Cruising Goddess

Denali Road Guide – $5 + $2 shipping

Are you going to Denali National Park? I am selling my “Denali Road Guide” in LIKE NEW condition for $5 + $2 U.S. shipping. This is the official road guide for Denali National Park. Read more about it.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

We had whitewater rafting scheduled for the morning and we wouldn’t be returning until after check-out time so we woke up early to pack our bags and check out of Denali Princess. The lobby had free luggage storage in a locked room so we left our bags with there. We tipped the attendant a few dollars when we checked our bags and when we picked them up. I don’t recommend checking our free reusable shopping bag because when I peeked into the luggage room, it was filled with a sea of the same shopping bag and if it got separated from the rest of your luggage, it would be a nightmare to find!

We walked across the street to Subway again, got breakfast, and ate it in front of the hotel while waiting for the whitewater rafting company to pick us up. We booked the Wilderness Run rafting excursion on the Nenana River through Aramark Denali Park Resorts. They offer several rafting options but we picked this one because Chris cannot swim. The Wilderness Run has been described by others as a “float trip” pretty much so we thought we’d see some scenery and not have too much excitement. It usually costs $90 per person but we used a 2-for-1 coupon from the Alaska TourSaver book and saved $90!

When the driver arrived to pick us up at 7:30 am, he informed us that the Wilderness Run was canceled because we were the ONLY ones who booked it. He offered us spots on the Canyon Run instead, which is up to Class IV whitewater rafting. We were very hesitant to do this. What if Chris fell off and drowned?? The driver sold us that about 1 person in 1000 go overboard and only because they were not following instructions. To my astonishment, Chris said he would go! We stopped by one other hotel to pick up 2 more people before arriving at their office behind McKinley Chalet Resort. At the office, 4 others arrived from a separate van so we had a total of 8 people, a full raft. We stored our stuff at the office and were led on to a deck where we were fitted with our dry suits and employees helped us put them on. The dry suits keep all of your clothes completely dry. My face, neck, and the part of my ponytail sticking out of the cap got wet and that was it! Then, our guide (who I can’t remember his name but I recall he is from South Africa) gave us through a safety and instructional talk. The neat thing about this rafting trip is that the guide does all the paddling. All we have to do is hold on to a rope and lean when he tells us to lean. They also have a safety guide, Jeff, following us the entire time in a kayak so if someone does fall out, Jeff will quickly reach us to help.

From the deck, we walked out to the river to the raft. Our guide let us choose if we wanted to sit in the front or back and we chose front. From there, he told us in what order to sit in by our height/weight. The trip was a BLAST and SUPER FUN!!! There were a ton of exciting rapids and then parts of calm river where we learned about the river and the surrounding area. It was like an educational roller coaster! Despite being splashed in the face and having water drench his dry suit, Chris loved it too! The weather was cold and drizzly but we were pretty warm and dry in our suits! Jeff was an amazing kayaker too! He went into rapids that were to dangerous for our raft and sometimes he came back out upside down but then he’d just flip right back over! Really cool!! If you do this excursion, make sure you go to the restroom before getting suited up because it’s a long ride. One of raftmates had to use the bathroom really bad and we pulled over into a forest to let her pee. Poor woman! When we reached the end of the river, we pulled into shore and an old school-type bus was waiting for us. The driver, Becky, bought us all hot chocolate out of her own pocket, which was much appreciated (and we did tip her well to show it)! They helped us pull our dry suits down half way and tied them around our waist so it would be more comfortable on the bus. Then we were driven back to the office. From there, we had the option of buying awesome photos of us that Becky took from the shoreline. A CD with all 12 digital photos, extra Denali stock photos, and a waiver that allows you to reprint them cost $55 or we could also buy individual prints for $20 each. I think the prints were 5×7 but not sure and I don’t believe they came with the photographer’s copyright waiver so you’re not supposed to reprint them. We bought the CD and was very happy we did! The Canyon Run was such a fun experience, even for Chris, who was very happy that we did it!

