2012 July 6-20 Alaska Land and Cruise Adventure Review with LOTS of photos!

[WalleyeLJ]

 

We have the Anchorage - Seward train booked (Gold Star service) on Thursday, June 20. We will visit the SeaLife Center and Exit Glacier that afternoon. Friday morning, June 21, we will do a Kenai Fjords boat tour, then board the Radiance of the Seas that afternoon. We are spending a day in Vancouver at the end of the cruise.

 

I am very excited for the trip, everything looks so beautiful!

 

Sue, you have an AWESOME start to your trip planned - enjoy!!!

L.J.

[Jdfireman]

You are all great now I am here pounding my head on the screen looking at all the tours that you said were great. I am trying to fill up my days there some days maybe two tours..

 

I was looking at the flying with Michele does anyone have imput on the trip thry do that goes to the bear sa****aury

 

thanks

JD

[Cat54]

I am enjoying your review. I have just finished looking at your pictures of Homer. Great review and wonderful pictures.

 

We are planning to do a cruise in Alaska in 2014 on the Radiance. I am patiently waiting for the schedule to be released. I am hoping that it will be sometime in late March or early April.

 

Our plan is to fly into Anchorage and spend the first night there. The next day we will be driving to Talkeetna for one night. My husband climbed McKinley in 2011 so he is anxious to visit Denali again. The plan is to spend 2 nights there. After Denali we are off to Seward.

 

I am looking forward to seeing your pictures of Seward.

[WalleyeLJ]

You are all great now I am here pounding my head on the screen looking at all the tours that you said were great. I am trying to fill up my days there some days maybe two tours..

 

I was looking at the flying with Michele does anyone have imput on the trip thry do that goes to the bear sa****aury

 

thanks

JD

 

LOLOL - it's a good problem to have JD!

While I ended up cancelling the Anan Creek trip to sdee bears with Island Wings due to scheduling conflicts, all I've read on here are good to great reviews about the trip.

DizzyDallasDi posted some shots from her trip there earlier on this thread, so she can really give you a good idea about the trip:).

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

I am enjoying your review. I have just finished looking at your pictures of Homer. Great review and wonderful pictures.

 

We are planning to do a cruise in Alaska in 2014 on the Radiance. I am patiently waiting for the schedule to be released. I am hoping that it will be sometime in late March or early April.

 

Our plan is to fly into Anchorage and spend the first night there. The next day we will be driving to Talkeetna for one night. My husband climbed McKinley in 2011 so he is anxious to visit Denali again. The plan is to spend 2 nights there. After Denali we are off to Seward.

 

I am looking forward to seeing your pictures of Seward.

 

Cat54,

 

Thanks for checking out our story! The weather was pretty crummy for our time in Seward (and our Kenai Fjords trip was cancelled due to weather), so the outside photos are pretty gloomy - but then again that Alaska has a certain charm too!

L.J.

[DizzyDallasDi]

You are all great now I am here pounding my head on the screen looking at all the tours that you said were great. I am trying to fill up my days there some days maybe two tours..

 

I was looking at the flying with Michele does anyone have imput on the trip thry do that goes to the bear sa****aury

 

thanks

JD

 

I went to Anan Creek with Michelle in 2011 and it was fantastic! I highly recommend this excursion. If you have any specific questions about it, just ask and I'll be glad to help.

[Linda the Book Lover]

L.J. This is our first trip to Alaska but I agree Cruise Critics has been my best source of shore excursions because everyone offers pro and con reviews for all age groups. I know through the years I really appreciated the help. Just look I booked my two excursions based on reviews written here. We occasionally also do a ship excursion but it is usually when we split up to go off on our own for the day and want to make sure we get back on time! :D

[subtchr]

 

 

 

 

How is this not on a calendar, or on Harv and Marv's website or something? LJ, what a shot, and what an experience!

 

Sue, you have an AWESOME start to your trip planned - enjoy!!!

L.J.

 

Thanks, LJ, we are very excited!!

[allzcwbyfan]

So enjoying the details on your trip and making me want to go to Alaska right now. lol Anyway my question for you and anyone else following this thread is I know you have gone in May and July, what do all of you guys think is the best time to see whales, bears and the like? I dont care about it being cold but would prefer halfway decent weather. By the way all your pics are awesome and if you didnt mention you had crap weather on some days I wouldnt have been able to tell from the pics. Anywho, was wondering all of your opinions on when the best time to go is. May is the cheapest cruise wise but it is expensive to go up there and do it right and may be the only time for a while so want to do it right. Thanks all in advance for any and all advice. :D By the way LJ fellow Tony Stewart fan here as well. Woo hoo Daytona aint that far away. lol:D

[WalleyeLJ]

We occasionally also do a ship excursion but it is usually when we split up to go off on our own for the day and want to make sure we get back on time! :D

 

I agree - if we have a really short port call, or on a few of the islands in the Caribbean we find a little sketchy to go it alone (MOST Carib islands I feel totally fine to trip plan on my own), I'll still go with the cruise excursions. Just not very often!;):eek::D

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

How is this not on a calendar, or on Harv and Marv's website or something? LJ, what a shot, and what an experience!quote]

 

LOL - well it did win me a couple of photo contests, and a camera! I did send it to Harv & Marv, but I think they have plenty of even better pics of their own!

