For your 45th Birthday - you really are "Denali Bound" - Complete w/final thoughts - 2/17/2013 About This Page:

[chezp]

Another amazing update - the scenery is just stunning!

[Colexis Mom]

More great pictures!

[pamcarey]

You saw some interesting birds at that marsh. My DH would love that!

[rlb38]

Catching up on a few updates ! Enjoying the wildlife shots and the glacier. So great that you've done all these things and still had a cruise to look forward to.

[KMB733]

Great pictures from the Marsh. It looks like you're freezing in that picture!

[DrDolphin]

May 26, 2012 – Drive from Anchorage to Whittier – Board ship - Part 1
We got up and moving about 830am. Chris and George took the rental back to the anchorage airport and a cab back to the hotel while Rachel and I stayed and packed up all our stuff. After they returned, we walked over to the Snow City Cafe to see about breakfast (I had been talking about how good it was...) but there was more than an hour wait. So - we opted to get brunch at a place around the corner. It wasn't as good as Snow City - but overall there were no complaints about the Sandwich Deck.

We walked back to the hotel, went to our rooms, got our bags and went down to the lobby to wait for our shuttle bus that would take us to Whittier, AK to board the Sapphire Princess.

When I was looking at this portion of the trip - there were 3 shuttle options:
1. Princess Cruise line shuttle - we had to get ourselves and our stuff to a central hubs and wait up to 4 hours at the "hospitality center" for a Princess Cruise shuttle. This for about $75.00 a person.

2. Private shuttle directly from Hilton to Whittier with a driving tour - $45.00 a person.

3. Private shuttle from Hilton to Whittier with a driving tour between with a stop at a wildlife rehabilitation center on the way - $55.00 a person.

I talked to George about the options and we decided on the 3rd option, so that plan would allow us to kill a little time that otherwise would be spent waiting to board in Whittier. I had been told to be outside of the Hilton with all the bags at 100pm. So there we were. Finally the bus pulled up - and we all loaded on (there were 4 families waiting at the Hilton) and then we spent another 1.5 hours driving all over Anchorage to load all 40+ people on the bus before the "tour" began.

Well - come to find out - the tour repeated the exact same route and some of the same stops we had made the day before.


This time, I opted not to get off the bus. For instance - Chris got off (in the rain) at Beluga point and took photos - but this time he saw Dall's sheep on the cliff above the road.




This is when Chris kept thanking me for his new camera...

We had some great views from the bus, although it was rainy and overcast like it had been the day before. I still thought it was beautiful!


We also saw locals dipnetting for fish along the side of the highway

After about 45 minutes of touring, we arrived at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation center. Our driver said we had to get off the bus and that we had 1 hour to explore the center. Then he would open the bus again, and everyone needed to be back because we had a timed ticket through the tunnel at Whittier that we could not miss.

Entrance gate to the Wildlife center

Fee schedule

A list of animals that we could see at the rehab center.

Chris and I had a bit of a disagreement over something (I frankly can't remember what - maybe we'd just been too close together for too long) and opted to go explore on our own. A little solo time as it were. I got off the bus with my camera and went exploring.

The first animals I came across were musk-ox. The same ones that the wool for my stole came from.

I later learned that George asked Rachel "she paid $400 for made from wool of that thing" Kind of made me giggle!!

Then I saw elk -

Come to find out they are not native to Alaska, but were introduced by President Teddy Roosevelt as a game animal.

Then came the cutest, but prickly guy -

The porcupine!! He was adorable

And then we came to the moose - the Wildlife center is very involved in moose rehabilitation and care.

A juvenile moose and a couple of ravens


I like how he got down on his front knees to be closer to the grass.

Then I went to the bear enclosures. The center has black and grizzy bear cubs.



Hard to believe - but this bear is still a CUB!!! I was sad to see them in an enclosure after seeing grizzies in the wild at Denali. They rehab folks are trying to teach the bears to be wild so they can be released and won't interact with people.

And then I saw the BABY musk ox.... SO cute!


Sleepy little musk ox...

The bald eagle

And a great horned owl (sorry its blurry - the camera refused to focus past the wire).

Last was a herd of caribou (reindeer)

They were sleepy too

And last but not least - the lynx
They had a male and a female pair - and you could smell them long before you saw them. But they were neat to see.





