National Park Tour. This will take me a couple of posts and ramble and jump from topic to topic because it was AMAZING!

In reverse order, the National tour was animal and glacier calving packed. We saw orcas and humpback whales. And I mean whales. Multiple whales. The orcas being "resident" and not transient were accompanied by Dall's Porpoises . I about broke my neck going back and forth between the two. Earlier we had seen 6 or 7 humpbacks within a mile, 3 swimming closely together.. We also saw Stellar sea lions basking in the sun, harbor seals, and sea otters along with the puffins, cormorants, and common murre. We had a pod of Dall's Porpoises swim along with the boat for about 5 minutes and I was lucky to be on the bow when they came over to play tag. I got 2 very bad pictures of them but since ZQVOL took more, maybe his will be better.

Boat had comfortable seating, good amount of deck space and very personable and knowledgeable staff. We were picked up at Fox Island at 8:45 and returned to dock around 2:30. A light lunch of turkey wrap, carrots, and granola bar is included. Light snacks, beer and wine, and non alcoholic beverages are available for purchase.

We could not make it up to Ailiak Glacier as there was too much ice. But we got quite close to Holgate glacier and listened to it snap, crackle, pop and then roar as the ice flowed into Holgate Arm (I'm looking at the map as I name these, so blame the cartographer please if I am wrong). The Bay and the Gulf of Alaska were very calm today, it was sunny, and there was very little wind-a perfect day so we had"over layered". Easy to fix and I may have even gotten a little sunburn.

Definitely recommend this tour. Captain was very respectful to the wildlife and it was one of the few where there were great views from indoor seating and lower decks. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

Sounds great. I really like what Yall have done so far. Will be asking advice if we get around to AK again. Especially if you sail the real Inside Passage on your way down. We will get into that later. Looking forward to the next installment.:D

Sounds fabulous! Do love seeing those Orcas and the calving glaciers are so amazing! Looking forward to more reports and to ZQVOL's photos!

Sounds like another incredible day!

Thanx. Love the commentary.

What can is say about Fox Island other than amazing. The island servers two purposes for the Kenai Fjord Tour company. The first is a day lodge. A number of there boats stop there for the passengers to enjoy Prime Rib and Salmon, with an option to purchase a half pound of crab legs for good measure. There can be as many as 14 boats on a busy day.

We however stayed in the Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge. The lodge consists of a total of 8 cabins, and accommodates a maximum of 24 people. There were only 8 of us yesterday. It is a beautiful location as you can see from the Facebook pictures (the link is in post 14). The is also a great house where meals are served.

We left Seward at noon and arrived at the island about 50 minutes later as we cruised down Reserruction Bay on the M/V Nanatuck. The weather was beautiful, not a cloud to be seen. Except for the 8 of us everyone went to the day lodge. We were escorted about 1/10 of a mile down the beach to the Great House. After some brief introductions and a short course on the lay of the land we were seated in the dining room and had lunch consisting of a salad and an Italian Panini. Dessert was orange sorbet on a bed of fresh whipped creme. It was wonderful. We were then free to enjoy the island. As a note we were told only to bring a carryon so there was really no luggage to deal with. FT and I each had a backpack and that was it.

Our cabin was Puffin. It consisted of a single room with a bathroom. The cabins were very nice, but it should be noted that there are no electrical outlets in any of the cabins, they have four solar powered lights. Phones, etc. we learned could be recharged I the great house but you didn't need it. There was no phone service, no Internet no television and no electricity, but it was still light when I went to sleep at midnight so who needs electrical.

I spent most of the afternoon wandering the beach ( beach is rock, not a grain of sand to be found) and looking at the jellyfish that were washing ashore. Most were the size of a 12 inch pie plate. After that I pretty much slept until hors d'ouevre hour at six.

Hors d'ouevres consisted of unique shrimp cocktail, figs stuffed with Gorgonzola and wrapped in bacon, and a variety of cheeses. Dinner, served at 6:30, was a choice of Halibut or Pork Chop, both were well prepared. Dessert was a blueberry tart topped with homemade vanilla ice creme.

After dinner the staff built a Bon fire on the beach (a bon fire in the daylight just isn't righ). It was nice interacting with the staff who joined us at the fire. There are 25 of them. They work 5 days a week and stay on the island. On their days off they have a bunk house in Seward. Most are college students working summer jobs but some are seasonal workers that will work a resort in the lower 48 after the Alaska season. None that we met were Alaskan natives.

Continental breakfast was served at 7:00, followed by a regular breakfast at 7:30. FT had scrambled eggs ( they weren't on the menu, but the chef took care of her) and I had a yougart parfait.

We were picked up at 8:45 by our boat for our 6.5 hour National Park tour. Describing the tour is difficult. We were on a comfortable boat, and had reserved seats since we overnight end on Fox Island. I think FT has done a good job describing what we saw, so I will skip that part.

We got back to Seward at 2:30 and returned to the Windsong Lodge, collected our luggage that they had stored and went to our room for a nap. It is amazing how much energy you burn balancing yourself on a bouncing 70 foot boat for over 6 hours.

We had planned to take the shuttle into town for dinner but ended up staying at the resort and eating at the Ressurection Roadhouse, which gets a mention in Fodors as does the lodge. FT finally found her crab legs that she had wanted since we had landed in Anchorage last Saturday. They were better than delicious, and had been caught yesterday. I think that says it all.

Tomorrow we board the ship, but not before FT goes fishing at 6:15 in the morning.

That's all for now, hopefully we will be able to report from the ship but if not we will catch up.

Sounds like another incredible day!

DJ, Fox island is incredible. It is a must do if you come this way.

FT left before 6:00 this morning to go salmon fishing. Hopefully she catches her limit and we send enough home to fill the freezer. As for me, it has been a lazy morning, but I do have to get us checked out and get the bags transferred to the ship. We will be boarding around 2:00 which is well before the train will arrive with the bulk of the passengers. Thankfully our lodge will take care of transferring our bags to the ship.

Sounds wonderful. We considered doing the wilderness lodge a few years ago, but settled something else. Sounds like we need to go back to Alaska to experience this.

DJ, Fox island is incredible. It is a must do if you come this way.

It sounds incredible! We are hoping to do an Alaskan cruise in the next few years. Will be interested to see if you prefer you Regent cruise versus SS.

FT left before 6:00 this morning to go salmon fishing. Hopefully she catches her limit and we send enough home to fill the freezer. As for me, it has been a lazy morning, but I do have to get us checked out and get the bags transferred to the ship. We will be boarding around 2:00 which is well before the train will arrive with the bulk of the passengers. Thankfully our lodge will take care of transferring our bags to the ship.

I was out running errands today and picked some fresh caught Coho Salmon! Hope FT was successful!