stilley9

Great review. I booked my cruise from Seward to Vancouver for next July but it was right after reading your review and took some great money saving tips from you. I had one question for you. I'm planning on doing the Kenai Fjords tour in Seward. Do you think that's enough for seeing the Alaskan wildlife. The whale tours on other ports can become pricy especially for a family of 4 and was wondering if it would be an overkill to do 2 whale watching/wild marine life tours ?

thanks! i'm sure some would say yes, but i'll echo something i read on this forum when i started researching - that is, figure out your priorities and plan accordingly. for me, i i really wanted to maximize the chances for seeing wildlife, especially whales and other sealife. so we had a marvelous time on the cruise in the kenai fjords. HOWEVER, the cruise the very next day was cancelled because of the storm we went through. so if i had been on the sunday cruise and missed it, i would've been glad to have the icy strait point whale watching cruise booked. the weather is so iffy in alaska, i wouldn't want to take any chances. my opinion is to book both cruises as you never know what you're going to get. and if you see whales twice, that's a double bonus! :)

Great review. Can you tell me more about the rental lens for your camera? Something you did in your hometown?

no, actually, found out about www.lensrental.com

from this site - it was great and easy! highly recommended.

The more chances you have, the better! Never know if the weather or nature will cooperate so i would do both.

Having said that, in the Kenai we saw tons of orcas as well as lots of other sea life.

In the Juneau area (we did icy strait point but it's close) it was all humpbacks.

Both amazing experiences.

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i just got off the Sun with an 8 year old and a 5 year old. we loved it - you can see my review called "our epic alaskan adventure" or something like that.

continued (Vancouver summed up)

we stayed that night in the Delta by the airport. it was another priceline steal, at about $100 i think. it was great for that price. really nice staff, clean big rooms, free shuttle to airport. they had a decent restaurant out on a pier that overlooked the water and it was quite nice to sit out there for dinner and watch the planes land.

overall, vancouver was fabulous. i could absolutely live in that city! i can't wait to go back for another visit sometime soon.

And that was it. Wednesday morning, June 25 we left bright and early for the long trip back to Charlotte. it was a much easier trip home from vancouver than the trip out to anchorage. overall, we loved our experience. it wasn't perfect by any stretch, but the hurricane conditions and the lost luggage just made our memories more colorful.

i decided that i wouldn't want to go to alaska every year. but i'm so glad i went and i would love to go back in 5 years or so. maybe take another cruise or maybe rent an rv and tour more of the interior. i was left in awe of the sheer size and beauty of alaska in general. i know that there is much too much to see for 10 trips, much less 1 trip.

there are definitely some things i wish i would've planned differently, even as much as we loved our trip. i have another post called "lessons learned" where i posted those. they're mostly my opinions, but maybe they'll help.

thanks for reading and i hope you all enjoy the beautiful last frontier as much as my family did!

Sea to Sky Highway continued

Because we had stopped so much and stayed so long at the Mine Museum, we got up to Whistler later than expected. We had a late lunch at Splitz Grille, right in Whistler Village. Great burgers. We really wanted to ride the Peak2Peak Gondola that connects Whistler to Blackcomb. Alas, I learned that in the summer, just about EVERYTHING closes in Whistler at 5 pm. By the time we got up there to the gondola, they had already stopped taking people up. So we didn't do it. But it was still worth the trip, just for the sights along the way. Whistler is a great little village too!

We started heading back towards Vancouver. On the way home, we stopped in Squamish at Shannon Falls. It's a beautiful waterfall just right off the highway. Super easy, 5 minutes walk from the parking lot.

after the falls, we headed back to the Delta, dropped everyone off by the airport hotel, drove the rental back to Robson, and took a cab back to the Delta. Before we did that, my husband and i had to admire the beautiful sunset from the area near Canada Place.

after our first stop, we headed up the road to whistler. it really is a beautiful drive. you don't need a destination, just take in the scenery!

what i did all day long:

more pics from Brittania Mine Museum

this place really is a marvel to see the conditions the miners worked in and how amazing it was to build something like this so long ago.

fantastic tour guide!