Rocking our dry suits

Our safety guide Jeff

Canyon Run Whitewater Rafting

Canyon Run Whitewater Rafting

We were dropped off at our hotel around noon. We got a tip from a couple of Glitter Gulch shop employees that Prospector’s Pizza served really good pizza and that a lot of the locals and employees ate there. Prospector’s Pizza might be a bit of a hike if you have mobility issues and staying at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge because it’s on the far left end of Glitter Gulch (across from McKinley Chalets) but if you can get over there, you shall be rewarded! The restaurant reminded me of a hunting lodge with trophy heads and fur pelts decorating the place. They served Alaskan beer and of course pizza! As travelers, we love trying local foods even if they might seem odd or bizarre. After looking at the menu, we decided to order The Lower 48 It Ain’t Pizza, which included Alaskan reindeer sausage, ground elk, roasted peppers, tomato sauce, and buffalo mozzarella. It turned out to be really good and not odd at all. It tasted a lot like sausage and ground beef pizza! In case you’re not as brave, they also have the usual pizza toppings as well!

After lunch, we headed back to Denali Princess and await our motorcoach back to Anchorage. The lobby was very crowded and hectic that afternoon as there were many guests waiting to take buses to different places, including Whittier, Anchorage, and Princess’ other hotel, Mt. McKinley Princess. The transportation coordinators would come into the lobby and yell your bus number but sometimes they were hard to hear with all the people in the lobby so Chris would keep going outside just to make sure our bus hadn’t arrived already. We departed around 2 pm. The motorcoach back to Anchorage was provided by Park Connection and it was a really comfortable coach with a working restroom.

We made a quick stop at Mt. McKinley Princess to pick up additional people. The driver gave us some time to use the restroom and check out the gift shop. I’m glad we got to see this hotel since it was the other resort that I had considered when staying in Denali. It reminded me of summer camp because it was much more spread out with really cabin-like buildings. The cruisetours spend 1-2 nights in Denali Princess and 1 night in Mt. McKinley Princess. The rail package I booked also had the option of spending one night at Mt. McKinely Princess as well. I’m really glad we decided to stick with both nights at Denali Princess because Mt. McKinley Princess really is in the middle of nowhere, as some CruiseCritic members have reported. It’s up on a hill by itself. The nice part about that is it feels very remote and natural. Some people say that it’s more likely you’ll see Mt. McKinley if you stay here too.

Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge

Taking the motorcoach back to Anchorage, instead of the rail again, was cool because we got to really drive through some of the small towns and get a different perspective. On the train, it felt more like you were driving PASS towns and on the motorcoach, it felt more like you were driving them THROUGH them.

We arrived at the Egan Convention Center in Anchorage around 7:30 pm and walked back to the Historic Anchorage Hotel, where we stayed at on our first night in Anchorage. As I mentioned in my Day 1 post, we were upgraded to a mini-suite facing the alley and it was a lot larger and much quieter!

Historic Anchorage Hotel

Historic Anchorage Hotel

On that first night in Anchorage, we had walked by Peratrovich Park and saw street vendors selling reindeer sausage. We decided to skip eating dinner at a sit-down restaurant and have us some reindeer sausage!! The sausages are served just like hot dogs from a hot dog cart. You have the options of the usual hot dog condiments along with jalapenos, cheese, and onions. If you get the combo, it comes with a soda and your choice of Tim’s Potato Chips! They were super yummy and made an excellent, casual meal in the park! It tasted a lot like a bratwurst to me. I wish I could have another one right now!!

Reindeer sausages in Peratrovich Park

By the way, in case anyone is interested, this day was the 4th of July. Anchorage has a 4th of July Parade but it was held at 11 am so we missed it. We asked the receptionist if there would be any fireworks in the area and she said there would be some around midnight or later but they aren’t as neat because it isn’t dark. Unfortunately, we had a train to catch in the morning and we were pretty beat so we didn’t stay up to watch them but now that I think of it, fireworks in daylight might be an interesting experience!

+ See all Denali National Park photos and Anchorage photos
+ Read more about my Island Princess Alaska Cruise

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Denali Princess has a shuttle that stops at the hotel, Wilderness Access Center, Horseshoe Lake Trailhead, and Denali Visitor Center. It’s free for cruisetour guests and supposed to cost $5 roundtrip otherwise. Even though we were not cruisetour guests, we were never asked to show proof that we were cruisetour guests nor asked to pay. We were told by one employee that the most they would ask is to see the “packet” that we got on the train and that should be enough to get on free but I can’t vouch for that. If you stay at Denali Princess outside of a cruisetour like we did, you may or may not have the same experience so just fair warning that you may have to pay $5 roundtrip. The shuttle starts running at 7 am and runs every hour. We wanted to be on the first shuttle out that morning so we planned ahead to make sure we were ready. We went to Subway and got breakfast and lunch to go. Then, we boarded first Princess shuttle at 7 am and arrived at the Wilderness Access Center at 7:10 am.

