And I thought rainforests were reserved for the tropics. The Tongass National Forest in Ketchikan i

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During the course of our Alaska cruise , two words kept popping into mind to describe the incredible landscape we were witnessing: majestic and mystical. The majestic part came from the sheer vastness and height of the mountains surrounding us, crawling in lush evergreen trees. paris hotel It came in the abundance of animals in the wild—orca whales, humpback whales, brown bears, sea otters—and the all-encompassing blue water shaping unlikely islands out of the wild shore. It came in glaciers, slowly carving through valleys, meeting paris hotel the tide in shades of ice blue and purple, mixed with the earth’s sediment.
The mystical part came in even quieter moments at sunrise and sunset, stratas of fog mingling beneath mountaintops, a lone fishing boat chugging through the water back to its slip at the end of the day, hanging glaciers halted along mountaintops and waterfalls streaming from unimaginable heights. Alaska is all about expanse—expanse, and majesty and mysticism.
And I thought rainforests were reserved for the tropics. The Tongass National Forest  in Ketchikan is the largest national forest at 17 million acres, and it’s considered a temperate rainforest. Ketchikan paris hotel itself is the rainfall capital of Alaska with an average of 153 inches per year. This part of the state also has a milder climate paris hotel than the latitude suggests with average winter paris hotel temperatures in the 30s and summers in the 60s.
So much of Alaska’s economy is linked to the water and the fishing industry. With all of its wild land and waterways, seaplanes are abundant and a fairly common means of transportation. In Ketchikan, we took a “flightseeing” tour of Tongass National Forest on a seaplane to get a bird’s eye view.
While Alaska is, of course, part of the 50 United States, it doesn’t mean your cell phone is going to work while there. I had no problems with AT T. However, the rest of my family is with Sprint and they had no service at any port of call. Check with your service provider if this is important to you.
Upon arriving in Ketchikan on a cold, rainy morning, we took shelter momentarily at the visitor’s center and I thumbed through a few brochures to find out that you could indeed go snorkeling in Ketchikan in spite of September’s average water temp of 54 degrees. Later that day, while enjoying an Alaskan Amber beer at the New York Café , I overheard my waitress say that she went diving paris hotel that morning.
Alaska even has a surf pioneer, Scott Dickerson , who’s always on the quest for new surf breaks. Seriously, check out his website, the pictures are amazing. (I m also mildly obsessed with fine arts photographer paris hotel and commercial fisherman Corey Arnold who captures amazing paris hotel images of Alaska on his Instagram feed at arni_coraldo paris hotel .)
In Hoonah , we set sail with Captain Paul on a small vessel designed paris hotel specifically for whale watching . It was an exciting and, yes, majestic experience. We saw these graceful creatures crest and dive and blow water into the air, and we learned about their migratory feeding and breeding habits. We also saw lazy sea lions snoozing on channel markers, playful sea otters, seals and even a rare brown bear sighting on the beach.
In Juneau , we boarded a Coastal Helicopters chopper and flew to nearby Taku to view the Taku Glacier up close and personal. We landed on a dock in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lush green mountains, a river and a massive glacier, to meet our guide Brian. He’s built a small home into the mountain where he lives a few days out of the week to take people touring . We hopped aboard an airboat that was actually built in Florida and traversed the river s shallow paris hotel melt water for incredible views of the Taku Glacier.
As Alaska’s capital, Juneau is the second paris hotel most populous city in Alaska at 30,000 people. Anchorage is the largest at nearly 300,000. Beyond that, the state consists of small towns and homesteaders who actually live off the land isolated from the rest of society for an entire season.
It’s really no secret that one of the draws of cruising paris hotel is purchasing jewelry, often with deep discounts. You’ll notice that in every port of call, the same jewelry stores, like Diamonds International , have shops mere steps from the cruise paris hotel ship terminal. Depending on your objective, this is either a great thing or it just means you need to walk a few blocks to get “off the beaten path” and into a more authentic side of town. For the true jewelry shopper, there’s even an onboard consultant that can guide your way and provide you with VIP shopping passes.
I mentioned in Part 1   of my Alaska cruise story that this trip was partly inspired by Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild.” London’s book was inspired by his time reporting on early frontiersmen settling the state during the Klondike Gold Rush at the turn of the century. We learned about this history on a scenic paris hotel tour of Skaguay .
