Hi Jeannine.
The trip was wonderful! We were blessed with incredibly beautiful weather the entire trip. Blue skies. Temperatures generally 50 to 70 degrees. This was the first week of warm weather so everything was still blanketed with snow. It caused them to have to cancel all the water related tours at Denali, but made the views spectacular. We did the Mt McKinley (Denali Mountain) glacier landing and the flight and landing were very fun and the mountain views were stunning. Everyone had warned us we would be lucky if we could see the mountain. We saw it on the train ride on the way to Denali. On the Tundra tour. On a photography tour I took. Of course on the McKinley Glacier Landing tour. And on the bus out of Denali. In other words, it was viewable the entire time we were there. Remarkable!
Holland’s Denali Tundra tour was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend that for anyone. The driver/guide was very knowledgeable and articulate, as well as being a good spotter. The cameras hooked up to the TV screens gave you great views if you couldn’t see them from your side of the bus.
The cruise was great. We never experienced long lines for anything. Had a great views of everything. Food was very good. And thank you very much for the dinner at Pinnacle Grill! We had a very nice evening there – a nice way to end our cruise.
I took formal clothing for formal night, but Howard took only a nice pair of slacks, sports jacket, and mock turtleneck shirt. He was dressed similarly (or nicer) to 80 to 90 percent of the men. So I will never worry about the tux again. I neglected to make reservations for the first big formal night until late and got a 7:45pm reservation. Nothing else open. We went down and checked anyway at about 6:45 and were immediately seated. Maybe just lucky, but it worked out very well.
I overbooked the excursions, so we were on the go every day in port. Two excursions a day is really too much. I won’t do that again (unless it is two trips I just can’t pass up ). Like in Juneau, we did the wildlife and whale watching in the morning – which was incredible in my opinion. I thought you would see the whales way in a distance, but they were quite close to the boat. We saw Orcas and Humpbacks – including a mother and calf. Then in the afternoon we went on the 5 glacier flightseeing tour – absolutely incredible views. I would do both of those again no matter how tired I was.
While embarkation was absolutely painless, disembarkation was stressful. They were late into port, so we were stressing about whether we would make our flight. We were probably only 30 minutes late leaving, but it seemed much longer. Then you had to wait for the bus to fill up, so stress, stress, stress. But we actually were at the gate with about 30 minutes to spare – and the flight was delayed for an hour . So the worrying was all for naught.
Anyway, it was a great trip. Thank you for your advice and help.
Hi Jeannine.
The trip was wonderful! We were blessed with incredibly beautiful weather the entire trip. Blue skies. Temperatures generally 50 to 70 degrees. This was the first week of warm weather so everything was still blanketed with snow. It caused them to have to cancel all the water related tours at Denali, but made the views spectacular. We did the Mt McKinley (Denali Mountain) glacier landing and the flight and landing were very fun and the mountain views were stunning. Everyone had warned us we would be lucky if we could see the mountain. We saw it on the train ride on the way to Denali. On the Tundra tour. On a photography tour I took. Of course on the McKinley Glacier Landing tour. And on the bus out of Denali. In other words, it was viewable the entire time we were there. Remarkable!
Holland’s Denali Tundra tour was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend that for anyone. The driver/guide was very knowledgeable and articulate, as well as being a good spotter. The cameras hooked up to the TV screens gave you great views if you couldn’t see them from your side of the bus.
The cruise was great. We never experienced long lines for anything. Had a great views of everything. Food was very good. And thank you very much for the dinner at Pinnacle Grill! We had a very nice evening there – a nice way to end our cruise.
I took formal clothing for formal night, but Howard took only a nice pair of slacks, sports jacket, and mock turtleneck shirt. He was dressed similarly (or nicer) to 80 to 90 percent of the men. So I will never worry about the tux again. I neglected to make reservations for the first big formal night until late and got a 7:45pm reservation. Nothing else open. We went down and checked anyway at about 6:45 and were immediately seated. Maybe just lucky, but it worked out very well.
I overbooked the excursions, so we were on the go every day in port. Two excursions a day is really too much. I won’t do that again (unless it is two trips I just can’t pass up ). Like in Juneau, we did the wildlife and whale watching in the morning – which was incredible in my opinion. I thought you would see the whales way in a distance, but they were quite close to the boat. We saw Orcas and Humpbacks – including a mother and calf. Then in the afternoon we went on the 5 glacier flightseeing tour – absolutely incredible views. I would do both of those again no matter how tired I was.
While embarkation was absolutely painless, disembarkation was stressful. They were late into port, so we were stressing about whether we would make our flight. We were probably only 30 minutes late leaving, but it seemed much longer. Then you had to wait for the bus to fill up, so stress, stress, stress. But we actually were at the gate with about 30 minutes to spare – and the flight was delayed for an hour . So the worrying was all for naught.
Anyway, it was a great trip. Thank you for your advice and help.
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