Tuesday, June 24 - day trip to Whistler and last day before we came home. :(

Tuesday morning, 3 members of our party left for a super early flight. My family of 7 had one more day, and had already decided that we wanted to drive the Sea to Sky Highway to check out Whistler. Another perk of our Robson St. location is that i was able to walk over to Enterprise for a rental car. We had reserved a minivan because we were staying in a different hotel that night (momentary lapse of judgment on my part) and we needed a big trunk to store all of our luggage. After playing luggage Tetris for 30 minutes, we figured out that there was just no way we could fit 7 people and 7 people's stuff from a 10 day Alaska trip in 1 minivan. No way. So a couple of us headed down to the airport to the Delta Vancouver to drop off all our luggage for the night. Much lighter, we went back to pick up the rest of our party (who had enjoyed a nice breakfast in a bakery) and off we went.

We headed north through Stanley Park and over the Lion's Gate.

we set up my brother's trusty Go Pro to take 1 picture every 30 seconds for the scenic drive - good shots by doing it that way!

our first stop was Brittania Beach for the copper mine tour and museum. when we saw this, i knew we were in right spot

if you have kids (or even if not), this place was GREAT! we loved it. i googled stops between vancouver and whistler and this place came highly recommended. the tour was awesome - it's a historic national site and was a real copper mine. it was educational and interesting and the kids loved it. they also loved the gold panning.

Monday, June 23 continued - Vancouver

after lunch we walked around the market in Granville. the kids loved the fish and there was plenty to look at. it's a very cool market. after a bit, we decided to walk back up to the trolley stop. right away, we knew we wouldn't get lucky this time. the trolleys were packed. we ended up splitting our group up and were on our way.

the drivers were very hit or miss. the first one was awesome, and the other ones were just "eh"... but they did get us safely from point to point.

after granville, i don't remember all the details but we definitely went through chinatown and toured some areas close to there. by this point, we were ready to go back to our hotel because we'd been out for a while, and the tour was dragging a bit. we had to endure the rest of the tour, and finally we got back around to our stop. after checking in, my husband and both kids fell asleep, so i went walking the streets with my brother. there are some great shops right there on robson.

for dinner that night, we went to a place on robson called earls. it was recommended by the hotel and we enjoyed it. we went back to the hotel as 3 of our party was leaving on tuesday morning for a 7 am flight.

(next up - we do a day drive to whistler)

Monday, June 23 - disembarkation in Vancouver

i had selected the latest checkout time possible since we didn't need to rush to the airport. i figured we could use one last leisurely cruise breakfast before we deboarded the Sun. as an aside, this was my 5th cruise on my 5th different cruise line, and out of all of them, i thought NCL had the most relaxed, easy way to get off the boat. it was such a non-event and non-stressful. i really didn't like the way Carnival did it, and now in hindsight, i can't see why everyone doesn't do it like NCL. anyway, i digress...

we get off the Sun, find our luggage, and get in the impossibly long taxi line. the Disney ship emptied the same morning and Canada Place was hopping with activity. we finally got up to the front and got 3 taxis to take our party of 10 to our hotel, which was very close.

when i booked the vancouver hotels, i was tired of spending a ton of money. so i got smart and did some priceline research. i determined i wanted to be in the robson st. area - great for restaurants, shopping and stanley park, and i gambled on an auction. i believe i selected 4 stars, but it could've been 3 1/2. i use a site that tries to help you predict what hotel you're going to get, and it worked out well. we ended up at the Listel Hotel for about $140 or so (if i remember right). great location, boutique hotel, very nice. we went by there, dropped off all our luggage for the bellman to lock up, and bought tickets for the Hop on Hop Off Trolley (HOHO).

the HOHO stop is quite close to the hotel, so we walked to the stop. the first thing we noticed was that the first trolley that came was packed with people. it was about 11 am by this point. the lady called another one, and it showed up empty! it was great. we had an awesome driver, who took us through stanley park. at this point we'd decided to just sit and ride for a while before we decided what to do next.

for vancouver and me, it was love at first sight. i loved alaska in a completely different way (would love to visit again, maybe many times, but in no way could i ever see myself living there. vancouver on the other hand, i could move tomorrow. fantastic, beautiful, clean, cultured, yet outdoorsy city.

these pics aren't great as they were taken from the trolley window, but you get the idea....

after the park, we went to granville island. everyone was hungry by this point, so we got off. we ended up at Bridges, which has a spectacular waterfront location. the food was great. EXPENSIVE, but we found most things in Vancouver to be expensive. i had some of the best fish and chips (halibut) i've ever had.

great views of the water and all the city's bridges, hence the restaurant being called Bridges

we ate just about every meal outside in vancouver. we were excited to be able to be comfortably outside as it was cold a lot in alaska. vancouver was about 70F and perfect!

