Live from the Shadow- new SS traveler posting from Alaska

Getting ready to leave ATL for Anchorage. Have to disable but daily updates to follow

Look forward to your updates!

We recently left the Shadow in Alaska/Vancouver. Looking forward to your posts. Have a great time. Whales in Juneau and Victoria!

Hi FT. Lois & I are looking forward to hearing all about your trip. Hope you have as good weather as we did in May. All the best to you and P.:D

OK, I just found you on this board. Really looking forward to your reports! Hope it is all fabulous!

Would especially appreciate your reports on the condition of the ship. There have been some dire reports previously, and more input would be welcome.

Joining Shadow in a month after the pre-cruise Denali trip. Would love to hear anything you have to share. Hope your voyage meets your expectations. Every SS trip I've taken so far has surpassed my expectations. Enjoy :)

Looking forward to your usual outstanding reporting and P's photos!

Looking forward to following along!

Have a wonderful time.

Keith

Well after 8 hrs on Delta with an infant and toddler directly in front of us in the oldest plane in Delta's fleet we are here in beautiful Anchorage. What a waste of FF points for a non existent business class. Did hear they ran out of most food and more importantly LiQUOR in economy. Since it was impossible to get service in our cabin I'm sure they could have restocked easily!

Ok, done with my peeves on Delta and 8 hrs of alternating crying children. Arrived to a sunny evening and a $20 cab ride to the Sheraton. Walked a few blocks to the mall where ZQVOL hit the Apple store and we grabbed dinner at Sullivan's Steakhouse. Busy place and they ran out of King Crab Legs before we arrived. Dinner was good but not great. We are on the Club floor at Sheraton and place is hopping. We have a great view and can see bay and mountains.

As opposed to our last trip here around summer solstice it actually got dark and we had a sunrise this morning. Going to walk to Avis, then heading to Portage Glacier. ZQVOL has gotten some great pictures. Will try to post later but it's sunny, moderate weather and going to be a great day

I made our reservation for the Crow's Nest for dinner for tomorrow when we will be in the Kenai peninsula so if anyone has recommendations, we would appreciate.

Be sure and take one of the tour boats out around the Kenai Peninsula. Wonderful wildlife. Enjoy!

Well after 8 hrs on Delta with an infant and toddler directly in front of us in the oldest plane in Delta's fleet we are here in beautiful Anchorage. What a waste of FF points for a non existent business class. Did hear they ran out of most food and more importantly LiQUOR in economy. Since it was impossible to get service in our cabin I'm sure they could have restocked easily!

Ok, done with my peeves on Delta and 8 hrs of alternating crying children. Arrived to a sunny evening and a $20 cab ride to the Sheraton. Walked a few blocks to the mall where ZQVOL hit the Apple store and we grabbed dinner at Sullivan's Steakhouse. Busy place and they ran out of King Crab Legs before we arrived. Dinner was good but not great. We are on the Club floor at Sheraton and place is hopping. We have a great view and can see bay and mountains.

 

As opposed to our last trip here around summer solstice it actually got dark and we had a sunrise this morning. Going to walk to Avis, then heading to Portage Glacier. ZQVOL has gotten some great pictures. Will try to post later but it's sunny, moderate weather and going to be a great day

 

I made our reservation for the Crow's Nest for dinner for tomorrow when we will be in the Kenai peninsula so if anyone has recommendations, we would appreciate.

You are such a Kid Magnet.:eek: Our last Biz on Delta was poor service too. It is like they really want to limit you to 2 drinks. Aint flying fun these days? You know it will get better from here. Have a blast.:D

Here is a link to photos. I will add as we go and as time and Internet on board allow.

https://www.facebook.com/Zqvol/media_set?set=a.10203853784732768.1073741952.1464960839&type=3&uploaded=13

Be sure and take one of the tour boats out around the Kenai Peninsula. Wonderful wildlife. Enjoy!

We have booked a night on Fox island and have been warned-nothing to charge any phones, laptops, etc. Can't wait

First for those of you who don't know us FT(Frequent Traveler) and I are married. (well I think we are, she hasn't thrown me out yet.) This means that you will often see us adding to each others posts. Now with intos out of the way.

We flew into Anchorage yesterday and are renting a car for the day before taking the train to Seward in the morning. Our plan for the day is to drive to Portage glacier stopping along Turnagain Arm for pictures. Hopefully we will be able to get on the Portage glacier cruise on the M/V Ptarmigan.

More later . . .

My luck with portage glacier is not great. Blowing gale force winds two of the 3 times we were there, and dense fog the other. Just saying.

Our experience with delta business class to Alaska--same as yours. Old plane, uncomfortable seat, and ran out of red wine! Horrors. Of course, I might have had something to do with the running out of wine part. I was trying to anesthetize myself from the screaming kids.

Highly recommend going to the wildlife center that is on the same road to portage glacier. They take in injured and orphaned wildlife and rehabilitate them. So every trip there is different. But I have been nose to nose with a grizzly (with a strong fence between).

Thanx for the great pix!

Spectacular day in Anchorage today. Clear blue sky and high 60's. Denali is visible which is amazing. We are renting a house very convenient to downtown before driving down the Kenai to stay in another house, a tree house, then Seward for the cruise.

Had a great breakfast at Snow City Cafe and a fun visit to the Artist Market and Fair on 3rd street. Met Iditarod racer Dan Seavey and had a great conversation about his new book, which he was signing.

