Land and Sea Trip Report on the Sapphire Princess

[rcymmolly]

Our CarrGirl Trip to Alaska was definitely a trip of a lifetime. I am going to try to put down as much as I can to remember this awesome adventure. It might take a few posts.

 

The Pre-Trip and Packing List.

We found out we were going on the trip in late April. The trip would be my mom, myself and my teen daughter. I immediately got on Cruise Critic and started doing research. My mom had decided on Princess and all the research I did pointed that way too. They seemed to be the best idea for 3 generations wanting to do a land and sea trip. I got a hold of my favorite travel agent and she looked around and found a trip that would fit our budget and what we wanted to do. It was a 3 days on land and 7 day cruise, southbound. The land portion would have us 2 days in Fairbanks and 1 day in Denali. Looking back, I would have done it with 2 days in Denali and 1 day in Fairbanks, but we did ok.

 

We initially booked a inside room. We figured the price was not a good enough incentive for us to go high than that. Were pleasantly surprised to get a free upgrade to an obstructed view cabin.

 

I looked around at a lot of packing lists, and we did pretty well. Each of us had a backpack, a carry on and the three of us shared a check in bag. Here is the packing list that the girlchild and I worked off of.

 

Molly’s Carry On/Join Me Tonight Bag

2 prs shorts (blue, cacky) 2 golf shirts (green, white)

1 tshirt pajamas

4 underwear 4 prs socks

1 pr jeans 1 hoodie

1 rain jacket 1 pr tennis shoes

swim suit binoculars

tall garbage bag bag of ziploc baggies

girl stuff

first aid kit

ibuprofen benedryl

afterbite off wipes

bandaids moleskin

bonine tablet pepto

toiletry bag

chapstick/gloss deodorant

makeup brush

toothbrush/paste contacts/solution

glasses/case jewelry

tweezers razor

round brush qtips

ziploc

shampoo

soap

sunscreen

hand sanitizer

 

Ursula’s Carry On/Join Me Tonight Bag

2 shorts 3 tops

pajamas 4 underwear

4 socks 1 jeans

1 hoodie 1 rain jacket

extra shoes swim suit

power strip hair straightener

tall garbage bag girl stuff

toiletry bag

chapstick/gloss deodorant

makeup brush

toothbrush/paste contacts/solution

glasses/case jewelry

razor hair ties

ziploc

shampoo

soap

sunscreen

hand sanitizer

 

Molly’s Back Pack

phone charger camera/charger

sd cards airline tickets

cruise documents extra sunglasses

coupon tourbook headphones

cards sunglasses

visor highlighter

purse

Molly passport/card Ursula passport

credit card debit card

Molly insurance card Ursula insurance card

Ursula’s spending money driver’s license

car insurance pen

$200 in tips

 

Ursula’s Back Pack

phone charger kindle/charger

collapsable cooler headphones

sunglasses

purse

spending money passport card

copy of cruise documents copy of insurance card

small brush/hair ties

 

Checked Bag/Join Me Onboard Bag

Molly

formal outfit black flats

black pants/capris nice top

1 pr shorts golf shirt

long sleeve tshirt gloves

3in1 laundry sheets 8 pr underwear

8 pr socks wind pants/jacket

Ursula

formal dress dinner dress

slip nice shoes

8 pr underwear 8 pr socks

2 tops 1 short

gloves long sleeve tshirt

wind pants/jacket

 

Next:The Flight and Day 1 in Fairbanks

[MTJSR]

Having sailed on Sapphire, I look forward to hearing about your shipboard experience.

[rcymmolly]

Because of a number of reasons, we decided to fly out of Houston about 4 in the afternoon on Day 1. We were to arrive in Fairbanks around 12:30, which wouldn't be too bad. What I forgot to think about was the time difference. It was actually 3:30 in the morning our time when we landed.

 

We had stops along the way, in Dallas, and Seattle. We made all of our connections, and thought we were even lucky enough to gate check our carry on bags.

 

Not so lucky we found out as one of the carryons was lost along the way. It was a hard bit of news to receive when we were all tired and grumpy from the long flight. But we filled out the paperwork, and picked up our rental car. We stopped by the Princess desk and picked up our paperwork which included our keys for the hotel room. Off we went, ready to crash out.

 

The hotel we were staying at was the Fairbanks Princess which is located very close to the airport. I dropped off my mom and daughter off at the door and went around to park. When I got up to the room, my daughter and mom were upset, and with good reason. The room had not been made up, there was trash on the floors, towels strewn about and beds unmade. After a phone call, I went down to the front desk to see about making it better. As it turns out, there were no other rooms in the hotel because they were sold out. Our choices were being walked to another hotel, or have someone come up and clean our room.

