2022-05-20: From Seward to Anchorage

It was a sad morning. Our cruise was over and they were kicking us off the ship.

The announcements for disembarking the ship started at about 6:00am. Our scheduled disembarkation time was 8:20am. Around 6:30am we heard them call the groups just before ours which was about an hour or so early. That got us a little panicked so we rushed out of bed and through the shower so we were ready if they called our group. We finished our last minute packing and headed up to the Oceanview Cafe for some breakfast. Amanda was still feeling a little off this morning unfortunately. The fog from yesterday still hadn’t lifted either so it was looking gloomy outside. After breakfast we headed to our designated waiting area for disembarkation. We waited there until 8:20 when they called our group. All that panicking earlier for nothing!

We walked off the ship and into the terminal to collect our suitcases which were waiting for us. We had booked a six hour Kenai Fjords (pronounced keen-eye) tour for the afternoon before boarding a train to Anchorage. The tour company, called Kenai Fjords Tours, has a pretty slick operation. We booked the tour and the train tickets through their parent company, called Pursuit. They had a kiosk in the cruise terminal where they tagged our suitcases for the train and directed us to a shuttle for the tour. There was a little confusion as there was a large German tour group from the ship checking in at the kiosk at the same time and they thought we were part of that group initially. Once we got that sorted out, we loaded our suitcases onto a luggage bus where they took them directly to the train station for us while we boarded a passenger bus which took us to the tour office. It was only a couple minute drive. We probably could have walked just as easily, but we didn’t know that.

We checked in for the fjord tour at the front desk where we were given our boarding passes for the tour boat. It was about 9:00am at this point. We didn’t have to be back to board the boat until 10:45am. We found a coffee shop across the street and ordered a HUGE apple fritter and some tea. The fritter looked good, but didn’t taste as good as it looked unfortunately. After finishing our treat, we returned to the tour office and waited to be called for our tour. At 10:45 we heard the call and headed down the dock to the boat. We were on a boat called Callisto Voyager. At 11:15, the boat pulled away from the dock.

The tour took us back down Resurrection Bay and into Aialik Bay and Holgate Arm. Just outside of Seward the captain pointed out a landslide on the west side of the bay that had closed the road to a small community just down the road. They had been working for three weeks already to clear the landslide and there was still a lot of work to do. Moving along, it didn’t take us long to spot some wildlife. We came across a pod of orcas! They were very playful and were swimming around the boat. A couple of the guides said it was one of the best orca viewings they had seen. We actually saw a whole bunch of wildlife on the tour. In addition to the Orcas we saw sea lions, seals, puffins, sea otters, bald eagles, mountain goats (with a newborn baby!) and a humpback whale. We also got up close and person to the Holgate Glacier. The captain was very knowledgeable and told us many stories about the area. It was an amazing tour!

We arrived back at the dock at 5:30pm. We were a little concerned about the timing since our train was scheduled to leave at 6:00pm. But, the tour company had a shuttle bus waiting in the parking lot that took us straight to the train station about half a kilometer away. It took a matter of minutes and we were checking in at the train depot. We were in our seats on the train by 5:45pm. Like I said, slick operation.

The train was pretty amazing as well. It had seven cars and two engines. Five were passenger cars, one baggage car, and one dining car. The front two passenger cars were upgraded seats that we elected not to pay for. We were in car D which was the dome car. Our seats were on the lower level but the upper level was open seating for anyone who wanted a view out the dome. The request is that you only spend 20 to 30 minutes at most in the dome seats before returning to your assigned seat so everyone has a chance to check out the dome. Of course, there were two families travelling together with about six kids that planted themselves in the dome for the entire duration of the trip…

It was supposed to be a four hour journey by rail from Seward to Anchorage. We left on time at 6:00pm but had some delays along the way so didn’t arrive in Anchorage until about 10:30pm. The train is slower than driving, but more relaxing and we saw some amazing views. We also saw more wildlife on the train journey. We saw a black bear, a few moose, more bald eagles, and even a porcupine. The conductor and staff provided commentary on the areas we were passing through and pointed out the wildlife that was identified along the way. It was an enjoyable ride.

Once we arrived in Anchorage, we headed to the baggage collection area hoping our suitcases made it since we hadn’t seen them since the cruise terminal. We arrived in the baggage area and our suitcases were waiting for us. We grabbed them and headed to our hotel in Anchorage. It was only a couple of blocks away. We didn’t realize before arriving that those two blocks were up a pretty steep hill. We hoofed it up the hill, checked into the hotel, and fell asleep. It was a great day!