Eighteen months ago, our good friends Chris & Kim asked us if we were interested in doing a cruise tour in Alaska. "Uhhhh....Maybe"...we said. It certainly wasn't on my bucket list. Visit a place where you needed coats, hats and mittens? Snow? We moved to Florida to get away from all that. "Well we're going for our anniversary and you should join us", they said. After much deliberation and back and forth, hubby, Bill, said...."We're going!" "I've always wanted to see Alaska" Huh...who knew??!!!!!
So, we're booked on a Connoisseur cruisetour with Princess. After reading many trip reports and reviews, we decided that choosing a tour where all our meals and most excursions were included in the price while we were on land made a lot of sense for us. And we liked that the cruise would follow after the land tour, this way we could relax a bit on the cruise from the excursion heavy land portion. We'll spend 7 days on land beginning with three nights at the Princess Fairbanks Wilderness Lodge, two nights at the Princess Denali Lodge and two nights at the Princess Mt. McKinley Lodge and then take that iconic bubble train to Anchorage and Whittier to board the ship on May 30.
So, here we are, 2 days from our departure date, and, surprisingly, I'm more excited than hubby about going. The bed in our guest room is covered with items to pack...including those warm hats, gloves and coats.
We've made all of our reservations for excursions, checked on a cab to get from the airport to the lodge in Fairbanks and figured out how we'll get from home to Orlando International Airport and back again when we return. (Got a great deal at the Hampton Inn near the airport for a one night stay and parking for the entire time we'll be gone. Thanks Lynda & John for letting us use your car to get all our stuff down to Orlando!) Now comes the hardest part...waiting to leave and the doubting and double-checking that you've packed the right things.
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