LaurieCM

[fundayz]

I finally finished my review of our trip to Prudhoe Bay. I know you are sailing soon and I wanted you to have it. We hope you have a great time and a great group of people to travel with.

 

I added my land review to the bottom of my first review, so scroll down. July 21st tour 17N was the thread I added it to.

 

Can't wait to hear about your adventure!

 

Decided to re post it below to make it easier for you to find. Hope it is helpful.

[fundayz]

Here it is for you. Thought I'd make it easier for you to find:)

 

Monday, July 29th – Disembark the Ship in Whittier and travel to Anchorage

Portage Glacier Cruise & Wildlife Center was an extra trip that we decided to take. I really wanted to go to the Wildlife Center after reading about it here. After disembarking with no problems, we boarded a bus driven by a young Holland American driver. She tried to make the tunnel out of Whittier, but just missed it. We sat and waited at the tunnel for the next opening.

She was a local and just finished college. She told us all about growing up in the Anchorage area. It was nice hearing her stories and you could tell how proud she was of Alaska and her life.

After the tunnel opened, we did to Portage Glacier Cruise. It was OK. Not nearly as impressive as everything else we had seen. The Wildlife Center was great. We only had 20 minutes and we enjoyed seeing the animals especially the baby moose and black bear. I could have spent more time there.

Our driver took us into Anchorage and told us where to eat/shop before dropping us off at the hotel. We stayed at the Captain Cook and again had a wonderful experience and room.

 

 

Tuesday, July 29th – Leave Anchorage and Fly to Prudhoe Bay ( Deadhorse), Alaska

We woke up early and did some shopping, before heading to the airport. The weather was great and it was so nice to see the sun. We took the 1:42 Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to Deadhorse. The mountain was clouded in. Really, everything was clouded in the entire flight, but the plane was very nice. The pilot gave us the weather – yes more rain but said there was snow in the forecast for the next dayJ

Princess took care of collecting our bags and they were taken over to the Inn by fork lift in a wooden crate. Remember if you go here it is a working town. The Arctic Caribou Inn (ATCO permafrost trailers) is not the Four Seasons! It has more charm. The workers could not have been nicer. The rooms were clean. We ate dinner with the oil field workers. Some had just come from work and were still muddy others relaxing during their time off. But this was Alaska and what we had come to experience.

We then gathered in the tour room at the Inn to watch a short video about the oil field operations and to have our ID's checked prior to boarding the tour bus. Since it was rainy and muddy, our views were limited, but we did get the general idea of what was around. We stopped at the Arctic Ocean and everyone got off even though it was cold and rainy. We were determined to take the Arctic plunge, so after we checked things out we were off to the bus to shed our clothes and done our bathing suits. Boy, was it cold! We were in and out fast, but were happy that we did it together. No one else in our group did it.

Back at the Inn we listened to native Eskimos give a presentation about their home land. It was interesting. They have had many experiences and have watched their village and people change through the years. They made us realize the struggles that they have gone though.

Back at the room we cuddled together on the single bed and it wasn't that bad.

Wednesday, July 30th – Motorcoach: Prudhoe Bay to Coldfoot 8:30AM to 5:30PM

We departed at @8:30 for our trip down the Daulton Highway. We were the first to the bus and got front seats. It was still rainy so the road was muddy and bumpy! The windows quickly became covered in mud and you couldn't see out the driver's side windows. Our driver stopped often to attempt to wash the windows but they quickly became muddy again. This is a rough road in the mud! Our bus stopped each time we saw wild life and we often backed up if we missed it. We saw snow falling in the distance on the range. It was exciting to know that we would experience snow in July! The snow stayed off the road for us but fell enough that we could make some snowballs. What a thrill to throw snowballs in the middle of the summer.

The road was interesting. The sites varied. Wildlife was not as abundant as we had hoped, but still true Alaska. The mountains covered in the first blanket of snow they have seen in a while gave this land a magical glow. We were thrilled to be a part of it.

Be prepared for a trip like this. Limited port-a-pots along the way, poor road conditions, and a long, long drive. We loved our trip, but we also read up on what we would be doing.

On thing that really surprised us was how many motor cycles and bikers we saw on the road or camping in the middle of nowhere. Now that seemed too extreme for many of us to grasp.

Spent the night at Coldfoot's Slate Creek Inn. This was essentially a truck stop with a place to eat and a post office. The Inn's hallway smelled a little of fuel, however the room was fine. Keep in mind if you go here you have your own bathroom and it is a step above camping. Yes, single beds are all that they have here as well. My DH and I enjoy camping and knew where we were going from researching, so we enjoyed ourselves. We went to the rangers program at the visitor's center across the Daulton. It was wonderful. He showed us all of his gear for patrolling the national park when it is 60 below. He is very experienced and has spent up to 31 days alone in the park in the middle of winter. His guy is so interesting. We highly recommend this program and it was free :) Some on our tour went by plane to a village which they said was wonderful. We also took a walk around the area and enjoyed watching the birds in the pond. It was interesting to see all the trucks come in loaded up with supplies for Prudhoe Bay.

