Alaska Trip Report 2016

[BluesTraveler]

Day 8 (Travel Day)

Disney did a good job of coordinating this day. Check out is at 11am from Alyeska, so we had time to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, and get organized for travel. We were going to do one more hike but it was raining pretty hard, so we let our kiddos sleep a little more instead. But, you would definitely have time to squeeze one more in if your weather is good.

The bus left at 11 (note: one family had a very early morning flight, so the bus took them at something like 5am, and then one family had a midnight flight, so Disney arranged a different pick up time for them as well). First drop off was at the airport at about 12ish for those folks with afternoon flights. Second drop was back at the Marriott for those of us with evening flights. Disney paid for Marriott to hold our luggage for the day (and then we paid our own taxi back to the airport).

We did the Marriott drop, stored our bags, and then spent a few more hours wandering around Anchorage. We had lunch at the Midnight Sun Cafe (SO GOOD), then a little shopping. We were going to do the Alaskan museum, which is supposed to be good, but this was unfortunately the day of the Delta meltdown. So we ended up heading to the airport a little earlier than originally planned, to get Delta to help us rebook flights. (Our Anchorage - Atlanta flight was delayed but not canceled, but caused us to miss our connection in Atlanta, and we wanted to get that addressed in person).

However, assuming you don't have a similar travel issue, I recommend planning this day a bit and getting in either a zoo visit if you missed it on the front end or a museum visit. If you just wander around killing time it might end up feeling like a wasted day, but if you have something planned out you will have enough time to make it feel like one more day of vacation.

 

[sayhello]

Flights out of Anchorage seem to be at the craziest times. It helps that ABD is willing to be flexible about the arrangements (working with the Marriott re: luggage, etc). I agree that there's a lot you can do in Anchorage on that last day. I highly recommend the trolley tour they do out of the Log Cabin Visitors' Center. A little pricey, but fun and a great way to see some areas of Anchorage you might not have gotten to otherwise.

Sayhello

 

[BluesTraveler]

Final thoughts (in no particular order):

-- We are SOLD on the group/family travel model. This was our first experience with it, and we were torn about trying it, since we are generally experienced and independent travelers. However, what a difference in traveling with kids. You don't realize how much energy is used up dealing with logistics, and being able to just sit back and enjoy was wonderful. Also, our kids loved being with the other kids. Our boys are pretty introverted, and yet they still got along great with the other kids and really liked the energy of having the group. (Disney - please consider more March trips, for us Southerners with early spring breaks!!)

-- We loved Alaska, and we loved this trip. Would highly recommend it. There was one day I didn't enjoy, as noted above, but I also don't go into this kind of trip expecting to enjoy every single second. It's okay to have a least favorite day! Overall, all of us agreed it was our favorite vacation we've taken as a family.

-- I would make 2 specific recommendations to Disney.

First, fewer 'on your own' meals. One of the great enjoyments of the trip was having all the logistics taken care of, but the meals on your own detracted from that. For a 7 night trip, 2 lunches and 3 dinners on your own is too much. At the most I would say do 1 lunch and 2 dinners, but preferably even just 1 lunch and 1 dinner. Folks can always opt out. And of course, not all meals have to be as a group. Our dinner at Grand Denali Lodge was go-on-your-own-time, but included in the cost of the trip (and one of our favorite meals). This aspect of # of meals is something I will know to consider carefully when choosing future trips.

Second, take more advantage of having 2 tour guides. Adults and kids were separated only twice during the trip - at the Alaskan Native Heritage Center for an hour, and the Junior Adventure dinner night. With 2 guides, Disney could offer more separate activities, or could offer alternative activities for both adults and juniors. For example, in Seward it would have been great if we had the option of choosing either the boat ride or the Sea Life center - one guide could take a group to one, and the other guide could take a group to the other. OR, during some of the on your own time, one guide could provide an optional, 'free' activity (guided hike, etc.) while the other guide caught up on the behind the scenes logistics. Although we LOVED both of our guides, I'm not sure the format of the trip really needed 2 guides, or fully took advantage of the fact that we had 2. (Note: one of our guides, Emily, also does Nashville. If that trip is on your list, having her as a guide should be another reason to do it!)

-- The food in general on this trip is great, provided you like seafood (salmon, halibut, crab). We had a number of excellent meals. Even casual lunches were yummy. Alcohol (2 drinks per adult) was included with every dinner.

-- Our group size was 33, 15 of whom were between the ages of 7 - 14. This was a perfect group size. I can't imagine doing a trip with many more - even 40 would be WAY too many. This is also something I'll keep in mind when booking future travel.

-- I continue to find the pressure to book early, and the price increases as time goes by, a dissatisfier. We booked a year in advance and got the 'best' rate, but as it turned out, it was not the perfect week to be gone due to other things going on at home. And yet, if you book later, it would be really annoying to be on the trip, realize you are having the exact same experience as the family next to you, and yet you paid more for it. I don't really have a problem with an 'early booking discount' where you might get a better rate if you book within a certain # of weeks of trips being released, but there's something that rankles about someone booking in August paying a different rate than someone booking in October. Hard to articulate, but I'm putting it out there.

