Bach from Alaska 7/20-28/10 Day two

[Icemann]

The all important meet and greet and breakfast.When we got their about half of the travlers were their eating and making friends,it's raining again.We had twenty nine adventurer's and two guides.It was matched up pretty even age wise.Kids were pretty close in age(girls) made friends right away.The guys not so much two brothers hug out the other two were like hey whats up.After breakfast we had a photo op with Nugget the moose he's housebroken so they let him in Shopie Station.On the bus to the pipe line viewing area and pictures it stopped raining.Didn't stay to long at the pipeline because we were off to Trail Breaker Kennel for are Iditarod experience and lunch.Learned alot about the Iditarod and all that goes into the race and preparing for it.It sure is not for the money those musher's love their dogs and the race and those dogs love their musher and racing.Those dogs are well taken care of before during and after the race.Catered lunch was good,two types of lasagna,salad, drinks and cookies.all in all a good experience.Back on the bus to Denali we go.When we get to Denali we went to the Education center for a talk about the park and some appetizers.After the talk we went down to the river for photos and to skip some stones.No welcome dinner at the Welcome Center but they got S'mores .Back on the bus to a piazza place down in town,the appetizers were better then the piazza's they served.Appetizers were Elk meatballs in sauce King Crab Sliders and Huge Onions rings.The first two piazza's were alittle burnt and greasy but the napkins soaked up most of the grease.The second two piazza's weren't burnt but they were just as greasy as the first two.They have homemade Root Beer that is the best I ever tasted.We were sitting in a row two deep on these long picnic tables and benches in the main dining room and it was loud and know way to really talk to anybody except the person next to you,no Alaskan Storyteller either?Back to the Lodge.It's raining again.The lodge ain't all that Grande in my opinion,the deluxe resort's and moderate resorts at WDW are better.Again this is just my opinion but I did hear a few guest say the same thing.I'm a Disney purest what can I say I judge all my travel experience's by Disney standards .Need to book the extra stuff we want to do in are free time, na later I'm beat.I think I'll just go to bed.More later

 

[sayhello]

That's interesting that you didn't have dinner at the Educational center. We had a really nice dinner there. I wonder what the deal is with the Alaskan storyteller? We didn't have one, either. But I did like the talk the naturalist gave.

The rooms at the Grande Denali aren't anything to write home about, but I totally thought the setting & the views made up for that! You don't get views like *that* at Disney! Even at the Grand Floridian!

Looking forward to more!

Sayhello

 

[Bobo912]

That's four of us now who have taken this trip and haven't seen the storyteller. I think ABD shoudl remove that from the initnerary. I hope the dinner arrangements are just temporary, becasue I agree with Sayhello that the dinner at the Education Center was very nice. The salmon was the best we had and I got to try out a few of the different local beers. I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend a little more time the the Education Center staff too - they are so passionate about what they do, it's a pleasure to talk to them. A lot of the Alaskans we met on our trip were the same. The hotel at Denali was defintely not deluxe but it nice enough and the view was outstanding. Icemann, I hope your dining experience improved along the way. I think Sophie Station and the Education Center were some of our best meal, so I hope it didn't go down hill from there for you. I remember on the raft time near the end of the trip thinking that the tuna sandwich and tomato soup we had in the tent by the river was better than a lot of the nicer meals we had, which probably isn't a high recommendation for the nicer meals. They were all okay, just not anything special.

 

[carpenta]

Perfect recall from the Iceman. Grand rooms were the standard Motel 8 type IMHO but like sayhello says "you don't get that view" in DisneyWorld. The appetizers were the meal in the pizza place and forget the pizza. I felt the lecture in the Education Center was given in a little "talking down" manner and not as interesting as it could have been. I'm sorry we missed the dinner in the Education Center for the posted reviews made it sound that the food was delicious, something that I found lacking in most of my dinners on the trip. I ws disappointed that I have had better salmon in Vermont than any salmon we had in Alaska. But, Iceman , at least the weather was consistant...rain...

 

[Icemann]

That's interesting that you didn't have dinner at the Educational center. We had a really nice dinner there. I wonder what the deal is with the Alaskan storyteller? We didn't have one, either. But I did like the talk the naturalist gave.

The rooms at the Grande Denali aren't anything to write home about, but I totally thought the setting & the views made up for that! You don't get views like *that* at Disney! Even at the Grand Floridian!

Looking forward to more!

Sayhello

I couldn't see the mountains from are room the other building was in the way just my luck.I think the lodge was pretty close to being full with other tours

 

[Bobo912]

I couldn't see the mountains from are room the other building was in the way just my luck.I think the lodge was pretty close to being full with other tours

That's too bad. Everyone in our tour had rooms overlooking the valley. In fact it was so close to the edge it looked like we were about to fall into the valley.

 

[FanofTink]

I was on the June 16th trip and we did not experience the Alaskan storyteller, but did have the naturalist. We also had the dinner at the Education Center. We found the food to be rather hit or miss on most of the trip. Wasn't there supposed to be an Alaska Salmon Bake somewhere??

Our guides were Mike and Carlene, who were excellent!!

 

[sayhello]

I was on the June 16th trip and we did not experience the Alaskan storyteller, but did have the naturalist. We also had the dinner at the Education Center. We found the food to be rather hit or miss on most of the trip. Wasn't there supposed to be an Alaska Salmon Bake somewhere??

Our guides were Mike and Carlene, who were excellent!!

There was, according to the itinerary, supposed to be a Salmon Bake, but it ended up being the lunch on the patio at the Alyeska. There *was* salmon, but it was hardly an Alaskan Salmon bake.

Sayhello