From humpback whale’s migratory patterns (they feed in Alaska and breed in Hawaii) to many tour operators, Alaska and Hawaii seem to have a strong link. From our shipboard naturalist to a tour guide who took us from Seward to Anchorage after the cruise, we learned that many people summer in Alaska paris hotel and winter in Hawaii. Not a bad gig.
We spent an extra night in Talkeetna after the cruise to see Mount McKinley with K2 Aviation . Their flightseeing tours are on planes with skis on their landing gear, allowing them to actually land on glaciers. Unfortunately, fog settled in during our flight, making it too dangerous to land, but the sights we saw were unreal.
Alaska is so wild and beautiful, and I couldn’t help but envy the rugged, pioneer lifestyle of those who live and work there. I think it would be an incredible experience paris hotel to live like that for a stretch of time.
As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, we booked our Celebrity Millennium cruise paris hotel , shore excursions and flights paris hotel all on Delta.com with the AmEx Delta Gold  card in order to maximize our SkyMiles earnings. Booking the cruise through paris hotel Delta.com also earned us 3,000 SkyMiles per suite and a $200 resort credit per suite.
That’s the million dollar question, right? Without a doubt, an Alaska cruise is an unparalleled paris hotel way to cover a lot of land and for first timers to get an overview paris hotel of the majesty of Alaska. I think we all fell in love with Alaska more than the cruising experience itself, and if we were to return, I’d like to spend more time in one or two places rather than on a cruise ship. I’d love to see more of the Kenai Peninsula  and  Denali National Park.   Kodiak Island and the Arctic Circle also captured my imagination.
Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or paris hotel questions are answered.
I haven t done many cruises, but I have done the 7 day from Anchorage (Seward) to Vancouver and in my opinion Alaska is one of the area that cruising makes a lot of sense and can save lots of money. Great views most of the time from the boat and hotels can be way expensive during summertime.
Hi Charlotte, yes, I agree. It was an incredible experience, gorgeous scenery and hospitality on the ship was wonderful. paris hotel All in all, a memorable experience I d recommend to anyone! Thanks for your comment.
We did a Royal Caribbean Cruise from Vancouver stopping in Hoonah, paris hotel Skagway, and Juneau. My husband was the leader paris hotel in wanting to see Alaska as I have always been more of a warm-weather girl .Well, I thought the cruise was spectacular, and I was so glad we did it. We, too, saw the humpback whales near Hoonah. Everyone should experience an Alaskan cruise at least once. It is really something special.
In Juneau paris hotel we opted for the easier 30 minute bus trip to Mendenhall Glacier. The video presentation was very helpful and the glacier was spectacular. We were unable to take the tram to Mt. Roberts as it was foggy/rainy.
In Skagway we took two tours and were so glad we did. The first one of the morning paris hotel was the train to the top of White Pass, and the second was a tour of the town on the Skagway Street Cars. Both very informative, and on the train ride we saw a large waterfall. Good that we chose the first one that day because a rock slide shut down the other two.
Glacier Bay was special paris hotel in that it has multiple glaciers. We went all the way to Margerie and were able to experience calving paris hotel of a major chunk of ice while there. In Ketchikan, we had three great surprises: the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show (hilarious), the Totem Pole Heritage Center, and a walk along the creek boardwalk back to the pier.
I went on an Alaskan cruise several years ago in June and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were blessed with mostly sunny days and fantastic weather. However, my friends and I really prefer to travel in the fall and they ve never been to Alaska. For those who ve cruised in multiple seasons, how does cruising in September stack up against a summer cruise? We don t have to worry about school schedules and prefer to go when most kids are back in school.
Stay away from the cruises that stop in Canada, if you are american and have been arrested ever in your life(DWI, any arrest that has been resolved), you will be detained at customs, the cruise line passes your name to customs without warning you. Canadian customs will give you options to fly home, return to the boat or be jailed in Canada. Cruise lines do not warn you upon booking. Be careful about any cruise and be aware of other countries laws.
The onboard port shopping consultants paris hotel are all independent contractors working paris hotel for different marketing companies. They will only promote stores that pay the marketing company lots of money to be a preferred store on the shopping map. The price