My Alaska/Vancouver thoughts....

[2littlestitches]

Hi everyone!

I'm not sure I have time to write as complete a trip report as many of you do, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the awesome adventures we had in Alaska and Canada last week (July 26th cruise and 3 nights pre-cruise in Vancouver).

First, Vancouver is an awesome city! I was really glad we spent a few days there prior to the cruise. We stayed at the Fairmont Pacific Rim, which was beautiful! As an extra luxury we ended up staying on the concierge floor, which was really really nice!

We did two bus tours through Land Sea Tours, which were recommended by the concierge. I was super-impressed with Land Sea Tours -- they were friendly, and just great overall (and I've been on MANY MANY bus tours in my travels). The first night, we did a 2 hour City Highlights tour, which was mainly an intro to Vancouver, with a stop at the Totem Poles in Stanley Park. It was a perfect first night activity for us, to kind of introduce us to the city.
The next day, we did the Grouse Mountain/Capillano Suspension Bridge tour with Land Sea, which was totally spectacular!!! We lucked out on having awesome weather and clear skies. It was so much fun and so beautiful. Do not miss this tour (or do it on your own if you don't do the tour). This was one of the trip highlights, for sure! My kids loved doing the Tree Tops walk and Cliff walks near the bridge, and they thought the lumberjack show on Grouse Mountain was hilarious!

The third day, we chartered a fishing boat through "Bites On", another concierge recommendation. We had booked this about a month ahead of time, because it was my son's birthday and he loves to fish. We were hoping to be there right in the heart of salmon season, but unfortunately the salmon were late this year. Not as many fish as we were hoping for, but still my kids caught about 10 fish and they loved it. Bites On was also a great recommendation, so if you are into fishing, they were really great with the kids. In the afternoon, we went to the Vancouver Aquarium, which my kids totally loved. It was a great place (although I think Shedds in Chicago is still our favorite aquarium).

Restaurants in Vancouver....I commented on another thread about this, but we ate at Italian Kitchen, Coast, and The Keg for our dinners. All were awesome, but Italian Kitchen was my personal favorite!!! YUM! The seafood lovers in our family are still raving about Coast!

 

[2littlestitches]

Oh...Alaska! What a beautiful place to be!

I have to confess, I was a little concerned...well I was afraid, that this cruise wouldn't be as exciting for some reason. We went on the Med cruise, and the Baltic cruise with Disney, and after those, what could really impress me??? That's what I thought. I was really wrong! It was gorgeous! I'm so glad we went! So glad I got to see this beautiful part of the world, and hope I'll get to see it again some day.

It was cold onboard, so I'd recommend some fleece jackets, hats and gloves, particularly for being on deck for Tracy Arm day.

Skagway: We had booked a dogsledding excursion on the glacier, but sadly, it was cancelled that morning due to cloudy conditions. This was probably the biggest disappointment of our cruise, particularly because I had been hyping this activity to my family for quite awhile. Instead, they offered us a helicopter ride/glacier trek to a little bit lower elevation. I'm so glad we did this! The glacier trek was awesome, and our favorite activity of the trip! The pictures I have of my kids walking on the glacier are so amazing (Christmas card worthy photos, LOL)! Our helicopter pilot was wonderful, and the whole experience was just great. Great enough to take some of the sting out of not doing the dogsledding. That afternoon, we had booked the White Pass train ride and Trail Camp. So scenic! Do the train if you possibly can! I thought 2 hours on a train might get boring, but it wasn't at all! Our eyes were glued to the windows, taking in all the scenery. The Liarsville trail camp and gold panning was a little cheesy, just like others had said. Still, my kids enjoyed panning for gold, and I don't regret going there at all. I went in knowing it might be corny, so I was fine with it. Actually, all the people at Liarsville were super-friendly, so it was hard not to like them and to enjoy the experience there.

Juneau: Here, we chose to do the floatplane to the "Enchanted Taku Lodge". It was so gorgeous there! Directly across from a glacier and such a nice place. We had a salmon luncheon and did a walk through the woods. We didn't see any bears, though. I had heard that most trips there include a bear sighting, but not this time. It was a really nice excursion. We also did some shopping in Juneau during our spare time before the excursion.

Ketchikan: What a fun tour here...we did the Bering Sea Crab boat or "Deadliest Catch" tour. Awesome! My kids got to hold crabs and get up close and personal with lots of different fish and sea creatures. I give this excursion 2 thumbs up! Loved it. Afterwards, we walked over to Creek St. on our own and saw the salmon in the creek. We also had a meal at "Anabelle's" in Ketchikan, which was really great. My husband and son particularly loved the fish and chips here. When we walked in, we saw some Disney cruise employees eating here during their time off, so we knew that was a good sign!

If anyone has any questions about our trip or the things we did, I'd be more than happy to answer. Thanks for reading!!!!! Alaska and Canada were great!

 

[WDWLVR]

We did a trip to Victoria with Landsea and were very very happy with them. Our concierge recommended them as well (we were at the Pan Pacific). I wouldn't hesitate to use them again or recommend them to anyone going to Vancouver.

 

[KathyM2]

Thanks for sharing! We are going next week and looking forward to the train. I too have hyped up the dogsled/heli excursion and am hoping for nice weather in Juneau...crossing fingers! Also, good tip about the hats!

 

[newfamilyman]

Did you do Disney's excursions or book them independently? Thanks for your tips.

 

[seamour]

If anyone has any questions about our trip or the things we did, I'd be more than happy to answer. Thanks for reading!!!!! Alaska and Canada were great!

Who were the entertainers on your cruise?

thanks for sharing your thoughts!