Most tourists, especially cruise passengers, take the one of the tour buses (Natural History Tour or Tundra Wilderness Tour) into Denali National Park. After reading a lot on Cruise Critic’s Alaska Board, it was recommended to go into the farthest into the park that you can to have the most opportunities to see wildlife. The Natural History Tour only goes 17 miles into the park and shouldn’t even be considered. After reading about the different shuttle buses offered at Denali National Park, I decided to book the shuttle bus that goes to Eielson Visitors Center for $31.50 per person through ReserveDenali.com. The Eielson Shuttle Bus goes 66 miles into the park, which is further than the Tundra Wilderness Tour (53 miles) and, and is a lot cheaper (TWT costs around $90/person). I also read that the free lunch included with TWT is pretty much inedible. LOL! Subway is a cheap and convenient replacement!

I booked Eielson shuttle tickets for 8:30 am because I was getting conflicting times on when the shuttle would start running so we were obviously very early. We got on the standby list for the 7:30 am Eielson shuttle and were able to get on but we had the seat over the rear wheel well. It was a bit uncomfortable but I was glad we could get on!

Eielson Shuttle Bus at the Wilderness Access Center

It took almost 5 hours to reach the Eielson Visitor’s Center but it went by so quickly! Right away, we were treated to a moose near the road! The park was gorgeous and there were several bathroom stops along the way. Whenever someone spotted wildlife, they would yell “STOP!” to the driver and the driver would stop the bus so everyone could look and take photos, if possible. I heard from past reports that some people are not very polite about taking turns and letting others view out their window but we had good buses. Denali National Park is also where a digital camera with a high optical zoom and good binoculars were really important. Many times, the wildlife looks just like a speck to the naked eye but you can really seem them upclose with binoculars and we got some great photos too without lugging around a huge SLR camera.

Moose

Dall Sheep

Grizzly Bear

Caribou

A river next to one of the stops

Gorgeous view

Wolf cub

River

Grizzly bear mama & 2 cubs

It drizzled the entire day but was very rainy when we arrived at the Eielson Visitor’s Center. We ate our Subway lunch inside at the tables, put on our rain pants, and then took the ranger-led Eielson Stroll. It was very rainy and windy the whole time so that already made this walk uncomfortable. A group of 4 actually aborted halfway through because they were not dressed properly. I found the Stroll to be very boring. The ranger talked about animals but A LOT about plants, which were not interesting to me. I think the talk was geared towards kids because it had an Olympic theme to it and it seemed a bit silly because there were no young kids in our tour. I would not recommend it personally. Instead, I would have skipped the Eielson Stroll and left the Visitor’s Center a little earlier. I heard great comments about the trail to Horseshoe Lake but by the way time we returned to the park entrance, it was pretty late and we had dinner reservations to get to but had we left the Visitor’s Center earlier, we may have had time to hike the Horseshoe Lake Trail. The view of Mount McKinley was completedly socked in by fog so we are in the 70% club of people who didn’t see Mt. McKinley. We spent about 2 hours at the Eielson Visitor Center.

Eielson Visitor Center

(Lack of) view of Mt. McKinley from Eielson

Skulls & horns of 2 moose that locked horns and died

Red Fox

We boarded another bus back to the Park Entrance and got better seats this time, though again we didn’t have a ton of choice because there were only a few seats left. The ride back was quicker because we didn’t see as much wildlife so we didn’t stop as much. During the entire bus trip, we saw a grizzly bear, mama grizzly bear with 2 cubs twice, numerous dall sheep, wolf, 3 wolf pups, red fox, ground squirrel, snowshoe hare, moose, and caribou! We were thrilled to see so much wildlife! Once we were on the cruise, we swapped stories with cruisetour passengers and found that we saw the most out of everyone since they took the park tours, instead of the shuttles. It was especially sad to hear from those that took the Natural History Tour because they did not seen anything and didn’t enjoy Denali at all when I thought Denali was SO AMAZING! Once we got back to the Wilderness Access Center, we took the Princess shuttle back to Denali Princess.