Thursday, July 31th – Motorcoach: Coldfoot to Fairbanks

We left at 8am for our ride to Fairbanks. We sat further back in the bus and just enjoyed holding hands as we drove through a lot of burnt forest. We didn't see any wildlife on our drive into Fairbanks. We did stop for a great burger at The Hot Spot for lunch. The burger was very big and very good. It was a neat lunch spot. Stopping at the Arctic Circle was also a fun thing to do.

Stayed at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge! We were given our room key as we got off the bus. After going up the elevator we couldn't find our room number. It just seemed to skip right over our number. Then my DH smiled and put the key in the door that had the number before ours and after ours and it opened to the most amazing suite I had ever seen! I was shocked! This place was beautiful with a full kitchen, fire place, 2 full baths, king bed and the largest jetted tub I had ever been in! Needless to say, after 2 long days on the haul road and 2 nights in twin beds we were thrilled. Princess made us feel like a king and queen! We had a quick dinner down stairs and enjoyed our suite. (With 2 kids and a dog we won’t be in one like this again for a very long time!) Thank you Princess! You really outdid yourselves with this room!

The next morning it was raining and we did the paddle boat ride. The river had overflowed its banks from all the rain. We went to an Indian Village down the river and saw a float plane take off and land. While the ride was nice, all I could think of was we could have spent some the morning enjoying that tub instead of hanging out in the rain for another day. Really, I loved that room. Princess's Fairbanks Lodge was beautiful!

Friday, Aug. 1st – Travel from Fairbanks to Denali

After the River Boat Discovery Tour we went into Fairbanks for lunch by motorcoach. We ate at a cute little place but I can't remember the name. It was a block off of the visitor's center. Our bus picked us up after an hour and we drove off to Denali. The ride was uneventful. We were delayed for about 30 minutes for an over sized load coming across the bridge on its way up the Daulton highway. Seeing the massive load being hauled and pushed by several trucks was the highlight of the trip.

We arrived at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. We stayed in the Canyon section. As my husband said it was like a motel 8. The rooms and bathrooms were tight. We had 2 full beds. We were spoiled at Fairbanks. Many in our group commented that they didn't think the accommodations here lived up to Princess's hype of this lodge. We were going to try and do a whitewater rafting trip, but the one we wanted was canceled due to the amount of rain that had fallen. We went to subway across the street for dinner and to get sandwiches for the next day. We kept them on ice in our hotel room over night and they were great the next day. We retired to our room early.

Saturday, Aug. 2st – Denali

 

Tundra Wilderness Tour 6:50AM! My DH went down to get in line at 6 because we wanted to sit in the front of the bus. Well, it kind of worked. The bus stopped at another hotel first and was more than 1/2 full when it got to us. But, both front seats only had 1 person each in them, so we grabbed the 2 inside seats. This wound up working out great, because we got great pictures of wildlife from both sides of the bus! We saw many fox pups, 8 bears, moose, caribou, sheep and many other assorted animals on our journey. It was great! Then we hit the jackpot because the mountain was out with both peaks towering beautifully into the sky which meant that we got to go 8 more miles into the park before we had to turn back. Our tour was wonderful. We thought about jumping off the bus and taking a shuttle all the way in, but decided we wanted to head back to the room and take a nap (OK, I know lame, but it was our honeymoon!) We heard later that the bugs were bad and the mountain covered over, so we didn't feel that bad.

Sunday, Aug. 3rd – Denali to Anchorage

We woke up early to take the shuttle to the park. We wanted to do the dog sled demo. We were glad we did. After it was over we wished that we would have spent some time walking in the park. In reflection we wish that we would have taken a shuttle in the first night and walked some trails. But Alaska is now in our blood, too and we know we will be back.

We took the Princess Domed rail cars to Anchorage. It was a slow, relaxing ride. We had lunch in the dining car just to say we ate on the train. The food was good. We enjoyed chatting with the people who were on the trip with us, knowing that this would be the last time we saw them. We were lucky to have spent the 7 days on land with such a nice group of people. There is something special that we will remember about each one of them. After being on a bus and in close quarters for so many days we became a group of friends.

We ended our trip by staying again at the Captain Cook Hotel. We were sad that our honeymoon was coming to an end and happy to be going home to our kids and dog to begin our lives together as a family. Our trip was wonderful. I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to see off beat Alaska and had some adventure in them. Princess made our trip easy. We never had to worry about our luggage or our next adventure. Our bus drivers for the most part were outstanding and very informative. Princess was very organized and professional. We were happy we went with them. If we did it again, I would like to go by RV. I am now drawn to see the small out of the way towns of Alaska. I don't know if I'll ever get all the way up the Daulton again, but it was truly a trip of a lifetime.

Sorry if this got too long. We loved Alaska!

[fundayz]

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