Our Alaskan Cruise

We awoke early the next day, not only because we were excited about touring Denali National Park but we knew that the amount of park we would be able to see was based on the time we reached the Wilderness Access Center at the Park’s entrance.

We grabbed a quick, but exceptional and complimentary, bite to eat at the Main Lodge and headed to the Park.

Quick check list of must have items to pack for a day in Denali National Park

• Jacket – preferably a windbreaker
• Hiking boots or shoes
• Water
• Snacks / Lunch
• Camera (extra batteries and memory)
• Map / Bus Schedule
• Compass

(My brother would also like to note that a tripod doubles as a great walking stick.)

Things to Know about Getting Around Denali

There is only one road, 92 miles in length, in Denali National Park. Typically, one may only drive fifteen miles up that road into the Park to the Savage River Check Station. This station is where you will catch one of many types of buses to take you the remainder of the way through the park. We chose to take one of the shuttle buses.

These buses will pick you up and let you off anywhere along the road as you travel through the park. You do not have to return on the bus you originally started. They also stop at each of the visitor’s centers located along the way: Toklat River, Eilson, Wonder Lake and Katishna. The earlier you arrive to catch a bus, the further into the park you can go.

You want to make sure that you arrive at your final destination before the last bus of the day leaves there to return to the entrance so that you aren’t stuck on an impromptu camping adventure.

One other important thing to note is that there is no food or beverage available along the route. It is IMPERATIVE that you bring both of these items with you, you will need them. There are gift shops at both the Toklat and the Eilson stop, but they have no food items available for purchase, not even a token Denali candy bar. There is a shop at the Wilderness Access Center so if you make it into the Park without food or drink, you can purchase these items there.

We did find a wild blueberry patch however at the Wonder Lake stop, a very nice treat after a lunch of granola bars and cheese crackers.

Our Denali Experience

We found ourselves discussing how nice it would be to reside in Alaska as we drove through Denali. The view was again remarkable, brilliant, beautiful. I believe we saw approximately one hundred thousand twenty-two wild hares along the side of the road, a good year for them. We also saw a mother bear and her cub drinking at the river, a bear viewing us from road side and a bear scratching his shoulder on the back of the bus as he crossed the road behind us. We saw moose, wolves, Dall sheep, did I mention hares?

Our stop at the Polychrome Overlook was probably most impressive to me. Before us lay multicolored mountaintops, flowered fields and the East Fork River.

We decided on the return trip that we would get off the bus at the Toklat River rest stop and hike up the road on our own for awhile. The light was perfect, we crossed a shallow river on foot and we just enjoyed the serenity and quiet of our surroundings. We spent an hour, just Ryan and I, along the main road. We even found a location where glacier melt met the river, the contrast was amazing.

Just the trip to Wonder Lake and back is 11 hours. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the Park early enough to get the trip out to Katishna, I guess we have a reason to return.

If you’re considering a cruise to Alaska you’re probably more in tune with the environment than most. Alaska is mostly wilderness so we hope you’re not going to Alaska to just to shop for Jade in Ketchikan.

So let’s consider which cruise ships have received Environmental Violations in Alaska (1999-2009) when making your travel plans.

Virgin Holidays gives Responsible Tourism awards each year, with 2008 being the first for Cruise or Ferry Operator (Holland America Lines won) and Royal Caribbean gaining top honors for 2009.

Friends of the Earth have just released their 2010 Cruise Report Card.

We’re excited to soon be virtually following along professional cruise adviser Chris Owen on his Princess Cruises-sponsored Twitter Press trip to Alaska.

Chris’ trip will be very similar to ours albeit backwards, traveling from Denali towards Vancouver. Although we stayed in the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge as base camp for our Denali self-tours we opted out of the train ride (see photo) that Chris will hopefully write about.

Also be sure to check out his cruise tips as part of your planning your Alaskan Cruise. Chris offers some of the best advice we’ve ever read on the Internet.

There’s nothing better than first-hand knowledge, tips, and suggestions when traveling to someplace we’ve never been before. Many thanks to those who have sent along helpful advice for our hosted Twitter Press trip to Alaska with Princess Cruises coming up in less than a month. Looking through the extensive menu of shore and land excursions available on this trip, we’ve started molding what we will experience, based largely on your input.

Well, make that about half your input and suggestions, (“we did this and it was fabulous” or “you can’t miss this”) and half stuff you want to see or know about for an upcoming vacation combined with stuff we just think looks cool to do. Here is how it breaks down and what our schedule is looking like so far…

[Source: Chris Cruises]

Anne Vipond and William Kelly of the Vancouver Sun compare the experience of a Seattle departure vs. Vancouver:

It’s worth taking an Alaska cruise from Seattle if you would like to spend a day or two in Seattle and would like to visit Sitka. However, if you want to see all of the Inside Passage and visit the Klondike Gold Rush town of Skagway, take your cruise from Vancouver.

There is little or no difference in cost between a round trip cruise from Seattle or one from Vancouver, although the best prices from either port are usually offered on the May sailings. According to Harvey Strydhorst of Sea Courses Cruises, good pricing is still available on Alaska cruises, comparable to the bargains that were offered last year.

A Tale of Two Port Cities

My husband and I are travelers by nature. Not ones who like to follow the beaten path, but we like to set our own goals and timelines. We would never have guessed our travel plans could ever include a trip on a cruise line, but after several months of researching our desires, our financial limits and our time constraints through work, we determined a cruise would be the best way to experience Alaska.

We were interested in the culture of Alaska current, the history of the people, but mostly the sites and sounds of Alaska’s frontier. We both enjoy our visits to warm beaches, don’t misunderstand, but something about seeing a new great mountain range, calving glaciers, rainforests in the northern hemisphere, peaceful fiords really had us excited. We also couldn’t wait to try the fresh ocean-side cuisine. Alaska isn’t an easy land to travel via car. Getting to many cities can only be accomplished via boat or plane. We wanted to best orientate ourselves along but knew without an unlimited budget and over a month of time, we would never see everything on our list.

Once we started getting serious about our plans, we contacted a travel agent who had helped us with a few trips in the past, including our unbelievable honeymoon to South Africa Our travel agent works with executive clients out of Manhattan, helping to plan their dream vacations. She and her husband travel frequently themselves and we knew they would be best suited to help us put our ideal cruise together.

She suggested a few lines based on our desire to find a line without the masses of people or preplanned itineraries. We wanted to come and go as we pleased, eat what we pleased and enjoy a few quiet nights on the deck of the ship. We ultimately selected Holland America Lines and were very pleased with the results, as you’ll learn through the continuation of this blog. We also scheduled several on-shore excursions through the cruise line and ended our journey with two days on our own in Denali.