I think that's it but if I think of more I'll come back and post. I'm not sure when/if I'll have the energy to get pictures up. Can y'all trust me it's just the most gorgeous place you'll ever see? (And I can't even imagine how much more beautiful if the sun shines!!)

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

-- I would make 2 specific recommendations to Disney.

First, fewer 'on your own' meals. One of the great enjoyments of the trip was having all the logistics taken care of, but the meals on your own detracted from that. For a 7 night trip, 2 lunches and 3 dinners on your own is too much. At the most I would say do 1 lunch and 2 dinners, but preferably even just 1 lunch and 1 dinner. Folks can always opt out. And of course, not all meals have to be as a group. Our dinner at Grand Denali Lodge was go-on-your-own-time, but included in the cost of the trip (and one of our favorite meals). This aspect of # of meals is something I will know to consider carefully when choosing future trips.

Second, take more advantage of having 2 tour guides. Adults and kids were separated only twice during the trip - at the Alaskan Native Heritage Center for an hour, and the Junior Adventure dinner night. With 2 guides, Disney could offer more separate activities, or could offer alternative activities for both adults and juniors. For example, in Seward it would have been great if we had the option of choosing either the boat ride or the Sea Life center - one guide could take a group to one, and the other guide could take a group to the other. OR, during some of the on your own time, one guide could provide an optional, 'free' activity (guided hike, etc.) while the other guide caught up on the behind the scenes logistics. Although we LOVED both of our guides, I'm not sure the format of the trip really needed 2 guides, or fully took advantage of the fact that we had 2. (Note: one of our guides, Emily, also does Nashville. If that trip is on your list, having her as a guide should be another reason to do it!)

-- The food in general on this trip is great, provided you like seafood (salmon, halibut, crab). We had a number of excellent meals. Even casual lunches were yummy. Alcohol (2 drinks per adult) was included with every dinner.

-- Our group size was 33, 15 of whom were between the ages of 7 - 14. This was a perfect group size. I can't imagine doing a trip with many more - even 40 would be WAY too many. This is also something I'll keep in mind when booking future travel.

-- I continue to find the pressure to book early, and the price increases as time goes by, a dissatisfier. We booked a year in advance and got the 'best' rate, but as it turned out, it was not the perfect week to be gone due to other things going on at home. And yet, if you book later, it would be really annoying to be on the trip, realize you are having the exact same experience as the family next to you, and yet you paid more for it. I don't really have a problem with an 'early booking discount' where you might get a better rate if you book within a certain # of weeks of trips being released, but there's something that rankles about someone booking in August paying a different rate than someone booking in October. Hard to articulate, but I'm putting it out there.

I think that's it but if I think of more I'll come back and post. I'm not sure when/if I'll have the energy to get pictures up. Can y'all trust me it's just the most gorgeous place you'll ever see? (And I can't even imagine how much more beautiful if the sun shines!!)

Well said! I totally agree with everything! Your thoughts pretty much echo mine, and I love the additional point you made about booking. The dynamic pricing is really annoying. Other companies (like Nat Geo) for example don't do this, and it's something I really appreciate. I would not book an ABD trip that I know was significantly more expensive than it started out just on principle. We are DVC so I've been able to take advantage of opening day prices on the one last minute booking we made. I wouldn't have gone otherwise. It's like they try to create a feeding frenzy at opening day booking, but I suspect it comes back to bite them more than they realize.

 

[TXTransplant]

Well said! I totally agree with everything! Your thoughts pretty much echo mine, and I love the additional point you made about booking. The dynamic pricing is really annoying. Other companies (like Nat Geo) for example don't do this, and it's something I really appreciate. I would not book an ABD trip that I know was significantly more expensive than it started out just on principle. We are DVC so I've been able to take advantage of opening day prices on the one last minute booking we made. I wouldn't have gone otherwise. It's like they try to create a feeding frenzy at opening day booking, but I suspect it comes back to bite them more than they realize.

Thanks for posting this trip report! Alaska was on my list as being the most likely ABD we would do next. Unfortunately, I still am not able to commit to anything for next summer, and the dates for Alaska are very limited (as is our travel schedule), so I think ABD won't be an option for us for 2017. And I will echo the comments above about price. At this point in the game, all of the prices have increased over opening day. I just can't stomach the thought of essentially paying a $1000 penalty for not booking in June (which would have been more than a year out, since the 2017 trip wouldn't be until August). Tauck also holds their prices steady (and has many more dates to choose from).

As far as meals go, this has been a repeat comment on multiple trip reports this year (including mine). Not only are there more "on your own" meals, but ABD also isn't doing a great job of staggering the meals. We had one or two days on our trip where both lunch and dinner were on your own, and other days where ABD provided breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and snacks!). I don't like having so many on your own meals, but I also don't like having three huge meals (plus snacks!) in one day (mainly because I have zero will power and feel compelled to eat everything regardless of how miserable I will be later...maybe this is a personal problem? LOL!).

 

[carpenta]

I agree with the pricing policy. And then throw into the mix of more and more "meals on your own" PLUS the guide tipping issue I know in my own economic household we must allocate our vacation money carefully. Then add coordination of vacation availability more than a year out it is difficult to meet the high burden ABD puts on booking a family vacation. Pay one price is much easier for us.

 

[BluesTraveler]

Just a quick note to say I finally figured out how to add some pictures.