We had dinner at the King Salmon Restaurant in Denali Princess. (By the way, you don’t have to be a hotel guest to eat at any of the restaurants there.) It has the atmosphere of a fancy, upscale restaurant with servers in tuxedos but all the diners dressed casually since the restaurant understands you are coming back from a day at a National Park. I ordered the King Crab Legs and it was the BEST crab legs I have ever had in my life!! SO DELICIOUS!! The meat was so fresh and buttery. My mouth is watering just talking about it! Chris had the salmon pasta dish and he really liked it too. For dessert, we had Alaskan blueberry ice cream and it was yummy! The service was wonderful! The atmosphere was wonderful! I highly recommend this restaurant! Reservations are also highly recommended.

King Salmon Restaurant

Alaskan King Crab Legs

Alaskan Blueberry Ice Cream

I’m really glad that I had crab legs, salmon, and halibut before our cruise. During our cruise, we found that we did not have time to eat lunch in port because of our excursion schedule. If you have a lot of excursions booked, make sure you eat all your “must eats” ahead of time during your land portion!

+ See all Denali National Park photos
+ Read more about my Island Princess Alaska Cruise

Friday, July 2, 2010

We had 2 large suitcases and 2 flight carry-on rolling suitcases for this trip but we packed our bags so that we only need to take the 2 carry-ons and a backpack to Denali. We stored the other 2 large suitcases at the Historic Anchorage Hotel for no additional cost since we would be returning after 2 nights in Denali. After having breakfast at the hotel, we walked to the train depot. It was only about 5 minutes away downhill but there is a long flight of stairs so it would be difficult to walk if you had more than one suitcase per person.

Like many people on an Alaska cruise, we had the option of booking the cruise only or book a cruisetour, which included a land tour of Interior Alaska (usually Fairbanks and Denali National Park). We really wanted to go to Denali National Park before our cruise but the cruisetour seemed very pricey (about $1k-$2k more per person) and we didn’t really want to go to Fairbanks and I didn’t want to do the Denali tour included in the cruisetour. At the same time, I wanted to experience Princess’ glass-domed rail cars and Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. So instead of a cruisetour, I booked a rail package from PrincessLodges.com. The package included train to Denali on Princess’ rail cars, 2 nights at Denali Princess, and motorcoach back to Anchorage. Plus, we had the flexibility of doing whatever we wanted once we were in Denali. We used a 2-for-1 coupon from the Alaska TourSaver book and saved $300! The cost for the 2 of us was $587.38. NOTE: TourSaver coupons change from year to year so check the TourSaver web site to see this year’s coupons!

When we arrived at the train station, we followed the signs to the white tent for Princess Cruises and checked in. After checking in, you drop off your luggage with the train staff and they tagged it with our hotel luggage tag, then whisk it away. We learned the checked luggage actually doesn’t go on the train. They drive it to the hotel in trucks.

Alaska Railroad Station in Anchorage

We walked to the front of the train station, where a motorcoach picked us up to drive us to our train cars. (I’m totally serious.) It’s funny because the driver stopped at each train car (Cars A, B, and C), even though they are right next to each other and you could easily walk from Car A to C but I guess this is good for people with mobility problems. The Princess rail cars are really nice. The assigned tables are upstairs and the dining room, bathroom, gift shop, and observation deck are downstairs.

Alaska Railroad Train

Princess Rail Cars

Princess Glass-domed Rail Cars

If there are less than 4 people in your party, there is a benefit to arriving early even though tables are assigned. Which side of the table you sit on is not assigned so if you get there before the other party, you can choose to sit facing forward or backward. We shared a table with a lady and her son and they both sat at the window so Chris and I sat across from each other. Eventually, the son went to another table with his cousins so Chris moved to my side and the mom had a bench to herself.

The train left at 8:15 am. Other than passing through Wasilla, home of Sarah Palin, the scenery was a bit boring on the way to Talkeetna. Mostly trees. However, it was still really neat to go out on the Observation Deck. You can feel the wind in your hair and hear the sounds of the train clacking down the track.