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

lol Anyway my question for you and anyone else following this thread is I know you have gone in May and July, what do all of you guys think is the best time to see whales, bears and the like? I dont care about it being cold but would prefer halfway decent weather. By the way all your pics are awesome and if you didnt mention you had crap weather on some days I wouldnt have been able to tell from the pics. Anywho, was wondering all of your opinions on when the best time to go is. May is the cheapest cruise wise but it is expensive to go up there and do it right and may be the only time for a while so want to do it right. Thanks all in advance for any and all advice. By the way LJ fellow Tony Stewart fan here as well. Woo hoo Daytona aint that far away. lol

 

Well, both trips were terrific for us. The weather averaged a bit warmer on the cruise portion in July, but overall we had better (more sunshine/less rain) weather in May. Plenty of whales in both May and July - more in Juneau in July, but closer/better viewings in May. Reverse in Icy Straight Point. July-Sept seems generally better for bear viewing, but you'd still likely have to take a bear specific excursion to see many/up close. Pricing didn't seem to change for cruise excursions, but we definitely found better prices on our land tour portion in May - close to 50% less in some cases on May 31st than June 1st. To cloud your choices, our plan for our next trip to Alaska is to go the last week of August/1st week of September:D.

 

Here's to hoping Tony gets back on top this year!!! These are a few of my favorite photos I've been able to get of Tony and the #14 the last few years...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe one day there will be a NASCAR cruise - a road course race in St. Maarten or Anchorage would be fun!!!

 

 

 

L.J.

[allzcwbyfan]

Thanks for the awesome Tony pics. I am so with you that last champ season was awesome and I want more. lol Thanks also for the tips. I guess I just need to win the lottery and just spend May through Sept. up there. lol I am sure that isnt gonna happen so might go with late May to June since I am more a whale than bear watcher. lol

[Jdfireman]

Hello to all again I will be the one to ask what kind of Canon bodies are you using... Please share your picstures are great I would post some of mine but they are mostly of fires and other emergency service related stuff.

[WalleyeLJ]

Hello to all again I will be the one to ask what kind of Canon bodies are you using... Please share your picstures are great I would post some of mine but they are mostly of fires and other emergency service related stuff.

 

JD,

My two primary cameras are a Canon 7D & a Canon 50D. I also took a few photos with our Canon SX 40 HS, which my wife uses most of the time to shoot HD 1080p video. Alaska is the reason I bought these two specific bodies - they have a 1.6x crop factor, so that a 300mm lens takes and image equal to 480mm. Most importantly, the 7D can shoot at 8 frames per second, which replaced the 50Ds top speed of 6.3 frames per second. I'll shoot anywhere form 100-1600 ISO, but usually keep it at 400 to get a good balance between speed and noise/grain. The top pro level cameras usually top out at 10 frames per second, yet cost several thousands dollars to start. I really wanted the speed for taking photos of wildlife, especially the whales and eagles. Hope that helps!

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

So, as I mentioned one of the coolest things about this particular trip was being able to start and end pier side, right next to Radiance. Not only does it save time in transit (a number of fishing charters in Ketchikan are based at a remote boat harbor that's 30 or so minutes outside town), but it really helped maximize the amount of time we were fishing, rather than motoring to and from the fishing grounds. That was particularly useful for our trip today as it was only a half day/4 hour trip. A longer full day trip it wouldn't have mattered as much. It also helped leave us a decent amount of time to make our way back on Radiance, drop off some stuff, and then head back out to make our way to Creek Street!

 

 

 

One of the other charter boats tied up next to Radiance (Radiance is off camera left, Sea Princess is in the background). For those interested, we were tied up at Berth #3, Sea Princess at #4...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adios Miss Parker!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of shots of the small boat harbor/marina slips and shops & restaurants located inside of Berth #3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were waiting to head back out, I snapped a shot on one of the new digital deck displays that are found all around the ship now. They're SUPER cool! Not only do they tell you exactly where you are - always useful, whether you're new to the ship, have a hard time figuring out your fore from your aft, or you've had one too many Frozen Moose...but they also allow you to pull up the Cruise Compass for the day, show you what events are going on right now, or help you find a numbers of different venues and locations, places to eat, or locate any stateroom around the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

L.J.

[knukruzer]

LJ ~

so glad to see you back in the saddle or thread :D as always beautiful and wonderful pics!!! thanks so very much for sharing your trip with us.

congrats on winning the fishing title of 2012 :D

greatly appreciate all of everybody's insights / suggestions for alaska trip planning, thanks.

i can't speak for the others, but i am more than willing to hear about & see your last trip :D:eek::D that whale shot is spectacular!!! if only we get that lucky!