After an hour - and some exploration of the gift shop - I headed back to the bus - only to be greeted by this sight -

Should we call him "Nanook"?


The wildlife center's education center, restrooms and gift shop.

After we all loaded up on the bus, we drove on toward Whittier and the ship.

Next - more glaciers, a tunnel and a Princess.

[DrDolphin]

After we left the wildlife center, we made a left hand turn off the highway and headed for the Portage Glacier Overlook (I said we were retracing our steps...) and just like the day before it was rainy and cold. We pulled over at the overlook and about 50% of us braved the rain and cold to take photos of Portage Glacier, Portage Lake and way in the background - Byron Glacier.

This is where I learned that most of the glaciers in this area are named after English poets – Bryon, Keats... etc.

Portage Glacier visitor's center (not yet open for the summer season) and the lake, still frozen over.

Portage Glacier. The glacier carved our the lake and as it retreats, the lake fills up with meltwater. In the 1990s the toe of the glacier was still in the lake. now you have to take a boat from the visitor's center to see the glacier.

Me, in the rain and cold with Portage glacier over my left shoulder and Byron glacier over my right.

A young couple from Taiwan who had a little baby with them were also taking photos and offered to take a photo of Chris and I together. We took a couple of photos of them as well.

By now I was just cold and tired of traveling...

We reboarded the bus and headed for the Whittier Tunnel. The tunnel was originally a train tunnel, blasted through the mountain during WWII by the US Army Corps of Engineers (my employers) (Hoo ah!) so that a second deepwater port could be created to supply Anchorage and prevent the Japanese from strangling the city's supplies. In 1999 the decision was made to convert it to a car/train tunnel. They put a roadbed on top of the train tracks and added 6 large exhaust fans to keep fresh air in the tunnel (carbon monoxide buildup is an issue). Trains are still run through the tunnel as well. The tunnel is one lane wide, one mile long and timed 15 minutes of traffic in one direction, then 15 minutes of traffic in the other. Our bus actually had a timed reservation for when we would be able to pass.



A bus in front of us entering the tunnel.


Driving through the tunnel. You are not allowed to stop once you start moving due to the carbon monoxide concern.

A bus in front of us.

The light at the end of the tunnel.


Welcome to Whittier - Anchorage's cruise port

And then we saw her - the Sapphire Princess.

She is about the same size as the Disney Wonder and Magic.


The Sapphire Princess, the cruise terminal and 3 other buses unloading passengers in the rain. We pulled up to the terminal and began the hectic, disorganized process of unloading the bus. There was no one from the cruise line giving directions and no luggage porters - so the 4 of us loaded up our bags and dragged them into the terminal. We arrived about 545pm. We dropped off the suitcases at a roped off area with one cruise line staffer standing there asking if we had out luggage tags. Fortunately - I had put them on our bags back at the hotel. It was Very disorganized, and you could tell this was the first sailing of the season – they still had some kinks to work out. We got in line to check in.


And after about 30 minutes we were checked in. Then we headed down the dock to board the ship. Once nice thing, we were given a little fold out map of the ship - I carried that thing with me everywhere - since it was confusing sometimes.



There wasn't really any fanfare or much of anything else when we boarded (I am so spoiled by Disney) - so we headed to our cabin on the Deck 9 - Dolphin deck (I know - how appropriate for me). D404. George and Rachel were next door in D402.
We had a Verandah cabin with queen bed. It had a huge bathtub (much larger then any of the DCL ships), nice bathroom, large verandah and a TON of closet and storage space.

Looking from the bed, through the living area to the verandah.

Looking back toward the door. The cabin seemed narrower than the DCL cabins.


Chris looking at one of the two TVs in the room - one was mounted so you could see it from the bed, and one from the couch.

Closet shelves

Closet with robes and pool towels

Bathtub with toiletries. 3 little shelves in here were nice too.

Toilet and sink. Of course, unlike Disney - there wasn't a split bathroom - I think that is where all the closet space comes from.

After getting oriented - I stepped out onto the Verandah (in the rain ) to take a few more photos.

The train preparing to re-enter the tunnel after unloading cruise passengers.

