My Full Alaska Trip Review (14 Days on Land + 14 Days on Radiance)

[GMoney]

Patrick,

 

In looking more closely at your Alaska review, it is evident that a highlite was the Pangaea adventure 10 hour sea kayak tour to Columbia Glacier.

Your statement "The whole experience was incredible and surreal, and it turned out to be not only my most amazing experience in Alaska, but probably my entire life." says a lot. Your pictures of this part of the trip look amazing. Is this excursion available via cruise ships, or only independently? Is this excursion only recommended for the most physically fit, considering the kayak duration?

 

Hi Keith -

 

This excursion was so good I still think about it every day. I only have a handful of pictures, and as good as they are, they don't do it justice. You have to get to Valdez to do this trip, and there aren't may cruises that do (I know of 1 Princess one). I did this on the land portion of my trip, so I'm not sure if you can get it through the ship. Even if you could, I would still vote for the independent route - either through Pangaea (http://www.alaskasummer.com) or http://www.anadyradventures.com/index.php.

 

I had never kayaked before, and you only need to be in average or better shape. Most likely, you in Trudy would be in the same kayak, so the combination of both of you paddling is very helpful. We only had to deal with currents and "waves" for short periods of time. Don't let the physical nature of the activity deter you; you'll both be fine.

 

If you don't get to Valdez, there are excellent kayaking excursions in Seward that come close to the Columbia Glacier experience. I'll find those links and post them shortly.

 

On a seperate note, I know you experienced many a heli/floatplane on your trip and Trudy and I would like to chose one heli excursion during our 14-day "Ultimate Alaska" next May. If you had to chose JUST ONE, which would you recommend? From your comments and pics, I would guess Mendenhall in Juneau...but would like to get your response.

 

Correct - it would be Mendenhall. The Skagway helihike was very good, as was Island Wings' tour of Misty Fjords, but I got the most out of Mendenhall - largely because it was the flight + the physical activity, which is my kind of thing. My opinion is also influenced by the fact that we had GREAT weather in Juneau. It's not a make or break, but a glacier is much better when it's sunny and warm. :)

 

I think you would both really enjoy this. It's enough of an adventure without being extreme or risky. I can see pictures of Trudy in crampons with an ice ax now. :)

 

Again, I'd go independent. Northstar Trekking was excellent.

 

One final note - Consider Island Wings and Misty Fjords. People absolutely love this tour. I liked it a lot. Michelle is great and the scenery is special. But it's really just a flight with a short landing; flights with activities will win every time for me.

 

Also, thanks again Patrick for the RCL cap. Looking forward to wearing it more onboard future cruises.:)

 

It's my pleasure - enjoy it! Please feel free to email me directly (mellicon@mac.com) if I can help with anything else. I am really excited for you guys and cant wait to hear about how all of this goes!

[GMoney]

Keith - Here are some Seward kayaking links if you are interested. I've never kayaked here, but was very interested doing Aialik Glacier or Bear Glacier (which looks like it would be similar to Columbia). You could probably get more expert opinions on the AK board.

 

http://www.millerslandingak.com/water_taxi.htm

 

http://www.kayakak.com/Kayak_trips.cfm

[truthandkeidy]

We have around six months to prepare for this cruise. It's hard to imagine how you put such a marvelous itinerary together on such short notice. Thanks for facilitating our research by providing your links and suggestions. Have a great weekend!

 

Keith