Flight on United yesterday rivals Delta I'm afraid and was a maintenance nightmare that resulted in a complete rerouting. But we are here and looking forward to meeting all of you onboard and at the M&M.

zqvol & FT - saw your post on SD forum so will follow along here. You two always write such interesting trip reports & post great pics. Enjoy your trip - hopefully it will be sans screaming kids this time! :eek: ;)

I told FT we should have picked up that car at the airport last night but instead we endured the something or other of the Avis counter on 5th street this morning. Took 45 minutes to get the car. We finally got it around 9:15 and took off to Portage glacier. We just made the 10:30 boat, in fact they held it for us.

The cruise on the lake was very nice , cold of course but not much wind and no rain. There were probably only 25 - 30 of us on the boat. Plenty of room to spread out. We were taken within 300 meters of the face. I took quiet a few pictures which can be found using the link above. It was cloudy, so the pictures are not bright, and I haven't done any editing (not fooling with that on vacation), but the blues of the ice are impressive as always.

When we left the boat we stopped at the info center and enjoyed some delicious New England style clam chowder, the perfect way to warm up.

We then headed back to Anchorage with a stop at the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center. (http://www.alaskawildlife.org/) I am not real keen on animals being held in captivity, but most of these guys have been injured and can't live in the wild. The exception is a huge herd of bison that they plan on releasing next year.

There are a few bear here but mostly hooved animals, but it was an interesting stop.

Next stop we thought was Girdwood and the Alayeska ski resort. We planned on taking the tram to the top. That did work due to the pouring rain, oh well, maybe we have an excuse for a third trip.

Made the drive back to Anchorage and stopped at Sportsman's Warehouse to pick up a couple of items that we didn't want to haul with us from the east coast.

Dinner tonight was at the Glacier Brewhouse. in the 700 block of 5th Street in downtown Anchorage. We highly recommend this place, reasonably priced and excellent quality. I had blackened FRESH King Salmon. Melt in your mouth wonderful, and the cheesecake which is made in house was to die for.

Tomorrow we take the train to Seward at the wonderful hour of 6:45 a.m. I love the Alaskan RR so it will be a fun day.

Great day yesterday started off with a 45 minute wait at downtown Avis counter. Even with a reservation they do not believe in having contracts preprinted so all data has has to be taken from scratch. And we had a several in front of us that decided to change their plans. Got a cute little SUV for the day and headed off to find Highway 1. Promptly almost hit a intoxicated gentleman who decided to walk in front of me mid block at 9:15 in the morning.

Beautiful drive down the coast.

Only took us an hour to make it to Portage Glacier but I was ruthlessly determined to make the first "cruise" at 10:30. Tide was in and on way back, tide was out- totally different views. Both stunning. Definitely recommend the 10:30 voyage. Several cruise lines had had an earlier slot and the buses were pulling away as we arrived. I had layered appropriately for the top bringing gloves, hat, and a warmly lined windbreaker but had not added that needed bottom layer under my hiking pants. Luckily, winds were not high.

The ship was built for this lake and we came within 300 yards of the glacier according to one of the guides. It was designed to break up ice so we went through floes and a huge chunk was brought on board. Bathrooms were clean but there is no cafe on board so bring your own coffee or hot chocolate if needed. Cost for 2 adults, no discount -$64.

As DH noted, New England chowder served at gift store/ticket office was WONDERFUL!

On our way out stopped at the fish viewing platform but salmon weren't running yet. Completely different at Bird Creek where anyone who could cast was catching salmon by the bucket. Seriously, I was craving waders and a fishing pole. It was quite a spectacle watching the hordes not more than a few feet apart catching fish. It was also easy to note the difference between rookies and experienced fly fisher people. It had to be folks from the lower 48 with the flies just floating there. No casting-no fish

Typical weather pattern, warm and sunny in Anchorage but rain and low level clouds changed our plans to have lunch at the top of the mountain in Alayeska.

As DH noted dinner was excellent. For a 2.00 upcharge my surf and turf sampler substituted salmon for the turf and with halibut, cramp, and pacific prawns was a to die for sampler of the best fish. I rarely eat Salmon on the east coast because it tastes nothing like Alaska salmon

I didn't initially order dessert but a nibble of ZQVOL's made on site cheesecake led me to order the made on site peanut butter pie. OMG, definitely worth the calories. Coupled with a couple of also on site brewed 9% blond beers (snifter size in my defense) it was a great meal

Time to pack and leave for Seward. More later:)

Yours are the kinds of posts I love to read -- thank you and keep it up!

You're going to make me want to go back to Alaska! Great reporting and can't wait to hear more!

Vandrefalk

In the Windsong Lodge waiting to check in. Train ride down to Seward was successful for bears, sheep (both within the first hour after leaving Anchorage), bald eagles, beaver, and moose sightings. We were in an Alaska Railroad car and guides were much better than last trip when we were in cruise line car. And bartender John makes the best $ 7.00 Bloody Mary - needed several when the extended family two rows behind us let their six (yes, 6 ) preteens run wild for 4 of the 5 hrs.

Weather was good. Great visibility to Spencer glacier and Lower trail lake was beautiful reflecting. When a bald eagle flew parallel with us, almost magical moment.

Surprised upon arriving that we could not go the Lodge right away. No possibility of early check in but luggage went straight to Windsong Lodge while we wandered Seward. Had lunch at Nellie's - halibut tacos were cooked perfectly. Murals painted on the walls of buildings are informative, artistic, and reflect the heritage of the area. Going to the Alaska Sea Life center on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday am. Founded after the Valdez spill to clean up animals it comes highly recommended

Walked around Resurrection Bay from the Sea Life Center to the Small Boat Harbor. Don't miss the marker "0" for the Idadarod to Nome- this is where it began, not as a race, but as a supply chain.

Hope my room is ready soon. :)