The town of Whittier

Looking forward toward the bow.

After getting settled in the room, we had to go to our muster station with our life jackets - we were in one of the bars on board (I think all of the musters were inside due to the weather) and then we returned to our room.

The first order of the night was for George to call Sabatini's - one of the for fee restaurants onboard to book our dinner reservation. Because we had booked through American Express, they gave us a dinner at Sabatini's as a thank you - only good for tonight - for dinner for the 4 of us. We ended up with an 8pm dinner and not too long after that our suitcases arrived so we could get dressed for dinner.

Somehow I managed to take ZERO photos of us at dinner... but I did take some photos of the food (important things, right?).

Sabatini's

Amex had included a bottle of champagne, which George and Rachel shared, while Chris and I got Alcohol-free wine. Which was really good actually. I had requested Martinelli's sparkling apple cider (like DCL has) but they didn't have any and offered this instead. I started with a Fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, basil and tomato salad (no photo) and fresh fried calamari (no photo). For my main course I ordered the 10 oz NY strip steak. It was huge and I could not finish it.

I had originally not planned on dessert, since nothing really struck me as interesting on the menu, then our server offered me a fresh cheese plate that was selected for me by the server off a larger cheese tray.

I enjoyed them all - except the blue - that got handed over to the hubs.... he loves blue cheese.

Chris had a soup (can't remember what kind - no photo); Lobster 3 ways and he finished with a Blueberry/chocolate cake.



After dinner it was close to 10pm, and we had already sailed.

We made our way back to the cabin, passing through the central "Piazza" of the ship.



Not too much later we were fast asleep - it had been a LONG and tiring day.

Next up - the largest glacier in North America

[lauriep]

Great updates! All the photos of the wildlife center are wonderful, but my favorite is of the young moose with his "elbows on the table"! I can't believe there were no porters at the ship! Your cabin looks very nice, though, and dinner certainly looked good.

[chezp]

I loved all the wildlife photos - so beautiful. The ship looks lovely as well. Your room looks a good size to spend the next few nights.

[Colexis Mom]

Great pics from the Wildlife Center and the ship!

[KMB733]

Great pictures from the Wildlife Center and great pictures of the ship!

[pamcarey]

Great pictures from the wildlife center and the ship! That narrow tunnel, however, would have freaked me out a bit!

[cubfancolleen]

Love the baby musk ox!! So cute!

[rhinohunter]

Nice ride to the ship. The pix of the sheep are nice and it is strange that the great scarves, sweaters etc come from such an ugly animal. The ship looks great and with a lot of room in the cabin. What camera are you guys using? That looks like a long lens.

[DrDolphin]

Hubbard Glacier - Part 1 - the "Pre-glacier" events (sorry - no photos).

We started our day thinking we had a 915am spa appointment - well somehow I screwed that up, because it was actually scheduled for tomorrow... After confirming tomorrow's appt, we headed to breakfast in the Horizon Court and it was SO busy - it was a madhouse. Took 10 minutes of wandering around to find a table after we got our food. Just when you would see a table open up, someone would grab it before the stewards could bus it. I didn't take any photos, since I had left my camera in the room. We had traditional breakfast things - it was good.

The next task of the day was laundry. We'd been in Alaska a week and were running out of clean undergarments (and street clothes too). The laundry room was right down the hall from our cabin. After going into the laundry room, I discovered the coin machine was out of coins. So I left and went to Guest Services to get a roll of quarters. Unlike DCL - they still use coins and you can't charge this to your room. I had brought the Purex triple sheets with us - so no need to buy detergent on the ship (good thing - the detergent dispenser jammed twice while I was in there and a steward had to come both times to fix it for people). I ended up doing four loads of wash and three loads of dry. Everything was dry after one round – impressive dryers (which have a larger capacity than the washers).

In between trips to the laundry room, we lay around the cabin, watching the scenery, occasionally going out on the veranda to look around. Just relaxing.

After laundry was complete - it was time Lunch at Horizon Court. After this morning's mess, we decided to find a table before getting in line and each of us went separately so that the table was maintained.

After lunch, with tummy's full from the extensive buffet options, we returned to the cabin – and took a nap to rest up for the exciting events coming up that afternoon.

Next - we "NEVER" get this close!!