Alaska - A Month Long Adventure - Trip Report - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Hello everyone. We are not yet home from our Alaska Adventure, but we have several hours in the Anchorage Aiport as we await the Land Touring part of our trip. I thought I'd get started on the Trip Report, and get the boring travel stuff out of the way
For the back story on this trip, you can check out my Pre-Trip Report. The short version is:
Lou (DH) booked a month long Alaska Holiday for my 60th birthday
Trip dates were (are) May 16th - June 15th - 2013
The trip included 3 weeks of cruising the Inside Passage and Glacier Bay on a small ship
The last week includes a couple of rides on the Alaska Railroad and a short visit to Denali
Life before the trip was hectic. Reservations were made 18 months prior, and as usual, life's details got in the way at the last minute. We have spent summers in Maine for the last 3 years, and liked it so well we ended up getting a house there. We left two weeks before the start of the trip to drive to Maine from Florida with two Cocker Spaniels accompanying us. That was a fun trip! (Actually, it was fun).
Stitch spent most of the trip napping:
We arrived in Maine, and after dealing with renovations, furniture delivery and other moving in details, it was time to head to Alaska. Because we had a 6:45am departure from Bangor (thank you, Delta, for changing our originally booked 8:30am flight to 6:45), we got a ride to the airport the night before and stayed at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel which is directly across from the terminal. The most notable point about our stay was a surprisingly delicious dinner at the hotel restuarant. They served a very nice lobster cocktail at a reasonable price - our sea food adventure was just beginning:
May 16th: We were up bright and early, and borrowed the hotel luggage cart to get our bags to check-in. Note - only two bags contain clothes. The others have camera gear, and assorted accessories:
Our flights were uneventful, and everything went like clockwork. Unfortunately, it was a very slowwwww clock. We had a 6 hour layover in Detroit (a very nice airport), followed by a 3 hour layover in Seattle. We finally arrived in Juneau at 9:30PM, more than 19 hours after we started! Would have been easier to fly to London!
The Psychedelic Tunnel in Detroit - complete with mood music to match the colors:
6 Hours in the Delta Sky Lounge ... and then, we were off to Seattle!
Leaving Seattle - it was cloudy, but not yet raining
We flew through the sunset on our way to Juneau:
We arrived and were met by a driver sent by the Un-Cruise people (that's the name of the cruise line we used). The Juneau airport is small and modern looking. It was not completely dark at 9:30pm:
We arrived at the Goldbelt Hotel, right across from the dock where our boat would be, checked in and had no problems getting right to sleep, since it was almost 2am East Coast time.
Up Next: Spending a couple of days in Rainy Juneau
I'm glad your trip isn't quite over yet. Time flies by, but that would have been too fast for a month-long trip. I think that tunnel in Detroit would give me a headache! That was a very long travel day for you, but glad you're in Juneau waiting for the adventure to begin!
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How did I miss this? Where have I been? I'm glad I'm joining now at the beginning because I love your TR's with all the photos you include so I can't wait to read along as you post but for now, I'm off to find your PTR and hopefully find out how come there are now 2 doggies involved (last time I read something, you only had the 1 cocker).
Yeah!!! You've started. I remember our travel day to Fairbanks was right at 19 hours.
Long day from the East Coast, for sure!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I'm glad your trip isn't quite over yet. Time flies by, but that would have been too fast for a month-long trip. I think that tunnel in Detroit would give me a headache! That was a very long travel day for you, but glad you're in Juneau waiting for the adventure to begin!
We have had lots of good days, some not so great ( but no catastrophic events).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomhazel
I have been looking forward to this trip report
I hope there will be enough substance to entertain.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
Glad you started! I'm excited to follow along. I hope you're enjoying your land portion right now!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by B.M.
Great start!
Thanks for checking in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CinderAbby
How did I miss this? Where have I been? I'm glad I'm joining now at the beginning because I love your TR's with all the photos you include so I can't wait to read along as you post but for now, I'm off to find your PTR and hopefully find out how come there are now 2 doggies involved (last time I read something, you only had the 1 cocker).
Thanks . We adopted Stitch at the end of
March. He was 7.5 months old. So now we have Natasha (18 months) and Stitch. We are missing them like crazy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Wow, that was a long travel day! I bet it was worth it though, and I can't wait to hear the details of your trip
It was worth it, for sure.
I had hoped to sneak another update in tonight, but the Internet at the hotel in
Fairbanks is too slow. We will be out of range in Denali for 2 nights, then back in touch, so another update in a few days.
What a long day of travel. Nice that you were able to spend it in the Delta lounge. I agree with Laurie about the tunnel. Looks cool but the wrong colour would give me a headache for sure. Enjoy your last week
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
That's one long travel day. 
Deb
Can't wait to hear all about it! 
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