 

[Jdfireman]

LJ thanks for the camera advise I am now using a t1i and a t4i i was worried more about the weight than the speed FPS I just got a 8mm wide angle cant wait to use it also shoot with a canon 100 to 400 plus a 18 to 270 tamron Have had great success with all of this.. For my real fast pics and hd clips i am using the go pro hero 3black unreal on how good the hd veido is on it and can shoot up to 30fps all digital unreal ow fun this camera is.

 

I see the momo pod did you bring a tri pod also...

 

Great pics and shore tours we are in the process of booking a few of the same and a few other pre cruise..

 

Thanks again

Justin

[allzcwbyfan]

We first saw this on our cruise on Allure last year. Really cool. I know they are adding this to all the ships in the Royal fleet so for us RCCL loyalist it is pretty sweet. And for the newby to the ship or line makes it a bit easier to get around.

[WalleyeLJ]

Heading off the ship to make our way into town, walked off the gangway, up the pier, and through the welcome area/port infrastructure. There's a little more infrastructure pier side at Berth #3 than there is immediately adjacent to Berths #1 & #2. Not good or bad, just different. I don't know the history, but I'm guessing that Berths #1 & #2 were naturally developed along the main waterfront, and that Berths #3 & #4 were built later on as the cruise industry developed, so there was time to learn from the original set up, plus there are topographic changes the further along the waterfront.

 

 

 

View to the left as you exit out into the bus pick up area/parking lot

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving towards center with a view of the shelter/waiting area for bus tour pickups. As you can see in the first two photos, there are a few vendors that are available for off the ship excursions. Not as many as where we got off in Juneau, but in addition to these, there is a Visitors Center building down a ways in front of Berth #2 that has a number of additional options available as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making our way through the parking lot towards downtown and up to the intersection of Water Street & Front Street to a Ketchikan public transit shuttle bus stop to head over to Creek Street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A look back at Berth #3 and Radiance...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopping on the shuttle bus to Creek Street! Both as a public transit manager & fisherman, I LOVE the salmon themed bus wrap!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple three stops later at some of the key waterfront shopping spots, and we got off the bus, ready the check out Creek Street!

 

 

 

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

LJ ~

so glad to see you back in the saddle or thread :D as always beautiful and wonderful pics!!! thanks so very much for sharing your trip with us.

congrats on winning the fishing title of 2012 :D

greatly appreciate all of everybody's insights / suggestions for alaska trip planning, thanks.

i can't speak for the others, but i am more than willing to hear about & see your last trip :D:eek::D that whale shot is spectacular!!! if only we get that lucky!

 

 

Well, we'll see how this one wraps up, but it probably would be fun to revisit that trip two, and we did do several different things on that trip, so maybe I'll give it a shot!!!

L.J.

[WalleyeLJ]

I just got a 8mm wide angle cant wait to use it also shoot with a canon 100 to 400 plus a 18 to 270 tamron Have had great success with all of this.. For my real fast pics and hd clips i am using the go pro hero 3black unreal on how good the hd veido is on it and can shoot up to 30fps all digital unreal ow fun this camera is.

 

I see the momo pod did you bring a tri pod also...

 

Justin

 

Hey Justin,

The widest I've got is 11mm, so you should get some pretty unique shots with that lens. I rented the 100-400mm Canon lens in 2009 - it's what I used to get the shot of that breaching whale. I probably used it for 90% of my wildlife shots on that trip. I've heard good things about the Tamron 18-270 too, so you should pretty much covered for the trip. I rented a GoPro for this trip - not for photos but for video. I was a lot of fun, but I really needed more practice with it before I went:o. I did bring a new carbon fiber tripod with me as well as the monopod, but the only time I used it was taking the evening shots in Homer of the Spit and Kachemak Bay. Never even took it out of the suitcase the whole time we were on the cruise!

L.J.

[Jdfireman]

Hello again The go pro is so fun I do a lot of stuff with it with the fd and other projects. My friend did a time lapse last year with it on his cruise.. He had it strapped to the balcony rail As they cruised glaicer bay. Very cool.. I see you wear a hat a lot you can make a mount to go right on your hat... Good stuff thanks again for the info.. Where you all from

[WalleyeLJ]

Hello again The go pro is so fun I do a lot of stuff with it with the fd and other projects. My friend did a time lapse last year with it on his cruise.. He had it strapped to the balcony rail As they cruised glaicer bay. Very cool.. I see you wear a hat a lot you can make a mount to go right on your hat... Good stuff thanks again for the info.. Where you all from

 

LOL - I did wear it several times - but I seemed to always have to set too high, or too low. One of these days I'll buy one and figure it out. We live just a bit outside Charlotte, NC. Where are you all from - I see you've got a lot of cruises under your belt!:D

L.J.

[Jdfireman]

Hello to all this is a good chat we have here now the big question.. what to pack I see a lot of diffrent ideas... We do plan on doing a few glacier tours a lot of walking and maybe some atv pre cruise and than who knows what on the cruise... Whats the must pack items.. And light weight boots or no boots..

 

I see a lot of people just wear sneakers... for the whole trip Please post some comments

Thanks

Justin