 

We chose to stay because we had already alerted the airline about sending our lost bag to this hotel. About an hour later we were back in the room which had been cleaned and fell asleep quickly. The front desk clerk had given us a free breakfast at the restaurant the next morning. We were looking forward to a nice buffet and the real start of our trip.

 

Next: Day 2 - Paddleboats, Denny's and Dogs

[rcymmolly]

Morning came quickly. It was as if the sun never set, because it didn't really. Even with the cloudy, misty, rainy weather, it never got dark. We had a full day planned and we were anxious to start the day off on the right foot.

 

The first thing we did was take advantage of our free breakfast. I had my first taste of reindeer sausage. The GirlChild did too, after a little reluctance. Turns out, she liked it. It totally make sense as it was very lean and she has a weird aversion to fat on her meat. I began my quest to have salmon every day of the trip and it was in one of the omelets I had.

 

Let the excursions begin. I had booked all of our excursions independently. I am pretty OCD about travel planning and had done quite a bit of research about each place we were going to be. I had purchased one of the Alaska Tour Books, and it ended up more than paying for itself.

 

The first thing we were off to was the Riverboat Discovery. We used one of the coupons from the Alaska Tour Book here. It was buy one get one free. The place where we were to board the boat was very close to the hotel. About 5 minutes away, and very easy to find using the directions from the website and a little help from the gps. I was surprised to see how few cars were in the parking lot. It only took walking inside to realize we were not alone. Most of the folks who were there had been brought by tourist busses. There was a large shop outside of the dock and we wandered around there for a few minutes.

 

If Fairbanks is your first stop on a land tour, I would go ahead and get your souvenir jacket here. The prices are as low as they are on the ports of call. According to the ultimate shopper, they were some of the best. They also have this room/ freezer they take down to 40 degrees below zero. They take a picture of you with icicles hanging out your nose (it is hard to breathe!) and will email it to you the picture for $5. Totally worth it. One of the best souvenirs we got the whole time.

 

I would totally believe it was 50 below in that picture. The girl and I were wearing shorts.

 

After that we got on the Discovery. Very canned presentation, but not boring and occasionally had a LOL moment as we went along the Chena River. We passed Susan Butchart's kennels, and the boat pulled over while Dave, her husband gave a demo of summer sled dog riding while wired into the radio aboard the boat. I had read a book about Susan and was sad to hear that she had passed away a few years before.

 

 

The boat started up and got to the turn around point. We stopped on the other side of the river this time and got off the ship at a mock up of an Athabascan village. Here we went around to 3 different stations where some native college kids told us about Athabascan history and some tradition. It was a nice chunk of information given by some kids who were really trying, and my favorite part of the ride. There was also a herd of reindeer there and some of the dogs from the kennel. The rain almost had let up while we were there.

 

Yes we were all wearing our matchy matchy rain jackets.

 

There was a plane that did a take off and landing along side the boat as the announcer talked to the pilot and how important airplanes and bush pilots are to the area. After that we went along our way and disembarked back where we started.

 

 

It was lunch time by the time we got off the boat so we decided to have some food. In case you didn't know, the GirlChild's favorite restaurant in the world is Denny's. Child loves her some MeatLovers Scramble. And, as it happened, this was right along the main road in Fairbanks.

 

Bragging rights if I ever saw them.

 

After lunch, we were scheduled to go to visit Mary Shields and her kennel of dogs. Mary was the first woman to ever complete the Iditerod. I was really anticipating this excursion, and it did not disappoint. For the first hour, Mary took us out to her garden and then to the kennels and let us meet the dogs.

 

She is a natural with animals.

 

They were a little feisty.

 

The second hour was spent with her explaining how it is to ride in the Iditerod and what life is like on the trail. We even got to check out her sled!

 

 

The third hour was spent in her house around her kitchen table. We had tea and cake and she let us ask her questions about different parts of her amazing life and how she has lived out here for the last 40+ years. It was a fascinating bit of story telling and our time was up before we realized it. She was a gracious hostess and this was one of the highlights of our entire trip.

 

After this we went back to the hotel to chill for a bit. We had plans to meet some friends for dinner and it was great getting to see them. We were playing gift givers as they were the DIL and grandchildren of one of my friends down here in Texas. It was nice to visit with them again. They invited us to go with them that night to see the World Eskimo Indian Olympics, but we were all tired and the girl child was developing a cough so we declined. We had an early morning to get to the train the next day so we went to sleep easily even though the sun was still shining brightly at 11pm.

 

Next: The Train to Denali and the Green Bus Tour.