ABD Alaska 2012

[Lupin]

My wife and have been planning for the last few years to do the ABD Alaska trip. We finally have the time and the means to do so and were about to book the trip until we noticed that they removed a lot activities from the itinerary from the previous years but did not reduce the price at all. Is this a routine thing for ABD? We were pretty disappointed because they axed the train ride from the itinerary and everyone we've talked to who has been up to Denali National park raves about the scenery on the train ride.

 

[sayhello]

My wife and have been planning for the last few years to do the ABD Alaska trip. We finally have the time and the means to do so and were about to book the trip until we noticed that they removed a lot activities from the itinerary from the previous years but did not reduce the price at all. Is this a routine thing for ABD? We were pretty disappointed because they axed the train ride from the itinerary and everyone we've talked to who has been up to Denali National park raves about the scenery on the train ride.

I haven't looked at the new itinerary yet, but did folks you talk to specifically talk about the train ride that was on the ABD itinerary? While it was a nice ride, it's a very limited ride (from Girdwood to the Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop in the Chugach National forest on a tiny, two-car dedicated train). It is not the train ride on the Alaskan Railroad that most people talk about, heading to Denali National Park. I certainly wouldn't not take the trip because that train trip was removed.

This would be the train we rode on:

I'll come back & comment further after I've had a chance to look at the new itinerary (I just got back from Knights & Lights). I took the Alaska ABD in 2009, and it was a fabulous trip. I'm hoping it still is.

As for ABD removing activities, they will tweak itineraries from time to time if people surveyed after returning from the trips consistently indicated they didn't care for the activities. But they usually replace them with new ones.

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[Bobo912]

I also went on the Alaska ABD in 2009. Looks like the Alaska Pipeline is gone, the train ride and the Spencer Glacier float. They also changed the visit to the Sourdough Mining Company/Wildberry Products in Anchorage, but that's not a big loss. They added some activities, but not as many as it may appear at first glance. The Byron Glacier hike wasn't on the itinerary last year, but it was offered as an optional activity, so it was something most of us did anyway, at not extra expense. There are a lot of companies that offer trips to Alaska. If I were in your place I would compare the new ABD itinerary with Tauck, Austin-Lehman, etc., and see which ones looks like the best activity/price combination.

 

[carpenta]

We were on the trip last year and rode the train. It was nice but I had a conversation with the engineer(because I come from a family that worked for the railroad in the lower 48 ) and he said that the train was difficult to keep running and was losing money. He said at the time that he did not think the Government would keep subsidizing the running. The train was not the long train like you see in the Alaske higlight reels but a single double decker Budd type car.It would be my guess that the switch was out of ABD's control. It would be my guess that Disney will find a good substitute. One thing that we did at our stay in Danali was to be dropped off to tour the National Park on those "school buses" on our own. Just ask the tour guide and they dropped us off at the terminal to pick up the Danali bus. It is a full day tour and we returned at 12:15 A.M. and just called the hotel and in a minute we were picked up by their van and returned to the hotel. The park tour was not on the ABD tour sheet so don't miss it..But it was definatley worth it. The hotel Aleaska is beautiful and hike the back trails for some scenic beauty. LOVED Alaska and glad we went with ABD.

 

[sayhello]

Well, the big advantage of the new itinerary is that you fly into & out of Anchorage, so your airfare to Alaska will be way less than an open-jawed ticket into Fairbanks/out of Anchorage. Although Fairbanks is a wonderful place, and it's a shame you won't spend any time there. But Anchorage is great, too, and more time there is not a bad thing. Plus you get a *little* bit more of a trip, as the new itinerary starts the evening of the first day, with the Welcome Dinner, whereas the old itinerary really didn't start until the morning of the second day, with a Welcome Breakfast. The first day was really just a travel day.

While the visit to the Alaska pipeline definitely was interesting, the bike ride on the Cook inlet followed by the bald eagle encounter sounds like a great alternative. The Alaska Native Heritage Center is also wonderful. I went there on my own after the ABD, and really loved it.

The jet boat day is a little different, but not substantially.

The day in Denali sounds mostly the same.

You're visiting Happy Trails Kennels instead of Trail Breaker Kennels. It's hard to know at this point if the experience will be the same or not.

You're still doing the Kenai Fjords cruise (a highlight of the trip for me) and the SeaLife center, so that's good.

You're still doing the Alaska Wildlife Center, and the hike to Byron Glacier is an official part of the itinerary now.

Looks like the float trip to the Sawyer Glacier is gone, but if the train really isn't running any more as carpenta suggests, then there is no other way to get to the area. That's a shame for the rafting company!

Overall, I still think it's a nice itinerary. The things that were highlights for me are still included in one form or another, and more time in Anchorage is nice. I agree with Bobo912; do look at other companies & see what they offer. But I still think the ABD itinerary is a good one.

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[Bobo912]

The glacier float package is still on the Alaska Railway website. You could book it yourself if you can fit it into the schedule. But you would probably have to skip some included activity or more likely stay an extra day. Same with the tundra tour at Denali. It's too long to fit in without skipping one of the ABD scheduled activities. Seems to me if you have to do that to get the experience you want you might as well use the Grand Denali and Alyeska as your base and schedule all your own excursions and skip the tour altogether. There are ATV, rafting, helicopter and plane rides to glaciers, etc. that you can book at the hotel or online in advance. And in many cases the excursion company will come and pick you up at the hotel. I enjoyed the activities on our ABD and I loved this trip, mainly because of the fantastic guides and the wonderful people we were traveling with. If you're more interested in the activities and sights vs. the tour experience, you could easily do this trip on your own and choose the excursions you prefer. I'm not usually one of the "you can do this trip on your own" people because I like the convenience of having someone else handle the details and I enojoy traveling with other people (which I thought I would not enjoy at all until I took my first ABD). But this really is a trip you could do easily on your own.

 

[Lupin]

Everyone, thanks for your input. It looks like we'll be booking our ABD Alaska soon!

 

[sayhello]

Everyone, thanks for your input. It looks like we'll be booking our ABD Alaska soon!

I think you'll love it! If you haven't already, check out my Trip Report (link is in my Signature). It's for the old itinerary, obviously, but a lot of it still aplies!

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