On the Observation Deck

On the Alaska Railroad to Denali

Wasilla Iditarod Re-start

Wasilla Lake

When we arrived in Talkeetna at 11:05 am, the front half of our rail car got off the train so we were able to move to another table on our own once those passengers disembarked. Lunch was served after the Talkeetna stop so we went downstairs to the dining tables. We were seated with a couple who seemed very angry to have to share a table with us and protested to the server. The server explained that there are only 5-6 tables and everyone needs a chance to eat. The couple got over it and began chatting with us. They were also on our Island Princess cruise and they were the first of MANY people who we talked to that didn’t have any plans for their Alaska trip. As an obsessive planner, it just shocks me that people will just show up to a vacation and just “wing it”, especially one like Alaska where the activities will sell out 6 months. But hey, it’s their vacation and their money. I personally want to get the most out of both.

We were happy to see that the lunch menu had some regional dishes. Chris had reindeer chili and I had the Alaska seafood salad sandwich. Both were very good but the chili portion was a bit small, even though it is considered an entree. While we were having lunch, I looked out the window and spotted a black bear in the river bed! I yelled to everyone in the rail car and they all looked out the windows! It was our first wildlife sighting and I was so excited because seeing wildlife from the train is pretty rare during this time of year!

The empty half of the rail car once we dropped people off in Talkeetna

Seafood salad sandwich

Reindeer chili

The scenery from Talkeetna to Denali was much better! Lots of gorgeous views of rivers, forests, and mountains.

We arrived in Denali at 3:45 pm. The whole train ride was 7.5 hours long. It honestly didn’t seem that long. It went by really quickly since we dozed several times during the trip. Upon disembarking the train, several Princess motorcoaches were waiting for us and dropped us off at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. Princess handed out our room keys right on the train so when we arrived at the hotel, we didn’t have to check in and went straight to our room. We stayed in Room #279. Our room was upstairs and I’m not aware that there was an elevator for our building. The walkway for the 2nd floor is also very narrow and probably hard to fit a wheelchair on it. If you have mobility issues, be sure the request a ground floor room when staying here. Denali Princess is less of a hotel and more like a massive resort made of a collection of buildings, including shops and restaurants. There is a trolley that runs throughout the resort to shuttle people with mobility issues or who don’t feel like a walk but you may have to wait awhile for it to come. The bad part about this is you spend a lot of time outdoors, even when walking to other parts of the Lodge so when it was raining, it was a big pain. Denali Princess is also the only hotel in the Denali area with hot tubs!

I was very pleasantly surprised by the room, based on reviews I’ve read on Cruise Critic. People made it sound very small and shabby and I didn’t think it was like that at all. The room was clean, quiet, spacious, and comfortable. The décor was also really cute in keeping with the wilderness/rustic theme. Wi-Fi is only available in the main lobby building so we could not access it from our room. The main lobby building also houses the main gift shop. On the train, they gave us a couple of coupons, including one for a free gift from the gift shop. It’s funny because when we arrived, we wondered why EVERYONE had the same Princess Alaska reusable shopping bag and we discovered that was the free gift! It was a very nice bag and we winded up using it at every port to hold all the souvenirs I bought. Four month later, we still use this bag for grocery shopping! LOL! The lobby got very busy in the mornings and evenings. If you plan to do any activities, I highly recommend that you book them before arriving at the hotel because the Activity Desk was crazy the whole time we were there. It seemed like there were 20-25 people in line at all hours that the desk was opened.

Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge: Main Lobby Building

Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge: Our room

Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge

Chris with the free, useful reusable bag

After dropping off our stuff in the room, we crossed the street to the Glitter Gulch area. After spending a couple of days here, I realized Denali Princess had the best location of all the hotels in Denali because it was right across the street from the shops and restaurants of Glitter Gulch. McKinley Chalet Resort (Holland America’s hotel) was the next best but it was at the far end of the Glitter Gulch. All the other hotels needed shuttles to Glitter Gulch and aren’t walkable.

We had dinner at Denali Park Salmon Bake. Chris had Halibut fish and chips and I had baked salmon. Both were very good! Unfortunately, we had planned on ordering breakfast and lunch boxes for our Denali trip tomorrow but they said they were no longer offering the breakfast boxes and they would only deliver the lunch boxes to our hotel if we ordered at least 6 of them. We decided not to order them and just get both breakfast and lunch at Subway in the morning for convenience.

