A trip to Alaska had not been my plan for 2015. I had planned a 9 week trip to Europe when I developed some medical issues and my doctor advised against such a lengthy vacation. Alaska was on my "bucket list" so it became my second choice vacation for 2015. I started my planning around December 2014.
The only thing I knew going into this planning was that I believed a land/cruise combo was the only way to visit Alaska so I went to my local AAA travel agency and got information on Holland America and Princess cruise trips to Alaska. My husband and I finally decided on Holland America's 13 day Triple Denali Journey. A one week cruise from Seward to Vancouver, BC/Canada (southbound with Glacier Bay) and a land portion which began with 1 night in Fairbanks, 3 nights in Denali, and 1 night in Anchorage before heading to Seward for the cruise. I booked a verandah suite on the port side of the ship. Looking through the brochure for Holland America I added on the Arctic Circle Overnight Expedition and the Anchorage and Kenai Fjords Sampler. I also added 1 extra night to Fairbanks and 1 night in Vancouver instead of flying home right after arriving in Vancouver from the cruise.
The only thing I knew going into this planning was that I believed a land/cruise combo was the only way to visit Alaska so I went to my local AAA travel agency and got information on Holland America and Princess cruise trips to Alaska. My husband and I finally decided on Holland America's 13 day Triple Denali Journey. A one week cruise from Seward to Vancouver, BC/Canada (southbound with Glacier Bay) and a land portion which began with 1 night in Fairbanks, 3 nights in Denali, and 1 night in Anchorage before heading to Seward for the cruise. I booked a verandah suite on the port side of the ship. Looking through the brochure for Holland America I added on the Arctic Circle Overnight Expedition and the Anchorage and Kenai Fjords Sampler. I also added 1 extra night to Fairbanks and 1 night in Vancouver instead of flying home right after arriving in Vancouver from the cruise.
Our HAL trip would begin 8/10/15 and end on 8/24/15. Done I thought.
Then I went to the travel forum for Alaska on Trip Advisor and Fodor's as these forums had been so helpful in our 2014 trip to Southeast Asia.
All too soon I decided I needed more time in Alaska and since my husband and I normally take DIY trips I decided to do just that. I would add a DIY trip before our Holland America trip. Our DIY trip was from 7/27/15-8/10/15. Our HAL trip began on 8/10/15.
I booked a flight from Buffalo-Detroit-Seattle-Anchorage for 7/27/15. We would pick up a rental car in Anchorage on 7/28. I decided to add nights in Homer, Seward, Whittier, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. I booked a flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks for 8/9/15 and a rental car for Fairbanks. Our return home flight was booked for 8/24/15. Vancouver-Newark-Buffalo. My doctor was not happy but gave me the ok for the trip as long as I would take things slow and easy.
About us:
My husband and I would be ages 70 and 73 on this trip. I am a former teacher/social worker and my husband was a union painter working on bridges, schools, churches. We are both retired so are finally able to take vacations of more than a week. I am an avid photographer. I especially love places with lots of history, beautiful scenery, wildlife, good food. My husband is the adventurous one. He enjoys scuba diving, golf-outdoor sports. My back and shoulder issues hindered me from some activities I would normally do with my husband. Prior long trips since retirement have been China, Kenya/Tanzania, London, Costa Rica, Egypt, Greece, Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma, and Thailand.
Activities planned:
I planned and booked a bear viewing trip; a fishing trip for my husband;
day boat trips to Katchemak Bay/Seldovia, Kenai Fjords, and Prince William Sound; a dog sledding trip out of Seward; a McKinley/Denali flight seeing trip with landing; a white water rafting trip and an ATV trip for my husband in Denali; a shuttle bus to Wonder Lake/Denali for me. For the ports I booked the fast ferry from Haines to Skagway and back, the WPYR train/coach from Skagway, a whale watching trip from Juneau, and a Misty Fjords flight seeing trip from Ketchikan.
I was really starting to get excited about this trip!!
Packing:
This was very hard for me as we had to pack for the cruise (2 formal evenings) and our DIY trip. I ended up taking too many clothes that I had packed specifically for the cruise that I really didn't need. I did pack for the formal evenings on board and I'm glad I did that as I really enjoyed them. What I got the most use out of was the medium weight thermal top and bottoms I bought, my Columbia 2 in 1 jacket, gloves, neck warmer. It gets cold on the boat trips and was cold on our Arctic trip. Our fleece jackets also came in handy. For shoes I wore my Keens waterproof hiking boots that I've had for years and packed comfortable sneakers, flip flops for the pool, and a pair of black dressy flats.
I also had a separate carry on suitcase designed to hold camera/video gear. I brought my Canon EOS Rebel and its 100-400 telephoto lens, a Panasonic Point & Shoot, a Canon Point & Shoot, and a SONY video camera. That weighed 16 lbs. easy! We had less clothes/suitcases for our 3+ month long trip to SE Asia!
Hotels:
For our DIY I booked Historic Anchorage Hotel, Pioneer Inn (Homer), Breeze Inn (Seward), Inn at Whittier, Springhill Suites at University Lake-Anchorage. I was very pleased with all the hotels I had pre booked and would most likely stay at them all again.