Saturday, June 21 continued and Sunday, June 22

We left Ketchikan around 8 pm, and sailed down the Inside Passage. Right away it was a beautiful view, and continued to be all the following day (day at sea). It was very peaceful, and after the weather we had early on, we were grateful for the lake-like cruise of the Inside Passage.

need to photoshop this one a bit for the flares, but i still like it. :)

sunset was absolutely beautiful! i highly encourage some outside viewing down this stretch as it's so peaceful and idyllic.

too soon, it was time to go to bed, which really means our cruise was over. :(

luckily we had 2 more days in vancouver to look forward to.

Okay, sorry for the delay! It's time to try to finish up this trip (although probably won't happen tonight). So after we saw the bears in Ketchikan, we got back in our taxis and did some more touring. We saw a bit more wildlife, including this little guy and his mom, right on the side of the road.

snapping pics of eagles never got old for me

we headed toward Totem Bight State Park. by this point, my 5 year old was kinda done with wildlife. he was all "oh great, another eagle", and had recently asked for my iPhone to play games on. but for whatever reason, when we got to the totem poles, he was absolutely captivated. he's an awesome reader and he read every single sign and explained the totems to us.

after the totems, we realized our 3 hour tour had turned into 4 hours and we needed to get back to the ship. David and Kat dropped us back and we thanked them profusely for a wonderful day.

i was able to speak to my husband, and was sad to learn that they were catching nothing. the captain had decided to keep them out for as long as possible to give them the best shot. they all had a good time, but alas, the fish don't always bite. everyone on all the fishing tours came back empty handed that day. bummer, but it happens. my 8 year old was super sad. the captain really tried hard, as they went out around 1 pm and he didn't bring them back until around 7 pm (was supposed to be 4 hours). they came back and we all boarded the ship.

we had reservations (if i remember correctly) at the italian restaurant on the ship. il adagio? i can't believe i've already forgotten. anyway, this is a great restaurant with a view because it's lower - 5th floor. all the other specialty restaurants are up on 11 or 12. we sat and watched the beginning of the inside passage cruise as we had a delicious dinner.

Yes! Have been traveling for work all week in NYC. Home now and ready to finish this off hopefully tomorrow! :)

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we kept driving back over to herring cove, but really didn't see much, so we'd go check out something else. we went to a friend's roadside jelly stand (great stuff - what we bought, she shipped to our house, and it just came this week), saw a few waterfalls and other scenery, and then went back to herring cove for ONE MORE TRY. just as we were pulling off, my dad yelled "i see one"

sure enough, there she was under the bridge (that is a bridge that the zip liners use after they zip)

we watched her walk down to the creek and we realized she had at least one cub with her.

they walked down to the water for a few minutes, and then headed back under the bridge. there were some zip liners standing there that didn't even see her, and she didn't see them. when she did she got a bit spooked and headed back towards the woods.

the grass was deceptively tall and i'm sure it was hard for the baby bears to see their mom. so being a good mom, she stood up so they could find her. at this point, we realized there were 3 of them. once she had collected all 3 of them, they ambled leisurely to the safety of the woods.

we walked back to the ship and waited on our rides. David and Kat from Ketchikan Taxi Tours showed up at 2:30, right on time. they headed right (lol, i have no idea as to what direction that was) - we were headed up the coast towards Herring Cove, where we spent a lot of our time during the tour.

my uncle had wanted to see bears all week, and they had managed to elude us mostly. we saw the one grizzly in hoonah (but far away) and then the black bear at the taku lodge, but it didn't seem quite "wild enough". so david and kat wanted to help us find bears. we drove over to herring cove and didn't see any bears. we drove across the street for a while and watched some salmon fisherman. all of the tourists out on the boats caught pretty much nothing that day, but the locals can fish on the shore at low tide and they can use treble hooks to snag the salmon. that seemed to be the way to go, as we watched them haul in the king salmon out of the water.

just standing by the shore, saw a beautiful starfish and a cool red jellyfish as well.

there are beautiful things to see every where you look in alaska:

also saw a seal playing close to shore:

Ketchikan continued

we walked over to creek street to check it out. it was very pretty, but not much going on. we were too early for the salmon in the creek, but it was still a nice stroll.

we decided to ride the funicular to the top just to see what was up there. there was no attendant, so we just rode to the top. it was working on the honor system, i guess. we paid the lady at the front desk of the hotel. we walked around the lodge a little bit. looked like a nice play to come back to stay sometime, as i already really liked ketchikan.

we rode back down, and stopped in a few shops, then headed back towards the shop to meet our taxis.

