An Alaskan Adventure

November 17th, 2009 from Toni Nelson

The name of the cruise tour I took was the 12 nights Direct to the Wilderness. We flew from MSP to Seattle with an overnight at the Seattle Doubletree hotel. It is a very nice hotel across from the Sea-Tac airport. The next morning our bags were collected by Princess and we boarded our flight for Anchorage on Alaska Air.We arrived in Anchorage, claimed our bags and then were loaded on a motor coach for our journey to the Mt. McKinley Lodge. We had a dinner stop in Anchorage at the Captain Cook Hotel. We had the choice to dine there or at an alternate location just down the street. After our dinner stop, we boarded the bus and continued for a 2 ½ hour motor coach ride to Princess Mt. McKinley lodge. Our luggage was delivered right to our rooms with no need to check in. The lodge was in a beautiful setting with the mountains surrounding it. Mount McKinley happened to be fogged in when we arrived so it was not visible at that time. The next morning, we chose to take the shuttle into Talkeetna. It is about a 1 hour trip and the cost is only $10.00 per person.Talkeetna was a very interesting village where you could just walk from one end of town to the other.Very quaint with some nice shops and eateries. Talkeetna is the location where mountain climbers check in at the Ranger Station if they are planning to climb Mt.McKinley.We stopped in at the Ranger station and they had a video of what it takes to climb Mt.McKinley.It was very interesting. April - July is the time of the year when they are very busy with the climbers in the area. We had 2 nights at the Mt McKinley Princess lodge.They have around 25 separate lodges for the guests.They do offer a shuttle to the main lodges.They have 3 locations to eat at and they had many excellent food choices. That first night after dinner, the fog lifted, the clouds disappeared and the Mountain was visible for everyone to see. Only 20 percent of guests see Mt. McKinley on their trip, so we were very fortunate. The next morning the mountain was still visable and gave us some majestic shots with our cameras. Then it was off to the Denali Lodge which is about a 2½ hour ride by motorcoach. It was very scenic again. We arrived at the Denali lodge and our luggage was delivered to our rooms.We spent 2 nights at the Denali Lodge.Shopping is readily available in Denali right across the highway from the Lodge. The first night we signed up to do the Music of Denali Dinner theatre.Very good meal and some talented entertainers. Our morning was free so we decided to take the bus to the Denali Park.They have some interesting displays and videos on the park. They also had a demonstration in the park on the dogsledding dogs and how they use them in the park during the winter.They have so many things that you can do that are at no additional charge.Very educational too. That afternoon we took the Natural History tour which is 5 hours long.It is on a school bus that takes you into the National Park.We did see moose & the dall sheep.This tour can be upgraded to the Tundra tour for a additional $50.00 and it's 8 hours long going further into the park.

We stopped at an original logging cabin in the woods and listened to a native Naturalist. The bus driver would stop and let us view the wildlife and even had a spotting scope set up for viewing the sheep on a mountain in the distance. The next day we took a 10-hour train ride from Denali Park to Whittier which travels thru the interior of Alaska. Princess has their own rail cars and are good for viewing.They are double decker giving you a table for 4 on the upper level. Full service meals are served as well as snacks and drinks.A Princess tour guide is aboard and pointing out sights along the way. One of the bonus' we encountered was the fall colors and the time actually goes by pretty quickly. We arrived at Whittier where we boarded the Sapphire Princess cruise ship.We had a balcony cabin which I would recommend when cruising thru the Inside Passage.There are so many more opportunites to view the glaciers right from your own balcony.Our friends that joined us from Texas said there really is something to be said about having a balcony cabin.They spent a lot of time with us on ours.The weather was just great while we were in College Fjord and Glacier bay.Lots of sunshine.We had the usual stops in Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. We also did see a number of whales .We encountered rain in Juneau and Ketchikan but it rains 240 days a year in Ketchikan.The salmon were running in Ketchikan and could be seen right from the walk ways on the walking tour.Princess did a great job in entertaining the guests They brought aboard some excellent speakers whom we listened too and found very interesting.One of the speakers was Libby Riddles who was the 1st female to win the Iditarod race back in 1985.She talked about her adventures with her dogs and what it took to win the Iditarod race.She also writes childrens books and I purchased one for my grandson which she autographed.Another naturalist who spoke was Shelly Gill who also writes childrens books.She also gave a talk on how global warming is changing Alaska.Very informative.I would say my favorite part of the trip was combining the land tour with the cruise.We had cruised Alaska before but learned so much more about it this trip.It was a great experience that I will definitely recommend.