Car Rental:
The best deal I got was from Hertz. Anchorage to Anchorage 11 days 7/28/15-8/7/15 $639.07
Fairbanks 1 day $50.41
Miscl:
I ordered some books-The Milepost for the DIY and The Alaska Cruise Handbook. I contacted the visitor websites for Alaska and all the cities we would visit and received brochure/pamphlets in the mail full of really helpful information. I had a ton of reading to do!!
I also had a small notebook around 7" x 5" where I wrote down information on our flights, hotels, car rental. Also made notations of restaurants, excursion/activity websites. Loaded all this information also into dropbox on my computer and I Pad. I kept a day by day journal.
I made a 2 page calendar spreadsheet for the months of July and August where I could make note of every detail of this trip. This really helps me even if some think this is too OCD. Did I follow this schedule verbatim? Of course not. Things don't always work out the way you plan and I was perfectly fine with that. Some things I wanted to do we didn't have enough time for them but on the whole I thought this trip was what I wanted it to be. Lots of fun, doing and seeing some amazing things, falling in love with Alaska!
Then I went to the travel forum for Alaska on Trip Advisor and Fodor's as these forums had been so helpful in our 2014 trip to Southeast Asia.
All too soon I decided I needed more time in Alaska and since my husband and I normally take DIY trips I decided to do just that. I would add a DIY trip before our Holland America trip. Our DIY trip was from 7/27/15-8/10/15. Our HAL trip began on 8/10/15.
I booked a flight from Buffalo-Detroit-Seattle-Anchorage for 7/27/15. We would pick up a rental car in Anchorage on 7/28. I decided to add nights in Homer, Seward, Whittier, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. I booked a flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks for 8/9/15 and a rental car for Fairbanks. Our return home flight was booked for 8/24/15. Vancouver-Newark-Buffalo. My doctor was not happy but gave me the ok for the trip as long as I would take things slow and easy.
About us:
My husband and I would be ages 70 and 73 on this trip. I am a former teacher/social worker and my husband was a union painter working on bridges, schools, churches. We are both retired so are finally able to take vacations of more than a week. I am an avid photographer. I especially love places with lots of history, beautiful scenery, wildlife, good food. My husband is the adventurous one. He enjoys scuba diving, golf-outdoor sports. My back and shoulder issues hindered me from some activities I would normally do with my husband. Prior long trips since retirement have been China, Kenya/Tanzania, London, Costa Rica, Egypt, Greece, Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma, and Thailand.
Activities planned:
I planned and booked a bear viewing trip; a fishing trip for my husband;
day boat trips to Katchemak Bay/Seldovia, Kenai Fjords, and Prince William Sound; a dog sledding trip out of Seward; a McKinley/Denali flight seeing trip with landing; a white water rafting trip and an ATV trip for my husband in Denali; a shuttle bus to Wonder Lake/Denali for me. For the ports I booked the fast ferry from Haines to Skagway and back, the WPYR train/coach from Skagway, a whale watching trip from Juneau, and a Misty Fjords flight seeing trip from Ketchikan.
I was really starting to get excited about this trip!!
Packing:
This was very hard for me as we had to pack for the cruise (2 formal evenings) and our DIY trip. I ended up taking too many clothes that I had packed specifically for the cruise that I really didn't need. I did pack for the formal evenings on board and I'm glad I did that as I really enjoyed them. What I got the most use out of was the medium weight thermal top and bottoms I bought, my Columbia 2 in 1 jacket, gloves, neck warmer. It gets cold on the boat trips and was cold on our Arctic trip. Our fleece jackets also came in handy. For shoes I wore my Keens waterproof hiking boots that I've had for years and packed comfortable sneakers, flip flops for the pool, and a pair of black dressy flats.
I also had a separate carry on suitcase designed to hold camera/video gear. I brought my Canon EOS Rebel and its 100-400 telephoto lens, a Panasonic Point & Shoot, a Canon Point & Shoot, and a SONY video camera. That weighed 16 lbs. easy! We had less clothes/suitcases for our 3+ month long trip to SE Asia!
Hotels:
For our DIY I booked Historic Anchorage Hotel, Pioneer Inn (Homer), Breeze Inn (Seward), Inn at Whittier, Springhill Suites at University Lake-Anchorage. I was very pleased with all the hotels I had pre booked and would most likely stay at them all again.
Car Rental:
The best deal I got was from Hertz. Anchorage to Anchorage 11 days 7/28/15-8/7/15 $639.07
Fairbanks 1 day $50.41
Miscl:
I ordered some books-The Milepost for the DIY and The Alaska Cruise Handbook. I contacted the visitor websites for Alaska and all the cities we would visit and received brochure/pamphlets in the mail full of really helpful information. I had a ton of reading to do!!
I also had a small notebook around 7" x 5" where I wrote down information on our flights, hotels, car rental. Also made notations of restaurants, excursion/activity websites. Loaded all this information also into dropbox on my computer and I Pad. I kept a day by day journal.
I made a 2 page calendar spreadsheet for the months of July and August where I could make note of every detail of this trip. This really helps me even if some think this is too OCD. Did I follow this schedule verbatim? Of course not. Things don't always work out the way you plan and I was perfectly fine with that. Some things I wanted to do we didn't have enough time for them but on the whole I thought this trip was what I wanted it to be. Lots of fun, doing and seeing some amazing things, falling in love with Alaska!
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