June 21 - Ketchikan

we were scheduled to be in port from 1 pm - 8 pm. we were glad for the later port time as we had 3 days prior of early times and we were a bit exhausted by this point. as i remember it we had a leisurely breakfast and lunch. i can't remember what everyone else was doing, but i took the kids up to the outdoor buffet for a quick bite before we got off the boat. standing there on the back deck, just looking at the first view of ketchikan, i saw eagles flying and i was glad to have my camera and really long lens because i got a few of my favorite eagle shots:

getting off in ketchikan was super easy. we were docked in berth 2, right in the middle of town, so that was nice. this was the first day our party of 10 was planning to split up: my husband, brother and 8 year old son were planning to go king salmon fishing while the other 7 of us had booked Dave and Kat from Ketchkikan Taxi Tours to show us the town.

Salmon fishing: It was my husband's birthday and i had called Ken at Northern Lights for the fishing trip. He was unfortunately booked, but recommended another company: Ketchikan Fishing Charters (I think that was is). they very much liked their captain. unfortunately none of the fishing charters that day had very much luck. the king salmon just weren't biting. they went out at 1 pm and were supposed to be back at 5 pm. because there wasn't much biting, he was nice enough to keep them out until 7 pm or so. my 8 year old was pretty sad about the whole thing, but apparently the homemade smoked salmon the captain served onboard, along with a couple of close encounters with eagles, was enough to make him happy.

Taxi tours - we got off the boat at 1 pm, and were supposed to meet Dave and Kat at 2:30 pm. So we had 90 minutes to explore on our own. we decided to walk towards Creek St. It wasn't crowded at all. I know you're sensing a trend here, but it was raining pretty hard, so maybe that kept the people away. We were pretty much waterproof at this point, and it didn't matter to us.

i had to take the obligatory photo in ketchikan:

since i've already used up my 6 photo allotment, my next post will focus on creek street and the cape fox lodge funicular.

Skagway continued.

the only wildlife we saw on the train was a lone grazing caribou, which was pretty cool.

as we entered into fraser, british columbia, the canadian customs agent came on board, checked everyone's passports and we were allowed to deboard. our trusty tour guide from chilkoot was waiting on us, and warned us to go the bathroom (not another one for a long way), and self stamp our passports (kids thought that was super cool). by this point it had started raining.

we continued in the small van/bus with our guide, and continued northward toward the yukon. he made several stops - at the "welcome to the yukon sign", the "carcross desert sign" and several others. he would've stopped anywhere we asked him to. this is a benefit of booking with chilkoot. the weather was getting nastier by the minute, and at most stops, we hopped off for a quick shot and then hopped back on.

he took us to car cross, which is basically like a little tourist trap area. it has an area for lunch (very good bbq chicken and all the fixings), gold panning (looked pretty shabby to me), lots of petting zoo animals, and the dog cart huskies. the weather was pouring at this point, but the dogs were still going nuts. i felt a bit sorry for them tied up most of the day, but i think they really like their "jobs".

we did the dog cart ride before lunch.

aside from the fact that we were soaked by the end of it, it was fun. the dogs were really excited to run.

after lunch we headed still northward toward emerald lake. the weather was pretty bad, so i was disappointed not to get a great picture of it. i could tell it would've been beautiful on a sunny day. still pretty though.

after emerald lake, we turned around and headed back south, through the town of car cross and back down the mountain. we stopped at the canadian border (easy enough) and headed back into skagway. our driver dropped us off in town for us to do a bit of shopping before we boarded the Sun. afterwards, we walked back to the ship and boarded for departure.

Next post: Lovely Ketchikan (and i'llf find the pictures from our stateroom)

Friday, June 20 - Skagway

we were planned to be in skagway from 7:30 to 5. i booked a rail/bus combo with chilkoot charters, which included a husky dog cart ride in Carcross. we met our guide right by the ship, and he took us by bus (small bus) to the train. our group of 10, plus about 6 others had the whole railcar to ourselves. we were in the last car, which ended up being great for photography. after a few minutes in the little shops by the train station we boarded the train for departure.

off we went in to the mountains. there is beautiful scenery all around, the whole way up to fraser. we were lucky to have mild weather during the train portion of our trip. i spent the whole ride out on the outside area snapping pictures of the views. it's a beautiful old train and definitely an experience to do at least once.

we left juneau at 1:15 and headed for tracy arm and the sawyer glacier. we enjoyed sailing out juneau and watching the locals on the opposite shore enjoy the beautiful day, and seeing the scenery.

the plan was to cruise tracy arm, and get as close to the sawyer glacier as possible. it wasn't long before the scenery changed as we entered the fjord. the scenery was beautiful in tracy arm.

unfortunately, there was so much ice in the water we couldn't get too close.

we could see the glacier in the distance but that was about it. the captain did a 360 turn at our stopping point and then we headed back out the way we came. onward to skagway.