Glitter Gulch

Denali Park Salmon Bake

Salmon from Denali Park Salmon Bake

We stopped by a small grocery store to stock up on snacks and drinks, then dropped them off in our room. Then we were off to the Husky Homestead Tour! We booked the tour in advance for $49 per person through their web site. Playing with sled dog puppies was on the top of our “To Do List” for Alaska! The Husky Homestead offers a range of tour times throughout the day and I was very happy that there was a tour in the evening so we could do something fun that first night we arrived in Denali! The Husky Homestead shuttle bus picked us up in front of Denali Princess and it was a 15-minute ride to their dog camp. Husky Homestead and owned and operated by 4-time Iditarod champion Jeff King and his family. Once you hop off the shuttle, the employees hand you a puppy. These are the most adorable puppies I’ve ever seen! There are plenty to go around and they are of various ages. Some of the puppies were sleepy since it was already evening and feel asleep while being held. Other puppies were howling and giving kisses! Absolutely adorable! Employees take your photo with the puppies and the photos are for sale at the end of the tour. After everyone gets their fill of puppy holding, there is a presentation by a trainer about what the kennel is about and how they train their dogs. We watched them hook up dogs to an ATV for a training run and the dogs all went crazy because they wanted to be chosen to run! This portion of the tour is completely outdoors and the mosquitoes were biting unfortunately. We didn’t think of wearing insect repellent and I was bitten on the hand so wear some real bug spray before coming. Afterward, we were ushered into Jeff’s trophy room, which is essentially a barn house. Jeff King himself is there to share his stories and experiences from the Iditarod and dog mushing. He is very entertaining, funny, and interesting. Of course, there is an opportunity to purchase souvenirs, including the puppy photo they took of you earlier, and get Jeff’s autograph. It was a great start to our stay in Denali! We got back to the hotel around 9:45 pm.

Souvenir photo with Jeff King’s autograph

This was my favorite puppy!

Husky Homestead

Husky Homestead

Jeff King’s daughter with a champion dog

Us with Jeff King

+ See all Anchorage photos and Denali National Park photos
+ Read more about my Island Princess Alaska Cruise

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Our flight from DFW to Anchorage departed at 3:15 pm and was 7 hours long but fortunately, a non-stop flight. They showed “Tooth Fairy” and “Invictus” on the plane but I only watched “Tooth Fairy”, which was a silly movie but I’m a huge fan of The Rock. For dinner, we shared three Lee’s Sandwiches and they were nom nom. We saw several snowy mountains from our plane but I don’t know if any of them where Mt. McKinley. We arrived in Anchorage at 7 pm and took a taxi to our hotel, the Historic Anchorage Hotel in Downtown.

The only beaver we saw: stuffed albino beaver at the airport

After checking into the hotel, we walked to Lucky Grocery store and bought some bottled water and snacks. The weather was windy and cool but once I started walking around, I took off my jacket. We went to Glacier Brewhouse for dinner and the place was packed. They told us it would be a 2 hour wait for a table but we could sit at the bar without a wait so we decided to do that. The tables in the bar were shared and elbow-to-elbow. We met a couple of women who were on our cruise and they were really friendly. We also met a couple of locals. We had Glacier Brewhouse’s home-brewed Blonde Beer and it was really good. I ordered a cup of Alaskan Seafood Chowder and halibut. Chris had BBQ salmon. The chowder was definitely the best and soooo delicious!

Glacier Brewhouse Blonde Beer

Alaskan Seafood Chowder

After dinner, we walked around Anchorage and popped into the shops. I was really happy that our hotel was so close so many shops and restaurants! We stayed in the Historic Anchorage Hotel this night and also the night before our cruise but it’s easier for me to talk about both nights at once. Ghost hunter buffs should be very excited about this one! The Historic Anchorage is supposed to be one of the most haunted places in Alaska. They embrace this reputation with numerous newspaper clippings in the front of their café area. We had no idea of this when we checked in and only found out when we saw the clippings as we ate our breakfast the next morning. It turns out that we stayed in one of the most haunted rooms, room 215, the first night! The story was that a jilted bride hanged herself in our room! Luckily, we did not experience any supernatural phenomenon. What we did experience was excellent service from the small staff and very quaint accommodations. Jessica the night receptionist was especially wonderful and sweet! The rooms have no air conditioning but are equipped with a large circulating fan. That along with opening the windows was sufficient to keep us cool and comfortable. However, our room faced the street and birds like to gather on the roof top across the street. Since the sun barely sets in July, they pretty much squawked throughout the night and in the morning. There was also a rowdy group of drunks on the street around 3 am that woke us up as well. Otherwise, our room was extremely clean (and this is coming from a germaphobe who wipes everything down with bleach wipes) and comfortable.

