Subj : Alaska
To   : Mike Powell
From : Ruth Haffly
Date : Sat Jun 03 2023 14:04:19

Hi Mike,

 MP> > We finally got to experience rail car dining on the way up to Denali
 MP> > from Whittier. The menu was very limited; I got a turkey (with other
 MP> > stuff--lettuce, tomato, cheese) sandwich but gave half of it to
 MP> Steve. > Forget what he got but he finished it all. The ride was
 MP> really nice once > we broke out of the coastal fog down in
 MP> Whittier--had a really good view > of Denali for a good bit of the
 MP> ride.

 MP> That does sound very nice.  I will need to try that trip out someday.

It's the end to the trip we started in 2017, just an inland passage
cruise with Steve's siblings and spouses. Since we didn't see anything
of the inland except the Yukon RR and Whitehorse Pass in Skagway, when
we got back, Steve started thinking about driving up, towing our camper.
A knee replacement for me, the Covid crisis, etc kept putting things
off, then we did a NE/Canada cruise with Steve's family last fall. While
on board, they offered a discount on a future booking so Steve booked
this one. We started in Vancouver, BC this time, went up to Whittier, AK
and hopped on a train to Denali. After a couple of days there, we went
to Fairbanks and then home.

Some of the meals on this ship weren't as good as the ones we had on the
fall cruise (same line) and 2017 trip (different line). I actually sent
one back for an exchange--one bite of it and it just didn't taste good
to me. OTOH, Steve got the same thing and enjoyed it so it could be that
the building bronchitis I was fighting skewed my taste buds. The final
full day of the trip the executive chef and Director of Restaurant
Operations gave an hour long presentation (demo) to a (packed!) theater,
followed by a walk thru galley tour. That was fun; we'd been to a
similar one on the other ship, a galley tour on the 2017 trip. In
Denali, we ate at an upscale burger place (I had a crab cake--have had
better and worse), then Steve got a pizza (pretty good) for the last
night and leaving morning breakfast. Ate at the pub and restaurant at
the hotel in Fairbanks--they make a really good strawberry salad.


All in all, I'd reccommend this trip. We took a side trip whale watching
(saw a good number from a safe distance), saw lots of bald eagles &
glaciers, met interesting people as we did a table share (never twice
with the same group) plan for the evening meal.

Since we did this trip, we'll go back to concentrating on national
parks, etc with our camper. Still a number of them between our daughters
in AZ and UT we haven't explored, plus need to do a more extended trip
to the Grand Canyon.

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


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