Juneau continued:

as we walk up the hill at the lodge, i first notice two things:

1) delicious salmon being cooked on an open grill

2) a big bear up in the tree right behind the salmon and 2 guys with big sticks standing between the salmon and the tree

the cynic in me thinks that it's a trained, pet bear but they assured me it wasn't. i think if nothing else, the bears are acclimated to the crowds and know that the leftover salmon in the grill will be there for them when all the people go inside.

we enjoyed the outside for a long time until the dinner bell was rung. not long after we were all inside and this happened:

the food was awesome. grilled salmon, reindeer sausage, baked beans, apples, and probably other things i can't remember.

we were all smiles at the taku

Thursday, June 19 - Juneau

We left ISP around 5 pm. Considering that Juneau is about a 30 minute boat ride away, you could say that we sailed slowly through the night to arrive in Juneau the next morning by 7 am. Juneau was our shortest day in port from 7 am - 1:15 pm. Not knowing much when we planned this trip, i didn't know any better. in hindsight, i would've liked more time in Juneau.

We ordered room service for breakfast and then walked off the ship for our 8:15 am meeting time. This was the only excursion that a) my mom insisted we do based on friends' recommendations, and b) we booked through the cruise line. We did the Taku Lodge float plane and salmon bake. We met the Taku Lodge bus right by the ship, and they shuttled us just down the street to the "airport". the planes take off right next to the cruise ships. the day we were in port, i think there were 3 or 4 ships in port. we got broken up into groups of 10, perfect for our group, and waited on our rides.

we boarded the float plane, me a little apprehensively. my 8 year old was thrilled that he got to be co-pilot.

once we were in the air, i wasn't really nervous much - it was a smooth ride and the pilot seemed very capable. the views from above were incredible. it really is the best way to see the vastness of the glaciers of the juneau ice field.

once again the blue was startling

we arrived at the taku lodge and it was SUNNY. beautiful, sunny, 70 degrees. perfection. we heard that the day before was a total washout and we were glad to finally miss a day of bad weather. from the get-go, i loved the lodge. it was beautiful and peaceful, with a great view.

our pilot dropped us off, then up and over the glacier he went to pick up the next group:

next post will focus on the SALMON and BEARS at the taku lodge

and before we move on to Juneau, a few more Hoonah eagles:

All in all, i found Icy Strait Point and really, Hoonah to be the most authentic of all the Alaskan ports. we did our own thing, booking our own excursions and i think this was a good idea. the only thing i wish we could've done was the zipline. my 8 year old cried when he saw it (he was sad we didn't book time to go on it). next time, i assured him. it is HUGE and fast and steep, and i would've been WAY more scared than him. (that's the start of it way at the top of that cliff in the pic below)

bye bye ISP and Hoonah - we had a great time visiting!

Hoonah Continued:

Captain Paul with Hoonah Travel Adventures picked us up on the dock right at 1 pm. He had his assistant (Zack, i think?) and his 12 year old daughter on board. His boat was great, comfortable and roomy.

he found whales within a 5 minute period.mostly humpbacks in this area, and we saw LOTS of them. we also saw sea otters, sea lions, dall's porpoise and other wildlife.

here are some of my favorite shots from the day:

mommy and sea otter baby when our boat got too close, she grabbed the baby around the neck and dove for safety:

after a successful 3 hour whale watching excursion, we headed back to the dock, took their shuttle back to the port, tendered back to the boat, and boarded the Sun.

the nights on the ship are starting to run together, but i think we ate at the French restaurant that night. many people love it, but it was a bit too quiet and fancy for my family's taste. the food was good, but not superior to the other restaurants. by this point, my kids decided most nights to skip the LONG dinners and go to the kids club instead. this was a win, win because we enjoyed leisurely dinners and they had a blast in the kids club.