Skip to main content

Train from Denali to Anchorage -- Monday, Sept. 11, 2023

Our last day and we are up and out of the room by 7:00.  Again, the tour company gets major credit for handling luggage.  There are no elevators in any of these places, we were always on the 2nd floor, but all you had to do was put your luggage outside the door by the appointed hour and it magically re-appeared in your room when you arrived in the afternoon.

The train was fun.  Our group was all in a single car which was roomier and more comfortable than the bus.  It’s just like you see in the travel brochures, with a glass top so you have amazing views as you travel to Anchorage.

The other advantages were that there was a “cruise director” – Sterling was his name – who had a great sense of humor and was excellent in pointing out things of interest during the journey (including 2 bear and 4 moose over the course of the trip).  Meals – lunch and dinner – were done on the lower level and we were seated at a table with a delightful couple who were originally from New York (and now from Florida).  We’d noticed that our tour group was not especially social, but this couple – whom we’d sat behind on the bus – bonded with us and we had a good time.

The other thing noted about the train – the food was exceptional!  It was very much on par with what we’d had on the cruise ship, prepared exactly as requested and was hot and appetizingly presented.  Probably the only complaint here – and it couldn’t be helped – is that lunch and dinner were a bit close together.

We arrived at the train station and boarded the Motorcoach again, this last time to travel to the Marriott for the nicest hotel room we’d had on this part of the trip.  Clean, well-lit, solid Wifi – it felt like we were no longer “camping” and were back in civilization.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday, Sept 8, 2023 - Seward

So our cruise venture ended today, and 3 of our band head back to reality.  They have a train ride from the seaport to Anchorage, where they will catch their plane for a very long ride home. Celebrity has the exit process down.  Your luggage is snatched the night before and you have to be out of the room by 7(ish), you can get breakfast at the buffet and then wait in the lobby until your number is called.  For those of us going on to the land part of the trip, our luggage will magically appear wherever it is that we are going next. It's hard to get much smoother than that. We leave the ship today and begin the land portion of our trip.  Because the writing of these days is delayed, there may be some details that we miss.   We signed up for the land portion of the trip.  Most of this is done by “motorcoach”.  This is travel agent talk for “Greyhound Bus”, but the bus stops are cleaner and panhandlers aren’t usually coming up to bum a cigarette or c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Busy, Busy Busy

Since exiting the ship on Friday we have been super busy going from place to place on the land portion of this trip -- on a bus.  Today we are moving from Denali National Park area back to Anchorage -- on an 8 hour train ride. More posts to follow....sometime....we're drafting them today and tomorrow.  Will post when we have internet access again.   Thanks for following along.
Post a Comment
Read more

Monday, Sept. 4, 2023 (Labor Day)

Icy Strait Point Monday – Labor Day, for perspective – was scheduled for a whale watching tour.  We’ve done these before, and sometimes they are hit or miss.  It all depends on whether the whales decide to be cooperative.  This tour “guaranteed” that we would see whales, though, and have to say they did not disappoint.   It was also only 3 ½ hours, which was much more doable.  After that long, the whales had things to do and were tired of performing for us. This outing started with us gathering in the ship’s main theater, where we were assigned to groups / boats.  We actually liked this excursion better than the one the day before.  It really didn’t go far from the cruise ship – which was in the “cruise port” – which seems to consist of one berth and a metal gangway down to the smaller boat docs.  To say this location is primitive is a significant understatement!  There was hardly a point on the entire excursion where we could not see ou...
1 comment
Read more