8/16/22 North to Alaska

We actually got started on this trip on 8/15 when we got a required PCR test after the tour we led in Chinatown and then went to visit Erika and Jesse and help with the boys until after dinner when we checked into an airport hotel and got a room with a view of San Francisco Bay.

We got up at 3am to catch our 6:30am flight to Anchorage, Alaska by way of Seattle. We were originally unhappy about having a nearly 3.5 hour layover in Seattle. However, our plane had technical problems and we were DE-boarded after about an hour and several people were moved to other flights due to tighter connections. We were told as long as we departed by 10sm, we would make our connection and we actually ended up with about an hour in Seattle, enough to grab a hot sandwich for lunch.

The arrival to Anchorage was uneventful (this is good) and on time. Our room at the Anchorage Hilton even has a view of the inlet to the Gulf of Alaska. 

The view from our room

Dinner on the ship requires ‘Country Club’ or ‘Elegant’ Casual which means no polo shirts, tees, jeans, or hiking clothing and there was no guarantee on when precisely our luggage would arrive in our room, so we totally rearranged using a collapsible bag we brought along to move one night’s dinner clothing to this bag so we could carry it on the bus tomorrow to get to Seward where the ship is.

We were greeted by a group that checked all of our required documentation (vaccine card, passport, negative PCR test, and Canadian arrival documentation – this one needed work and the staff there quickly resolved our questions) and got a ticket which allowed us to get a bus assignment the next day. Seward is 140 miles south of Anchorage and the bus takes almost 3 hours. A later bus means more time to explore Anchorage and less time to settle into the ship and explore it, so we planned to get to breakfast when it started to get an early ticket.

For dinner, we selected a nearby Thai restaurant vs the many seafood options, since we anticipate a wealth of seafood on the trip. It was not busy and we were a bit concerned, but the issue was that it was only 5:45pm AND Monday. The food was quite tasty.