I wasn’t thrilled with the free breakfast. The buffet included hard-boiled eggs, bagels, oatmeal, fruit, cereal, and make-it-yourself waffles. I didn’t like the waffles at all and I need to eat protein in the mornings so I winded up mostly eating hard-boiled eggs and bagels with peanut butter. I’ve stayed in a lot of business hotels and I guess I’m just used to having more hot foods like scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. That being said, the free breakfast was a definite plus. When we returned to the hotel after Denali, they had upgraded us to a mini-suite. The mini-suite was much larger and nicer. It also faced the alley in the back which meant no squawking sea birds or rowdy drunken men! I picked this hotel in particular because it was very close to both the train station, which we would be taking to go to Denali and Whittier, and the Egan Convention Center, where we would be dropped off on our return from Denali. At the same time, it was very convenient to the rest of the Downtown Anchorage with shops and restaurants all around it! I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Anchorage, just make sure to request a room facing the alley if you are a light sleeper! (Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of our hotel room until we came back from Denali. You can see the photos in my Day 4 post.)

Anchorage Visitor’s Center

Downtown Anchorage

Alaska’s Most Famous Resident, Sarah Palin

Neat, large metal keys for the room at Historic Anchorage Hotel

The constant daylight is trippy! It’s so weird looking out the window or walking around at 10 pm and it’s not dark at all. The daylight didn’t bother me when it came to sleep though. All of the hotels and the cruise ship had good curtains to block out the light. We brought clothespins just in case but didn’t use them.

+ See all Anchorage photos
+ Read more about my Island Princess Alaska Cruise

In my quest to try out different cruise lines, I’ve found that each cruise line has different things that are specific to their cruises. I’ll try to share these with you as I research and plan my trips. First up, Princess Cruises…

Ultimate Ship Tour
The tour is offered once or twice per cruise on a sea day and allows guests to explore the engine control room, medical center, print shop, laundry, photo lab, bridge, and other areas typically seen only by the ship’s crew. The final stop of the tour is the ship’s command center, where passengers will meet the Captain, enjoy special refreshments and take in the dramatic views from the bridge’s wraparound windows. Participants will also receive a variety of themed mementos at many other stops along the route.

• Cost: $150 per person
• Reviews:
  • http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1104418
  • http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1123178
  • http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1116008
• Space is very limited for this tour. Sign up at the Guest Services Desk as soon as you can to increase your chances of participating.

Chef’s Table
Executive Chef Christophe Belin offers a brilliant insight into the workings of the most dynamic, fine dining experience on the seven seas; French champagne and hors d’oeurves at a hot spot in the galley during “rush” hour, followed by a multi-course tasting menu with wine pairing at the V.I.P. Chef’s table in the dining room

• Cost: $75 per person
• Reviews:
  • http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=18231776&postcount=38
  • http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=956179
• Space is EXTREMELY limited for this tour. Board the ship as early as possible and call the DINE line for reservations to increase your chances of participating.

Ultimate Balcony Dining
Enjoy breakfast or dinner on your cabin’s balcony hosted by your own dedicated server

• Cost: $25 per couple for breakfast, $100 per couple for dinner
• Reviews: Breakfast, Dinner

Coral Princess & Island Princess
Balcony cabins: Some of the cabins on these ships have uncovered balconies or bump out balconies, offering less privacy than other balcony cabins. Tom O. has done the painstaking job of creating a guide to which balconies to watch out for. Check out his web site: Coral and Island Princess Balconies.

Secret Doors: There are “secret” public decks spanning Decks 8-11 (Emerald/Dolphin/Caribe/Baja) aft and Decks 9-11 (Baja/Caribe/Dolphin) forward that are great for viewing when sailing through the Panama Canal or Alaska.

Secret Aft Decks

Secret Forward Decks

To access these decks, go all the way forward or aft on one of the specified decks. There may be a sign that says “crew only”. Just go through the door and there should be another door that goes directly to the Viewing Deck. Be mindful of the wind as it can cause the door to slam.