I will keep this short,
We just returned from a 11 day Alaska/ Canada adventure, 4 days in the Alaskan interior (Denali Park) and 7 days at sea. We sailed north to south sailing from Whittier Ak. to Vancouver B.C.
If there is anybody out there contemplating a trip or cruise to Alaska here is my advice DO IT, DO IT, DO IT !!!
it was outstanding this is no exaggeration every time we opened our eyes it was a postcard !!! such beauty !!
Now I don't know if cruising is your thing but that experience was great talk about feeling like a king !!
Now all that being said we booked this almost 2 years ago before the world was crazy,
The cruise industry is still finding it's way back and there are a lot of promotions and free upgrades out there, our ship had a guest capacity of 3600 and there were only 1500 passengers (that's a good thing !! )
I had some covid concerns and spoke to my doc before leaving and here's what he told me, every passenger aboard that ship was covid tested 2 days before being allowed to board and had to show proof of a negative test. I saw crew members sanitizing that ship 24/7
We went on a few excursions including ATVing (fantastic) and whale watching (also fantastic )
Bottom line we loved it , so if your thinking about it do it !! if you have done it let me know how you liked it .
P/S I have never seen so much water (rivers. streams, creeks, ocean) mountains and forest in my life !!
here's a few pics 1 our atv excursion I'm the fat guy in the black shirt, the pretty one is my wife of 45 years, 2 Mount Denali highest point in North America, 3 Moose on the Loose !!

 

Alaska is on my bucket list. My mom was a Air Force child, she told me many stories of living there while my grandfather was stationed there. I want to see the Northern Lights before I take that big dirt nap, from what I hear it’s pretty common to see them there. I have been to the Michigan U.P. dozens of times, supposedly they are visible there as well. I have yet to be that lucky. 😡

 

Great to hear you enjoyed it! Things really are beautiful up there...I spent some time in the Navy cruising those waters and just can't get enough of it. The experience on a cruise ship is many magnitudes better than being on a destroyer, though! We did a 7 day Alaska cruise out of Vancouver in 2019, and have another one booked for this August. Looking forward to it for sure.

 

Congrats on making the trip! My younger sister lives in Juneau and I get to hear about the natural beauty of Alaska all the time. I'm hoping to take a trip up there within the next few years.

 

I bet it was a blast! What cruise line did you sail with?

 

Great trip. I enjoyed everything about it and probably saw less than 1%

It's a BIG place

The sea plane to Taku lodge was expensive dinner but worth it

 

Hi,

In Fairbanks now, heading to Denali tomorrow, eventually to Seward and cruise to Vancouver B.C.

So far interesting only thing to get used to is 24 hours of daylight.

Regards,
Jim

 

Princess Cruise Line,
The 3 lodges/properties we stayed at while in the interior were also owned by Princess, the staff, restaurants and accommodations were top notch there as well.

 

A little side note here,
I would never attempt to set this up with out a travel agent, lots of changes, notifications etc... our travel agent kept us up to date, we just used our AAA services. Also something I found interesting, this was a package deal through the cruise line including air travel so they handled everything including 5 transfers of luggage, our luggage was in our room waiting for us at each and every stop !!
Also something our members here might appreciate being a little detail oriented. Being a auto tech for 25 years I look at things, The build Quality on that ship was amazing !! every wood trim piece, every weld, every door, every electronic gadget, every fixture was sound.
the ship was built in Italy in 2013.

 

Same Ship I took 1st class

 

I was in Fairbanks 4 years ago to see the Northern Lights, Did the Dogsledding, Drove on the Dalton Highway to the Artic Circle, see the Ice Museum and swam in the Chena Hot Springs Resort, Froze my *** doing Ice Fishing, Rode on the Alaska Railroad, Seen the Oil Pipe line, Seen the cars at the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, drove past Blockbuster Video store, and visited the Museum of the North (they have a display of a replica check when USA bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million back in 1867).

 

Up here right now, just got to Denali today, going into the park tomorrow..then 7 day cruise



..it’s beautiful up here for sure

 

My dad was a welder and fortunate enough to work on the Alaskan Pipeline. I have lots of pics of him in the "Bunny Boots" they had to wear to keep their feet warm. He was at a place called "Old Man Camp", just a little way out of Valdez. They had barrack cleaners that made as much as the men working on the line.

 

One of my neighbors took an Alaskan cruise about 10 years ago and he echoed your thoughts as well. Hopefully when in a few years I'll get to go myself. He told me the "northern lights" was quite the scene to see.

 

The Old Man and I made that trip up the inland passage about 25 years ago with a friend in a 24-foot cruiser, Started in Prince Rupert and ended on a little island called Elfin Cove near Glacier Bay. About 400 miles one way. One of those once in a lifetime trips that I will remember for the rest of my mine. Sorry, I don't have one picture as every one had cameras and I figured there were going to be lots of pictures to be passed around, didn't happen, everything was put on slides. Memories are what life is really all about and I have a bunch of good ones... Tedd

 

They-are vivid in your mind..hats off to you for a awesome adventure

 

Well Ted,
We took a lot of photo's and I have been busy putting them together in a slide show with music, its been a bit of a pain since I am collecting the photo's from 2 I phones, a I pad and one digital camera ! I have been examining the progress on my TV since I have been putting it on a thumb drive however even though the I phone cameras are excellent these days and the big screen TV displays them beautifully the photo's
still don't actually do the actual scenes justice the photos just don't have the depth
So just hold on to the memories in the old noggin I'm sure they are quite vivid !!!

 

Here’s me at a lodge where you can see the Northern Lights in the background. This photo was taken with an iPhone. I had to download an app in order to get a pic of the Northern Lights

 

Here’s the oil pipeline, I can actually hear it hum

 

 

Here’s me at the Arctic Circle

I put my name and dated behind the sign

 

I’m getting ready to ride on a dogsled

Here’s one of the dog that is getting ready to pull the dogsled. Very friendly dogs they have.

 

Swimming at the Chena Hot Springs. You can smell the sulfur.

 

I went ice fishing and caught a rainbow trout. Wow, it’s was cold and windy and my toes was freezing

 

Took a train ride and rode passed the Denali Mountain

 

This is the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

 

You can actually rent to live here and they also have a chapel if you want to get married.

They even have a bar inside. Their specialty is the Apple-tini. It’s a Apple flavored martini.

This is the Ice Museum that is in the same location at the Chena Hot Springs. It’s actually warm inside.

 

These people are standing on top of the frozen Yukon River

I’m pointing at a frozen Yukon River

I’m getting ready to sled down the frozen Yukon River

 

Ely, great pics, thanks for sharing.